Generosity reaches a whole new level when your life is on the line – and when you’re saving someone else’s life at the literal risk of your own. That’s what the “White Helmets” are doing every day in Syria, as they voluntarily rush in after the bombs have hit. The rescuers don’t care about a person’s religion or politics, just their ability to survive.

So far, 141 White Helmets have died in the process of saving more than 73,530 people by pulling them out of the rubble, even as the bombs were still raining down. More than fifty bombs and mortars land on some neighborhoods each day.

A piece about the White Helmets on a television news show prompted me to find their website at www.whitehelmets.org. There I heard about a new Netflix documentary called “The White Helmets,” which is available for streaming on Netflix. There’s also an opportunity to learn more about the U.N. Security Council resolutions against barrel bombs and chlorine bombs, and a place to petition the U.N. to follow through on those resolutions in some way with the Syrian government.

Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The White Hats are giving their lives for all who are in harm’s way. This is the basis of generosity: living out God’s compassion.

Your partner in ministry,

Betsy Schwarzentraub