I’ve been back for a couple of days from my trip to Nicaragua, and I’ve now absorbed enough to be able to share some thoughts, including my biggest takeaway.

First, some background. David (my business partner, great friend and co-founder of DurhamCares) and I had wanted to get away to celebrate his 40th birthday. The original plan was to go see the Tour de France for a few days as we’ve done in the past (we’re both avid cyclists). Lance Armstrong was back and in a 3 day trip we could take in the individual Time Trial in Annecy, which for my money is the prettiest town in Europe, and see the epic stage 2 days later at the top of Mont Ventoux. It sounded cool and we were ready to go. It occurred to us, though, that this might not be the best thing to do. You see for years we’ve been talking at the company about how our personal and company values are: Faith, Family, Work and Fitness (in that order). Shouldn’t we celebrate his birthday in a way that was more in line with that? Don’t get me wrong, quick R&R trips to go skiing and/or cycling are great and we’ll do more of them, but this occasion was really special and we wanted to memorialize it in a way that was something that we’d never forget. So, we decided on a 4 day trip to Nicaragua with our sons (Daniel age 9, and Benjamin age 7). We also asked along our great friend Scott Toal, who went to ORU with David and the Chairman of the Mailbox Club and his son Seamus (age 8).

Our trip was AWESOME! The first two days were in Managua principally to visit ministries and a Micro Finance Institution. The next two days were in San Juan del Sur down on the coast for fishing and surfing. Pictures from the trip and captions describing what we did are at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=136611&id=573895140

I won’t tell you all of the details of the trip as there is much that we’ve put in the captions on fbook, but I do want to share some highlights:

1. Visiting the Lirio de Las Valles, a church that sits 200 passionate believers that couldn’t have cost more than $1,000 to build. As I tweeted from the visit, “now this is a capital campaign that I can support.”
2. Normally quiet and reserved Benjamin standing up in front of the crowd sharing his love of the Lord…it blew me away that he said one word, let alone what amounted to a full blown testimonial. All things are possible with the Holy Spirit!
3. Seeing lacrosse and hope in the slums of La Chureca, a slum at the Managua city dump. (For an awesome 14 minute video on how it got there, check out the video at: http://lacrossethenations.org/)
4. Touring the dump and the ministries inside it with our new friends Brad Corrigan (of the band Dispatch) and Daniel Bain.
5. Other surfers at the Remonsa beach clapping for Benjamin as he surfed. There IS something soulful about surfing. Btw, check out the movie “Walking on Water” if you haven’t already.
6. The many, many unsolicited hugs that I got from Benjamin. I bet that I’ve gotten 10-15 from him up until the trip. I got more than 20 on it. AWESOME.
7. Great bonding with the other dad-son combinations.
8. Benjamin leading us through a slide show upon our return, getting to the picture of the church with all of the kids in it, and JoeJoe (our 5 year old son) exclaiming, “Wow, that’s a beautiful church!”.....AND IT WAS! Not for the building, but for the balloons hanging from the rafters and the beautiful children inside of it. It was Matthew 18:3 applied better than I’ve ever known.
9. Hundreds of other things that I won’t throw at you now…I’ll just wrap them all into an encouragement for you to do the same. It wasn’t too expensive, about $2,000 for 5 days incl. airfare, and it was wonderful to see other ministries that we might get involved with, and it’s a life experience that we’ll all NEVER forget!

Now, for the application to Durham:

The second part of our trip was to a town on the coast named San Juan del Sur. It has a population of about 3,000 people and is beautifully located along some of the most dramatic coastline I’ve ever seen. But that’s not what impressed us. What impressed us was the incredible sense of community that we felt while we were there. I’ve been to other surf towns in Central America and elsewhere around the world. Unfortunately, they’re typically known for their night clubs, public consumption of alcohol, men trying to sell you pot, and women trying to sell something else. NOT HERE. At night, the entire town came out to walk as families around the town and to visit each other on porch stoops. Children played in the streets without a fear in the world; neither them NOR their parents. The sense of it all was overwhelming. We couldn’t help but feel that this is the way that every town should be…the way that we envision towns long ago were in America before television and the Wii.

Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in Latin America, and yet for my money it is the richest I’ve ever seen. Happiness in San Juan del Sur is not measured by financial success, material belongings or academic credentials (they don’t have any). What they do have is a love for family, a commitment to engagement and relationship and faith. I would go so far as to say that the average person in San Juan del Sur is significantly happier than the average person in Hope Valley, Chancellor’s Ridge, NE Central Durham or any other community here in Durham.

Here’s my hope for Durham: that we put down the computer, the TV and the video games long enough to discover our neighbors, engage with them, learn about them, build relationally with them, and yes to love them. If you want to see what it might look like some day, go check out San Juan del Sur and tell me if you’ve got anything of real substance on them; are they citizens of the 2nd poorest country in the world, or are they actually residents of the richest town in the world? And you can get in some great surfing and fishing while you’re at it.

I've come across an article from the New York Times that I think is of great importance to the world of helping people.   For to truly help lots of people, you need to first HELP lots of people HELP lots of people.

Here's what I mean:  people in Durham will continue to give less than 1% of their income to local charities until they are engaged in real personal stories.  The best way to do this, is of course, to get them engaged with real people.  Ideally this happens during an committed, sustained volunteering relationship.......one in which the volunteer finds that it's been THEIR life that's been transformed by the experience.  That is, of course, what we at DurhamCares are committed to helping people discover with placements with great local and international organizations.  Just short of these real world experiences are the individual stories that can be told via multi-media.

You see, people are moved by stories about other people.....not statistics.   Durham's (and the world's) charities need to fully appreciate and embrace that fact and have it evident in their communication strategy if they want to play the role that they can in dramatically moving the needle (up to 2,3 or even 4%).

I've probably gone on about this already too much, particularly when this author nails it.....please read on, and then help the organizations that you are involved with to apply what is in this article.  Durham and it's donors and donees will both be transformed by it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/opinion/09kristof.html?_r=2

Join us for the next one. http://www.durhamcares.org/index.php/trips

Editor's Note: Thomas (we call him TPayne) wrote it.  Heather posted it.

Greetings fans of DurhamCares!

My name is Thomas Payne and I hail from the great state of Utah in a small ski town called Park City. Where is Park City you may ask? Well, head West and stop when you find a beautiful little valley up in the Rockies with ski slopes streaming along the faces and ridges of the surrounding mountains and hills. Even though I love the mountains, I have spent the past 5 years on the East Coast at school. Most of it was spent in New York and just this last year Maryland.

In high school, I spent part of a summer interning at Bandwidth.com. I learned a great deal working in the customer service department and from the great people who worked around me. My main task was answering phones and helping work with customers to provide a variety of solutions for them. Overall I enjoyed the experience and North Carolina itself.

When it came time for colleges, I ended up applying to the three Military Academies and colleges with the ROTC scholarship. I decided that I wanted to serve my country directly out of college. In the end, I chose to attend the United States Naval Academy.

As of now, I am studying both Political Science and Chinese. I plan to serve in the Marine Corps but don't have to decide for another 2 years. Upon graduation from the Academy I must serve a minimum of 5 years in the Navy or Marine Corps. I have not decided at this point what I want to do with the rest of my life. I hope I will know in time but am not worried about what God has in store for me. After finishing my first year, I can honestly say I am very pleased with how things worked out even though life, plainly put, stunk for a while.

Since becoming part of the Navy, I have learned that I must be flexible. Thus, when my orders changed this summer, I decided to call my uncle, David Morken, to talk about interning at Bandwidth again. I hadn't heard much about DurhamCares yet, but when he mentioned the idea of interning there I became interested. I have wanted to do more work for the community after experiencing the work done every day by volunteers in New York City. And, in short, I love America and want to give back to the people. Thus I decided to give DurhamCares a shot. A few days later, I was greeted by Mr. Kaestner, Heather, Mike, and the other great interns

already at work loving their neighbor and I soon felt at home.

My job at DurhamCares primarily consists of video editing. I compile clips into an editing program and attempt to produce a video that gives others a good idea of what we are about and what we are doing. The program itself is just beginning, and I can't wait to see how it will grow and perhaps even move out West to a small ski town in the mountains - ParkCityCares anyone?

I have come to love the South, Durham, and the great people who I work with and meet every day.

Very Respectfully,

T.M. Payne
MIDN 3/C USN

Thomas between his Uncle Dan and Uncle David

I don't talk about politics very much, and that's probably a good thing.  For one: I'm not as educated as I'd like despite a PoliSci degree, and two: I love all of Durham and every one in it, and I'm not interested in alienating folks even I was informed enough to do so. But, there's one topic that has been on my mind for quite a while and it's probably time to get it off my chest. And of course, I'd love to get other people's take on this as it's possible I'm missing something, either obvious or subtle.

I pay the federal goverment taxes and then someone in Washington determines how to best spend that money with a chunk of it coming back to Durham in the form of federal aid and investment.

Here's my issue: I think that I know how better to spend and invest in Durham than some analyst up in Washington DC, and I think you do too. I think that the excellent charities in Durham are infinitely more effective and efficient than government agencies. Why? Well aside from a general belief that smaller organizations are more nimble and effective with the decision makers much closer to the people that they seek to serve, there's the matter of incentive. The folks that run Durham charities (most of whom receive no federal aid) are paid by incentive and the analysts and career government employees are not. There is no such thing as a Success Grant (http://www.durhamcares.org/index.php/grant/) for career federal employees. Even without the Success Grant initiative there is plenty of incentive as these charities must prove to their donors that they are effective if they want to raise money.

So what would I propose?:
Well say I owed $30,000 in federal tax. I'd like to pay $20,000 to Uncle Sam and then show evidence of $10,000 invested in some of Durham's best charities. For that matter, I'd be fine if I could get out of the final $10,000 if I could show double that amount invested in Durham charities. If someone wasn't sure which charities were best and wanted Uncle Sam to choose then they could pay the whole $30,000. Doesn't that make sense? In effect, it's not too different from the charter school initiative which allows the consumer to vote with the government's money who is best to educate our kids. Can't we do that with who is best to serve the poor, put kids in mentoring relationships, and shelter the homeless?

I believe that we as individuals know better how federal money should be spent in Durham than the government and that this knowledge coupled with inherent efficiencies from decreased overhead will allow for lower taxes and better care. Do you agree?

Editor's Note:  Jonathan wrote it.  Heather posted it.

Hello faithful readers of the blog... or maybe future readers...
My name is Jonathan Clarke, and I was born at Durham Regional Hospital a little over 22 years ago. Although I have traveled all over the US, I still enjoy and find myself drawn back to Durham. I started off my college life at Durham Tech at 16 when I was enrolled in their high school credit / college credit program where I took 2 college classes each semester till I graduated high school in 2005. I went on for another year at DTCC to obtain my Associate of Applied Science in Electronics Engineering Technology in 2006. From that point I decided to take a trip up to Anchorage, Alaska where I spent a little over 2 months going from having no connections, jobs, or money and eating 1 meal a day at the soup kitchen, to securing a management position at local movie theater, ending up buying a new snowboard and ski clothing, and spending 5 days up on the slope where I had the run of the mountain. After Alaska, I enrolled into North Carolina A&T State University in the Electronics and Computers Technology department where I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA in 2009.

While finishing up my senior project "Boost Converter: Guidelines for Boost Converter PCB Layout" I ran across a Facebook notification about summer interns at DurhamCares for the upcoming summer. I had 3 other companies I was talking to for a job, but the idea of working with a successful entrepreneur, in a young small company really sparked my interest, and I sent an e-mail to Henry asking for some more information. Long story short I did decide to come and work with DurhamCares and fully enjoy the work that I am doing for the community and advancing my business skills.

My role here at DurhamCares is working on a comprehensive business and operational plan for future replication of the DurhamCares model to other cities. Also I am working on a video interview initiative, which involves interviewing business and community leaders of Durham and getting them to express their story in order to further help the citizens of Durham connect with the leaders in a more personal and informational way.

For my future plans I am currently studying for the GMAT where I want to apply for Business School later this fall. My top choices are MIT: Sloan School of Business, University of Pennsylvania: Wharton School, University of Chicago: Booth, and UNC - Chapel Hill: Kenan-Flagler. After B-School my plan will be starting a small tech company dealing with new product development in embedded systems.

As many of you know, Durham played host to the NY Times best-selling (62 weeks and counting) authors of the increasingly famous book, "Same Kind of Different as Me" two weeks ago at the Marriott Convention Center.

Theirs is an incredible story of the most unlikely of best friends: a rich, white art dealer from Ft. Worth Texas, and a poor, black, sharecropping hobo from Red River Parish, Louisiana. The story shatters myths about relationships between white and black, what it means to be homeless, and has a great tale of sin, forgiveness and redemption too.

Ron is handsome, articulate and has a great comfort in interacting with his audience, and his time in Durham was no exception. Denver, however, is the star of the show. He speaks of truth and wisdom with an incredible efficiency of words, and when he tires of telling stories or making his point, he breaks out in song in one of the most amazing voices that I have ever heard.

The story that the title of this blog refers to comes from the early days of their book's release (as with so many best selling books, seemingly no publisher wanted to have anything to do with it at first) when they tried to gain exposure for their book, often by talking about it with very small groups. Some of these groups were men from Bible Studies. After going to a few of them, Denver asked Ron why white people seemed to be so interested in just sitting around and studying the Bible. In his words "I've had enough of these white men talking about the Bible. When you show me a group of white men that are having a 'Bible Doing', then I'll go and talk with them."

How incredibly convicting. Don't get me wrong or Denver for that matter. He is a great man of Christian faith. There is clearly much need in our lives for quiet, contemplative study of Scripture, both alone and with small groups. But when we are doing Bible studies at the expense of actively engaging others in our city, particularly those that we might be able to really bless then I think we are often missing much of what God wants us to hear, learn and know as we seek to faithfully obey his commandments to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Is your ratio of bible doing and bible studying in the right place? I know mine isn't. I thank Denver for giving me a perspective and lesson in a few short sentences that Ron couldn't in 20 minutes.

Editor's Note: Blog entry is written by Jessica and only posted by Heather.

Hey guys! My name is Jessica Metcalf and I'm from Maiden, NC, a tiny town about two and a half hours west of Durham. I am a rising junior at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where I'm studying Public Relations. Growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor with a desire to help people. Then I realized that the medical field was about so much more than a typical Grey's Anatomy episode, and I decided it wasn't for me. I went into my freshman year of UNC having no idea what my future held. It was overwhelming, yet incredibly humbling to walk blind and fully trust the Lord's plan for my life. Before registering for classes at the end of my freshman year, I was forced to sit down and declare a major. Eventually, I settled with Journalism and Mass Communication. I say settled because I wasn't quite sure if that was in my future.

This past year, the Lord has just solidified my decision to work in Public Relations and has shown me over and over again that He has a future planned for me in this field. It's a relief to finally be able to answer someone when they ask the dreaded question, "So what do you want to do with your life?"

My summer at DurhamCares was literally dropped into my lap in the form of a church bulletin at The Summit Church. These past few weeks at DurhamCares have been exciting and incredibly encouraging. I'm working on planning the Durham tours, which will introduce Durham residents to new parts of the city and offer opportunities to engage with their neighbors in a new way.
I'm often so absorbed in the UNC bubble during the school year, focusing on school and other activities, I forget that there's so much going on in my community around me. I've been at UNC for two years now, yet I'd never bothered learning more about such an amazing city a few miles down the road from me. As I learn more about this city from people I meet and talk to, I'm beginning to see why Durham is so amazing.

It's refreshing to work with a group of people who truly have a heart for Durham and for engaging residents with their communities. I'm looking forward to the learning more from DurhamCares the rest of the summer and truly living out the phrase, "love your neighbor."