Road to the World Cup

It's been a real journey for our team the last couple of years. Thanks for sharing in the experience with us on this blog. Feel free to use the blog archive on the right side of this page to view our first post and work your way back to this point. The video below contains just a few highlights of the incredible journey of this past year and our vision for the future. Thanks for being an important part of our team. Look for more updates in the future on our website at http://www.sifelink.com and our Build-a-Village blog at http://villagebuilding.blogspot.com.

This Moment

This week was a time for some real reflection on our past year in SIFE and a time to look forward with a vision of our potential future. But what really matters is now, this moment.

As college students, we spend each moment with the purpose of increasing our understanding of the world and our ability to change it. Education without action is meaningless.

As we think about the more than 50,000 college students in our local Riverside area alone, imagine what is possible when we work together. As I look out at the smoke-filled sky and colored moon from fires still burning in our area, I feel that I should not be sitting here in my office but doing something about it. Our SIFE team has spent years looking at poverty, lack of basic healthcare, areas with no educational opportunities, and destroyed communities as the problems, spread like a fire unchecked. The question remained the same "What can we do?" We are not the same team we were when many of us started on this team two years ago. Once we were unsure of what we could accomplish.
What I can say in pride of this team after two years of changing, motivating, and building is that the response to the question is no longer "I don't know what we can do," but rather "Here's something we can do" leading to "Here is what we are going to do right now." Something happened to our generation and many of us are now waking up from it. We are seeing a movement of young people no longer saying "Oh no! Somebody do something," or even worse "I don't know/care, someone else can handle it," but now having a hunger to engage themselves in the world around them. Our team shared this through our words at the World Cup, and once again, it is time for all of us to share it through our actions.

Thank you all so much for supporting the actions of our team. And thank you to those of you who celebrated with us in University Worship today. Dr. Wisbey said such wonderful things about our team and the potential of the students of La Sierra University. I see the symbol of our work over the past couple of years not as our National Trophy and World Cup, but rather the living testament of how hard the SIFE team is working.

Every day we have opportunities to make a difference. Every moment, we have a choice. That World Cup says that I was a part of changing the world and inspiring individuals all around it. What do my actions right now say?

Having that drive, that determination to make a difference, the firm belief that nothing is impossible, that we will have an impact, the realization that we must learn all we can to increase the potential of that impact: that is what it means to be a champion, and that is what it means to be a student of La Sierra University.

Presentation Preparation with Adam and John

We had a great time giving our presentation one final time on Wednesday in Las Vegas at the Pepsi/Frito Lay/Wal-Mart "Elevate" event. After a week of traveling and presenting, though, we were pretty exhausted. A bunch of the team got sick. Waking up for that last presentation wasn't easy. Somehow I always have to get up first while Adam sleeps. Hello 5:00 A.M.
To the left is my...well let's just call this the "before" photo.

Here is me 15 min later...Okay 30 minutes later (the bathrooms had flatscreen televisions in them).

Success!!!

Now watch the video below to see me trying to wake up Adam.

And next is Adam doing his hair. Is he talking to me or himself? You decide.

On the Road Again

And you thought we were done! In about fifteen minutes, the team is leaving for Las Vegas, which means I can't be my usual rambling self as I still have to run home and repack. We are giving the presentation one last time for a corporate retreat of executives and managers from Pepsi, Frito Lay, and Wal-Mart. It will be nice to do the presentation without some of the pressure that comes with competition. After that, we will close our presentation run. It's time to make room for the new and improved team of students. I have to tell you, you will honestly be blown away by the passion they have. I'm looking forward to watching the next presentation from the audience instead of on the stage. It's pretty exciting.

Now Everyone Can Comment

So I uh went ahead and changed the setting that was preventing everyone from being able to leave us comments. I was wondering why we weren't getting any. Oops... :)

Comment away. You no longer have to be a registered user to leave a comment.

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