Like a fire truck with no water...

Many of you have read a previous post, where I described what it was like to receive our very first Class A pumper. I want to take a little step before that--just about 3 years prior--when I was a rookie. There was a 1975 Mack fire pumper. Now, when I had previously explained that my department had never had a Class A pumper, that was slightly inaccurate. We had never had a working Class A pumper. This 1975 Mack fire pumper was really missing something. It had no water. Furthermore, it didn't even have a working pump. The truck was the first due vehicle for structure fires, yet it contained no water. We lacked the funds to replace the rusted tank and fix the pump, so it served as a personnel-carrier with some hand tools and extra fire hose and equipment. The second due vehicle was a tender (water tanker) with a portable pump that could be used to make an attack on the structure. The sad story, as described in a previous post, is that this set up could never fight any more than a simple kitchen fire or any fire requiring more than 250 gallons per minute, for that matter. We needed something more to be effective in our work.
Could we fight fire with that particular set up? Yes. But what was missing was the icing on the cake... the actual water to put on the fire.
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For the past two years, my mission team has been training towards launching a church planting work internationally. While we have been through the proverbial ringer over the past few weeks, we went over the weekend to our final team training retreat, called a training module. This module was called the CPAC, or Church Planters' Assessment Center. The focus of the training was a final assessment as to the maturity and capability of the team. Was our team incapable? No. Was our team immature? No. We simply were missing some focus and direction. This module was the icing on the cake. Much like a good marriage retreat, this weekend took close-to-the-surface issues and allowed them to surface in a productive environment of mentors, missionary peers, and fellow teammates.
During our team training modules, weekly mentoring meetings, and individual team meetings, we have come up with a team strategy, team covenant, traveled on a survey trip, and even performed some outside research to form some concepts relating to the Aussie culture. We needed something to be more effective in our work.
Could we have arrived in Australia without this training module and performed the work we had planned? Yes, but, just like the fire truck with no water, we lacked the icing on the cake.
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Below is my synopsis of the ingredients of the aforementioned icing, which has now been applied to the cake which is our team.

1) Desire: We typically consider desire to be something related to our personal wants. Kent Smith, one of the mentors of the weekend assisted us in the process of redefining desire. Most of us desire things like a steady job, nice things in the home, even a nice meal with family on holidays. These things are not necessarily bad, but don't really deserve the title of a true desire. As a Christian, a true desire is a want that falls in line with God's will for us. As we work towards our 2010 launch for Australia, we have now worked through a process which takes these desires and bring them to fruition. What to know how you can center yourself more by aligning your desires with God's will in your life? I'm working through Kent Smith's book Centered right now, and maybe you will find its iPhone, Kindle, or PC version helpful as well.
2) Team Maturation: Admittedly, this assessment was tough to work through. With losing a teammate just weeks ago, this assessment was inevitably skewed in all questions relating to trust and communication. Even still, we were able to talk through some things that would assist us. We also agreed to wait several months and take this assessment again.
3) CernySmith Assessment: This gave a strong profile on our intercultural readiness, and explains some things we will each need to work on in order to be prepared to work as a team in the new culture.
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What's the Point?
Most of you who read my blog postings understand that I desire to work in dialogue to sort through issues plaguing Christian communities. Much like Christ's parables, which used everyday occurrences to explain his story, I seek to use things I know and understand-- fire service-- to relate to you. Tonight's posting really has no hidden meaning. I merely desired to share with you some things I'm working through with my team.

Are you working through some things that you would like to share?
Don't hesitate to post things you are working through. I would love to hear your comments below. Additionally, if you read this post on my Facebook profile or on Twitter, those are wonderful places to dialogue as well.