Preparing for the Spirit in Action 16^th Anniversary earlier this month gave me a chance to reflect on the role models that are the foundation of Spirit in Action’s vision. Below is my reflection on three leaders that keep me encouraged and inspired:

We spent three days with Canaan Gondwe in Malawi and it felt like we were there for weeks.

People had told us to prepare for “Africa time” nothing happens quickly or on-time. But Canaan had everything in order; he kept us on a tight schedule, rushing us off to meet with people, see farms, share and listen to people. There were so many in that rural village who wanted to meet us and thank us, as representatives of SIA.

[See photos of friends at our anniversary event!]

Right from that beginning, when Canaan quickly drove us back to his village because our bus was 1.5 hours late, I saw that Canaan was a strong leader. He commanded respect and showed respect to everyone – greeting men, women, and children on the road. He has a warm smile and a booming voice. When he gave his presentation welcoming us, people listened and clapped in agreement. When we went to visit farms, people sought his advice on pig farming and growing tomatoes. People willingly shared their car with him and worked in the office with him.

Serving happens person-to-person

So Canaan is our first role model today. There is a quote by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen saying, “Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected.” She is saying that serving is a closer relationship than fixing or helping. Serving is about being God’s channel and letting the service flow, rather than being a fixer or a helper with our own plans.

Serving creates a stronger bond. It is the best way for us to create chance – really allow chance to unfold.

Del’s dream of co-creation

Del’s dream, included here, talks about connecting with role models who contribute to their communities. Canaan is that role model, that leader – serving others by being there in the community, encouraging them, giving advice, modeling spiritual faith and practice. And his leadership is the strength of the Manyamula Savings and Loans group (MAVISALO).

Del was ahead of his time with his dream about connecting with role models already active in their communities. So Del is our second role model of the day. I think that Del really understood that international service is about encouraging others.

Many feel the call to serve others around the world – people who have less than us, people who lack their basic needs. And the challenge is to allow the service to flow through us, rather than expect the service start and end with us. This is the hard part – and yet I thank Del for his vision for an organization that allows and encourages others to lead change in their own communities. Spirit in Action is designed to recognize and encourage self-help projects and help get those started and flourishing. To summarize – we see that more change can come through a local savings and loans group, rather than a newly dug water well by American volunteers that no one uses.

Channeling a higher power

Del talked a lot about being a channel – Christ’s channel for healing and soothing injustices in the world. So our third role model is Jesus. Following Jesus’s model and being a channel for service recognizes that it is not our own power that will solve the problem or save a community. We see power in others and encourage that. In many ways knowing that we are channels, not the only power, is freeing for me. It lifts the weight of needing to have all the answers; instead the answer is to follow my role models.

Now, just because we are channels doesn’t mean we are inactive or passive – in fact our name, Spirit in ACTION, demands we do something. When we find our local role models like Canaan, we are called to manifest God’s spirit of goodness and love – and support and collaborate with Canaan and his community as they organize to assist the most vulnerable people, get more youth in school, help new families build houses and start farms.

So, it is with this spirit of our role models that we celebrate today – celebrate the model of Jesus, the dreams of Del, and the leadership of Canaan. We celebrate that through these 16 years we continue to stay true to the dream of cultivating leaders, co-creating with them, and channeling support to those leaders best poised to serve their fellow neighbor.

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This past Sunday, I was baptized at the St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ. During the service, I shared a few words about claiming the Christian faith, portraying a broader array of Christian experiences, and what the baptism meant to me. I share them with you now:

I have had a close relationship with God since I was a child. And I have never been baptized. I sometimes tell people that I’m a Christian and yet sometimes I don’t because I don’t want to be lumped in with the “bad” Christians – the ones that see a small God, and fail to see the light in every person.

When I was a kid at summer camp, we sang a beautiful song saying “They will know we are Christians by our love.” And yet, since Christianity has been given a bad name within the liberal circles I grew up in, someone changed the song to, “They will know we are God’s children by our love.” I have no problem with that, I see myself as a child of God. Yet I want to reveal to people a broader example of Christianity, one that has at its core – loving God and loving my neighbor as myself. And this baptism is part of showing that Christians and love are in the same vein.

I asked Pastor Victoria to include “Be Thou My Vision” as one of the hymns today as a reminder that in my life I want to follow Jesus and live with him as my role model.

I want to see abundance. When I get one more request for help from Africa for work I don’t want to be like the disciples and send the crowds away. I want to welcome them, invite them to eat, and know that we all will be satisfied, with some left over.

I also want to stand for justice. Just as Jesus got angry enough to act by turning over the money-changers tables, when I am with people who are gossiping, I want to be strong enough to say – don’t say that, or that’s not the way I see it.

I want to show up at parties and turn water into wine…but never mind about that…

Finally, I take with me the knowledge that the Lord only requires three things of me as I enter into this sacrament. That is to seek justice (like my work with Spirit in Action in the world), love kindness (to be gentle to myself and always seek a solution that is best for many), and to walk humbly with my God (especially as I leave this wonderful community and begin a new life with Boyd in Toronto).

And I pray that as I am baptized, like with Jesus, God will also say, “this is my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.” So I thank you for being here today to witness this public act of faith, and for being a community that had prepared me to say that I am a child of God and I am also a Christian.

I love you and I will miss you when we leave, and yet finding this community, which is so safe and so strong, is like a promise that I will find another such place wherever I am.

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P.S. Hope to see you on Saturday at our Sweet Sixteen Anniversary and Silent Auction in Alameda!

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Do you remember your 16^th birthday? For me, it was an important milestone – a transition from having to ask for rides to the freedom of driving my own car. Flying down the freeway in my yellow ’76 VW Bug with the engine roaring, gave me a sense of joy and excitement. (Don’t worry; the car maxed out at 65 mph!)

Tanya Cothran at 16 years old in her VW Bug!

But the car also brought responsibilities. My sister and I had to learn how to push start the car from second gear and figure out how it was going to pass the smog check. It was worth it, though!

On May 5^th, Spirit in Action will celebrate its 16^th anniversary and I think it will also bring the same mixed sense of joy and responsibility. We have the sense of moving forward – the wind in our hair, so to speak – the excitement of really changing lives and communities in Africa. Meeting SIA change-makers and community organizers last summer was a real thrill. At the anniversary event, I’ll share about Canaan Gondwe, who is one of SIA’s great role models effecting change in his village in rural Malawi.

Our “sweet sixteen” birthday also brings responsibility for Spirit in Action. We must figure out how to stay true to Del’s dream and innovate to provide the best support to our worldwide partners. I’ll be moving to Toronto, Canada this summer and we’ll have to work out some details regarding that change. I’ll keep you posted as we settle into these new situations.

Sharing the Gift

The motivation for the silent auction part of this celebration came after Boyd and I met with the Small Business Fund Coordinators in Kenya last summer. We were showered with beautiful gifts from our SIA partners and rather than keep them all for ourselves (as tempting as that was!) we recognized the chance to share the gift! Each of these items are an opportunity to take a bit of SIA home with you and also support more SIA craft businesses. Click here to see the full list of auction items. Here is a taste of our unique auction offerings (click on image for larger copy):

Handmade briefcase by SIA partners in DR Congo. Wonderful leather work. Boyd has his eye on this one!

Clay pot made by SIA Small Business craftspeople in Uganda. Safely brought back in our suitcases.

Decorative carved wood from SIA craftspeople in Malawi.

Necklace with wooden animal beads made by orphans at Samuel Teimuge's school in Kenya.

Leather patchwork purse from SIA partners in DR Congo. Distinctive and beautiful.

P.S. I hope that you will be able to join us in the celebration! You can RSVP to me at admin@godsspiritinaction.org, or 831-227-1169. If you can’t be there and you want to put an initial bid on any of the items, email me and I’ll put your name on the list!

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Are people in Africa happy? Are people in the North America happy? Of course, the answer in both cases is: some people are; and some people aren’t. Whatever our situation, how we act and think can increase our happiness.

Recently, a good friend of mine sent me a blog post entitled, “12 Things Happy People Do Differently.” Always on the lookout for inspiration to send to SIA partners at home and abroad, I printed out several copies and sent one of them to Canaan Gondwe, our fantastic Small Business Fund (SBF) Coordinator in Malawi. This sparked a great conversation between us, each sharing how we act to incorporate these “happy habits.”

Below is an except of Canaan’s response to five of the attributes.

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Happy people! Ofonime Nkoko (SBF Coordinator, Nigeria) and Canaan Gondwe in Kenya.

Tanya, thank you very much for sharing this article with me. This will help me and the management and the whole MAVISALO to reflect on our conduct, character, and to move to things that happy people do in life. Sometimes we fail to increase our levels of happiness because we are harboring wrong views and attributes of ourselves.

1. Express gratitude

My college lecture once said and I quote “don’t despise your small beginnings but in them thank God in order to excel.” We usually tend to look down on our current state and think nothing is being done. As we do that, we lose a sense of gratitude and happiness.

2. Avoid over-thinking and social comparison

Very strong statement and advice. When one over-thinks and lives a life of social comparison, it has a negative impact in the way you look at things and this also cultivates poor social relations. When you embrace such values in life, you lose a sense of happiness. You easily burn out and lose balance. But it is good to have mentors in life. Make connections with people who have succeeded and employ good ideas from them and move. One mentor of mine said “walk your pace and vision, walk your talk and walk your level.” I saw this as avoiding social comparisons.

3. Practice acts of kindness

Kindness is one the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). This is God’s own fruit in us as human beings. God’s kindness is shown in giving and helping the helpless human beings. I see this being emulated in SIA in rolling out SBF to our communities. Is this not God’s own kindness? Is this not kindness in its fullest form? Are the sponsors and board members of SIA not celebrating in a sense, for bailing out one person from poverty, elsewhere in Africa? If Canaan can spend hours helping a less privileged person in this rural community, is this not an act of kindness? Very important attribute indeed.

Tanya and Canaan in the MAVISALO poultry house.

4. Nurture social relationships

One person said, “a problem shared is half solved.” Man is a social being from creation. We need to be connected to other people and this brings balance as we share views, successes and challenges. We are molded holistically as one said and I quote, “there is beauty in diversity.” In nurturing social relationships, we are able to understand our people better. This is very true in even in providing the leadership to our organization. As leaders we need to come down and listen to the people we lead. I have personally succeeded as a coordinator by nurturing relationships. I respect each and every person and relate deeply with them because they are God’s own creation.

5. Learn to forgive

Keeping hatred makes one feel low. Hatred spoils facial expressions. Truly, when you harbor hatred, you walk a sick person. We need to forgive those who wrong us. God forgave us and this is wanted even for us. Forgiveness brings healing to the forgiver and the one forgiven. We enter a new life indeed if this is done.

Tanya, I once more thank you for the 12 tips. I will share this with my friends. Send us more of these when you bump on them. They are fruitful indeed.

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Alan woke up one morning last July filled with gratitude. He was up early that market day to set up his bicycle repair business in the village center. He turned some bikes on their handlebars to replace missing peddles with pieces of wood. To other bikes he would affix new handles or fancy seats to the back for bike-taxi passengers. That morning, when Boyd and I met Alan in Manyamula village in Malawi, Alan thanked God for getting him through the night so that he could meet us and thank us.

Tanya, Alan, and Boyd at the Manyamula Market

He was thoughtful as he told us his story of receiving a Spirit in Action Small Business Fund grant and starting his repair business. He paused often to make sure we understood the impact that this had on his life: his son now attends high school; his wife started her own small grocery kiosk. And so he thanked us that day as representatives of Spirit in Action.

It was a short encounter and it left a strong impression on me. Maybe it was because he was the first shop we visited that day, but I think there was also something about his kindness and openness that impressed me.

That was not the last time we saw Alan during our short visit to Manyamula nor was it the last time we saw his kindness. The next day, we met up with him in one of the village churches. Alan’s short testimony told of how the church brought him out of the dark pit of alcoholism onto a road of light and faith. Then he showed his gratitude by giving his pledged tithe of maize to the church to be used to help others less fortunate than himself.

After church, Alan hung around outside, waiting while people took pictures with us. As the group thinned, he shyly approached us with a gift – a wooden spoon used for serving the local staple food, nsima. For a third time, his kindness was an unexpected blessing.

Alan’s gifts and kindness perfectly embody the sentiment of Sharing the Gift – realizing that we have received kindness and acting to share that kindness with others. As the quote by Bob Kerrey reminds us, kindness that comes at an unexpected time is the “most underrated agent of human change.” I have no doubt that we saw just a small sample of Alan’s kind actions and that even today he is helping more people know hope, joy, and gratitude.

How has a recent act of kindness changed you? What kindness will you share with others today?

More photos! Click here to see more photos of Alan and the other people we met that day in the Manyamula village.

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