When I grow up, I want to be just like a janitor.

Project Planning. DUN Dun duunnnn.......! For those of you who know me fairly well, you probably know that I'm not much of a planner. Have you ever taken a bottle of coke and shook it up? What happens when you open it? BOOM! Fizz and froth EVERYWHERE. Often times I think that's how my mind works. My thoughts are like coca-cola under extreme pressure just waiting to spew senselessly in every direction. So, naturally when I heard that this week was project planning, I got a little nervous. Our speaker was Dave Swann formerly of the UK but now an active missionary in South Africa. I think his accent made it less intimidating. So, what did I learn this week? Did you know that 60% of all Children at Risk ministries fail within two years? Doesn't make you want to be a missionary does it? So how 'bout we ask ourselves what makes a project fail? Dave taught us that often times it's a lack of research, differences in culture and language, the failure to think long term, or a lack of a system to measure progress. I think that when we want to help people our gut feeling is that the bigger the better. The more kids the better. And so we rush into these enormous unplanned and scatterbrained projects. Not exactly the key to success now is it? So what if we back up and plan ahead? What if we start small and add on as we go? Extraordinary. Brilliance. Perhaps Dave is on to something. The goal of any project is sustainability and we can achieve that only when we start small and work our way up with God's help. Dave also talked about success. What comes to your mind when you think of success? For me it's recognition. Everyone knowing you did good. This week I was really challenged to rethink that. I always thought that unless I was the next Mother Teresa, I'd be a failure. If people didn't write a book about my life, I'd fail. If I didn't help everyone everywhere, I'd fail. Where do we get these ideas? Dave told us this: Success can be defined by a janitor loving his wife and sending his kids to school. The kingdom of God in his situation is keeping his family together. How many broken families do you know? I know more brokenness than wholeness. Success can be defined as taking responsibility for what God has given you. If it's your family, then love your family. If it's missions then go. You can't compare the two. They're equal. One is not better than the other. Success cannot be defined by numbers, it is answering this simple question: are you living the kingdom of God? I hope to do just that. I will do just that. If I can count the number of people I have helped on my fingers, I will be successful and God will be proud of me. I am confident in that. 


Quote of the week: I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said. -Brian Andreas of www.storypeople.com