Leadership Camp

I’ve just come back from Leadership Camp where I spent 4 amazing days on the Morning Star with a great team. It was a wonderful experience of parea (fellowship), laughter and adventure – in my opinion the best combination :o) There were 16 people onboard including Alex our skipper, so it should have been quite close quarters but it didn’t feel like it. It felt like we all had the personal space that we needed, which is good I guess, since everybody was really tired. We left Porto Astro on Friday morning at 6:30 to be in Pefki by that evening. Pefki is a small port on the northern part of Evia, which is the closest island to mainland Greece – it is actually connected by a bridge. On the way there we stopped by another port called Limni, which too is situated on Evia, due to paperwork as well as for the most important part of the day… breakfast! En route we also stopped by a beautiful beach for a swim. We spent the night in Pefki and then sailed on to Skiathos where we spent the remaining two days. During our stay there we had sessions where we spoke about leadership and what that means. I guess the main thing that I learned during this camp is that anybody that influences somebody else is a leader. I have never viewed influence as leadership before and that was an interesting revelation. Once we start influencing somebody we are leading them down a specific path, which is our path and hence we become leaders as the path if familiar to us. So potentially we are all leaders as everybody influences somebody at some level. We can influence people by words or by actions. One of my favorite quotes is by St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel, if necessary use words.” Here he is talking about leading by actions. I believe that as Christians we need to be extra careful because people are watching us all the time. Our every word and action is being analyzed by people around us because they hold us to a higher standard. I can give an example that happened to me recently during Teen Camp. I wasn’t really part of that camp as I was on the Morning Star working. Every day after breakfast and siesta I would gather my stuff, go onboard and paint the deck. I didn’t think much of it because for me that is part of what I do… I paint the boat. After the camp, as we were ferrying people across to the cars, a guy told me that I had challenged him in his walk during that week. I was very surprised as this was a guy I had joked around with but we had never had the time to sit down and talk… so my first thought was how on earth did I challenge this guy? He kept on going and said that the way I would go to the Morning Star and work in the sun all day and come back to do the slideshows with a smile and in good humor really impressed him. It challenged him in the sense that I was a hard worker and that he needed to become more like that. All this to say that just by being who you are, living and breathing can influence somebody. So my challenge to you, dear reader, is to be careful because in your day to day lives you are influencing people around you, knowingly or unknowingly, and hence you are being a leader whether you want to or not. It’s an interesting way to look at it and a different perspective on leadership but that was the thing that stood out the most to me. By being who I am, I am leading people which is cool and scary all at the same time.

Just to end on a fun note… as we were sailing back towards the property on Sunday I was on the wheel steering. Here I am sitting on the helm seat, on this beautiful and peaceful day, keeping the boat on its course when all of a sudden I see Alex, with an intense look on his face, booking it towards the wheel. He grabs it out of my hands and steers the boat HARD to starboard. My heart almost stopped. My first thought was “Oh my goodness we’re about to hit another boat!” I am like “Alex! What’s happening?! Are we on collision course with another boat?!” He looks up at me and gets this sheepish look on his face and says “My hat!” He hands me the wheel back and tells me to keep turning. Meanwhile he’s got everybody else on lookout trying to find his hat. All of a sudden somebody yells out “I see it Alex! I see it!” Alex lunges into the sea and starts swimming towards his hat with the guys directing him to it. Meanwhile, I snap out of the shock and the realization hits me… my captain just jumped off board… for his HAT…. there is no captain on this ship right now and I’m at that helm… this is NOT ok! So I just start steering towards him. He finds his hat, puts it on and starts swimming back – guys I wish I could show you a video of this… it was hilarious! He gets to the poop deck of the boat and climbs up. As he’s climbing and I’m looking at him with a look exhibiting a mixture of shock, disbelief and amusement, he looks up at me and says, “It’s my favorite hat man! My favorite hat.” Oh Alex! I turn to my fiend Georgos and say “Well that was our excitement for the day.” LOL!!!!

Never a dull moment in Greece, never a dull moment…

Alex climbing the poop deck with his hat... :o)

This is what it's all about!

AMEN! The Lord did it again!!!! Camp just finished and oh my goodness, I am so blessed by this Teen Camp and for several reasons: the spirit was amazing, the kids were responsive, as well as the leaders, and the atmosphere in general was wonderful. There was a lot of laughter and joy was prevalent everywhere. It just seemed that people got it this time around. On one of the last nights before camp ended Neil Macris gave a really great message, at the end of it he gave an altar call asking people to come up into two groups; on his right he asked people to come up that wanted to profess Christ as their Savior and on his left people that were already born again but wanted to dedicate their lives to the Lord. If you are familiar with altar calls then you know that the preacher is standing there for at least 5 min giving everybody the time to come up that need to psyche themselves to go. I kid you not; within 10 seconds all but 3 of the campers were sitting in one of the two groups! 4 people gave their lives to the Lord that night and the rest dedicated themselves to Him! AMAZING! 10 seconds people, 10 seconds! I’ve never seen anything like this before. My only prayer is that these were real commitments and not just an emotional hype. I truly hope that we will see much fruit from these kids in the future. A lot of these kids know me from the Teen Worship Events which means that it’s going to make it easy for me to do some kind of follow up with them :o) I’m really excited!

Another reason why I was really blessed by this camp was the leaders that were there. I made a point of it this year not to hang around the foreigners that are there to help but the Greek leaders. For example at lunch or dinner, instead of sitting down with the English speakers, thus taking the easy language route, I sat down with the Greeks. I need to advocate that this is the first year I feel like my Greek is up to it. Still now I don’t understand everything that goes on around me but I understand most of it. Praise the Lord I’m finally getting to where I need to be :o) Its taken its time! Greek is not an easy language let me tell you… :op As a result I feel like I really got to know the leaders. I’m walking way with friends. People that I’ve seen around for years but never had a chance to really talk to. Others that were acquaintances from Bible school but during this week grew closer. I feel so blessed :o) Just today I went out for lunch with some of them that turned out to include coffee afterward. I love the Greek culture! They have a savoir vivre that not many other cultures have. The relational aspect of the culture is wonderful. They are always up to just hanging out. Parea is a very important word within the Greek language and means fellowship or company. I am so thankful that the Lord brought me to this country! I have come to life here surrounded by people that love life just as much as I do, it is a wonderful thing to be a part of :o)

Thank you Lord!

Life

Life, we live it at a hundred miles an hour and as a result we probably miss about half of it. Those rare moments in life where you just have to go “Thank You Lord!” are few and far in between. I believe that if we were more intentional we’d be able to have those moments more often. Like right now, I’m sitting on a chair overlooking Skorponeria Bay, the only light is from the moon (except for the computer screen, obviously :op ) and I’m listening to the crickets in the background and the water washing up on shore. Occasionally there is a fish that jumps in and out of the water. It is absolutely beautiful. These are the types of moments we need to live for (ps there is a frog out on its evening walk right besides me!) How beautiful is God’s creation? How absolutely perfect and He made it not only for His glory but also for our enjoyment. I want to encourage you next time you’re on your way home from work or school or whatever, and you find yourself by a forest or the sea or even a large park, take a walk through it. Go, experience what God has made for us. Take ten minutes and concentrate on the sights, smells and noises around you. It’s God’s picture you’ll be looking at, it is His aroma you’ll be smelling and it is His music you’ll be listening to. We all need to stop being too busy to experience life as God intended it to be and start living, really live. God gave us the five senses and we don’t use them anymore. We take medication to numb our feelings, our eyes are bent on the TV screen all evening, we force pre-made stuff onto our taste buds - we are numbing our bodies to God’s world!

I love being out at Porto Astro because every time I come out here it feels like I reconnect with God on a more personal level as I see Him and His glory and beauty everywhere in the raw nature that surrounds us and at night in the stars. I love the stars! To me space puts God into perspective. If these stars that we look up to are the same size and bigger than our sun and they’re placed thousands of light-years away from us, how big is space? It is HUGE yet God is BIGGER! He holds space in the span of His hand and looks down, lovingly upon us. To me there is such a comfort in that.

Anyway I’m getting carried away and I need to go to bed so I’m going to stop now.

Thank you Lord for these moments! May we pay more attention to them and may we pay more attention to You!