Biographies on CEOs and founders of companies tend to be dry affairs, focusing on the subject’s genius, skill or innate worthiness to have attained their status in life.
Key points:
- This is not a dull memoir listing the Compassion founder’s accomplishments.
- Authors Eric Wilson and Matt Bronleewe don’t shy away from turning light onto the dark periods of Compassion’s history.
- Jay gives this book 4 stars out of 5.
What Are You Going to Do? spends exactly no time exploring these attributes of Compassion founder Reverend Everett Swanson, making it clear from the start that this is not the story of someone in the right place at the right time.
Instead of a dull memoir listing his accomplishments, the book opens with a gut-wrenching description of the devastation caused by the Korean War, reeling the reader in and opening their eyes to the sheer need in South Korea in the early 50’s.
The narrative tone continues throughout the rest of the book, mixing factual recounts of the world events from 1913 onwards with spurts of dialogue, breathing life into the characters and allowing the reader to feel like they’re in the room with the Swanson family as their story plays out.
This is not a dull memoir listing the Compassion founder’s accomplishments.
The history of Compassion tells us how a poor itinerant preacher with children of his own responded to the overwhelming need of a nation destroyed by war, turning his personal determination that something must be done and a single cheque for $50 into a global ministry that raises children out of poverty in at least 29 countries.
Authors Eric Wilson and Matt Bronleewe don’t shy away from turning light onto the dark periods of Compassion’s history, a reminder to us all that sin can infect even the purest of intentions.
What Are You Going to Do? is a fascinating read, showing God’s love for his children, through the sacrifices of Compassion’s founders, his family, and their supporters from the early days up until today.
Authors Eric Wilson and Matt Bronleewe don’t shy away from turning light onto the dark periods of Compassion’s history.
At its core it is a story of the faith of one man that inspired his family and friends, which in turn inspired a movement of aid on the other side of the world and transformed lives around the world, but it’s also a challenge to the reader.
“Wherever and whenever we are faced with a need, we are given an opportunity.
“Everett Swanson found such an opportunity in an alley.
“He didn’t devise in that moment to change millions of lives.
Jay gives this book 4 stars out of 5.
“He simply fed a few children, then fed a few more.”
What opportunities are we faced with that start with a single act of kindness that ripples out?
What are we going to do?
Jay gives this book 4 stars out of 5.
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