President's Post
July 2020
A camper participates in archery at Camp Alamisco.
I must say, as I will explain below, that Josue Sanchez, our new Youth Director, exhibits a strong gift of leadership. Though he may be inexperienced, he handled himself and everyone up at camp with kindness and understanding. He will help us tremendously in this role in years to come all over GSC.
It's been a busy month dealing with the COVID-19 virus. It just doesn't seem like we can develop any real traction as we try opening events such as Youth Camp at Camp Alamisco. We began what we thought would be a short season of teen camps, but after our first week, which by the way, was a tremendous experience for our staff and campers, someone came down with the virus. That brought everything to a halt, and we canceled the other two camps we had hoped to hold. Then a couple of our camp staff came down with the virus. As of this PP, I hear everyone is doing fine, but it was a rough camp season, to say the least. I know our new Youth Director, Josue Sanchez, and our Camp Ranger Todd and his wife Shelley were really under more pressure than any camp season should bring. But I have to tell you, with the guidance of Rick Woodruff, RN, and our camp leadership, right decisions were made that held the virus in check as well as possible. We tested all of our staff; I believe around 32 young people, and only two were positive. In your prayer journals, please pray for our Youth leadership all around the conference. I know that most of the conference sponsored events for our Youth have been canceled until 2021. These significant events that really are great have had to be put on hold. My heart goes out to our Pathfinder Council and Pathfinder & Adventurer Leaders throughout GSC as they are working hard on how to hold Pathfinders & Adventurers in their local churches safely.
Prayer Request
I have a special friend who is President of the Arizona conference, his name is Ed Keyes. Ed and I have been friends for almost 30 years. We first met when I was pastoring in Hawaii, and Ed was the Bible Teacher in Maryland at their Academy. At a week of prayer at the school, we had a great time together with the students, and Ed and I became lifelong buddies. A couple of weeks ago, Ed was diagnosed with the most severe Melanoma you can have. Very scary stuff, it was located on his temple. I can't tell you how hard Teresa and I prayed for him and his dear wife, Lillian. Ed had the surgery, and the surgeon told him he was not able to get all of the Melanoma out. He would plan another surgery but told Ed, "If I can't get it out the second time, I won't be able to do another surgery in the sensitive area of your temple a third time." I'm sure you feel the seriousness of the situation. We talked yesterday after Ed had met with the surgeon to schedule a second surgery. This second surgery is scheduled for Monday, July 27th at 11:00 am PST. PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FRIEND. The surgeon did tell Ed that he was 99% sure he could get it all out the second time around. Let's pray together that he's right! I love this guy, and he's blessed my life so much, so again I covet your prayers for Ed.
Virtual President's Council
The Southern Union held a President's Council virtually that I really enjoyed. We sat at the feet of Dr. Fred Russell, who leads a leadership group called "True North." It was a real blessing! My three leadership strengths are 1) Seeks Council, 2) Initiates rather than being reactive, 3) Driven rather than Low-Key. I don't think those surprise any of you who know me. I'll share my weaknesses in a moment but almost all my career I've played to my strengths. I knew for certain God called me to pastoral ministry. I've got more weaknesses than you have time to read about, but knowing those weaknesses, I worked especially hard in two areas of ministry, Preaching and Leadership.
My areas of weakness were; 1) Explaining Rationale as opposed to offering my intuition. 2) Exploring Implications as opposed to Pushing Forward. (This is where the Driven strength can get in my way of being better.) 3) Follow First Impressions as opposed to Analyzing in-depth. I think I've improved a little here but still a long way to go. I'll never be a Brian Danese or Stan Hobbs with their gifts of analyzing and organizing material, but having them around me sure did help.
I feel I'm never too old to learn, and it's always good to see where I can improve, even as I transition out of the office of President. My reputation when I pastored was READY, FIRE, AIM! I blame God for making me this way. (HaHa)
Next Month will be my last President's Post to you. I will retire on September 1st. I'll share more next month.
Dave
Office of the President
Email: admin@gscsda.org
Website: gscsda.org
Location: 10633 Atlanta Highway, Montgomery, AL, USA
Phone: 3342727493
Facebook: facebook.com/gulfstatesconference
Twitter: @gscsda
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