Growth from Tragedy

Thu, Aug 20th 2015, 12:34 PM

In a crisis, a person can decide to have a negative attitude about it, or they can decide to have a positive attitude; they can decide to have a forward motion or backward motion. A person can decide whether they will let that crisis beat them down, or if they’re going to use it to grow. As far as the children of the late Dr. Myles and Ruth Munroe are concerned, people should grow in crisis and tragedy. That’s exactly what happened to siblings Myles “Chairo” Munroe Jr. and his sister Charisa Munroe. Charisa says they literally had to grow up overnight.

“Literally overnight he [Chairo] and I had to grow up and we had to become,” said Charisa. “And that’s what happened November 10 … we had to become. November 12, he [Chairo] had to stand on stage three days after our parents passed and he had to give a press release that we’re doing okay … family’s still standing in the midst of everything. We had to build the strength.”

On November 9, 2014 their parents, Bahamas Faith Ministries International (BFMI) founder Dr. Myles Munroe who was also an author, teacher, life coach, government consultant and leadership mentor, and his wife Pastor Ruth Munroe were killed in a plane crash. Charisa says on that tragic day and the day after, she and her brother looked at each other and said, “Now what?”

The siblings had been accustomed to having their mother and father with them all the time, and moving as a group of four. And then they were gone

“As a family, decisions that were made in the home were made as a group,” said Charisa. “Dad didn’t make decisions and not say anything to anyone, and now they’re no longer here, so it was like, ‘Now what?’ What happens to everyone?”

But even though in that moment people may not have the immediate answer to the “Now what?” question, she says they should have faith that God has a hold of the future. The siblings held strong to their faith.

Having faith was solidified for them at the recent Kingdom Training Seminar, which the siblings hosted at The Diplomat Center. The seminar focused on understanding kingdom concepts of transition and transitioning in crisis and how to deal with it. It was the first seminar they had hosted since their parents’ death.

Charisa’s takeaway from that conference was the importance of attitude and a person deciding whether to have a negative attitude about it or a positive attitude.

Myles Jr. and Charisa now carry on their father’s legacy through Myles Munroe International (MMI), which has a mission to serve the personal and social development needs of individuals who desire to learn and grow in their life’s purpose.

In the wake of their parents’ death, Myles Jr. and Charisa stepped up. And it wasn’t something that they talked about doing. They just did it.

“It wasn’t a conversation,” said Myles Jr. “She and I actually didn’t talk about it. I think it’s something that just comes natural to us — something that we want to do that we feel is our obligation now as their kids and just carrying on their vision and this legacy we’ve been handed. It’s not just MMI that we’re focusing on though. We also want to assist in furthering BFM, ITWLA [International Third World Leaders Association] and a number of other organizations my father was a part of. So it’s a lot bigger than MMI, but MMI I feel is going to be the lead in everything that we do.”

Preparation

Stepping up wasn’t difficult for the siblings either. Charisa says she and her brother had been prepared to be able to step up by their dad for a long time.

“Dad would always take us on trips with him and just throw us in front of the congregation and just told us to speak, and you either [sink or swim]. Of course we’re not going to embarrass him and mom, or God, so you eventually just start to speak, and then the Holy Spirit speaks through you. So we’ve been speaking for a long time, but of course once everything happened, the transition happened very quickly in our lives,” said Charisa. “That is kind of how the speaking started. And of course, as you speak, you have so much in you that you don’t know that it’s in you until it’s manifested … until it’s exposed … until someone pulls it out of you. And then they realize they really have a gift to do this. So it started I would say as early as January [2015] really going strong.”

Charisa said people are now looking to siblings, as they are now living what their dad wrote about, and want them to tell their story.

“They want us to tell what that looks like and what that is for us,” she said. The only difference she said was that it was sudden.

“We didn’t know God was preparing us,” said Charisa. “We just didn’t know what he had in store.”

Most recently Myles Jr. and Charisa participated in an official memorial celebration and tour in Israel (May 25-June 4) in honor of the life and work of their parents. The siblings participated in a one-of-a-kind olive tree planting ceremony honoring their parents at Israel’s official baptismal site at the Jordan River. It’s a special tribute the Israeli’s reserve to commemorate only a handful of the world’s righteous. The Yardenit Baptismal site itself is visited by millions of people annually.

Going forward

In taking their father’s vision forward, the siblings have engaged in restructuring and reorganizing MMI and getting a new revived, revamped vision on paper so that there is a clear understanding of what they need to do. Myles Jr. says there has been continuous conversation between him and his sister in that vein, and their intention is to go out into the world, just as their father did.

“We develop it as we go,” he said. “It’s something that I don’t think is ever going to end or ever going to stop being developed, tweaked or fine-tuned. My dad focused on the Third World a lot. He had a passion for it, so we also want to continue that aspect of it … to develop leaders within everyone that’s in place on this earth.”

Dr. Munroe believed in leadership, and his children intend to carry it on.

They are looking to establish the Myles and Ruth Munroe Foundation as a way to solidify their parents’ legacy and what they stood for. The Foundation would support MMI, BFM, ITWLA and a number of other initiatives the siblings are planning to do. The Foundation would support a Myles Munroe training institute as well as serve as the “glue” that connects everything together with their offices in South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom office they are looking to establish.

“My dad was very big on people, and it was his dream to establish an institution where he could do personal training, whether it be for kingdom or religious individuals, corporate individuals, government individuals — a place where they could come and receive leadership training, whether it be from the top down or from the bottom up. That’s what we intend to focus on and we intend to develop,” said Myles Jr.

The siblings are also working on a legacy show, which is still a work in progress, but which they hope they will be able to bring to the public as soon as possible. They are also in the process of putting together a documentary. They have already released a mini documentary that is uploaded to their MMI YouTube page that shows the siblings’ journey from November 2014 to the summer of 2015. It details what they’ve done, the places they’ve been, people they have had conversations with and how they want to help.

Life changes

The most outstanding change for the siblings since their parents’ death is that that they are now in the forefront. They had always worked with their dad in MMI. Myles Jr. worked full-time for approximately the last four years. Charisa worked part-time. She assisted her parents directly, and was their road manager.

“Chairo and I were just not in dad’s position,” said Charisa. “We had no problems being in the back — behind the table where no one could see us. And we wanted to make sure we could do that, because once we were there, we knew that dad could stand strong upfront.”

For Myles Jr. the biggest adjustment he has had to make was coming to grips with the fact that their father is no longer here, and that it is their duty to carry on his legacy.

“I was very comfortable being in the background managing things and dad being the face. I think that’s how we were planning everything and writing this new era … this new phase of MMI. There was going to be a lot of things that we were working on or developing that were going to take us to another level, but the focus was still with dad at the forefront. For me, that’s the biggest adjustment that I had to make — coming to grips with the fact that he’s no longer here, and it’s now Charisa’s and I’s duty to carry it on,” he said.

What do you want people to know

The siblings have a pretty busy schedule, which will include Global Leadership Forum, November 9-11 at The Diplomat Center. It’s the same conference their parents were going to host in Grand Bahama when their plane crashed.

“I anticipate that’s going to be a real difficult week for myself especially,” said Myles Jr. “But we have some good stuff planned.” Those plans include the renaming of The Diplomat Center after their dad.

Taking time for them

A little over two months to the first anniversary of their parents’ death Myles Jr. says life for him has been surreal as he and his sister have been on the go constantly since December 2014.

“After the home-going services we kind of took off running to different engagements and events, and people invited us to come to various places around the world, so I haven’t had a chance to just sit and let everything sink in. I definitely think we both will need some time to do that, hopefully sooner than later. But even with that being said, we’re still able to do what we’ve been doing, and that to me is kind of surprising how strong we are, because I didn’t realize I had this much strength … to lose both my parents in the way that they perished, and still be able to travel and speak and do the things we’ve been doing … it’s not to say that it isn’t hard — I have days where I don’t feel like talking to no one, I don’t feel like being nice, I don’t feel like smiling, I don’t feel like being that positive person. I just want to waste away in my grief or my sorrows and what not, but I know I can’t do that. I know dad wouldn’t want us to do that. Knowing that kind of keeps us going, and we get a lot of support and a lot of prayer from folks that also loved my father. Every day I run into someone and I hear a story where he has impacted their lives, or my mother has impacted their lives, and it encourages us to want to do the same,” said Myles Jr.

For Charisa, it’s the fact that every so often people tell them that they look really good, and she says she doesn’t know if people expected them to look a certain way or for them to feel a certain way. She says she and her brother grieve their parents and are disappointed, but that they realize they are not hopeless.

“There was a vision, and vision brings life. Vision and purpose gives life. And so when we want to be down and want to be depressed, okay fine you have those two minutes, but then you still have to move forward,” she said. “Crisis should make you stronger, so Chairo and I continue to grow strong and tap into potential, gifts and talents we didn’t even know we had or that we could use. But that’s what opportunity does for you. So the legacy of Myles Munroe continues.”

The siblings say they are going to take everything their dad started and take it to another level, one where the generations to come can continue to move it forward.

But in the foreseeable future, Myles Jr. says they will have to take some time for themselves. They receive invitations practically on a weekly basis to speak or to participate in a memorial service.

“We’re so much like our parents … at least in those moments it’s difficult to say no, but I think at some point we may have to say next time, not today … take some time off. We talk about that a lot — that we just need to take time to ourselves, to get ourselves together from a personal standpoint, because the truth of the matter is it’s still our reality, and at the end of the day we have to be able to deal with it.”

Myles Jr. said he wants people to continue praying and supporting the legacy and vision his parents left behind. And that he did not want them to forget the people that perished with them in the plane crash —BFM pastor Richard Pinder, pilots Stanley Thurston and Frahkan Cooper, husband and wife youth pastors Lavard and Radel Parks, and their son Johannan and Diego De Santiago — individuals who he said were like family to them.

Love family

Charisa encourages family members to hug on each other and love their family, and to not take them for granted.

“My brother and I don’t leave each other’s presence now when I travel without saying ‘I love you’ and without hugging, because you never know when will be the last time. That’s the one thing he and I don’t regret. We don’t regret not saying ‘I love you’ to our parents, because we said it all the time, and it was natural. So I encourage people to hug on people, love on your family, and make sure that you don’t let a day go by and don’t take them for granted.”

As for which sibling exhibits which parents’ characteristics, Myles Jr. says Charisa naturally takes after their dad and is more sociable and outgoing. He says he is more like their mother — quiet, laid back and subdued, a person who doesn’t really like to say too much. But when he needs to speak, it’s not an issue.

“I’ve developed some good qualities that my dad had and has taught me, and that I’ve observed over the years, but for sure, Charisa is more like my father than I am.”

But Charisa will interject that that’s changing and she believes she’s becoming more like their mother — not necessarily in personality, but in the way she carries herself.

“People are saying Chairo is a lot like my dad now, so I think it’s switching. But I think there’s so much of them in both of us, that whichever one comes out, comes out when it’s necessary or at any given time,” she said. No matter what, the Munroe siblings complement each other.

They can be followed on mylesmunroeinternational.com, which has updates with the siblings, the ministry they’ve been doing, and their upcoming events; Myles Jr. can be followed on Facebook under Myles Munroe Jr. He is also on Twitter under Myles Munroe and can be followed on Instagram

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