Day 22 of Gratitude - The Ladies of NeighborLink

31 Days of Gratitude - In an attempt to publicly express my gratitude for the people that have impacted me in some way in 2015, I'm setting out to write one post a day sharing what I appreciate about them or what moment that marked me. Some of these people I know well, some I've only met, and some I'm just getting to know. There is no ranking to these posts and they aren't meant to put anyone on a pedestal. They, like you and I, are imperfect people with their own flaws, some you may have experienced. Despite those flaws, I believe we all need to have our positive characteristics called into light and celebrated. This is that attempt. 

John, Brett, Jeff or a future post for Joe Johns aren't the only people I'm grateful for at NeighborLink. We have some really incredible women involved in shaping our organization. For the past couple of years, I've sense that we've been missing some really strong female leadership at our organization and because of that, we weren't doing as good of work as we could. When you feel like you're missing something, you just know that you can be better and need to be better if we're going to serve as diverse of a population as we do. In the past two years, we've had some incredible women join our organization and I'm thrilled to be working with them. 

Gwyn Eastom - Gwyn and her husband, Brandon, got involved in NL 5-6 years ago as volunteers. They were desiring to figure out a better expression of what "Church" could be like when it lived out the greatest commandments, and so they decided to just start serving and loving neighbors practically. They also recognized that a lot of their family and friends were sensing the same kind of thing and so they built a community of servants. A few years ago after we saw just how involved and invested Gwyn and Brandon had become, we asked Gwyn to consider joining our board. Gwyn is a talented CPA with a heart for mission and loving neighbors well. Exactly the kind of person we needed investing at a deeper level. 

I've been grateful for Gwyn's commitment to NL. She's helped strengthen our financial processes as we've grown the past couple of years. I'm most grateful because of how her and Brandon not only invest in a board position, but financially and as volunteers. They're a young family living a radically different lifestyle than 99% of their peers and it's inspiring to me. They are generous, smart, loving, and passionate about Kingdom work. Gwyn adds so much perspective to NL beyond her professional CPA abilities. 

Heather Schoegler - I've been fortunate to know Heather for quite a few years now. We connected professionally around professional communication related networks and shared quite a few friends. Heather is the ultimate advocate for many great causes, initiatives, and is generous with her time when it comes to helping organizations thrive. She's extremely smart and has become a go-to person in our community for many things. Our friendship had grown for a few years as she got more involved some of the efforts I was working on at NeighborLink, like Team NeighborLink activities. A year or so ago I was running some growth-opportunities and challenges by her hoping she'd have some insights for NeighborLink, and one of those things was to grow our board/committee structure so we can keep up with our expansion. She quickly said that she'd be interested in considering joining our board and I was thrilled. Heather is the connector NeighborLink so needed and beyond that, we needed her enthusiasm and perspective on how best to position NL in the community. 

I'm grateful for Heather's enthusiasm, thoughtful consideration, and her intentional commitment to engage the right people for the right reasons. Heather had never done a NL project before this summer when our community faced some flooding due to heavy rains. She jumped at the chance to grab her daughter and go out into the community to fill and distribute sandbags. They spend the whole afternoon and evening as a family after her husband and son joined them shoulder to shoulder with neighbors trying to help. No questions asked, just dive right in. That is the essence of a leader at NL and it was encouraging to me. When I think of people/leaders I want to be surrounded by at NL, I think of Heather and I'm grateful for that. Heather just started her own business helping companies figure out how to take social/community engagement seriously and I believe she's going to be widely successful. Thank you, Heather, for joining our board, being an advocate for us, and bringing your insights to our mission of loving neighbors well. 

Elisa Layton - I'm really just getting to know Elisa as she just recently started working with me at NeighborLink this fall. We received a large grant and had some generous donors put us in a position to hire a new person. We had over 25 talented people apply for this job and Elisa stood out as being the right person from the beginning. She brought the skills, experience, and deep desire to help others that NL needed if we were going to solidify your processes to build a strong organization into the future. 

Just a few days before Elisa was supposed to start, we got word that the grant we were supposed to receive was in jeopardy and without it, we wouldn't be able to bring her on full-time like we had agreed. Devastating news for us to give and for Elisa to receive. Because of her character and what she was sensing from the Lord, she decided to still join us on a part-time level and give us some time to figure out the grant, which after 3 months, we're close to doing. It takes a special person to do that, and I'm grateful that she did. Nothing goes quite as you planned in small nonprofits and we need people on our staff that are able to handle that if we're going to be successful. Elisa stepped into the unknown despite the discomfort that brought, and I'm grateful for that. 

Since she's been working with us, her spirit, grace, and kindness towards our recipients has been a huge boost. Jeff and I do our best to love our neighbors well, but we can get lost in trying to fix problems and keep everything going. Elisa is just what the NL staff dynamics needed if we're going to be a well rounded organization for our recipients and for our volunteers. I am looking forward to getting her going full time and really empowered with projects to see how God uses her to drive NL towards the future. 

We have so many great women involved at NL, including many committed volunteers. Too many to recognize personally, but know that we need you at NL. We're not doing what we need to without you. I've always believed that I'm simply a steward of this organization and without everyone else involved, I'm just someone with the title of director. Thank you for your investment in our mission.