In Real Life from The First United Methodist Church of San Diego, California, United States for Friday, 5 June 2015 "Leading with Compassion" by Brenda Blake, Church and Community Worker

In Real Life from The First United Methodist Church of San Diego, California, United States for Friday, 5 June 2015 "Leading with Compassion" by Brenda Blake, Church and Community Worker
This past Saturday I, along with about 17 other volunteers from our congregation, attended the 3rd annual Celebration of Compassion event at Cherokee Point Elementary. The event featured food, fun activities, workshops, and ideas about how to help make San Diego "a city of compassion."
Pastor Jessica and I spent many months beforehand helping to plan and coordinate the event. It was decided that we would have a roving reporter and make a video with some of the teachers and students at Cherokee Point and ask them this question,"What does Compassion mean to you"? I was so moved by the children’s answers to the question that I found myself, more than once, wiping away escaping tears.
https://vimeo.com/129724177
As I reflected on the question, I first thought about the meaning of compassion and liked it being described in this way, "the meaning of compassion is to recognize the suffering of others, then take action to help." And that is exactly what I witnessed beingdemonstrated by our volunteers, who have a very deep understanding of the needs of the families we serve at Cherokee Point. According to Cherokee Point Principal,Godwin Higa, “Many of the kids from the Cherokee Point neighborhood come from families under a lot of stress. Families with domestic violence. Neglectful families.Severely traumatized families. Military families where dad or mom keeps going off to a scary war. All of the school’s families are low income. They struggle to put enough food on the table. A trip to the dentist is a luxury.”
At the end of every event hosted at Cherokee Point when the families and children are present, food (from one of SD’s local food banks), is always sent home with them as they are leaving. One of our volunteers who was helping to pack the food for the families, realized that most of the families there were without transportation. They were walking with children and strollers in tow and getting that food home was not going to be an easy task. He left the event and went and purchased bags to help sort the food more efficiently. He and the other volunteers spent most of their time there that day, planning, organizing, sorting, and bagging food in a way that would be most helpful to the families getting it back home. Compassion in action, he recognized suffering and he took the action to help.
Compassion can be expressed in many ways by doing good for others, offering up a smile or kind words or being present to someone who may be in need of a listening ear. If you are volunteering or considering volunteering at Cherokee Point Elementary school you are invited to a presentation by Principal Godwin Higa, that will focus on the topic of Trauma Informed Schools and what it looks like to lead with compassion. To sign up go to www.fumcsd.org/tie.[Brenda Blake, Church and Community Worker]
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