Newark Airport, New Jersey USA - I was to be in Liberia today, hosting an 8th birthday party for my namesake Deborah. Instead I am stuck here since Thursday due to a mechanical failure on the plane from Chicago to Brussels. And since Brussels Air is the only carrier that can take me to and from Liberia now post-Ebola, I have no option but to breathe and wait. Hopefully tonight I will be able to fly overnight to Brussels and then connect to the Sunday Brussels flight to Monrovia
Newark Airport, New Jersey USA - I was to be in Liberia today, hosting an 8th birthday party for my namesake Deborah. Instead I am stuck here since Thursday due to a mechanical failure on the plane from Chicago to Brussels. And since Brussels Air is the only carrier that can take me to and from Liberia now post-Ebola, I have no option but to breathe and wait. Hopefully tonight I will be able to fly overnight to Brussels and then connect to the Sunday Brussels flight to Monrovia.
It has been a time of complete surrender and powerlessness. There are no options but to be with what is, and to be grateful that the significant mechanical failure happened over the US where the plane could divert to Newark vs over the ocean where there is no option for a quick landing. So I am grateful, despite the circumstances.
My lesson from A Course in Miracles today is “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.” Part of my daily spiritual practice is to think as God does and see as God does. The further thoughts from today reinforce this practice:
I see through the eyes of forgiveness.
I see the world as blessed.
I see my own thoughts, which are like God’s.
Peace despite my circumstances. I am always at choice, to choose my attitude. I am choosing peace and gratitude – and trusting all is unfolding for the highest good of all beings.
And I am very blessed to be returning to Liberia, hopefully by tomorrow evening. We are beginning 2016 with great excitement and hope. We have promoted our FFW Finance Officer Anna to Finance and School Loan Manager. We have added two new key staff people. Our microfinance to schools portfolio continues to grow and be a significant part of our work; we have 60 partner schools now and will have more than 100 by the end of this year. We are touching tens of thousands of students by supporting Low Fee Independent School (LFIS) operators, people passionate about providing quality education to the children of Liberia and who would have no access to capital other than from us. In just 2 ½ years since our partnership with Edify began which made this product possible, we have impacted the education of children in Liberia in a very significant way!
Our partnership with the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) continues. I will welcome a staff member from that school for the fourth time to Liberia, this time to train 48 school proprietors and principals in best practices. Wonderful!
This trip will also bring an agriculture project to Liberia. With the help of very committed people in Texas, we are joining with Texas A&M University to bring grassroots agriculture in an effort to make Liberia food-sufficient for the first time in decades – and to eventually provide exports.
And I hope to launch a village solar project, duplicating a successful program in India. Years ago microfinance was used to get mobile phones into villages by lending funds to “Telephone Women.” Now the concept is being used to get solar energy into villages via a network of “Energy Women.”
All the while I will continue to work on the documentary film HOPE. I also plan to document the stories of 30 young men who ran the crematorium during the Ebola crisis and have now been discarded by the people and country of Liberia; a very sad story which the world must know.
I surrender. I pray for the highest good of all beings – and go to Liberia now completely in service to the people and country I love dearly.
More from Liberia soon hopefully – and Happy Birthday Deborah!
It has been a time of complete surrender and powerlessness. There are no options but to be with what is, and to be grateful that the significant mechanical failure happened over the US where the plane could divert to Newark vs over the ocean where there is no option for a quick landing. So I am grateful, despite the circumstances.
My lesson from A Course in Miracles today is “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.” Part of my daily spiritual practice is to think as God does and see as God does. The further thoughts from today reinforce this practice:
I see through the eyes of forgiveness.
I see the world as blessed.
I see my own thoughts, which are like God’s.
Peace despite my circumstances. I am always at choice, to choose my attitude. I am choosing peace and gratitude – and trusting all is unfolding for the highest good of all beings.
And I am very blessed to be returning to Liberia, hopefully by tomorrow evening. We are beginning 2016 with great excitement and hope. We have promoted our FFW Finance Officer Anna to Finance and School Loan Manager. We have added two new key staff people. Our microfinance to schools portfolio continues to grow and be a significant part of our work; we have 60 partner schools now and will have more than 100 by the end of this year. We are touching tens of thousands of students by supporting Low Fee Independent School (LFIS) operators, people passionate about providing quality education to the children of Liberia and who would have no access to capital other than from us. In just 2 ½ years since our partnership with Edify began which made this product possible, we have impacted the education of children in Liberia in a very significant way!
Our partnership with the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) continues. I will welcome a staff member from that school for the fourth time to Liberia, this time to train 48 school proprietors and principals in best practices. Wonderful!
This trip will also bring an agriculture project to Liberia. With the help of very committed people in Texas, we are joining with Texas A&M University to bring grassroots agriculture in an effort to make Liberia food-sufficient for the first time in decades – and to eventually provide exports.
And I hope to launch a village solar project, duplicating a successful program in India. Years ago microfinance was used to get mobile phones into villages by lending funds to “Telephone Women.” Now the concept is being used to get solar energy into villages via a network of “Energy Women.”
All the while I will continue to work on the documentary film HOPE. I also plan to document the stories of 30 young men who ran the crematorium during the Ebola crisis and have now been discarded by the people and country of Liberia; a very sad story which the world must know.
I surrender. I pray for the highest good of all beings – and go to Liberia now completely in service to the people and country I love dearly.
More from Liberia soon hopefully – and Happy Birthday Deborah!
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