It's O.k. to Cry

by Dr. James W. Jackson
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

When Dr. Douglas Jackson was appointed as President of Project C.U.R.E. in October, 1997, I was freed up to concentrate on developing our international strategies and partnerships. We were receiving more and more requests to visit needy countries to perform the required Needs Assessment studies. We were then shipping into over 80 countries and donating to hundreds of hospitals and clinics around the world. Douglas, who was gifted at developing public relations and expanding financial resources, was also doing a superb job of developing the procurement process, and creatively growing the volunteer base. New methods were developed for inventory control and warehouse procedures.

It was getting to the place where I would be traveling to Asia, then coming home, reloading my suitcase, traveling to Africa, hurrying home, reloading my suitcase, traveling to South America, speeding home once again to reload my suitcase. I remember, on one occasion, being in northern Pakistan on the Afghanistan border where it was very cold and needing to then travel directly to Entebbe, Uganda and Burundi via London. The clothes I needed for the cold mountains of northern Pakistan were not the same clothes I needed for hot, sweaty Burundi. So, Anna Marie packed another suitcase for me with the appropriate clothes and supplies in it, jumped on an airplane as soon as her school was dismissed on Friday afternoon, met me in London, and we exchanged suitcases and off I went again.

I was seeing more filth and cockroach- infested hospitals, more pain and misery and death and dying, more frustrated and discouraged doctors and nurses, and more needless suffering and stark hopelessness in 30 days than most people would see in a lifetime.

A thousand times my heart would be broken. Many times in my hospital tours I would have to hide around a corner just to cry. I would feel absolutely helpless and torn after I would see a small child who had fallen into an open cooking fire, lying on a soiled and sheetless hospital pad covered with dirty bandages. What I would hear from the sincere, but frustrated, nurse would be, “But, Dr. Jackson, we just don’t have any way to treat burn patients at this hospital. The child will die soon.”

In Somalia, I had stood beside the rickety hospital bed of a young boy. The lad had inadvertently stepped on a hidden land mine that had been left over from the tribal wars, and hisleg had been blown off just above the knee. But the neglected hospital was not able to even perform a respectable amputation, because it had been months and months since the hospital had any suture to stitch shut wounds of any size. The chances were very high that the lad would not even live to be a cripple. I cried.

I was quickly learning that it was all right to cry about the things that surely were also breaking the heart of God.

My constant prayer was that God would protect me, but that, also, I would never get callused or cynical about what I was required to see day after day after day.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: mailto:press@winstoncrown.com

images: Drs. James W. and AnnaMarie Jackson

Source & Resource

by Dr. James W. Jackson
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

By 1996 Project C.U.R.E. was shipping donated medical goods into 40 countries around the world. That year alone we had delivered 50 cargo shipping containers with a wholesale value of twenty million dollars into countries with desperate and hurting people including India, China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and new targets in Africa.

We even teamed up with Israel and donated over $1 million worth of urgently needed supplies to help cover the unusual demands caused by an influx of over 750,000 refugees from the old Soviet Union and Ethiopia into Israel.  Most of the immigrants had come to Israel sick and without any money.  We had stepped in and helped in their time of need. The positive reputation of Project C.U.R.E. was growing at a sprinter’s pace.

Where were we getting all the medical goods to ship? Could we keep up the pace with the ever increasing demands?  How could we ever continue?  Would it be physically possible to sustain what we had started in 1987?

One night in a grungy hotel room in the old Soviet Union I woke up in a dead sweat.  I had just been with some wonderful doctors at a hospital where I was conducting a “Needs Assessment” study.  My very being there had raised their expectations and hopes that I would approve them and send the needed medical goods to their hospitals and clinics. During the night when I was half-asleep, I nearly panicked.

What if, by my just being there, I had caused the doctors, nurses and government officials to believe that I was going to approve them and send all kinds of medical supplies and pieces of equipment, only to return home and find that I had nothing in my warehouses to send?  Just what would I do?  I would have been guilty of giving them false hope. I didn’t want to have any part of giving people false hope.

Then, a marvelous thing happened. Out of the darkness of that miserable night came a sense of calm and an assurance as if it had been an eternal declaration, “Don’t worry about how much inventory is in your warehouses. You just concentrate on getting the goods distributed to the needy people. I will always give you just a little bit more than you can ever give away.” I smiled in the darkness, rolled over and went soundly to sleep.
 

Now, fifteen years later, I walk through the Project C.U.R.E. warehouses and collection centers spread across the USA and marvel at the millions of dollars of life saving medical goods being processed and packed. Thousands of faithful volunteers are there loading the cargo containers to be shipped to the more than 120 recipient countries and thousands of needy hospitals and clinics. But I can still hear that soft, assuring voice saying, “You concentrate on getting the goods distributed to the needy people. I will always give you just a little bit more than you can ever give away.”
 
I needed the Resources, but I found there to be only one true Source!  God is the source; everything else is a resource. God the eternal and boundless source has been flawlessly faithful in supplying to us the resources just at the very moment we have needed them.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: mailto:press@winstoncrown.com

images: Drs. James W. and AnnaMarie Jackson