Session 6 – Courage to Act
Pranitha Timothy
Director of Aftercare, International Justice Mission,
Chennai, India
- Led over 50 slave rescue operations, serving as the chief legal witness in court
- Developed IJM’s pioneering aftercare strategy for restoration and reintegration, successfully serving thousands of freed slaves
- Formerly with the Hindustan Bible Institute, she designed and established holistic child development centers in remote parts of India
- The child of dedicated missionary doctors in rural India, she’s a brain tumor survivor who describes her resulting feeble voice as a “voice for the voiceless”
Session notes
- Isaiah 42:1-7 –
- Was diagnosed with a brain tumor, could not hear, speak or swallow.
- After 2 years, God gave her her voice back. That was 15 years ago.
- The greatest miracle is not that God restore my voice but that he changed me.
- She blamed Jesus for separating her from her family and swore she would never become a Christian.
- Became dark and destructive, was kicked out of school.
- In her darkest time, she reached out for forgiveness and restoration through Jesus.
- The hardships she faced gave her empathy and understanding to help those enslaved.
- This life belongs to God and my strength is his.
- Told the story rescuing workers enslaved in a rice mill.
- My family is safer in God’s hands than mine, so I trust Him.
- God is good, so we are full of hope.
- We are called to serve…
- Wow, what an amazing, courageous woman!
- God, rescue us from fear and things too small to waste our lives on!
What impacted you from Pranitha’s talk? What action will you take as a result?
My report to my office is below. Wish I’d googled Ms. Pranitha’s name before I sent it.
Thank you again.
Global Leadership Summit 2012
Everyone Wins When A Leader Gets Better! (Bill Hybels)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHHSYT9M6aw&feature=related
(can go to 21 minute mark & get intro to this year’s speakers; at 35 minute mark is Patrick Lencioni session [about meetings] that is a good example of the summit’s sessions)
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Day 1, 8/9/12
Condoleeza Rice “No Higher Honor”: [stunning talk but I took no notes….]
Jim Collins “Great by Choice”: What is your 20 mile march? [Southwest airline story]
Marc Kielburger “Against Apathy”: What kind of legacy do you want to leave? Talked about movements with “Free the Children” and “Me to We” (google those). We are the generation we’ve been waiting for. — Mother Teresa “We can’t do great things but we can do small things with great love”.
Wes Stafford – introduced next speaker; in the past was a speaker. Google “Compassion International”. Awesome leader that overcame a terrible childhood.
Sheryl WuDunn: book “Half the Sky” . In world, have 60-100 MILLION missing females. From ‘vicious cycle’ to ‘virtuous cycle’. Look at microfinance/micro lending opportunities. Tale about a goat & resulting family success – google Heifer International. Google compassion.com
Craig Groeschel “The Strongest Link”: Respect is earned but honor is given. Show honor to those above you, those that came before you… AND… invest in upcoming generation. Get past entitlement attitudes. For the generations to work together it has to be intentional: create ongoing feedback loops; create specific mentoring moments; create opportunities for significant leadership development.
…. My Facebook post after Day 1.
[note: the FB clip did not copy over]
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Day 2, 8/10/12
Patrick Lencioni: book “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else”
People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.
Organizational health: too many leaders think it is ‘beneath” them to do…
Reduce politics, confusion, low morale, turnover in qualified staff
Over communicate clarity. If your people can’t mimic you when you are not around you are not communicating enough.
William Ury: book “Getting to Yes – Negotiating Conflict”
“React” — our biggest obstacle is ourselves (in negotiations). Key to success is “go to the balcony” to get a better perspective, overview. We have power “not to react” – to remove ‘self’. Focus on underlying needs (separate people from the problem); focus on interests not positions. (Orange example: two fighting for it, decision was to split it. One just wanted the skin for zest/cooking; one just wanted the fruit. They both could have had the parts of a whole orange.) Focus on objective process and clear criteria. Google abrahampath.org – less talk, more walk. Abe Lincoln: “Do I not destroy my enemy when I turn him into my friend?”
Pranitha Timothy: book “Courage to Act: 5 Factors of Courage to Transform Business”. Works with Jim Harrigen (a great speaker from a couple years ago) from IJM (International Justice Mission). Rescues people out of slavery in India… fights slave traffickers. Has thus far rescued about 4000 people. Believes in restoration miracles. Told her own story of being awful & rebellious …. In college nicknamed CC for Cold & Calculating …. Then having health problems, losing her voice for 2 years before it came back as the very soft voice she now has …. And her transformation. Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7. This life is not my own, it’s in God’s hands. God is good even when what we see in the world is unjust and painful. Gives hope that God can transform even the most painful cases. (Prayer of St. Patrick – good one to look at!)
Mario Vega: Angustia Durante las Decisiones Deficiles (Leading Through the Anguish of Tough Decisions) El Salvador, Church of Elim tale. Told in parallel to 1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:1. Those who open the door for moral failure open themselves to greater failures to come. Lack of character and integrity equals failure. The moral failure of a leader will challenge the integrity of others as well. Story of growth of mega church Elim, then moral failure of pastor, his mistake of keeping his failure a secret/trying to keep it hidden, had trouble within the church …. cracks. Even with his eventual resignation, division in church brewed. Vega was asked to lead a church about to fall apart. 17 years have gone by. When values differ life’s roads begin to pull people apart and only by circumstances do their paths cross again (related to having to let go of the long relationship with former friend, mentor, pastor). He lost what had been a good friend, chose God and what he thought was right. Similar to scripture’s tale of Samuel & Saul. Loyalty to God or man? Depression led him to an understanding of his critical duty. Denial ?Depression?Acceptance?Action.
Time not look at the past, but the future. The heart finds comfort with every step of integrity. Leaders are defined by the decisions they make.
John Ortberg: A Leader of Unimaginable Influence (Incredible session but I took no notes)
Geoffrey Canada: Changing the Odds (his work is changing Harlem block by block, Harlem Children Zone)
Bill Hybels: Closing session. The local church is the hope of the world.
Great stuff, Dianne! Thanks for sharing it.