Small Steps. Big Faith.

This month begins a new step in helping to develop our staff here in Spain.  One aspect of this staff development is to serve as a supervisor/mentor for Donna Cannella, pictured left, an American woman on staff with our ministry to ensure that she is being cared for and developed as a senior staff woman. Donna and I actually came to Spain around the same time through the campus ministry. I came as staff and she came as a student. Over the years, the Lord led us both to work with Agape Spain. He also has led each of us to marry Catalan men who are not on staff with Agape. And most recently we have both entered the stage of motherhood and all the adjustments required as a new mom in ministry. My hope is to provide support and direction for Donna that sometimes is lacking for moms in ministry. Donna has been instrumental in training our new Campus ministry staff and about a year ago the national leadership asked her to adapt that training for all new staff in Spain...

This month I was honored to be sent to CXI, Western Europe's Team Leader Training in Malta. CXI are the Roman numerals to stand for  100 Team Leaders, 10 Days training (5 on-site, 5 on-going), 1 purpose (healthy teams). The idea was to attend, receive the training and return to lay the groundwork for a Spanish version of the training to prepare future Spanish team leaders for leading more effective teams of evangelism and discipleship. It was a very encouraging time to be with other leaders from around Western Europe, a refresh of many materials I had seen during my days as an Associate Campus Director in Texas and a significant time of soul-searching in regard to my future in ministry.  A s I have served in a variety of roles and carried out a plethora of different administrative tasks in Agape over the last few years, my heart's desire of discipling believers, developing staff and mentoring leaders is still burning...but not occupying the bulk of my ministry ti...

Working in a team is such an important aspect of effective ministry for me. That's why I am so grateful to have begun working more closely with Gema Alvarez and Rex Winn pictured above to begin redefining and renewing Agape Spain's Human Resource Team. Several months ago I began collaborating with Gema Alvarez, the HR Director to consult on several staff-related issues from revising staff standards and the interview process, to hiring and orientation of new staff, to receiving international staff. This has been an amazing opportunity to re-connect and re-engage with ministry on the field and the lives of our Spanish staff. This fall Gema, Rex and I will take the next step in forming our team by receiving official training from the Agape Europe office for LDHR. (In the last few years, the name of HR has been changed to LDHR (Leadership Development and Human Resources) to emphasize the importance of developing leaders as we grow our ministry.) We have begun to meet ...