Perfecting Me

Character and Kindness

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Wintley Phipps (Host), Adly Campos, Georges J Fleurimond, J.D Quinn

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Series Code: PFM

Program Code: PFM000012A


00:27 Hi, I'm Wintley Phipps, and welcome to our program,
00:31 Perfecting Me, Becoming More Like Jesus.
00:35 I'm so glad you joined us.
00:37 My guests today
00:38 on our program are J.D. Quinn,
00:40 3ABN Pastoral Ministries Manager.
00:42 George Fleurimond,
00:44 Pastor of the West Park Seventh-day Adventist church.
00:46 And Mrs. Adly Campos,
00:48 Speaker and President of Family Wellbeing International.
00:52 You'll hear from them a little later.
00:54 Who can forget when the Boston Marathon Bombings rocked
00:57 the nation in April 2013.
01:00 The images that emerged form that scene of bloody chaos
01:03 we're powerful,
01:04 and yet even more powerful than the evil that took place
01:08 with the stories of powerful kindness
01:10 that began to rise out of the dust
01:12 and despair to lift our spirits.
01:15 I want to tell you about Carlos Arredondo.
01:17 He made the national news twice actually,
01:19 the first time was when he found out his son
01:22 had been killed in Iraq.
01:24 Shocked by grief, he was devastated and reckless.
01:27 He took, in his van,
01:29 he took a gas can and propane torch
01:31 and began splashing gasoline everywhere.
01:34 The marines who had delivered the news of his son's death
01:38 tried to helplessly talk him out of his frenzy,
01:42 but the van exploded in flames.
01:44 Carlos was pulled out of the van,
01:46 but spent the next part of his life strapped
01:48 to a hospital bed, unconscious at first,
01:51 and then awake to this experience
01:54 of the agony of a burn victim, the bandages,
01:57 the feeling of his dead skin being pulled off.
02:01 After he recovered from his burns,
02:04 he also lost another son to suicide.
02:08 The second time Carlos made the national news
02:11 was after the Boston Marathon Bombings.
02:13 In the desperate seconds following the attack,
02:16 Carlos acted on instinct,
02:18 tearing up pieces of his sweater
02:20 he found on the ground.
02:21 He began to use them as tourniquets
02:23 on the bloody stumps of amputees,
02:26 even retying them when they fell off.
02:29 He did his best to minimize the horror
02:32 by reassuring victims that they would all be okay,
02:36 and he was hiding the worst of their injuries
02:38 from them while he got them help.
02:41 Though carrying his own burden of pain,
02:43 Carlos forgot about himself, his acts of kindness,
02:47 and in the process he saved lives.
02:50 Such is the power of kindness,
02:54 a dimension of God's character.
03:01 There's something about us as human beings
03:04 that responds to an act of kindness
03:07 like nothing else.
03:09 After all we are only flesh and blood, aren't we?
03:13 We're not steel and iron.
03:15 We are for the most parts, soft tissue.
03:18 We are fragile, so fragile,
03:20 in fact, that sometimes as simple
03:23 as a kind word, a kind act,
03:26 a kind gesture can make
03:29 all the difference in the world.
03:32 A man told a story about
03:33 how, not long after he graduated college,
03:37 a man approached him in a restaurant.
03:39 He had known the man from high school,
03:41 well enough to remember his face,
03:44 If not his name, but he remembered him.
03:47 The man walked up and extended his hand,
03:49 "Hi, Jack."
03:50 He said, "Remember me,
03:52 Joey Smith from the tenth grade."
03:55 "Yeah," Jack said, "Now I do, "How are you?"
03:59 "I'm doing okay," Joey said,"
04:02 And that has a lot to do with you."
04:05 "With me, what do you mean?"
04:08 "Yes," Joey said,
04:10 "In fact, I can honestly say that if were not for you,
04:15 I doubt I would even be standing here.
04:18 No, I know, I wouldn't be here,
04:22 I wouldn't even be alive."
04:25 Jack was stunned
04:27 and he looked at him and asked,
04:28 "What are you talking about?
04:31 I grew up in a dysfunctional family."
04:33 Joey said,
04:35 "My father was manically abusive,
04:37 left my mother with three children,
04:39 we never saw him again.
04:41 I was the oldest of three,
04:44 and though I often caught the brunt of his abuse,
04:46 I still felt something lacking
04:49 in my life without him there.
04:52 Meanwhile, my mother struggled to make ends meet,
04:57 and she was always stressed and out of sorts.
05:01 Home life was miserable.
05:03 I was struggling with drugs and alcohol,
05:07 and I was on the verge of dropping out of school.
05:10 The thing was I really didn't care,
05:12 in fact, I didn't care about much of anything,
05:15 I was constantly depressed.
05:17 From the time I was 15,
05:19 barely a day went by
05:21 when I wasn't thinking about suicide.
05:24 I was a mess.
05:27 Then, well, a whole train of bad things happened to me
05:31 and I just couldn't take it anymore."
05:33 He said, "I wished that I were dead,
05:34 and I finally decided to go ahead
05:36 and do it and kill myself.
05:39 I really meant it this time,"
05:40 he said,"
05:41 And I went to a hardware store after school, bought a rope,
05:45 threw it in my backpack, and was headed home.
05:49 I was determined to hang myself in my room
05:52 so that my mother would walk in
05:54 and be the first to see me dead."
05:57 "Ouch," Jack said listening.
06:00 "Well," Joey continued, "Here is where you come in.
06:05 I don't even know if you remember,
06:08 but I was walking home past the school,
06:12 and you came up to me and just very kindly said,
06:17 'Hi Joey, how are you?'
06:20 I don't even think you knew
06:22 who I was, much less my name.
06:27 But we chatted
06:28 and you invited me over to your house.
06:31 We hung out in your room
06:32 for a couple of hours playing video games.
06:35 You probably don't even remember
06:37 any of this, do you?"
06:39 Jack kind of shrugged,
06:40 "Well, I think,
06:41 well I do, maybe, vaguely a little."
06:45 It doesn't matter,"
06:46 he said,
06:48 "What matter's is that
06:49 my mood completely changed that day.
06:53 I walked out of your house,
06:56 and I threw the rope into the first dumpster
07:01 I came to, and I moved on."
07:04 He said,
07:05 "I never again contemplated suicide."
07:10 He said, "I can't say my life has been great,
07:13 but things have gotten better for me.
07:15 The thing is I always wanted to thank you
07:19 for the kindness you showed me that day.
07:24 It saved my life."
07:28 Well, we might not all be suicidal teenagers,
07:31 but we have flesh and blood and even more so,
07:34 we are all emotional creatures,
07:36 our emotions easily drive us to action
07:39 even more than our reason does.
07:42 Maybe you can think to a time
07:44 someone did something kind for you
07:47 and you've never forgotten about it.
07:50 Think back to a time when someone was unkind to you
07:53 and you've forgotten about that.
07:56 Now think about a time,
07:58 if you can,
08:01 when you were kind to someone else
08:05 just for the sake of being kind.
08:09 You weren't trying to get something from them,
08:11 you were just being kind for the sake of being kind.
08:18 Remember how that kindness made you feel?
08:21 Everyone has heard of The Golden Rule,
08:23 do unto others as you have them do to you.
08:28 Oh, what kind of world would we live in
08:30 if everybody lived that way,
08:33 if everybody was kind?
08:37 There'd be no such thing as all the drugs and wars.
08:42 You could leave your doors unlocked.
08:46 Always seek to be kind.
08:49 Want you to watch this video made possible by our friends
08:54 at CBN News showing kindness in action.
09:04 No matter how strong your faith or how positive your outlook,
09:08 when a family welcomes a child
09:10 with disability into their lives,
09:12 it's common to feel overwhelmed, sad,
09:15 even to question God.
09:16 If and when that initial reaction fades,
09:19 we live in a country with resources available
09:21 to provide children with disabilities a full life
09:24 and parents the necessary support
09:26 and education to care for them.
09:28 But what if you have that child in a part of the world
09:30 where you have no support, no idea what's wrong,
09:33 and no idea how to help.
09:36 I take care of him
09:38 and later he should help me learn a skill,
09:39 become a man normally.
09:41 But this isn't normal.
09:43 In Haiti, parents often view a disabled child
09:45 as a problem to be fixed.
09:47 They go from hospital to hospital,
09:49 trying to find the doctor
09:51 who can make their child like all of the others.
09:54 Patient doctors often
09:55 don't want to give parents the truth
09:57 because they know what's likely to happen next.
09:59 No doctor wants to tell you
10:00 because they know in Haiti how bad our situation is.
10:04 If they tell these parents the truth,
10:05 they're going to drop those kids
10:07 in a hospital or anywhere.
10:09 They're not going to love them anymore.
10:11 But Pepito knows firsthand
10:12 the challenges of raising a child
10:14 with a disability here.
10:15 In 2009 his son Chris Jerry
10:17 was born with severe cerebral palsy,
10:20 but Pepito's wife died in childbirth leaving him
10:23 with three pound incredibly sick baby boy
10:26 to raise on his own.
10:28 Two and half years passed before he truly learnt
10:30 when he needed to know about taking care of his son.
10:33 I have never worked with a widowed father before,
10:36 and here he was with his two and half year old,
10:39 with no intention of wanting to give him away
10:41 to an orphanage
10:42 and that would've been so easy for him.
10:44 A lot of orphanages would've said yes
10:45 because he was a widowed father
10:47 and Chris Jerry's disabilities are so severe.
10:50 He wanted to raise his son,
10:51 he wanted to provide for his son,
10:53 he wanted to take care, and be there,
10:55 and love his son forever.
10:58 Heather Meyer Gabaud moved to Haiti in 2010
11:01 with a background in special needs.
11:03 She was helping at an orphanage
11:04 when Pepito showed up seeking answers about his son.
11:08 They two worked together to find Chris Jerry
11:10 the right medical care.
11:11 They grew so close that they married in 2012.
11:15 The following year
11:16 they took their combined passion
11:18 for the special needs community
11:19 and started Footprints of the Son.
11:22 Our mission is educating
11:23 these parents to love their kids,
11:26 help them, and do what they need.
11:28 I believe it's a rescue mission
11:29 especially for the little children.
11:31 The babies that we get,
11:34 I just feel as though
11:36 the parents are that turning point of
11:38 they don't know what to do with their child,
11:41 and I feel like sometimes we get to them just in time,
11:45 just in time before they're losing hope,
11:47 before they're so desperate that they'll leave
11:49 that child at a hospital
11:51 or they'll leave that child with a grandparent.
11:55 Haiti's voodoo culture often works against Heather
11:58 and Pepito's efforts.
11:59 That's because families often turn first
12:01 to voodoo priests for help
12:03 because of their own beliefs or pressure from family.
12:06 Some families judge them
12:07 because they don't want to do it.
12:09 But some of them did it, and when everybody sees,
12:11 oh, there's no answer for this, they just give up,
12:15 because they way they tell them to go
12:17 is not the right way so they come back.
12:20 When we come in, we were like just embrace it.
12:22 Let's do this together, let's educate your child,
12:26 let's get therapy for your child,
12:28 but most importantly,
12:30 let's just create a family that loves this child.
12:32 It's sad, and it's a really, really slow process.
12:36 It's a slow process for them to give up
12:39 and, like, fixing and go to raising.
12:41 Footprints of the Son
12:43 is breaking new ground this year.
12:44 They built a school to provide education
12:47 for children with disabilities.
12:48 This year, we're going to have three classrooms.
12:51 We'll have a two
12:52 to three year old level classroom,
12:54 that doesn't mean all the children
12:55 will be two to three years old.
12:57 And then we're going to have
12:58 a three to four year old classroom,
13:00 and then one unique classroom
13:02 that we're gonna open this year is the sensory classroom.
13:06 And that's geared for the children with autism,
13:09 and severe autism, and severe ADHD.
13:12 Heather and Pepito don't plan to stop there.
13:14 Their land gives them room to grow,
13:16 and one day hoped
13:18 to reach child in the community.
13:20 This has been mine, like,
13:21 biggest dream since I moved to Haiti,
13:23 is to have an inclusion school of typical functioning children
13:28 and children with disabilities learning together
13:30 in the same environment.
13:32 Until that dream becomes reality,
13:34 heather and Pepito will work
13:35 among Haiti's special needs community
13:37 through education, encouragement and support,
13:40 taking it one family at a time.
13:43 Caitlin Burke, CBN News, Terrier rouge, Haiti.
13:50 Joining us again are my guests, J.D. Quinn, Adly Campos,
13:54 and Pastor George Fleurimond.
13:57 You know, kindness is a dimension
14:00 of the character of God.
14:03 His loving kindness is something
14:05 that we all desperately need and are grateful for.
14:09 But we also are blessed to have kindness shown to us
14:13 all through our lives, little acts of kindness,
14:15 sometimes, big acts of kindness.
14:18 I always tell people that probably,
14:21 the biggest act of kindness
14:22 I've ever experienced is when my wife said,
14:26 "Yes, I will marry you."
14:29 To me that was an act of kindness.
14:32 But JD I wanna start with you.
14:35 What is kindness to you,
14:37 and do you have any experiences
14:40 that you can recall of special acts of kindness
14:43 or a special act of kindness that was shown to you?
14:48 Well, I just, it puts joy in my heart
14:52 whenever the word kindness comes in
14:54 because I love that word.
14:57 I just, and I was thinking is, we we're thinking earlier,
15:03 the first act of kindness that I really experienced
15:07 is when I was probably about 12, 13 years old.
15:11 I was raised on a farm, and all, on the farm,
15:14 all you want to do is drive.
15:15 So I already learned how to drive with tractor,
15:17 but now it's time to drive a car,
15:19 and I went to my Grandfather and he said,
15:21 "We'll, not yet son,
15:23 you're just not quite old enough,
15:24 you're not mature enough."
15:26 So that didn't work,
15:27 so then I go see my grandmother,
15:30 and my grandmother from my mother's side,
15:32 she had a brand new Buick.
15:35 Oh, it was long, and it was sleek,
15:37 and it was just so shiny.
15:39 Oh, I could see myself behind that wheel.
15:43 And I just wasn't begging,
15:47 but I was pulling all the tools out
15:49 of the box in trying to get...
15:50 And bless her heart,
15:52 "David, would you like to drive my car?"
15:56 Oh, I'll never forget.
15:58 As I sat behind the wheel not knowing what to do,
16:02 felt that I should just pull it,
16:04 put in gear, and go.
16:06 But bless her little heart, I was starting and stopping
16:09 and starting, swiggling, and everything,
16:12 but that precious face of hers as I keep looking over her,
16:15 I was scared she was gong to tell me
16:17 to stop and get out.
16:18 There was this beautiful kindness in her eyes.
16:22 That was a tangible moment.
16:24 Well, JD, I'm glad...
16:26 Go ahead.
16:28 And I just, I think
16:29 that put something instilled in me.
16:32 "cause I thank that kindness
16:36 is one of those gifts that's reciprocal.
16:37 Yes.
16:39 If you're kind,
16:40 then other people will be kind to you.
16:42 Well, I really thought you we're going someplace else
16:45 with this story, JD.
16:47 I thought the car was gonna be a wreck,
16:48 and she was going to be nice anyway.
16:52 Well that's...
16:55 Because hey,
16:56 that's probably happened to some of us,
16:57 I know it's happened to me
16:59 when a nice person lent me their nice car
17:02 and I wrecked, you know, scraped it.
17:05 But they were gracious and they were kind.
17:07 Praise the lord, you know. Adly, how about you?
17:11 Can you think of an act of kindness
17:13 that really taught you what kindness was all about?
17:19 Yes, when I was working at the General conference
17:22 in the Ministerial Association,
17:25 we traveled to India.
17:28 And in India, I like to try everything
17:31 that is offered to me,
17:33 I tried a peeled mango,
17:36 and that made me very, very sick.
17:39 I was dying in a matter of hours.
17:43 And the pastor's wife,
17:47 he was one of the vice presidents
17:49 at the general conference
17:50 at the time of traveling with us,
17:52 Mrs. Cooper,
17:53 she stayed by my bed side all night long.
17:59 Taking care of me, she didn't have to do that,
18:03 but out of the kindness of her heart,
18:06 she spent a whole night with me,
18:08 and I was able to return home well.
18:11 Praise the lord.
18:12 That is something you'll never, ever forget.
18:14 You don't forget.
18:15 My voice breaks
18:17 whenever I think of that kindness
18:19 that she showed to me at a time when you needed the most,
18:23 when you're not feeling well, and you're away from home.
18:26 Yes.
18:28 How about you Pastor George?
18:31 You know, I've been blessed by God
18:33 to have some wonderful acts of kindness done to me.
18:37 But the ones that stick out the most in my mind
18:40 are the ones that you didn't ask for
18:43 or you didn't even know who performed them for you.
18:46 I remember when I was an undergraduate.
18:49 this is the one, the one
18:51 that sticks out the most in my mind,
18:52 I was getting ready to,
18:54 try to financially clear for one of the semesters,
18:58 and the school I went to,
19:00 usually at the beginning of the year
19:02 that the lines are long,
19:03 and by the time you get to the front of the line,
19:06 you know, if you have all your things together,
19:08 they usually send you to the back of the line.
19:10 And so here I was trying to clear financially,
19:13 and I knew that I was missing some funds.
19:15 And so when I get to the front of the line
19:18 I gave the lady my name and she kept saying,
19:21 "There's something funny about your last name."
19:23 I said to her,
19:24 "I know, my last name is a long funny name,"
19:26 but still she kept saying,
19:27 "There's something funny about your name."
19:29 she couldn't put her finger on it.
19:31 And eventually she came back,
19:32 and it was an envelope with my name on it,
19:34 didn't know who it came from,
19:36 to this day I don't know who came from.
19:37 But that was enough for me to, 70, to clear by 70%,
19:41 and to get into that semester for that year,
19:44 and so, you know, that taught me
19:46 that God requires of us,
19:49 requires of us to show acts of kindness,
19:53 even when you don't know,
19:54 when the other person that don't know, I'm sorry.
19:57 Yes.
19:59 Who it is that is doing that for them,
20:01 and so that was my experience.
20:04 Well, kindness is necessary, not only for our salvation
20:10 because it was an act of kindness for Jesus
20:13 to come this earth.
20:16 And kindness is necessary for us
20:19 to have in our character to be saved.
20:23 If we wanna resemble Christ,
20:26 we are going to have to learn to be kind.
20:31 JD, we live in a world where kindness is at a premium.
20:35 It is hard to find it these days,
20:37 especially, oh my goodness, in the, on the news today
20:42 all we see is sometimes
20:44 are these terrible acts of unkindness.
20:49 Do you see that it is a time,
20:52 we are living in a time when we need to try to project
20:55 and teach people how to be more kind.
20:58 Even in churches, my prayer is that churches will be a place
21:03 where people will see kindness all around but sometimes,
21:07 sometimes it isn't, you know.
21:09 Sometime people sit in the seat in the church,
21:12 and a visitor comes in, and they're not really kind.
21:17 You know, do you think we need to do more, JD,
21:20 to really help people learn and grow to be more kind?
21:26 Oh I certainly do,
21:28 I mean, I love being able to be the first one to go up
21:32 and hug someone's neck in welcome to our church.
21:36 And our church here in Thompsonville
21:38 is a loving church.
21:39 And we love to have prayers,
21:41 and we can't wait to go up and welcome them,
21:44 learn something about them.
21:46 But, yes,
21:48 I do believe we're living in the latter times
21:49 of this earth's history, and now more than ever,
21:53 we need to be kind,
21:56 and I think that's something that's just in you.
21:58 Now there's people that probably can use
22:01 that word of kindness
22:03 that will hopefully let them see,
22:06 you know, the product of your church.
22:09 And that they would want to be a part of your life.
22:11 But, you know, I believe, I believe firmly in kindness.
22:14 I have a story that I often tell,
22:17 about Captain John Smith.
22:20 You remember Captain John Smith?
22:23 I presume it's a true story.
22:25 Apparently John Smith
22:27 took Pocahontas back with him to England,
22:32 to show off this beautiful Native American woman,
22:38 and everyone was so taken with Pocahontas.
22:42 And Pocahontas was approached by Captain John Smith,
22:46 and he actually asked her to marry him.
22:51 And she said,
22:52 "Give me a little time to think about it."
22:55 And she thought on it,
22:56 and when they came back together,
22:58 she said to him,
23:00 "I have only one question for you,
23:04 are you kind?"
23:08 Are you kind?
23:09 If we have more kindness in our marriages,
23:14 for example,
23:15 if we showed this character of Christ,
23:18 of kindness in our marriages,
23:20 marriage would be heaven on earth,
23:24 just for that one little blessing,
23:27 that one little blessing of kindness.
23:30 What do you think about that, Adly?
23:34 Oh, I think it's very important.
23:36 I was holding
23:37 an Evangelistic meeting in Mexico City,
23:42 and there was a lady that was,
23:45 seemed to be very kind at church.
23:47 She would greet everyone,
23:49 and she would be very friendly to everyone,
23:51 but her daughters came to see me
23:54 because she was the opposite at home.
23:59 And when I visited her and spoke with her,
24:03 she came to recognize
24:06 that she was failing at the most important place,
24:09 which was her home.
24:11 Her husband, 25 years,
24:14 listening to the message would not accept it.
24:18 But when she finally understood that the first place
24:21 where she needed to be kind, and graceful,
24:24 and loving was at home, and she changed her attitude.
24:28 That man came to church, and soon he was baptized.
24:32 When I ask him why finally he had made that decision,
24:35 he said,
24:37 "Because finally my wife is showing
24:40 what she pretends at church in the home."
24:44 So that's a first place
24:45 where we need to start being kind to each other.
24:49 Yeah, you know, one of the tests
24:52 of whether a person is kind or not
24:55 is whether they refrain from words
24:58 and acts of recrimination.
25:03 When someone has hurt you
25:07 and you have the character of Christ in you,
25:11 you don't strike back,
25:14 you don't indulge in words
25:18 and acts of recrimination
25:20 because you,
25:22 if you feel the need to injure someone else
25:28 because they have injured you,
25:30 you need that character dimension of Jesus.
25:34 You need to learn to be Christ like
25:37 and to be kind.
25:39 I appreciate you all being so much with me today
25:42 and talking about this very important trait.
25:45 May God continue to bless us as we strive to be kind.
25:53 What can we do about the unfairness of life?
25:58 It's unrealistic to think we can eradicate injustice
26:01 and create a world that is fair to everyone.
26:05 But we can do our part.
26:07 We can change our little part of the world.
26:11 A story from the civil war tells of a man
26:13 who traveled for days on horseback
26:15 to find General Ulysses S. Grant.
26:18 He asked to see the general and was finally allowed
26:21 into the presence of that great general.
26:23 He stated his name and his mission.
26:25 He had come to plead for the life of one named,
26:28 Fredrick Stone, a soldier
26:31 who was to be executed for the crime of desertion.
26:35 Grant responded by saying that just because he'd come to plead
26:38 for the life of a great friend,
26:41 he wasn't going to commute the death sentence
26:44 "A great friend?"
26:46 The man responded,
26:48 "I have no greater enemy than Fredrick Stone."
26:51 General Grant was stunned,
26:53 he hesitated for a few moments and then he said,
26:56 "You would come all this way
26:58 not for a friend,
27:03 but for an enemy.
27:06 Am I hearing that correctly?"
27:08 "Yes, Sir," He said.
27:11 Grant looked at him and said,
27:13 "You know, for a man
27:15 who would ride four days in dangerous territory,
27:19 all of that to plead the life of an enemy, to plead the life,
27:25 for the life of someone who was his enemy.
27:28 I will the grant the request."
27:32 It's the easiest thing to show love and kindness
27:37 to those who are part of our families.
27:40 But to show kindness to an enemy
27:43 is really something special.
27:46 I'm Wintley Phipps.
27:48 Thank you for being with us and remember
27:50 to be a Christian means to be Christ like.


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Revised 2018-02-22