Recently Gary and I had the privilege of being invited to attend a very special event called the Canadian Gala for Ideal Protein Centers.
The CEO Olivier’ Benloulou called me in May to ask me to attend… “We would like to invite you as one of the ‘elite centers’ in the United States whom we feel is representing the mission of The Ideal Protein Program.” I was thrilled, but a bit overwhelmed; it took a while to sink in. After all, I had only been in business for 18 months and was just busily doing what God called me to do, little did I know that the ‘Mothership’ was watching!
On October 23 we boarded Air Canada and flew to Montreal, soon to find out we are a minority there, with primarily French speaking people! What a learning experience we were in for. The company put us up in a beautiful Hotel and along with 4 other centers from the US and 300 from Canada, we experienced a night to remember forever!
The décor of the banquet room was exquisite, the food indescribable and the fellowship of like minded people with the same mission to change the world with the best tool any of us has; a means to improve health dramatically, without drugs or surgery! We mingled with Dr. Tran Chien, Olivier’, the National Directors, Tim Callahan and Jay Sykes, and many Area Directors and Regional Directors.
After a wonderful dinner, and many testimonies, given primarily in French but with pictures that needed no words, Olivier’ and his beautiful wife Pascale, began to give awards, 16 in all. These 16 awards were given for excellence in service out of 2,500 centers in North America.
I must say that when my name was called I was shocked and for once was truly speechless. I honestly did not expect such an honor, I felt honored just to be there as Regional Development Consultant for the company.
Ready or not I had to go to the podium and speak, our camera battery died while I was speaking and I was so nervous I don’t remember what I said, but all the way home and since I got back I have not stopped thinking about what I would like to have said.
With the Thanksgiving and Christmas season upon us, my heart is so full of gratitude that I have decided to finally write this ‘Thank you speech’, to give proper thanks for the amazing opportunity and responsibility I have been give for the last 2 years. So here goes…
Dear Lord, Olivier’ and Pascale, Dr. Tran, Mike, Tim, Jeremy, Wendi, Eliza, Tina, Colleen, Elvia, Jaime, Karla, Julie, Therese, Katherine and John, Roseann, Connie, Gary, Aubrey, Ashtyn, Hallie, Kuper, The Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s, and the hundreds of people who have come to our center and to those health professionals, who have caught the vision and accepted the mission to start other centers around our region: Dr. Chad Lamer, Dr. Mae Beth, Sherry, Ann, Deb, Chris and Kathy, Dr. Blow and Deb, and Kim.
With all my heart, thank you!
Thank you for giving me the best program in the world to lose weight and get my life back!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help people in ways that as an RN I never believed possible, this is my last gig and I will do this until God calls me home.
Thank you for believing in me when others thought I was on a crazy rabbit trail and that I would never last on the diet let alone be able to share this gift with others!
Thank you for encouraging me when I wanted to give up and got frustrated with the inevitable difficulties of starting a company from scratch and working for a company also starting from scratch in the US. Thanks for ‘watching my back’!
Thank you for providing me the seeds I needed to sew financially in order to grow as fast as the need was coming our way. Of course along with that, thank you for trusting me with the humbling responsibility of stewardship “To whom much is given much is expected”. Out of those seeds sewn, the ability to pay it forward and to help others who are on missions of their own–to help families and orphans in Mission Haiti among other ministries we support.
Thank you for providing the vehicle needed to hire and provide benefits to 9 incredible people at a time when an economic crisis is impacting our country.
Thank you for the beautiful environment of the centers we are in, they were worth waiting for!
Thank you for the blessing of those 9 people whom I call Eagles that joined our team and are now helping many others and give me so much hope and energy to continue to mission.
Thank you for the blessings beyond anything I can express of the privilege I have to cry happy tears with men and women of all ages as we celebrate goals met that were long ago given up on, major health improvements, relationships changing and filling the world with “Hot Mamas and Grandmas, happy hubbies, healthy kids and stunning singles!”
Thank you for prayers, inspiration, belief in my vision, help, support and love.
Lord, reduce me that you may increase and thanks again to all who are a part of our dream and have accepted this ‘divine appointment’ and those who are down the road ahead searching for an answer and now will be able to find that “Last Diet they will ever need”.
Your Servant,
Kathy
