{God-sized Dreams} Inspiration

The God-sized dream assignment this week: Find a God-sized dream story that inspires you and share it with us. 

As soon as I read that prompt, I thought of my friend Holly, who was in Kenya pursuing stories as I sat at my kitchen table last week. This telling of stories is something she’s been doing, but her dream was sending her to new places to tell stories that haven’t been told.

Holly inspires me with her passion. She works hard in whatever she’s doing and dived right into figuring out how to establish a nonprofit. She doesn’t have all the details figured out, but she trusts the One who does. It’s exciting to watch her put her beliefs into actions.

I introduced you to VoiceBox Media at the beginning of this year and now Holly is back to tell you a little about what she learned during her first trip with the nonprofit news organization she created. She went to gather stories about Kenyan Kids Foundation and came home with those … and more.

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Holley taught one of the Kenyan boys how to use her camera.

“Everything happens for a reason” is one of my life mottos, and nowhere in my life is it more true than when I started living this dream of mine, VoiceBox Media. Rewind about 12 years and I was in Romania for two weeks having my life rearranged and my paradigms shifted. Fast forward to present day, and here I am living that shifted paradigm — a journalist reporting on international humanitarian issues and for my own organization. A friend recently told me: “You’ve found your dream job. You created it.” And she’s right.

I spent six days last week in Kenya, 3 1/2 in the bush, reporting on the work of the Kenyan Kids Foundation. If I didn’t already believe that “everything happens for a reason,” my trip would have proved it to me. Two examples are the connections I made in airplanes and airports.

On my flight from Amsterdam to Ethiopia, a gentleman was sitting in my seat, mistaking my row and seat number for his. I said I would sit in what was his assigned seat, the one in front of him. Because of this, I sat next to Annemieke from Holland, who works with a nonprofit that sponsors sports camps for disabled children in South Africa and Ethiopia. She’s very intrigued by VoiceBox and there’s the possibility of a story there.

On my return flight from Amsterdam to the states, the plane suffered mechanical failures and the flight was cancelled. It was the last flight out that night, so the airline rebooked us for the next morning. When I was standing in the security line the next morning, the man behind me noticed my Kenyan airports sticker on my carry-on bag. He struck up a conversation with me and next thing you know, he’s way excited about VoiceBox and wants to meet when we’re both settled back in our Texas homes.

Both are encounters that should not have happened, but did.

Another example is while I was reporting in Kenya, I thought that my story needed to be flushed out with interviews with a teacher and a school headmaster. About 15 minutes later, a teacher and a school headmaster were in my car driving us to a student in a remote village. While the team talked to the student, guess who I interviewed for my story.

There’s power in being vulnerable enough to put your dream on the line, and to believe (as another friend aptly reminds me) that God is into the details. Plane seats and mechanical failures become instruments to create a chance encounter, and the unspoken desire of this journalist was met in the African landscape.

This is the year to put your dream into motion.

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You can follow VoiceBox Media on Twitter and Facebook. Tuesdays are God-sized Dream days around here and I’m linking this post along with many, many other dreamers on Holley Gerth’s blog. You’ll find encouragement, truth and community there. 

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