Merry Christmas And Happy New Year

“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”~Luke 2:19

Well, 2017 is nearly over, and it has been quite a whirlwind. Every year, I strive to write some kind of retrospective on the year. Sometimes it makes an appearance in a Christmas letter, and other times it ends up being a blog post (which have declined in frequency in general in 2017—sorry!) to be shared online.

Where to begin? We have been witness to incredible blessings in 2017. God gave us the incredible joy of watching our daughter grow and explore this beautiful world. Sylvia’s birth and growth have definitely shifted our daily rhythms. We explore more, and we try to savor the little things a bit more than we probably have in the past. It has been amazing to see this little girl grow and learn and gaze upon the world with wide-eyed wonder, and fill her little heart with love, goodness, and discovery. She really brings out the best in everyone she comes in contact with, and that is a beautiful gift.

We were on the move a lot this year as well. Sylvia now has 26 states under her belt, she has explored five national parks, and has been on 30 flights. She (and we) have been diligent to be outside together for an average of an hour a day, and we go on almost daily walks together. There’s a 3.3 mile loop near our house that has become our walking/running circuit when we are home, so I guess we are always ready for a 5K walk/run. ;) I also worked to be more disciplined about taking vacation this year (I’m terrible at it but improving), and we were able to see some amazing sights during our travels; including sunrise in Glacier National Park. Sylvia also dipped her feet in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during her first year of life too! One of my biggest joys with Sylvia this year had to be walking into our garden together, picking tomatoes off the vine, and sitting in our yard and eating them. Often the most joyful moments are the simple ones.

I finished a one year program for nonprofit leaders at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in May, and was invited back to campus this past fall to contribute to the learning of the incoming class.  I also accepted an invitation to become a member of Forbes Coaches Council and have contributed to a handful of articles online. In addition, we are continuing to expand our impact at Nuru. It’s hard to believe it has been 10 years since Jake and I first met up to discuss his idea for addressing extreme poverty in some of the toughest places on earth, and, thanks to your support, Nuru is now in three countries and has gone from an idea to an organization benefitting more than 120,000 people.

Jamie started back to work at Healthworks in February after her maternity leave. She’s an incredibly gifted and compassionate aquatic rehabilitation therapist, and it is a delight to see her serve so many and help people improve their wellbeing as she works with them in the pool. She has continued serving as a Congressional District Leader for the ONE Campaign (Bono’s poverty fighting advocacy organization) and during the ONE Summit this February worlds collided as she introduced the keynote for the event, Jake Harriman, CEO and Founder of Nuru International! When she’s not fighting poverty or improving lives at Healthworks, she’s caring so sweetly for our little girl!

Our hearts have been so full this year. My mind is flooded with details around memories throughout the year that I just can’t fit into a short letter. There has been so much goodness we have been able to savor, so much to be grateful to God for. Our friendship with you sits at the top of that list. We have been so privileged to have wonderful people like you in our life; praying for us, encouraging us, laughing with us, and shaping new memories with us.

My prayer is that 2018 will find each of us celebrating the little blessings that make appearances in our lives each day, and that we will grow in our gratitude, our generosity, and our care for one another. May we each do our part to love well in a world that could use more love, more grace, and more peace. And, like Mary in the Gospels, may each of us treasure up the stories and memories we are sharing and creating, pondering them in our hearts.

Merry Christmas and have a happy new year!

Generous $15,000 #GivingTuesday Match For Nuru International

It's been a while since I posted on this blog, but today is just too important to not post. A generous West Virginian has committed $15,000 to match every donation that Nuru International receives today in honor of #GivingTuesday.

Over the last nine years, our entire team at Nuru has been hard at work developing leaders who have the passion, the drive, and the commitment to making extreme poverty history in their homes and their communities. One of those leaders is the gentleman next to Jake in the photo above, Josephat Marawa. Josephat was one of the first farmers Jake met when we launched Nuru in Kenya in 2008. Josephat was struggling to grow enough food to help his family address hunger and just like any parent, he was longing for his children to have a better future.



I can remember multiple occasions where I had the privilege of being with Josephat in the field and meeting with other farmer households. He is an incredibly soft-spoken and thoughtful individual, and in the years since he first started farming with Nuru, he has grown in both his ability to provide for his family and his ability to serve his community. He is now a field manager for Nuru Kenya's Agriculture Program, and is helping about 500 farmers to improve their livelihoods and to chart a better future for their families.


Josephat is one of many leaders that Nuru International has poured into. And you might wonder, why invest in developing leaders? Why not just provide something to meet immediate needs? Well, the answer is simple. As a result of investing in leaders like Josephat, Nuru's Western staff were able to leave Kenya in 2015 and watch from afar as local staff continued to adapt and expand programs to serve their communities. They are helping other leaders grow and expand their reach, and the impact will continue for many years to come!



And it's not just happening in Kenya. In Ethiopia, there are leaders like Tekalign Teferi and Temesgen Berihun, who are training up Nuru Ethiopia staff on the importance of servant leadership, of putting others first, and of helping to build the capacity of those around you. And in the near future, Western staff will be leaving Ethiopia and watching locals continue to serve new communities. And they will do it even better!

And today, you have an opportunity to invest in these leaders with double the impact. As I mentioned before, a generous West Virginian has committed to match every donation received today, up to $15,000. That means if you give $250, it becomes $500. If you give $50 it becomes $100. If you give $500, it becomes $1,000. None of this work would be possible if it weren't for the generosity of friends like you. Will you give toward maximizing this match and helping Nuru serve even more communities in the future? Thanks for all you have done and continue to do to help more and more families lift themselves out of extreme poverty for good!

Cultivate Hope With Nuru International On #GivingTuesday

This year Nuru is working to raise $300,000 to expand its efforts to 1,500 new households in the southern highlands of Ethiopia. And today, on #GivingTuesday, a generous donor from West Virginia has stepped forward to match every donation received up to $15,000 today. Will you make a donation to help maximize this match and help Nuru serve even more families in 2017? Every bit helps!

Since the summer of 2007, I have had the incredible honor of working together with a few of my friends from my undergraduate days, namely John Hancox, Jake Harriman, Andy Cogar, and Trey Dunham to make our own unique contributions to a massive global problem. The problem is global extreme poverty. And, while the problem by itself is huge, the very fact of its existence leads to the proliferation and thriving of an array of other problems including global instability, violent extremism, child soldiers, slavery, and human trafficking just to name a few. 

Back in 2007, we had no idea what might be in store in the years ahead, but we had a plan, a ton of passion, and a number of really smart and committed leaders contributing their skills to building an organization that could make a tangible impact in the lives of others. As we launched Nuru International in September 2008, a number of our friends had thrown their lot in with us and committed time and money to helping spread the word about the issue, and Nuru's unique contribution to the problem. In a matter of months, Nuru had grown from an idea to an actual organization that was serving approximately 2,500 people in southwestern Kenya. 

And as of this year, that number has grown to more than 100,000 people. That's more than 100,000 lives changed for the better because people like me and you stepped into the arena and chose to do something rather than stand by idly as our global neighbors suffered. And we are just getting started. In 2015, our western staff left Kenya for good, and local leaders are continuing to adapt and improve their efforts to address extreme poverty in their country. They are cultivating hope in areas of the world that are all too often forgotten by most.

Earlier this year, I had the honor of traveling with Jamie to visit our second country project in Ethiopia. The area where Nuru works is high up in the mountains of southern Ethiopia, and it is about a 2.5 hour drive from the nearest city to the area. Together, Jamie and I listened to stories from farmers and their families about the transformation that had taken place for them since Nuru's arrival. They talked about increases in crop yields and being able to feed their families. They talked about improving their savings and their health, and they talked about things I didn't think about with regard to programs. They talked about how their marriages were healthier because they were not frustrated by conversations about money or frequent discussions about children being sick. Their marriages were healthier because they were developing skills to improve their livelihoods. There are so many aspects of our lives and our relationships that improve when people have the ability to make meaningful choices for their future! As we walked along and talked with these families, we also witnessed how Nuru had equipped these families to be able to cope with one of the worst droughts in Ethiopia to occur in many years.

Farming is risky business, and farmers are inherently risk takers; it’s always been that way. All over the world, our food supply relies on farmers taking risks. All over the world, parents want a better life for their children than the one they had. Amarech Sama was among the first individuals to enroll in Nuru's programs in Meteka Mele Ethiopia in 2014. Her community was deeply affected by the drought, but because of Nuru, she and her family are thriving. In fact, Amarech just gave birth to a baby boy, and has not only improved her own financial literacy, but she is participating in programs to learn to better care for her newborn in Nuru's healthcare training programs (and teaching others) ways to better care for their infants as well! Please watch and share this video to learn more about Amarech and the work of Nuru in Kenya and Ethiopia as well.

This holiday season, you can help change the lives of thousands of our global neighbors, and cultivate hope in the southern mountains of Ethiopia and beyond. Will you share this post and make a gift to support women like Amarech Sama and move Nuru's mission forward today?

Reflection: Marine Corps Marathon 2016

After two full and amazing days sharing Nuru’s story with folks at the expo, I had the privilege of lining up with about 30,000 other runners from around the world to run my fourth Marine Corps Marathon.

This time was really different for me. I had not trained as diligently as I had in previous years, and I had a couple of injuries during the summer. Not only that, but this was the first time I ran the Marine Corps Marathon without Jamie there with me. She was of course busy caring for Sylvia, so I thought this year I would be running for all three of us. This was my first Marine Corps Marathon as a father too.

Thankfully I was at least able to start the race with my good friend JR Pittman. He decided to run for Nuru with me this year, and we had a great run during the first half of the race, and then my lack of training at longer distances began to catch up with me. I made it about eighteen miles before I started cramping up, and I think that was about the same time the sun came out, and the temperature began to shoot upward a little more quickly. Even with the heat, the fatigue, and the cramping, I am so glad I persevered through it.

When I think about all of the runners who have joined me in running to help Nuru fight extreme poverty, I get a little emotional. Thirty thousand people run this race each year, and I’ve been so grateful that slightly under 100 of them have run with Team Nuru. And, I think about all that each one of us gets out of the deal. Not only are we helping others half way around the world, but we are also making ourselves better in the process.

A lesson I learned from my first Marine Corps Marathon in 2013 was that the training and the race provide a great tool for exercising self-discipline, long-term planning, and working toward a larger goal. I’ve been able to translate those same attributes into many other areas of my life, and I can’t help but think that they will help me be a better father and a better husband too.

When I crossed the finish line, I took a few seconds to express my gratitude for finishing the race. I also took a few seconds to pose for a starjump in honor of Jamie since she wasn’t there with me this year.

As the miles began to add up, I remember two distinct voices in the crowd (other than the ones offering hot dogs, beverages, and gummy bears). There was a little girl around mile 17 and a little boy around mile 22. They were probably each around six years of age. The little girl yelled out as I went by, “Keep going, you can do it!” and the little boy yelled, “Don’t ever give up, keep going!” And for some reason, amid all of the various cheers and shouts, the words of these two children yelling with all they could muster made their way into my heart, and my eyes teared a little. Their words of encouragement are what we all need to remember, no matter what the challenge is we are going through.

There is at least One Voice out there that believes the absolute best for each of us, and if we are attentive we can single it out above all of the noise. And, as we apply discipline to our lives and accomplish challenging goals, we become more and more attuned to that voice. May we each keep running and keep our ears tuned in for that Voice.

Our First Road Trip With Sylvia

After an incredibly action-packed first few days, Jamie, Sylvia, and myself loaded up into the Nuru van for our first road trip! As a result of the generous support of a Nuru donor, we were headed to Washington DC to set up a booth for the 41^st Marine Corps Marathon Expo.

Thanks to some guidance given by one of the nurses at Mon General, we were able to get Sylvia situated pretty quickly in the vehicle. And as we pulled out of the driveway, we quickly made a discovery. It appears Sylvia really enjoys the open road. She rested peacefully as we introduced her to Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. (To be fair, she had been to these places before, but this was her first time outside the womb).

As we pulled into the convention center at National Harbor a light rain that had persisted through the day began to lift. Jamie and Sylvia made their way out for a walk, and I began unloading banners, tshirts, and other cool Nuru International signage so we could make our presence known for the first time at the Expo. This year marked our fourth year having a team run for Nuru, and since Nuru’s CEO was a Force Recon Marine, it only made sense to have representation at the Expo.

The setup went fairly quick and we were able to get settled in with some good friends in the area, and we had an incredible team of volunteers join us at the booth including current USNA MIDN, and one of Jake’s old roommates from USNA as well as folks who have been part of Nuru from our earliest efforts!

Sylvia and Jamie came down to do some quality inspection of the booth, and after their approval, I knew we were prepared for the opening of the expo. It is incredible that we get to do so much of this stuff together, and I’m in awe of this young lady’s ability to travel so quickly.