White Space

By Jill in Spain -
Sometimes life throws curve balls.

The month of February has seen the loss of the fathers of two different friends here in Sant Vicenç.

In addition, the older daughter of our LDHR Directors required surgery for a serious heart condition.

When we pass through a crisis like these, everything comes to a halt for a time. (I know this all too well from experiencing our car accident in 2007 or my miscarriage in 2012. .)

As companions in the journey, we pray, we call, we support....but our lives may not necessarily stop in the same way. Our lives and responsibilities continue. At the same time, while our friends/co-workers are absent, sometimes it creates a hole or a pause in our activities as well while we wait for grief, for logistics, for healing.

Image result for white spaceThis pause, this "white space" is something that I experiencd today during our normally-scheduled LDHR meeting on Thursday mornings.

Because Rex and Gema, our LDHR Directors were out of pocket, another staff member, Garrick facilitated our meeting and I met with him and my teammate, Donna, to touch base on all things DEVELOPMENT in Ágape.

We three are in an especially unique position in our roles with various development topics to promote and potentially accelerate the growth, development and equipping of our staff.

The conversation was quite organic today and covered a hodge podge of topics:
  • New Staff Training (or CNC, its acronym in Spanish).
  • Trainers (or Formadores) for CNC
  • Process of Rolling Out a Leadership Development Track
  • Cross-cultural training offered by Ágape Europe. 2 of our staff will attend.
  • Upcoming Spiritual Retreat for staff in Barcelona
As we talked, we reflected over the evolution of our New Staff Training Program. I created a mentor-new staff "tree" to see the various generations of new staff that we have received so far.

What a joy to see God's continued presence in our ministry over time as He raises up new staff and develops them. Although my name is not on this list, I have had the privilege of being involved, almost from the beginning, assisting Donna as she leads and grows this internal movement of growth and development.



















If it hadn't have been for this "white space" to talk and to reflect, I would have missed this opportunity to give thanks and to praise God for His faithfulness.


Thank God for...

  • His love and steady work in the lives of our staff here in Spain
  • the chance for "white space," an opportunity to slow down and consider God's work in developing our staff over the last 4 years
  • for a successful surgery for Evelyn, daughter of Rex and Gema (pictured below several days after the surgery)







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