Greg Frei, LDS Church
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, who leads the Fellowship Chapel church in Detroit, welcomed participants to his city for the NAACP national convention last July. “One does not begin the journey on the day the journey begins,” he said.
While we often mark a journey’s beginning as a significant start, the truth is that the journey was most likely initiated months, years and even decades before. True leaders understand that important, powerful, monumental moments in history are founded on relationships, rather than transactions, and are initiated early on and then nurtured over time.
For example, the journey to put a man on the moon did not begin with the launching of the Apollo astronauts. It began years before with vital relationships forged between scientists, engineers, pilots and program managers. Similarly, the journey to Mars is already underway and begins with putting American women on the moon. This journey will be based, not on the transactions of today, but on relationships that have already been years in the making.
On Jan. 29, Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced that the church, in partnership with Health Oriented Preventive Education, or HOPE, would be sending a significant shipment of protective gear and supplies to China in response to the coronavirus. Cargo planes from Salt Lake City, Utah, and Atlanta, Georgia, would begin the journey to deliver an estimated 220,000 critical respiratory masks, nearly 900 pairs of goggles and pallets of protective coveralls to the Children’s Medical Center in Shanghai.
It was the beginning of a ministering journey. Yet, it wasn’t the beginning of the journey at all. That adventure began decades before with a then world-renowned heart surgeon whose personal journey ultimately took him from the operating room to his current role as a world religious leader, prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ. President Nelson, that surgeon and religious leader, understands how true leaders are forever finding, forging and fostering new friendships. These relationships become the basis, or beginning, of new journeys.
Some will note that the journey leading to the current aid shipment may have started in 1980, when President Nelson spent a month as a visiting professor at the Shandong University School of Medicine. Even the 40-year travel back in time to this professorship in China was not the beginning of the journey. It was actually two years prior in 1978, in a church meeting with then church President Spencer W. Kimball. A young Russell M. Nelson was moved by President Kimball’s stirring message and wrote on his notepad, “pray for the people of China” and “start learning Mandarin.”
A promising journey was altered in 1984, when Dr. Nelson was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That would seem to have been the beginning of the end of his journey with the people of China. It proved to be merely the end of the beginning.
Shortly after his calling to full-time church service, he was able to fulfill a promise he had made to conduct training at several Chinese medical schools. An ending? No, just more beginnings, deeper relationships and new journeys that would be significant to the entire nation of China.
The following year, Dr. Zhang Zhen-Xiang, who had become a colleague and personal friend to then Elder Nelson, reached out with an important petition and request for him to perform one last operation. It wasn’t a transactional request for any ordinary patient. This surgery was for an ailing and dearly beloved Chinese opera star who was seen as a national treasure.
The relation which had been fostered with Elder Nelson caused Dr. Zhang to declare that he only had confidence in the country’s dear friend, their pioneer who honored them by learning some Mandarin years earlier.
President Nelson obtained permission from the First Presidency and performed a coronary artery bypass graft that saved the life of opera star Fang Rongxiang. It turned out to be the last operation Dr. Nelson ever performed.
As reported in the Church News: “President Nelson’s tender relationship with the Chinese people has endured throughout his ongoing apostolic ministry.
“In October 2015, he and his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, returned to the bustling city of Jinan. The Nelsons were greeted by more than 100 people and showered with gifts.
“‘The Chinese people value those long-term relationships,’ President Nelson said, ‘and I’m really pleased that I’m regarded here as one of their old friends.’”
Many businesses today are only concerned with the current transaction with a customer. The transaction is superficial at best. It begins with the quest to get the customer onto their website or into their store and concludes when the question of how to get the customer to part with their money in exchange for a good or service is answered. This limits loyalty, commoditizes customer interaction and does nothing to foster a long-term relationship.
I remember being a high school basketball player sitting on a court listening to coach George Souvall preach about how important it was to create relationships with the other players at his camp. He then paired each of us up with a player we would work with for the next two weeks.
Coach Souvall said that the relationship we would forge during camp could change our lives. I happened to get paired with a competitor from a rival high school. This player had been a thorn in my side since seventh grade, and I thought, “Coach is just wrong on this.” I figured I would just have to endure it.
I then heard Coach say, “The people in this camp with you today are not just basketball players and competitors. There may come a day in the decades to come that you may need them desperately. They may become a doctor who will cure your cancer or save your child, a police officer that keeps you safe, a spiritual leader that might help you save your soul! This person you are paired with may join you in a life-altering journey.”
I ended up learning so much from someone I thought I knew and felt had no value. When I saw him beyond the transaction of a competitor and viewed him as fellow traveler, I discovered that what I thought was cockiness was actually quiet, humble confidence. He became a trusted voice, someone I admired and a friend I learned from throughout my high school years.
In a world where politicians, business executives, organizations and even individuals have become almost completely transactional, it is nice to see the transcendent and transformational impact of a relationship-driven leader like President Nelson.
The delivery of the supplies this week in China may also seem to be a transactional end to this important ministering mission instigated by President Nelson and executed by the church and its partner HOPE. I wouldn’t count on it being the end.
In commenting on the warm reception and expressions of gratitude he received during his 2015 visit back to China, President Nelson saw the relationship in a different light, saying, “It’s very significant, personally. And who knows? The story isn’t over yet. We don’t know what the future will be.”
We do know that the beginning of the next monumental journey won’t start on the day that journey begins — it probably began this week in a relationship between the people of China and a world religious leader.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/31tOKkW
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