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Saturday, February 25 2012
Mission Joint Venture is one of the most enjoyable things I do.
Me and our board of directors and volunteers get to work with life changing mission efforts around the world.
One of the best parts of my job as director is getting to work with the great team that is our board of directors. I picked them and asked them to serve because of three things. They are Christians that both live their faith and share it . They travel to foreign countries and survey the mission efforts they support. Last but not least, they have given sacrificially to spread the gospel.
We meet quarterly and have an annual strategic planning retreat in the fall. I want you to meet them.
Our vice chairperson; Rhonda Gibby
Rhonda is the Vice President of Human Resources for Health Care, KCP and Europe at Kimberly-Clark. She has been with K-C since 2005. Prior roles at KC include: VP of KC Global Talent Management, VP of HR for the Chief Marketing Office and Chief Strategy Office, and the Director of Organization Effectiveness. Prior to K-C, Rhonda worked for Covidien (formerly Tyco Healthcare), Orian Rugs, Employment & Training Consultants and various other companies in a variety of HR and operations roles.
Rhonda did her undergraduate studies at Southern Wesleyan University where she earned a Bachelor degree in Human Resource
Management. She completed her graduate studies at Clemson University and was awarded a Masters degree in Organizational
Development and Masters in Business Administration. She currently serves of the Board of Directors for North Fulton Child Development Association. Rhonda and her husband Joe, live in Alpharetta, GA and are members of Vision Baptist Church.
Saturday, February 18 2012
If you aren’t looking for this West African nation, you will have trouble finding it. The airline attendant that helped us at the kiosk on the way out of Atlanta had to ask where it was. It’s a nation of approximately 16 million people that speak French and other tribal languages.
Keith Shumaker: The mission work of Keith and Rebecca Shumaker is in its 6th year in Burkina and is seeing great results. The best way to measure them is by looking at the caliber of men he is training in the Bible College and the churches. The response to the gospel is visible in the changes that have taken place in so many lives.
Bible College: The Bible College will have seven graduates this year that have completed their four year studies and are already pastoring or working in leadership positions in their churches. Konaté, Salif, Simón, Giblert, Tali, Mamadou and Rogé will be graduating. The Bible college building is approximately 70% complete and also houses the church at Cissin.
Churches:
· Pastor Konaté leads the church at Cissin is currently planning a new church plant in Kaya, a city to the northeast of Ouagadougou. This church has its own land and building.
· Pastor Tali leads the church at Tingandogo, a suburb of Ouagadougou. This church is meeting in a smaller building but will soon finish its new building on the property and will move services there.
· Pastor Salif leads the church at the village of Roungou. This village is northeast of Ouagadougou where the people speak Mooré.
· Pastor Mamadou leads the church at Saonré. This church has land and buildings but must get its final paperwork complete on the land title.
· Pastor Zachary leads the church at Bassinko, a suburb of Ougadougou. The church has a large tract of land, a church building and a house for the pastor.
New Churches Planned:
· Pissila is a city close to the village of Roungou.
· Koudougou is a city about 80 miles west of Ouagadougou.
· Kaya is half way between Roungu and Ouagadougou.
Partners in the mission: Contact David Lundy at david@mjvi.org to find out how you can make a trip to Burkina Faso, or help out with the work there. Also go to www.theharvest.net to contact Keith Shumaker.
Saturday, February 18 2012
Viola, (pronounced vwa-la) became one of my all time favorite words last week. Webster’s online dictionary defines it as expressing satisfaction, calling attention to, or the presentation of something as if it appeared by magic. Like we took some graham crackers, marsh mallows and chocolate and viola! we got smores.
The French speaking people of Burkina Faso use this word liberally in conversation. There may be an English equivalent but I don’t know what it is. Plus, it is just a fun word to say. You can draw out the second syllable, put your hands out and smile. They will do the same back to you. Its fun and its hard to not smile when you say it. The word has incredible resiliency also. They don’t get tired of hearing it and I didn’t get tired of saying it.
The best way to experience the word viola is to take a trip to Burkina Faso West Africa. You can fly into the capital city of Ouagadougou (Wa-ga-doo-goo) and visit the Shumaker Family. ( www.theharvest.net ) Keith and Rebecca and their four children serve as church planting missionaries in the city and in the neighboring villages. It is common for Keith to translate for English speakers, then a second translation happen into a tribal language. My wife and I and another of our board members, David Lundy, and his wife Anne spent last week there with the Shumakers.
Here is how it works. Get a passport, call the travel agent, help them find Burkina Faso on the map, pay the money and viola, you will have a mission experience that will change your life.
Saturday, February 04 2012
Better yet, what are you doing to raise your value in the market place? It doesn’t matter if you are an employee, a self employed contractor or a business person, these personal investment strategies will raise your market value.
1. Understand that the playing field is not level and that the judges are not fair. Fairness is not a particularly desirable playing field anyway. Those who decide to excel are held back by the fairness shown to those who never desire to do more than the minimum, but expect equal rewards. People that don’t worry about fair – worth more.
2. Share the credit for good things you did, but with help. Spread the credit around and take those along with you that contribute to the win. Don’t hog the credit and don’t believe you did it single handedly. Nobody gets anywhere all by themselves. You had help. Those who forget that are one day forgotten also. People that share the credit – worth more.
3. Become a good listener and learn to understand what the other person wants. It may or may not be something we can provide but mostly we never know because we don’t listen. We spend most of our listening time formulating our responses, readying our credentials or thinking about someone else we just saw walk into the room. People that listen – worth more.
4. Become solution oriented. Every career, country or age has its share of problems. Anyone can find them and be critical of things. Leaders are solution oriented and bring positive, thoughtful solutions when they point out problems. Problem solvers – worth a lot
5. Last but not least, take responsibility for your work, and most especially, mistakes. People are usually willing to forgive you for mistakes of the head. Those are mistakes you make where you just messed up and did something wrong. Others are not so willing to forgive mistakes of the heart. The ones where you try to cover up your mistake or blame someone else. People that don’t take responsibility – worth less.
Employers will tell you that even at what we deem to be a high unemployment rate of 8.5%, high worth individuals like the ones described in these five points are difficult to find.
When they are found, they get hired.
Monday, January 30 2012
What if you had no affirmation? What if there was no one around to tell you that you are doing a good job? Nobody to compliment you.
Would you know if you were doing it right?
Would you have enough confidence in your preparation to know you were on mission? Would you know what results you were looking for from the work you were doing?
Would the fruits of your efforts testify that you were doing a good job?
The place you go to put all your training to work is oftentimes not the same place you train. Because of that, you may find yourself without the comforting words of affirmation from those that care about you or have trained you. Best to have a clear understanding of what results you seek and what are the true indicators of success.
The work carries its own rewards and affirmations but you have to learn to see them, understand them and know how they came to be. More importantly, you have to be honest with yourself when neither affirmation nor results are coming from your efforts.
Too often we seek affirmation when results don’t exist. We look for comfort in the fact that our best efforts, albeit weak or misguided, are the same as results. The message of no-results may just be that your best efforts might be best suited for some other field or occupation. Something less challenging.
Go for results. Affirmation will tag along.
Saturday, January 21 2012
Do you say this? “I don’t want other people to think that. . .” then you fill in the blank.
Let me give you some relief.
You can’t control what other people think, so just relieve yourself the anguish of thinking you can.
You can’t even get them to tell you what they are really thinking if they don’t want to.
They will probably tell you something other than what they really think, because they don’t want you to think they are mean or critical.
To think they are thinking about you that much is really to have a little too high of an opinion of yourself and of the amount of time they actually spend thinking about you. Don’t you think?
The real relief though is to choose things in life that matter and that make a difference then focus your thoughts and energies on them. Choose things that have real value and do them with the confidence that they are worth spending your (one) life on no matter what anyone else thinks.
Finally, since I have been unsuccessful in controlling all of my own thoughts I have decided to give up on trying to control what others think. How goes it with your own thoughts?
Here’s a thought
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and do it openly. A small group of people around you just may think you have figured it out and want to know what you did.
Others will just think you are crazy.
We covered that.
Sunday, January 15 2012
If you have been to London and had a chance to ride the tubes, you are familiar with the phrase “mind the gap.” The gap is the space between the platform and the train. Mind the gap means to pay attention to it and don’t trip or get your foot stuck in it. If you see and hear the warning before you get a chance to see the gap, you get the idea that it’s a man-eating canyon between the train and platform and real danger is imminent.
The gap is really pretty small, but the perception is, it’s big.
The other place this gap phenomenon occurs is in church. By phenomenon I mean that there is the perception of a big gap between the work of the preachers, pastors and missionaries and what everyone else gets to do.
The Bible says that God has made all Christians able ministers of the New Testament (II Corinthians 3:6), given to us the ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18) and committed the Word of Reconciliation to us (II Corinthians 5:19). This is not reserved to preachers, pastors and missionaries but has been given to all Christians. No ministry gap.
The highest of church offices and their qualifications are described in I Timothy chapter 3, where the office of pastor and deacon are detailed. The office of a bishop or pastor is without a doubt a preacher position, while a deacon is usually served by non-preachers, but can be both. The list of the qualifications of each of these offices is basically the same, and all men in the church should reach for one or the other of these.
So no ministry gap and no qualification gap (ok, a little one) so where is the gap? Unfortunately its all perception that has been engrained in us that ministers (preachers) do the ministering and the rest of us show up, sing, pray, write a check and go home. That gap does not exist in the Bible, just in our heads.
You have been authorized, empowered and commissioned to minister.
So, never mind the gap and get on with the work.
Check out www.bcwe.org
Friday, January 13 2012
That is my own term that I use when someone makes an announcement of a new plan or program that advertises big but never gets out of the starting block. Not that it’s a bad plan or that they are bad people, but the plan dies because the announcer lacks the discipline to execute. It’s like a new year’s resolution, (that you don’t keep) that you can make any day of the year.
One of my favorite examples of announcement death is when someone says, I am going to blog three times a week, and the blog that makes the announcement is the last one – dated late 2010. I am not a disciplined blogger so there will be no such announcement coming here.
If you are a “completer” (not a real word, but you know what it means) or if you get motivated by throwing your hat over the wall so you have to climb the wall to get it, there is some value in announcing. If you are not a completer though, you should consider not being an announcer either. If the real issue is you lose interest quickly or don’t have the discipline to finish then don’t announce.
There is hope for people that announce and don’t complete though. The trick is that you have to learn to do, without announcing, and then let people come to the conclusion that you are a doer and actually get things done. Watch it improve both your doing and your sphere of influence.
If you announce and don’t do, your announcements will become inaudible over time.
If you learn to consistently complete the things you start, others will take care of the announcing for you.
Check out www.bcwe.org
Monday, January 09 2012
It’s easy to confuse a really good computer calendar or organizer program that assembles all your to-dos, appointments, tasks and contacts in the latest formats with actual work.
It’s great when you can link a document or graphic right into your schedule or journal so that all your undone work is safely archived. The greatest part is when all of your electronic devices sync all your wishful thinking together into a perfect mosaic of well planned wasted time.
You have to do the work. You have to start the work, concentrate on the work, finish the work and review the work to make sure it’s done right. You have to work all the time you work so that you can play all the time you play.
Electronic scheduling and archiving have become a form of techno-entertainment and have somehow become a substitute for actually doing the work. To do the work you need to have a system that is simple and effective. I have watched people get more done using a yellow pad and pencil than those who have the latest gadgetry and software. The secret is - you have to do the work.
The schedule is not the work.
Sunday, January 08 2012
That doesn’t mean that everything is about you and your plan, but it does mean that you plan your time around the prioritization of steps to reach your goals.
Most will finish life like they finish a day – with lots of potential. Potential being loosely defined by me as unutilized ability. Lost utility for the day. Wasted resources.
Mostly it happens because we have learned to entertain ourselves first, serve our needs second, do meaningless “busy tasks” next until we have run out of time, energy or interest to do the really important things.
The dictionary definition of potential is “Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.”
Its gas in a can, stored somewhere safe, never used.
Strategic thinking is planning ahead to get the full utility out of the day and to reverse the trend of amusing ourselves first then trying to squeeze in some work at the last.
Strategic thinkers have a much easier time making decisions as they are heading to their compass point (their goals) and not just waiting on a clock to tell them its quitting time. When you are moving in a definite direction, making a decision about a major detour is simple. You see the wasted gas and time. If you are merely trying to fill in the work hours of the day, then its just as easy to fill it with one worthless task as another.
Today is a goner but tomorrow is a strategic weapon of mass destruction to get to your goals - if used properly.
Make a plan
Also, check out www.bcwe.org
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