Building Men
“I had been going to Uganda to volunteer at an orphanage school,” Laine explains. “But, I really didn’t know what I wanted to accomplish there, until I arrived back home in Los Angeles.”
Laine Wagenseller vividly remembers the moment he found his answer.
“A local pastor said, the most important thing we can do to help our young men isn’t to give them housing or clothing. It isn’t even to feed them. The most important thing we can do is build them into men! That resonated with me and I knew I had found my purpose as a volunteer in that small Ugandan school,” Laine shared.
So, when back in the school the first thing he did was gather the boys to make a request, “tell me your story. I wanted them to share their story, because it’s the best way to build kinship. That’s the great difference-maker when you’re building boys into men.”
Of course, the boys were teenagers, so they just sat there quietly. Laine waited. Then, a moment later one of the boys began to story tell.
“My father died when I was four,” he said. “My mother died when I was six. Then my caregiver died. I was living on the street until I was invited into the orphanage.
The boy held his hand over his face as he talked, because tears were streaming down his face. He had no idea his story was almost identical to every student there. The boys bonded in kinship as a result.
Laine’s belief in the power of storytelling and its ability to forge kinship had been proven. And, It continues to work. So-much-so that alumni come back to the school annually to review their progress, renew their bond and add value to current students.
Before he found the kinship key for turning students into great men, Laine was walking down a street in Uganda when he saw a boy walking on all fours. “Someone should help that boy,” Laine thought. Later, after Adolph was accepted into the school, he was asked to tell his story.
“My mother and father died,” he said. “I was living with my aunt when she threw boiling water on my legs. Burning them to the point where they couldn’t heal right. They healed at a ninety-degree angle. So, I’ve been walking on all fours ever since.” Because of Adolph’s story, Laine felt an extraordinary kinship with the boy and when he returned home to LA, a friend introduced him to a burn specialist, a gifted surgeon at the world renown Roseman Burn Clinic.
Later, The Children’s Burn Foundation flew the scarred youth to LA where he would receive several surgeries at Roseman over six-months. When he first arrived in Los Angeles, a news reporter asked Adolph, “what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you can walk again?”
Adolph quickly, saying, “I’m going to thank God!”
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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV in Northwest Arkansas. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as a real estate agent and Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.
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