Day #3 Tuesday August 9, 2011

This morning, we were invited to a staff prayer time. We teleconferenced with some offsite staff and then shared prayer requests individually around the room. The information shared ranged anywhere from personal family issues to ministry items. Chuck Arnold, the CFO, acted as scribe. After everyone had shared prayer praises and requests, Chuck tore off the sheet of paper, which was then circulated around the table, stopping at each person who would pray for some of the items. Debbie and I considered this a blessing as we are accustomed to secular work environments where God is virtually excluded. The share and prayer time lasted over an hour and seemed to move many in the room. It was obvious that these people genuinely care about one another and their mission.

Debbie then made follow-up calls to individuals who had previously indicated an interest in becoming a hope coach. As a relatively new hope coach, she was able to provide them valuable feedback about the application process, training, and actual coaching. Joe Kelley explains more about hope coaches in the following video.



The ministry runs reference and background checks on hope coach applicants. There is also mandatory training before actual coaching begins, with ongoing training provided via the web. Some of the leads that Debbie followed up on arose from a Seventh Day Slumber concert. Dave Anderson, the Director of Rescue, explained to us that the band’s lead singer, Joseph Rojas, used to work in the same building as DMA staff. The two struck up a friendship. Rojas believes strongly in the ministry of the hopeline and chooses to promote it when touring.

I made some more donor calls as described on yesterday’s blog and worked on the data file project from yesterday. By the end of the day, the ministry received a properly formatted file from the vendor that tracks about 6,700 phone calls to Dawson over the last five years. Debbie worked some more hopeline chats later in the day.

Later in the evening, back near the hotel, we walked some of the streets of the Cool Springs area of Franklin. It was a beautiful evening. We received a tour from a full-service gym, including one indoor and one outdoor pool, basketball gym, running track, spin and aerobic classrooms, cardio equipment, and weights. Debbie is anxious to use this gym, which is a stone’s throw from the hotel. We also walked to a large Sonic Drive-In to enjoy the roller skating skill of the car hops! On the way, Bambi and her momma eluded us after they skedaddled from the roadway into the brush. Based on the commercial development on the strip, we were surprised to see deer—just as we were surprised on our bicycle trip last year to see so little wildlife in the wild.