034: Standing in the Gap for People

Do you have a heart for service? Have you been in a place where helping might mean letting go of your own personal biases and privileges? How do you hold onto your calling when it seems like everything around you is conspiring against you? Host Mike Domitrz welcomes CAST member Darren Tipton for a special one-on-one interview. Darren shares his journey from being a 10-year-old boy who wandered into a nursing home after his grandmother died…looking to find other grandmothers to love; to offering no-judgement rides, as a young adult, to spring breakers who were intoxicated; to “standing in the gap” for people as the leader of Project Humanity. Be prepared to be inspired.

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Key Takeaways:

[1:23] Darren applies mindfulness to the work Project Humanity does in Africa.

[8:18] Respecting the mindfulness of another culture.

[13:23] How Darren started his journey of standing in the gap for other people.

[23:46] A passion for service can be rediscovered.

[25:29] Half the Sky is an influential book that relates passion to the problems in our world.

Transcription (5,479 More Words)

Introduction:	Welcome to the Everyday Mindfulness Show, the off the cuff exploration of everyday aha moments and life experiences. Join a cast of over 70 uniquely brilliant individuals. Each week Mike Domitrz and an eclectic mix of cast members and special guests will engage in mindful and lively conversations about everything from meditation to spirituality to personal passions to successes and failures to relationships, to the stuff that makes up the moments of our daily lives. Let’s get started with your host, author, speaker, provocateur, and a bit of a goofball, Mike Domitrz.
Mike Domitrz:	Yes, I’m your host Mike Domitrz and thrilled to be here on another episode of the Everyday Mindfulness Show. This week I have a special guest, dear friend, incredible human being, Darren Tipton. This is a one on one. As some of you know, sometimes we do a cast show, this is one on one because I really just want to spend this time with you Darren to let people really hear about you, your journey, how you thrive in the world that you’re in, and the mission you’re making in the world, and how that relates to everyday mindfulness. So Darren, thanks for joining us.
Darren Tipton:	I am thrilled to be here. Thank you.
Mike Domitrz:	Absolutely. For anybody wondering, “Hey, who’s Darren Tipton?” Go to everydaymindfulnessshow.com, you’ll see the show notes, you can click on directly to his website, learn all about him, he’s doing amazing work. So Darren, you have a non-profit doing sensational work over in Africa, specifically in a couple countries. I want you to talk about it because I think that does it justice most. So tell us about the non-profit and where you’re doing the work.
Darren Tipton:	Our non-profit’s called Project Humanity. And we’re doing work in Zambia, in Kenya, and we’ve just started Zanzibar. So we basically focus on women’s empowerment. That’s financial empowerment, helping deliveries, prenatal care, that type of thing. And then putting libraries in schools to help educate.
Mike Domitrz:	And how many times a year are you going over there and spending time?
Darren Tipton:	I’m making the journey every other month.
Mike Domitrz:	So you’re up to six times a year now.
Darren Tipton:	Six times a year.
Mike Domitrz:	And some of those are as long as a month.
Darren Tipton:	Yeah, I just got home from a month.
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, that’s awesome. So you’re over there for a month, so you’re there six months a year now.
Darren Tipton:	Is that crazy?
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah. Which is interesting because when you and I first met, just a few years back, you were not at that volume or amount of time. So it’s really kicked up recently.
Darren Tipton:	You know, in the beginning, years ago, I went every month. And then it was every other month. And I prefer to do weeks at a time versus returning and going back.
Mike Domitrz:	Right, which makes sense. Absolutely.
Darren Tipton:	If you’re going to go long, might as well stay.
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, and you’re in high conflict areas, very impoverished areas, struggling areas. How do you apply mindfulness for yourself in dealing with all that you’re seeing and experiencing, for those you share with, how does that work?
Darren Tipton:	I think the biggest thing for me, and to preface what I’m going to say, we select areas we work in based upon the most critical needs. So often I find myself asking the question, “Where does no one else want to go?” Or, “Where are there few people going?” And there’s even something just about presence and you said it, there’s some unique overwhelming challenges, HIV/AIDS and hunger and all these things. And when you think about how do you take an NGO based in our country and our culture, take it and place it in a place that is frankly quite different.
	Mindfulness has so much to do with it, and I think the biggest part of mindfulness is realizing the way that you and I live day to day does not have to be the way that other people live. And I think for a lot of people, the idea of having multiple wives, or the idea of some of the challenges we face, it can be overwhelming. So the mindfulness comes in in being, yes, we’re all human, we may see the world differently, but there is an approach to being helpful that can make a huge difference.
Mike Domitrz:	How do you apply mindfulness to not overwhelm? Because you see things that you wish you could just grab people out of and bring home. But you can’t do that in your line of work. You see violence, you see the ramifications of violence, you’re not in the violence area itself while it’s happening, but you see the ramifications of violence, sexual violence, abuse. How do you apply mindfulness to help you on a day to day while you’re over there? Or when you’re not over there?
Darren Tipton:	I’m going to be really honest, there are days I don’t do well handling it, because the needs are so overwhelming. And you’re seeing people, I could easily be in their shoes, and you’re seeing people struggling, I mean struggling, with a burden that they can’t carry. And you have to, like I take teams over, I have to constantly say, “We’re not here to fix people. We’re not here to fix situations.” And so you have to constantly adjust yourself. Especially if you have a tender heart, if you have a heart that’s responsive to need. Because people come and think, “Well I can give you this because this will help you today. But this isn’t going to help you a week from now, because by then you’ll have used what I’ve given you.” So there’s a certain level when you think about mindfulness, there’s days, it’s just like, “How in the world can we deal with this?” And you have to retreat into that private place in your own center, in your own bit of wellness so to speak.
Mike Domitrz:	Do you have a daily routine to try to help at least keep you in line with that? In other words, are you a person who wakes up and says, “You know what? I need my first 20 minutes to just silence to re-center. And end the day with that, to refocus and find gratitude in this what could be horrific times some days.”
Darren Tipton:	Yeah, there’s two things that I do on the field. Because it’s constant go, it’s 24 hours, I mean, you’re going and there’s things happening. Plus we’ve got volunteers that are coming to serve with us, so they have their own set of concerns. But it could be meditation. In the morning it could be time just to even journal a thought that’s clinging with you from yesterday. And then with the group of volunteers that are traveling with us, it’s that constant conversation of, “What are your impressions about all of this?” And I think the biggest thing, to even go back to your first question, how do I use mindfulness when you’re dealing with systemic poverty, with things that are so overwhelming to view but also to live in, it’s conversation has a lot to do with healing too. So it’s asking questions and waiting for the answers and listening to the people around you. And learning to articulate your own feelings, which is sometimes difficult to do.
Mike Domitrz:	Well I love what you shared there. When we were on the Boy Scout trip years ago, they go to a place called Philmont Scout Ranch. And it can be a very strenuous two week in the mountains of New Mexico. Now nothing like what you’re describing, there’s no poverty, there’s no … But it’s strenuous and it’s stressful. And to help each group every day at the end of the day there’s eight to 10 of you in the middle of nowhere at a camp site trying to, you know, just using survival skills and what you have on you. And they do what’s called thorns and roses at the end of each day.
Darren Tipton:	Yeah.
Mike Domitrz:	And it’s to talk about what were your thorns today and what were your roses today? And I think what that does is give what you just said, it gives the mind a chance to deal with everything it’s trying to deal with on the trail, on the people, your thorn might be somebody in the group and you need to air that out so everybody can move forward. But it also often it’s the rose that’s the person in the group, the thorn was something circumstantial that occurred. So that sounds like what you’re describing there, having people. I wonder how much more difficult, I can only imagine, it would be if you were over there solo without someone at the end of the day to share it with. Would you think that that would just be an unbelievably different experience?
Darren Tipton:	I have gone solo or with one other person before. Because we go into a village and create our staff out of those people. So I’m never alone. So it would be very hard if you went somewhere and didn’t know anyone, it would be tough.
Mike Domitrz:	So you agree. You agree the key to that is having that team, even if you build it right there and they’re from within. But to be there truly solo and not on a team, I can’t, I think that would take a whole other level of really needing quiet time.
Darren Tipton:	Well, and part of mindfulness in another culture respectfully is, what does this culture value? And what do the people locally believe about X, Y, and Z? And there are certain things you can do and certain things you can’t. So that local staff becomes that insurance policy that I’m not going to stick my foot in my mouth repetitively.
Mike Domitrz:	Right. You see child marriage while you’re over there. You see young girls being married to older men. You’re sitting there going, “This is appalling. And yet I have to understand that that’s not exactly why I’m here. There’s relation to why I’m here in that. But I’m not going to stop that by being here. So I gotta do what I can do.” Is that sort of the approach?
Darren Tipton:	Yeah, you see those things, like we were just in Zambia, 10 year olds prostituting themselves for food for the family. You know, there’s a certain level of ilk that comes with that thought, but you do all you can to empower them financial without, you don’t necessarily just tell the mother, “Don‘t send your daughter out to do this.” They would think it was inappropriate that I said that.
Mike Domitrz:	And then you lose all credibility and you can’t help them at all.
Darren Tipton:	You can’t help them at all because suddenly you’re there judging them and in trouble with the government even. So you have to be extraordinarily careful.
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, that makes complete sense. So when you’re here and you’re back in the States, how does it change?
Darren Tipton:	I just thought of this last week, that it is an interesting dance that our team does, that live here and travel. You’re there but you’re here. And we live by a whole different set of standards and maybe expectations. And it’s balancing it enough that we’re engaged and advocating for, in our case these women, but respecting our culture enough to know the proper stories to tell that garner the support you need. And you know, funny thing is we just had a conversation about Facebook. What do you put on Facebook? Do you put the photo of the little kid who’s out? You know, you don’t. Because what you put on Facebook they’re going to see. So it’s a delicate balance of, “I respect you not just when I’m there, but when I’m home.” And somehow I have to take those lessons that I learned about being present, about being respectful, and I have to bring them home and apply them to my everyday life.
Mike Domitrz:	That’s powerful. So how much contact do you have, it’s mainly with the team over there, not with individuals of the community? But the team members within the community, is that correct?
Darren Tipton:	I used to only relate to the team members and then I realized I was missing out. I’ve just been going through this, I would almost cringe because I would get requests from people for this or that or school, and I just started opening up my Facebook to anyone who wants to be my friend. And it’s been overwhelming. So I primarily relate to the team, but I’ve learned part of the blessing is relating to the people that we encounter.
Mike Domitrz:	Well and I’d imagine by opening that up you get the feedback that sort of ignites your fire.
Darren Tipton:	It does.
Mike Domitrz:	Right. I mean, I know that about myself, that I’m an extrovert. And so the what’s going on externally is what feeds my energy. And for people who aren’t aware, that is the difference between an extrovert and an introvert. It’s not who talks and who doesn’t talk or who’s quiet and who’s loud, it’s where do you get your energy. Do you get your energy from the outside of you or from within? And I get it from outside. And I think you are similar in that way, from what you and I have discussed in that past. For you to enable a system where you can get that feedback, just takes the fire to a whole other level I would imagine.
Darren Tipton:	It takes the fire to another level. And you know the thing that I’ve discovered as I’ve been listening to these new friends, new conversations, and even reaching out to go meet some of them. They’re some amazing people with giftedness and passion that have nothing, they’re zeroes that are in their communities. A guy that I read an article about today is feeding 1000 kids a day by just small little fundraising he’s doing. You start finding those little heroes within their culture, they’re not a part of our staff. But that’s the thing that inspires me. Because this is not easy work and anybody who’s doing it, it can drain you. And whether you’re extrovert, introvert, or however you refuel, having those mechanisms that say, “Not only am I not in this alone, that person who’s feeding a 1000 kids a day is not in it alone. And by walking together we can create this mindfulness that is a calling. That there is a place of centeredness. That regardless of how many things are pulling at you, that we can walk together.”
Mike Domitrz:	I love it. And Darren, for some our listeners who are going, “Man, I would love to get involved with this,” how can people get involved?
Darren Tipton:	I think there’s a couple obvious ways. One is travel with us to Africa. So we take willing volunteers. And then the other one, we do several things domestically here in the United States. One is a book drive, so we have people that collect books and we put them on a ship and they go over to Africa. And we have some other activities with our prenatal campaign that people can do.
Mike Domitrz:	So would they reach out to your website?
Darren Tipton:	Yeah, they can reach out to the website, they can email me.
Mike Domitrz:	And we have that link on the show for anybody listening right now. I’m sure people are listening going, “How did you start this? Where did this come from?” So Darren, how did you start this? Where did this come from?
Darren Tipton:	This is a good question, you’ll laugh maybe. But years ago Oprah Winfrey did a special when she was starting her, this was 25, 30 years ago, she did a special on the girls in South Africa where she started her leadership school. And the last thing, I was thinking, “Oh wow, what an amazing thing. Of course she’s Oprah Winfrey and I’m not.” But yet it spoke to me. And the last thing she said on her show was, she goes, “We need everyone. Men, women, whoever.” And it spoke to me. So in my mind was planted this seed of like, “Hmmm,” and it was about Africa. I had a chance to travel with an organization I worked with, last minute, fill in for a leader, went to Kenya. And we’re landing in Kenya and I kind of in an odd way felt like I was coming home. So in a way it was because of her inspiration, but it was also this opportunity that I took. And it’s been in my blood ever since.
Mike Domitrz:	And so you started with that organization and you broke off at some point to create your own.
Darren Tipton:	I did.
Mike Domitrz:	How did that journey take place?
Darren Tipton:	Interestingly, I kept feeling like, it was with a religious group, a Christian religious group. And I kept feeling like we were pulling up to the problem, talking about it and praying about it, and then getting back in the car to go home, hoping that somebody would come answer that prayer. Only to realize that we were the people that were there to answer this prayer. And there came a day of like, “You know what? I think I’ve missed the boat here, because I don’t need to pull up and pray that someone comes and helps them, because we’ve got grain in the back of the car.” But even as that developed, you know, that thought of, “I want anybody and everybody, whether you’re black, orange, yellow, purple, whatever your orientation, wherever you’re from, to come contribute. Because the problem is so severe we can not be selective in who helps, as long as it’s the right kind of person.” And I think for me it was the realization that this takes all hands on deck. We need arms linked, feet on the ground, with talented and gifted people contributing.
Mike Domitrz:	And you said it takes the right kind of person. What is that person? What’s that demographic?
Darren Tipton:	I’ll tell you the person that by and large over time that I’ve been serving. And that’s, for us it‘s a person in transition. There are key points in our lives when we start asking the whys and, “Why do I not like my career anymore?” And for some reason, it could be a divorce, the kids graduating, there are those natural big transitions and people start asking that. A lot of our volunteers come during that point of transition to rediscover themselves, maybe to find a new path that they need to be on. I love it because they’re open. And it’s not just about going and doing medical care or delivering libraries, it’s the reverse to that is there’s a journey of, as you might call it, mindfulness, about presence, about calling. To me that can be absolutely life changing.
	So although we’re very focused on Africa in the things we’re doing, I’m just as focused on saying, “How do I help an impressionable college student or somebody going through a tragedy, after a tragedy in their life, find service, not just serving with us, but find service as a part of everything they do for the rest of their lives.” So it’s creating that fertile ground where you literally help them be grounded to what’s happening, help them find that peace in themselves. The peace and the piece, the P-I-E-C-E. The piece of themselves that brings, service brings peace, it brings healing. And I’ve committed my whole life to this. I believe so strongly in the idea that if you’re empty, if you feel worn out, if you’re struggling to know your purpose, go volunteer somewhere, do something [inaudible 00:17:23] and serve.
Mike Domitrz:	I love it. It’s fantastic. And you said this has been your life. So on a personal level, where have been the biggest transformational moments you’ve had? What triggered them? What brought them to you? For you to have discoveries in your life. Like, do you remember, was it as a child or a teenager or a 20 year old, where you first had your first big life transformational aha?
Darren Tipton:	I would say there’s probably two or three. The first one, and I actually shared it on one of your previous episodes …
Mike Domitrz:	I remember that very well. So for anybody listening right now, just so you’re aware, Darren is a regular cast member that you often hear on the show. So if you’re going, “Is this the same Darren?” Yes, this is the same Darren.
Darren Tipton:	I’d lost my great-grandmother and this is somebody very close to me. And I felt that emptiness that we feel when someone leaves.
Mike Domitrz:	And for everyone listening, you were how old again?
Darren Tipton:	I was like, I’m going to say 10.
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, yeah. It was young, I remember that. That’s why I wanted to bring it up. So you’re 10 years old, roughly around that age, you’ve lost your grandmother, she means the world to you.
Darren Tipton:	So I’m telling my mom, I’m just talking to mom about this, and I said, “I’m going to go across the street to the nursing home.” Now what 10 year old … I mean, that should tell you one thing about me. Nobody talks like that. I walked over to the nursing home. I think my mom called and told them I was coming. I went over and I said, “I just lost my grandmother and I want to, who here can I know?” So for me it was an early journey of, it’s always been innate within me, it’s always been inside.
Mike Domitrz:	What did the nursing home do? Your mom gives a little pre-warning so they know you’re coming.
Darren Tipton:	They welcomed me in.
Mike Domitrz:	And they said, “Well come on in.” And did they go find people to match you with?
Darren Tipton:	They suggested I start with this couple that had just moved in, and we became friends. And I just started walking the halls.
Mike Domitrz:	And so you become friends with the first couple, and do you stay friends with them for years, or how does this …?
Darren Tipton:	No, it wasn’t very long … Well, I did this probably for a year.
Mike Domitrz:	Okay.
Darren Tipton:	And then it wasn’t long after that that my family had to move for my dad’s job.
Mike Domitrz:	Okay. But you got to know everybody because they let you just explore the halls. You’re the cute little 10 year old running around the halls that everybody loved.
Darren Tipton:	And I drug my sister over there with me. That’s crazy.
Mike Domitrz:	That’s awesome. So that’s number one, which is awesome, thanks for sharing.
Darren Tipton:	Number one. Number two, during college I was involved in a group and we would go down to South Padre Island during spring break, and we would advertise to people, “We’ll take you to a bar, we’ll take you to your hotel, we’ll pick you up drunk, high, whatever. Just so you can be safe.” And I suddenly realized that, “I think this is for me, this kind of work.” Now there’s no job out there that you can do that and get paid. There was something about standing in the gap for people really that touched me, touched my heart. It was very internalized.
Mike Domitrz:	What a strong statement, standing in the gap for people. Is that something you’ve learned somewhere else or is that your creation?
Darren Tipton:	It just came out of my mouth.
Mike Domitrz:	Wow. I see it like on your website. I see, “Darren Tipton, standing in the gap for your organization.” It’s such a powerful statement. That just came out just now, that’s not like a motto you live by?
Darren Tipton:	Yeah, I read it somewhere. But it’s not something I’ve marketed or had …
Mike Domitrz:	No, I didn’t mean whether you marketed it, but I just meant it’s such a powerful statement. When you said it I was like, “Aaah.” You know, that moment came about. It’s such a powerful language.
Darren Tipton:	You know the thing that I learned there was people are hungry for someone to look in their eyes and say, “But we care. But I care, I’m here to give you this ride, no strings attached, because we simply care.”
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah.
Darren Tipton:	And what can you say? “Thank you.”
Mike Domitrz:	Exactly. No, it’s so simple.
Darren Tipton:	And years later, I was at a meeting one day and somebody walked up to me and said, “You’re Darren Tipton.” And I said, “Yes.” “You gave me a ride and it made all the difference.” I mean, those thing happen just …
Mike Domitrz:	Wow, that’s awesome. And you said there was a third one.
Darren Tipton:	I would say the third most, I’d call it an unfortunate but magical moment, is we started working in this village in Africa where we are, and a lady was delivering and so my staff member who’s in charge of our prenatal care area, we were delivering this baby. And she said, “Now your job is to clean up during the delivery.” And I said, “Okay, I’m ready.” And then the baby started presenting, it presented very gray and we knew it was in crisis. So once it had delivered she looked at me and she said, “You’ll have to do infant CPR.” So I did it. I mean, I’d taken the training, but never done it. Sort of the story was we did this for a while and then finally she said, “It’s done. The baby’s gone.” I still feel that ickiness, that feeling of shock that you get when you lose something like that, a little baby.
Mike Domitrz:	Right.
Darren Tipton:	It just, that was the day that I thought, because to be honest with you, this hasn’t always been fun. And there are days that I’ve thought, in fact I recently spoke to a group and I said, “Hey, I want to quit. And there are days I’ve said, ‘You know what? I am finished, I am out of here.’ And I go to bed and I wake up the next morning with an agenda, ready to roll. That’s when you know you’re called.” But this particular night when this baby passed, that’s when I thought, “This is it for the rest of my life. These people lack basic medical equipment.” All it needed was deep suction in its lungs, and we lost the baby. This is the statement that changed me, the doctor said, “Well, sometimes there’s just not hope for some people.” But what I read it as, sometimes there’s just not hope for some people. And that stuck with me. And that’s been the last couple of years the thing that, and my team that I keep sharing with them is, we are the hope for some people.
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, absolutely. And that probably brought home a realization of, “While we do this work, we’re not going to save everyone.”
Darren Tipton:	You can’t save everyone.
Mike Domitrz:	Right. And that reality of that in your hands, right? That I can’t save this baby. But I mean, people in our field, and when I say our field, speakers, because Darren speaks, they sort of mock the starfish story because people have told it for so long about saving, if I would just save one starfish. There’s a thousand starfish behind them. Sure, but if I just save one. And people mock it. But it’s a human life you’re talking about.
Darren Tipton:	And you know Mike, you know what’s interesting, because for some of our listeners today, I think there is for many of us in the beginning of that career that we start service career, nurse, doctor, anything, that we are so passionate about it. We start down this road of, “I’m going to do this and I’m going to serve.” And then somewhere along the way maybe we feel the ickiness of red tape, or maybe we ourselves go through a tragedy and loss. And this passion can be rediscovered. And we talk about especially mindfulness, I love taking people back to the day they first said yes. The day that you first said that you were going to do that, how did it feel? What was it that you were doing? How did you react? And when we go back to those times, like you were asking me about the nursing home and you were asking me about the time on the beach, or I told you about the time on the beach, even thinking about those now it makes me feel like, you know, there is a way, it’s not going to be easy, there are days that you’re going to give up. And I tell people, “If you want to give up, do it. And go to bed. And when you wake up tomorrow, what’s the story in your mind?” That’s to me, that’s a calling and that’s a passion.
Mike Domitrz:	Well I love how you do that too, right? If you wake up in the morning and, “No, I don’t belong here.”
Darren Tipton:	Then leave.
Mike Domitrz:	Then leave. Right? I take it back to when I was coach. Like, if you don’t want to be on deck I don’t want you on deck. Because I’ve got 30, 40, 50 other athletes that you’re impacting. So if your negative energy … and you’re the same, you got a small team over there. One can have such a negative impact. Like, it’s okay to leave because we need the right energy here to pull this work off. So I think it’s great you give people the freedom to say, “Go,” right? Go. What one book has had the biggest impact on you in your life or how you view things and how you’ve made choices?
Darren Tipton:	I’ll say related to my work, Half the Sky is probably, was probably the most influential book with relating passion with the problems that we’re facing in our world.
Mike Domitrz:	I’ve never heard of that before. Do you know the author off the top of your head?
Darren Tipton:	I have it around the corner, but it’s … I don’t have it off the top of my head, but we can post it for …
Mike Domitrz:	Yeah, we’ll definitely have it in the show notes. What about the book?
Darren Tipton:	It is a great view of what people all over the world are doing about some of our biggest problems. So it’s identifying, it’s related to women especially, but it just puts it in, things that you’ve never considered and some of the problems you’ve never heard of, and yet there’s somebody doing something to address those things and the creativity that it takes to take them on.
Mike Domitrz:	I love it, I love it. If there was one lesson in life that someone spoke to you or said to that you’ve never forgotten, it could be a parent, it could be a friend, it could be a teacher, is there one you’ve always been able to come back and go, “Man, I remember that moment and the impact it had on me?”
Darren Tipton:	I think I can say it without crying. My mom has always said, “You can do it.” And she would make my sister and I both, she’d say, “Okay, now repeat it 10 times. You can do it. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.” That seems a little bit childish, but even today, because I have my days, and I’ll call her and she said, “If you have to cry, get it out. But what is your saying, what is your saying?” “I can do it, I can do it.” It’s not about me doing it necessarily, it’s that sometimes the hill is so tall and the journey is so long that when you, talk about mindfulness, that self talk that you give yourself, you can see that the hill is higher than you climb, but if you take a little bit of step at a time, I can do it.
Mike Domitrz:	Right. I love it. Love it. So simple, right? And simplicity is power, right, that’s awesome. Thank you so much for joining us Darren. You have such a great soul and spirit. I love getting to spend time with you as a friend and having you on the show for the world, the more people that get to discover you is just a gift. So thank you so much for all you‘re doing both here and overseas. It’s amazing.
Darren Tipton:	Thank you. It’s an honor. Thank you.
Mike Domitrz:	So for everyone listening right now, you can learn all about Darren at everydaymindfulnessshow.com and we hope you’re back with us next week. Remember, you can always subscribe to the show on iTunes or wherever you listen to it, you’ll get every show automatically downloaded. It’s the best way to go. And until next week, may you make today and every day a mindful journey. Thanks for joining us.
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Mentioned in This Episode:

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Volunteerism and service transform communities and bring purpose to life! For twenty years, Darren Tipton has been challenging people to volunteer. He is the inspiration of the volunteer mobilization resource: “Kathatika” — a call to volunteer action bringing awareness of the infinite impact of volunteer service, and the co-author of the community-based engagement curriculum of Story to Service. He’s the founder of Project Humanity, a nonprofit focused on empowering women in Africa.

ProjectHumanity.com

Facebook.com/ProjectHumanity

Twitter.com/PjctHumanity