By Sandra Millers Younger

You should hear my friend Stephen Kajirwa’s stories. Stories about his work as a United Nations officer in Darfur and Somalia. Stories about the hardships of life in his own home village of Budaywa, Kenya.

It’s so unfair, I thought when I first heard Stephen talk about Africa. Those of us lucky enough to live in the developed world have so much, and they have so little.

“What can we do to help?” I asked him.

And before I knew it, I was building a school in Kenya!

“Thank you for your offer to help us,” Stephen e-mailed me in September 2007, a few weeks after we’d met. “Could you send $3,000? If so, we could build the first classroom of a secondary school in our village.”

What had I gotten myself into? I really did want to help, but I didn’t have $3,000 to spare! I pondered Stephen’s request for the next few months, a difficult time for me personally. Both my father and a dear friend were fighting terminal cancer. In early 2008, I lost them both.

Time to reinvest

Miracles are a funny thing. Sometimes they grow best when watered by tears. Shortly after my father’s death I got a call from a life insurance agent about a “baby policy” my parents had bought for me. (Yes, really.) After 54 years, their thousand-dollar investment had barely doubled in value.

“I think it’s time to reinvest,” I told the insurance rep. “Cash me out.”

Soon after, I learned that my late friend had left me a small bequest. He’d done the same for a mutual co-worker who joined me in contributing our windfall to Budaywa. Suddenly I had a total of $3,300—exactly the amount, given a shift in exchange rates, to fulfill Stephen’s request.

Making history

Stephen e-mailed me as soon as the money arrived in Kenya: “On behalf of the Budaywa community, thank you very much for your generous contribution to promote education in our village. This will be the first foreign support in our village. It is history.”

Over the next few months Stephen sent a series of pictures—trenches, piles of big, orange bricks, and finally an earnest-looking group of students and parents posing in front of a simple brick building, the first classroom of Budaywa Secondary School.

“To be honest, your efforts have started changing the image of Budaywa village,” Stephen wrote. “People are surprised how I got such kind friends to think of a village that was forgotten.”

As I shared the story of this simple African school, funded literally with pennies from heaven, family and friends caught the excitement and added to our efforts. Soon we had enough to finish the interior of the first classroom and begin a second one.

Then the Kenyan government noticed Budaywa’s success in attracting outside funds and stepped up with allocations to construct latrines and complete the second classroom. And in late 2009, the people of Budaywa held a Harambee, a festival of sharing, which raised enough money to build a third room.

We’re now within $3,000 of completing the fourth and final classroom! Even better, Budaywa Secondary School is already in session with a charter class of 17 students. I can’t wait to see what great things they will achieve.

Sometimes challenges fall into our laps, wrap their arms around us like a toddler and won’t let go until we realize that we’re the ones meant to pick them up and carry them to a place of resolution. We may not even know the way ourselves; we simply have to trust that the path will unfold one joyful step at a time.

What are you being called to build?

Sandra’s Mini Bio:

Sandra Millers Younger is a writer and communications consultant, the owner of Editorial Excellence in San Diego, California, and founder of The Budaywa Partnership.

Links To Sandra:

Websites: editorial-excellence.com; budaywa.org

Facebook: facebook.com/Budaywa

How Sandra Knows Jaki:

How I met Jaki: At “Experts Academy,” a Brendon Burchard conference for authors and speakers in San Francisco, October 2010.

A Message from Jaki

Sandra has shared more than just part of her story, her journey. She has shared a message of how just one simple question can lead to ripples of change that can reach out and touch the lives of so many. That question “What can we do to help?”

Just for one moment imagine if Sandra had not asked that question. Now think of that village, think of the 17 students and their lives, think of the pride in the village and the knock on effect that building the first classroom had. Just imagine … Now think of the joy, the celebration in that village, the lives that are forever changed – and know that it started because of one question followed by actions and belief.

Simple Positive Steps You Can Take Now ~

• Remember ~ “We simply have to trust that the path will unfold one joyful step at a time”
• Make a decision to come back each day to Jaki’s Guest Blogger Month – there are many more amazing blogs to read
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• Pop over to Jaki’s Pay-it-Forward Site ~ If Everyone Cares
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• Have a Great Day :))

In Gratitude

Jaki :)