19 Jul A $25,000 Airplane Ride That Adopted A Village

In January, 2012, my friend Chunyi Lin invited me to speak at his Spring Forest Qigong World Conference in Minneapolis the last week of June. He heard me present about my foundation at the Transformational Leadership Council (an organization founded by Jack Canfield of which we are both members) and cares very much about educating children in developing nations. When he heard he could adopt an entire village for only $25,000, he knew this was a project his entire community would be inspired by and want to support.

On my flight to Minneapolis, I sat next to a man who was an attorney. We began talking and he asked me what I did for a living and as usual, I shared with him my vision to see every child get an education. We talked at length about our approach to sustainable education which is the Adopt a Village model.  This model provides not only access to an education, but access to clean water, health care, and training for the parents to learn how to generate an income so that the entire project is self-sustaining.

I had my computer with me and showed him pictures of my trips to Africa and the extraordinary communities and children that we were partnering with.  He asked me where I was going in Minneapolis and I told him I was on my way to speak at the Spring Forest Qigong conference where they wanted to adopt an entire village.  He asked “How much does it cost to adopt a village?” I said, $25,000.”  And he said, “I want to adopt a village!”

Right there, on the spot he wrote my foundation a check for $25,000 and said he wanted to use it as a matching fund, issuing a challenge to the audience that he would match their donation, dollar for dollar, up to the entire $25,000 to raise even more money.

Over the course of the weekend that $25,000 turned into over $50,000. We raised a total of $31,233 throughout the weekend and were able to adopt not just one but two villages in one single weekend!

What is so amazing for me about this story is that you never know who is going to come your way and partner with you on your mission.  When I boarded that plane, I had no idea that I would be seated next to the “perfect” person who would be inspired by my vision and want to be a part of it.  And what was even more extraordinary was that he used his contribution to inspire others to give more, making every dollar they contributed turn into two dollars.

This is such a reminder of how important it is to always let your light and passion shine for what you’re called to do.  When you are committed to a mission and a purpose, you never know where the resources are going to come from to make it a reality.

Have you ever experienced support for your calling that appeared to be “out of the blue”?

With love and appreciation,

Cynthia Kersey

Bestselling author, “Unstoppable”
www.unstoppable.net
Chief Humanitarian Officer
Unstoppable Foundation
www.UnstoppableFoundation.org