Who you are is how you do it!

I have had a few interactions with people in the past two days that has reminded me of a principle that is true around The Coastlands.  It goes something like this:  You are a reflection of your job and your job is a reflection of you. 

Last night, I worked in the office for a few hours, getting organized for a very busy day today. On my way out, I stopped in to the first Assembly rehearsal for the Neighborhood Kids and Dakota North.  I couldn't resist going back for my camera to capture them in all their fun-ness.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, Michael Martinez is our assembly director this year.  One thing I noticed is how much the rehearsal "felt" like him.  Michael is funny, serious, silly, very pastoral, and sometimes all of those things at once.  I like that the Assembly Team gets to experience so much of who he is.

I started my morning today meeting with Sybil Betancourt and Jeannie Wilcox who will oversee our Kinder VBS.  Kinder is the program that serves all the kiddies who are 2 years old and under AND also serves any of the preschoolers who are here part time during the week.  Again, we chatted about that although there are basics (like making sure the kids AND teachers are happy) there is also a lot of room for Kinder to "look" like how they want it to look.  Most of the basics will be obvious to them (since they are great moms and also serve a lot in Koast Kids and CM).  However, what fills out Kinder this year and gives it special touches is really theirs to decide. 

I spent the rest of the morning with Mary Lou Vaiz working out the details for what will go in the visibility packets we hand to the parents while they drive their cars through our campus to pick their kids up each day.  One of my favorite things about Mary Lou is that she has lots of ideas, but also wants things to fit in.  She came with a long list of (typed :)) questions that we worked our way through and I'm really happy with where we ended up!  And because she is super faithful with the things she says "yes" to doing...I know she'll follow through until each and every detail is complete! 

After lunch, Ashli was in for a bit.  In addition coming in weekly to the office to volunteer, Ashli is the sports director this year.  Today we spent a few moments going over the games she has selected.  One of them is called "Bowling Pin Dodge Ball".  It is like traditional dodge ball, but with a twist that the main goal is to knock over bowling pins from the opposing court.  The winning team isn't decided on who has players left, but rather who has pins standing.  This made me laugh because the sports director for the past two years, Patty Clark, purposely chose not to include any type of dodge ball. 

I was just so happy that Ashli and Patty, Sybil and Jeannie, Mary Lou and Michael feel the freedom to lead their own way.  I love that as we choose to make our starting place a willingness to fit into the overall scheme of whatever we are doing, there is SOOOO much freedom to be who we are in the middle of it all.

Over the many, many years that VBS has existed at our church, LOTS of things have been perfected that I do exactly the same way the VBS Directors before me did.  For many things, I think, "Why re-invent the wheel?"  But for other things, the job becomes a reflection of us and we become a reflection of our jobs.  And that is a great thing to me!