On Monday, my friend Chris with Heart of Africa made the trip down to Columbus from Fort Wayne (3 hours) to demonstrate a SmartBox to a group of business men and women at my BNI meeting early Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Two weeks ago when I had asked him if he was willing to make the drive, Chris didn’t hesitate. But Monday afternoon I started wondering if it was really worth his time to make a trip just to sit through a 90 minute meeting where he would get to show off the SmartBox before and after for just a few minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
The SmartBox is a computer lab in a box – an ingenious configuration of 20 Chromebooks linked to a 1 TB hard drive via a self-contained router. The hard drive hosts a full K through 12 curriculum, maps, Bible studies, typing programs, and even full books.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
A single SmartBox could revolutionize the education of kids in the typical wooden bench in a tin roof shack village school in the developing world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It certainly sounds <\/i><\/b>like a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n
And my experience with Chris at the BNI meeting reminded me that there really is something to “seeing is believing”. He and the Box were both very well received.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
To see it in person really gets people dreaming of the potential and wanting to be a part of such an inspired idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n The BNI group and other individuals are working to fund a SmartBox for a pioneering educator named Samuel Yeboah and his Beacon School in Ghana. (Each SmartBox costs $8,000 to produce.) God willing, we will be taking it with us two weeks from now and delivering it in person.<\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhdRKUaENzw4oBbvYlfaOXurgAwyrmxo3L_H7E-crzH1cUTKPQg2rhHc5ByeDvb-A9c-VYT1HYYTyPjSk4tgsAm-aRnZopHAipN2-Szh1hsSgT-ezvhE2jfYGYh30DDRyOQJlMgN1f2z3zWdOrEnMBSiDHVWAGmWFHvGkkP2-mzSF2B9PmZwWXiQVS7MWs\/w640-h640\/20241029_092829(0).jpg\")