“To the world, you may be just one person; but to just one person you may be the world”
Don’t you think it will be a good idea if we can pull funds together and make a real difference in the lives of people who N50,000 to N100,000 will be a big miracle for? Don’t you think it will be a good idea to shock a not so privileged student, artisan, farmer e.t.c. with a life changing gift of a few thousands? It’s a God given idea, and some of my close friends have already volunteered to join me in fully funding the first few, before my online friends catch on.
“He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed.” -Prov 19:17
I remember back in the days in University, when for a stretch of many months, myself and a few friends gathered together at the dot of midnight. Wherever we were, we all headed for the same place by quarter to 12. We would spend 15-20mins, and that will be the end of our meeting. It wasn’t a cult :), it was a meeting birthed by understanding. We came together to create our futures with our words. We were 7 when we started, we had a golden rule not to invite anyone, but not to refuse anyone. By the time we had gone for 2months, we were over 200. Don’t ask me how, that is the topic for another day. What reminds me of this time, is one of the issues we loved to declare about -wealth -“I am rich!”, “I can’t be poor!”,”I can’t be small”, “God gives me power to get wealth”, e.t.c. We all desired to be rich, we all proclaimed it. I have since wondered why the distribution of wealth is not uniform. Why does less than 20% of the earth own more than 80% of it’s resources. I asked deep questions, I read many books, listened to many speakers and finally got an answer I was comfortable with.
The Almighty bequits wealth to those he can entrust with it. To those who he knows can take care of the others. Those he knows will allow the money to flow. Money is called currency, because it’s supposed to flow like a current, the purpose of money was never for accumulation. It is not coincidence that the richest men in the world are also the most philantropic. The man with clenched fists gives none and gets none. The art of giving puts the hand in the right position to receive. It’s so hard to compress these thoughts into one post, I’ll review this again later. These are just fundamental principles to help support what I have in mind to make a regular feature on this forum. Together can pull funds together, and make a world of difference in people’s lives. We’ll call it Extreme Makeover – Mini Edition. We’ll start with doing it monthly, then we’ll do it weekly…and then perhaps more. When we take care of the poor, we do the lords work, I like the way John F Kennedy puts it,
“Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on Earth God’s work must truly be our own.”-JFK
Find below, the modus operandi for Extreme Makeover – Mini Edition, your role, my role and our roles.
Modus Operandi
At the beginning of everymonth, we’ll be expected to be more vigilant of the people around us. We will to nominate people that this little gift will radically transform. In our nominations, the key thoughts are – “Does this person have something doing already that this amount will very useful for?”, “Is there a skill without an avenue to express it?”, “Will we be able to measure progress?”, “Does this person deserve this big break, does he have a generous disposition with the little he/she has?”
When we have collated all this “reason backed nominations”, we will also together go through all of them, and nominate a few to be further interviewed, this way, we can come up with the person to makeover for the month.
Once we agree on the amount + or – this range that is suitable for the nominated recipient, we then go ahead to pull the funds together, and present it to the recipient. My expectation is that somewhere down the line, as we all grow, we will increase the figures, and the quality of our interventions.
Together with my team, we will make sure that we keep you up to date on the progress that this people have made based on our little token invested in their lives. I have no doubts that we will be raising much more than we need per time. We will put the left over from each makeover into an “Angel Account”, every month as well, we will be having a feature where we’ll get someone to go to a few hospitals, to bail someone out whom this token sum means the key out of the grips of death. Think about it, people die in this country in our hospitals because someone cannot afford N20,000. We will find people like this, and keep you in touch with what your money is doing.
As I write this, I feel tears welling up into my eyes. I believe the best use of creativity is to provide solutions for the benefit of another. I believe the best life, is that lived in the service of others. I’m so willing to do this all on my own, but I know I can’t be alone in this.
With this post, I hereby officially launch, Extreme Makeover-Mini Edition, and our very own Angel Network. I don’t believe we need to be big before doing big things. I believe that little drops of water, make the mighty ocean. I believe that 1+1, can do 10times more than 1. Let me know if you’ll like to be a part of this, I have come to discover that not all good things are for everyone.
“The purpose of making money, is giving it away creatively” – By the actions of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. (2nd and 1st Richest men in the world)
