An ordinary weekend

Saturday was one of our quarterly Regional Leadership Development Days.  Early that day I was in the car headed to the training center.  I found myself singing “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter His courts with praise.”  I couldn’t figure out why and then remembered that BBC Radio has been running over and over again a piece about Burma, which included a report on the Christian church.  This is the song they played as they started that report.  My first reaction was “Oh no, another embarrassing Christian church story”.  But, it was not that at all and in a country where it is not easy to be a Christian, I had to think about how much those words must mean to them.  It led me to think about when this song was a big part of my life.  I was soldiering at the Chicago Temple corps, an urban, multicultural congregation and I loved it.  We sang this song often, with special emphasis on “OHHHHHH – He has made me glad, He has made me glad.”  For some reason that sent my mind to all the corps I’ve soldiered at while an officer – Oakbrook Terrace, Temple, Grand Rapids Fulton Heights and now, Riga 1.  Each has been such a blessing to me and the right place at the right time.  I have never been able to be an observer, even though not the corps officer.  I’ve always tried to be as supportive as possible and fill in where the need is and where I can, depending on my appointment and schedule.  But what I’ve given has never equaled what I’ve received.  During hard times, those corps became my family.  When I felt alone, they provided community.  When I needed to be challenged and held accountable, there was someone there to do it.  And most of all, when I needed love, it was given.  What an amazing blessing God has given me.  

After that rather long thought process, I was at the training center!  The seminar was taught by a guest and my role was food provider.  I hesitate to say cook because I wimped out with frozen pizzas and salad.  Unfortunately, that kept me from hearing the teaching most of the day.  The topic was ‘ministry in the work place’ and while there were only 9 people there, they were eager to learn and had good reasons for being there (except the cadets who were required!)  All of them seemed to enjoy the teaching and the fellowship.  I had been home for just a few minutes when my phone rang.  ‘Aren’t you coming to Darta’s birthday party’?  One of my small group (past) had her 18th party at the corps.  So, off I went for cake.  I only stayed a few minutes but it was fun.  I always enjoy being with those girls.  As I was leaving they were dressing Darta up and sending her out to the street to give candy to the passersby.  I hope she survived!  

Sunday was the first real field training day for the cadets.  They were entirely responsible for planning, leading and preaching.  We went to a little corps about 45 minutes outside Riga, Iecava.  They did a great job.  It is hard to believe that they have only been cadets for 2 months.  They were confident, sensitive and said good things.  I didn’t understand everything as I had no translator.  But, I understood a bit and I could read their expressions and motions.  (That’s something you could pray about – how to I effectively evaluate these experiences?) I was proud of them and thankful that these are the first cadets the Lord sent us.  It could be much harder!

I have a new addiction (no, not decaf coffee!)  My friend, Peggy Thomas, sent me the West Wing DVDs. All 5 seasons!  I have to keep myself from putting the DVD in the computer because once I start I can’t stop!  I love them.  They are definitely American and I guess I enjoy a little retreat to home once in a while.  I’m in the midst of the reelection campaign (for those of you who know exactly what I mean) and there is a lot of discussion about expectations.  Do you set the expectation high and then chance that you might miss it?  Or do you set it low and guarantee a win, but with little real satisfaction?  I’m battling that a bit here.  Are my expectations for this training program and myself too high or is it better to keep them high and take a bit of a risk?  It would be easy to lower the expectation and meet it, but will that train effective leaders for the future?  I’m just started on this thought so won’t write more now, but any reflection will be appreciated.