I received a very special delivery in the mail recently. Imagine my surprise when I opened up a large mailing envelope to find some leather keychains with the World of Difference logo imprinted on them!

The package arrived from Guatemala, and the keychains were made by a young man that I met there on my trip in February. His father worked in the leather trade, and the young man, motivated by the desire to attend a church camp in Costa Rica, had begun making and selling keychains as a means to raise the funds for his trip. I admired this teen’s determination and initiative. He wasn’t sitting around waiting for someone to offer to pay his way. He knew that his family didn’t have the money to give him so he began looking for creative ways to earn the funds himself — even though it would mean selling a LOT of keychains!

I ended up buying some of his keychains while I was there and giving them away as gifts back here at home. But while I was still in Guatemala, I mentioned in an off-handed way to his pastor that perhaps I could have him make some keychains with my logo on them. The pastor, David, thought it was a good idea; but once I returned back to the states, we both got busy and the plan fell through the cracks — or so I thought.

Turns out that without saying a thing to me, David went online, found my website and successfully obtained an image of my logo. He then gave this to the teen who got to work to see if he could make the design work on his printing machine. They gave it a few tries, and sure enough, it worked! Then they shipped them on to me, giving me a very pleasant surprise.

I still haven’t heard if the young man raised enough funds to go to Costa Rica or not. I’m really hoping that he did and am waiting to hear back from David about it. No matter what though, I still admire his creativity and tenacity in working toward his goal.

I now have a collection of keychains with my logo in various shapes and shades of leather that I will have available for sale at my shows. If you love giraffes as I do, you’ll be excited to get your hands on one. At the same time, each time you see your keychain, it will remind you of the entrepreneurial spirit of this young man and the tenacity of so many people from around the world who while they may be slight on means have a never-quit, all-things-are-possible spirit that is an inspiration to all of us.

A closer look at two World of Difference logo keychains!