when GENEROUS HEARTS COLLIDE: UNCORKED with HARMON PARKER

When generous hearts collide, something electric happens. Something you can feel before you even understand it. 

This episode uncorks that energy with Tim's long-time friend and bridge builder, Harmon Parker, the founder of Bridging the Gap Africa. It is an inspiring conversation about what generosity becomes when it stops being a solo act and turns into a collision of passion, purpose and courage. Harmon tells stories that shake you awake, from hippos reacting in a massive chain reaction to communities offering gifts that cut you right to the soul. This episode is not just about giving. It is about connection, calling and the kind of chemistry that only ignites when two or more generous hearts move toward the same purpose.

Join the conversation and discover how Harmon and Suzanne Sullivan (Tim spoke with Suzanne on EP # 195 entitled “When GENEROSITY SEEMS HARD”) found each other again after years apart, and how their shared intention is multiplying bridges, impact, and hope across East Africa. You will hear about the unmistakable signs of a generous heart, the spark in someone’s eyes, the pull toward purpose, and the willingness to say yes long before they understand the cost. 

The challenge: generous intention means nothing until it becomes generous action. It can be a slingshot-sized action; one small stone, one simple yes. When that tiny spark collides with another, a movement begins. The world changes. Not someday. Today.

Tim Windsor
the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host & Guide
tim@uncommodified.com
https://uncommodified.com/

PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne & Kris MacQueen 
MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/

Transcript

PLEASE NOTE: UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast episode transcriptions are raw text files and have not been proofed or edited. They are what they are … Happy Reading.

© UNCOMMODiFiED & TIM WINDSOR

How do you find people with generous hearts and what happens when they collide? Now that's not just a question about generosity, it's a question about chemistry, about connection and calling, because when you find someone whose heartbeat matches your rhythm of generous intent, something shifts literally.

The air changes, the energy multiplies, and ultimately impact explodes. Generosity on its own is powerful. It can, it can change a moment, a life or even a community. But when generous hurts, find one another. When they collide and collaborate, they don't just add to one another. They multiply. They create movements, not just moments.

They build bridges sometimes, literally as we're gonna find out. Transform the landscape around them. A few weeks ago on the show, I had a uncork conversation with Suzanne Sullivan. If you hadn't listened to this, go back and listen to this great conversation. Suzanne is a woman with a generous heart, a heart that has collided beautifully with another.

Suzanne's work with Bridging the Gap, Africa. An organization that's been changing lives to the profound act of connecting people, communities and [00:01:00] possibilities by building bridges over rural rivers in Kenya is that organization. Her generosity and commitment to others are contagious. And that conversation left me thinking deeply about what happens when generosity. Encounters, generosity. Now that reflection brought me back to someone I've known for and partnered with for years, the founder of that same organization, the CEO, and founder of Bridging the Gap, Africa, and my great friend, Harman Parker. Harman, welcome back to the show.

Hey Tim. Thanks man. It's great to be back. As always,

this is awesome. And of course, now you're not actually in Kenya right now.

You were in the United States of America, I believe. Correct.

I am, I, um, some people call it hot lanta, but, um, today it's cold lanta, it's freezing rain. And for someone from Africa, I'm very, um, um, cold.

there you go. Fair enough. Well, you know what, I'm in Canada and that was a little cold today, so I got my, I got my super dry

Yeah, you're looking [00:02:00] good.

There you go. Awesome. Well, listen, Harman is no stranger to this podcast. For those of you follow, for a long time. I talked with Harman many years ago on the show about his work and his mission, but today's conversations can be a little bit different.

We're, we're not gonna just be talking about his generous journey. We're diving into something even maybe more alive, more electric. It's what happens when those generous hearts collide, when people like Suzanne and Harmon and others on their team are driven. By purpose, they're fueled by compassion and energized by a practical generosity to come together to bridge the gap and build bridges that transform lives.

Now, of course, this is an uncork conversation, and, uh, Mr. Harmon and I have been apt to uncork a drink with each other in the past. So, Harmon, what do you get to drink tonight?

well, being in the south right now in Georgia, I thought I would have a little bit of old number seven, Jack Daniels,

Oh,

Tennessee.

never.

So

I like

just a little bit, [00:03:00] yeah, a little bit of Jack Daniels to sip on on

Alright. We're gonna represent the world in this. So you got some Jack Daniels from the United States of America. I have a very interesting single malt. It is actually an Indian single malt called AM Amrut. And it's what it is. It's a fusion between Scottish barley and Indian barley.

And it's so, but it's also made with a peated barley, so it's got a bit of smoke on it, but it's. It's actually distilled in the himalayans. So an ode to India.

well, I would hold the bottle up, but I don't have it. I emptied it,

Okay. Fair enough. It ha it happens to all of us. One, one soldier down.

cheers.

Cheers my friend. Hmm.

Hmm.

Oh my gosh. You know, I love cracking open a conversation with a good whiskey Harmon. So

Especially with you.

Well with you as well, my friend. So, okay, so here's what the idea I wanna [00:04:00] explore together. So again, what happens when generous hearts collide? In your experience, what, what's the powerful chemistry that it releases and, and what have you learned over the years on your journey and your own personal generosity, but as that your generous heart has collided with others?

What is it teaching you that that's sort of what I wanna tuck into. So you've been on a great journey for a long time and you are finding people and have found people over the years have generous hearts. So tell me what that feels like to you and how do you know when someone's heart is aligning with your.

Wow. That's a, that's a big question. But yes, I've, I've been blessed. I've been, building bridges for almost 30 years. I built my first bridge in 1997. And, and so, um, I have engaged a lot of people to support our. Incredible and amazing organization called Bridging the Gap, Africa. And it takes a [00:05:00] nonprofit organization, as you well know, Tim, it takes generous people to drive it.

Okay? That is simple as that. And what I've found, is that when you, you have this opportunity to, you, we all have causes, right? We, you have a cause. We all have a cause. But when you're driven. By something like we're driven. We literally build bridges over dangerous rivers for isolated communities.

And when you find someone with a generous heart, it's one of the most powerful things that you can experience when it comes together and it collides. Imagine one heart, two hearts. Coming together and colliding for a greater purpose, right? Generosity, is so much more than just giving, but it finds power in life in that ability to give in.

I [00:06:00] think the Bible says it's better to give than receive. And the apostle Paul had it right on, on that. And so it's extremely powerful and it creates a magic, if you will. It creates this energy to get stuff done and to build bridges to a better world. I don't know if I can say it any better than that.

Well, you know what that is. That is well said my friend. By the way, I could drink to that, so we should probably just hear it. I'm

Oh, okay.

'cause that that was so good. I'm gonna cheer you again.

Well, thank you.

Hmm. We're gonna have moments of cheersing tonight. I, I love the way that you articulated that and you could almost, I mean, you can visualize it, you can feel it when you talk about it, how this happens, because, you know, it's interesting because we are unfortunately maybe more in North America than in Africa where you've spent many, many years.

You know, we are so highly individualized here. We tend to think of lone, the lone ranger type of [00:07:00] thing. And we can go it alone, we can do it alone, we can do it by ourselves. And yet there is something that happens when our hearts connects and collides with somebody else, there is that multiplication of energy, of effect, of impact.

And so I'm interested, I mean I talked to Suzanne, uh, about a month ago-ish on the show, and I mean, what a great conversation.

She's fantastic, isn't she?

She is, she's amazing. But what I, what's interesting is that you, you have been connected with Suzanne for many, many years, obviously, but in this season, your generous hearts are colliding in a more significant, more purposeful way.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm interested in all, like, how, how did that happen? Because you know, you, you've known Suzanne a long time, but all of a sudden it's like, it seems like the moment is. Right. And now you guys have connected in this way.

And everything clicks. It's, it is just crazy, uh, especially in my life and the way [00:08:00] I've been following my path and my journey. Right? We all. Have our paths and our journey. We all have our purpose, by the way. I believe that very strongly. I know you do too, Tim. But believe it or not, um, Suzanne is the daughter of a friend of mine in California and she used to babysit our son when he was like five years old.

Okay. And then time, all this time went past and I, you know, we went to Africa and then she used to come and just. Visit to say hi and hang out with the family. And, so she started as a babysitter and then when after, uh, her, she got her MBA very young and she said she got it in international development and she says, I'm outta here.

I'm going to travel the world. And she's been all over the place. And she's an expert in international development, especially with USAID and other big projects. She worked with Bechtel, as you probably know. [00:09:00] So, um, I'll try to make this short. But, , anyway, she came on board. I asked her to come on board, , as a director, , years ago, a few years ago.

Then actually gave her the chair. , I, I stepped down 'cause I believed in her so much. But, , all of a sudden, We had this opportunity for her to come step down and come on board with bridging the gap, Africa to be able to, uh, drive us, help us build the organization to where we are today, which she's doing an outstanding job.

So that's how this, that, that connection started. And, and she is very, very generous and, , and an expert at what she does and taking us to another level.

She, yeah. I tell you the conversation I had with her was profound. It was, it was inspiring, it was thought provoking. , I would agree with all those things. So, so, so let me ask you, I want you to think about this for a second, and again, if you're listening in. You're gonna, if you stay on, you're gonna listen for a reason.

[00:10:00] You'll have to figure that out. Listeners. I always say, and of course we don't, we don't set up our conversations in advance. We have an idea that we're gonna talk about and then we figure it out as we go. That's, that seems to make it for a better organic conversation. So I'm interested to know, harmony, when you think about this, so what, what are, what are the hallmarks of generosity for you?

Like when you think of when you see somebody else and you see generosity in them. What tells you there's some hallmarks of generosity? What, what kind of behavior, what kind of things don't you see? What kind of things do you see in people that you know, , have this hallmark of generosity?

Huh, that's a great question. , I had lunch today here in, , cold Atlanta and um, with someone I met just last Saturday night and I gave a little presentation. And he, afterwards, he, he said he'd like to, uh, have lunch and we connected, right? And right [00:11:00] then you can see generosity in people's eyes. You can see people being drawn towards, towards your purpose and your mission, especially when you're in, , working for or running a nonprofit organization.

And so you can feel just by engaging each other. There's this sense, like you said, you can feel it. You know, and, and so we had a lunch together with , this guy that, so generous and I mean, before we even hardly sat down to have our tacos today, he said, send me your logo and your bio so I can put you on our website because we want to partner with you.

We want to be generous with you. We want to do all we can to share the story about bridging the gap Africa. And that's a generous heart. I mean that you just, you they just connect. And when, and, and when I, when I touch those generous hearts, it's, it's, it's palpable. You know, you can, you can feel it. [00:12:00] And everyone, generosity can be expressed in very many different ways as well.

You know, Tim, it's not only just in giving, but it's in. Whatever you have, but I always tell people, we need funding. Yes, okay. We got to have funding to do this incredible work. But you know, what I want more than anything is I want your heart. I want your passion, I want you, however you express that, however that is given, be a part of us.

And be generous because when those dynamics come together. It's, it's energy. Okay? When, when generosity collides, it's not destructive. It's destructive, it's creative, it's powerful. It drives purpose and it gives us such great satisfaction and enjoy. [00:13:00] Enjoy. So, I don't know if I answered your question directly,

That's, I, no, I,

you see what I'm saying is that, I mean, I, I, my generosity, okay, is giving my life to this purpose and I have no greater joy than to have done so, and I wanna share that with you, all the listeners.

Is such a powerful thing 'cause it's a collision that creates, it doesn't, destruct.

Yeah. You know what I, what I, I love about that. I mean, 'cause if you think about it, I mean, it's interesting. I mean the root of generous, I mean obviously there's a root here of the word generate. There's a generation of something, which is kind of interesting if we tuck into that. So generosity generates something.

It generates this energy. But then also we think about it, it tucks into, you know. The greatest generosity is [00:14:00] also generational in nature. It, it has a cascading impact beyond our lives into the generations of others. And I you, you know, think back over the number of years that you've done this. How many, how many bridges have you guys built now?

We've built over 90 bridges. And we, and we're building 11 this year, which is a record breaking year that's, you know, like almost one a month. And these are not just little tiny bridges. These are super structures. And that's how much we've grown since our last podcast that you supported us. And so, um, we are just an incredible place, but we couldn't have done it without the generosity of others.

Right.

No, it's a multiplying factor. And you are, and you're ca having cascading impact in these communities, of course. 'cause these bridges give access across. I mean, you know, Pam and I, my wife Pam and I, we had the privilege of being on the ground with you guys, back a number of years ago. And just [00:15:00] seeing the impact , of these bridges and seeing the, the conditions that people ha encounter every day and crossing.

Rivers where they don't have adequate bridges. Sometimes no bridge at all. Just a pallet and a police system. And that's, sounds, sounds a little bit precarious is if that Yeah, that's a problem. I remember watching one time when we were in Mozambique, years ago we were in Mozambique, and , it was just after the rains came through and the flooding was coming through.

And I remember watching a mother forge a river with her baby, literally over her. Over her head. The mother's head was almost underwater, and she had this, she was thrusting this baby almost Mufasa style out of the, out, above the water. And I just can remember because like I'm a, you know, I'm a fisherman and like trout fishing.

So like going in rivers and tr fishing and there's times where, you know, we have to, we cross the river 'cause we wanna get the other side to fish and we, you know, we might get up to a waist high, maybe chest high water. [00:16:00] And I'll tell you when it's running, it's hard to keep your foot. It's, you get nervous, you, you wonder if

is dangerous.

your, it's very dangerous.

It's very dangerous. And, and then I think of myself. That's me crossing a little river. A little river 'cause I wanna fish. But these people are crossing these rivers that are raging. Because, because it's about life and, and connection and getting places, getting to school, getting food, getting to the doctor.

This is a very different life that we are we, that we understand. I mean, we live in a world where we don't think about these things. I probably crossed 30, 40 bridges today on my drive into the big city near me for business, and I probably didn't even know it.

Yeah, always tell people that, it is so hard to communicate the impact, the powerful impact from the generosity of people who support our bridge building. Work for isolated communities throughout East Africa. That we don't get it because we don't live it. I use that term [00:17:00] once in a while.

We don't get, you know, whoever thought that there was bridges needed. In, you know, most of the world, half the world. I don't know what the population is, but I do know one thing today is that 18,000 little feet, old feet, medium feet, long feet, 18,000 crossings have happened in Kenya today

Wow.

our bridges are standing safely, strongly.

And impacting so many lives, to give them a better life, to give them hope and to save them from drowning so kids can go to school. And that generosity, generosity builds, bridges that you, generosity you can walk across.

Hmm. Hmm. Yeah.

connects. Yeah, like a bridge.

Yeah, well this is why, this is why it's such an app [00:18:00] discussion, and you know, this podcast, we're recording it in advance, but it's gonna release mid-December. So again, if you're listening to this, you're probably listening at, if you listen right away, it's mid-December when you're listening. Now, it might be later, depending, but again, you're coming up to a season of traditional season of giving.

And so again, I would challenge you if you're listening in, you know, find your place of generous intent. This holiday season, like what does living with a little bit more generous intent and even even better find someone else with a generous heart and partner together, you know, you can give to bridging the Gap.

Africa, you can give lots of different places. But if all of us came together this season and came together with a greater generous intent and, and purposely collided our efforts, you know what? Could we accomplish? I, I suppose at the end of the day, nothing's really impossible. If we actually understand that that generosity is, is a creative force, that [00:19:00] that gets shit done, it gets stuff done for the benefit of people.

the impact is incredible. And like I said, generosity has, that power to, to , drive us into a better direction as a world. There's a, there's a Swahili proverb that says it's better to build bridges than walls. Right. And

Oh.

I can tell you in Swahili, but all my Swahili friends would laugh at my accent. Okay.

Wow. Gimme that again, because that's profound. Better to build bridges than walls.

Yeah, it's a powerful, uh, well-known proverb in Swahili ki Swahili. And, uh, man, what a, what, what a great time it is to give, especially in light of all that's going on in the world right now.

Yeah, absolutely.

So let me tell you a story real quick, alright. About this collision idea.

Yeah.

Okay. So, a long time ago, my son, um, he was in high school.

And he had a couple of friends and we were out in [00:20:00] this, one wildlife area and the riverbed was, dried up. Okay. But where we work, as you well know, is that we deal with lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, you know, every kind of wildlife in Africa, snakes, everything. I got stories about all those. I'll spare you, but I'm gonna tell you this one.

And so the riverbed was just totally dry. And hippos, they stay in the water all day because the pigment in their skin is very sensitive to the equatorial sun, right? Imagine, how did that

Didn't know that.

Well, there you go. And, and so they stay in the water all day to protect themselves, and, and then at night they go out and graze.

And then they come back early in the morning and they spend the whole day in the water, but there was no water. So they're all cuddled up together. We counted 88. Okay. You know, we were from a distance, whatever, and, and [00:21:00] my son said, Hey, dad, I got this slingshot. Can I just kinda, you know, shoot over towards them, you know, like a mile off, a million miles off?

I said, yes, I know, you know, just whatever. And we're just having fun driving around. And all of a sudden I watched, he pulled back him and I, and this, this, this little stones, like David and Goliath, kind of this little stone had a hook on it, like a golf ball, and it just went in. It just barely touched. The hippo on the very end.

Okay? 88 of them, that's , what is that? 176 tons of power. And it hit the first one and there was a chain reaction went, and it was like every one of them reacted just like dominoes.

Wow.

And that's the, to me it is just a great, great image of what generosity can do. If we can all just connect, you know, if we [00:22:00] can all just feel that power of generosity colliding.

I like it because it's, it, it creates this, can you imagine? It's like an atom bomb.

Oh

just so cool. A positive hippo atom bomb. How do you like that?

Well, I, you know what? I like can, so, and I imagine you must have felt the tremor right through that. Like

Yeah. I mean, it was powerful. I mean, it's like the boy, the boys in the cars. Whoa. It's like, what did we do?

Like, what do we do? Okay. So I love, by the way, this is a, that, that's a powerful story. But what I love about it too is, is that it does take one sort of courageous boy in the story

We're stupid.

a bit of a, or, or, yeah, a little bit. Little bit potentially. And, and a father who gives, , permission, which, you know, we will talk about that later,

We'll leave that.

but think about this for a second. It, it takes somebody just sitting back and just releasing something and that's, and then you get this cascading impact, which is very powerful [00:23:00] idea because on our own, again. Some of us are provocateurs of these, these, these collision of, of generosity. And yet, you know, Harmon, I see you as this kind of person.

I mean you, in your work, obviously you spend a lot of time building bridges and doing all these things, but now you're out there, you're sort of like, you're sort of like the boy with the slingshot out here, out here roaming around.

Old man with a slingshot.

man. With a slingshot, well, I'll say young boy, still with a slingshot roaming around North America, just trying to stir the, the, the generous hippos

There you go.

get, and getting us to collide and come together because there's power in that.

I mean, I lo I, it's such a powerful story and. Again, if you're listening in, just think about this, like, where in your life can you be a small provocateur of a movement? It could be a movement connected to the work that Harmon's doing. It could be a movement in your [00:24:00] local community. I think so many times, and I I maybe mentioned this when I was talking to Suzanne, I know I've.

Talked to other people about this, but I think we feel that our, our little impact will be so small. We don't give it. But when we, when generous hearts collide, my little bit of generosity and your generosity comes together and it just releases, as you said, it's like magic, this power, and it's such a wonderful idea.

And so let me ask you if people did wanna. Collide with you and your organization, what's the best way for them to, to hunt you down and to connect with you Harman and connect with bridging the Gap? Africa, what's the best way?

Well, the fastest, fastest way and best way is just go to our website, bridging the gap africa.org. And um, there's a place you can send us a message, , and we'll respond immediately. , If you want to talk with me. Let me know. , If you want to hear our story more, let me know. We will tell it. And, , I think that's the fastest and [00:25:00] best way to, um, connect with us.

And, um, and also it's, and, and I just wanna remind our listeners, your listeners, but, happen to be ours right now, but, uh, that, . Generosity is not just money, right? It's not just money, it's your heart. I say this all the time and drives people crazy 'cause I get into this philosophical mode and, but there's bridges of hope.

You know, if you have hope and you want to, and this resonates with you, call us, connect with me. There's bridges of love. If you love what we're doing. Contact us. There's bridges of kindness. You know, every, every bridge we built, every step that is taken on our bridges is a step caused and created by 

Yeah. You know, [00:26:00] Harman, I love it. And again, if you're listening in, you know, hunt down Harman and his organization, and even as you say that too, and of course people can find genera generous ways of living in lots of different ways. You know, I, I think of my wife, my wife, Pam, is a very generous person. And I've been think this idea, and I introduced it earlier, this idea of generous intent.

That's a very interesting idea to me because. Generous action starts with generous intent. We have to have an intention or disposition towards being generous, and that's not always easy, particularly with people that we might struggle with. And you know, my wife is really great at this. She has generous intent in our community towards people who, who are homeless.

And so that generous intent leads her to generous action. And so my wife, Pam, makes these. These bags up and in these bags are depending on the time of year, a pair of socks and, you know, uh, maybe a protein bar and a this and a that and whatever. , And inside [00:27:00] of that is maybe a, you know, a c coffee card for, you know,

Sure. Yeah.

But. When my, you know, when we stop and sometimes, and you, you've seen it in America where people are at the lights and stuff, and we've got lots of different people, have lots of disposition about that, that's fine. But my wife has a generous intent towards humans. And, uh, if she has time at the light, she all down the window and she enters a conversation with somebody with a generous intention, , wants to give them something to, to encounter them and let them know that they've been seen again.

So generous intention is where it starts. It has to lead to a generous action. And that's the challenge again, I would give you if you're listening in, is that it is, it starts with generous intention, but let's not fool ourselves. , Listeners, I'm not gonna let you off the hook, that easy, generous intention lesson until it.

Converts to generous action really doesn't have a lot of benefit. In the end, it starts as generous intention. Don't, don't, don't fool, fool yourself. You have to have generous intention, but it's got to convert to generous [00:28:00] action and it, it just has to be a small action. It doesn't have to be big. It just has to be one little stone in the back of a hippo.

That's all needs to.

exactly. This. Can you imagine if we all had one little stone?

Oh my gosh. Can you imagine how many Goliaths we could take now? Just one little stone. Okay, think about that now, Harmon, I love this conversation and I have such respect for your dedication and passion and for the commitment that you've made to live, , the kind of life that you do on behalf of the people that you wanna express generous intention towards.

I love the fact that you're continue to collide with people who have generous hearts around the world, and I'm really glad that you found a great team of people. On the ground that you work with and that again, their generosity, collides with each other's and, and then all of a sudden out of all that and a lot of hard work and planning these [00:29:00] bridges emerge for the benefit of communities.

I just really love that. And you know, you and I have done some partnership together over the years. We had a charity at one point who was able to support you guys and that, that's changed. It became more complex, but we were able to create a new partnership in Canada this year. And so, again, if you're listening in and you're in Canada, , you can go to bridging the Gap, , africa.org.

But if you're in Canada and you wanna. Connect with the work that Harmon's doing and Suzanne and others on their team, and you wanna express and activate some generous intention towards them. We have set up a new partnership for Bridging the Gap Africa in, in Canada. And so if you wanted to find out about the work and if you wanted to give a donation and receive a tax receipt in Canada for that, you would go to Impact hope.ca.

Slash BT ga. So bridging the gap, Africa B TGA, impact [00:30:00] hope.ca/bga. And you can find out information there. You can, you can donate there because you know, the reality is again, is generous intention has to find practicality. And so we were able to find some new partnership this year and, Brad there, Brad Wilson has been a great, great friend so far in helping us.

And we are, or our goal is to really, help out and do what we can. And so again, if you're in Canada, you can visit there to give and donate. If you wanna find out about the organization, you go to Bridging the Gap africa.org and, you know. Again, just challenge yourself. Find somebody that is generous in nature and link arms with them in your community and do it at home first, and then do it around the world with people like Harman or others, if that's what you feel is so led to do.

But again, we're coming up to a time of year where, you know, generosity ought to be on our minds. But as you said earlier, Harman, we are in, we're in some challenging times. And so my [00:31:00] question to you, I guess as we finish, is, is that, so when you think of what this whole journey's taught you, when you think about what you've learned along the way, what, what are the biggest lessons and gifts that this whole journey's given you personally?

Harman.

Wow. After 30 plus years, can you imagine, how it all started? I love that the way you phrased that, the gift, the gifts. At every bridge opening ceremony, and we're talking isolated, rural, extremely poor communities, that don't have a bridge. And we come in because of the generosity of others, right?

We're able to build these pedestrian foot bridges that saves lives and just makes their lives easier. And at every bridge opening ceremony I'm given a gift.

Hmm.

The most extravagant [00:32:00] gifts, the most meaningful gifts that I've ever had. And this is the joy from generosity, right? I get a goat,

Hmm.

the community will give me a goat, and that's that.

That is huge. That is so meaningful. It's so powerful. And they come up and, and then the other thing, if I'm working with a certain group, like the Maasai. They'll put beads around my neck, not me, but our whole team. And the gift is to, the whole team is not me. The goat goes. But it is, it is just such a beautiful, , it may sound weird, but it's, it is such a powerful emotional moment for me.

, Because it's hard for me to receive. I'd rather give, I, you know, I built a, we built this bridge because of the generosity of others. But I have the, the privilege to experience cross-culturally through, you know, there's 42 different tribes in Kenya. [00:33:00] I don't know how many I've worked with, but quite a few to receive a gift from them of something as, , may seem insignificant to some, but it is so significant to me and it really touches me deeply.

Hmm. Well, you know, we, I can remember back when we were there and we happened to be at one of those bridge opening ceremonies with you guys. And I will say that it was such a powerful experience, , because of the. The, the, just the tremendous graciousness of the hosts, but also the deep felt appreciation for the expression of generosity.

And, and, you know, there is nothing more powerful it feels like in the moment than that. It's humbling. Uh, it's, it's gratifying. And it's also, . It also just makes you wanna do more of [00:34:00] it,

Yeah. Yeah.

I think it just, it just does.

And then, , lastly Tim, I think, about the journey, right? The journey that, , I've spent 30 plus years of, of, of doing this, , is, is that there's, there's such if, if you're willing to risk, right? If you're willing to go to that next level and say, this is nuts, but you can do it, you know. That, that's something I, I, I've learned and would, would love to, , not challenge, but just encourage the listeners to, if you got something in you, you got this fire in you, you got this, you know, whatever it is, locally or internationally, don't sit back.

Don't sit back, do it. If someone like me can do what we've done where there's. 18,000 people crossing our bridges [00:35:00] today because I had a vision, right? And it's, my vision is only, , expressed and accomplished because of the generosity of others. So don't let, don't, don't let this whole thing, I can't do it because I don't have money.

Thing stop you from what is in your heart and this burning in your heart. And that you have a passion for to help others, and I think I could just leave it at that

You know

lesson.

yeah, I got nothing else to say normally. I got a lot to say, but I, I have nothing else to say to add to that. That is a powerful provocation and a wonderful challenge. But I did hear from you to say, the next time I think of something's nuts, I should just go for it. So I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna go for it,

Okay.

and I'm gonna, and I'm gonna see what happens. So, , Harmon,

What do you think, Tim? I gotta say the last time you did something nuts, you almost drowned in a river

That's true.

[00:36:00] for bridging the gap. Africa. And that's another story, but it's

is another story. I did, I did a

Okay. Thank you for risking your life

You're welcome.

support.

my wife saved, my wife saved my life. ,

As usual,

my wife saved my life that day. She, we didn't realize it, but she did. That's a story for another time. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that when we talk again.

Harman. Because

Alright. Look forward to it, man.

more. Are you gonna be like, I have like a resident historian who comes on all the time. A leadership historian. I'm working out a deal right now. I'm gonna have a, a resident psychotherapist who's gonna come on all the time. 'cause I need a psychotherapist.

me too.

we. And then you'll be my resident, like Bridge Builder.

We'll get your, that sounds like a good idea. Awesome. Remember guys, if you listen in, you listened in for a reason. Do me a favor, as you uncork this conversation, as in you, as you get generous and you let your generous heart collide with others. Do me a favor, uh, DM me or send me an email@timatunmodified.com and let myself and Harman know how you're uncorking this [00:37:00] conversation into your life for the positive benefit of those that you encounter.

Just remember, don't forget that generous giving brings us into a gravitational pull of force that causes us to come together and absolutely transform the world around us. And if it's gonna happen, it's up to us as individuals. Don't leave that work to somebody else. You can do it. Thanks for listening.

Have a great day. Cheers.