Can you recognise a key moment in your life?
Something that happens and you’re left indelibly marked? It could be a good thing (the birth of a baby, marrying the love of your life) or something more scarring (a traumatic event, being robbed etc).
These key moments shape us in ways we don’t understand – causing ripples in our world whether we consciously realise it or not.
In the last few days, we have had two key moments that will shape who we are forever. We’ve always had an inkling that what we do here at Havenwood goes beyond putting some walls together and creating a shelter.
Early one morning last week, I was sitting with my coffee and having a bit of quiet time before the start of another busy day, when I came across an article about a picture that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994.
It is a disturbing image, one that won the photographer Kevin Carter fame and success. But within four months of the award and Carter being lauded around the world for his skills, Kevin took his own life.
In the world-famous image, there is a small child laying in the dust, exhausted and starving. A few metres behind him, a vulture is hopping along, eyeing off his prey. (the child was initially identified as a girl but was later clarified to be male). Carter took many pictures, but did not approach the child. He had been told that the children were rife with disease, and he also was accompanied by armed Sudanese soldiers who prevented him from interfering with any tragic scenes he witnessed in the country.
After growing up and witnessing the horrors of apartheid in his home country of South Africa, Carter made the decision to become a photojournalist and was invited to Sudan to bring imagery to the world of the unspeakable conditions faced by its people.
Which brought him face to face with a vulture, and a broken child lying in the dust.
For Carter, being unable to step in and help played on his mind. Surrounded by armed guards, he did nothing but snap and shoot and walk away.
It earned him worldwide acclaim, and ended his life.
Rick and I sat with this story, the image burned into our psyche. Would we have picked up the child? Would we have fought the guards or tried to reason with them so we could help. Would we have chased the vulture away? Would fear for our own life have won over helping someone?
A couple of days later, we received a call from a young mother who was desperate for help.
She is the victim of domestic violence, and was looking for something she could put on a family member’s property so she could flee her situation, and get her children to safety.
In the few hours meeting with Rick and Toby, the mum broke down in tears many times.
We have rules around our staff interacting physically with female visitors, we put them in place for their own safety. (It's sadly a very litigious society we live in). For the boys, this was too much. Beyond wanting to take a group of men over to give the insipid weakling of a male a good talking to, they broke for her.
Big hearted men with hearts of gold, tears in their eyes, hugging this lady and telling her it was going to be ok.
Fortunately, we had a couple of options for her at the display village and we will be delivering a home to them soon, to give them a future and a hope – one of safety and security and a pathway to freedom.
When we named our company Havenwood – it included the tag line - ‘your safe place of refuge’. Little did we know just how prophetic those words would become.
For all of us, we can live a life shooting for one of two things.
A life of success – like Carter, whose image of ‘the vulture and the girl’ bestowed on him great honour and acclaim.
OR
a life of significance – creating a lasting legacy that impacts generations not by becoming the top of your game or the most well-known. Not looking for awards or being a recognised brand, but getting up every day and doing our utmost to deliver relief, freedom, joy and hope to a small portion of the world that needs an alternative solution.
Which one will you shoot for???
Credit for pic https://allthatsinteresting.com/the-vulture-and-the-little-girl