Real Life: World Vision director T.J. Grant on generosity and ‘transformation going both ways’

Canadian-Kiwi T.J. Grant from World Vision is pictured here with 70-year-old Nishow from Somalia.

The director of World Vision NZ is encouraging New Zealanders to engage with those around the world in need, saying: “When you share love outside yourself, something powerful can happen.”

Canadian-Kiwi T.J. Grant, who took over leadership of the Christian humanitarian organisation in October, came to the role after nearly two decades working in aid and community development.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, he said people who sponsor children around the world are helping to bring “lasting community development and transformational change” to those in need.

But Grant says World Vision’s mission is actually twofold.

“Our vision for every child [is] life in all its fullness; so we exist to help vulnerable children around the world to experience the fullness of life, the fullness of opportunities that we believe every child deserves,” he said.

“And then the second part is our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so – so the belief in the transformation of Kiwis, that when they engage, when they partner with World Vision, when they are generous and reach out beyond their lives, a transformation goes both ways.”

Grant says this idea of being transformed by an act of generosity has been true of his own experience working in aid and community development.

He explained that just after he and his wife first married, they moved to Taiwan to teach English, mainly to “have a fun time” while adventuring and paying off their student loans. But just months into their time there, they both had a sense that “something was missing, that there was something more we were called to do”.

They learned of an orphanage in Taiwan run by Christian missionaries, and started volunteering there one night a week for two years. Not long after, he had an epiphany.

“[I was] looking down at one of these little babies and had the realisation that these Thursday evenings at the orphanage had become the most important thing I was doing, the most important part of my week,” Grant told Real Life.

“And I thought, why? What has happened on these Thursday evenings to make this so transformative for me? These babies are never gonna remember my name. They weren’t gonna know I was here. I’m just changing their diapers. What’s going on here?

“And what I thought ... was that maybe God was sharing his love through me to these little ones. You know, when you’re generous, when you care, when you share love outside yourself, something powerful can happen – and maybe that has some small contribution to those babies’ lives and their futures.”

World Vision works in close to 100 countries, including 26 active conflict zones, and Grant was in South Sudan last week. He says it was important that his first visit since becoming national director should be to a place like this.

“We have to keep grounded in the reality of what’s happening in the world: what are the challenges people face, and how can we respond?” he said.

Grant is inspired by Jesus’ words in Matthew 25, when he says: “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me.”

“I believe Jesus is saying, you can experience and see me there,” he told Cowan.

“Now, when you step out, when you reach out, when you walk alongside, when you partner, when you’re generous beyond yourself, and you partner with … those people in really difficult circumstances – that, I really believe, is the privilege, the calling, the mission that World Vision has had.”

• Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.

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