Meet Santiago "Jimmy" Mellado. Born in El Salvador, he spent much of his youth becoming an elite decathlete -- member of a national-championship team at Southern Methodist University in 1983, a participant for his native land in the 1987 Pan American Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
He still plays to win, but now it’s as the President and CEO of Compassion International, a Colorado-based, holistic-child development organization dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world.
His battle now centers around improving the lives of a staggering 385 million children across the globe who live on less than $1.90 a day, the World Bank definition of extreme poverty. Mellado says the key in being a Good Samaritan is to focus less on doing great works and more on being like Jesus Christ.
“The most important contribution you’ll make to the kingdom of heaven isn’t what you, do but the person you’re becoming,” he says. “And in becoming the person God wants you to become, you’ll of course will do those things, but they’ll be fruit of the person you’re becoming [rather] than human-driven.”
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