For the last two days, I’ve had the privilege of attending the Paid for Life conference in San Diego.  Mike Koenigs and his partners organized the event to benefit the Just Like My Child Foundation, which Mike’s wife, Vivian Glyck, heads.

The content has been amazing; I’ve literally watched people transform their thinking and their businesses, as they benefited from the wisdom of such speakers as Eben Pagan, Russell Brunson, John Assaraf, and Brendon Burchard.

But what Vivian and Mike do with the Just Like My Child Foundation is much more amazing than anything that’s come from the stage this weekend.  If you ever doubted that miracles exist, one look at the “social proof” Vivian offers, as she documents the life-saving and life-changing work they do in Uganda, will dispel those doubts.

I had the privilege of speaking at last year’s Paid for Life Event and I heard Vivian describe the journey that took her to Africa, to begin the wonderful work that has transformed her life and the lives of so many, many children.  At that event, Vivian talked about having their son, Zak, and how that event transformed her life.

She talked about their struggle to have more children and their inability to make it happen.  I related to her story because my husband Jack and I went through our own infertility struggle to have our daughter, Elizabeth.  (We like to joke that Elizabeth cost more than our first house, before she was even born . . ..  )

The kind of pain that comes when you want so desperately to have a child is deep and it’s wide and it’s abiding.   But Vivian and Mike took that pain and turned it into a miracle.

She and Mike already had one miracle, their son Zak.  He’s amazing—beautiful blond curls, captivating smile, and an incredibly sweet nature.

But Vivian managed to create another miracle, when she followed the urge to fly to Africa and start this wonderful work.   Through that work, she has transformed the lives of more than 50,000 children—she’s given them health, she’s provided an education for them, she’s given their families hope.

And hope transforms lives, because it empowers people.   Pearl S. Buck once wrote that to eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.  Mike and Vivian have given the children of Unganda bread but they’ve given them so much more—with education, with microenterprise, with the foundations of a thriving community, they planted the seeds of hope.

That is a powerful and remarkable gift.  To bring hope to the lives of so many people who were living in such desperate circumstances is truly a miracle.

And online marketing is an integral part of that miracle.  Mike’s online marketing business allowed Mike and Vivian the freedom to pursue their dream and create these miracles.

This weekend, other marketers contributed to that miracle as they donated their time and talents to the cause, spending their own funds to travel to the event and donating the proceeds of their sales to the cause:  Eben Pagan raised enough money on the stage today to build two schools.

I read somewhere miracles are natural:  when they do not occur, something has gone wrong.

And I think that points to the message that Mike, Vivian, and Paid for Life can teach us all.  If  we’re not making miracles in our life or the lives or others, then we need to follow their example, learn their lessons, and make it happen.