Monthly Archives: June 2006

Today our church heard from Jason Ambros.  For the past four years he has been with Operation Mobilization.  His workplace has been a ship called “Doulos”.  The last two years his job has been to line up the ports they enter.  At one point he slipped and mentioned that he was glad to be in “port”.  But he is no longer on board, in fact his current residence is in the middle of the bald prairies!

Each person has their place in the work of the ship.  Their desire is to bring Jesus to areas around the world where Jesus is not well known.  Although Jason did participate in direct “witnessing”, without his administrative work the full impact of the ship would not be known.

Now, he is at home – farming with his dad north of town.  He is looking to see where he will end up.  God knows – and I say that with full assurance that He does!!

Gald to have Jason on board with us here in the prairies!

So, here we were, sitting in the waiting room at the hospital.

Jill has been my helper for years.  I truly consider her to be my partner.  Even when it comes to my preaching.  Often she will give me stories and suggestions.

I’ve been working through the Sermon on the Mount in my preaching.  One part of it talks about us being the salt of the earth. 

Back to the waiting room.  Jill is reading about food (I really appreciate her love of food preparation — I eat very well!!).  She leans over to me and points to a quote. 

“Salt is a guest who always brings out the best in others without calling attention to himself — salt makes things happen.”  (Flavours Magazine – Fall 2004 – Claudine Gervais, p. 82).

Who needs a long semon when you can say it all in a sentence!

We were on the road by 6:04 this morning.  The objective was to be in Saskatoon shortly after 8:00.  The sky was beautiful and the inbound road empty.

The reason we were in Saskatoon was to go to Jill’s regularly scheduled cardiology checkup.  In preparation for the meeting with the cardiologist, Jill had some blood tests, ECG and Xray taken.  These were done by 10:30 or so.

What comes next?  A wait until 2:30 to meet with the cardiologist.  So off to do some shopping.

We arrived early for the doctor’s appointment.  Instead of waiting in the “waiting room” we were ushered into a small examination room.  Very soon the doctor appeared.  At precisely the time the appointment was to begin, we walked out!  That is pretty well a first!!

The checkup just affirmed that Jill is doing well.  We are expecting a battery change for her pacemaker in the next year or two.  Her heart does not appear to have deteriorated.  Generally the appointment was just a gabfest as both doctor and patient talked along at a fairly good clip.  This comes from having the same cardiologist for a number of years.

As we heading down the homeward road and into the sunset (OK, its summer so the sun doesn’t set til later — its merely a nice literary cliche!), we were both thankful for a good checkup and look forward to many more years of good health.

P.S.:  From the comments on a previous post — Entrepreneurial leadership is the type of administration that often lives by the seat of the pants, is dependent on intuition, and listens to those affected by your leadership first before strategizing great plans and visions — instead of the other way around.   This type of leadership is willing to strike out before all the infrastructure is in place trusting that will come as you go along.  Finally, tradition has its place in providing a strong context for what you do, but is never so entrenched that it becomes an end in itself.