Not Quite Finished

February 2024

My wife sent me a story today from and overseas ministry life blog. It was about how much the husband loved and respected his wife, and continually encouraged her to do things that she thought were far out of her realm. This particular story was about them moving to a new country assignment and having to adjust to the new culture there. One of those things was the driving. They went from a rural, one-road, assignment to a bustling third world city.

As my wife and I talked about the story, and all that it reminded us of (we had a 100% identical experience), we got to thinking about team and the importance of diversity on one. Our minds went back about 10-15 years ago when we landed in “that city” and were confronted with the craziness of the driving. While that was certainly a huge shift in life for us, the even bigger one was building a team from scratch. We didn’t even have any other teams in that same country to use as a model – not from any organization. So, off we went.

First up was prayer. “Lord, while we have formed and led teams before, and have been in leadership roles for many years, this is whole new ground and we are going to need a lot of help to find the people you want and have called to join us here.” I can say He was very faithful in favorably answering that cry.

Next up was looking at our own weaknesses and discerning who we needed along side of us to make the team more wholesome. For example, I knew that I was not the best evangelist in our region so we needed someone who was. That was answered by two young men who came out within six months of each other and stayed for two and three years respectively. They made an incredible team – shimali and junubi – and would turn into excellent leaders (more on that later). Since I could not work with females in the country we also needed someone to work with young ladies and God sent us several highly qualified women who had a tremendous impact on the current and future work there. I had almost no business experience so next we needed someone to run the business side of our company who could also coach. The Master sent us a terrific couple that did that and so much more. The wife had a large place in the lives on many young ladies who needed an ear to hear their stories of distress and wisdom in how to deal with those issues. As our work grew, my wife and I continued to discover more of our weaknesses, and God continued to provide just the right human resources to fill those gaps. Our team grew steadily.

The third component was looking at each person on the team as a future team leader and giving them opportunities to practice the skills and talents that they had been gifted by the Lord. This was not something that we hid from them, rather it was discussed and looked forward to. I’m confident that had Covid not intervened, there would be several teams being led by those who were under our care for that season of life. The good news is that there are some who are currently leading now, and others who are about to move into leadership roles soon. One great example is the young man who came out early and is now in the team leader position I had.

The brunt of my wife and my discussion was the sweet diversity that our team enjoyed. No one was like anyone else. Everyone brought unique and critical skills to the group to mold us into a team. While there was a commonality to what we were there for, God had sewn together a group of individuals who collectively came together to give His name glory.