This weekend, I cried like a baby while I stood in the midst of a crowd of swaying people. I’m not joking – a mascara running, boo-hooing with people packed on my left and right, baby.

Imagine if you fell head over heels in love with another person and then you had to leave him behind because you couldn’t stay in his country. I think you can probably relate to heart break and lost love, but imagine loving a child who doesn’t have someone to champion him. A child who deserves someone to believe he is the most important person in the world. A child who sees you walking through the grounds of the orphanage and runs across the uneven gravel to slip his hand into yours, or a little baby who nestles his nose into the crook under your collar bones.

On Saturday, as I stood in the evening chill of Prince’s Island Park in Calgary and listened to Emmanuel Jal sing the song Emma, I thought of the little boys in Rwanda who forever captured my heart, and I couldn’t hold back my tears:

“Emma McCune – Angel to the rescue one afternoon. I’m here because she rescued me, I’m proud to carry her legacy. Thank You. Bless You. RIPeace. What would I be? If Emma never rescued me? Another starving refugee?….I’ve got a reason to be on this earth because I know more than anyone what a life is worth…I stand here because someone cared. I stand here because someone dared.”

I dare you to read the story of Emmanuel Jal, War Child, and learn about the young British woman who smuggled him from war-torn Sudan into relative safety in Kenya. Imagine the courage it took for Emma McCune to put the safety of more than 150 child soldiers ahead of her own. Imagine how much it would have crushed that little boy, Jal, when Emma died tragically in a car crash a few months after she brought him to Nairobi. Now Jal sings about his angel, Emma, on stage and brings people like me to tears.

If Emma could risk her life to save child soldiers in Sudan, imagine what the rest of us could do for the people in our communities? Imagine if we all decided to show up for just one person, either at home or on the other side of the world? One day, I hope I have the chance to show up for a child, the way Emma McCune showed up for over 150. Who knows what people can achieve if they know someone believes in them?

If you want to do something small today but you don’t know where to start, why not sign up as a Peace Soldier on Jal’s website: We Want Peace? Or, if you are in Calgary, why not come join us for a Peace and Development Forum on Wednesday, August 15th? Sometimes, just showing up is enough…

AND…if you are looking for a little inspiration, here is what Wikipedia has to say about Emma McCune: “McCune went to war-torn Sudan in 1987 at age 23 to teach for the British organisation Volunteer Services Overseas. After reluctantly returning to England in 1988 McCune once again returned to Sudan in 1989 to work for the UNICEF-funded Canadian organisation Street Kids International, which founded or re-opened more than 100 village schools in the country’s south. McCune spent much of the late 1980s in the south in the midst of war and famine. Emma also saved more than 150 war children in Sudan including hiphop artist Emmanuel Jal and is the title subject of his song “Emma McCune” on his 2008 album Warchild.”