The things people do!!

Ok, so I saw a story today on the web that just blew my mind. It's about this 16 year old kid from CA, Zac Sunderland. The reason I noticed the story is because it was about a kid who sails (as in boats).

Now, for those of you who don't know, my Dad has always been a sailor. Pretty much my entire life there was a sailboat in our family (he finally sold the last one this past year). My first trip to Disney World involved staying on a sailboat and sailing around the gulf in-between trips to the Magic Kingom and EPCOT. All future trips to Florida, the Carribean, etc. revloved (mainly)around sailing. The only thing that mattered to my dad was if "the tides breaks there".

I will say that most of my Dad's trips eventually turned into urban legends, because something ALWAYS seemed to go wrong (not ever his fault though!). Ask me about Kangaroo Island (Australia), the trip down the east coast from Conn., the sinking off the coast of Fl (not his boat and he wasn't in charge of the navigation). Needless to say, always an adventure, and my Mom always ended up having to get him home somehow. Every trip turned into a story....maybe it's because Heaf and I weren't there to be his crew for those!

So my Dad's dream (as long as I can remember) was to do a solo trip around the world. Of course....life happened and he's never done it. It's amazing what years of guilt by three women and a grandbaby can do to a man! Poor guy - one dream and we ruined it for him.

All of that to make this point - Zac is 16 years old and is leaving to do a solo, around the world trip in 14 days!!!! That's insane to me!!! I know he grew up around boats, is trained, knowledgeable, etc. But.....did I mention he's 16?????????? I can't imagine doing something like that at 16. Can you? Can you imagine being a parent and letting your kid do that? That's a lot of trust. His dad will be meeting him at different points on his stop, and I'm sure a million people will be tracking him. In the end though, he's on his own out there. It's him and the ocean (and God of course). No other human to help if there is a mechanical failure, unpredicted storm, illness, injury, etc. Obviously he will have communication available to him, but what if something happens and there's no time? I was worried about my dad doing something like this, but I can't imagine a kid!

It should be interesting to follow. He's going to be blogging about his trip as he goes through his website at http://www.zacsunderland.com/ if anyone is curious. I know I am.

All of this made me think...."What on earth was I doing at 16??" Pretty much the same stuff as now: church, school/work, volleyball. I guess I would never have thought to do something like this at that age.

What about you? Any crazy adventures you wanted to embark on when you were younger?

Spiritual Gifts

So if you've been around High Pointe at all since James Nored arrived, then you've heard about his focus on Spiritual Gifts and the "Spiritual Gift Inventory" he and Keith Stanglin created to help people evaluate their gifts. (Interesting side note - Keith went to DC with me for years and now teaches at Harding - small world!!)

Anyway, I decided it was probably my turn to write about my own results at this point. So I'll list my top five here with some commentary (as usual) and let you think what you will.

1. Administration - Coordination

This is not a shocking result to me, as it involves being in charge of something and telling people what to do. In the Porter household we call this "supervising" (it's a genetic gift), but most other people call it "bossing". The end result is the same, so I'll stick to "supervising". I am fairly organized and good at planning, coordinating, etc. so this fits me pretty well. As with all gifts, I have to be careful because not all people want to be supervised and I can easliy try to take over in situations where I shouldn't. But, it's nice to know that there can be positive use for what I do naturally. I guess God knew he would need supervisers to keep his plan going.

2. Administration - Tasks

As I mentioned above, I'm a pretty organized person. More so at work than home sometimes, but that's something I'm working on. I guess this is a good gift to help others implement plans that they have created. Plus, I don't mind doing mundane type tasks like paperwork, etc. - just not all the time. It also provides a good balance to the Admin-Coordination issue. Sometimes we all need to be willing to do what people need done, regardless of whether or not we're in charge of it. Good growing opportunities, I'm sure.

3. Helping

This one is pretty basic for me. I've grown up seeing my parents help people all the time, and it just comes naturally. Even though my dad's job duties as a minister provided some specific opportunities, my parents would always go above and beyond to do what needed to be done (and more often than not - more than most "ministers" would do). So, I've learned to help when I see a need, regardless of whether or not it's my job, my turn, etc. I've learned that jumping in and doing something (even the worst jobs) is usually faster and easier than avoiding it.

4. Encouragement

I like to think I'm an encourager to people. I try to be, although I can be more negative than I should at times. It's hard to say "YES - I'm an encourager", because what if other people don't agree? If my goal is to encourage, but other people don't feel encouraged, then maybe I'm not presenting my gift well. Anyway, this one is probably harder to measure than the others since it really reflects the type of influence I have on others and their feelings. I do try to encourage and support people as much as I can, and I hope they are able to recieve it in the manner intended. I probably need to create some more "concrete" and/or planned ways to encourage people. Right now, I tend to just do things when I percieve a need instead of doing it for people on a continual basis.

5. Service

This one (to me) goes hand in hand with #3 Helping. I'm more than willing to help and participate in projects as needed. I feel like I'm a pretty good servant, but do admit that I tend to stay in my "comfort zones" when serving. I know there are some specific places that I need to improve my service and take a step of faith, and I'll be working on those in the future. Sometimes it's just scary to put yourself out there into a ministry where you don't know anyone else invloved. It's so much easier to serve in opportunities that friends, family, etc. are going to be a part of as well.

My #6 and #7 were Mercy and Hospitality. I would have never thought about the mercy gift, but I've found out in the past weeks that it was more accurate than I realized. Hospitality was not as surprising, but I do tend to restrict my use of that gift to my comfort zones as well. Just some other places to expand my horizons.

Finally, I want to mention my bottom three gifts: Knowledge, Speaking, Intercessory Prayer. I have a lot of "knowledge" due to growing up at church and attending Christian schools since I was 4 years old. But, I have not developed and maintained the knowledge as I should. Also, I have never been a speaker, but I do know I need to be able to share my faith more easily in any type of setting, including a "larger" group setting. Here's a shocking concept - if I worked on my knowledge, I'd probably feel somewhat more comfortable with my speaking! The Intercessory Prayer is a very special gift. I've known many "prayer warriors" in my life, and I've always felt honored to know that I might be in their prayers. I also know that I may never reach the same level as those people, but I do know that my prayer life could be a much better blessing than it is currently.

This inventory has given me some good insight on where to focus the development of my spiritual walk. I just hope that I will use what I have learned in the best way for God.