 Welcome to another edition of the Leaders Room. The Leaders Room is an initiative of the E. Cliff Leadership and Governance Center. In this space, we invite leaders from all walks of life to talk to us about their values, their life purpose, and the mindset that keeps them moving forward when they confront resistance and challenges. My name is Michael Kossner and I'll be your host today. Joining us is Booty's Hugh Hardy. Booty used to be a high-flying pilot for a major international airline. But one day, in 1999, all of that changed as he, his wife, and his children watched the television show. He'll talk to you about what that change was and we'll ask him questions about what were the values behind the change that that incident brought to his life and we'll explore with him the challenges that he faced and how he overcame them. Booty, welcome to the Leaders Room. Thank you, Michael. Booty, would you start by just giving us, in a couple of minutes, a brief synopsis of what happened on that, I don't want to say, fateful night, maybe that transformational night in 1999. Yes on that evening, it was supposed to be our special evening because my wife and I and family, the whole family actually, we are having a special dinner to remember our good times and we were living in Korea for nine years, brought in with me all the special meals from Korea. And on that evening as well, we were planning to travel around the world for our holiday trips, 33 days, based on the job that I'm having, I'm entitled to travel first class. But while we were having our dinner, we saw a television program broadcasting about the condition of people who are living in the refugee camps, which is much enduring some sort of survival kind of living. They have nothing, they have no certainties and they have no proper food, no proper place and very miserable. And those refugees were where, Booty? The refugees were the East Timor refugees, right after the separation between East Timor and West Timor, living in the borders between Indonesia and East Timor. Okay so you're watching the show on TV? Yes, watching so on TV, be careful to watch TV, can change your life. So that condition got me in, and my wife as well, that this is not a fan, I'm having so-called, let me put it like, very comfortable kind of living, everything nice, pure, safe and clean, well other people, they don't have everything. And plus, uncertainties about what's the next day it will be for them to eat. So derived from there, my wife and I, thinking about it, and we are very much affected by the scenery that we have. So at 11 o'clock after prayers, my wife and I prayed together and 11 o'clock we decided. Okay, let's postpone our holiday and visit the refugees at the camps instead, then what's happened? So let me make sure I have this straight. You and your wife, I'm assuming your kids, decided to postpone an around the world trip that was going to be for 30 plus days, and you would have been traveling in first class, all that. You set that aside because you saw something that you said was not right. Yes. So what are the value for, in Eclipse language, what happened for you sounds like a mismatch between what you hold to be true, and what you value, and what you see as something non-negotiable, and what you were experiencing in your environment, seeing that show on TV. And you decided I needed to do something about that. What were the values behind that? What motivated you to postpone that trip? Yes, we have been enduring good life and it's something normal here. Living in a comfortable environment is normal to us, but those people who we saw, it's not a fan. They didn't even have the minimums. So we just want to share what we are blessed with. It's not ours. Everything is from God's blessing that we are having. So what we are giving is actually our time, it's from God. What we have wealth, it's also his blessing. So we are sharing what we are blessed with, it's nothing but us. So what initially turned out to be just simply going over and taking 500, not pounds, grams or something over there, turned out to be something a lot more and a lot longer. Tell us about that. Yes, we were planning to bring 500 kilograms max, kilogram, especially items of things that are useful for the children. The innocent, miserable children, you know, because they have to enjoy this kind of living. So yes, we decided, okay, 500 kilograms, okay. Then at the end of the day, actually from Singapore alone, we managed to collect 987 kilograms, almost one ton. And then when we brought over to Jakarta, with the money we committed to spend $10,000 U.S. and with money that friends was asking, I want to participate and 57,000 U.S. So we have a lot of money. So go to Jakarta and at Jakarta, we did our shopping and from almost one ton become eight tons plus. Then they come to headache, how to bring them across. And well, the trip itself from Singapore to Jakarta is quite dramatic. From Jakarta to even to the West Timor itself is full of miracles. And then in West Timor itself, actually we did our shopping again and we shop shop shop. And at the end of the day, from original plan of 500 kilograms, we end up more than 40 tons. 40 tons. Wow. Now, you were just originally though planning to go to deliver those goods and then come home. Yes. But I don't think it ended up working that way for you, did it? Yes. We did it a few times, in fact, except that we are getting smarter because we will buy things locally there instead of all the way from Singapore and from Jakarta again. And then we did a few trips. And then after a few trips, is it a useful trip? Yes. Is it helping people? Yes. But giving food to the people, it's the last thing maybe a week at the most, or and then giving clothing to people who don't have water in a few weeks will become wrecks. You give utensils, this and that, you know, it's basically, it will not last very long. But there's no, nothing significant about how to change the condition. So from there actually, my wife and I think again, and then how can we do something which is long lasting, more significant and give more impact to maybe less individuals, but more meaningful. So that's why we decided, okay, let's look after the children. How? Then we decided to rent a house, fill up with four very miserable children because the children we are having were full of pasts and wounds, you don't want to know about it. And then from four children, from six, eight, then ten children, then two children were taken away by other people. So the children's distance relative because of the rumors that people are spreading that my family and I are able to live in Singapore because we were, or we are selling babies. So it's very sad, but anyway, more children coming, coming and come at a point whereby the rented house is not enough. So we need to have our own place, rental space. So what did you do then? Then we tried to think, hey, we have to build our own place and how, where. Then we remembered that back then 1992, which is eight years before, actually we bought a land in Timor without seeing it, without looking at it, without stepping our foot on it. Okay. Why? Because at that time we were having relatives asking our help for his or her friends who are coming with the family to Jakarta or who wants to get the daughter's foot fixed because of the accident that they're having at home, then their foot accidentally went into the boiling palm sugar making so the foot is like a duck feet, you know, it's joined up together and 10-year-old girl. So very sad. So they want, they have money but limited to reduce their burden, our friend reduced, it can, they stay at your place and we have, we have a house, we have, why not, stay our house. So they stay at our house and when we brought them to the hospital, actually their money's not enough for the operation and they brought 7 million, the operation cost 13 million. My wife is like, okay, top up. So we top up, again, nothing, what we have is actually blessings anyway. So we share what we are blessed with. So after the treatment's done and also odd patients and stay at our house, you know, check up, they're done one month later, after stay 31 days at our place, then the father of that girl are asking us to meet up after dinner. So and on the evening, I happened to be just coming back from Seoul, from flying. So yeah, we have dinner nicely and after dinner, we have a conversation and on the conversation, the man is actually, of course, the family thanking us. Thank you for letting us stay here at your house. Thank you for topping up the medical fee to our children's treatment, but is it possible for you to help us one more, if I can help you, we can help more than happy through it. So what is it? Can you buy us a second hand MPV car, please? I'm an absolutely man. No, I'm not a rich man. Well, I'm very rich, because God is rich. Anyway, he asked us to buy a second hand car, MPV, because for the time being, they are doing business, using motorcycle in the form of carrying handicrafts, locally made handicrafts. And during rainy days, we'll effect it, you know, so they want more secure conditions for ventilation and more mounts of the merchandise. So I'm quite reluctant to give, to be honest, but my wife pulled me in inside the house, the entire room, and honey, I think we can do it. So my wife, okay, let's do it. We bought a local newspaper, looked for advertisements, and actually the next day we found an eight-year-old car, and of course, they don't have money. So we brought the car to the garage, fixed it, make sure the brake lining, brake condition everything is okay. And then even we put the time, put new batteries as well. And then until when things are done, and then of course, we top out the fuel and give more money for them to eat on the way from Jakarta to Surabaya, and Surabaya to Timo by ship. Of course, we give money for the ship, everything, all the way. But before they left our house, the wife was asking us, can we have your address, complete address and your name so I can send you a message that when we arrive there safely, give you a notification. Oh, sure. At that time, my wife and I just bought an apartment and also processed some land deal. So we have a lot of copies of her ID, so my wife just simply, oh, take one of my ID. So three months later, an M-float A4 size came and inside of M-float is a land certificate. And then on my wife's name, oh, this is a force, a force purchased away, you know. So we went to Timo, we asked for the parking price of the land and we paid for it in full, without seeing the land. On me, the year 2000. What did you do with that land then? Nothing. Okay, but. Just for cotton. Okay, but somewhere along the line, you said you were running out of space in that house and you went to some other type of building. Tell us about that other building. You ended up building an orphanage, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. So in the year 2000, eight years after 1992, then we remembered that we bought land without seeing it. And then, oh, we bought land eight years ago, oh, let's find it. So then we tried to find the land and it was discouraging because the road is very bad. Even though cycle, you have to step down. And yeah, now that is the orphanage located. So you started out in a rented house up to about 40, 48 children. No, no, rented house, 12 children. But then you went to an orphanage, the orphanage that you built, you had a white piggy. It went to what about 48, but today you have 148 children in there. So in 1999, you have this transformative experience. And it sounds like some of the values behind that transformative experience was your faith, your belief in giving back and writing things that you see as injustices or in fairnesses. Did you ever see yourself, though, having a life purpose that said, I'm going to be the father for 148 children? Did you ever imagine that? To be honest, no, I just do what's necessary to be done. And it's nice to be able to be at the giving part, the receiving part. And I know for sure that living in poverty is not nice because I lived that life before. In my childhood, my father passed away when I was nine years old. He was one of the Indonesian university lecturers and my late father also the founder of one of the universities in my hometown. And my father passed away right away as a traffic accident. And I have to go through, we went through life to the whole family, where to have one decent meal a day is a luxury already. So you had personal experience with it. And so when you were watching that television show, seeing people not having even one meal a day, you could connect with them. Of course. Okay. You've described to me before we started recording here at the leaders, you described to me that it's been a series of one miracle after another. When you weren't sure how something was going to get from destination A to destination B, a miracle happened. A ship came along, a flight came along. When you needed money, a miracle happened and the money appeared. I can't believe though that there's been a succession of one miracle after another without some type of a gap, where you find yourself in a dark spot, where you find yourself thinking, how am I going to get out of this? Have you been in that spot? And if yes, what was the mental energy you needed to get out of that? We are created with hardware and software, we are blessed with complete things physically. And then we have our limitations, yet again, we can do our best. So what we have to do is just do our best. Then your best will end up into something. For example, this happened not too long ago, 2012. Before that I have so many other miracles that I can show to you, I can share with you. This is 2012. On that Sunday, I was invited to conduct a sermon in a church in Singapore. Very happy because the attendance was youth and I like young people to be positive. My message was encouragement to do their best according to the norms and values that exist. And we are having very good relationship with them. After the sermon is done, we are fellow shipping, having meals, talking again with everybody. Then I arrived at my house at 3pm, just throw myself in the couch, open my shoes, then my phone rang. And the first call, when I pick up the call, the guy called me, Pastor, what can I do for you? I heard that you were giving a sermon this morning in the church. Yes, I did. What can I do for you? Can you do the same thing at our church? Oh, if I'm in Singapore and have the time, more than happy to do it. When? Today. Excuse me. Today. What time? 5pm. And it's 3 now. It's 3 now. One goes to shoes? Yeah. No. Okay. Three. In my head. Why not? Why not? Come out to my mouth. So, I undress myself, put my pajamas, really pajamas, throw my bag in my room, sleeping with put a cold, and I put my alarm 30 minutes later. 30 minutes later, I woke up and ready, and timely, 5pm I'm there. On that church, the attendance was 18 people, including me, worship leader, and also another person, the pastor, 21 of us. All of them are sick people, very sick people, very, very sick people, and people who are told by the medical experts, like the remaining days of their life, it's very sad. So I share about encouragement that, eh, this is a transient world, don't worry, this is not the last thing. No place is there, you know, encouragement to believe in what you believe in, what the teaching has been teaching us, and you know, so keep them comforted in terms of hope, okay, and love, and eternal life. So, simple. And after the service, the pastor asked me, can you pray especially for this, Rachel? Rachel apparently is a girl, I think six years old, very skinny, and she has been treated in Singapore for one year, for three different types of cancer, internal organ, plus three days before she was told that actually she has leukemia as well, so it's complete. And she has been treated in Singapore, one of the best hospitals. Who am I? To be given the task to pray for her, someone who has already been treated at the best hospital for one year, and I come clean, I told everybody, hey, who are we, we are no one, the doctor cannot do it for one year already. So we are not any medical experts, but I showed them, hey, but actually, the life is belongs to him, to God, and God can do everything, you know, so we know that the words of nothing is possible, you know, with God, hey, why don't we make it valid? So I asked them to pray together with me, close your eyes, and then kneel as if you pray, close your eyes and pray as if you are kneeling before God and surrendering everything to him, just simple, you know, and complete surrendering, you know, so that's what we did, and we prayed first, I let the prayer maybe two minutes at the most, no need to be very long, two minutes. Then finished, and after finished, the pastor actually shared with me that actually this girl has been treated and about 400 plus, 438,000 dollars has been spent, and from the friends or networks actually, some 400,000 were collected and paid, and they are still shorted, having shorted of about 38,000 over that, so I'm compelled to help, I'm, you know, kind of, hey, I want to help too, but my, you know, ability is limited, but three months before that day, actually, I have started saving money, 1,000 or 2,000, whatever I have, for us to buy a truck to enhance our farming, so I want to help, but not really that, you know, so I told the pastor, I wrote a check, the amount of money I saved for the truck, pastor, I cannot give much, but maybe this one will help even those little, so I gave the check to the pastor, and we thought them knowing it, the children and the father knowing it, but actually they knew it later on after the pastor told them, so that's it, went home. The next day, which is Monday, 7 a.m., one of my friends from the first church, I shared the word, right, call me, Pabudi, yes, good morning, yes, good morning, Pabudi morning, sister Vanessa, there's one gentleman from the church that we, you shared the words yesterday, I want to see you, oh sure, I'm having off days today, but I'm going to Sim Lim Square to buy ink for my cartridge, ink for the printer, oh sure, okay, let's arrange for lunchtime, so I told him, I told her I'm going to Sim Lim Square, but actually I wait, I head up to Funan Center, so here I am with it at the Funan Center, I thought that Sim Lim Square, and the guy keep calling me, Pabudi, where are you, I'm here already, at the entrance, which entrance, near the McDonald's, which McDonald's, entrance, no McDonald's, I'm assuming here, then I realized, oh I'm in, sorry I'm in Funan Center, so the guy actually made a trip to Funan Center and we met, never seen the guy before, never heard the name before, you know, have no idea who he was, and then we shared conversation, fellowshiping about early child education, because he was actually a former teacher, we shared about farming, because actually, because he is a fruit business person, we shared about school, about faith, about many things, on day-to-day living, and then from lunch, finger food, drinks, finger food, until we didn't realize that the time is 6.15 in the evening, so six hours, which is the first time we met, and the outcome of that conversation was? Before, we parted, oh I have to leave, I have to lead a club meeting, a rotary club meeting, and oh thank you for reminding me, I have to meet someone at 7 pm or so, so we parted, but before we left, shook my hand, nobody, I want to give you something, yes, what is it, thank you, and thank anyway, what is it, I want to give you a truck, I've been mentioned a truck, no, I've been mentioned a truck, then I got my, hey, have I been talking to someone who is normal or not normal, oh yes, thank you, thank you, truck, truck, and okay, I don't need a truck in Singapore, and I don't need a truck in Jakarta, if I need a truck, we'll be in West Timor, the orphanage to enhance our farming, sure, I'll deliver a truck to Kupang, very bold, boldly, okay, more money, is he normal or not, yes, okay, at the moment my wife is not at the orphanage, she brought the children for an outreach and arrangement trip to Rotor Island, another island to experience something else, she will arrive only in Wednesday evening, the guy said, okay, I will deliver it on Thursday morning, then really get me confused, we never mentioned about truck, never anything, then suddenly want to give me a truck, and then that's what happened, on Thursday morning, a truck delivered to our orphanage, I don't have to pay installment, I don't have to pay anything, then that's one, and I'm sorry, I'm going to have to interrupt though, so what you did is you gave away a truck, and you got a truck back, and so what I'm hearing through all of this, what has kept you going through your dark nights, has been your faith, and your belief in that, so through this period of time, we started in 1999, today is, now we're in year 2015, you've given up your full-time job, associated with airlines, and you devote all of your time to the orphanage. And for part of all that you've done for that orphanage, you've been recognized by CNN as one of their heroes, haven't you? It's a blessing. It's a blessing. Okay, so final question I want to ask you is, what's the legacy you hope to leave behind? You've been recognized as a hero, what's the legacy that you want to leave behind? We are born in this world with equality, we cannot live alone, we should share this world together, because if you go up actually from the outer space then, you will never see the earth with borders. From the universe, from the outside world, the world is the most precious, the most beautiful planet in the world, with no borders. It's quite sad when people make us separated, and sadly different ideologies, we side grid ourselves into different, we should live together, we should live together harmoniously, with respecting each other, geographically, culture-wise, different, but we should work together, because if we're working together, this would be a better place. So what you're hoping is to model to other people what you've done at the orphanage and helping other people, you hope that forms an example for other people? Well, it's no example, but it's proven facts that if we are trying our best, then all the positive things will come back to you and enhance your efforts. So if more and more people with different belief, with different culture, background, with everything working together, beautiful, beautiful. All right, Booty, thank you for joining us today in the Leader's Room.