This week in the “Shed” is our tool of the week – Jean Luc Tshishimbi.

Jean Luc has an amazing life story but even better than his story is the way he tells it! J.L. as we call him, is a master story teller. Although by trade he is a communications and wireless sales executive (TPX Communications), his true passion is making changes in other people’s lives through his story telling and hospitality as he invites you into his life and his lessons learned!

In this episode Jean Luc shares a couple stories from his youth in the war torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The purpose of his stories are two-fold; first because stories are a tool in and of themselves, so learning how to tell stories and bring them alive is a critical part of us bringing change and impact to the people around us. Second, Hospitality is the tool that Jean Luc presents to us in this episode through his story and the story allows us to enter in to the powerful imagery and lasting impact that hospitality can have on people in our lives whether they “need” it or not.

Specifically you will hear us zero in on a couple stories when J.L. was just a small boy. In the first story J.L. was playing with his friend from down the street. When play time was over his friend invited him to stay for dinner. The awkward part of the invitation for dinner was that this little boy and his family had close to nothing and yet J.L. was the child of a prominent government leader with plenty of food, clothes, etc. J.L. was faced with a decision, insult the invitation of the family or stay and eat what little food they had. You’ll have to tune in to hear how this story finishes but journey with us as we take a peak inside the world of the DRC through Jean Luc’s eyes and the life change that was and is happening in all corners of the world.

Jean Luc closes this episode with a challenge for us to pick up this tool of hospitality and utilize it in a way that may be initially costly to us but worth the long term investment in others’ lives.

This episode is loaded with tools we hope equip you to build stronger relationships. Hope you enjoy!