In October last year, Chris preached a great sermon on compassion. I'm certainly not going to relay his whole message (You can find it here, entitled 'Overflowing with Compassion'.), but he shared a Greek word with our congregation that continues coming to mind in reflection of our experiences on the lake.
The word is spagkhnozomai, pronounced 'spuk-needs-o-my' in my sketchy phonetic attempt. I'm sure that's way off, but just go with it for now; I'll learn Greek another day. This Greek word for compassion is incredibly strong; it conveys a very gut-wrenching emotional feeling. There's 'compassion' on one level and then there's 'spagkhnozomai' that moves one to the very depths of his being. It's used for the compassion of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, of the Samaritan who aided the victim on the road, the reaction of Jesus towards the widow whose son had died. It's the kind of compassion that runs so deep that it must evoke action.
So I had learned about this word and read the stories in which Jesus had such compassion on people. And I had been challenged to think how our world might change if we were to show that kind of compassion to our neighbors. But it wasn't until we came back from the lake that I felt like I really understood it. I think in seeing these children, I felt a hint of spagkhnozomai in myself. That gut-wrenching, 'move you to your bowels' feeling came to life for me as I looked into the eyes of the children next to me.
Again, images will never fully convey, but here are a few of the children that we encountered on Lake Volta. As we came alongside the boats, we handed out candy and blankets to those that would accept them. We were out for about 2.5 hours and saw approximately 10 trafficked children. 
Multiply that 700 times...
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