Sabbatical? Does that mean you're just being lazy for 12 weeks?

Janna's 13th bday party at our house with 4 friends

Four of Janna's friends came over to celebrate her 13th bday today. That's right.  We have a teenager (on June 28th officially.)  One of the parents asked me about my sabbatical. "So you just get to be lazy for 12 weeks?" He inquired? GREAT question! That would be the assumption at face value. Not many have the kind of job or organization (like YL!) where a sabbatical is offered to veteran staff.

I wanted to share what I will be focusing on.  Two posts ago I shared my 3 goals: 

1) Deeply connect through adventure and time with family

2.) Rest and reflection

3.) Sharpen my leadership and soul

For family adventure, we will and have been making intentional time together.  It has been a JOY!  Yesterday I went fishing with the kids and our trusty captain, Larry Karr, my massage therapist friend, in Snohomish at Lake Bosworth before we headed back home to Spokane. Tonight we BBQ-ed and ate those rainbow trout the kids caught. It was all an adventure, it has officially begun!  Enjoy this video of our wild day: https://youtu.be/LptKFxb1rkA 

In 2 weeks we will be in Sisters Oregon together after Janna's 5 day camp at Creekside. We return and head out to Kauai for 8 days on July 17th. In mid August we were offered a free stay in San Clemente Cali. Those are our 'big plans' this summer as a family. The hunger for us to connect as a family have NEVER been greater.  My relationship with Dietrich, and his with our family as a whole, has COMPLETELY transformed from strained, adversarial, and non-functioning...to connected, joyful and functioning to its highest levels of connection. We are giving God the glory for the transformation.


For rest, reflection and sharpening, under the guidance of my life coach Randy Trettevik and some great mentors (Dr. Marty Folsom, Psychologist Tim Reisenauer, etc,) I will be working hard to keep my soul reflections consistent. As hard as I work on behalf of others, I am looking to be similarly intentional to receive from God, from mentors like longtome Whitworth president Bill Robinson, incredible CEO, Wayne Williams who 'gets' how to build healthy, functioning, intuitively arranged teams, genius supervision expert from Spokane, Doug Asbjornsen, and one of the most brilliant thinkers I know, Dave Phifer, a reknowned consultant and coach, and a former committee member of mine in North Snohomish County (my worst attempt at leadership when I was YL area director there...but oh so valuable experience) who miraculously still wants to be my friend!  I can't wait to be sharpened under the gritty fellowship of these folks.

Pray for our family to continue to blossom during this time. Tanya and I keep crying tears of joy and disbelief that we are united so well together as a family.  We are praying for you, friends, for those in need of breakthroughs, for our YL areas this summer, for kids to encounter Jesus (including Janna and her 3+ friends she will have with her at Creekside July 1-5) for our longtime friends, and family. How can we pray for YOU?  Comment away with prayer requests or comments for us!  Thanks.