So where is he going?

Where are you going? That's what people ask as soon as they learn I am leaving MOM to go on sabbatical for three months, beginning February 15.  

I like how one dear client put it to me, so delicately: "I know you probably don't have time, but what is a 'Sabbatical?'" That's a great question, because a sabbatical is about time -- time off for reading, rest, retooling, service projects, family -- time for whatever I don't get to while being a fulltime Executive Director and client counselor at MOM. The root word of sabbatical is Sabbath, which God first instituted for our health, wholeness and renewal.

Sabbaticals are periodically granted to professors, pastors and others in the helping professions, to avoid burnout and for professional development. The MOM Board saw fit to give me one, too, when they noticed the long hours I work with little relief until recently. "The need is infinite," a former Board president tells me, "but you are not."

I am driven to work, and I don't mean by car.

When the MOM Board approved my sabbatical for mid-Feb to mid-May of 2006, that was eight months ago. But even the prospect of a sabbatical eight months out has galvanized me to adopt a healthier work style with diet, a fitness program, and more sleep. I have said "No" more often, and things at MOM are well-delegated; we even have MOM chief resource developer Joan Deming stepping up to take my place on an interim basis. Our social work interns, Kim Grafenauer and Erik Hill, are also covering many bases, especially with client intake, food delivery, and follow-up services.

Yet I remain so wired for work! Hence, my biggest threshold to overcome looms just ahead, when on February 15 . . . (drum roll please) . . .

I sleep in! For ten days I rest, sleep in, read and date my mate.

Then, for three weeks, I hit the road. I have been invited to do general construction work in some very blessed but out-of-the-way places: the flood plains of two Gulf Coast states (Feb 26-March 9), and the hill country of Nicaragua (March 10-19).

Because our hearts are moved by the awful devastation and continuing need for recovery workers, three of us are going down to Louisiana together. We leave Madison February 26 and there's room for three more of you in our Suburban. We are working with Samaritan's Purse, a very well organized and equipped Christian-based organization. They've set up a base of operations in Gretna (a suburb of New Orleans, on the "west bank") where 100 of us volunteers will "mud out houses!"

While the other Madison volunteers are returning March 5, I am staying down to do another recovery mission in D'Iberville, Mississippi, with a Presbyterian church, joined by 40-plus other Presbyterians from Wisconsin. That week of March 6-10, we will be "camping," with 1-2 person tents and cold showers. It's BYO sleeping bag and flashlight. The flashlight is needed because there's still no electricity there.

Then I'm off to Nicaragua, March 10-20, for another round of manual labor and community work -- this time under the auspices of my son Eric, the volunteer coordinator and crew boss for Jubilee Housing, Inc, spending a year in Managua. (Talk about role reversals!)

You will be hearing from me as I file weekly reports and pictures from down South to this newspaper each week. You may also see me around town for the next seven weeks thereafter, except for a marriage and pastor's renewal retreat April 17-21 in Buchanan, Michigan. (I'll need that!)

The last month of my sabbatical will be spenting scouting out some best practices and external benchmarks for measuring, managing, and improving performance of agencies similar to MOM. I will look nationwide (online) and countywide (on site), and produce something useful to United Way and to church cluster groups in Dane County.

Sounds like work, you say, and not very Sabbath-like.

Good point. But it's different work. And work that makes a difference.

I expect to have my eyes opened and my heart broken as I respond, as any good neighbor would, who had the time and the means to help. I do have that opportunity, afforded to me by the MOM Board and other agencies I partner with. So I am going, and I am going to make the most of it. We all have to answer for how we use our time and resources.

So I hope you will remember me and support MOM's Joan Deming and other staff while I am away. Upon my return to active duty May 15, I shall resume the executive duties at MOM with all the energy that God inspires within me.

You will hear still from me in this space -- but next time from Louisiana, Mississippi or Nicaragua, week by week. Unless other news interrupts.

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