Ephesians 5:1-2 says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
The Bible says to be imitators of Christ and walk in love. Here at TFI, one of my main focuses, as many of you already know, is organizational health. I know, as a leader, this starts with me. To be an imitator of Christ.
Some things I need to think about, and do think about are:
- How am I honoring God?
- How am I growing through service?
- How am I communicating?
- How am I celebrating?
We at TFI are a family, we are more than just a ministry. Staying connected to Jesus and each other is vital to helping us carry out our mission. This is my encouragement and challenge to you. Take some time in the next week, stop and be still.
Think through these questions:
- How am I honoring God?
- Am I growing closer to Jesus through service or am I just running ragged?
- Am I communicating openly and honestly with other people?
- Am I looking for the ways God is working and being intentional in celebrating Him?
Before I turn things over to Jillian, I want to share a few words about her.
Jillian and I met in 2011 on the way to prison. She actually became the first TFI intern…in prison. If you don’t know this story, you might want to ask her about it some time ;). Jillian has been on this journey with me ever since then and I am so grateful for her.
Jillian and I have both grown so much over these past eight years. It has been an incredible privilege for me to watch her step up and step out of her comfort zone and do things beyond what she thought she could.
I think about the time when Clint and I found out we needed to leave for Uganda the very next day. Jillian was called to hold down the fort at TFI and babysit all six of our kids while we were gone. She stepped up and she did more than she thought she could.
I think about times when she has been given more responsibility and she wasn’t sure if she could do it. But she stepped up and even surprised herself. Fast forward to now. I think about Jillian as a foster mom. I am so proud of the ways she loves on Sofia and how she manages this work and foster parenting life balance. It’s a beautiful thing.
The love of Christ shines through our Jillian. I know you get to experience this and so do we on the national team, and we are all better for it.
UPDATE FROM JILLIAN
Favorite Part about the TFI Family
A few weeks ago we had our team review where Jami individually reviews us and we review her. In that time, one of the things she asked us was what we love about the culture of TFI.
Something I love is how supportive, encouraging, intentional, grace-filled, and understanding everyone at TFI is. We are a family and I love that. We are for each other, we are encouraging and just wanting to love on one another. We understand that each person is in their own season or hard journey and we just want to be a support to each other.
I want to encourage you. How are you doing this with your team? We do that here as the national team and we also do it with you, our Advocates and we want you to be doing it as well with your own team. Connect with them, encourage them, support them, give them grace when necessary so we can continue to be a culture that is strong, loving Jesus and experiencing Him together.
TFI Volunteer T-Shirts
Mitch has designed a general volunteer T-Shirt. If you’d like to order these for an event, check out the link to order below!
It’s Celebration Time
It’s Celebration Time! Please make sure you share your stories in the tracking form by August 16th–the link to that form is in an email from Holly as well as here!
New TFI Advocates
We are so excited to welcome two new Advocates to the TFI Family!
- Amie Breshears in Benton County, Missouri
- Jennifer Jameson transitioning in for Jeff and Becky Smits in Knoxville, TN
1 MORE UPDATE FROM JAMI
One exciting thing to note is that Shannon has now joined the National Team fulltime! She is continuing as Administrative Support, but will also be helping me with fundraising and donor development. Which is awesome!!
