Relief leader urges midyear grads to help lessen the world's pain

NEWBERG -- A relief agency leader who has long observed the extent of suffering worldwide urged midyear graduates of George Fox University last month to help lessen that pain in the years ahead.

“The real question is not what are you going to do with your diplomas and degrees, but what good you are going to do with them?” Bas Vanderzalm of Northwest Medical Teams International told the 197 graduates at the midyear commencement on the Newberg campus. “The test of whether you make a difference will be evaluated by how you live your lives.”

A Newberg resident, Vanderzalm has headed the Portland-based Christian relief agency since 1997. His organization of 50 staff members and several thousand volunteers responds to disasters and ongoing need both in the United States and overseas. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on America, it quickly set up counseling teams both in New York City and Oregon, and has concentrated since on aiding refugees of the war in Afghanistan.

Introducing Vander-zalm and his agency as “genuine partners” with the university, George Fox President David Brandt said Vanderzalm’s comments were especially timely in light of the recent events. Illustrating his talk with brief stories about Northwest Medical Teams volunteers, Vanderzalm offered six general concepts for lives that make a positive difference.

The first -- to “open your heart” -- was shown by a Portland businessman who felt burdened to help needy children. He volunteered at a burn hospital in Moldova. Because of his Christian compassion, not only were both children and adults there touched, but a new church developed in that nation.

“We are often ready to give people what’s in our heads, but the potential to help people is so much greater if we are prepared to give them not only our thoughts, but our lives,” Vanderzalm said.

A Portland physician showed that “who you are is not so important as what you do,” as she set aside her medical work to simply talk with some grief-stricken war refugees in Albania, said Vanderzalm. He said her caring attitude prompted one elderly person to say, “Doctor, you have healed us with your words, not your medicine.”

Vanderzalm said the simple truth that “character counts” was shown by Northwest Medical Teams volunteers who gained the trust of earthquake victims in India because they provided the relief that they had promised. He also described how different volunteer teams labored at Romanian orphanages on various tasks -- some in dentistry, some in optometry, and somein construction work -- to illustrate the importance of teamwork --that “we can't do it alone.”

Vanderzalm emphasized that “faith matters” when he told how rescue workers at New York’s Ground Zero eagerly sought a spiritual perspective from chaplains and clergy. “There are pains, hurts and griefs that cannot be touched just by human device and skills,” he said.

Finally, Vanderzalm spoke of the importance of “being a servant.” He told how representatives of his agency literally carried “vulnerables” -- exhausted and sick refugees of war -- off a train in Kosovo. “As you leave here with your diplomas, remember that you walk into a world filled with ‘vulnerables,’ ’’ he told the graduates. “If we are to make a difference, we must remember that we are vulnerable people called to serve vulnerable people.”

Of the 197 graduates, 41 received bachelor’s degrees through traditional programs, while 105 earned theirs through the university’s adult degree-completion programs.

Four degrees were presented to graduates of George Fox Evangelical Seminary, and 43 master’s degrees were earned through other university programs. Four people graduated from the university’s doctor of psychology program.