The Last Event of 2011!

Early in December, Philip and I traveled to New York City for our last event of 2011--the annual World AIDS Day Women's Prayer Breakfast that we help World Vision with.  The event itself is always moving and it's a great time of year to have a weekend in the City, to boot.

This year, the keynote speaker was a former model, Kim Alexis.  Before the breakfast began, I brought her a red AIDS ribbon for her to wear and she asked me to put it on.  I put it on and asked if it met her approval--she said, "I'm certain if you've done it that it looks beautiful!"  Add dressing a supermodel to my list of skills.

One of the other speakers was a personal hero of mine, Dr. Tererai Trent.  She is most well known as Oprah's favorite guest of all time. Dr. Trent was born in Zimbabwe, where she was sold into marriage at age 11.  She was deprived of the one thing in life she wanted--to attend school--and so she would secretly do her brother's homework because she wanted to learn so badly.  Dr. Trent later emigrated to the United States with her husband and five children in 1998.  She was illiterate in English but since 1998 has earned a Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D.  One of my favorite quotations from her remarks, "Today, I have the power of an education.  I have the power to empower."

With Dr. Trent