A Broken Surprise

I ran into something very strange last week as I was making a normal trip to Downtown Fullerton.  Having a few hours of work to accomplish, I decided to take my work home so I would not have to spend twelve hours in the same seat.  Sometimes I need a change of scenery.  I grabbed my bags and headed down to one of my favorite cafe's.  I had always wanted to do a bit of an Instagram photoshoot of the Downtown Fullerton area as well.  My friends had just announced that they were moving into an old apartment building in downtown, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to take a few shots and go explore the building.

I parked close to the cafe and began my walk.  Luckily for me the downtown area is only a few blocks long.  As I was walking past the boba shop there was a young guy who asked me for a dollar.  I thought nothing of it, told him I didn't have any change and kept walking.  I found my friends' new apartment building and took a few shots.  As I was walking around and shooting pictures, something kept eating away at me.  Something in my gut did not seem right. 

I've walked passed a number of people asking for money.  Some of them I try to help out, and some I don't.  There's really no formula.  I try my best to not give money, so those that I help out I'll buy them a meal.  This gives me the opportunity to start conversation with them and hear their story. 

"Who was that kid", I kept asking myself "And why is he out here begging for money".  After about 20 minutes I finished up shooting and thought that it was about time to head down to grab a drink and finish my work.  Just a block away from my destination I saw this kid again.  Our eyes met very briefly and then we both looked away.  I knew that he recognized me from half an hour ago as the guy who walked right past him.  I originally thought he was just looking for money for a bus ride home, but as I was able to examine him closer I could tell that he obviously had not been home for a long time.  It was at that point that I decided that I need to hear his story.

"Why are you asking for money?", I asked.  "Why are you living on the streets?"

My examination had amazed me because here stood before me a young Asian American male.  Though I don't have an exhaustive amount of experience in a compassion ministry, I've been in several different contexts and have met a number of homeless people of all situations.  This was the first time in my 32 years of life that I had come across a young, homeless Asian American.  One of my thoughts was, this guy must be doing some sort of social experiment.  But God kept nudging my heart to do something. 

He shared with me that his mom had kicked him out and he was on the streets because he did not apply himself and didn't work hard enough, so that's why he was homeless.  These words empathetically penetrated my heart.  I told him that I would not give him money, but I would buy him a meal if he'd like.  He took me up on my offer.

My goal, as is whenever I come across situations like these was to understand his story, show him love and compassion, and let him know that this love came from God.

He told me how he was studying graphic arts at a trade school in West LA, but his mom had kicked him out because she was a single mom looking for a new relationship and did not want to deal with him.  His family was around, but also did not want to help him.  He had been living on the streets for 3 or 4 months now and has not been able to receive any help.  He pulled out and showed me his GED certificate, birth certificate and Social Security card.  I asked him if he believed in God and if so, what did that mean to him.  His response was that God has a plan for everything.  I went on and shared how I've struggled in life in finding belonging, and have only been able to find it in God and in Jesus.  I shared that what I was doing for him was God reminding him that He loved him. 

As we walked back to my car so I could give him a ride to where he was sleeping, every word that came out of his mouth was full of cynicism.  At the end of the conversation before he got out of my car I told him that, yes, there are people in this world who only care about themselves.  I was sorry that it consumed and enslaved him.  I asked him if he thought I was "evil".  He said, "Of course not.". In response I encouraged him to not believe that everyone is evil.  What he needs to do is find people out there who care about more thank themselves and let those people be his role models.

As he left my car I couldn't help but feel broken and helpless.  A lot of our joy and success, I think, has to do with our perspective on the world.  Those of us that can only see the negatives of this world will never be able to find comfort and happiness.  Yet, those of us who understand that there are a lot of bad things in this world, but have a sense of hope and know that there are people out there that are different and that care about more than themselves, those are the people who will be able to find contentment.  I hope that my act of love and words to this young man told him a different story than what he currently knows to be true.

Blessings for Water - My Charity:Water Campaign Story

It was earlier this year that my path began to branch into something different. Through a few rough patches this summer  and needing to keep my mind occupied, I began to watch a lot of Ted talks and read a tons of blogs. Most of the talks that I enjoy watching have to so with how to change the world. One of the ones that caught my eye was the one by Simon Sinek on the Golden Circle and the ideas that people don't buy what we do, but why we do it. I then went on to discover Gary Vaynerchuck where I learned the importance in adding value to your audience before asking them anything.  From T4T and Brene Brown I learned about the power of being vulnerable in sharing your story. 

All this information was being poured over me and I wanted to figure out how to put it all to use. I went around evangelizing how this could relate to customer service, or to marketing, or to sharing Jesus. The idea was that by doing a few of these ideas you could make a bigger impact in the world. I've always been about doing good and inspiring others to do the same. 

I began meeting with my friend, Martin Yan. Martin and I began to encourage each other with these grand ideas that we had been learning. We both began to do things in our company that could add value to our customers that had not been there already. For me it is customer service and blogging about how our customers could better serve their customers. As we spent time tossing inspiring blog posts and videos to each other during the week, one that he sent to me was a keynote from a marketing conference that he had attended. It was about this guy who had, in his life, been convicted to help provide clean water to everyone in the world. He created an organization called Charity:Water.

So, I immediately went out and donated thousands of dollars to his cause? Absolutely not. My first thought was, "There are plenty of people doing this. I don't need to."  Martin told me that he would be participating in the Giving Up Your Birthday campaign and asking his friends to donate his age in dollars to Charity Water.  I was pretty sure that I wouldn't give up mine because there was no way an introverted guy like me could raise much money.

As I thought about it more, I came to the realization that this would be the perfect way for me to tell my story. Charity Water could provide me the opportunity to share what God has done in my life as well as invite others to help make a difference. 

It was then decided that I would start my campaign. 

My goals were twofold. The first was to work hard to tell my story to as many people as possible. The second was to invite everyone to join me in making a difference for good in this world. 

Here are the steps I took to attempt to achieve this goal:

1. Create a campaign where I shared my story, my purpose, our (my friends, my family and myself) purpose, and an invitation. The invitation was literally a tiny part of everything else.

2. Set a high goal that I probably could not meet.

3. Create a good note to send to all of my friends of how they have impacted my life and invite to view my story

4. Personalize each message that I sent to each person of how they have personally touched my life

5. For my birthday I bought 108 donuts for my coworkers and invited them to read my story

6. Every person that asked about my birthday, I used that opportunity to share about charity water.

7. I normally turn off my wall for my birthday because I think it's an impersonal way of saying "Happy Birthday".  This time, every person that wrote 'Happy Birthday' on my wall got a personal message of how they have been a blessing to my life and then an invitation to check out my story or to thank them for donating and encourage them to pledge their birthdays.  I received over 70 wall posts, so I spent most of my birthday evening responding to them.

In every interaction I had,  rarely asked for them to donate, I only asked them to read my story.  My hope was that them knowing the value that they added to my life with the value that I hopefully added to their life would cause a kind of engagement that would not only encourage them to give, but would exhort them to join into having the same desire to change the world. 

In 8 days I was able to raise $3,330 from 71 different friends and family members

All this, for what?  Raising money is never the end goal. I believe that true value is if I can inspire others to do good. I believe that it is more valuable for me to inspire 10 people to give up their birthdays for clean water. They would not only raise more money than I could, but they could also inspire others to do the same and a cascade movement can happen. 

In the end I’m not about raising money, I’m about inspiring the masses to care.

This is my Charity:Water story.