I had a chance to get together for lunch with Joe Ellis, former Executive Director at the Mission, and learned that he has a birthday this Saturday.  I think it would be great if a few of you who know Joe would send him an email to let him know how much we appreciate his work here in Tacoma.  For those of you who may not know, Joe was the director when Jefferson and Colonial Sq. were put together and was the mind behind the Challenge Learning Center and a lot of the programs we currently enjoy.  He was also the genius who hired Bob Killmer and Kathy Austin.  His email is jellis@hackergroup.comHe is a successful businessman in Seattle working for the Hacker Group, a direct mail services company.  Happy Birthday Joe.David 

“The Importance of Taking Care of the Little Things”

If you are a baseball fan the name Satchel Paige rings a bell. What you may not know is that he didn’t throw a pitch in the major leagues until he was 42 years old. He was good enough to play in the majors when he was 18 years old but he couldn’t. Because he was black he was not allowed to compete until after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. So at the age of 42 Satchel Paige finally got his chance.

Paige won his first three games as a pro shutting out Chicago twice in the process. All along he knew he was good enough to pitch in the major leagues and when he finally got his chance he proved it. I was thinking this morning that Satchel Paige was a man who understood the principle of taking care of the little things. He approached his major league pitching debut no differently than he approached any of the 2,500 games he pitched during his career. He took care of the little things and spent his life perfecting the art of pitching one game at a time. The point is that when he finally got his chance he was ready.

There is a principle from this story that applies to everyone of us here at TRM. If each of us will focus on taking care of the little things in our work area the big things will take care of themselves over time. The Bible reminds us that it is important to be faithful in the little things. All of us can work with the assurance that our jobs even the most menial tasks are performed before our Savior. So when you go the extra mile to serve a client or when you are extra patient with a fellow staff member your efforts do not go unnoticed. This spiritual principle gives us all the more reason to pursue excellence in all we do here at TRM. So let’s each commit this week to take care of the little things knowing that God promises to reward those with such an attitude.   Alvin

We are excited to announce a local family foundation gave $150,000 to support our family center.  I haven’t gotten approval yet from the foundation on whether or not this is a public gift so I won’t announce the name of the group until then, but all of us here at the Mission are so grateful to them and their support.  Praise the Lord!David 

Please keep longtime TRM Board member Dennis Davenport in your prayers.  He woke up Sunday morning without full use of his legs and has been in St. Joe’s since.  The preliminary reports are that there is a clot of some kind that is causing his legs not to work.  Please keep Dennis and his family in your prayers.DC 

Thanks to all the great friends and partners who showed up today at our Lakewood Coffee event.  We had a chance to sit around and talk about all the great things that are happening at the Mission and to get to know each other.  Our next coffee event for donors is Monday the 28th in Gig Harbor at the Cutters Point Coffee Shop at 2pm.  Hope to see as many of our Gig Harbor donors as is possible. David 

Thanks for all the great BBQ chefs who helped with our BBQ cookoff at the New Life Program on Friday.  it was great fun and great food.  Frank Jackson won the blind taste test, stunning the three judges with great steak, chicken and pork meals.  Awesome!dc 

Monday Memo

“Poise Under Pressure”

Happy Monday Everyone!  I hope you were encouraged this weekend through the faithful teaching of a bible teaching church in the area. My pastor’s sermon was an encouragement to be faithful in regular times of prayer and communication with God. We can all be thankful for the faithful, spiritual leadership of the pastors in our area.

This morning I have been thinking about the importance of modeling poise under pressure. The word poise refers to a regulating power that helps to balance one thing against another. For example, think of a very good NFL quarterback. How does he react when all the players on the other team are suddenly in his face trying to take him down?  Good quarterbacks learn to maintain poise even under a great deal of pressure. Most of us will never play a down of football at the quarterback position but we will get many opportunities to demonstrate poise under pressure.

You can probably think of an area in your part of the work environment where you are sometimes responsible to show poise under pressure. It could be an insensitive comment from a fellow staff member. Maybe it is an ungrateful attitude from a client here that you are sincerely trying to help. Perhaps one of the mission’s volunteers fails to do what you have asked them to do. In all these examples self-control and self-discipline are called for. All of us will have the opportunity this week to demonstrate poise under pressure. Take a lesson from a good quarterback and try and remain calm in the face of pressure.  When you do, you might just hear Jesus say: look at my son, look at my daughter. Now that was a great play! Think about that and share with your co-workers the victory stories of lessons learned right here at the mission from modeling poise under pressure.

Alvin 

One of the things we are consistently stressing is the need for all the TRM staff, volunteer or paid, to help build an environment that is uplifting and inspirational.  Unfortunately, people often wait for someone else to fill that gap and forget the important role they play in making the Mission a place where people can overcome their challenges.  I would like to challenge you to find one person, write their name down on a piece of paper, who you are going to make an effort to encourage today.  You can give them a call, give them a pat on the back, write them a note, whatever you like but make sure you make someone feel special today.  Any postings on this blog are welcome.  DC

Our quarterly staff meeting is at Chalet Bowl today on North 26th and Procter.  It is time for us to fellowship and have some fun.  Of course, many of you will be wanting to beat me at bowling, keep dreaming.  The outing is from 1-3pm. Update!  That was too much fun.  It was great seeing everyone having a good time and spending time away from work.  Some award winners: Wanda from Jefferson Sq. got the Alley Cat award for her amazing bowling.  Ardretta from ESC got the slugger award for her ability to really throw it hard down the lane, Pamula from Jail Chaplaincy got the Earl Anthony award for most improved, and Gary from Maintenance shamed us all with the Best Bowler award.  Thanks for making this so fun everyone.  comments welcome.dc 

I received this email of a physical healing in Johnny Bumpus, a New Life Program Student, from Joan Bunnell this morning:   ”One of our NLP’s is a former heavy weight champion named Johnny.  He came to us about 2 months ago in a tremendous broken mess from crack cocaine.  If that sorrow was not enough, he is also under intense chemo therapy for lymphoma cancer.  He has been deteriorating right before our eyes yet NEVER does he complain.  We have prayed for his healing daily and he announced in devotions today that he met with his doctor yesterday and he was informed that he will not be receiving any more chemo because   HE IS IN REMISSION! “