World Cup Transformation, Tom Davis

I was recently introduced to Tom Davis via email. Tom has been in South Africa for the World Cup but also to help bring more awareness to children living in poverty. Tom is the President of Children’s HopeChest and has written three books called Red Letters, Scared and Priceless.

I’m honored that Tom will be the very first guest post on my blog… The crazy part is my friend Karen Anderson has been telling me… You neeeeed to meet Tom!! Then my friend Jon Dale introduced us over email.. it’s a small world.

Find Children’s HopeChest here

And Tom’s Twitter here

I didn’t realize the depth of the universality of soccer. In other worldwide sporting events–like the Olympics–you are there to root for the home country. And with few exceptions that cheering is done enthusiastically–but not what I could call “fanatical.”

Everything about the World Cup can be described as manic, fanatical, and over-the-top. It defies explanation.

You may have heard that buzzing sound on your television while the game goes on. That is the sound of hundreds–maybe thousands–of plastic horns called vuzuvelas. When blown in unison, they create that ever-present buzzing. In all the sporting events I have been to, I’ve never seen anything like this. For nearly two hours and longer the fans blow those horns. They dance, they pain their faces, they are adorned with team jerseys and flags.

But here’s the interesting part. Many of those fans aren’t even from the country they are cheering for! Check out me and my boys rooting for England! (Yes, that is a vuvuzela in my hand!)

The World Cup is one of the few events that unites everyone, no matter the color of their skin or financial background.

It has reminded me of the Kingdom of God in a sense.

We’re all here, together, celebrating things we are passionate about and love. One big melting pot of people who have much more in common than we think.

In this tournament, you have countries and people from all walks of life. Yet, our differences and difficulties seem to melt away on the World Cup soccer pitch.

Other issues unite us in the Kingdom
of God. in much the same way. Our enthusiasm for our differences seems to always outweigh our passion for what unites us.

My challenge and calling is to mobilize Christians and churches in the United States to rally behind the clear biblical mandate to extend care to orphans, widows and strangers.

As Christians, we have a clarion call from scripture to alleviate suffering, eliminate poverty, and extend God’s kingdom justice throughout the world. Imagine what we would accomplish if we brought “World Cup-level” energy and passion to these issues? What stops us?

Feelings of fear hold us back. We doubt that just one person could make a difference. We say, “I’m no Mother Teresa.” (And we fail to recognize that Mother Teresa was just one woman who made a profound difference in the kingdom)

The problems are real, and they are big. The five biggest killers of children in the world are all preventable and treatable diseases. When you consider that children die from things like diarrehea and malnutrition, it makes you shake your head.

But when we work together, we can transform communities of orphans and vulnerable children into places where extreme poverty no longer exists.

ABOUT TOM DAVIS
Tom Davis, president and CEO of Children’s HopeChest, has spent the
last week in South Africa at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Children’s
HopeChest is a global orphan care ministry led by Tom and his staff in
Colorado Springs. HopeChest helps children overcome abandonment,
poverty, and violence by mobilizing U.S. faith-based communities to make
long term ministry investments in a community of children living
overseas. These relationships–from churches, businesses, and even
blogs–provide the resources that orphans need to survive and thrive
within their home culture.