Beyond family, there is the staff....

For the last week we have welcomed a new staff member to our church staff. It has been great having this newest member of our staff come aboard. Marc has been tasked to serve in a supervisory administrative role with our Children's and Student ministries at Westbrook. The really funny thing is the one person in our office who is really best able to help this guy settle into this position has been called to jury duty and not able to be around to help smooth and guide his transition. The strangest part for me has been that I did most of the interviewing of this position! The ultimate decision to bring him onto our ministry team was not mine to make alone, which was and is a good thing...

Marc made a remark this week that helped me to see that what I have felt and thought of our ministry staff for a very long, long time is true...

Our church staff is different... In a good way.

It's hard to explain but it's a group of people who truly like each other and are always in each others corners. We compliment one another's temperaments and personalities...

We can hold one another accountable and not for one minute question one another's motives or heart. We are fiercely loyal to each other and to the ministry of our church.

It's nice to know that even the newest member of our staff has been able to see that this is true even after being here for just a couple of weeks!

Pretty cool.

Bullies...

i'll never forget Dave Nardi...

He was a new kid, pretty big for his age but word was he ended up at Rich East because he had been expelled from Bloom Trail... and let me tell you... if you got expelled from Bloom Trail... you had to be a head case! The rumor was that he got caught dealing and somehow worked out some sort of deal to avoid going to "juvie" (juvenile detention or young offender jail).

Anyway, i was minding my own business one day during my second year of high school and the next thing i knew one of the football coaches was busting Dave Nardi's chops over something... exactly what it was i still don't know to this day but from that point on i was Nardi's target. i found out later that he accused me of being the "narc" that got him in trouble and i think the fact that i was simply in the room when it happened was enough for him to conclude that i was the one that turned him in.

Our high school boys locker room was on the second level above the gym bleachers and was basically a series of caged in rooms with lockers. It resembled a labyrinth and could be difficult to get out of at times. One day after football practice i was running a bit late leaving the locker room, but unbeknown to me one of Nardi's toadies was shadowing me as i got ready to leave... being on the football team at the time it was understandable that i might be taking longer to leave but when one of the coaches showed up and found Nardi's "lookout" man, a series of questions directed at him ensued. With no idea of what was going on, i pushed pass them both and left for home.

The next day that same coach pulled me aside and told me i needed to be careful because Nardi's plan the previous day had been thwarted. Nardi's plan had been to get me cornered in one of the locker rooms upstairs and along with his little henchman beat me senseless. This would be payback for my getting him in trouble several months previous.

For the next several weeks, every single day, i walked home a different way or doubled back toward the high school just to make sure he never knew where i lived. I remember looking over my shoulders hoping i would never see his ugly mug. That was not a fun couple of months.

Dave Nardi was a bully, the worst kind... a sneaky bully. The kind of person who creates a scheme to inflict harm on others just to make themselves feel better with a certain stealth. Sometimes we run into bullies even in adulthood. People who speak loudly for the purposes of intimidation or maybe use silence to keep you guessing what they want. Sometimes adult bullies have a considerable amount of control over our very livelihoods. At other times we may not have to see them very often but when we do, we find ourselves flinching at their every word.

Can i leave you with an encouraging word?

Most bullies will only stop bullying you, when you tell them, "Enough is enough!". It may be hard and it may be scary but stand face to face with who ever is trying to bully you and tell them to beat it, your days of being pushed around are over!

That's one thing the Dave Nardi's of the world completely understand.

South of the Border...

For the second year in a row my wife is going to Mexico... without me. She is also leaving behind the children... now before you start laughing or anything like that just understand i am a big believer in stuff like cake for breakfast.... and lunch.... and dinner. It's a lot easier.

Ruthie and the rest of the team from our church will be helping to build something... last year it was a fire house that several villages in the region of Mexico they went to shared with one another. This year my understanding is that they may be helping to build a school! Very cool!

Now, my wife tells me it is back breaking work... and looking at the pictures she showed me, it looks pretty tough but hey she's a pretty tough chick! Several of the others who will be on this trip with her are veterans of these trips into Mexico while a few are first timers. For the past 11 years we have been sending groups to Mexico... and they have built 27 homes in that time! This group has been working at raising their own funds and attending informational meetings since the beginning of the year... this past Sunday they prepared huge duffel bags of all the things they planned to bring to Mexico and brought them at the church to be weighed (50 pounds is the limit).

Ruthie went last year and grew tired of taking cold showers out in the cow pasture that was home for several days in Mexico and asked for a Sun Shower for Mother's Day.... so that was what she got... Exciting huh?!? Sleeping in a tent on the ground in another country for several days... now that's pretty cool stuff.

It's even all the more amazing to me because i remember quite clearly what my wife's feelings were back before we were married about leaving the United States... let's just say, she wasn't a real "fan" of international travel. But after twenty plus years of hiking all around the US, living in western Canada, spending time while in college in eastern Canada... she does quite well with not being in the US all the time.

Well, i better get going... i am going to need to continue to plan our "real" menu while Ruthie is gone. i mean she made up a menu list for the next several days but i can make pancakes as easily as i can make macaroni and cheese... By the way, is it possible to make cornbread on the grill?