One of my favorite iPad Apps for passing idle time (like on the airplane right now) is CardTower. I get to build a “real” house of cards with playing cards, and it is amazingly realistic for being on an iPad (plus its free!)
I can grab either two cards from the top of the pile to form a triangle or just one to drop a flat one, but the physics are amazing! The best thing is that there are unlimited ‘undos,’ which I really need. I try to be disciplined and only do one redo, but I watch the entire thing collaspe, and then just undo the last card I placed. Or… I go back to a time when it was sturder and build from there. But don’t be fooled, that doesn’t make the game easy. It still took me a while to build this six level tower.
One Hint: See my little stack on the lower right side? If you want to make minor adjustments to slipping cards or even nudge in a flat card in the middle, grab a solo card from the top, use it to make adjustments, like you would with your hand in real life, and then just drop it on the table.
Pretty cool picture huh? The App has a feature that lets you take pictures of your progress and save to your Pictures on the iPad.
Well, I have a little confession to make. That pic was snapped nano-seconds before the whole house came crashing down! No matter how many redos I did, I could not get that final 6th level to stay. While it was fun to watch all the various ways it collapsed, it was a lot of hard work to get to that 6th level. I finally had to accept that my work on the lower levels had made a 6th level impossible. As hard as I worked, I had to accept that I would never get a perfect card castle. I would have to settle for a nice picture to show, and get back to work. My only choice was a ton of undos and reworking. I may never have a solid card castle that stands all on its own, and when (if) I do, it probably won’t be that pretty, like the ideal I have in my head.
No matter how hard I try to build this ‘perfect’ castle, it always ends up crashing down! Undos and start-overs are constant.
It reminded me a lot of Children’s Ministry.
We can print some pretty nice brochures for the Visitor’s Center and put up some great CM websites for prospective families to check out, but the reality is, we are constantly building, experiencing crashes, and redoing. Once in awhile we are able to snap a great picture to show the world. I’m not saying we are dishonest, just that those are the highlights. Those rare moments of feeling like we’ve really acheived something, when the rest of the time we are nudging and adjusting and just trying to keep the whole thing from coming crashing down.
I just want my kidmin friends out there to know, I see your perfect looking pictures and websites and brochures, and I celebrate those moments with you. But I also know that feeling of hoping no breeze will come along that might knock it all down. Breezes like volunteers quitting, pastors adding more levels your foundation can’t support, card (budget) cuts, dropped cards (balls) – and the list goes on and on.
I’m praying for you. My house is in constant repair and a little shaky too, as I seek to help build the Kingdom.
But it’s fun at the same time. Keep on keeping on!
This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving.
DAY #22: Tennis Balls
OK, this post isn’t really about tennis balls, it’s about my grammy, but I knew that title might generate some curiosity and therefore some clicks!
I am Thankful for My Grammy! (and Tennis Balls… keep reading!)
I do not mean to elevate any relative above any other… I am thankful for ALL my relatives, and love them all differently and in different ways. But my Grammy B will always hold an extra special place in my heart. One of those reasons she and I kept secret. It wasn’t until after she passed away, that I finally let the secret out. In fact, at her grave side service, they let the children draw on her casket, and I drew a tennis ball on her casket with the words, “I win.” Relatives looked at me a little confused (and perhaps slightly shocked!) Here is why.
One of my “Kidologist Secrets” of relating to kids is to have fun games or “inside jokes” with the kids who I love. It makes them feel special – and let’s them know they are more than just another kid to me. They are unique. They are one of my favorites. I’ve always had a running joke that I was my Grammy’s favorite of her nine grandchildren. Of course, I assumed every grandchild believed that! But it was a theory I loved to humorously defend. In fact, at my grammy’s wake, in one of the photo albums featuring full sized photos of her grandkids, when I discovered I was on page one, I proudly declared, “See!? I was her favorite!” and was greeted with groans and rolled eyes.
Imagine my surprise when during the memorial service my father read a note written by my Grammy where she wrote,
“To set the matter straight as to my favorite grandchild, not withstanding Karl’s claims to whit – I loved all my grandchildren the same.”
Everybody laughed. I had no idea my claimed to favoritehood had gained Grammy’s attention to the point she decided to set the record the straight in her service! It was all in good spirit, and the teasing I got afterward was well deserved!
But there was a reason I felt extra special I can now reveal that I shared during the service that began some thirty years ago, and that applied to children’s ministry and what I mentioned as I began… the power of secret game that makes a child feel extra special, even for thirty years!
When I was ten years old I saved up my money and bought my own ticket to fly from California to Indiana to spend a summer living with my grand parents. (I did this several times actually.) During the first visit they set up a room for me in the basement that became my home-away-from-home. And I loved these stays with Grammy and Grandpa!
I went to Cubs games with Grampa and learned to sew from Grammy. (That Garfield puppet was the beginnings of making puppet costumes, though Grampa didn’t really approve of that.) I went downtown Chicago on the train with Grammy often and in the evenings watched Columbo and played Rummy – a card game. However, one of my ways of entertaining myself was to toss tennis balls at the stairs in the basement like a pitch back and one time I left them on the stairs and later, Grammy gave me a very gentle scolding not to leave them on the stairs lest she step on one and fall down the stairs. But the next day, I accidentally left all four on tennis balls on the stairs again. Instead of just scolding me, she instead humorously reminded me by saying that she thought my tennis balls were out to get her as they looked like they were coming to get her, because they were higher up the stairs this time, each on a separate stair, and I’d better lock them up, because obviously, I couldn’t have left them there, since she told me yesterday to put them away after I played with them. I played along and said I had put them away and that they must be alive. (I said it in a way that she knew I wasn’t lying, I was playing along.)
The next day, to keep the joke going, after I played with the four tennis balls, I remembered the kind way she had reminded me, but instead of putting them away, I put them in the kitchen, at the top of the stairs, four in a row, across the kitchen, as though they were “alive” and heading toward her room. Instead of her making a joke about it, she simply moved them later, placing them four in row in the basement heading toward my room.
This began an unspoken joke, that lasted thirty years. All that summer, the tennis balls continued to be placed, when the other wasn’t around, four in row closer and closer to the others room, until they were in each other’s bed. Then in our clothes, and then finally just being hidden in places we were sure to find. When I finally flew home, I found the tennis balls packed in my luggage. Grammy assumed the game was over. Little did she know!
When I returned the next summer, the tennis balls returned with me! Any time I came to visit as a young college man, a tennis ball was hidden in her home. I once lived with her for a summer in college and the tennis ball war was resumed though we never spoke a word of it! When she came to visit me, as a young married man, soon after, I would find a tennis ball somewhere in my house. Even as she lived in different states around the country, and me too, the tennis ball war continued, often with years between the secret placement, though over the years, it had at some point gone from the original four to just one strategically placed tennis ball. Many times we simply had to just buy a new one. It didn’t matter. It was more about leaving a tennis ball behind. It was our way of saying, “I love you, you’re special.” It was Grammy’s way of saying to me, “You’re still that little playful boy to me, and you always will be.”
I’ll look at tennis balls and cry sometimes now and people will think I’m nuts. But you will understand. A silly yellow ball holds a lot of love for me. All because my Grammy decided to be playful with a child, and then just decided never to stop. And people wonder why I thought I was her favorite. I’m O.K. with all her grand kids thinking they were her favorite. They all were, in different ways.
The same can be true in your kids ministry. You can have favorites. EVERY kid can be convinced that they are your favorite. And they can all be right!
People ask me all the time what’s the secret to connecting with kids. Have you figured it out yet? YOU are the secret.
This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving.
DAY #9: Mercy and Grace
Mercy and Grace are two words that are often used inter-changeably, but while similar, are actually very different – but I’m thankful for both of them today.
I was recently somewhere where the guest preacher’s sermon was titled, “The Power of Mercy” but the entire message was on Grace. While it was a GREAT message on Grace, he kept using the word “Mercy” to describe “Grace,” – I wondered if he had gotten any formal training for the pastorate? He had shared that he had been a worship pastor and that the former senior pastor had appointed him to replace him, so perhaps he never went to seminary or had any biblical training. I’m not trying to be nick-picky, just pointing out that often these words are confused, even by senior pastors!
So what IS the difference?
I explain the difference, even to children in “kids church,” because I think the difference is important to understand, so that we use the words correctly. They are wonderful concepts to appreciate! (and to be THANKFUL for!)
MERCY – is NOT getting what you DO deserve.
GRACE – is GETTING what you DO NOT deserve.
Both of them, is a gift of God, but they come in a different direction. You can actually be given one and not the other, or both!
Before I relate it do salvation, let me relate it to our real world. Let’s suppose my son was going to go his friend Nathan’s birthday party on Saturday, but then he does something really disobedient and the discipline is usually a spanking and three days without outings, and the birthday party falls within those three days.
I have a choice as his father. I can show mercy, and choose not spank him, but just give him a talk. But he will still miss the birthday party on Saturday, as that is part of his discipline. But when Saturday morning rolls around, and I have seen the change in his attitude, and that he is truly sorry, I can say, “Son, I see that you are truly sorry for what you did, I am going to extend grace and let you go to the birthday party today.” Mercy was not getting a punishment, grace was getting something he didn’t deserve. Mercy is something withheld, Grace is something given.
When it comes to my relationship with my Heavenly Father, I too have sinned against Him, and he has done the same for me! I am guilty of being selfish, greedy, prideful, (and other things I care not to list on my blog!) but God in His mercy has chosen to withhold my punishment because of His Son, Jesus. Being a Just God, he can not let sin go unjustified, so it has been paid for, but I have accepted that payment by acknowledging my sin, and accepting that payment for myself – in exchange for that acknowledgement and admittance, God extends Mercy, and my punishment is withheld! THAT IS MERCY!
But it doesn’t stop there! That would be enough! However, God goes even further! He THEN, because of His great love for me (and you too, by the way) decides to also extend Great Grace as well! It is simply amazing! That is why the Bible says so much about Grace! Mercy would be enough! I would settle for Mercy! To get out of my deserved punishment would suffice! But God says, I want to bless you also!
That is what Grace is – God then, after mercy, GIVES ME WHAT I DON’T DESERVE! A daily relationship with Him, forgiveness, peace, answers to prayer, and ultimately eternal life on a new earth (and heaven, but if you read Scripture carefully, we wont be floating around in heaven, we will be on the new earth folks!) It is just too incredible to to believe. Yet, it is!
So I am not just thankful for my salvation, I am thankful for BOTH Mercy AND Grace, they are two separate and different things!
I first of all, DIDN’T get what I DO deserve, and THEN I got what I DIDN’T deserve, and it is just so amazing and incredible!
It is why I marvel at God and serve Him every day.
How could my dad give MAGNIFIERS to my sisters?!?!
(Close to what my gift looked like)
It is one thing to talk about something in the abstract. Kids need real stories from real people they know. Have you ever had a bad attitude that cost you something? Too often we give the impression that we have always done everything right and it is only the children we teach who make mistakes. Telling our students real stories of times we have blown it can help encourage them in profound ways.
I remember a time when my dad came home with a gift for all three of his children. To each of my sisters he gave a gift of a different type of magnifying lens. I was in shock! Didn’t my dad know, it was I who collected magnifying glasses?!?!
My older sister got a magnifying sheet the size of a full page of paper! Then my younger sister was given a magnifying ruler. You could place it over what you were reading and as you moved it down the page the words would magically grow as it passed over them.
I was so jealous! How could my father DO this to me? Again, didn’t he understand that it was ME who collected magnifying lens, not my sisters?! They were girls, after all. They needed dolls or something of the sort. I was so caught up in my anger and jealousy and wanting what they had been given that when he handed me an old two inch long cylinder object that I didn’t recognize instead of asking what it was, I just threw it on the ground, breaking it, and yelling, “I don’t want this dumb thing, I want a magnifier!”
My dad simply left the room obviously disappointed in me. Later, after I calmed down enough to ask about the object I had cracked, he explained that what I had thrown down and broken in my anger was actually a very valuable and high powered magnifier he had found at an antique store. In his desire to bring a little treat for my sisters as well, he had stopped at the five and dime store bought them cheap magnifiers so he could have a gift for each of his children.
My impatience and disrespect cost me that precious treasure.
I have kept that broken lens to this day as a reminder that my Father knows me best and delights in giving me what my heart desires if I will just be patience and wait to hear His explanation.
This is from the Connect with Your Kids component of the next DiscipleTown unit I am current writing, How to Show Respect, due out October 20th. I always include a section helping teachers connect their real lives to the lessons they teach, which I believe is critical to being an effective teacher. I enjoyed writing this, and thought you might enjoy this story too.
This morning I am teaching on free will to a group of first and second graders. It’s really only a lesson into, but nevertheless, it’s got me thinking – how do you get people, adults or kids, to grasp the sheer Power of their Choices? Our free will is the greatest and yet most dangerous gift God has given us. When I say “dangerous” you may immediately think I mean because of how it can be misused. And of course, that is true. But I am more thinking of the loss when it is NOT used. Missed opportunity, missed potential, kids or people who failed to reach their potential in life because they simply refuse to make the big or little choices daily that would get them there. How do you motivate or inspire others to grab a hold of the Power they have to Choose?! This AMAZING POWER we have to CHOOSE what we want to do each day and with our lives? Now some will be quick to point out that there are many things we can’t control or can’t change or can’t choose. Of course! I can’t go buy myself a Ferrari this afternoon, nor (more painfully) my six kids to the park. Life doesn’t always turn out the way we hoped or planned, BUT… do we focus on what we CAN’T choose? Or on what we can? The reality is, there is ALWAYS MORE THAT WE CAN CHOOSE than that we can’t if we are willing to SEE it.
So, the question remains, how do we instill this in kids? How do we inspire them to seize their life? To make good choices? To dream and to go for it? And how do we NEVER STOP saying, “TODAY I’m going to make some choices that will move me forward and stop the stall or the circling pattern I’m in?”
To move forward, stay on the right path, or get back on the right path, you must be willing to make the tough choices others are too afraid to make. I’ve certainly made some bad decisions in my life, but I try to be a person who is willing to make bold decisions when needed. Two near death experiences makes you very aware you only live once. I refuse to allow inaction to hold me back. Other obstacles in life can hold me back – but may it never be my own inability or unwillingness to make Choices when they need to be made. So I moved across the country to get out of an unhealthy situation. Once I had to choose to go to the boss and fess up. I’ve quit a job I loved, really loved, because the boss was not doing things right behind closed doors and I wanted nothing to do with it. I have chosen to barely watch TV. I rearranged my life to work from home. (I wish I could choose to get up earlier! But that is just too hard! LOL) I chose the Mac over the PC to give myself many more hours a week for family and ministry and less headaches. (That isn’t a jab at my PC friends, that was a hard switch for me, I once was one of those PC guys annoyed by my Mac friends trying to convert me! But I made the choice because of what it meant for my life, it was one of the best choices I’ve made to be quite honest.)
Choices. You make them every day. There might be some big ones you need to make. Don’t put them off any longer. But today there are little choices too. Don’t under estimate them. Your life is the sum of the little choices you make.
Everyone worships God differently. The Bible says those who don’t worship God, arefools. (Creation indeed leaves them without excuse.) But how they worship God, varies based on personality and interests. Some sing. Some paint. Some build. Some create. Some meditate. Some think. Some write. Some serve.
While I find many means of worship enjoyable and meaningful, one that I find most pleasing and satisfying I call “worshiping through my lens.” It is simply enjoying and attempting to capture God’s Creation through the lens of my camera, and then taking some time to edit with iPhoto.
I enjoy the compliments I get and people are often surprised I’m not a “Photoshop” expert and do everything I do to my photos with only iPhoto. So I thought this time, instead of just posting photos from my Father’s Day outing to the Denver Botanic Gardens (where we have a membership) I’d go ahead and give you my “before and after” pics to show you the difference between the pics I took and the way they look after I had some fun on the computer with them.
NOTE: All pics can be clicked to be viewed larger.
White Daisies (BEFORE)
White Daisies (AFTER) See the bug?
Hungry Bee (BEFORE)
Hungry Bee (AFTER)
Lonely Flower (BEFORE)
Lonely Flower (AFTER)
Red Rose (BEFORE)
Red Rose (AFTER)
Purple Fields (BEFORE)
Purple Fields (AFTER)
Busy Ants (BEFORE)
Busy Ants (AFTER)
Fire Flower (BEFORE)
Fire Flower (AFTER)
Waves of Grain (BEFORE)
Waves of Grain (AFTER)
And then, of course, I shoot pictures of my favorite subjects: (no ‘before’ on these)
I often do this… it is relaxing and my own personal form of worship to sit and edit photos of nature on my Mac. I don’t post them often, because I don’t assume they would make for a very interesting blog if I did it often. At times I think I should start a photo-blog, but then that would be another website to maintain andIhaveenoughwebsitesalready!
The 13th Unit of DiscipleTown is due out any moment now. It’s been another exciting one to write! It is such a privilege to get create these idea-packed children’s church units for Discipleland.
Each one has presented it’s own unique challenged and each one has had things go wrong in the process as though someone or something is resisting this process! At times I wonder if I just have really bad luck – or if it is indeed spiritual warfare as I push forward to create these units that help kids become better Disciples of Jesus.
On this latest one – it got CRAZY as I tried to finish the videos that will help children to understand the overview of the New Testament. While sometimes I’ll be hit with technical issues, like sound only coming out of one channel or a lighting issue, or hard drive crash or the mic wasn’t recording, etc. this time, it was almost funny – except that it was frustrating. I’m just sharing to give you a glimpse into the hidden “battles” behind the scenes as Christian resources are created to help Children battle the Enemy.
As you’ll see in the video below, I filmed in my car in the garage – and after hours of set up (there is a lot of technical set up with lights, camera, tripod, mic, monitor, rigging a cue sheet, etc.) I was started shoot when a cricket started chirping! I began searching my garage for the culprit and when I found and squished a cricket, two more began chirping as though to mourn their friends death! After hours of searching, I had to surrender and go to bed in defeat, no filming that night, despite the pending deadline.
The next day, deadline approaching, I set to film during the day – when the neighbor pulls out a table saw and starts cutting away. Then when he is done, kids start playing outside, then it rains. When I can finally film, and get started, the filming lights (specialty bulbs) go out! I drive to where I can buy them and return. Back to work. I finally am done when I realize that I can’t get the videos off the DV tapes because the cable from the camera to the computer is 4 to 6 pin fire wire cable and my new Mac has a 9 pin fire wire cabe, since I issued my old Mac to an employee when I upgraded. Off to not one, not two, not three but four store… they don’t see a 4 to 9 pin fire wire cable, while all telling me “it’s common.” Not even the Apple Store carries it. I finally ended up at Micro Center in Denver, who had ONE.
Crickets. Burned out Bulbs. Missing Cables. And I didn’t even get into title slides that didn’t line up so I had to recreate from scratch as that is too hard to explain to you. Just more time and frustration during the editing process.
In the end, I love the videos! Kids will watch them and enjoy them and gain a better understanding of the overarching structure of the New Testament, how it all fits together, who wrote the books, their themes and how they are organized into sections.
Is it all worth it? Of course! Some may think “Unit 13″ is just unlucky, but I tend to think that there is a force working against me at times because I am working to help kids know their Bibles so they can be equipped to be Different in this world and live victorious Christ-like lives in this nutty Cricket-infested world, ooops, I mean, sin-infested world.
So the next time you feel unlucky and like nothing is going your way. Just know, you are not alone. You may look at a resource on a website and assume everything went hunky-dory in putting it together. It never does. But I pray it will impact kids lives once it is out there, and once it is live, I sit back finally and sigh a huge relief that I’m done, and it can now begin it’s work of equipping kids to Navigate the New Testament.
But I can’t chill for long. Pretty soon I start to work on How to Navigate the Old Testament, and the crickets are still in my garage.
Here is a sneak peek of the videos from How to Navigate the New Testament:
So how do Daddy and Son survive in the store when Mommy is shopping forever?
Why, we play hide n seek, of course! I love hunting for my son, and I love how his giggles give him away, or how he is oblivious with his feet sticking out.
And I love the look of pure joy on his face and how it lights up when I find him! We both hide from Mommy every night at bedtime, and it’s a challenge to find a new stop where a grown man and a boy can hide from Mommy, but we do pretty good, and while sometimes she plays along, sometimes we fool her pretty good. The goal is always to hear, “That was a good one!”
But the truth is, there aren’t too many places to hide a little boy, and he’s pretty easy to find if you look.
That’s the nice thing about our Heavenly Father too. God has good things for us, and if we are willing to look, He hides them pretty easy too. After all, didn’t He say,
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33
And the best news is, he hides them easy, He said so:
“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” – Acts 17:27
Perhaps you need to look for God today. You might think He’s hiding… but I promise you, if you look for Him, He’s let his feet peek out, or give you a clue as to how to find Him, because He likes to be found. But He usually waits to see if you’ll seek Him first. He’s like that.
If you will, He has a promise for you:
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” – Jeremiah 29:12
That’s what this weekend is all about. It’s about the Grace God showed us by looking past our short-comings, our failures, and our imperfections… and loving us anyway.
It’s about wanting us to be Family in spite of us. It’s about Him DYING to make us Family, even though we were wrapped up in ourselves and our needs.
We’ve all got people in our lives (and families) and drive us nuts and who are wrapped up in themselves. People who have let us down. People who don’t deserve a second chance. People who don’t deserve forgiveness. People who are a “lost cause.”
Christ was demonstrating for us what He expects of us by what He did for us. While WE were a lost cause, beyond hope, undeserving, selfish and wrapped up in OURselves – He died for us, and then did the biggest “come back” in His-Story to redeem us.
We have no excuse to hold anyone at arm’s length or hold a grudge. Those who have truly experienced Grace, find it so much easier and natural to extend Grace – for they have been to the foot of the Cross and begged for it.
This Easter, look around for who you can be Jesus to… someone perhaps you’ve overlooked, forgotten, or even given a cold shoulder too… and welcome them back.
After all, it’s what Jesus did for you and me on the first Good Friday and Easter not so long ago. (In God’s eternal timing)
Today was a VERY exciting day for my little boy! For he got to go MUSHING!
It was an exciting day for ME, because I got to drive my family on a sled across the snowly plains with mountains on all sides of me! What a thrill it was indeed!
Luke got to see some dogs, which he LOVES but can’t own due to daddy’s alergies (and no e-mails about allergy-proof dogs, we aren’t going there, been there, tried that!)
Here’s proof that I LIKED the dogs, just ain’t gonna OWN one!
But mushing was a BLAST! And being on the sled with my wife and son inside was a really cool feeling! (Quite literally too)
I realize those dogs were in more control than me – but I since another guest DID wipe out (woman driver, ha!) there was some steering to it! And I was the only one that got to do some downhill driving, though it was mostly level the whole way.
We never got over 15 MPH, but it was very windy and snowing, so not sure I’d want to go faster…. nah… I wish I could have, just not with the family on board!
But how could there be a Leadership Lesson in my day of Mushing? Could there BE any lesson on Leadership from my day Mushing? I think so. These dogs have done this run a thousand times. A few of them have run the Iditarodin Alaska. Some as competitors, others as medical dogs. I’m merely a tourist who gets to feel like I’m doing the real thing here. The reality is, I’m just along for a ride. But they humor me and my family. (For a buck.) But they know the trail and run it well, really just for fun! What they ran with me today is really quite easy for them compared to what they are actually capable of, I’m sure!
Sometimes in life and leadership we get to thinking we are pretty hot stuff (or cold stuff in this case) but the reality is, we are just following a path that has been laid out for us ahead of time. Either by others who went before us, or – if not – by God Himself, who determined that He wanted us to do what we are doing, He chose us, gifted us, and prepared for us the very things we are doing. And while we might think it’s pretty impressive all we are doing, it’s actually a piece of cake for God compared to what He is capable of!
I Corinthians 4:7 is a verse my dad made me memorize as a young boy, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” He saw that God had given me some gifts that would lead to a certain level of success in life, and wanted to make sure early on I never thought for a moment it had anything to do with me – but that I would always know, I was just riding a sled being pulled by God.
And if I ever got off that path, I’d end up looking like this:
Yup. That’s me. I did go off the trail to see just how deep the snow was, and it IS deep! Luke said later, “I didn’t like when you did that daddy, I thought you were going to sink and I’d have no more daddy!”
I think I’d better stay on the path for my son’s sake!
I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a “transformer” in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.
~ Stephen R. Covey
