Why the starfish?

The story behind our logo concept has been a driving force in our ministry for many years now. The following is that story.

One day an old man was walking along the beach.  It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that the water had carried in and then left behind.  The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures.  Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives.

The man knew the starfish would die if left on the beach’s dry sand but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea.  The old man stopped and asked the child, “What are you doing?”

“I’m saving the starfish,” the child replied.

“Why waste your time?  There are so many you can’t save them all so what does it matter?” argued the man.

Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water… “It matters to this one,” the child explained.

At Breakaway Outreach, we understand that every child matters.

Jesus is so personally identified with hurting people that He takes our treatment of them as our treatment of Him (Matt 25:40, 45). In his parable of the Sheep and the Goats, the difference that set the two apart was explicitly clear: Those on the right served Jesus faithfully by caring for “ONE of the least of these,” while those on the left were reprimanded that they “did not” care for even “ONE of the least of these.” Jesus made it personal in terms of how we approach serving the “one” that is marginalized. 

“The least of these” may refer to the sick, destitute, incarcerated, orphaned, impoverished, delinquent, oppressed, fatherless, widowed, forsaken, single parent, homeless, refugee, underprivileged, abused, abandoned, just to name a few.  And while much of society may overlook “the least of these,” we believe that what we do “matters” in sharing the life-giving hope of Jesus Christ with people facing hardship. Our treatment of them is our treatment of Jesus.

Furthermore, in Luke 15, Jesus gives us the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. In each of these three parables, he emphasized the joy in heaven over the “one” sinner who repents in over the implied self-righteous multitudes who felt they didn’t need repentance. Again, Jesus modeled the power of looking at the ONE who is overlooked, and why outreach to that one is so important in Kingdom perspective.

We believe the key to changing the world is to do for ONE what you wish you could do for everyone, and our ministry approach is shaped around that conviction.

That’s why our motto is… “It matters to this ONE!”

That’s the meaning behind our logo.