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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
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Huge wake up call

This past weekend I was at the retreat with my ladies and while checking into the hotel I saw a dear co-pastor friend of mine, Vicki Elliott.   We exchanged hugs and lamented over the fact that we still haven't gotten together since the last time we saw each other in January.  I asked how she was doing and she said she had just experienced a huge wake up call in her life.  Her father passed away, and she had recently spent some time at hospice with him as he was in his final days.  Now his passing wasn't the shocking part, for her Dad had a relationship with Jesus and she knew where he was headed.  The surprising part for her was the conversation she had with a nurse at hospice.  The nurse, also a believer, told her that the hardest part of her job were the experiences she had with some patients who didn't know Jesus, as they were dying.  Evidently there were some that, as they were actually making the transition of passing on would scream out things in terror like, "The flames!  The flames!"  The nurse said most people hear of the stories from hospice where people talk about sensing the presence of God, and slipping into eternity as their loved ones sing hymns and they peacefully go to heaven.  But she said there are also situations where people cry out in fear about things like flames and torment because what they are encountering is not peaceful.  If you are wondering why a hospice nurse doesn't just go and share with everybody they meet about Jesus to avoid all this, evidently there rules as to how a nurse can share their faith, just like there are guidelines at any company about how employees interact with clients.

Vicki shared with me that as the nurse shared theses stories with her it was a HUGE wake up call, and since then she has had absolutely zero tolerance for pettiness.  With tears in her eyes, Vicki said, "Deanna, all I'm consumed with is souls.  Time is short, and people are going to hell every day."

I couldn't thank her enough for sharing this with me.  Of course I already knew that millions are going to eternity without Jesus, but like Vicki, hearing that nurse's stories are a huge wake up call for me too.  We get so desensitized by the cares of life.  We start to focus on meaningless things.  It's all too easy to forget that people are going to "the flames" daily.   What little things have we allowed to distract us rather than share with someone to spare them eternal hell?  Really, isn't everything little in comparison?

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Apple of His Eye said…
Wow! You are so right on! Really have sensed that as well. Time is so short & much to do.
10:39 PM
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