Secure Enough to Serve

Pretoria, South Africa, Jan. 6, 2004

Dear Readers and Friends, belated Happy Holidays.

SECURE ENOUGH TO SERVE.

I borrowed this phrase from the Reverend James Forbes of the Riverside Church in NYC. It refers to the inner commitment it requires to truly serve the ideals and people we value. I was reminded again this past holiday season that service takes not only an inner resolve, it also requires that my own house be in order–that I first establish a foundation for my security, a base from which to work more effectively.

This truth recently struck me deeply as I once again faced my own limitations–political, financial, emotional. The fact is, my financial and/or emotional insecurities (are they the same?) have at times made it difficult for me to serve anything to the best of my abilities–my career, my family, or the causes I espouse and claim to support.

I am writing about this now, as we stride into the fourth year of the new century, because I have just completed a month’s work “in the field” traveling across South Africa, Zambia, and Swaziland, working to support members of an international organization coping with the HIV/AIDS pandemic here.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Mark Bryan & Company and The Artist's Way at Work
Become a certified Facilitator of The Artist's Way at Work.
February 2-9, 2004 - Seats are limited.
For details visit: The Artist's Way at Work web site
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My days have been spent listening and counseling those most affected and visiting the orphan homes, the hospitals, the hospices, the morgues. I spent time with the dying, saw corpses stacked 3 high for 50 yards (the infants on top) and watched hundreds of orphaned, hungry children, many of them living in households headed by 10 year old siblings, wait for their one meal of the day. Death is now so common that the last act of many a young mother is supervising her children as they dig her grave.

The scope of the problem is hard to grasp until you are up close. We have all heard the numbers–42 million people living with the HIV/AIDS virus, 5 million new infections a year, 3.1 million deaths–70% of both deaths and new infections occurring in southern Africa. Yet only 1% of those who need them get access to medications. One reason for so many deaths in Africa is that there are now 13 genetic strains of HIV, lettered A through M. Type C, the one most often found in Africa, is the most aggressive. Other reasons for high death tolls here are additional weaknesses caused by malnutrition, ignorance, lack of proper heath care or medicine, and overall poverty.

Of course HIV/AIDS is only a part of the struggle of the poor around the world. There are 1 million deaths due to malaria–500 million people get infected every year. Another 800,000 deaths are due to measles and 2 million die annually of tuberculosis. No one even knows for sure how many die of malnutrition or water borne diseases. And 256 million children under the age of 13 work in slave labor. Yet, even under these conditions, HIV/AIDS continues to pose one of the greatest threats humankind has ever faced. In the tiny kingdom of Swaziland, for instance, over 30% of their 1 million citizens are living with the HIV virus and there are already 50,000 orphans, most of them hungry, not to mention out of school.

Yet no amount of statistics can tell the same story as standing beside a mound of fresh corpses, many of whom are obviously teenagers, the pile topped by the cherubic round-faced seemingly sleeping infant, wearing a simple blue knit cap in which someone will bury him.

Am I feeling a good dose of survival guilt after my time among the poor, the hungry and the dying? You bet. Am I angry that the United States was nowhere to be found in all of Southern Africa (the EU is there, the UN is there) except for one small office building provided by the Department of Defense? You bet your ass I am. Am I feeling pessimistic? Emphatically, NO. If fact, I came away determined. I also had my faith in the spirit of humanity renewed.

I saw hungry orphans laugh and many of the dying manage to smile. I watched children without enough for themselves share with each other and wait patiently in line for their bit of warm milk. I met selfless health care and charity workers putting in long hours and returning home to help raise 10 or 12 children left homeless by dead relatives or friends. I listened as radiant Irish nuns cheerily found hope in the minutest sign of life and shared their kindness with the dying.

Yes, the human spirit is alive and kicking. I am grateful I got to witness life so profoundly primal and real. It is possible that my life will be defined by "before" and "after Africa." But the most important thing I want to remember, something our various faiths try to teach us, is not so much that the world can be changed–but that the world is worth changing.

So, I am making a commitment to you and to myself–to work more diligently and humbly to become secure enough to have more to give others. Secure enough financially to better help my fellows, be they family, friends, or strangers. Secure enough emotionally to consistently show up for life even when the going gets tough, and secure enough to tell the truth about what I see. Perhaps this is what Reverend Forbes meant–that becoming secure enough to serve is God’s strategy for giving our lives meaning making us secure in an even deeper way– secure on the inside, in our hearts, in a place where no one can ever take it away.

Are you secure enough to serve? –one orphan fed, one sick person visited, one phone call to a loved one who needs us to simply listen. Lets work on this together in 2004.

Thanks for reading this. I hope your holiday season was wonderful and full of love and laughter and that you have found many reasons to feel grateful, happy and secure.

Warmest wishes and regards,

Mark Bryan

P.S. Should any of you know foundations or charities looking to help, or wish to make contributions yourselves of either money or clothing, to the crisis in southern Africa, particularly to the orphans and vulnerable children of South Africa, Zambia or Swaziland, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will put you in touch with the appropriate people – the ones who are, right now, serving food to the hungry and giving comfort to the sick.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Mark Bryan & Company and The Artist's Way at Work
Become a certified Facilitator of The Artist's Way at Work.
February 2-9, 2004 - Seats are limited.
For details visit: The Artist's Way at Work web site

Need the power of The Artist's Way at Work in your company?
Mark Bryan is available for private coaching and consulting.

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AW@W Certification Training in February • Greetings from Mark Bryan and Co.

I am pleased to announce that Mark has been able to carve out class dates for another Artist's Way at Work facilitator certification training session. The class will be held in Santa Monica, CA (LAX Airport) Tuesday, February 3 through Saturday, February 9, 2003.  We will also be having an evening orientation on Monday night, February 2nd to kick off the week of training.  The training will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel on Ocean Blvd.  More logistical information will be provided after registration.

The training/certification fee is $5,000 + your travel expenses.  This fee includes all of your materials for facilitating.  Participant materials will be required for organizations running this program -- they may be acquired through our office.  A 50% deposit is required to hold your spot in the class [$2500].  Please respond back to me as soon as possible if you would like to participate.  Mark intentionally keeps these classes small.  In addition to the benefit of being a licensed AWAW facilitator–trained by the author/founder–Mark Bryan and will provide you with marketing exposure [your name, photo, region, and contact information] on his AWAW web site.

We hope you will be able to take advantage of these dates.  We have had numerous requests to conduct this training in other regions and countries, however at this time we do not plan to conduct this training in any other location. 

You may get more information on the training at our web site www.markbryan.com.  Please let me know if you have any more questions. Thank you and hope to see you in February.

Mark Griffith
for Mark Bryan & Company