Leadership Summit Day 2

You probably thought I forgot. I really just needed to take a breath. And now a week later I will finish my blogs on the Summit.

Day two started off with Bill Hybels introducing the next topic and it's speakers. They were talking about 'Tough Callings'. Which made me nervous, because I knew I'd be challenged. Tough Callings mean sacrifice and sometimes...most of the time, I just don't want to sacrifice much.

There was supposed to be 2 speakers, Rev. Sundar from North India and Mama Maggie Gobran from Egypt. Unfortunately, Sundar was denied some legal document for his travel (it might have been his passport) at the last minute so he was not there. Hybels took up some of Sundar's allotted time sharing about different things in scripture in regards to Tough Callings. He focused on James 1 and Jeremiah 20 in particular.

Then Mama Maggie Gobran came up to speak. She shared about her tough calling. Raised in middle-class family in Egypt, Gobran was able to attain an education all the way through college. She eventually became a college professor of Computer Science at the American University in Cairo. Her aunt was working with the poor of Cairo (and when I say poor, it was the slums. Families living in the city landfills) feeding them and clothing them. After her aunts passing, Gobran decided she needed to take over her aunt's work. She founded Stephen's Children ministry which takes care of the families who live in the landfills. They work to make sure they are clothed, fed, educated, and loved. She was an amazingly humble woman who sacrificed a lot to serve these families. This woman has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and yet she will earn so much more in heaven for the work she has done. The question I was mulling around in my head after hearing her and Hybels speak was: Do you have the courage to listen to God's calling?

Next up was Michelle Rhee, Founder of Studentsfirst.org. She is well known for her previous role as Chancellor of D.C. public schools in Washington DC. She was hired to reform the school district and in one year she closed about 23 schools and fired over 1,000 district employees. Can you say unpopular? She presented in an interview format, where someone was asking her questions about her career. Some of the things she went through, experienced, and accomplished were nothing short of amazing. However, just like Jeremiah, she was hated for what she was doing, by most DC citizens anyway. I enjoyed listening to what she had to say and during our lunch break Jon and I talked about my experiences with teaching (limited though they are) and how Rhee ran her school district. I can tell you one thing...TUSD and perhaps other surrounding school districts would be a lot better off if they got rid of the school board (I know why they're in place but they are often prohibiting any positive change) and teacher's unions and had someone evaluate staff on the performance of their students. What I mean by performance of their students is that their students are moving forward, showing progress in their learning. If students start their school year behind in their reading there should be some progress by the end of the year. If not, it doesn't really matter if the teacher's performance evaluation goes well and their students are not showing progress. Interesting. Praise God for people who have motivation and drive such as Rhee. She seemed ruthless but no one else was willing to make those hard decisions. The DC school district has vastly improved since her leadership there.

More to come later.....