INVINCIBILITY: Vietnam

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Note: In 1998, I made fourteen major trips that included 30 countries. In that year I made three separate trips to Vietnam. In the next four blogs I want to lift out and share four short incidences that took place on just one of those Vietnam trips: April 22-30, 1998.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: April 1998: My first needs-assessment trip to Vietnam took place in October of 1996. Project C.U.R.E.’s involvement in Vietnam actually began two years prior to that date through our contact with Dr. Randy Robinson; his wife, Ginger; and their organization Face the Challenge. My October 1996 journal entries chronicle our partnership with Face the Challenge. We jointly went to Ho Chi Minh City (Old Saigon) and were part of the effort that resulted in over sixty surgeries being performed on kids and young residents of the Ho Chi Minh City area.

In many ways that trip greatly affected my life. Witnessing the talented surgical team using Project C.U.R.E.’s donated medical goods in the operating and recovery rooms indelibly underscored in my heart and mind the undeniable value of our mission to take medical supplies into developing countries around the world. The lives of the children and parents, who were so radically changed during that trip alone, merited all the combined efforts of Project C.U.R.E. over the past eleven years.

I was glad I had actually gone into the operating rooms and closely observed the restructuring of the little faces and bodies of the children. I was glad I had been present to see the tears and looks on the faces of the parents when their children were returned to them in the recovery rooms. The children, who had been so disfigured from birth, were handed back to anxious moms and dads, who were more often than not in shock when they saw the kids and realized for certain that their own flesh and blood had been given beauty and a second chance at living normal lives.

While thinking back on the 1996 trip, and at the same time anticipating my upcoming trip to Vietnam, I was struck by another startling realization. Life is precious. Life is short. The length of life is totally unpredictable. Our tendency is to begin to think about ourselves and our friends in terms of invincibility. We will always be here. Our friends will always be here. Drastic change is neither thinkable nor acceptable, especially while we are involved in doing “God’s work.” We will always be protected from harm, and our families are somehow guaranteed to never be subjected to grief or pain or loss resulting from our endeavors. That possibility just doesn’t occur to us, or if it does, it is instantly rejected by a good inoculation of denial. We simply get another shot of invincibility like the yellow fever or cholera shots we get before going into the African jungles.

But that ideal of invincibility is not always the way real life works. Bill LeTourneau worked closely with Face the Challenge and Dr. Randy Robinson. He was also my front man making all the necessary arrangements for the surgical trip in October of 1996. 

 

Putting all the details in place necessitated that Bill travel to Vietnam many times before my departure for Ho Chi Minh City. Bill, who at the time was forty-one years old, had a natural talent for diplomacy and negotiating. In fact, it was Bill who helped me tag the right contacts in Ho Chi Minh City, which eventually produced meetings at the Vietnamese ministry of trade, where I proposed a working relationship between North Korea and Vietnam, with Project C.U.R.E. orchestrating the international countertrade of Vietnamese rice for North Korean iron ore to help keep the people of North Korea from starving to death. Bill sat in on those meetings with me in 1996.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Robinson’s group, Face the Challenge, returned to the hospitals of Old Saigon to once again perform cranio-maxillofacial surgeries on little kids. They are once again using Project C.U.R.E.’s medical supplies, which our staff sent to Ho Chi Minh City a few weeks ago.

Once again, Bill LeTourneau was in on the advance detail assignment to prepare for the surgeons and nurses, who would arrive later. Everything was properly set up with the local doctors, the hospitals, the hotels, and the shuttle buses. The parents of the children who would receive the reconstruction surgeries had been notified of the scheduled day the team would arrive. Because of my scheduled trip to Hanoi, I opted not to return to Ho Chi Minh City with the medical team.

During the days and often into the nights, the medical team performed their life-changing surgeries. But one morning Bill didn’t show for breakfast. At the age of forty-three, he had died alone in his room of a massive heart attack. Bill not only left his wife, Julie, and his two kids, Joseph and Jackie, but he also left a lot of us with hurting hearts and another opportunity to revisit our stubborn beliefs that our lives and endeavors on this earth are somehow invincible.

My prayer is that God will bring healing to our hearts and be especially near Julie and the children as they try to sort through the emotions and trauma of such an unexpected tragedy. I know today that heaven is richer because Bill is there, but I also know that we all feel a little pillaged today, and a whale of a lot more vulnerable.

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.jameswjackson.com

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: press@winstoncrown.com

A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND: William L Armstong

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

On Tuesday, July 5th, 2016, a very dear friend of mine died. On Friday, July 15th, we gathered to honor him, we shared stories about him, and we thanked God for his extraordinary life. How could one man have accomplished so much in such a short period of time?

Bill Armstrong was president of Armstrong Broadcasting Company and later Ambassador Media Corporation. He bought KOSI-AM radio station when he was 22 years old and soon stretched it to include FM coverage as well. He owned and operated the Colorado Springs Sun newspaper and three ABC television stations in Idaho and Wyoming. He owned and operated more than a dozen private companies and served as director of six public companies, including the chairman position of the Denver-based Oppenheimer Funds.

He served in the Colorado House of Representatives (1963-1964), The Colorado Senate (1965-1972), U.S. House of Representatives (1973-1978), and U.S. Senate (1979-1990). Upon leaving the Senate, he returned to Colorado and once again became involved in the business world. In 2006 Senator Armstrong became the president of Colorado Christian University. He claimed that his work at the University was “the most significant, energizing, and rewarding work I have ever undertaken.”

As I sat in the large crowd at Senator Armstrong’s funeral, contemplating the impact of this great man’s influence on our contemporary world, I quickly realized that had it not been for this one man it is very likely that there would never have been an international humanitarian organization called Project C.U.R.E.

I had serendipitously been seated at the same table with Senator Bill Armstrong and his wife, Ellen, at one of the first presidential prayer breakfasts of the Ronald Reagan administration in Washington D.C. He was warm and engaging and interested in what I was doing. I explained a bit about my work as an international economic consultant in Africa and South America. At his invitation, I returned to Washington and met with him at his office. I chatted with him about my ideas regarding debt for equity swaps in the lesser developed countries in South America. I asked Senator Armstrong if he could assist me in getting introduced to the political leadership of the country of Brazil, as I thought I could be of help to them. He graciously agreed to help me.

I had previously been introduced to some very powerful people in Sao Paulo who had considerable influence in the capital, Brasilia. In addition to those names my portfolio now included letters of introduction and recommendation from Senators Armstrong and McCain. The Brazilian government now officially invited me to come to Brasilia. Senator Armstrong had contacted our U.S. Ambassador, Shlackman, U.S. Consul on Economic Affairs, Michael J. Delaney, and U.S. Economic Minister to Brazil, John Bowen. Mr. Bowen would formally introduce me to Brazil’s Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Eventually, I was introduced to Brazil’s President, Jose Sarney, and one of his chief economists, Antonio Basilar.

That is how I got involved in Brazil. It was in Brazil that I eventually became sensitized to the incredible need for medical supplies and pieces of medical equipment in the lesser developed countries of the world. I was eventually able to organize Project C.U.R.E. to help in fulfilling that need in over 130 other hurting countries. Senator Bill Armstrong played a pivotal and irreplaceable part in that protocol and sequence of events.

On Thursday, April 7th of this year, I had a meeting with Bill Armstrong in his CCU office. I took along with me a copy of one of the letters he had written on my behalf in Brazil. He could hardly believe that I had kept the letter for nearly thirty years. At that meeting I was delivering an advance copy of my newest book Better Off that he had agreed to review for me. Little did I know that meeting would be the last formal meeting I would have with him.

On Saturday, April 16th, I received a call from Senator Armstrong. He was so excited and enthusiastic. He had just finished reading the book. He was so encouraging and said he was sending a personal endorsement email to me within the next few minutes. Tears came to my eyes as I thanked God for William L. Armstrong. His immense love for God and his compelling desire to help other people had not diminished during his times of pain and cancer, but had become even stronger with each remaining day of his life.

This world is a better place and all our lives are richer because of the loving life of Bill Armstrong.

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.jameswjackson.com 

 

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. 

AT FIRST BLUSH

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

I’m intrigued by the illustrious traditions of the book business. While the printing presses are still running, the publisher snatches a couple of sample copies from the conveyor belt, hustles down to the nearest UPS or FedEx store, and sends them to the anxious author who is sitting at home chewing his or her finger nails. That is the first instant the author gets to touch, smell, and stare at the new product. The baby is born.

This week I received from FedEx my two sealed copies of the hard bound book, Better Off. Indeed, the one split second of satisfaction was worth the innumerable hours of copious research and writing. Yes.

With this book, however, I decided to do something different. I thought it would be fun to flush my mind of all previous involvement with the book and read it straight through as if it were my very first experience with the subject and the written words.

I had a very interesting reaction when I finished and closed the back cover and laid down the book. I want to share that personal experience with you.

I fancied myself in heaven, twenty-five years from now, where I was looking down over the lofty banister back onto old mother earth. I had already been experiencing a ton of information and wisdom that I recently learned would have been freely available to me while I was back stumbling and stomping around on earth. I had been so messed up, however, thinking about what we were going to do when we ran out of oil, or sunlight, or water, or electric grids, or computer chips . . . or whatever. I found out that I could have been spending my time, my mental energy, and my imagination exploring and freely discovering all the new and exciting things that were right there before my eyes.

They were all right there, but my preoccupation with fears and worries about shortages, lack, and insufficiencies had burned holes right through my inner eyes of hope, imagination, discovery, and achievement. Those impediments had left me blinded to the possibilities that now I could clearly see.

Why didn’t we, God’s highest achievement in creation, simply reject those who wanted to manipulate, stymie, and control us and condemn us to lives of poverty, scarcity, and bondage? Why didn’t we go ahead and perfect nuclear power, harness hydrogen and finish fusion? We were so tied to the logic of the limited that we were hindered from learning about the ability of abundance.

We had spent all our collective time thinking how to recklessly divvy up the scarce commodities when we could have easily utilized heavenly intelligence and energy to discover available abundance. I caught myself desperately wanting to give it another try.

The rest of the hard bound books have not yet arrived for distribution, but I find myself very eager to get the message of Better Off out to my friends.  I would like to have you own a copy of Better Off. I truly believe you will find it inspiring and personally helpful.

To order go to www.winstoncrown.com or www.jameswjackson.com.

After you have read the book I would love for you to send me your personal responses at press@winstoncrown.com 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.jameswjackson.com

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: press@winstoncrown.com

"WE'RE ON FIRE"

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Afghanistan: August, 2002: Our bus left the refugee area and we were driven back to the warlord’s enclave. Everyone got off and went into the heavily guarded headquarters where Commander Chief Miramza met us graciously. We were seated once again and additionally fed ripe watermelon slices and freshly picked grapes. The commander seemed genuinely appreciative of our having made the effort to help the people. It’s just that you never really know where their true loyalties lie. Maybe he was happy that the Taliban had been dislodged from power in his area and maybe Bin Laden may have been his hero. There was just no way of telling. You just never knew whose side he might figure that “Allah” was on. 

I remembered that back in Tashkent during my meeting with the embassy folks they had told me a supposedly true story of an incident that had taken place during the American bombing raid. They told me that a Taliban tank operator was sitting on top of his tank watching the absolute precision of the American bombing operation. The bombs would travel along the ground ripping deep trenches in the ground then find their way exactly to the pinpointed target and completely wipe out the designated object.

He watched the precision operation for several days, turned to his Taliban buddies and said, “I was told specifically that Allah was on our side and assuredly he would give us the victory. But, I don’t think so.” And thereupon he jumped down from his tank and walked home.

We pulled out of Balkh and drove back toward Mazar-e Sharif. It was early evening when we returned to the Young Nak compound. The showers there were nothing to brag about but the wetness of the water washed away the desert dirt and soothed away the emotional afternoon. God’s faithfulness had protected us once again.

After dinner it began to cool down a bit outside. It was so hot at night that we just laid on the mat and sweat. As I had mentioned earlier, fortunately, our room was equipped with a fan.

To keep the mosquitoes and other insects from attacking our totally unprotected bodies, the manager of the Young Nak compound delivered each night to each room a burning citronella coil that stayed lit like a punk and burned slowly throughout the night. He set the punks in the windowsill, which was made of concrete, and no one worried about safety but simply enjoyed the mosquito-free atmosphere.

Monday, August 5

About 1:30 a.m., I was startled as I caught a glimpse of a figure running in the darkness out of our room. My eyes bounced open and I was wide awake. I sat up and reached for my little flashlight, which I had lying on the sleeping mat next to my head. I quickly turned on the light and realized that the room was engulfed in a heavy layer of smoke. 

The sleeping pads had been situated on the floor adjacent to the room’s walls, around the entire parameter of the room, except where the door was located. I was sleeping on the pad on the same wall as where the door was located. My head was in the corner and my body stretched toward the doorway. The mat that was at a right angle to my head was placed right under the low positioned window. Jason was sleeping exactly opposite the room from me and Mr. Kim was on the floor opposite the window. Toward the end of the mat, which was under the windowsill and at a right angle to my head, I could see a patch of flames about three or four inches above the surface of the mat.

About that time Jason jumped up and we got to the hot spot at about the same time. The coverlet on the mat was ready to erupt into full flame. The mat itself had burned most of the way through and had reached a kindling temperature sufficient to launch it into full flame.

Immediately I started pulling my things off the mat. I had placed my travel bag, my camera, and other items on the mat next to my head. If the flames had erupted they all would have ignited quickly.

It had been Mr. Kim who first realized that we had a fire. And it was he who had run out of the room to get some water. Soon he came running back into the room with a supply of water and thoroughly doused the fire. Jason and I then grabbed the mat and hauled it outside just in case the fire was not totally extinguished.

Another Korean man who had been sleeping upstairs had also come to the room sensing that there was a fire. The smoke coming from the mat had been toxic and once the episode was over I realized that it had affected my lungs as well as my vocal chords.

The thing that bothered me most about the mishap was that I had not awakened at the strong smell of the smoke. I had awakened at the man running out of the room. It certainly was no mystery as to what had started the fire. The fan had blown the window curtain just right to flip the mosquito-repellent punk off the windowsill and onto the mat. I guess my subconscious mind had accepted the fact that there was supposed to be smoke from the punk and didn’t let me know the difference between the burning citronella and the toxic smoke from the mat. Had I been by myself in a room somewhere in one of the other countries where I traveled, I might not have awakened before the mat burst into flames. Once more, God had been faithful to protect us.

It seemed like a short night after that, because we had to be up at 4:30 a.m. in order to get ready to leave on the bus.

On Monday we would reverse the trip that had taken us into Afghanistan as we traveled back to Uzbekistan. We left Mazar-e Sharif and drove through the sand dunes that had blown their way back over the road. We cleared Afghanistan border control and made our way across the bridge that joined the two countries over the Amu Darya River.

It was actually more difficult getting back into Uzbekistan than it had been getting into Afghanistan. There was a tremendous amount of drug traffic out of Afghanistan. Production of heroine in Afghanistan topped nearly all other countries in the world. Therefore, they very carefully check not only the travelers and their luggage but pay particular attention to the large and small trucks that cross the border and the automobiles. I was surprised, however, to see drug-sniffing dogs employed at the Uzbekistan border working to detect the chemicals.

Tuesday, August 6

Tuesday morning was an informal training session for Jason on needs assessments. Anna Marie and I met with him for a couple of hours reviewing observations and situations that had taken place on the trip. Jason was an eager learner and had really become a committed and loyal member of the Project C.U.R.E. team. I had become impressed that he would be able to handle international assessments for Project C.U.R.E. in various venues around the world.

At noon Daniel Kim came to get us checked out of the hotel and delivered to the airport. We had a good opportunity to discuss the findings of our assessment studies with Daniel Kim and suggest the logistics and details of the medical shipments from Project C.U.R.E. into Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. It was going to be an exciting project to see what we could do together with the Koreans in Central Asia.

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: press@winstoncrown.com