Journeyman Stories

As we are celebrating the one week anniversary of our baby girl, I am glad I took time to rest this weekend. I knew it would take some adjustments on our part with an addition to our family, so I gracefully welcomed whatever change I needed to make. But after a week, I was so exhausted that I had to rest. Otherwise, there was no way I could keep going. A few weeks ago, we ended our twelve week coaching session with our clients. But before we did, I wanted to get some feedback from them to see the progress they made (if there was any). I was amazed by what they said. It was quite emotional to hear the great breakthroughs that happened in just twelve weeks. As we were about to wrap up the meeting, Bob Walker (one of our clients) just went: “Oh I almost forgot to say something. I hit my goal of getting $10,000.” I was like “WHAT!!!” What do you mean? He calmly took his cell phone, went on the internet, opened his bank account page and showed it to me. I was speechless. $11,000 were in hi...

For months we “knew” we were going to have a baby boy. That's what we were told. Surprise surprise! The doctor exclaimed: “Look, you have a baby girl”. My wife went :”Oh my God...”. And I was speechless. In a few words, that's how everything went. You see, from the day I met my wife she said that she wanted a baby girl. Of course, my mom (with 3 big boys) wanted a girl as grand-daughter. As far as I am concerned, I wanted a baby boy, but I knew that any baby is a blessing. I just wanted a great player for the Raptors who really need help by now.. We were going to name the boy Joshua. When my friend (that I won't mention here) texted me yesterday after the news that it was a girl, I laughed so hard when he asked me “are you going to name her Joshuelle”. This dude is so funny. He went on telling me that his brother went through the same thing, and was going to call the boy Joshua, just to find out that it was a baby girl (can you believe that!!). Then my friend suggested that...

It has been one of those interesting weeks when I had to accomplish more with less time on my hands. It was also a week with excited news from friends here and there who shared with me the miracles that are happening in their lives. It was really inspiring. A few days ago I was contacted by an Executive Director of an organization downtown letting me know that they were putting together an event this Sunday that they called “Victim Commemoration Ceremony”. They needed an MC for the event, and I agreed to work with them even though it was a last minute deal. I have done tons of events in the past, but it was my first time dealing with such a sensitive subject. I am used to having fun out there making people laugh, this time I did not really know how to deal with it. Fortunately, when I met the organizers, they told me that, even though they were going to talk about victims of violence, it won't be like a funeral. There will be time for fun as well. Sunday morning, I was ready. The ...

He was a great friend of mine, he was a great Basketball player, above all he was a great man. His name is Elie Ndayishimiye and he just passed away. Almost a thousand of us where in Aurora Ontario this week-end to pay him tribute and say a final goodbye to Elie. It was such an emotional day as family and friends were giving their testimonials about how Elie had impacted their lives. That is how he was. He impacted lives wherever he went. I first saw him in the late eighties when he was a Basketball star back in Burundi, then played against him years later. Finally I played with him in our Basketball team here in Toronto. He was such a good player that, when the game was on the line, we knew that giving the ball to him was our only hope. And he delivered all the time. Being in Aurora last Saturday, seeing all these people gathered to support his family made me realize once again how precious life is. I sometimes take it for granted, and mostly I sometimes take for granted people around...