Backpacking

[Ambassador_of_Hope]

Day 35 Think Flock

I removed my backpack and stood on a very large dead tree laying 10 feet above and across Red Creek. My flock consisted of my little brother Steve and my brother’s father-in-law, Grandpa Bob. I intended to make a trial run across the log in an attempt to locate a campsite down stream. Bob shouted above the noise of water running over the rocks below, “You are out of your mind! I have no intention of going across that log!” I dismounted the log and we headed up stream. Minutes later we discovered a suitable campsite, easily accessible, one that we returned to for a number of years. Think flock had never occurred to me. Selfish ambition and the goal of reaching a specific remote campsite had blinded my judgement. I’ve thought back to that moment, to Bob’s clear and decisive words, many times over the decades that followed.

I leave tomorrow morning on around the 50th trip back into this same wilderness area. I’ve introduced all four children and many others to this intimidating and untamed environment. As long as I have strength and breath, I intend to continue this tradition, using the strategy of the trio: productivity, reproduction, and think flock. I believe it’s a recipe for seeing wild expectations come to fruition. “I have a dream” is our “wild expectations” that God is going to create a new Hope Builders. “When asked about the herder hierarchy, they all answer, “we are shepherds.” And how will we care for massive herds? Maybe the way to care for the “Hope” flock is through our leaders all “Thinking Flock,” to make decisions with a priority on the welfare of the collective whole. And leadership insisting on contact with our staff. If we are not out with the revenue producers every day we won’t know what they need. Each layer of management needs to be a shepherd and if one person fails, everyone suffers from a loss of connection. Without a connection, the branch withers and dies.

7/21/2022
Dave Dassoulas
dave@hopebuilders.com