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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve

OMG WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS??!!!

Alright, so I had the scare of my life today.

I took our new video camera, and still digital camera with me to my sister's wedding this weekend. On the way there I brilliantly tell my son, "make sure you don't let the cameras out of your sight this weekend. Famous last words.

When I get to Kim's wedding, I discover I'm the only one there with a video camera. I couldn't believe it. I took the only video footage of the whole thing. And I had a zillion digital pictures of the whole thing.

So it was time to fly home today and 16 minutes before the plane takes off, while we're boarding, I stand up from my chair in the waiting area, reach down to get my purse and the cameras, and I realize...I don't have the cameras.

"Oh my God!" I scream to the top of my lungs, "WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS?????????!!!

I had everyone's attention, trust me. Dustin looked at me like I was a martian.

I truly had gone into another world. Seriously, I thought my world had ended. My mind was racing...where did I leave them? Was it at the ticket counter when I checked our bags? Was it at Auntie Anne's when I got Dustin a pretzel? Was it at Roy Rogers when I got soda? Was it at the security gate? I was officially NUTSO. I said to the guy who was boarding the plane, "PLEASE HELP ME!" He called the ticket counter. No cameras. I said, "how soon does this plane leave?" He said, "16 minutes...RUN!!!" So, off we went. Dustin runs over to Auntie Anne's..."uh, did my Mom leave her cameras here?" (He was rather calm in his presentation.) I on the other hand run to Roy Rogers and through tears implore the people to please tell me if someone turned in a camera. No...no camera. So I run down to the security check in. It's packed as BWI always is. The people are busy, but I yell, "PLEASE HELP ME!" (I was on the cell phone with Larry telling him, to please pray and asking..."do you want me to stay here at BWI if I have to miss this plane and find these cameras?) A kind security guard (rare thing, they all always seem so gruff) ran right over to see what was wrong. I tearfully told him, "HELP ME, HELP ME, MY PLANE IS LEAVING AND I DON'T HAVE MY CAMERAS!!!" A woman said, "come with me..." Taking me back to what was her office there at security, she pointed to the floor behind her desk. There was my camera bag with the two cameras!

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cried. And with that, I said, "Dustin, let's go" and we took off out of there running down Concourse D as fast as we could. All the way there I am still shaking from all this, and meanwhile he's laughing at me saying, "MOM............YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOOO CRAZY!!!" And then we get on the plane and all these kind people say, "oh, did you find your cameras?" I said yes and then went into the explanation of why it was so important to me, to the great embarrassment of my son of course... I explained, this was all of my sister's wedding pictures and video, and plus that...my husband would have a fit if I didn't bring home these cameras.

I was so busy checking in and getting my shoes back on and all our stuff, I left the bag still running through the x-ray machine as they were checking it. Dustin said, "And to think Mom, you were lecturing ME about not losing sight of the cameras. Yep, I was.

Somebody else is taking care of the cameras on every trip from now on. My heart just CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE.

By the way, Dustin is STILL laughing over this, saying, "Mom, you were so hysterical. When you didn't find the cameras under the airport chair, you screamed, "OMG, WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS" and I thought, "my Mom has officially gone psycho. Well, I guess I did there for a moment.

Thank you Jesus that my cameras were still there. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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