Monday, March 03, 2008

Leadership thoughts, and what's ahead

God is cool!  I know most of you know that already :-), but I was reminded of this recently.  I am in a discipleship group with about 8 other men, and we are discussing leadership right now.  For part of our study we are reading the book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John C. Maxwell.  His 3rd law is the Law of Process, where he talks about how it takes time and continual growth to become a great leader.  Then he goes on to ask, "what are you doing right now to better yourself as a leader?"  When I thought about this question I decided I really wasn't doing much.  I had become pretty complacent, but decided I needed to look for opportunities to grow.  No sooner had I decided this I got email after email, call after call from individuals inviting me to events designed for me to grow as a leader in many different facets of my life!  God is cool!

The first event will be a Business Luncheon put on by my church this Friday March 7.  Then in the end of April will be my 'Leadership: Drink from a Fire Hydrant Extravaganza'.  I will be attending (and volunteering at) the CMA (Christian Management Association) conference on April 21-23.  Then on April 24 and 25, one of our staff is doing a training on Chronological Bible Storying (this is great stuff to learn because most people in the world still are oral learners).  To finish out April, I will be flying to Atlanta, GA with Children's staff from my church, Watermark, to attend the Orange Conference on the 27 - 30 to grow in how I serve kids.  This will help me both in my ministry at Watermark and my trips overseas.  Thank you Lord for investing in me!  The 'Process' has been put back into Drive and out of Neutral.

Also I need to update you on my travel schedule, and prayer requests.  I recently added a trip to Panama that leaves the end of this month March 28 - April 5.  One of my fellow staff is heading up this trip and needed a few more warm and capable bodies to make the trip work, so I volunteered.  It is an extreme trip, meaning we will be camping and hiking in the jungles of Panama.  We will be working with churches from Darien, Panama which is near the border with Colombia.  Please keep this trip in your prayers.  I had a trip of my own planned to David, Panama for May but will have to cancel because my main source of recruiting fell through.  I have two trips planned to go to Romania (back-to-back) but they are also in need of more people in order for the trips to go.  Please pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up workers for His harvest field, specifically Romania.  And don't forget that might include you :-)!  God could be calling you to a 1 or 2 week commitment to Romania, are you willing to answer His call?  These trips are tentatively scheduled for July 10-20 and 17-27 (might shift a week earlier depending on the Romanians' schedules).  Right after I get back from that I am leaving for East Asia for two trips August 2-20 that Steve Cretin is leading.  I am going to learn how we do ministry there, so that next year I can lead a trip there.

In June I will be traveling to Estes Park, Colorado with my church for a Family Camp.  I will serve in the Children's area as worship leader and possibly a group leader.  So as you can see my schedule (and specifically [as usual] my summer) is quite full.  Please keep these trips in your prayers, and especially pray for more laborers for Romania.

If your still reading, thanks for letting me ramble on!  Your support is invaluable to me.  You get the benefit of seeing this great picture of me and my family celebrating my Grandmother's 90th birthday.