Yes Virginia

Hopefully most of you know about the little girl who wrote to a newspaper asking if Santa was real. I believe it was the New York Times. She did receive a beautiful letter back saying "Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus".

I am returning home to Kenya in 6 weeks. Monica and I finally got to talk. It’s always a challenge and today was no different. We wanted to Skype, and we did try, but her connection just didn’t work. However technology being what it is, I was able to Skype to her mobile phone. You really have to be patient, creative and try many things before something works. It took us 3 days to connect. That’s hard for people here to wrap their heads around. However it has made me a much more mellow old lady.

Much to my delight the reports from 2 of our schools were fantastic. The villagers are so serious about the micro-finance that they hired a debt collector to get money from those who don’t pay back in time. Seems the Iron Lady of Malanga has her hands full managing 129 different groups and said she would not track people down. So the villagers took matters into their own hands and hired some muscle. You can’t imagine how amazing that is. I feel like Sally Fields, they get it they really get it.

I sent the board the good news about the schools, the proposed new school. I do believe I have told you that I have the greatest Board of Directors ever, right? Keep reading to understand the insertion of this paragraph.

The not so fun part of this job is the very difficult decisions I have to make. We dropped a school because it just wasn’t performing, and I know those kids will go hungry. But we are adamant that people learn to fish, not just eat them.

We use something called Mission Air Packs which are sponsored by the drug companies. It allows non-profits like ours to bring much needed supplies over to third world countries. I had my list out while Monica and I were talking. We were trying to decide which they needed more. Hmmm-prenatal vitamins or children’s antibiotics? Stethoscopes or suture kits? Anti-fungal or anti-diarrheals? And the otoscopes were simply out of the question. I told Monica to send me a wish list and I would see what we could do about the extra supplies.

Ok ready? While I’m suffering over this list I get an email from our chairman for fundraising. She writes me and tells me that the gentleman at the next desk just wrote out a check for $500! Well gang that covers everything. So for once no hard medical decisions and my Christmas Miracle was made.

What I know is that opportunity happens in the now. And God really does listen. And sometimes when you’re about to loose it, just what you needed comes through. It is faith, dear readers, and I strongly recommend you aim in that direction. You never know what opportunity or miracle is waiting for you.