2,000 Screaming Teenagers

The title of this post scares me. I love all of God’s children, but the thought of a room full of teenagers makes me a little nervous. The exception will be this Wednesday night when I travel deep in the heart of Texas for the start of the Hawk Nelson “Green T” Tour. Compassion has partnered with artists for 30 years and in that time almost 200,000 sponsors have been found in the seats of concert venues all over the United States.

My job with Compassion is to build relationships with artists and partner with them when they are out on the road. I love the fact that on my Compassion roster is one of the legends of Christian music, Dallas Holm, and young bands like Hawk Nelson. The common thread between the two is the calling to be an advocate for children throughout the world and a belief that we are called to partner together to release these children from poverty.

One of the great joys of my job is traveling to different parts of the world with these artists so they can see “first hand” the ministry of Compassion. 

In January, I took Daniel from Hawk Nelson to Haiti where he met his Compassion sponsor child, Franchioux. Daniel immediately connected with the boy he only knew through letters and pictures and outfitted him with a “Hawk Nelson is My Friend” t shirt written in Hatian Creole for the occasion. 

This trip encouraged and inspired Daniel to stand up in 36 different cities for the next two months in front of 2,000 screaming teenagers, parents, and youth leaders and tell them about this 8-year-old boy in Haiti that hears about Jesus every week, is doing well in school, has the right nutrition and medical care, and believes that one day he can be an engineer so he can build better roads in his community. Daniel will stand up each night and invite those 2,000 screaming teenagers to take a stand and join him in the fight against poverty. 

Brian Seay is an artist relations manager for Compassion, working with musicians and bands who advocate for Compassion and children in poverty. He was one of the bloggers on the Uganda blog trip.