It is my privilege to announce the search for a new Executive Director for SAMBICA. Someone might ask, why is the current Executive announcing a search for his replacement? That is what is great about faith in Christ. When we believe we are walking in the Spirit and we are working with an organization (the SAMBICA Board) that is doing the same, then we can join together to seek God’s best for the future and for our lives. I am so grateful for last eight years here at SAMBICA. It has been a great experience and a blessing to be part of this amazing ministry. We have seen God do many wonderful things and we know He has a great vision for the future. So I ask you to join me in praying for the next leader here at SAMBICA. Pray for the Board of Directors as they go through the search process. Pray for the staff that remains that their hearts will be prepared for a quick and seamless transition to the new leader. Pray for our family as well, if you won’t mind, as we seek out God’s best for us as well.

I tell people when they ask me how it feels to not know about what I will be doing in six months, that “you don’t have to know all of the answers, when you know the one person who does know all of the answers”. Thank the Lord for His goodness as He leads us and guides us to the future. He brought SAMBICA from the edge of closure eight years ago, allowed us to celebrate 90 years of ministry in 2009 and now we look toward the future with great anticipation of the continuous work of His grace. Through new leadership.

We are currently anticipating a transition in the summer sometime and so if I am here, please come by and check in with me. If we have never connected personally, I would still like to do that. I am usually at the end of the parent line after each week of camp. Please come by and say hi!

We are very excited to launch our new website and go live. I am personally excited about sharing thoughts and input from the Directors Chair about “Doing Life at SAMBICA”. What do I mean by “Doing Life.” What I don’t mean is that being staff at SAMBICA is a life sentence. What I do mean is that being a staff at SAMBICA affects every aspect of your life, especially if you live on the grounds as many of us do.

“Doing Life” impacts our character, challenges us to embrace community and still face the realities that we are a company. I begin by talking briefly explaining these things in my first blog.

Character

Staff at SAMBICA have to deal with the fish bowl effect. Everything we do and say can have an implication for SAMBICA. We don’t just have a job in a place, but are part of a significant faith based organization with over 90 years of history and integrity. We can’t ignore that every time we go off site or to a movie or to dinner or to the grocery store, we might run into some child that remembers us from the camp store, or program or waterfront. We have people come up to us in random places and say our camp names. We don’t just get to leave it at work. For us work is about a message and that message is about Jesus Christ. In today’s socially networked worked, integrity and modeling extend to the cyber world and even secular companies are firing people for what they put online. This Fish Bowl effect is something you can resist, hate or accept. If you accept it, then what does it mean, it means I must always be asking how I am reflecting Christ to the place I am in, because I am also reflecting SAMBICA.

Secondly, being on staff at SAMBICA or living here, means embracing community. Every good work place works at developing great community and the best places to work succeed at it. Here it has the added implication of effecting the reputation of SAMBICA and our reputation as followers of Christ. So we must also be conscious of being good neighbors to those who live around the camp, to help and reach out to them when we can. We must be conscious of who we are as a team, because back biting or putting each other down or what is often common workplace talk, can have a more negative impact here. It reflects on our Savior and on SAMBICA. All of these are tied together here and can’t be separated.

Finally, Doing Life on staff at SAMBICA means that I must recognize it is still a company, a non-profit one, but still an organization that has to live within a budget and make hard decisions. I learned at one point in my life that an organization has a life of its own. And no matter how much I put into it, how loyal I am, sometimes stuff happens. Budget cuts occur, personalities conflict, reorganizations take place and much more. Being on staff at SAMBCIA means that I must give to what the organization is, and is about, mainly sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, but stuff still happens and if the time comes for me to leave, what I should know is that I honored Jesus Christ and served him faithfully and helped the organization achieve its goals. In the end this is “Doing Life” on staff at SAMBICA.

Letting Jesus use this place to shape me, change me and make me more like himself.