Click here and tell me....
to step back and be a servant in whatever way that evolved by allowing Vicky to lead the team (?) in our Open Doors for the Open outreach at the 2014 U.S. Opens. Even though the plan I had put together; following the template provided by Dan Williams for the MTG 2012 Summer Olympics, had been, basically, ignored by the entire team, especially by the leader, Vicky. But, I felt the Lord was calling me to be obedient and to serve Vicky as the leader of the Outreach from that point forward.
So, we talked on a regular basis, not in formal team meetings, in fact, those team meetings were few and far between, but, the interaction between Vicky and me as we focused upon her need and the general direction of preparing for the Outreach was always my focus. But, our time was consumed with the efforts to fund her ministry and activity. I had made the decision and, told her several times, that any funds received in whatever way would go into her 501C3 for use for the Outreach and ANY funding needs she had. I encouraged her to marry her ministry and her business together because it made perfect sense to me for her to engage with her target customers right in Pinehurst using the Outreach vision to get herself into the network of churches, para-ministries, golf clubs, golf organizations, associations and those in the community that had a passion for golf and a love of Christ. Again, in my opinion, it made perfect sense for her to promote herself and her ministry, including her books, her videos, her speaking engagements and her one-on-one coaching clientele to draw business clients, Champion Coaching candidates and donations to her and the Outreach. I helped her with an outline for her business as well as coached her on finalizing a business strategy and plan. I converted her book from a PDF document into a Word document in order to be imported into Kindle Direct Publishing and begin her account on the Kindle platform. I established coaching time with her for her business and walked down the pattern I had for engaging with other clients with similar needs in my job as a business specialist in the Small Business Development Center I was working in. We talked about the churches within the local and regional area around Pinehurst and how this was the perfect entree' into the churches to grow attention to her business in the area as well as promote and connect with the churches to solicit their partnership in the activities associated with the Open Doors for the Open.
How frustrating is it to spend time serving someone that won't implement nor take advantage of an experienced business adviser and golf ministry partner? Very!!! Especially when I receive emotional calls every other week and am told by Vicky that she doesn't have the funds to pay her bills or rent, etc. I even convinced my son who is a wonderful competitive amateur golfer with a bit of a sports psychological challenge with combating negative thoughts while competing in events like the U.S. Open qualifying, U.S. Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Public Links Amateur competitions. I convinced him to engage with Vicky through her Champion Coaching efforts. He agreed to contract with her for the process and paid a significant amount for the six or seven session engagement. I believed her coaching would positively impact his competitive performances and it did to some degree.
My point is; I was serving the fulfillment of Open Doors for the Open by allowing the "visionary" (I thought at the time) to lead and attempting to provide assistance for her needs at every point along the path to the Outreach. My thoughts were; "If I can't minister to one person in need, how can we, as an Outreach, have a Godly impact on some 400,000 people coming to the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, NC in June 2014?" My conclusion was, over and over, that we couldn't so that I needed to follow the Lord's lead and guidance to minister to the needs of Vicky as well as I was able.
This resulted in a 7 month delay, from May 2013 to January 2014 in the full implementation of our Outreach for the Open in June 2014.
Click here and tell me....