Smile- The end of an era

On the 1st October 1992, Smile Direct Selling was born. On the 30 September2008, exactly 16 years later this business unit will close.

This 16 year journey holds so many memories. I want to record my part of that journey here and thank each and everyone of you who played a part in the history of this great company.

To Tom and Doreen for the courage to bring about the change in 1992
For Doreen's great creative mind and Tom's wonderful leadership style.
To Eleanor for all the lessons in leadership and leading us through those great years.
To David, Les and Andrew who made up the rest of the Directorship team that made this a TOP 20 non listed company in 1998 and 1999. We certainly made some great memories.
To Nina for the role you played in school business and the 1999 tender.
To each and every person in the factory from the packers , printers and machine operators- Thank you for being part of a winning Godly team.
To the internal staff like Roberta, Fiona, Kate, Berenjean, C, Desmond, Kathy, Doreen, Vernon, and many more that I have not mentioned..... we will forever be grateful for your dedication and work late at night behind the scenes.
To the Regionals who have loyally led the sales force for all these years. You are to be saluted for the many lives you have touched both in the sales team and in education in this nation.
To the Business Leaders , you have been the solid base that have held the many sales people together.
To all the thousands of sales consultants who have been touched by Smile over the years, thank you for the role you have played.
To Nikki Bush, the editor of Smile Family Club News, I thank you for the role you played in helping to take us to a new level with the Smile Family Club.
To the children who were our special shining stars. Educating the Nation was our goal and I do believe we have touched many children in this nation over this period.


On a personal note, I am grateful for all the lessons I have learnt. The wonderful realtionships that I have made and treasure in my life. For the opportunity to work in an environment where we could make a difference and really understand what it is like to work with passion and purpose. For the wonderful travel opportunities and conferences. There are still times that I hear a song and it takes me right back into the room where that event happened.


Each of us are now in a new season. We have learnt many skills and still have much to do. Take what you have, help others, make a difference and be the best you that you can be.

May you all be blessed in this next season and may the God we serve go with you always.

Hansie- The Movie

I went to see the movie about the life of Hansie Cronje today. It brought back so many memories, discussions and lessons about life in our home.

Justin was and still is a cricket addict. He loves the game and Hansie was his hero as a teenager.
We watched the return of South Africa into international cricket through the night, he and his friends played cricket outside our house for more years than I can remember and Justin and his Gran share a very special bond after watching many cricket matches together in our home.

The lesson and discussion we had at the time was:

Never cross the line. NOT EVER. You need to live with yourself and it does not matter if no-one knows, it still is not ok.

The lesson Hansie learnt was that The Truth would set him free and that he had a Father in heaven and on earth who loved and forgave him.

Thank you to the Cronje family for sharing the Truth with all South Africans.

We salute and honour the memory of your son and thank you for the leadership lessons he taught my son.

Gideon's Dream- Nation Building

Well known media personality, John Perlman has just launched his DreamFields website.

This site helps bring dreams to life for many young soccer fans. Please take a look at this site. The system in use here makes it very easy for anyone to help support a great nation building project. With Soccer 2010 on our doorstep this site opens many opportunities for ordinary people around the world to support a project by adding their credit card details online and watching the dream funds mount.

Gideon is a great young man in our church who is helping to bring many of the young people off the streets and onto our grounds at the church. Here they play soccer, do homework and help to bring about the change we need. Our church works in all the schools in the area and I would love to see this dream growing till we have built a new soccer pitch for these kids at our church.

Thanks for looking at this site.

Here is the link: http://www.dreamfieldsproject.org/dream.aspx?dreamid=8

Please feel free to send this on to friends and family around the world that may want to add to this cause.

Devastation on our borders

At church this past Sunday, I listened to two people sharing about their experiences this past week.

Mozambique- Our church was part of a team that went to central Mozambique last week on a project called Farming God's Way. They shared about the destruction of the forests due to the lack of fuel and also the animals that used to share this beautiful land that have been hunted due to the lack of food. The people now hunt rats as these are all that are left. The soil is arid and the people are in desperate situations.

Zimbabwe- next a pastor from Zim shared about the current food crisis in his city. He shared that he had been into two supermarkets and found only light bulbs in the one and in Checkers Shoprite only oranges. No other products or produce.... the shelves are empty. These people are also in a desperate situation.

I have also just finished reading a life changing book called Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren. Kay is Rick Warren's wife. In this book she talks about 21 st century Christians who "CHANGE THE CHANNAL" when we see or expereince a situation that we don't want to deal with or become involved with.

I have been convicted in both these situations right here close to our border?
What can we do to help change our world?........... or will we switch to another channal.

Choices and Changes- Where to live?

As I celebrated my 50th birthday, I realised that I was entering a new season of my life and that there were some important decisions I needed to make. The most important was, where do I want to live? I realised that I had opportunities available to me, that I did not have before.

• My children have both married and are living outside of South Africa.
• I manage my own business and spend the bulk of my time working from home in Johannesburg.
• I was starting to feel fearful about taking early morning and afternoon walks.
• and the traffic (as we all know) can be a nightmare.

I started to consider what choices I could make and a full year ago, I took the opportunity of moving to Hartebeespoort Dam. I have loved the changes that this decision has brought about in my life. I would like to share some of the research and choices that may be on your radar screen as you make these decisions. You may be surprised at the options open to you.

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