Staff Meeting on 11th April 2007

Today we had another staff meeting. I had been busy all day and was really in quite a bit of a less than pleasant mood, just generally being really focused at doing the things that I had to finish. So when Jasmine called Raffy and I to join the rest of the team in the training room, I was mentally bracing myself for a discussion or update of what was going on with our projects but nothing would have prepared me for what was to happen.

I entered the room and noticed that everyone had already been seated. There were eleven chairs for eleven of us, each with a tray of water and a small white towel next to the tray. I took my seat and Rachel told us what she was intending to do. She told us that she wanted to symbolically demonstrate the act of service by washing each of our feet. She said that it would likely feel strange and some of us might be uncomfortable but that it’s okay. While we didn’t protest, I did find it hard to describe how awkward and humbled I felt while watching her quietly wash first my friends’ feet, and then mine.

She told us that this was her way of serving us and reminding us that we too have to humble ourselves to serve others, especially if our team is to take the work of Trybe into other nations. She told us that her wish for us was that we would all individually walk into our personal destinies and achieve everything that we were meant to in this life. That we would do what it takes to make the decisions to see that that would happen even us we continued to work in Trybe.

2 things that I got at today’s 4.30pm staff meeting:

1. An image of serving that will likely be forever etched in my mind, by someone who is not only a shining example of leadership but a living reminder of what humility and putting others first looks like in real life (as opposed to reading about it in a book or seeing it in a movie)

2. That as much as I thought I was noble and magnanimous in choosing to work at Trybe (instead of pursuing a different career), it was really the other way around. I was in fact privileged to be allowing to participate in something as special as what we are trying to achieve. (I’m saying this not because I believe that any other persons endeavors are any less significant but that I really do appreciate this time of my life).

Everything ended in about 40 min. A few of us shared our thoughts and then we proceeded to clean up, forming a line to send the trays of water into the adjoining washroom. It really wasn’t a long meeting, probably one of the shortest we’ve ever had. But it is certainly one of the most important and significant ones we’ll ever have.