3 Stooges in Action

Back in April, I wrote about the 3 Stooges. At this point, I still have not met the 3rd Stooge - he might be a fig newton of somebody's imagination - even if he is, Ronnie does a lot of the work......

I mentioned to Sam back in April that I had read a lot about teams and how to lead them, etc. Many books and such talked about effective teams, but I had never seen one work well until I saw the 3 Stooges in action. We got to see more on this trip. Not only did we see 2 of the 3 Stooges, but we got to see the interaction between them and their pastor. Three very strong personalities, all with different outlooks on life, all focusing on the same goal - pretty powerful. Watched conflicting goals, ideas be resolved not in an explosive way, but in a God honoring, peaceful, restorative way.

Their example has given me a lot to try to emulate. Two other men from Morenci went with me on this trip. Dennis is a man who never met a stranger. He is a Supervisor in the Research department at the copper mine. Jeff drives one of those small dump trucks (only 240-300 ton per load) for 12 hours a day, and he is pretty quiet most of the time. Both of them are leaders! I found that out on this trip.

Following the example of the guys from Stone Ridge, the team and the pastor, I tried to deflect as much of the decision-making issues to Jeff and Dennis, for many reasons. I want God to do things with us that are not limited by me. These 2 guys went on this trip and saw everything that I saw. They were impacted and want to make a difference in the lives of other people. They took the lead in talking to the local missionary and leaders of the churches. I tried to stay out of their way. It's a different way of operating that will take some time for all of us to be comfortable with, but it has been a good start.

This coming Sunday, Dennis and Jeff will present their views / impressions / etc on the trip, and then will tell the church where they think we should be involved with 2 different churches / missions in the DR. Should be a lot of fun.