UPDATE ON EBENEZER GLENN ORPHANAGE: December 2017
On November 5th, EGO hosted Dr. Paul Hantz Bernard, a native born Haitian who has lived in Grand Rapids, MI for the past 20 years, and is now an American citizen. Our purpose was to have him lead a strategic planning seminar over a 3-day period with the leaders of the 4 institutions at EGO, which include the orphanage, the medical clinic, the church, and the school. As many of you know, any mission without a plan to succeed will most likely fail. So, this seminar would be pivotal in redefining our purpose and mission.
We first met Dr. Bernard over 30 years ago when he was a student at STEP University in Port au Prince, which is a 4-year under graduate university associated with Dallas Seminary and Bob Jones University, here in the USA. Hantz graduated at the top of his class, was offered an academic scholarship to Bob Jones, and received his doctorate degree in Biblical Studies. During a break from Bob Jones in his first year of studies, we met up with Hantz at the OMS Mission in PAP and introduced him to his future wife, Iguelle. They married 6 months later and after his graduation from Bob Jones, they returned to Haiti so that Hantz could teach at STEP and pastor a church. After 6 years, Hantz was offered a position of International Director of Bibles International, a worldwide translation ministry located in Grand Rapids. During this time, they raised 3 children. The oldest daughter is a missionary teacher in Guam, the middle daughter in graduate school at Columbia, and the youngest son, a high school senior. Hantz currently serves as Vice Chairman of the board of directors at Bob Jones University, does contractual consulting in personal and business effectiveness evaluation, strategic planning, succession planning, and emerging leader coaching, and travels worldwide consulting mission organizations in defining their purpose, their goals or visions, their mission, and their core values. We are privileged to count him as a supporter of EGO, and a brother in the great commission that Jesus commanded for us to do.
Day 1 at EGO brought together all leaders of the various institutions at EGO. The clinic, the church, the school, and the orphanage leaders were all present, along Ken & Marla, Steve Scheib, and Dr. Bernard. 18 participants in all spent the first day in defining what our priorities are and how each one of us would participate. Why do we exist? What is our purpose? We learned early on that we either do something because God is directing us or we do something for selfish reasons. Like 2 oxen pulling a cart. One cannot go right while the other goes left. One cannot go forward while the other goes backwards. We either work together, all going in the same direction with a plan and purpose, or we should go and find our own cart! All agreed, so we created a contractual agreement in that first day that we will have a plan. The strategic point is not our personality or our principles, but God’s strategic plan. We set out to define what we would accomplish and what we would all do to reach our goal. What character or personality traits will we display? Which guidelines for conduct will we adopt? Who will we be while we accomplish our mission? Which beliefs will guide us? Therefore, we created a motivational statement or slogan to tie us together during these 3 days which read:
WE WILL ALL DO STRATEGIC PLANNING BASED ON PRINCIPLES AND NOT PERSONALITIES. - OUR CONTRACT!
Day 2 brought group, break out sessions as we looked at 2 different questions that should be used in deciding and defining objectives for the different institutions at EGO. What work is EGO now doing that they should not be doing and what work is EGO not doing now that they should be doing. The first question only resulted in 3 objectives. However, the second question listed over 20 + objectives. We then learned how to break down each objective into 4 categories that would then help us to make better decisions on principles. Using the following: THE STRENGTH of the objective; THE WEAKNESS of the objective; THE OPPORTUNITY of the objective: and THE THREAT of the objective. The formula is used in business classes worldwide and taught as; SWOT Analysis Template. And at the end of the day, we defined our Declarations of Fundamentals and listed them as: Our reason for being; what should EGO accomplish; what will our mission be; our values - what will be our personality; and a Slogan - what will motivate EGO? As an example, Bibles International uses as their slogan the following: A TRANSLATION IN EVERY LANGUAGE - A BIBLE IN EVERY HAND. Can EGO not do the same?
Day 3 was exciting as each invitee was motivated to begin this process. We worked very hard to create our foundational statements. We have attached it for you to read. We also sub-divided our groups to work on strategic planning for the following objectives that were created out of this seminar: 1) Education - 2) Health - 3) Spiritual - 4) Governance - 5) Operation - 6) Finance. We were given this assignment over the next 2 months to come up with strategic plans that will be implemented at the various institutions at EGO. Marla and Nicola were designated as the directors for strategic planning and to oversee the various committees. The session ended with a group photo, lots of hand shaking and hugs, and a new purpose in making decisions at EGO. WE WILL ALL DO STRATEGIC PLANNING BASED ON PRINCIPLES AND NOT PERSONALITIES.
Prayer request: Our board of directors has offered Dr. Bernard a one-year contact to help us restructure EGO and usher the mission into its 21-century potential. When we reached out and asked Dr. Bernard if this would be something he could help us with, he replied back that it would be a privilege to help us. He has given us a proposal with his deliverables, his responsibilities, and what EGO responsibilities would be financially.
In total, this is a $50,000+ request to help us restructure EGO and it’s 4 distinct institutions. We know that this money must be not taken from the general fund that is used to operate EGO. This is a one-time need to help EGO in its restructuration. Please cover us prayer and ask if God would lead you to help us. Thank you in advance.
More to come in January about the work teams as we prepare to complete the construction on group homes 3 and 4. If you would be interested in participating in one of the many work teams scheduled to come to EGO in February, March and April, let us know and we can try to schedule you in.
The EGO Family (Ken, Marla, Samantha, Tim, and the Board of Directors)
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