March 18-20, 2007
Johannesburg, South Africa

I am behind in posting this portion of my blog. I have been home since Wednesday afternoon and have been spending my time away from the computer...at least trying to.

The Johannesburg events were incredible! SRC and I arrived Saturday night, spent some time with the FC Southern Africa group and then retired to our rooms. I slept in! It felt so good to not have my alarm wake me up. I did some prep work for the programs, had lunch with SRC and did some shopping at a shopping center that is a skywalk away from the hotel. Sunday evening SRC had two community programs. One was for a group of about 30 VIPs and the second was for the entire community. The crowd was huge...about 1,000. It was amazing to look down from where I was sitting to see all of the faces. SRC was in his element sharing insight and principles on the family. It really was a spectacular event.

The Leadership event in Johannesburg was a two-day event with close to 800 people. It too was incredible. There really was a team effort with SRC and Buyani during each day to make sure the participants experienced the full leadership program. In my opinion SRC hit a home run with this group. The participants really involved themselves in what was being taught, the activities, questions, sharing vision statements, etc. From where I was sitting I heard an echo from the audio speakers so it was a bit difficult for me to understand what was being said by the participants because of their accents but SRC, luckily, did not struggle like I did. The main thing SRC wanted to accomplish with this group was for them to experience the paradigm shift and he feels like that was accomplshed. Success!

Prior to lunch on day two SRC met with about 15 students from Life College. SRC is a mentor to the students and supports the mission of Life College. The hour that he spent with these students was enlightening. It was a structured hour with an ice breaker activity, small group activity and then large group activity. The questions that the students asked SRC were well thought out and the answers that SRC gave were perfect. I actually learned something new about SRC that I did not previously know. For the small group activity I was paired with two other students to answer questions about a quote that was given to us. The quote basically said that we become what we believe we will become. When I think of that statement I think of the positive beliefs that we have about ourselves, our lives. One of the two students in my small group said that these beliefs may not always be positive. She shared this, "If I believe I will become an alcoholic like my dad, I will". I would not have thought of it that way but it is very true. At the conclusion of the hour we all stood in a circle and shared something we had learned or something that amazed us. I was impressed by the things that were shared. One of the teachers was in tears as she shared what she had learned. Many of these students come from "the projects", so to speak, or don't have parents and are being raised by an older sibling or come from single parent homes...not the best situations for anyone but they are rising above all of that with the help of Life College and receiving positive affirmations from the great teachers, leaders and mentors. I was touched by this experience.

SRC and I flew home at the end of Day 2. We were traveling a total about about 24 hours, 21 of which were in the air. The first thing I wanted to do when I got home was to take a shower and brush my teeth. That is exactly what I did!