We found out we had won our category several days before the live show. The alleged purpose of this was to give us time to work on our acceptance speech in front of an international audience estimated to be over ten million. The real purpose was that someone had informed CNN that my flop sweat was valuable, and giving advance notice would allow them to collect several additional buckets of it.

I’ve had the thought for years that I should drop this shallow missionary stuff and go do what I was meant to do; become a male model. When we heard that Tyra Banks would present the award, it seemed like confirmation.

Nancy and I flew to New York on Wednesday and immediately went to the place where the event was going to be broadcast. We found out that we would be seated in the first row; the reason we found out was that there was a large picture of me in the seat. Behind us was a large picture of Glenn Close, and pictures of various celebrities were in the first few rows.

The show was going to be broadcast at the Museum of Natural History and it was a pretty spectacular set. A lesser man would have been intimidated, but I was already so scared that the Depends were on standby. As we walked into the area where the reception would be, we were struck with eighteen pictures that were huge (at least 4 feet by 5 feet) surrounding the hall; pictures of all the finalist. I immediately got on the phone and called Jenny Craig; I figured no one would be able to eat with my mug staring at them, and maybe we could make some dough on this.

After a brief rehearsal, we went to our hotel courtesy of our driver. They had sent a driver to pick us up at the airport, to take us to our hotel, and to ferry us about. The hotel was very nice, and at that point I learned the first important lesson:

1. Turn off the part of your brain that wonders how many kids you could feed and just roll with it.

One of my best friends lives in New York, and we had Wednesday night free, so we were able to go to dinner with him. He has lived a life full of adventure, and he knows too many things about me, so I was on fairly good behavior. He treated us to a wonderful dinner and then tickets to a Broadway show, so we had a chance to see Mary Poppins, which was really great. A guy from CNN arranged for us to go backstage and see the amazing set they had built. We took the long way back to the hotel to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza, and just had a blast being tourists.

We didn’t have to be at the show until 6 on Thursday so we went to Ground Zero, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and wandered around the city. I had to submit the speech to CNN; they made me edit out the personal thank yous. One of the guys told me: `When a famous guy, who everyone wants to hear starts talking about unknowns, people get mad. Nobody wants to hear you to start with; when you start naming individuals, they will hurt you.’

I did want to share what I didn’t get to share:

John Stouffer and Solution Beacon paid for the first computer center and I will always be grateful for their support. Walter Middleton is the genius who designed the centers and Bruce Kinzer is the force of nature who builds them. Covenant Christian Academy has been such a home to my children when we are back in America; we don’t deserve it but we truly appreciate it.We drove up, and they had us get out and have our pictures taken like they might if Neil Diamond showed up. After the third set of photographers took our pictures, the dream of using my good looks for the greater good died; being a supermodel is tougher than it looks.

The show began, and after a few minutes they showed the video they had made during the wild trip to Kenya last month. I hadn’t seen it before, and then it was time. This was another time to roll with it: Who better to present an award to a 52 year old missionary working with hungry children than a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model? I’m sure in some alternative universe it made perfect sense.

I was trying to focus, and during the commercial break some woman came and started to put powder on my face because I was shiny. It was LOTS of work to make me LESS shiny, and certainly a GREAT way to focus. As I thought about shiny and how I had NEVER thought about shiny, it was time for me to go up on the stage.

It has been said that some people who are experiencing a crisis can hear the prayers of the saints. As I walked on stage, it was as if the prayers came to together and spoke as if they were one voice:

2. Don’t stand on a supermodel’s dress.

I was going to be interviewed, so they asked me to be in the talent room, where all the celebs were. I was five feet away from Norah Jones, Harry Connick, and several other big shots. I wanted so much to ask Norah Jones when she was planning to record a Neil Diamond song, but I started realizing that none of the celebrities wanted to talk to us. Principal three is this:

3. The whole point of being a celebrity is so you don’t have to talk to people like me.

The interviews and the show ended, and they had a big gala bash and we got to meet lots of nice people from CNN. They are giving us $35,000.00, which will build three more computer centers. It was a night that was as surreal as any I’ve ever had, and I went to college in the 70’s. You can look at the video at www.cnn.com/heroes .

When we met the other nominees, it was remarkable how much big money was behind many of their projects. We don’t have any big money behind us; we have you guys. We say it a lot but not enough: we are so grateful for what you have done. When all is said and done, what we hope for is to build more centers and feed more kids.

However, I just saw this picture and think I was premature about ending the male modeling: