SixSeeds in Seattle
We recently took a road trip to World Vision's international headquarters to connect with some dear friends and dream about the future together.
The leadership of SixSeeds, John and Jean Kingston and Curtis Chang, traveled to Seattle, Washington to meet with one of our key partner organizations, World Vision. World Vision, a billion dollar agency and a leading force for relief and development work worldwide, partnered with SixSeeds on our Afghanistan grant and our family service trip to Tijuana.
We spent the day dreaming about future possibilities with Kathryn Compton and Steve Haas, two World Vision executives and also dear friends. Kathryn hosted the SixSeeds families on the two Tijuana trips: for a couple of the younger kids on that project, her lap was a favorite resting spot from the work of painting.
The president of World Vision, Rich Stearns, also stopped by and spoke with us at some length about his concern for the formation of virtue in children of privilege. Rich shared with us his own perspective as a successful business executive and parent, including some of his unconventional family practices around money. If you ever meet him, make sure you ask him yourself!
A key topic addressed was how to extend the transformative experience that the five families had on our trips. The group discussed ways to deepen the sense of partnership between the families and the Tijuana community around the year. And we began conversations on the possibility of making the experience available to more families.
Both World Vision and SixSeeds feel strongly that we have a very special and promising relationship. World Vision offers us a wealth of opportunities to serve and give, and we feel we can help them integrate family based approaches more into their models.
The profound stakes involved in World Vision’s efforts were driven home for us when we walked through the newly erected AIDS in Africa Experience exhibit at their headquarters. The exhibit recreates an actual African village and retells a recent true story from a child in a World Vision program. We won’t say more other than to encourage you to attend when the Aids Experience comes to a location near you… and to bring plenty of Kleenex.
We’re grateful to partner with Kathryn, Steve, Rich, and World Vision as each of us in our own ways steps towards those who are in need around the world.