Farewell CM....

This week has flown by yet again and its Friday almost. What a week at work I can tell you - it has been filled with lots of laughter, hard work, crazy interviews and emotional goodbyes...

This week I was asked to run the staff meeting as it was our Chief Manager's (CM) last day. She resigned several months ago and time has flown by. I love any excuse to party, celebrate, pull pranks and make someone smile so I thought this was a great opportunity I couldn't let pass.

Several of my colleauges schemed and planned with me to organise a special farewell. We decided on a morning breakfast - which would usually be held at our early morning staff meeting - so that she wouldn't suspect anything.

Tuesday afternoon after CM left for the day - I got some of the staff to help me blow up balloons. We blew up that many we filled her whole office - so that when you opened the door balloons came bursting out. I also wrapped her computer, keyboard, phone and mouse in newspaper so that she could not work the next day - we also moved her desk, cupboards so that she could not get in....we pasted her business cards all over her desk and I wanted to continue on the walls but was encouraged nicely to "stop" I also wanted to put a little bit of margarine under the door handle - but was reminded again to "stop". So with her office sabotaged and signs put up "NO WORK ALLOWED" - I headed to the boardroom where I set up for the breakfast.

I spread out the table with a nice cloth and put up balloons, flowers and a sign that said "xxx (the name of our company) will never be the same again" - as this was put up staff were signing their names and putting messages of encouragement and good will for her future - a nice touch I thought.

Wednesday morning came around and I dragged my heavy eyes into work. I had sat up the night before working on some team building games for the meeting - seeing as it was a farewell and we didn't want to be sad and mopey I thought we could do something fun - like play "pass the parcel" and "truths v lie".

We had fruit, orange juice, blueberry muffins, hot chocolate and cappacinos and then we had bacon and egg, ham and cheese sandwhiches delivered (I ate mostly fruit of course - NOT).

CM walked in and was extremely surprised and totally overwhelmed - I noticed she had a piece of paper in her hand which must have had a list to bring up at the staff meeting - she never got to that piece of paper in the end.

I started the meeting with the "truth v lie" game - you had to say something personal about yourself - 2 had to be the truth and 1 had to be a lie and the point of the game is to work out what the lie was - this also gives people an opportunity to open up a little bit and share a glimpse of their life. Some people found this extremely difficult while others found it quite easy.

When the questions were put to our Operations Manager (OM) - he found this very difficult - I suppose you have to be wary from a management point of view and distance yourself from staff, but he was not able to mention anything personal about himself at all. Its amazing how he can give presentations on the business, give pep talks to staff, be updated on all the latest comings and goings yet was unable to give of himself in such a small way.....

I was a bit nervous about "pass the parcel" as we were all adults sitting in a corporate office, all wearing business attire and wondered what the staff would think. I had even brought in a cd player and played "Classified" from Bond a female quartet - which was uptempo music. The parcel had a freddo frog attached to it with a question - a mixture between personal and business. The staff laughed so much and even made fun of the business questions.

The last question was "Which TV Character does OM remind you of?" One of the girls goes "I know, I know" and she blurts out "Ned Flanders" the nerdy neighbour who lives next door to Homer Simpson - well the place erupted and OM is now called Ned and as the news filtered out to the rest of the office you could hear "HEY DIDDLY HO" when he walked by and lots of snickers.

The funny thing though was the OM loved the meeting. He said he has never laughed that much before...and throughout the whole day he kept saying what a good meeting it was - he never stopped smiling the whoe day....hello - what parties has he been too - this made me feel really sad - because it was a silly game with silly questions. I laugh a lot because my life is filled with sunshine and the goodness of God and I cannot begin to imagine what life would be like if I could not laugh.

This meeting put everyone in a festive mood for the day and CM was able to clean up her office, have a wonderful lunch with the staff and was presented with some excellent gifts....If I hadn't had gone to the effort of making it a fun day - it would have been a quiet farewell, empty words spoken from management and a superficial thankyou given.

Instead CM was able to leave the company with her head held high, lots of laughs to remember and the feeling that she was loved and cherished by her staff members...how awesome is that???

Moral of the Story: God loves us so much...I am reminded of this verse in Mat 7:11 "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

There is no greater place than being in relationship with God, knowing him, loving him and sharing your life with him. The people that I work with are just existing - all are searching for meaning in their life - as I have shared with them fun and joy how much more does God want to pour out on them - to love them, to heal them, to bring them financial freedom..

Lord I pray tonight for my CM who walks another path away from our business - I pray that it was Jesus in me that she saw and his love that she felt. I pray for my OM that he will know your joy and your peace in his life and I pray that I may continue to grab hold of these opportunties to show the light of Jesus to these people and to give God all the glory....Amen