THE POWER OF ONE: The Baroness Emma Nicholson

It was recently my privilege to spend an evening  in the company of great grace. Emma Nicholson, The Baroness of Winterbourne, and a Member of The House of Lords, spoke at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Washington D.C. Temple Visitor's Center auditorium, last Sunday night. This petite, titled woman who has stood before Parliament and amongst kings and queens, has also walked the dusty streets of Iraq, visited the filthy orphanages of Romania, and held the hands of suffering children around the globe. She has seen majesty and misery, which gives consequence to her perspective on the world and its people. Partnering with other groups, like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she is saving lives, rebuilding dignity, and elevating people ravaged by war and despotism.  I helped prepare food for the VIP reception prior to her presentation, and first met the baroness in the kitchen where she greeted the helpers. I later spent a few moments with her at the reception, and then I had the pleasure of hearing her speak about her organization--The AMAR Foundation--and the work she is currently engaged in. Money is not the engine that drives her charity work. She uses partnerships between people to make things happen--a blind teacher helps a young girl blinded by war and both lives improve. She puts paintbrushes and buckets of paint in the hands of locals and soon a home for boys emerges from what was once a lifeless purgatory warehousing bodies devoid of life.

On a shoestring budget, she makes miracles occur, by trusting in people and their innate desire to to good. Here is my takeaway from that evening.

1. Grace is the ability to make every person feel they are the most important person in the room. It is rare and priceless in our hurry-up world. She embodied grace.
 2. Regardless of position and advantages, it is a caring heart and raw desire that make things happen. She is making critical differences all across the globe, one person at a time.
3. There is beauty in a certain amount of formality. 
4. Make no apologies for being strong when a mountain needs pushing.
 5. We can all do great things. (The baroness is a deaf woman fearlessly working miracles in places least friendly to any woman.) 
 6. Helping people is a hands-on enterprise.
 7. No one is expendable. The most "broken" people can do great things when given a noble work to do.
 8. Tyrannical governments know strong families breed the spirit of freedom. Therefore, protecting families is the best way to ensure liberty, and rebuilding families restores societies.

(Please click the link above and learn more about AMAR.)
 Copyright 2009 Laurie LC Lewis, (To obtain permission to copy or reprint any portion of this post, please contact the author at lclewis2007@gmail.com)