 I'm willing to bet that some of you have received or know someone who's received one of those scam emails, right? Maybe it was a Nigerian prince who wanted to share his inheritance with you, or maybe it was some shady guy who wanted you to invest in his gold business. I know people who have fallen for these types of scams, and I always said that if I ever got one of these messages that I was going to teach that scammer a lesson. Well, one day, while I was on Facebook, my wish came true. Hello, sir. Well my name is Joel from Liberia, West Africa. Please I beg you in name of God, I need some assistance from you. Business or financial assistance that will help empower me please. Now most people would ignore or block this message, but I wanted to know what he had up his sleeve. So I did what most people would never do. I responded, and I said, hello, Joel. How can I help? And Joel said, well, I want for us to get into some business. If you can send some used laptop computers, printers, PA sets, and other electronic devices, and let them be modern electronics, not outdated so they can be sold faster. And I just thought, here we go. This guy is going to try to get me to send him some fancy electronics and then never talk to me again. Because this happens all the time, right? I wasn't following for it. But I wanted to know how far this guy was willing to go. So I responded again. I said, Joel, I would like to talk to you about a different business opportunity, no, if you're interested. And he said, by the grace of God, anything that will help me progress and move forward, I'm interested. So the tables had turned, and I was about to send Joel on a wild goose chase. I thought the more time it is that I could waste, the less time that he'd have to spend ripping me or other people off. So I made up a lie. I said, I work in the photography business. I collect photography from all over the world. If you're able to take pictures of Liberia, I will compensate you for the ones that I like. And Joel said, well, it can only be done with advanced phone and good digital camera, which I don't have, but it costs about $125 at D studio. And I just thought, here we go again. Joel doesn't want to work. He just wants money or electronics. But he wasn't getting off that easy. So I said to him, Joel, the best photographers can take great pictures with any camera, even a phone will do. And so I went on to tell Joel that I wanted a picture of a sunset. You know, a beautiful African sunset. I asked him to send that to me. Joel said, by the grace of God, I'll send the pictures to you between now and tomorrow. Let me show you what Joel sent me. Well, Joel was right about one thing. He was going to need a better camera. So I finally gave in and I bought Joel a camera. Cost me $25 on Amazon. I figured it's a lot better than what he had. And I actually had it shipped all the way to Liberia. And I told Joel to give it another go. And somehow, someway, that little camera made its way all the way to Joel's village in Liberia. And I told Joel that I wanted to see what life was like in his country. I wanted to experience his country through his eyes. I wanted to see the culture, the scenery, everything. Well, a couple of days later, I got an email from Joel. Let me show you some of the pictures. Here's another one. At this point, I learned something. The camera was not the problem. It was the guy operating it. But Joel was getting really excited at this point. He was saying things like, I'm ready to commit and devote myself to this business. And I was like, Joel, we got to work on your photography. And so over the course of a summer, I was teaching Joel about the basics of photography. I would send him examples of professional work. I was teaching him about lighting and composition and the rule of thirds. Everything that a good photographer should know. And would you believe that his picture started to look better and better and better? I mean, some of these pictures are just stunning. But at this point, I realized something. I'd gotten myself into a bit of a predicament. Because Joel had done what I asked. And if I didn't pay up, if I didn't compensate him for what I told him to do, then I was going to be the scammer that I accused him of being. So I thought, OK, how am I going to get out of this? How am I going to fix this? How am I going to make sure that I'm not out more money than I already am? But then it hit me. What if I could sell Joel's pictures? I could take his very best pictures and I could put them into a book. And then maybe, just maybe, I could convince some people to buy it. And so that's what I did. I put together a little booklet. I just had to think of a really great name for the title. Bity Grace of God. A photographic journey through Liberia. And you know, I thought I'd be lucky if I could get a few friends and family members to buy the book. I mean, I just needed enough to pay for the printing and compensate Joel and I could be done with this whole thing. So I went on to YouTube and I started to tell Joel's story. And there's no way that I could have guessed what was going to happen next. We were selling hundreds of copies of Joel's book. People from all over the world were supporting Joel and buying his book. And initially we had made $1,000. And our agreement was that we would split the profits 50-50. So $500 for me, $500 for Joel. But then I started to read about Liberia and I learned that the average person in that country lives off of $500 a year. Think about that. I knew I couldn't keep my share. So I told Joel that I would be giving him my share if he promised to give it to charity. I asked him to find some people in Liberia who were in the most need of help and give it to them. Joel responded that he would, but this was gonna be a big leap of faith for me because could I trust an impoverished hustler like Joel to do the right thing? I was about to send him a fortune, probably the most money that he would ever hold in his life. But I decided to move forward and I withdrew $1,000 cash and I took it to my local Western Union teller. I wish you could have seen the look on that teller's face when I said that I wanted to wire $1,000 to a guy named Joel in Liberia. I honestly didn't think that I'd ever hear from Joel again. I thought he was gonna take the money and run. But a week later I got an email from him and I wanna show you some of the pictures that came with it. Joel single-handedly provided school supplies for kids in five local schools. Book bags and notebooks, look at their faces. I love this picture of Joel with a crown inadvertently over his head. Turns out that he was more of a saint than a scammer. After I started sharing this story, I was getting the most heartfelt messages from people all around the world saying how touched they were. They mentioned how Joel inspired them to look at people differently. There was this restaurant owner in Australia who put out a tip jar to raise money for kids in Liberia. Every couple of weeks he would take the money and he would wire it to me and I would wire it to Joel. I had a professional photographer who contacted me and they said, you know, I think that Joel could probably use a better camera. This guy in little war-torn Liberia had no idea that he was inspiring millions of people all around the world and I just knew that deep inside, this was a guy that I needed to meet. A year ago Joel was behind on his loans and he was struggling to provide for his family. Now he was not only supporting himself and his loved ones but his community as well. He turned what was a moment of desperation to an opportunity that helped the people around him. Today we continue to raise money for schools and orphanages in Liberia and we also invest in other entrepreneurs like Joel with the goal of helping the Liberian people become self-sustainable. This month we're installing water filtration units in 29 different villages across Liberia. These will provide access to clean water for thousands and help children learn the proper way to filter water. Joel tells me that the opportunity to be charitable might just be the best thing to come from all this. And me and Joel wanted to make sure that the people knew exactly what made this all possible. I started this journey convinced that I was dealing with an internet scammer and in my attempt to teach Joel a lesson, he taught me one instead. When you give someone a chance, sometimes they might surprise you. When you look for the good in people you'll learn that they're not so different from you. You know I think that this story shows how prayer works. What Joel really wanted and what he earnestly prayed for was money and instead what he got was a cheap camera. But with that camera he was able to inspire hope in millions of people and change his family's life. Sometimes I think that instead of giving you what you want God will give you a cheap camera and he'll expect you to figure out the rest and the journey you'll then take will make all the difference. God will answer prayers but sometimes he'll need you to be that answer. My message today is that you should be that answer. On days when I can't find God and it doesn't seem like he hears me or cares about what's going on in my life, I return to a situation a year ago when I know that he thought enough of me to send me a request for help. So take a chance on people. You'll find something in your own life that you didn't even know was missing. Thank you.