Jathaniel.com

I have been spending some time thinking about some of my early mistakes in leadership.  It’s not that I don’t make mistakes anymore; I am constantly learning from my experiences in leadership.  Having come from the government sector, leadership looks way different in non-profit or church leadership.  As I reflect back, one of the biggest things that I have learned is that as a leader, you can NEVER assume that everyone knows what you are talking about.  This is especially important when you are communicating vision.  Although I have it “all figured out” in my head, 100% time the people I am communicating with have never been in my head.  Therefore, it takes little effort to lose people in a simple conversation about the subject du jour.  To communicate effectively, it is critical that leaders not expect that everyone will make the same mental leaps that you did.  As a leader, if you leave your tribe behind, then you are no longer leading.  You just became a loner.

Through some friends on social media, I was reminded of a stark reality on this Veteran’s Day. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), on any given night (yes tonight too!) 131,000 veterans will be sleeping in our streets. Not as an act of meritorious service to safeguard our communities, but they are sleeping there because they are without adequate shelter and necessary care. Also according to the NCHV, during this year, 260,000 veterans will be stricken and affected by homelessness. Sure, this could be an enormous post about our country’s systematic ills that allow this to happen; however, I wonder what would happen if more of us stopped depending on the government to take care of those that are invisible on our streets. I have had the privilege and honor to work along side people who have not relegated this to Uncle Sam, but they have decided to BE the church. It’s truly an amazing thing.

Something to think about…
Can we really show appreciation to veterans on this day while so many sleep in our gutters and under our overpasses? I wonder how many of our vets (especially homeless vets) will feel appreciated as they are run out of public spaces today? Hmm…that’s a toughie!

If you are curious about what you can do on this Veterans Day to help, here are some suggestions and here are some more. Some address the systematic part and some are practical everyday things.

I got an email this morning that was an update to a water project that our student ministry has been working on.  Long story short, last year, with the help of our flock at Heartsong, we raised nearly $10,000 to go toward establishing clean drinking water to communities in Kenya.  The organization we were initially going to go with could not immediately put that money to use for water.  So we looked for some place where we could.  By God’s hand we got connected to the House of Hope through a member of our flock.  The House of Hope (HOH) is an orphanage that is located outside Lodwar, Kenya (a very remote area in the northwest part of Kenya).  They have no immediate access to clean drinking water.  So we decided to follow God’s prompting and work toward bringing a clean water source to the 15 orphans and caretakers at HOH.  Working with SERV International (mother organization for HOH), I just received word that the engineers have conducted resistivity testing and have determined that there is a high likelihood of a clean water source about 90m below ground on the premises of the HOH!!   We are currently getting a second opinion on the test results (from a state-side source).  If all goes well, we could be on our way to helping provide clean water for HOH and potentially for some of their neighbors!!

Here is a link for the House of Hope.