I originally wrote this note from Tanzania to the many remarkable volunteers
who are pouring their hearts into creating TweetsGiving.
Then I realized, this is what TweetsGiving is all about…

Sometimes, in the trenches, it may seem like this work is about PowerPoint presentations and pitches, graphics and code, social media and strategy.

In some ways, surely it is.  But yesterday, as I sat across the table from Mama Lucy sharing her vast vision for this place, as I played with children who I know in the deepest parts of myself will have better lives because of her work here, I was reminded that it’s about so much more:  this is about gratitude.

There are people across the globe, like Mama Lucy, who hold onto hope.  Who teach us how to hope. Who give us reason to hope.

Today, for them, and especially for her, I am grateful.  And it is this gratitude from which Epic Change and TweetsGiving were born.

Most of you, by now, know this about me:

When my brother Josh died,
he almost took my mom with him.
He left me only with his baby girl
and the knowledge that, when he probably needed me most, I hadn’t called back.

The reassuring voice inside me that had always, even in the darkest hours, whispered:
“it’s going to be okay”
fell silent,
dispelled by a fear I’ve never known that it just might not be.

Two years later, I found that voice again here.
In Africa.
In Mama Lucy.
In the audacious hope of a woman who believed money from selling chickens would be enough to build a school and transform her community.

There is no greater gratitude
Than that for hope restored
when you’ve all but given up.

My work here is no matter of owing or debt; it could never be repayment or reciprocity.

Instead it is my humble beginner’s practice of the lesson she’s taught:
that hope is ours to create, that it never dies as long as we just hold onto it.
that hope is not idle faith, but hard work.

It is saving for months to scrape shillings together to buy a tiny piece of land.  It is taking hours to send a single email if that’s what it takes. It is learning how to use a computer for the first time in a language that’s not your own.  It is negotiating with neighbors who demand dollars from an unknown source to borrow power lines.  It is busing students to town to stand in line all day to vote on the internet, believing their tiny voices can make the difference.   It is trying to understand wireless connectivity when it makes no sense at all.  It is finding a way to keep going when the landlord sells your school.

It is building classrooms from hen houses.

Hope is not easy to create.

Hope is PowerPoint presentations and pitches, graphics and code.  It is social media and strategy.

Hope is hard work.

Hope is holding on fast when the whole wide world and every fibre of your weary being says to give up.

I’m not sure how in this whole, vast, beautiful universe, I found a hope like hers.

But I did.  And I only wish she could know how grateful I am.

In thankfulness for those people create hope in your life, and all the unbelievable beauty this universe holds, I truly hope you’ll celebrate TweetsGiving with us:

• Attend or Plan an event in your city.
• Help us spread gratitude across the web.
• Host a gratitude house party for people you love.

The photo above was taken by my friend Jen Lemen (thanks Jen!).