I’m writing to you today from a Royal Jordanian airplane en route from Jordan to London.  I just spent the last week in the Middle East, and I’ll tell you soon why I was there.

But today, I wanted to jump in with a mic drop moment I experienced while in Ethiopia last week.

Question for ya: Have you ever been scared to try / say / start x, y, or z for fear of what other people would think of you?

 

 

Today, I wanted to bring you Bierke’s story.  There are no better teachers for overcoming fear than women who have literally been on the edge of life.  Their perspective is what we need.

After spending the morning with Bierke last week and hearing how her life has changed after going through the Family Empowerment Program your purchases support through Help One Now, I asked her what one piece of advice she would give to women around the world.

Without skipping a beat, she responded ‘Decide that you can.’

It was a simple statement that yielded a heavy impact deep down in my soul.

‘Decide that you can.’  You can hear her response in her gorgeous Amhari language via a 15 second video here.

 

 

Five years ago, Bierke saved her + her kids’ lives by making a very scary step forward.

She was close to death, suffering silently from the effects of HIV.  She couldn’t get out of bed, so her young kids were working as laborers in the local farming fields to earn money for the family to eat.

It came to the point where she had two choices: 1) Death.  2) Admit publicly that she had HIV and get the medicine she desperately needed to live.

Can you image the level of stigma and oppression for a woman to be choosing death over the fear of what others would think of her diagnosis?

One day, Bierke decided she was going to take that scary step forward.

Nothing special happened.  No one gave her a pep talk.  In her small rural town in Ethiopia, she sat up in bed and made the decision from inside her that she would choose life over fear.

And what a life she’s living.  She now owns 2 businesses and employs women from her village, all of her kids are in school, and she spends her time advocating in her community to crush the stigma of HIV and Aids.

 

 

So what’s it going to be for you?  Will you choose life or fear?

Decide that you can.  Decide that you can choose life.  A flourishing life, stepping into the things that have been on your heart to put into action.  Take that scary step forward, friend.

Your decision just might have a positive ripple effect on the very people you fear rejection from.

Signed with love from the air,