Monday, April 23, 2007

A Very Different Year

What an amazing spring we had this year. Looking back over the past years I have worked here I have never had a spring go so smoothly. We even had beautiful weather. Normally during spring we have many days of hard wind which can make for some grueling work days. But this year I believe there were only a couple of days of wind at all and they were not near as bad as I have seen in the past.

It was a very different year for me however, I was not the one out there constantly with groups. My roll this year was that of supporting the staff; Eric, Howie, and T.J. They all did a wonderful job for our groups. I had many groups express their appreciation of each of them. We also had much more volunteer help this year then I can remember in the past. It made for some busy weekends getting them settled in and trained but it was all worth it. They laid the ground for an exceptional spring by getting all of our prep work done early and taking the load off of our staff on work site lead out days. I can’t express how grateful I am for each of our volunteers.

This is the first spring that I have not spent all of my time in the field working along side the groups. I remember the first day after getting the groups settled into camp I spent some time visiting with the groups and then as I got in my vehicle to go home for the night, I felt a little sick driving out of camp. I realized that there is a big part of me that is going to miss being there in the field ready to act on whatever comes up. There is such a bonding that occurs when you spend that much time with groups trying to assist them in their mission. While I really enjoy my new roll, I know I will miss that more then anything. Thinking back on it now I am glad for that little bit of heartache. It tells me that I really do care for those that I serve. Anything we do can easily become just a job. There are times that I ask myself if I am letting that happen to me here at Amor Ministries. I think if I ever answered yes to that question it would be time for a change. But I know my heart is still in it, the many lives that are touched by this ministry continue to touch mine. I cannot see this as just a job when it impacts my life so profoundly.