Every year, graduating Leadership Development Program (LDP) students in the Philippines go to work camp where they engage in community service. The yearly work camp usually engages students in missionary work to unreached tribal groups, but this year the students extended a helping hand to typhoon victims.

At the end of October, LDP students from all over the Philippines came together in Manila, Santa Mesa, Novaliches and Bulacan for the annual camp. They were tasked to perform community service for those who had been badly affected by Typhoon Ketsana, which dumped more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the Philippines in more than 40 years.

Zechariah, one of the students, was excited to be at this year’s work camp putting the program’s value of Christian servant leadership into practice. As he walked into a community in Marikina City, he recognized the Marikina Bridge that he had seen on TV.

“This was where a family was swept away by strong flood currents and were riding the waves on the remains of floating debris. They passed beneath this bridge.”

Zechariah and his group of 12 others were assigned to clean a church building in the squatter community of Tumana, which was near the bridge. The church is a daughter church of the Marikina Foursquare Gospel Church, a Compassion church partner.

Registered children living in the area come to this church building for their weekly developmental activities. The registered children hadn’t been able to use the building for a month because of the mud and damage from the flooding.

The student workers were surprised that a month after the typhoon the church was still muddied all over up to its ceiling. “It’s as if the flood abated just yesterday,” they observed.

The entire community, too, was still full of traces of the flooding – mud-covered homes, turned-over vehicles, and people ceaselessly talking about how they survived.

Fetching a pail of water a few blocks from the church, Zechariah said, “This is nothing new to us. We are used to this kind of work.”

His teammates agreed, recalling the times when their own hometowns were hit by cyclones.

In the community of Novaliches, the group of LDP work campers was joined by volunteer youths, doctors and nurses to offer free medicine and medical checkups.

Together with volunteers from the Nazarene Student Center and the Novaliches Nazarene Church, they offered medical help to the families of both registered and non-registered children.

One of the volunteer nurses was Dahlia, a former LDP student, who brought along volunteer doctors with free medicine.

Tweela, another student worker, believes that through the work camp she can “project positive attitude against (the people’s) negative experiences.”

She said she has received so much from the Leadership Development Program that it is just right to give to others.

“It feels good to help people knowing that this was for a purpose. There was a sense of accomplishment as we saw the church slowly getting cleaner.”

Marikina City, where the students served, was one of the worst-hit cities in metro Manila. News reports placed the death toll in Marikina alone at 75 out of the total 240 deaths around the metro area.

“I was sure I was going to die that day,” said Pastor Lorenzo as he told the LDP students how he fought to swim to higher ground.

“Here in Marikina people are used to typhoons and floods, but I was shocked to see that the waters kept rising. I knew that this was bad.

“I had to escape when the water rose to my chest. It never stopped rising until it covered the entire church building. Many people from this community died.”

After the water abated the next day, the pastor attempted to clean and fix the place all by himself. Although his members offered help, he refused them because they, too, had to take care of their own lot.

After a few days, the pastor was so exhausted that doctors advised him to rest.

“But I couldn’t rest my mind because I kept thinking about our church. I believe that it was really God who sent you (LDP students) to help me do cleanup this week. Praise God for the LDP.”

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This past summer, I interned at Compassion in the Global Ministry Center. There, I worked to establish the Delivery Community* as well as to formulate a detailed road map for upcoming project management training intended to further equip and empower Compassion staff.

When I started my internship, President and CEO Wess Stafford offered a revolutionary idea during my first day of staff orientation. He held up his hands and used his thumbs and index fingers to form a triangle. This top-down pyramid is the traditional model of leadership.

Yes, I’d heard this before. This is how the working world functions — the base supports the top, and the top, due to its position, makes the final call on all projects, decisions, etc.

But then Wess moved his hands, flipping that triangle upside down and said this is how leadership is supposed to look.

I gawked as Wess explained he may be in a position of leadership, but that didn’t mean he was at the top of the triangle.

Instead, he calmly clarified that because of his position in leadership, he was the bottom point of the triangle. As a leader, it is his responsibility to serve and support the rest of the organization — the staff, the global partners and, most important, the sponsored children.

That day I squirmed in my chair, confused by this role reversal. This is not how business functions. This is not how projects are executed. This is not how the world works.

But while this is not how the world works, this is how the kingdom of God is meant to be.

Philippians 2:3-8 adds value to this worldview and the concept of servant leadership. In the New International Version (yes, I prefer this version over ESV) this reads:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!”

When I arrived at Compassion, I came as a culturally aware college student from a secular university. I saw these verses in Philippians as vital to following Christ. Yes, implement them at home, with friends, at church and in the streets. But in my occupation?

Surely, this didn’t have a place in the power plays of the business world.

Due to previous work environments at my past jobs, I was baffled by the integration of Compassion’s core values into the attitudes and work of all staff, from the bottom to the top.

Why was everyone so nice? Why is everyone poured into their work 100 percent with no complaints? Why aren’t people fighting their way to the top of the ladder, of the triangle? Why do they want to help me? Why does my role matter to them? Why do I matter?

I didn’t understand the idea of the upside-down triangle. Perhaps more striking, I didn’t see its place in a grand-scale organization.

But after a mere month my heart changed as a result of working in such a Christ-centered environment.

Through what I (far right) saw in others, I saw a need to change within myself. I was blessed every day by the servant attitude my co-workers and supervisors exhibited.

I learned that to lead I must serve, that to give is better than to receive, and that to help others is better than to solely help myself.

As you carry out your work, regardless of your position, you are in a position of power. You have the opportunity to lead, to execute and to finish projects that matter to the people involved.

I encourage you to not buy the lie, the worldly and culturally acceptable belief that traditional leadership denotes power. We don’t need all-knowing decision-makers. We need responsible leaders who lead by example — by Christ’s example.

Compassion has a long history of good stewardship. Partake in that legacy. Do nothing out of selfish ambition, be consistently humble and look to the interest of others. Actively seek to invert the triangle, and then watch God’s kingdom impact our world.

*The Delivery Community is targeted to Compassion staff interested and engaged in Project Management. Through regular group meetings and the Intranet, employees come together to learn how to more effectively manage projects and deliver them on schedule, on budget, and within scope.

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One crucial message Jesus wanted his disciples to grasp is that in God’s kingdom leaders are servants.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:45 (NIV)

At Compassion, as God’s followers, we aspire to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, in who we are and what we do.

Servant leadership requires us to surrender our will for God’s will. It requires confession and seeking God’s power to transform us with His servant heart.

Listen to Mark Yeadon, Senior Vice President of International Program, talk about the importance of exemplifying Christian servant leadership.

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