During the 10-year anniversary celebration, Whitney shared with everyone the calling God had put on her heart through a heartwarming speech.
“I feel incredibly grateful to be standing here ten years after starting Impact One. I keep looking back and thinking about where we started, and I don’t think I could have ever pictured this: a room with this many people, a space this big, or a library that serves this many kids. I didn’t see this ten years ago but I’m so grateful that God has brought us all here today. I feel really happy and grateful.
I want to take a minute, for those who were here with me 10 years ago, would you just stand, those of you that have been part of the journey for 10 years, would you just stand?
Whitney and the original crew of Directors from 10 years ago
I celebrate all of this with you today because you remember where we started 10 years ago. I could remember it like yesterday, I was a younger girl, single, and very frustrated. I was also really discouraged by life circumstances and what was happening around me. During this time, God gave me a vision. God placed a calling on my life over 10 years ago when I met Priscilla and Margaret from Fountain of Life. I met them, and I had seen community schools around the country, I had always been so inspired by community schools but yet so confused about why nobody was helping you.
Chibanja directors share ideas during a training session almost 10 years ago.
I was just like this is amazing what people are doing, Why aren’t more people helping them do what they are supposed to do? So I met Priscilla and Magaret and in this time of my life when things were hard and difficult and I didn’t see a way out, I knew that I still loved Africa and I still wanted to be a part of what God was doing here. And in come Priscilla and Magaret and in come a vision of coming alongside community schools and supporting them to do what you guys are doing each and every day. So from the very beginning, the inspiration has been community schools, it’s been what you are doing and the hard work that you are putting in. You’ve been the inspiration of Impact One from the very beginning.
While you’ve been the inspiration, God has been the foundation. Because I was really scared 10 years ago if you couldn’t tell. I was really scared of this calling that God had placed on my life. But God assured me at the beginning that he was the foundation and that he would carry me and he would carry Impact One. I found my book from 10 years ago, and it has all of Impact One’s plans from 10 years. My dad encouraged me in that season to just write down what it is God wants me to do, “Just write it down so you always have something to go back to when it gets scary and overwhelming, just write it down.” So I did, during that season in July, and I just want to read it to you today, it’s written as if God was speaking to me.
“I have brought you here for a reason, I have called you to love, to know my love and share it with others. It’s that simple! Live a life of love, and be my love and light to others. We will start in Ng’ombe, we will start with children and their teachers. We will teach them my love, we will show them my love, and we will lift up the standard of their education in hopes of giving them a better future, a fulfilled future that I desire for them. But most of all we will ground them in my love, we will build roots in my truth, and we will lay a foundation of truth. You will not walk alone; I will hold you securely, I will guide your feet, I will establish your path, and I will walk with you every step. Just look for me, look to me, we will do this together. “
Whitney facilitating a training in 2014.
10 years ago that’s the vision God gave me for starting Impact One, and I pray 10 years later you can see the truth of those words. I pray that you can know that we love you. I pray that you can know that God loves you. And I pray that you are grounding all of this on the truth of who He is and who he has called us to be. So you have been the inspiration for Impact One, God has been the foundation. He has carried us for 10 years and the goal has always been a life-changing education. So, I want to encourage you to continue putting in the inspiration and doing the hard work on the ground. We will continue to come alongside you, to love you, and to show you God’s love in all we do. I’m so grateful to be standing here today, to be celebrating with you, and to be enjoying 10 years of Impact. I know and trust God will continue to carry us.”
10th Anniversary Celebration