Shanetra “CC” Barber, the 2009-2010 Miss Oregon who finished in the Top 12 contestants in the National Miss America Pageant, went to Kenya with World Hope earlier this year. Upon her return, she decided to make World Hope an additional platform for the National Miss America Pageant.
What was just a random (maybe not) flight for CC on a route from Colorado to Florida, turned into a series of events that would forever change CC’s life. She sat by Derek Janney, Executive Vice President of World Hope, during the long flight from Colorado. It was after hearing about World Hope and what the organization has done through the years, that she decided to take a trip to Kenya and see for herself.
Generally speaking, anyone who goes to Africa doesn’t return the same. As was her case. I spoke with her not long ago and I asked her what the most significant part of her trip was. She took a moment to reflect on the many memories one makes when visiting Hope Center and responded “I would say that the most significant memory I have, one that I will always carry with me, was at Hope Church at the Sunday service when we began singing an old church song that I grew up singing with the family as a little girl. I began to cry. Not because I was sad. On the contrary, because I realized how universal and far-reaching God’s love is and that here, thousands of miles away across an ocean were families and children worshiping God to the same songs as us. I’ve never felt that connected.”
Wow. That was probably the best answer I ever received after asking that question to others that have come and gone to Africa with us. CC had the full experience of what many know as the “family of man.” The basic human experience which lingers on birth, love, and joy, but also touches war, privation, illness and death. Believe it or not, we are all connected by a common thread. We just so happen to believe that thread is Christ. ^KR