Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Things have been going well here. I have been kept quite busy managing our office and overseeing the team of 9 students who work with us for their work duties or “Practical Ministry” as we like to call it. It has been both a blessing and a challenge to have them with us. A blessing in the sense that many hands make light work. We have been able to take on things that were far too big for the 2 of us who are staff in the communications department to take on along. The challenge for me has been the switch over from working on projects directly to working so others can work on projects. This change was not an easy one for me. I work in communications because I love working in media, not necessarily because I love managing people. It took a bit for my thinking to adjust. I began to realize that my purpose had to shift from simply being productive on my own to ensure that the new members of our team were taken care of and equipped to be as productive as possible. I have also embraced a pastoral and mentoring role with them; stoking their passions for media no matter how developed or undeveloped their skills are and giving them a sense of ownership and belonging.
I have learned to disciple and mentor the students entrusted to me. I have had to take special care with one of them specifically. He has a rough past but then had a radical encounter with the Lord which caused him to turn around his life. He has a passion for media but has very minimal skills. It has been a focus of ours (mine and the leader of the department) to go out of our way to include him in our office. This has been challenging at times, but I have had to remind myself that it is about the person, not the tasks. So, even though what he can do is quite limited, we have welcomed him with open arms and rallied around him. It has been amazing to see the change in the student even after just a month. He comes in early most days and has such excitement about being one of the team. The whole situation has been such a powerful reminder to me about the importance of making the space and environment for people to thrive. Also, we don’t have to go far, sometimes the mission field lands right on our doorstep.
On another fun note, I have started to notice a lacking in my media skill set. So, to help fill in the missing area, I have started to study motion graphics on the side. Over the past few years, it has emerged as one of the most innovative and groundbreaking portions of the field. Once I get into it a bit more, I’ll share some of my projects. My heart is to take every chance to advance my skillset so I don’t hinder the doors God opens for me in the future. I look forward to sharing some of the fun projects along the way!
As always, thank you for coming along with me in this adventure of faith,
Ben