Last week we had a wonderful PathLight staff retreat at our home. Over half the PathLight staff were able to attend and it was an incredibly productive time. We set out to build the team spiritually, have plenty of fun and fellowship, and leave with tangible skills to help us in our work. All three felt achieved.
I opened the retreat with a new word that I recently learned. Pronoia is “the delusional belief that other people are plotting your well being, or saying nice things about you behind your back.” It brought a few laughs, but it also set the tone for the importance of thinking positive and trusting others.
Adrienne Parcher followed with fun stories about the early days of PathLight and the taking one step at a time, trusting God to lead. Mark Parcher then shared a humorous story involving machetes, ants, fallen trees, and symbiosis. D’Aun talked about the Fruit of the Spirit and the connection between her hope for the PathLight students being like her hope for the olive orchard.
Just a few days before the retreat Casey Cobell found old notes from the last PathLight staff retreat in 2009. It was great to share what our dreams were then, and how we’ve hit them (or exceeded them) since.
Casey also walked all of us through the PathLight model, which we call E3, and how it impacts everything we do.
Throughout it all we worshiped, prayed, laughed, dreamed and collaborated. But some of the most enjoyable moments were the off script events, such as:
– Tono being our designated snake wrangler when D’Aun found one near our back door. Just like in Belize, Tono calmly took care of it!
– Mariam, on her first ever visit to the USA, being overwhelmed and enthralled by the shopping.
– Anjanette being the enabler on the shopping!
– Andrea and her experience with real American moonshine. With help from Dion and Douglas.
– Having the Advisory Board join us for dinner on Tuesday night.
– Seeing silos break down in our job descriptions, letting folks like the Stouts be refreshed by the success of other programs.
– Marti grabbing one of the loaner books and reading it so fast it seems like she inhaled it!
– Watching the Belizeans dominate the Americans at Bocce, even though they had never played!
– Seeing all the windows facing the backyard fill up with large post it pages of notes.
– Visiting the D’Oliva Olive Oil grove.
– Watching as Anne, who overlaps all the programs, play traffic cop with information.
– Wine tasting with folks who do not drink wine … definitely a good way to bring the energy level up, then suddenly down!
– Enjoying the incredible food created by chef Carey.
A great time together that will bring greatness to all the work these folks do. So thankful we could invest time, energy and creativity in this way.
