Articles ~ Unintentional Transformation

“Let it find you. Serendipity. The effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something truly Unintentional Transformation“

The sign was simple. What was happening in the room where the sign was directing participants to, was fruition of a dream incubated for 24 years. However, what would transform every fabric of my existence in this world had no sign. There had been no dream or even the remotest thought about it.

An attendant at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, and I were walking to the room where I was to conduct a Two-Day workshop on How to Speak and Get Paid (Greatly)when I noticed a sign that read, Majani: Kituku and Associates. Majani was the room where my dream would be birthed! I asked the attendant to wait while I took a photo of that sign.

Why would a simple sign mean so much to a speaker who had seen his name on billboards or on an electronic sign at the entrance to a major American military base? I felt like a village warrior taking spoils to his people after his lengthy absence. That sign directed Kenyans to the room where I would deliver all the speaking “spoils” that had inspired and captivated my audiences in America, Canada and Europe.

Since joining Toastmasters in the 1990s and learning the power of the spoken word and public speaking skills that empower people to dream and act on their dreams to transform their lives, I had looked forward to the day I would conduct a workshop in Kenya. The thrill of seeing Kenyans equipped with tools to transform their country was monumental.

None of my physical, professional or intellectual goals had meant so much to me. I had set a goal, a feat that I accomplished four times, to participate in the Robie Creek Race, one of the toughest half marathon races in northwest America. I also claim to have climbed Mt. Borah, Idaho’s highest peak, and survived the Chicken-Out Ridge, a portion of the climb that is appropriately named.

Change is not for the weak. But my dream to be a speaker needed a major change from the Range Management discipline that I had learned in school and worked on in both Kenya and America. Within a few years, I had earned the highest recognition in professional speaking and in the process wrote more than 1,000 published articles and several books.

All these achievements were dwarfed when my dream to speak in the land of my birth became a reality. Yet my joy did not last long. I saw the human suffering I had not seen in Kenya during my youth. The sight of emptiness in young boys and girls would forever transform my life.

The impact of the expressionless, joy nor sadness (these human expressions are by products of hope or the lack thereof), of young children who had been forced by poverty to repeat 8th grade, year after year, was multiplied by a newspaper headline about a mother of six who committed suicide because she could not afford the average $500/year to send her daughter to high school. Those of us who live in the western world wouldn’t allow our pets to enter the structures these children call home or let them lie on the makeshift bedding they use.

The transformation came with a feeling of hopelessness, unanswerable questions on the purpose of life and why God would allow innocent children to suffer, depression and doubt whether an individual can make a difference in a such situation. The emptiness of those children became my emptiness. It bothered me when I bought a cup of Chai tea latte instead of providing one week’s meals to those children.

Personal growth came without effort. I couldn’t remain bitter about the deaths of parents due to AIDS/HIV or corruption or drought-induced famines that were and still are beyond my control but have led to the excruciating suffering of millions of children.

The only way out of that emptiness was to take action.

It was more than three years after establishing Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope, a non-profit organization that mainly raises tuition funds for needy and vulnerable high school children, before I started wondering, was this why I was born? Tens of hundreds children, who had no hope, have been sponsored to attend high school and/or university/college. Caring Hearts High Schools, boarding facilities, one for girls and one for boys, and Ngoo Sya Wendo Healthcare Centre, are visible evidence of the power of unintentional transformation.

There is subtle vulnerability you experience when you undergo unintentional transformation. But looking back, God interrupts our lives for a reason.