I write you this afternoon after having just gotten home from a very emotional but healing Sunday service at our Church. I should say up-front that as we all know the Church is the people and today our Church held it's service in a different location than normal.
Why you might ask? I could re-write everything but I will paste the link tothe news here for you to read.http://www.ctvbc.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080427/BC_Christian_Rock_Prayer_080427/20080427/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Right now our Church is a little in shock but it could have been much worse. One gentlemen with the fractured leg is a good friend of mine and he was at our service this morning which was really important for us all to be able to see him and talk to him. Please Pray for the 2 people still in hospital, I don't have many details about their current conditionother than they were quite serious on Friday, but God knows what we are praying about and that is what matters.It is at times like this that we are reminded how very precious life is and that God is in control of all situations. One of the pictures shared in the service this morning shows how one of the pews was literally hanging almostin air (but for a small amount of one side of it still on the worship centre floor) and at the same time it was holding up the lighting that otherwise would have crashed down and fallen on the people below. There is no way this pew should not have fallen in the hole but for God and his Grace.
Please pray and I will try to report on the two individuals as I have moreinfo.
Regards,
Mike
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Thank you God for telephone poles…
O.K. so I know that is a title that will get everyone going “huh?” let me explain what has been a traumatic 24 hours since 6:37am yesterday (Feb 1st) morning. Sorry it’s long but I need to write it all.
Yesterday was the annual “first day for new registrations” at the private school my wife works at. It is the craziest, busiest day of the year. So crazy in fact that people start camping in front of the school from the previous day just so they can get a high enough number to get their child into MEI (thankfully once your children are in you only have to renew your registration so you don’t have to go through this). Obviously Kindergarten is the biggest issue as those are all new students and my wife Cheryll is the person in charge of the elementary grade school registration.
Registration day is also Cheryll’s favourite day of the year because with her job she spends quite a few months working on all the necessary supporting stuff around getting ready for it and then the next few months sorting it out (wait-lists, assessments, etc.) It is her job and she loves it. It also means that she has to go into work on registration day for 7:00am which is an hour earlier than normal and means that daddy (that would be me!) gets to take care of making sure that Chelsea gets to daycare and the two boys get to school. She was so excited when she left the house and I could tell it was going to be a great day. How wrong I was…
So here I am getting ready to sit down with the kids for breakfast when the phone rings…
“Hi”, I say knowing it is Cheryll (caller ID is a wonderful thing) and figuring she probably forgot to tell me something.
In a shaky voice I hear on the other end of the phone “I’ve been in an accident, I’m o.k. but the van is really bad”.
Needless to say I’m not expecting this and so I ask “Are you sure you are ok, have you called the police”
“I’ve already called them, there on their way, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry”
“Where are you?”
“I’m on Old Clayburn (which is just down the hill 3 blocks from our house), I’m o.k. I’m o.k. but the van is really bad”
Needless to say the conversation went on like this for a couple of minutes with me continuing to ask Cheryll if she was ok and her pretty much answering the same way. I told her I was coming down and then she got really upset and told me not to bring the kids, I told her I would leave them at home as Nathan was taking care of making them their waffles (he’s a good helper) and as it was so close I would just come down, make sure everything was ok and then come back and take them to school.
I get in my car and start heading down the road and overnight the temperature had dropped dramatically and there had been some wet snow which had turned somewhat icy. I could tell right away the roads were not good and of course with the call I had gotten I was cautious as I could be. As I get 5 blocks away from our house I come up over a small rise in the road and I can see flashing lights (it’s still pretty dark out here at 7 am in the winter), shortly thereafter I see our van on the opposite side of the road from where it should be right in front of a telephone pole. As I pull up I can see the front end of the van right in the middle is pushed in so far it almost is touching the bottom of the windshield. A horrific force she must have hit this pole at. I then see Cheryll and the police officers and I get out of my car and walk over to see her…”I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be mad at me”. All I can say as I see her limping is “Are you ok, what happened?”
Cheryll proceeds to tell me how she was coming up the rise of the little hill and as she got to the top and the road started to fall off she realized that while she didn’t think she was speeding, she was going too fast for the icy conditions and stepped on the brakes to slow down. Well with the ice and the snow and the ice under the snow that sent her into an immediate slide. She first slid over to the right hand side of the road (remember for those of you in the other parts of the world who drive on the left hand side this is North America so this is our side of the road) and started to go up onto the sidewalk and heading straight for a fire hydrant and a small hedge of little trees (about 7 foot mini cedars). She immediately tried to correct the van and in doing so managed to get turned left and just brushed the left hand side of the fire hydrant missing the hedge altogether. Unfortunately in doing that she went back on the road which was now falling off to the left hand side. She tells me all she could think at this point was as soon as she got straightened out she was going to go really really slow no matter how long it took to get to work (which under normal driving conditions would be about an 8-10 minute drive from where she was), unfortunately that thought did not last long as she started to slide right across the road heading straight for a telephone pole on the other side of the road. Her next thought was “I’m not going to make it and even though she tried to turn she hit the pole head on”. Airbags deployed, seatbelts broke, coffee cups flew (somehow not getting any on her…go figure) and the van stopped dead (of course the engine kept running because that makes all the sense in the world).
I’d like to think I reacted well but I didn’t. I remember asking her how fast she was going and that obviously it was faster than the conditions allowed for (my pet peeve) and all I could think at that point was “oh crap, the van is only 4 years old, it will be a write-off and we’ll get no where near what it is going to take for us to replace it.” Cheryll went into the ambulance at that point as they wanted to check her out. She kept saying “I’m ok I’m ok”, she still wanted to get to work as fast as she could. But about 5 minutes later the paramedic came out and let me know they were just going to take her to the hospital to check on her knee which was pretty sore. In the meantime I had gathered up a lot of personal stuff that was in the van and thrown it into the car to take home so I poked my head in the ambulance and asked her if she was ok again and let her know I would take the kids to school and then I would come to the hospital. In typical Cheryll fashion, thinking of everyone else but herself she says to me “But you need to help lead worship at the school this morning”. I told her that I would deal with that and that I would be at the hospital (I was helping out the principal, Cheryll’s boss, and so he led without me…)
I went home, picked up the kids, explained to them that mommy was ok, they were just taking her to get her knee looked at because it was a little sore, but she was ok. They asked about the van and I had to tell them that the van was not ok and that we probably were not going to have it anymore. Shane (our 6 year old) was quite upset by this “but I love our van”. You see it’s really the only car he ever remembers his mom having. I explained to him that the van, while very special, was just a van and the most important thing was that mommy was ok (of course it would have helped if I had said that when I saw Cheryll at the accident site).
I dropped Chelsea off at daycare and then took the boys to school. It was only once all three of them were gone that the accident hit me and I got very emotional and shaky.
The part I didn’t tell you at the start was that while yes Cheryll had hit the telephone pole it could have been much much worse. As Cheryll started to careen across the road towards the telephone pole and realized that she was not going to be able to avoid it what she didn’t realize was that even in this time of horror and devastation our Lord’s hand was at work in keeping her safe. You see behind the telephone pole was an embankment that went down a long way on the left hand side and not quite so far on the right hand side. Had Cheryll not hit that telephone pole she would have gone off that embankment in our van doing a fair speed and quite frankly while you can’t say for sure what would have happened I would have to say that I don’t think my wife would have survived that kind of crash. This was the realization that hit me as I started to drive to the hospital. I could have lost my wife, my best friend, the mother of our children, the woman who when World Vision came calling said to me. “Mike, this is something you need to go do, even though it will be hard when you are away, we will manage. The Lord is calling you to this ministry. God has blessed me by allowing me to work at MEI and all I can tell you is that I can’t imagine doing anything else so you need to do this and we’ll do this together”. All of this could have happened if not for a telephone pole that God saw fit to put in the way of my wife to keep her safe.
Cheryll is doing fine (very sore right now) although upon taking her to the hospital they discovered she had a cracked knee-cap and will be in a splint for the next 6 weeks (or longer) while it heals. Again, what could have been much worse wasn’t as if the two parts of the broken knee-cap had “detached” she would have had to have had re-constructive surgery. Because of this she is just inconvenienced with a splint (and as she is very thankful for it not being a cast). Please continue to pray for Cheryll as she recovers and for us both as we potentially have to look for a new vehicle (highly likely).
So while the van is probably a write-off (we will likely find out on Monday) and it means that we need to go find a new car for Cheryll, which will likely cost more than we will get from the insurance company, I think about the bible verses from Matthew 6:19-21 “19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
My treasure on this earth is not a piece of metal (in this case a van). It is my family, my wife, my children, friends and those whom I minister with. My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is my treasure in heaven and on earth and heaven this is where my heart is. It is He whom I serve with all my heart and soul, it is to Him that all praise and worship is due, it is to He the one who saves (and protects) that I say loudly
“Thank you God for telephone poles!”
May the Lord bring you blessings and peace and keep you and those you love safe,
Mike.
Yesterday was the annual “first day for new registrations” at the private school my wife works at. It is the craziest, busiest day of the year. So crazy in fact that people start camping in front of the school from the previous day just so they can get a high enough number to get their child into MEI (thankfully once your children are in you only have to renew your registration so you don’t have to go through this). Obviously Kindergarten is the biggest issue as those are all new students and my wife Cheryll is the person in charge of the elementary grade school registration.
Registration day is also Cheryll’s favourite day of the year because with her job she spends quite a few months working on all the necessary supporting stuff around getting ready for it and then the next few months sorting it out (wait-lists, assessments, etc.) It is her job and she loves it. It also means that she has to go into work on registration day for 7:00am which is an hour earlier than normal and means that daddy (that would be me!) gets to take care of making sure that Chelsea gets to daycare and the two boys get to school. She was so excited when she left the house and I could tell it was going to be a great day. How wrong I was…
So here I am getting ready to sit down with the kids for breakfast when the phone rings…
“Hi”, I say knowing it is Cheryll (caller ID is a wonderful thing) and figuring she probably forgot to tell me something.
In a shaky voice I hear on the other end of the phone “I’ve been in an accident, I’m o.k. but the van is really bad”.
Needless to say I’m not expecting this and so I ask “Are you sure you are ok, have you called the police”
“I’ve already called them, there on their way, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry”
“Where are you?”
“I’m on Old Clayburn (which is just down the hill 3 blocks from our house), I’m o.k. I’m o.k. but the van is really bad”
Needless to say the conversation went on like this for a couple of minutes with me continuing to ask Cheryll if she was ok and her pretty much answering the same way. I told her I was coming down and then she got really upset and told me not to bring the kids, I told her I would leave them at home as Nathan was taking care of making them their waffles (he’s a good helper) and as it was so close I would just come down, make sure everything was ok and then come back and take them to school.
I get in my car and start heading down the road and overnight the temperature had dropped dramatically and there had been some wet snow which had turned somewhat icy. I could tell right away the roads were not good and of course with the call I had gotten I was cautious as I could be. As I get 5 blocks away from our house I come up over a small rise in the road and I can see flashing lights (it’s still pretty dark out here at 7 am in the winter), shortly thereafter I see our van on the opposite side of the road from where it should be right in front of a telephone pole. As I pull up I can see the front end of the van right in the middle is pushed in so far it almost is touching the bottom of the windshield. A horrific force she must have hit this pole at. I then see Cheryll and the police officers and I get out of my car and walk over to see her…”I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be mad at me”. All I can say as I see her limping is “Are you ok, what happened?”
Cheryll proceeds to tell me how she was coming up the rise of the little hill and as she got to the top and the road started to fall off she realized that while she didn’t think she was speeding, she was going too fast for the icy conditions and stepped on the brakes to slow down. Well with the ice and the snow and the ice under the snow that sent her into an immediate slide. She first slid over to the right hand side of the road (remember for those of you in the other parts of the world who drive on the left hand side this is North America so this is our side of the road) and started to go up onto the sidewalk and heading straight for a fire hydrant and a small hedge of little trees (about 7 foot mini cedars). She immediately tried to correct the van and in doing so managed to get turned left and just brushed the left hand side of the fire hydrant missing the hedge altogether. Unfortunately in doing that she went back on the road which was now falling off to the left hand side. She tells me all she could think at this point was as soon as she got straightened out she was going to go really really slow no matter how long it took to get to work (which under normal driving conditions would be about an 8-10 minute drive from where she was), unfortunately that thought did not last long as she started to slide right across the road heading straight for a telephone pole on the other side of the road. Her next thought was “I’m not going to make it and even though she tried to turn she hit the pole head on”. Airbags deployed, seatbelts broke, coffee cups flew (somehow not getting any on her…go figure) and the van stopped dead (of course the engine kept running because that makes all the sense in the world).
I’d like to think I reacted well but I didn’t. I remember asking her how fast she was going and that obviously it was faster than the conditions allowed for (my pet peeve) and all I could think at that point was “oh crap, the van is only 4 years old, it will be a write-off and we’ll get no where near what it is going to take for us to replace it.” Cheryll went into the ambulance at that point as they wanted to check her out. She kept saying “I’m ok I’m ok”, she still wanted to get to work as fast as she could. But about 5 minutes later the paramedic came out and let me know they were just going to take her to the hospital to check on her knee which was pretty sore. In the meantime I had gathered up a lot of personal stuff that was in the van and thrown it into the car to take home so I poked my head in the ambulance and asked her if she was ok again and let her know I would take the kids to school and then I would come to the hospital. In typical Cheryll fashion, thinking of everyone else but herself she says to me “But you need to help lead worship at the school this morning”. I told her that I would deal with that and that I would be at the hospital (I was helping out the principal, Cheryll’s boss, and so he led without me…)
I went home, picked up the kids, explained to them that mommy was ok, they were just taking her to get her knee looked at because it was a little sore, but she was ok. They asked about the van and I had to tell them that the van was not ok and that we probably were not going to have it anymore. Shane (our 6 year old) was quite upset by this “but I love our van”. You see it’s really the only car he ever remembers his mom having. I explained to him that the van, while very special, was just a van and the most important thing was that mommy was ok (of course it would have helped if I had said that when I saw Cheryll at the accident site).
I dropped Chelsea off at daycare and then took the boys to school. It was only once all three of them were gone that the accident hit me and I got very emotional and shaky.
The part I didn’t tell you at the start was that while yes Cheryll had hit the telephone pole it could have been much much worse. As Cheryll started to careen across the road towards the telephone pole and realized that she was not going to be able to avoid it what she didn’t realize was that even in this time of horror and devastation our Lord’s hand was at work in keeping her safe. You see behind the telephone pole was an embankment that went down a long way on the left hand side and not quite so far on the right hand side. Had Cheryll not hit that telephone pole she would have gone off that embankment in our van doing a fair speed and quite frankly while you can’t say for sure what would have happened I would have to say that I don’t think my wife would have survived that kind of crash. This was the realization that hit me as I started to drive to the hospital. I could have lost my wife, my best friend, the mother of our children, the woman who when World Vision came calling said to me. “Mike, this is something you need to go do, even though it will be hard when you are away, we will manage. The Lord is calling you to this ministry. God has blessed me by allowing me to work at MEI and all I can tell you is that I can’t imagine doing anything else so you need to do this and we’ll do this together”. All of this could have happened if not for a telephone pole that God saw fit to put in the way of my wife to keep her safe.
Cheryll is doing fine (very sore right now) although upon taking her to the hospital they discovered she had a cracked knee-cap and will be in a splint for the next 6 weeks (or longer) while it heals. Again, what could have been much worse wasn’t as if the two parts of the broken knee-cap had “detached” she would have had to have had re-constructive surgery. Because of this she is just inconvenienced with a splint (and as she is very thankful for it not being a cast). Please continue to pray for Cheryll as she recovers and for us both as we potentially have to look for a new vehicle (highly likely).
So while the van is probably a write-off (we will likely find out on Monday) and it means that we need to go find a new car for Cheryll, which will likely cost more than we will get from the insurance company, I think about the bible verses from Matthew 6:19-21 “19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
My treasure on this earth is not a piece of metal (in this case a van). It is my family, my wife, my children, friends and those whom I minister with. My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is my treasure in heaven and on earth and heaven this is where my heart is. It is He whom I serve with all my heart and soul, it is to Him that all praise and worship is due, it is to He the one who saves (and protects) that I say loudly
“Thank you God for telephone poles!”
May the Lord bring you blessings and peace and keep you and those you love safe,
Mike.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Is it really the end of January...where did it go...oh yeah I was on a plane...
Well here I am back from 2 weeks away. I arrived back in Canada on Saturday and was welcomed by a pretty good snowfall (rare for Vancouver). Kind of hard to leave the temperate SE Asia region (Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia) and its 30 degree Celsius temperatures for below zero and snowing!
So what kind of trip was it? Well let’s just say it was 14 days, 7 cities and over 23,000 miles of successful meetings that will move us forward in our goal to provide the best technical support and services to VisionFund possible. I am definitely physically tired after these kinds of trips but at the same time re-energized by the amazing team I have working with me to get all of this work done.
I have to say that I am always struck by the historical beauty of the United Kingdom. I arrived in London on Sunday Afternoon the 13th to relatively mild weather and it wasn’t raining (which is a nice change to the usual weather I get). Arun, (who is the team lead for my project management group) and I headed off to explore the countryside a little bit on our one "non-working” or “travel day” during the two weeks. We went to Windsor which is best known for “Windsor Castle” where the Queen spends many months each year. The quiet serenity of the town was amazing and while we did not get to go into the castle as it was too late to do the tour we walked around and enjoyed the little shops which are built right into the walls of the castle! After a few hours of walking we ended up in a little English Pub and had a nice dinner. Ironically the rain stayed away during our whole walk around the town but began to fall the minute we got into the pub (whew). Coming from a part of the world where we are about to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our entire province seeing buildings (and castles) that have been there for hundreds of years is always a little awe-inspiring.
Our meetings in London went well and we even managed to get out for dinner one night in Piccadilly (to Wolsely’s). Our host arranged for the reservation which is pretty hard to get in the evening most of the time and I could understand why. Sitting in the restaurant we were surrounded by celebrities from all walks of life. Damon Hill (Formula 1 World Champion Race car driver) was two tables over from us, another actor whose name escapes me but was very recognizable was at the table next to us on the other side and even Joan Rivers came in right behind us. Not something that Arun or I normally get to experience in our usual travels with World Vision so it was kind of neat to experience for a change.
Mid-week we headed off to Belfast and I can tell you that flying into the city I was in awe of the pure beauty of the countryside. The rolling green hills, the town below was just as beautiful as I had been told it was by Robin Mark a number of years ago at a Worship Conference he and I were both at. We stayed in the Europa Hotel, which was the most bombed building in all of Belfast over the years of the conflicts in Northern Ireland. It is also where Bill Clinton stayed on his visit to Belfast as President of the United States and was square in the middle of the city. On our first day there I managed to get out for a jog around the city before it started to rain (something, which I was told by our local host, that you can tell is going to happen by the fact that if you can see the mountains you know it is about to rain and if you can’t you know the rain has already started).
So what kind of trip was it? Well let’s just say it was 14 days, 7 cities and over 23,000 miles of successful meetings that will move us forward in our goal to provide the best technical support and services to VisionFund possible. I am definitely physically tired after these kinds of trips but at the same time re-energized by the amazing team I have working with me to get all of this work done.
I have to say that I am always struck by the historical beauty of the United Kingdom. I arrived in London on Sunday Afternoon the 13th to relatively mild weather and it wasn’t raining (which is a nice change to the usual weather I get). Arun, (who is the team lead for my project management group) and I headed off to explore the countryside a little bit on our one "non-working” or “travel day” during the two weeks. We went to Windsor which is best known for “Windsor Castle” where the Queen spends many months each year. The quiet serenity of the town was amazing and while we did not get to go into the castle as it was too late to do the tour we walked around and enjoyed the little shops which are built right into the walls of the castle! After a few hours of walking we ended up in a little English Pub and had a nice dinner. Ironically the rain stayed away during our whole walk around the town but began to fall the minute we got into the pub (whew). Coming from a part of the world where we are about to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our entire province seeing buildings (and castles) that have been there for hundreds of years is always a little awe-inspiring.
Our meetings in London went well and we even managed to get out for dinner one night in Piccadilly (to Wolsely’s). Our host arranged for the reservation which is pretty hard to get in the evening most of the time and I could understand why. Sitting in the restaurant we were surrounded by celebrities from all walks of life. Damon Hill (Formula 1 World Champion Race car driver) was two tables over from us, another actor whose name escapes me but was very recognizable was at the table next to us on the other side and even Joan Rivers came in right behind us. Not something that Arun or I normally get to experience in our usual travels with World Vision so it was kind of neat to experience for a change.
Mid-week we headed off to Belfast and I can tell you that flying into the city I was in awe of the pure beauty of the countryside. The rolling green hills, the town below was just as beautiful as I had been told it was by Robin Mark a number of years ago at a Worship Conference he and I were both at. We stayed in the Europa Hotel, which was the most bombed building in all of Belfast over the years of the conflicts in Northern Ireland. It is also where Bill Clinton stayed on his visit to Belfast as President of the United States and was square in the middle of the city. On our first day there I managed to get out for a jog around the city before it started to rain (something, which I was told by our local host, that you can tell is going to happen by the fact that if you can see the mountains you know it is about to rain and if you can’t you know the rain has already started).
Belfast is a city of variety. Both old and new architecture side by side (mostly as a result of the old buildings being bombed and the new being built to replace it unfortunately,however the city hall was amazing...see the picutre attached) I love Irish accents, there is something inherently friendly about them. I can’t wait to go back there again someday and have time to really explore the city and the surrounding countryside but for now a little taste of it was enough to encourage me to go back.
From Belfast we headed to Asia on the Saturday, Starting in Bangkok on Sunday and then Singapore Monday where we had meetings with World Vision Asia Pacific Region leadership. For those who have never been to Singapore it is such a neat city to be in as it is just so clean. There is a saying that Singapore is a “fine” city (you get fined for this, fined for that, etc.) I just think it is really quite unique and I always enjoy spending a little time there. On Monday night it was off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 4 days of my management team meetings. For the past year I have been operating with the knowledge that in order to move the support strategy I proposed to the VisionFund CEO last January forward I would have to have a strong management team. It took until this year to add the missing parts to the team (Arun started in his role in the fall, one manager started January 7th and the other officially starts of February 4th) but after 4 days of meetings I can honestly say that the Lord has blessed me with the support of 3 very strong leaders, all unique in their own right and each bringing abilities that complement each other (and me). I am encouraged by the progress we made in our 2008 strategy plans and feel ready to tackle the year ahead.
2008 will bring many changes to the face of IT support for VisionFund and while it will not be easy I am confident with the support of great IT leaders and strong staff that our team will make that difference happen. Of course none of it would be possible without the support of our Lord and Saviour. Thank you God for Mary, Arun and Joe and for their willingness to share this journey with me, may you bless them as they take on the ministry that you have called them to and continue to shed light into their lives and their thoughts.
Well that’s it for now…next up is Los Angeles the 2nd week of February where I will present our recommendation on February 8th to VisionFund leadership on where we would like to go in providing effective banking application services to them for the next 5-15 years. This is a 3-4 year project (no small undertaking) so prayers for open minds and hearts are always appreciated and of course for safe travels.
Til next time,
Mike.
2008 will bring many changes to the face of IT support for VisionFund and while it will not be easy I am confident with the support of great IT leaders and strong staff that our team will make that difference happen. Of course none of it would be possible without the support of our Lord and Saviour. Thank you God for Mary, Arun and Joe and for their willingness to share this journey with me, may you bless them as they take on the ministry that you have called them to and continue to shed light into their lives and their thoughts.
Well that’s it for now…next up is Los Angeles the 2nd week of February where I will present our recommendation on February 8th to VisionFund leadership on where we would like to go in providing effective banking application services to them for the next 5-15 years. This is a 3-4 year project (no small undertaking) so prayers for open minds and hearts are always appreciated and of course for safe travels.
Til next time,
Mike.
Monday, January 7, 2008
What in the World is Mike thinking?
Those of you, who know me well, know that I am a “talking thinker”. In many cases I will put out thoughts and I will be looking for people to challenge me on those thoughts or confirm that they are valid. One of the things I need to work on this year is making clear that my talking thinking is just that. Because I had been in my “comfort zone” for the past many years working with many people who knew me well and understood my way of processing thoughts, I forgot that not everyone “thinks” or knows that I think this way. This past year I realized that many times in discussions with others, people came to the conclusion that I had already made up my mind even though I was still in “processing” mode. Again, I need to be conscious of that more this year.
Having said all of that, I am thankful for all those discussions as I learned a lot through them and while they were not always easy conversations I was constantly reminded of how much work it took to build something from the ground up like a new business (see my last post) or an MFI. I was challenged by many very intelligent individuals who taught me a lot about how different their local context could be and in return I challenged them to think about how similar some of those things could be around the world. I will tell you that without these types of conversations I don’t believe we would be moving in the direction we are heading today in supporting a “Global” organization with 100 (or 47 if you look at the MFI community) unique organizations as a part of it.
The other thing I learned is that we all have our change management challenges. It might be a national individual thinking regionally or globally. It might be a regional individual thinking globally or nationally (or even at a branch or ADP level). Or it might be a global individual thinking regionally or nationally (or again locally at the branch or ADP level). It might be the realization that some roles can be done more effectively globally, regionally or nationally, and some can only be done locally. I saw a lot of times last year where people felt they knew what problems the people they were trying to help were experiencing but I believe in fact that until we really dig deep we can’t appreciate the challenges others face. This means one very important thing to me…Ask them, they will tell you what will help them and what is important to them.
As I get ready to head off to Los Angeles to meet with Adam to discuss how we will start to implement a Shared Services Support model for the VisionFund MFI’s globally I need to keep all of these thoughts in mind and the fact that as a member of the World Vision Global Centre IT team I need to always keep our Vision Statement at the forefront of what I do.
• Our Vision
– Earn and retain the right to serve our World Vision Partnership (internal) Customers by:
• Developing and empowering personnel along their professional and spiritual journeys
• Engaging these personnel with an undying commitment to enable World Vision’s mission and live its core values
• Our visible passion for Customer service and “urgency with a purpose”
• Encouraging local competencies with “business is mission”
• Leveraging our global scale
• Validating our processes against leading practices and performance measures
Thanks again for listening to my “writing thinking” as this would be the blog version of my “talking thinking” :-)
Until next time,
Mike
Having said all of that, I am thankful for all those discussions as I learned a lot through them and while they were not always easy conversations I was constantly reminded of how much work it took to build something from the ground up like a new business (see my last post) or an MFI. I was challenged by many very intelligent individuals who taught me a lot about how different their local context could be and in return I challenged them to think about how similar some of those things could be around the world. I will tell you that without these types of conversations I don’t believe we would be moving in the direction we are heading today in supporting a “Global” organization with 100 (or 47 if you look at the MFI community) unique organizations as a part of it.
The other thing I learned is that we all have our change management challenges. It might be a national individual thinking regionally or globally. It might be a regional individual thinking globally or nationally (or even at a branch or ADP level). Or it might be a global individual thinking regionally or nationally (or again locally at the branch or ADP level). It might be the realization that some roles can be done more effectively globally, regionally or nationally, and some can only be done locally. I saw a lot of times last year where people felt they knew what problems the people they were trying to help were experiencing but I believe in fact that until we really dig deep we can’t appreciate the challenges others face. This means one very important thing to me…Ask them, they will tell you what will help them and what is important to them.
As I get ready to head off to Los Angeles to meet with Adam to discuss how we will start to implement a Shared Services Support model for the VisionFund MFI’s globally I need to keep all of these thoughts in mind and the fact that as a member of the World Vision Global Centre IT team I need to always keep our Vision Statement at the forefront of what I do.
• Our Vision
– Earn and retain the right to serve our World Vision Partnership (internal) Customers by:
• Developing and empowering personnel along their professional and spiritual journeys
• Engaging these personnel with an undying commitment to enable World Vision’s mission and live its core values
• Our visible passion for Customer service and “urgency with a purpose”
• Encouraging local competencies with “business is mission”
• Leveraging our global scale
• Validating our processes against leading practices and performance measures
Thanks again for listening to my “writing thinking” as this would be the blog version of my “talking thinking” :-)
Until next time,
Mike
Thursday, January 3, 2008
New Years Thoughts...
Happy New Year!
I hope that everyone had a special time with friends and family over the holidays and that for those of you (like me) who took some extended time off, you have re-energized those batteries for the upcoming year. Today’s post in some ways is a reflection on the year that just passed (and before) and a resolution or commitment for the year to come.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the statement “learn from your mistakes” or “You don’t learn as much from your successes as from your failures” or “You need to get out of your comfort zone” I’d like to add one more to that list…
“If you are not willing to risk failure, you will never truly succeed”.
This is something that came to me 17 years ago when I started up my retail/distribution company. I remember talking to my dad, who was the rock of employment stability. Dad had worked for one company for many many years and I knew that he would eventually retire from there. The thought of giving up a full-time stable job to become self-employed was just such a scary thought to him but yet I knew that he was proud of me for doing it (if not a little bit scared for me as well). I took a “leap of faith” so to speak in leaving a solid, stable, responsible, comfortable, certain job in order to venture into the uncertainty that being self-employed in the consumer “retail” driven area of business could only bring. That decision and the subsequent experience and opportunities it created, brought me to World Vision in 2006 and without it I’m sure I would not be here today. Now that to me is success!
This past year I challenged many individuals throughout World Vision/VisionFund to come and take a “leap of faith” with me in changing the way they think about something they have been doing one way for a very long time and in essence asked them to “trust me” in solving their business problems through the use of different technology and how it is supported. In 2008 I want to continue to earn their trust by continuing to put together a team of committed, hard working individuals whose sole focus is to make the VisionFund Microfinance Institutes (MFI’s), in all of the countries we are in, a success.
One last thought for today…Many times we take time to thank the Lord for our blessings but I know that one thing that I am guilty of is not thanking Him enough for the challenges and struggles that are put into my life. Over the years I have discovered that I have become very fond of saying to people “The Lord never said it would be easy, just that it would be worthwhile” Now that is my paraphrasing of many instances in the Bible where God’s people had to live in duress just to see the promised land or His Glory, but I truly believe it to be true. I am sure that we will come across struggles in 2008 but I am committed to the success of the solutions we bring to the MFI’s and to each of you and while I know that it won’t be easy, it will be worthwhile and I will thank God for all of it.
Thanks for listening,
Mike
I hope that everyone had a special time with friends and family over the holidays and that for those of you (like me) who took some extended time off, you have re-energized those batteries for the upcoming year. Today’s post in some ways is a reflection on the year that just passed (and before) and a resolution or commitment for the year to come.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the statement “learn from your mistakes” or “You don’t learn as much from your successes as from your failures” or “You need to get out of your comfort zone” I’d like to add one more to that list…
“If you are not willing to risk failure, you will never truly succeed”.
This is something that came to me 17 years ago when I started up my retail/distribution company. I remember talking to my dad, who was the rock of employment stability. Dad had worked for one company for many many years and I knew that he would eventually retire from there. The thought of giving up a full-time stable job to become self-employed was just such a scary thought to him but yet I knew that he was proud of me for doing it (if not a little bit scared for me as well). I took a “leap of faith” so to speak in leaving a solid, stable, responsible, comfortable, certain job in order to venture into the uncertainty that being self-employed in the consumer “retail” driven area of business could only bring. That decision and the subsequent experience and opportunities it created, brought me to World Vision in 2006 and without it I’m sure I would not be here today. Now that to me is success!
This past year I challenged many individuals throughout World Vision/VisionFund to come and take a “leap of faith” with me in changing the way they think about something they have been doing one way for a very long time and in essence asked them to “trust me” in solving their business problems through the use of different technology and how it is supported. In 2008 I want to continue to earn their trust by continuing to put together a team of committed, hard working individuals whose sole focus is to make the VisionFund Microfinance Institutes (MFI’s), in all of the countries we are in, a success.
One last thought for today…Many times we take time to thank the Lord for our blessings but I know that one thing that I am guilty of is not thanking Him enough for the challenges and struggles that are put into my life. Over the years I have discovered that I have become very fond of saying to people “The Lord never said it would be easy, just that it would be worthwhile” Now that is my paraphrasing of many instances in the Bible where God’s people had to live in duress just to see the promised land or His Glory, but I truly believe it to be true. I am sure that we will come across struggles in 2008 but I am committed to the success of the solutions we bring to the MFI’s and to each of you and while I know that it won’t be easy, it will be worthwhile and I will thank God for all of it.
Thanks for listening,
Mike
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