leadership thoughts

There’s no shortage of material about leadership, so my thoughts here will be brief and concise, but hopefully they will have relevance and be impactful:

• sometimes the best way to grow as a person is by increasing our connections to leadership – by either becoming a leader or more closely supporting the leaders around us
• when there’s a deficiency, it’s often a consequnce of a leadership shortcoming – all leaders need prayer
• leaders make mistakes and mess up because they’re human: Jesus is the only perfect human;  leader does not equal perfect
• the journey for learning & growing is often on the uncomfortable path of leadership
• from my experience, I think that the best leaders are the ones who rely the most on God

If you’re a leader in any capacity – WAY TO GO!!! 🙂

a few memories of my dad

Over the last month or so, I’ve thought of my dad on several occassions.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been traveling alot & I started a lifetime of travel when I was 5 with my mom & dad.  For whatever reason I’ve been thinking of my dad, here are a few quickie lessons I learned from him:

• don’t ask questions to which you don’t really want to know the answers
• always celebrate birthdays no matter how old you are because the alternative solution isn’t as appealing
• don’t put mugs or glasses on antique wood furniture without a coaster – it can leave a permanent ring
• smile and be warm with people just because
• the jamocha shake a Arby’s is a nice complement to their roast beef sandwich and potatoe cakes with LOTS of Arby’s sauce ,)
• even though nursing homes can smell bad, the people inside can be really cool & loving
• when you make a hospital visit, pray for the person you’re visiting, even if there’s another person in the room (don’t be embarassed)
• be patient when your dad is talking, even if he talks alot 🙂
• I still don’t like garage nor estate sales

Happy Dad thoughts today 🙂

chasing

I’ve been thinking lately about some things that I want – not cars, clothes or temporary stuff.  Sometimes I think we can get trapped in our desires for popularity, wealth & achievements.  If we aren’t careful, we can easily make this mistake:

• popularity = importance
• wealth = value
• achievements = significance

Unfortunately, I think it’s easy to get focused on the wrong goals (popularity, wealth & achievements) and never really understand that we are already important, valuable & significant because of Jesus’ love for us.

You are valuable.  You are important.  You are significant.  All because Jesus loves you, full stop.

Shhhhhhh

If you take some time to be still & listen to God, you’ll hear that you’re deeply loved. You’ll hear that you have infinite value. You’ll hear that your life has amazing purpose as you live in synch with God. Listen, watch, be sensitive to God because you have yet to experience more & more of God’s love for you 🙂

Traveling lots

Sometimes when I travel I feel like I’m in perpetual motion & I just want to pause for some stillness. I’m really feeling like this now: in April, I was in Angola, May was China, June was South Sudan & July has been Cambodia. While this is lots of travel, I’m really grateful to God for such amazing opportunities & experiences to express genuine love. And when I’m home, I want to continue to get better & better at giving genuine love with less Sarah & more Jesus. Anyone eager to join this adventure with me?

Light & Dark

I think that we generally prefer light over darkness and yesterday this was really obvious to me. Here in Cambodia, I have a program with Saving Moses called nightcare. With nightcare, we take care of the babies of prostitutes while their moms work. We give them a safe, warm & loving environment.
Darkness is the contrast because these babies live in hellacious environments. Yesterday, I saw places where babies live, places so dark that I’m still struggling to figure out how to describe them. And with babies in this darkness. These places have a desperate need for nightcare & I’m still spinning from the experience & the darkness.
I want light, I want to live in light & I want to be an agent of light because in my thinking, light is one of the ways that genuine love is expressed.

Success, Progress & Opportunities

What an amazing spectrum of experiences today. I’ve finished this day at our present nightcare facility, playing with one of our toddlers before he went to bed & enjoying our warm, safe & healthy haven for the babies of prostitutes while their moms work. Shortly before this wonderfully satisfying joy (we’ve been running for more than a year & have really acquired the trust of these moms to look after their babies), we negotiated the rent on a new nightcare facility in a new neighborhood & this is also super exciting!! We hope to be up & running there in about 2-3months 🙂
But here’s my struggle as I finish this day – we visited two brand new areas that desperately need nightcare & one of the areas we visited was really overwhelming for me. Even though we were there in the daytime, it was indescribably dark & felt very actively evil – the last face I saw before I left this area was a baby & if the truth be known, I’m having a rough time with all of this &I can’t seem to find words to go along with my feelings.
So friends, thank you SO MUCH for taking some time to read this & for being interested. I’m celebrating our successes & achievements while absorbing the opportunities that lie in front of us as well. Perhaps there is no one that is more “least of these” than the babies of prostitutes.

Why do we need nightcare?

I’m presently in Cambodia & I’ve been able to see first hand on this trip why we need nightcare. I am close to overwhelmed by what I’ve seen & experienced, finding myself almost at a loss for the words to describe what’s happening to and around these babies every night.
What is normal for these babies could be considered hell especially in contrast to our nightcare program – a safe haven with genuine love, care & protection. I’m attaching a picture of what I saw one night here.

Making a difference one baby at a time

I always want to be upbeat & encouraging because we all have our own responsibilities & things that can concern us. But today, I’m having a hard time because I just listened to a story of heartbreak & hopelessness from a girl who has a little 2 year old son. I want to fix her problems & make everything better for her & her son. I may not be able to do everything but I can help in my small way & maybe that’s what God wants from each of us – to do our part & make our individual contributions. I’m confident that if we each make a commitment to daily add value to the world in which we live, we can well express God’s love & bring transformation in maybe small but really powerful ways. Lets make a difference!!!

Each day has new adventures

Thank you heaps for reading this blog today! I’m in Cambodia w Saving Moses & we are in our first day here, already seeing incredible things happening! I was just able to visit a possible 2nd location for our nightcare work here & to say I’m excited might be te understatement of the century! ,)
Seriously, I’m so excited about getting to open a 2nd nightcare facility here & I feel God’s hand on us to give us direction & wisdom – what an amazing experience!! Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement & support, helping us to express genuine love to babies everyday where the need is most urgent & the care is least available. I’m attaching a pix of a baby that we might get to care for at our second facility. His name is Sopi & he’s 7months old. A beautiful baby, full of life, hope & possibly a bright future.
Saving Moses = saving babies everyday!