Months ago I was asked if I would lead a strategic planning session in September. It seemed a long way off and lots of time to prep….then suddenly it was here. I thought it would be fun to invite my cousin Belinda to join me, so we worked through the summer to prepare for this, and I think in many ways this was one of the real attractions to the event.

In the end, Belinda was unable to join me because of her Mom’s health. But the event went on and being there was interesting. It also gave me the opportunity to see the facilities of social mission in the city. Here’s the uptake for me…there was quite a bit of talk that they had never considered, or spent so much time talking about the vision statement. They had it mislabeled at first as the mission statement, so I corrected them! “This describes what we will look like if we do the mission.” said I.

I could not help to privately reflect on the work led by Floyd and Tracey that we did around bringing a new focus and a strategy (for the first time) to the territory. I had a sense of satisfaction, that if nothing else, we walked away with a clear understanding that the vision statement was important and they had a good understanding of the wording and images.

And then there was this…the plaque on the inside of the Bethany building – opened by Lt Colonel Junior Hynes. A godly man whom I had the privilege of working with. And another man who went to be with the LORD far too soon from our perspective. His whole retirement was a health battle.

God be with us ’till we meet again.