The Founding of People In Charge of Change.
PICC is now entering Phase IV. Wow! The first three years flew by so quickly! Thirty-three months ago, what seemed like no more than a spark rapidly became a firestorm caused by the winds around the 2016 election cycle. Patriots and conservatives alike came together to voice their concerns for the direction the country is heading. PICC, the blog site, www.peopleinchargeofchange.com emerged out of a hunger for change.
In August 2015 during my search for a candidate for election year 2016, fate caused my path to cross with one I call my “Lady Liberty” today. Though, only communicating through social media, she was effective in sparking my interest in her candidate, Dr. Ben Carson. What little I knew of him grew every day. I listened to every interview, speech, meeting, whatever I could find about Dr. Carson. I even went to an event when he came to Atlanta. I became more and more impressed; and change began to happened, mostly in the way I think. My worldview had come into focus and I realized that I had always held Conservative values. But something more happened. I became inspired to do something.
Before I go any further, let me jump off here to lay a foundation. In April 1990, I felt a strong desire to start a business for small contractors. This business would act as a bridge to connect people seeking particular services to professionals seeking clients. The dream was never realized. Some things work better with the right partner(s). Being young, with two children, I didn’t have the resources to go it alone. I kept dreaming though. I even gave the business a name, Provisions Int’l Contractors Connection. Wow! I continued to document my work and figure ways to promote it… it was a hobby of sorts. I called the business, P.I.C.C., Inc. The irony is, had I been successful, it would have preceded Angie’s List. This was the exact concept Angie Hicks, 5 years later, started, which has morphed into the $344-million company it is today, a company that does exactly what I had dreamt of doing. Talking about missed opportunity!
Dr. Ben Carson, with his statement “We the People are at the Pinnacle of Change,” influenced my strong desire to create a call-to-action venue. He convinced me that the people have within their ability to change the direction this country is headed. By igniting a course of events, we could actually be the change agents we desire. We could also fan the flames that others may come aboard and begin campaigns to put the right representatives in place who would fight for the people. So then, twenty-six years after my first idea for business, I began to search for a name for a blog. I wrestled for a few days with different possible monikers, names that would be suitable to the blog’s objective to encourage, inspire, educate, and engage.
One day at work I began to jot down on a Post-It note some phrases for a name. I reflected back to Dr. Carson’s words; “We the People are at the Pinnacle of Change.” I added thought to that, “So really what he is saying is that Change has its success through the people who make it happen! We are in Charge of Change!” How exciting. Back to the Post-It note: We are the People In Charge of Change. Lo and behold, I saw what I had seen 26 years before. People In Charge of Change. Do you see it? PICC.
I was completely touched by God’s Spirit. He brought me full circle back to His original plan, only not to include my idea of a business for contractors and clients, but an organized platform that would bring people together and to glorify Him in the process by promoting fellowship and goodwill; a goodwill that will stretch across all of America touching every segment of society.
After the outcome of the election, many people had been left hurting and in despair or depression. It is the faith communities’ duty to reach out to these souls to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. PICC continues to embrace articles/videos that will answer this cause. Scriptures, inspirational messages, etc. are accepted. We also keep our broader focus on bringing people together for change that can positively affect all of us as a nation of people seeking, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness as stated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. This factor is achieved by the people staying informed locally as well as nationally.
We began PICC with the Citizen Statesmen idea, a call-to-action for concerned citizens to representative their particular state by joining with PICC in the ELECTION HQ Division. We formed a go-to source for the people. A voice, if you will. A citizen statesman would contribute just a few minutes a month to update people, expressly through the blog community. As they came across information that was helpful for the people — locally, state, or nationally — they would submit it to the admin for the blog. PICC provided a venue to give voice to the locals on issues and candidates up for election/re-election, voting info for first-time voters, and helps inform voters to prepare themselves to make intelligent decisions. A point and click system was established to make navigating to each state’s Election Division easy. On the Election HQ page a seal for each state was made into a hot link that could re-direct the person to their Election Division.
PICC is about coming together. We the People are able to recognize common ground where we can unite around the conservative message, sometimes with uncertainty in candidates. Yet, we must marched on to make a difference. It is my sincere desire that the people who are coming to PICC this fourth year should be a combination of the old and new generation.
In this fourth Phase we are hoping to do the following:
-We look forward to pulling in more exciting talent to the blog. e.g. columnists, contributors, video/podcast producers, graphic artists, etc.
-We encourage more participants in the Citizen Statesmen project. Constituents in their local and state communities should prepare to propel their state to victory in both midterm and general elections. Conservatives should strive to keep the House and the Senate by electing good men and women to the positions available to fill. Perhaps, candidates for state and local offices may be found within our sphere of acquaintances.
-We will be incorporating promotions to help PICC become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit making more outreach possible.
-Ad links on the pages go directly to Amazon and soon Best Buy. These indicate that PICC is now an affiliate of both companies. Any purchases made to Amazon thru accessing the store from the blog, a 4%-10% commission is given to PICC. This will help our efforts to keep the blog going as far as paid hosting, paid for plugins and updating themes.
-I am visiting various social media platforms to give PICC more exposure for the purpose of reaching like-minded individuals. I am a proactive person. I strongly believe we can make a difference; I have chosen to let that belief motivate me to do something.
God has placed ideas in my heart. I do my best to share them with the people of PICC and social media. It is hard to find people to match the vision. I have never been a social media person until God placed PICC in my heart. In 2009 ago I cancelled my FaceBook account because I did not care for the exposure. It wasn’t until Sept. 2014 I felt a release to set up a new account solely for the purpose of connecting with family and for outreach. Less than two years later PICC came to the forefront of my heart. Later, a sister blog SCHP www.smallchange-hugeprofits.com
My heart is full of desire and effort to do this work. God has been priming me over decades to do what I am doing now. He has given me gifts, talents, skills, abilities and experience. He has also given me a wonderful team of contributors, columnists and producers who shares the Christian Conservative vision. In awe, I step back to see how He had prepared me.
So, twenty-nine years later, I thought, “God, I missed You.” One thing I have learned in this is that God will redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16) lost by our missteps and wrong decisions. The right approach to lost time can be considered by a piece I read in Matthew Henry’s Commentary, “Time is a talent given us by God, and it is misspent and lost when not employed according to His design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must double our diligence for the future.”
My prayer is that God would place this vision in others. I have always stated that PICC is not a fly-by-night project, but at some point I want to pass the baton to one who can take her to the next level.
I am amazed of what God has done and is doing. I would be remiss if I go without saying how God has given PICC a family of contributors and columnists who together has made the blog a success. Thanks to Gail and Emery Pinder, Steve Cooper, MJ Johnson, Melody Acey, Beth Trivett, Patricia Owens, Patricia Richard, Patria Agosto, and Elseba Adhiambo with PODI, and so many others behind the scenes who have submitted articles and inspired us to keep going.
Now is a time I can see God’s signature on PICC. Won’t you join me in this effort? I can be contacted at provisons59@gmail.com or Private Message on the Facebook Satellite page – People In Charge of Change. Click Image for more info on PHASE IV Growing the Distance.
