Lessons on teamwork

This summer didn’t turn out the way I thought it would (mind you, I’m writing this in the beginning of August).  I thought I would power through a summer with a fabulous and earth-shattering Vacation Bible School at our church and hop on a plane two hours later to do it again in Cayo, Belize.

Granted, those things did happen.  However, it occurred in a far less sparkly fashion for me personally.  A week before VBS was starting I got quite sick which was followed by a diagnosis during the middle of VBS that I had another bout of mononucleosis (turns out it’s a myth you only can get it once).  Now this certainly did not factor into my grandiose plans of being a rock star in ministry for 3 straight weeks.

Suddenly, I was forced to slow down because it’s physically impossible to just ‘work harder’ to make sure VBS is smooth, safe, welcoming, and fun.  In addition, I couldn’t just show up in Belize and muscle my way through serving.  I had to look to my left and to my right (and up to Heaven) and trust my team.

You see, for me, the struggle with team has always been trust.  I hated school projects.  I struggled on my sports teams.  Please don’t make me do that work presentation with another co-worker.  Do I trust that someone will do what they said they will?  Will they do it the way I want it done?  Do they care about it as much as I do?  I’ve heard so many people say these things to me and so many times these scripts have played in my head.  In fact, as a school teacher, group projects always solicited groans.

The last 10 years have been full of personal growth when it comes to the value of a team.  The first step in eating the humble pie when I was in my twenties came when I learned that I even needed to have a team – I have lone ranger, cowboy-like tendencies.  I know that great leaders have a great team and I have placed so much value on having a team for so many years since that lesson.  In fact, I invested most of the last 8 months recruiting my VBS team.

This year the Lord allowed me to grow in a new area of team.  The team was in place and this year I learned to trust that the team can handle anything thrown at them without me being present or participatory in every moving part.  Unfortunately, I’m so thick-headed that the only way I could be coerced to exercise trust was to be physically incapacitated so that I couldn’t sprint from station to station to micromanage.  When we were in Belize, my singular contributions felt minuscule in comparison to the scope of ministry our whole team was doing.

We know the ending to this story.  God did far more using the hands of so many talented and amazing individuals to expand the Kingdom than I could have ever done with my hands.  I am richly blessed by a team of people that surround me and point me to Jesus.  I can’t express the gratitude to the King or His people for the last 3 weeks of grace and joy with words.  But I’ll always try: VictoryKids’ Team rocks!