Don't you just love it when you meet someone who's past experiences, stories, and absolute hutzpah just blow you away?
On a recent trip to Sonoma and San Francisco with a Leadership group from all over the country, I sat at a table for breakfast/opening discussion group with a fascinating lady, Janet McElligott. Since my plane had arrived very, very late the night before due to layover problems, I had missed the opening dinner and wine stomping fun the night before, so was meeting everyone around the table for the first time.
It was obvious from the fun banter around the table that Janet is a phenomenal story teller (from experience,no less) has an incredible sense of humor, unflappable confidence. and quite an impressive, if not downright daunting, career history ...as a hostage negotiator in the Sudan.
I have enjoyed getting to know her in the past months as friend and fellow Leader on our team Mentor calls and just had to share one of her recent posts on Facebook.
On a recent trip to Sonoma and San Francisco with a Leadership group from all over the country, I sat at a table for breakfast/opening discussion group with a fascinating lady, Janet McElligott. Since my plane had arrived very, very late the night before due to layover problems, I had missed the opening dinner and wine stomping fun the night before, so was meeting everyone around the table for the first time.
It was obvious from the fun banter around the table that Janet is a phenomenal story teller (from experience,no less) has an incredible sense of humor, unflappable confidence. and quite an impressive, if not downright daunting, career history ...as a hostage negotiator in the Sudan.
I have enjoyed getting to know her in the past months as friend and fellow Leader on our team Mentor calls and just had to share one of her recent posts on Facebook.
It's "Throwback Thursday" and as I pull out Nativity sets each year I always laugh. This has its origins back in 1996 for my first hostage rescue in Sudan. I had to stay at the Hilton for 10 days and on The ground floor was a shop with all kinds of carvings. They didn't have what I wanted, so I finally asked the shopkeeper if he knew the carvers who made the statutes.
He said,"yes, I know them all."
I was so happy and asked him, "Could you get them to commission something for me?"
"No problem!" He answered.
"I need a nativity set with Mary Joseph the angels and baby Jesus Carved out of ebony wood."
Without hesitation he said, "Impossible!" and then looked at his friend and shook his head no.
"But why is that impossible? You told me you knew them and that they would do a commission for me why is it impossible to carve a nativity set?" I asked him. I thought maybe it's because it's a Muslim country.
The shopkeeper continued to drink his coffee, then looked at me like I was an idiot and said "If they made a nativity set out of Ebony would then baby Jesus would be black!"
I looked at him and said, "Well, you know baby Jesus came from this part of the world. Maybe baby Jesus was black."
The two of them spit their coffee out and begin to laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and couldn't stop. They kept repeating, "a black baby Jesus? A black baby Jesus! But your baby Jesus is always white!"
They refused to commission a nativity set for me for over a year. Finally my friend ambassador Mahdi Ibrahim came into the shop to beg of them.
Finally, I was able to purchase this nativity set. It came complete with a lion because there really is no black baby Jesus and if there was a black baby Jesus a lion surely would've eaten Him.
He said,"yes, I know them all."
I was so happy and asked him, "Could you get them to commission something for me?"
"No problem!" He answered.
"I need a nativity set with Mary Joseph the angels and baby Jesus Carved out of ebony wood."
Without hesitation he said, "Impossible!" and then looked at his friend and shook his head no.
"But why is that impossible? You told me you knew them and that they would do a commission for me why is it impossible to carve a nativity set?" I asked him. I thought maybe it's because it's a Muslim country.
The shopkeeper continued to drink his coffee, then looked at me like I was an idiot and said "If they made a nativity set out of Ebony would then baby Jesus would be black!"
I looked at him and said, "Well, you know baby Jesus came from this part of the world. Maybe baby Jesus was black."
The two of them spit their coffee out and begin to laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and couldn't stop. They kept repeating, "a black baby Jesus? A black baby Jesus! But your baby Jesus is always white!"
They refused to commission a nativity set for me for over a year. Finally my friend ambassador Mahdi Ibrahim came into the shop to beg of them.
Finally, I was able to purchase this nativity set. It came complete with a lion because there really is no black baby Jesus and if there was a black baby Jesus a lion surely would've eaten Him.
Thank you for clarifying that question, Janet!
Ahhh, the places I get to go and the people I get to meet....Life is Good!
Ahhh, the places I get to go and the people I get to meet....Life is Good!