Hi all,
--
I just got in last evening from Haiti where I accompanied the Miss World Team out to Pestel, Haiti. We were busy! We covered a lot of territory in a very short period of time...saw a lot...heard a lot. The team consisted of
Julia Morley--CEO and President of Miss World. Julia has decades of experience traveling to impoverished countries, and I was so impressed with her very broad knowledge and expertise. Beyond that, though, I cannot tell you enough about her heart of compassion for children in need. I had the pleasure of listening to her stories, learning from her experiences, and really getting to understand how she approaches some big issues like the ones we face in Pestel. I am thrilled and honored that she brought her team to Pestel, and I know that she and I both expect some really fantastic things to come out of this trip on behalf of the people of Pestel!
Steve Morley--Steve is Julia's son. He's an incredibly capable, smart guy who can multi-task. Quite literally, while we were walking through a village or visiting with people, Steve was able to tune-in to the conversations while sending reports to the website simultaneously. You'll see his handiwork on the MissWorld.com website news items. He has a marvelous and powerful writing style that captures succinctly the messages from this trip. He also directed the video content, and I can't wait to see the final product!
Wenxia Yu is the current Miss World. Wenxia is from China and just came off of a 19 country tour in the past five weeks, I believe, with Miss World. You can read more about her on the Miss World website. She sang a song in Chinese to the children in the village of Ferrier, and when she began to sing my jaw dropped. She has an amazing operatic voice!
Francisco Escobar is the current Mr World (mrworld.tv) and he is from Colombia. He posted several updates to his website that you can read here: http://www.mrworld.tv/newslist.html#.UURnGdasiSo Francisco does magic tricks and he really dazzled the kids with them!
Claudine Book is Miss World United States. She has a vibrant spirit and a great love for children. She loved to interact with them and dance with them. You can see some fun photos of her letting the kids braid her hair on the Miss World website!
Jack Cannons is the COO of Variety International and he is also a big advocate for the work in Haiti. He expressed to me that he is very pleased with how the funds from Variety International have been used to achieve some really important ends already, and he's eager to support more of the work.
The behind-the-scenes guys include two really neat people named Dave and Grant . I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and working with them. They did the audio-visual components of the trip. You will eventually see some of their finished videos once they are produced.
Finally, for all those who were praying for the trip: know that God has answered your prayers. We experienced a safe, productive trip. There were no major glitches, no illnesses or injuries. Even more, every person on the trip was deeply affected.
Ben
President, Thriving Villages International
Thriving Villages website: www.thrivingvillages.org
Thriving Villages blog: http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThrivingVillages
I do not doubt that the modern Western church badly needs a lot of things, one of them being more confidence that God is working powerfully among us and wants us to do more than we have been willing to do in his service. John G. Stackhouse
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