Brea church offers ‘compassionate’ views of children in poverty

BREA – Yannely Suero grew up in desperate poverty in the Dominican Republic. But with help from an international charity, she rose from her circumstances to become a fourth-year medical school student who now ministers to the health of others in poverty in her home country.
Over the weekend, 3,500 members of the Living Hope Community Church and local residents learned the story of Suero and others like her through The Compassion Experience, a touring event that tells success stories of children in poverty who have been lifted up by the faith-based Compassion International Charity.
Six-year-old Benjamin Suh experiences what it’s like to live in poverty in Ethopia while listening to a story about a real-life boy, Sameson Tilahun, in an authentically recreated room. It was part of “The Compassion Experience” sponsored by The Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Six-year-old Benjamin Suh experiences what its like to live in poverty in Ethopia while listening to a story about a real-life boy, Sameson Tilahun, in an authentically recreated room. It was part of “The Compassion Experience” sponsored by The Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Authentically recreated rooms of Yannely Suero, a girl who grew up in poverty in the Dominican Republic, allows visitors to experience what life was like for her through an audio tour. The Living Hope Community Church hosted “The Compassion Experience.” Presented by a faith-based charity that supports children in extreme poverty world-wide. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Recreated rooms of Yannely Suero, a girl who grew up in poverty in the Dominican Republic, allows visitors to experience what life was like for her through an audio tour. The Living Hope Community Church hosted “The Compassion Experience.” Presented by a faith-based charity that supports children in extreme poverty world-wide. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Aidan Cho, 6, and his dad Stephen experience what life was like for Sameson Tilahun, a little boy who grew up in poverty in Ethiopia. It was part of “The Compassion Experience” sponsored by The Living Hope Community Church. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)The Living Hope Community Church hosted “The Compassion Experience” presented by a faith-based charity that supports children in extreme poverty world-wide. It gave visitors an audio tour through authentically recreated rooms. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Elliott Lee, 5, takes an audio tour during “The Compassion Experience,” stories of children growing up in third-world poverty. It was hosted by the Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Elliott Lee, 5, left, his brother Brandon, 4, and parents, Angie and Grant, take an audio tour during “The Compassion Experience,” stories of children growing up in third-world poverty. It was hosted by the Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Elliott Lee, 5, left, and his brother Brandon, 4, take an audio tour during “The Compassion Experience,” stories of children growing up in third-world poverty. It was hosted by the Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Brandon Lee, 4, take an audio tour during “The Compassion Experience,” stories of children growing up in third-world poverty. It was hosted by the Living Hope Community Church in Brea on Sunday, Jan 28, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Show Caption of Expand
Attendees listened to recorded self-narrated stories of Suero and Sameson Tilahun, of Ethiopia, who became a woodworker and now owns a business and employs others from his village. While listening, visitors walk through rooms depicting scenes from Suero and Tilahun’s lives. They also hear tales that start in despair, but end in hope.
“It’s pretty compelling, being able to expose kids who haven’t seen this level of poverty,” said Glen Kim, 41, of Anaheim, after experiencing Tilahun’s story.
“It made me feel very fortunate,” said Nathan Cho, 11, from Yorba Linda. “It gives me a chance to see what other people’s lives are like.”
Dylan Lee, 10, of Brea, and Aaron Yoon, 10 of Brea, both found it uplifting that the Compassion recipients persevered through hardship.
“It’s great that Sameson kept believing in his dream,” Lee said.
This is the first year Living Hope has played host to the exhibit. Compassion International has eight trailers that traverse the country presenting its “experiences,” which tell the stories of not only of Sureo and Tilahun, but others from impoverished nations.
Attending the Brea event was Amor Rose Chung, 27, from the Philippines, who is an alumna of Compassion International. She became a recipient in 1996 as a 6-year-old child, while living in Davao City on the island of Mindanao.
Now a teache living in Honolulu, Chung walked through Sureo’s story and said it brought back memories and tears.
Before being sponsored by a man from Australia, Chung said there were times when she didn’t have bus fare to go to school.
“At times like that, you question, ‘Will I ever be somebody?’ ” she said. “That was my reality, not knowing what the future holds.”
Chung said her mother, a devout Catholic, initially opposed because of the group’s evangelical Christian roots. She eventually relented. Chung’s younger sister, Grace, also received sponsorship and is now an accountant in the Philippines.
Steve Chang, senior pastor at Living Hope, said his church had been looking for ways to become more involved in international aid and mission work. What drew him to Compassion was that it relies on one-to-one relationships with donors and recipients, rather than having sponsors paying to support a pool of children.
Chang, who is Korean-American, was also drawn to the history of the organization, which was started by evangelist Everett Swanson in 1956, four years after he began ministering in South Korea during the Korean War. The main recipient of donations in the charity’s early years, South Korea is now a donor nation.
Ranked by Forbes as the 13th largest U.S. charity with $820 million in aid to about 1.8 million children in 25 nations, Compassion International partners with 7,000 to 8,000 recipient churches in developing countries and sponsoring churches in 12 countries.
Living Hope Community Church joined forces with Compassion International last year and has since helped build a church in Honduras. The congregants of the Brea church are now supporting children in the Compassion program in Honduras with $38-per-month donations.
Important to Chang, was that the charity operates “in Christ’s name.”
That has led to problems in some places, notably India where the charity was expelled in 2017 allegedly for engaging in religious conversion. That caused the charity to begin withdrawing support for 145,000 children. Compassion is still working to repair fences in the mostly Hindu country.
For Living Hope Community Church, however, the experience with Honduras was going extremely well. By mid-day Sunday, more than 200 children from the Honduran parish had sponsors and only nine eligible recipients remained.
“Maybe we’ll be able to help children from another church,” said volunteer Helen Wu. “That would be wonderful.”
Source: Oc Register