The ISI North Texas team went up to Possum Kingdom Lake for a retreat. It was a wonderful retreat. One of my goals for the time was to work to begin the process of restoring some of the “organizational heath” that was eroded over the last couple of years because of our intense work on the M:28 project. This has been an incredible year of blessing as God has really pushed us in our understanding of Him, ministry and ourselves  But such “manic” activity often comes at the cost of relationships, trust and organizational habits. Such has been for us.

Compared to many, our team is strong in organizational health but with what came and what we feel is to come, we felt a strong need to shore up our leadership skill and organizational health. So, we spent the two days up at the retreat working on this, talking through the common book we read, “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business” by Patrick Lencioni. I’ve read and applied several of Lencioni’s books in the past and it really made a difference in how our team developed and were able to do so much and so I felt it important for the team to read over this book, the summary of all his teachings, to both strengthen our team and to structure their teams to make them better. God was truly there. While the time was often intense and people took risks in their relationships but I think we all came away with a greater appreciation for each other and for our own system of interacting and growing as teammates. All left with a greater focus and great anticipation for the year ahead.

Other quick things…

• Timothy was able to do a Boy Scout merit badge class on the topic, “Citizenship in the World.” He is preparing next week to get a boatload of merit badges that he accumulated over the summer. Jonathan is working through a combined college/high school class on sociology. Charis was able to have her friend Angele over the house. Lisa is truly enjoying working at Dallas Baptist University over the Summer. In the Fall there will be a record enrollment and so she anticipates a busy but rewarding semester coming up.
• Iwas able to take new Vietnamese student Tina to a LARGE UTA parking lot to teach her how to drive today. She had never driven a car before. (and I have never taught anyone before) It was quite a time for her especially driving my large Astro van. On Friday night in Bible Study she shared that she prayed for peace in her heart this last week. I forgot (too scared…;-) not really) to ask for clarification on what she meant but she seemed genuinely seeking God. We also saw that with several of the students in the Discovery M:28 Bible study this Friday.
• I has been feeling very “flat” ever since the National Conference though the time at the retreat did revitalize him some. Pray that God will infuse him with energy and joy in the Spirit. This is normal, as coming to break points in consuming projects often lead to a “let down”. Pray that Satan and his angels will not be able to take advantage of this time to distract me, Lisa and the kids and the local ISI team from Him and His purposes.