This has been quite the week for me. On Monday I was reading one of Paul’s prayers. (Paul, as in the guy who wrote a bunch of letters that are in the Bible.) Paul was praying that the believers in Ephesus might “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Paul then adds a benediction that includes the words, “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
I happened to add my own little prayer. I wrote, “Lord, I ask that this pray of Paul’s be answered in my life.” I then added, “though I often do not believe you will do more that I can imagine.” Well, did I get an earful, so to speak.
In my last blog entry I mentioned the desire by Beautiful Gate staff to start a hot lunch program for the hungry little folks coming to the pre-school. I also mentioned the 800 kg of rice that showed up on Tuesday. Well today (Friday), 250-300 kgs of corn meal shows up. We at Beautiful Gate now have enough resources to reach beyond just the school children, and to consider an even bigger dream - to work with the community to identify child headed households or grandparent headed households whom we can support.
So where did the corn meal come from. That is where management practice meets God, or the other way around.
As I also mentioned in my last entry, I am developing role descriptions for staff here. The process I had chosen was to interview staff about their roles, ask them to describe what they do, and then I added a couple of “what if” type questions. One of those questions was, “If you could add one thing to your role what would it be?” The household manager buys the supplies we need to feed, clothe, and care for the children and is in touch with many shops and suppliers. Her response to this question was that she would like to promote to these businesses what Beautiful Gate is doing.
There is a management concept something along the lines that an organization is nothing more or less than the sum of its conversations. What the organization becomes, what culture develops, reflects the sum of the conversations between individuals and within groups. I had a conversation with the household manager. She contributed some thoughtful, meaningful ideas that she obviously continued to think about. On this week's trip out shopping (Thursday) her carried our past conversation into her conversation with a major supplier, commenting on the plan to reach out to the community by providing hot lunches to the pre-school children. That was all, another brief conversation.
Some would call it fate, or if you have read “The Secret”, some force of the universe, but after my Monday prayer, I say God got in on the action. First thing Friday morning the same supplier calls the household manager. “Get down here first thing, and bring a vehicle,” is the message. She arrives and they have waiting a number of bags (250-300 kgs worth) of corn meal with tears or punctures. The meal is still good but the bags are damaged and not salable. “For your community program,” she is told. Add in the rice and over a metric tonne of food was received in less than a week. That certainly is “immeasurably more than all” I could “ask or imagine,” and I am left just a bit unnerved and awed about what I might ask of God.
~ Benno ~
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