But more importantly, I don’t want to.

One of the greatest gifts of being gone a lot is that you learn to really value people.  You recognize the difference a well placed hug makes in your week.  Dinner parties with laughter and good lighting sparkle all the brighter.  Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with dear friends at church offers a sense of continuity that grounds your ever travelling feet.

One of the coolest parts of doing world changing work is that every day you get to focus blood, sweat and yes, sometimes tears on others. You pour yourself out like a glass of water.  You take what you have and you invest in the most valuable asset around–people.

The joy of my life is connecting my people with my other people. I have always had lots of friends in different circles and when I get the opportunity to connect the amazing people in one part of my life with the other amazing people in another part of my life–lighting strikes and extraordinary things happen!

Together we change stuff.  Together we laugh more.  Together we are stronger than any form of poverty, pain or injustice.

I believe that with all my soul.  I can do this work alone but I don’t want to. I want you to experience a peice of Africa. I want you to get to know one of my students by name.  I want you invest what you have because I want to share in the joy with you.  I want to change the world–with you.

I love my work and am so thankful for my life, but without your involvement we both miss out on something extraordinary.  I know you can’t all hop on a plane with me and explore Rwanda, Uganda or South Africa, but the beauty of this modern day, is that we can continue to travel along together in so many ways.  As I pack my bags this time, I want to invite you to really walk along side me.

See – I try to post at least photo a day on instagram. I will introduce you to the people I meet, the roads I travel on and the occasional cute kitty photo. It will probably make you smile and most folks tell me that it really helps them understand my day-to-day.  (I’m also on Facebook.)

Listen – Follow me on this blog.  I’ll post stories, thoughts and things I need prayer about.  I try to update weekly but commit to updating at least once a month–in case the African interweb breaks and I can’t get an update out. Just enter your email in the box to the right and my blog posts will come to your email box.  Easy peasy.  You can also follow the blog at These Numbers Have Faces by scrolling to the bottom of the site and entering your email address.

Join – Take that next step and join me.  Buy a plane ticket–literally–and come see Africa.  Or invest in me and support my work.  I still need to raise another $10,000 to keep the lights on.  Partnering financially is a way to have a deep impact on many lives–mine, the students I work with, the folks I meet along the way. Note a recurring donation of $50 a month gets you a really cool Christmas gift from Africa! I’m just sayin’…

I know you will be changed if you walk this road with me and I know that together we will not only change the world but have a hell of a time doing it!  You know I’m right…

These Numbers Have Faces Scholars in Rwanda

What do you notice about these students?  Their smiles?  The light in their eyes?  Their youthful energy? Yep, that’s what I notice every day that I am with them in Rwanda!  They have drive and have not let any of the challenges in their lives prevent them from moving forward with passion and excellence.  They are ready to change the world and I absolutely believe that they will accomplish what they set out to do.

What you cannot see is that every student in this photo–except one–is a refugee.  Many of these young adults have been displaced from their homes, living in tiny huts without electricity, sufficient water, food and sanitation for over 17th years.  Yet, rather than being thwarted by those facts, they focused on finding ways to thrive!   They found a way to get an education. They supported one another.   They applied to universities without any hope of the funds needed to attend.

Thanks to These Numbers Have Faces, these students are not simply defined as “refugees” but are university students, leaders and changemakers. This past year, I have been repeatedly blown away by these young people and it has been a true joy to be part of their journey, get to know their families and their communities.

TODAY IS WORLD REFUGEE DAY!   So I just had to pause for a moment and admire the resilience, courage and grit that I see in the refugee families that I have come to love this year.  Having Jean Paul and his family–Congolese refugees–get resettled in Portland last month only further deepens my respect for families that have maintained a sense of unity, optimism and joy amidst all of the instability.  It is hard work to rebuild your life over and over–and yet, they continue to move forward with a grace that is amazing.

Jean Paul, Moses, Jean Basco and Jean outside their humble home in Gihembe Refugee Camp in Rwanda.

If you want to be inspired, shoot me a message and let me share more about these incredibly students and how you can become part of their stories.

“This is where I belong. This is what I was made to do.” I was on the back of a moto in Rwanda and my heart was full.

I had just left Scovia, my beloved partner in ministry at the These Numbers Have Faces office and I was off to meet some of our students. The day had been spent working on some budgeting and writing status reports.  We also had 2 students visit us to discuss some challenges and opportunities.  I gave one student a Bible to give to her father who was having surgery the following week.  She held the Bible to her chest and hugged me deeply. I was en route to meet students at Mr. Chips, the local fast food spot, to check in and hang out.  I ended up showing them some cool photos of Mandela on my kindle and talking about the joys and hardships of sacrificial leadership.

The day had been a combination of program management, discipleship, mentoring and iphone selfies.  After the students left, I decided to walk up the hill to my apartment and as I walked I thought again, “This is where I belong. This is what I was made to do.” As I walked this settled in as truth.  I love Africans. I love young adults. And I love working with people to develop their real potential. It was liking finally coming home.

Working with These Numbers Have Faces, I have been able to combine all of those loves with my more administrative nature. It’s kind of a perfect union. At that point, I had been working as a contractor with These Numbers.  We both had been evaluating one another and trying to decide if there was a fit.  I had fallen in love with the students—but you all know that I am sucker for a smart young person.  Yet beyond the students, I had fallen in love with the vision—with the audacious idea that young African leaders could be supported to change their own futures and to reshape their own countries!  As a small town girl that was given an opportunity to learn and grow at Yale, I know what it means to have folks believe in you and invest in you.  I want that for these kids!

And I’m made for the work.  This role fits me like nothing else I have ever done and there is something amazing about doing work that you were created for—it uses every piece of you—not just your skills or abilities, not just your life experience to that point, nor your temperament or personality but a blend of all of those things.  And it feels pretty awesome.  At the end of every day, I find myself filled with joy and thanksgiving and love.

So, after some prayer and discussion, we have all agreed that I should stick around at These Numbers Have Faces.  I have been asked to manage our International Programs.  I cannot begin to express my excitement at this opportunity!!

To learn more, check out our website: thesenumbers.org.  In particular, I love this video that we made earlier this year:

So stay tuned. I know there is a lot of great stuff to come!!

My family at my elite graduation weekend. Yes, my dad IS in cut off jean shorts.

In 1991 I said goodbye to my parents and boarded my first in a series of flights to New Haven, Connecticut to start my studies at Yale University.  I had never set foot on the campus.  I was the first in my family to head straight to 4 years of university and I was not properly prepared for what was ahead.

Not surprisingly, I did terrible my first year there. I started freshmen year with an intensive Japanese class.  Most of my peers in the class already spoke some Japanese.  I did not.  So by the time we got near midterms it was not a huge surprise that I was bringing the grading curve down and my sweet sensei asked me to drop the class for all of our sakes.

I would like to say that then life took on the pace of a romantic comedy montage. I learned how to study, found out what I was good at, became BBFF with my professors AND met a fabulous boyfriend with a handsome backpack.  Unfortunately, it did not go down that way.  I continued to struggle all through my years at Yale.  I did my best, but at one point I faced expulsion because my grades were so low.

I suppose I should be ashamed of my performance—and for many years I was—but looking back, I am kind of impressed with my young self for my determination to keep going and my ability to succeed regularly with a load of 6 classes at one of the best schools in the US.  I see now that my failures were not because I was too dumb, I was just immature, had horrific study skills and did not know how to navigate life at university.  Rather than build relationships with professors and TA’s, I was intimidated by them and kept my distance.  I took awful notes and procrastinated at studying for exams. (That had worked in my rural high school.) If I did poorly on an assignment, I didn’t follow up with the professor to learn how I could improve, I just figured I would “try harder.”  And so my roller coaster existence was a constant stress while in New Haven.

The truth is that there were LOTS of resources available to me, I just didn’t know it.  I was so intimidated by everyone around me that I had no idea that they were invested in my success and would be willing to help me find ways to succeed. I also was embarrassed to be the little fish in such a big pond. So I pretended to be on top of everything—when I clearly was not.  There are some cases where faking it will not help you make it!

I learned far too late the tools to succeed in university. I understand that life for a student starting at the bottom is a mixture of pure joy to be invited to the dance and absolute terror that you are in over your head. Sometimes I see that in the eyes of the university students that I work with in Africa.  I could spend all year telling you about the trials these students have faced to get to the university level.  Only dogged passion and focus have made it at all possible for them to walk the corridors of African universities.  I know exactly the elation they feel to have “made it” and to be a university student!  Yet, I also understand from my experience that “making it” is only the entry point.  Once on campus, you have to continue to work hard and earn your place.

You won’t be surprised to hear that with my personal experience and my deep admiration for the TNHF Scholars, I have an invested interest in helping them succeed.  I want them to learn from my failures. I want them to succeed where I did not!  This has been the launching point for my latest obsession: how to help students uncover the resources available at their universities and how do I provide additional tools for success.  It’s clear that additional English training is vital.  Many of our students have also never held a laptop in their hands.  So computer training and regular access to laptops is key.  We have also started a small but promising Leadership Library to help the students learn success tactics from other people they admire.  Of course, having a mentor or someone to listen before you get too deep under water is crucial.

But we cannot do this alone.  If any of you also have a passion to help university students succeed, have a spare laptop laying around, a biography of a great leader or ideas on teaching English as a second language, I welcome your involvement.  Together I know that we can help these smart, hard working students be at the top of their classes.  Together we can empower them to change their communities from within.  Together we can help them thrive and grow into the leaders that Africa needs for tomorrow.

Leave a comment below or email me at tina@thesenumbers.org if you are interested in getting involved.  I can promise you that delightful messages like this one will make their way into your life and you will be so blessed by them!

This is just one of the many thank you messages in my inbox from TNHF students.

Looking back on 2013, my heart is so filled with awe and joy at all that God has accomplished over 12 months.  Let’s just say that my heart went from a valley to a peak!

How?

Through the inspiring stories of 30 university students in Rwanda and 12 students in Uganda!  Finding myself back in Africa in October was a miracle all it’s own, but my time in Rwanda and Uganda reminded me that hard work, ambition and a bunch of faith can change not only individuals but entire communities.

I met Congolese refuges that staffed and funded a school in the refuge camp because nothing was available to them.  Students from their tiny school are outshining students at other prestigious private schools in national testing and qualifying for government prizes.

I visited a one-room tent home of a Rwandan family recently placed in refuge status in their own country when the government of Tanzania evicted them.  The only daughter in the family was confident that she would help her family and community through this crisis.  She speaks with passion and confidence and dreams of being, “that leader who will unite Rwandese.”  With style and beauty, she busts through gender boundaries and hopes someday to employ many of her countrymen–providing  employment and stability.

I met a young woman that was orphaned in the 1994 genocide that could talk to the sorrow of her loss openly and honestly. Yet, through God’s grace, she is a healthy young person with dreams and hope.  She told me, “I lost both parents, but I can be someone!”  I was blown away by her grace but completely leveled when I learned that she had  a wicked sense of humor and she regularly does stand-up comedy at her university!

And there are so many other stories!  God really blew me away with one amazing story after another and blessed me to get to know–and of course, fall in love with–these students.  But more than that, I am in their debt. These young adults showered one another and me with love and care.  As a group, they live out the ideal of Godly community with kindness (sharing resources), generosity (skipping a meal, so a friend can eat) and so much love. And these are just a portion of the young leaders that These Numbers Have Faces are empowering throughout Africa!

I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with them and am scheming a way to get myself back to Rwanda in 2014.  Today is the final day of 2013 giving and These Numbers Have Faces have raised over 90% of their year-end goal of $75,000.  I would really loved to see them go past their goal and be able to empower even more students.  Take a look at this video that I helped with and see if that doesn’t inspire you some!  Any amount you give will make an impact and will be doubled by a matching gift through tonight!

I am thankful to be right where I am.  After returning from Uganda in 2012, I did a lot of soul searching.  I asked myself what did I want to do next and what was I best at.  The answer was really always, “Help young adults in Africa become the leaders that God meant for them to be.” Which is well and good, but I do have bills to pay and needed a way to keep the roof over my head.  So  I applied to job after job, but nothing worked out. Which was a little disorienting to me because the one thing I am best at is work–but no one would hire me.  I prayed through the ups and downs and trusted God to provide for my needs.  Then I got a call from Shoshon at These Numbers Have Faces in September and he asked if I would be interested in going to Rwanda and Uganda to work with young adult leaders and new program staff.  Yes, please.

Today I am typing from a guesthouse in Uganda and later this afternoon I will be heading out to a girls school to celebrating graduation and joining in the party!  And my heart is full of thanks.

Yesterday I taught a few staff members at These Numbers and Cornerstone Development how to use a Salesforce database.  They loved the skill training and I think this will really help them do their job.  It was such an honor to work with them.  And my heart is full of thanks.

Last week I was welcomed in out of the rain into a small tent room in a refuge camp and huddled together with people that have literally been forced from their home, with all of their possessions taken–including their means of income.  Yet, rather than being filled with gloom, we laughed together and I was given the amazing honor of kneeling side-by-side and praying for these families.  My heart is breaking. And my heart is full of thanks.

I am surrounded by people helping make change in the world and it is a humbling to see what change people are empowering in Jesus’ name globally.  It’s pretty awesome!  And my heart is full of thanks.

It should also be noted that I have daily been so deeply thankful for the hot shower here at Cornerstone. And for Marie Denton who fixed the shower (albeit cold) waiting for me in Rwanda.  And my heart is full of thanks. (And a bit warmer thanks to the hot water…)

I may not be eating turkey or stuffing, but I could not be more deeply blessed  than  I am right now.  Besides I started my Thanksgiving with a fruit and nut chocolate bar and coffee milk–only slightly less amazing then a Thanksgiving meal.   And perhaps I can convince Cathy McMurray to do a small Thanksgiving do-over for me when I return? 😉

Happy Thanksgiving!