so its conference week. the 2nd one since ive been here.
what that means is our company has been hired to do photography coverage for the week for a particular company/conference going on. this ranges from shooting arrival shots, hikes, excursions, parties, galas, group shots, etc. you name it. and that includes post work too! (editing, printing, foldering/framing, delivering all during this week!)
everyone here on the staff team at the lake (11 of us) have been involved somehow. whether it be shooting, assisting, keeping the retail store things going, keeping canoes going... i think on tuesday, all 11 of us worked. cray cray!
so tonight, the second last day, my manager asks me how i was doing. if i was tired, and how my energy levels were keeping up. from that question alone, i know my manager is a good leader. asking that question lets me know that he cares about his teams' wellbeing. whether it be personal or business related, doesnt really matter. cus if he knows his team is gtg, then that'll have a positive affect on the company/business/sales/customer service. if thats going well, then the company thrives. if the company thrives, the big boss (aka president) is happy! and THAT is how you manage a team. win win win win win all around!
plus going that extra mile, he leads by example of how we are to treat all customers. we go that extra mile. someone buys a camera? we'll teach em how to use it. someone brings in their camera with some problems? we'll try to solve it. someone buys a memory card? we'll open it up, put it in your camera, format the card, and make sure you're gtg before you walk out that door. once again. happy customers, they're willing to spend/pay for good service, good feedback, happy big boss, all around winning situation!
not saying everything is smooth and happy go lucky. you'll get a disgruntled customer here and there (and they've probably been grumpy their entire trip), and we do make mistakes. but we do what we can. and have that "move forward" attitude and bounce back!
so altho we're all super tired tonight, and there was plenty to do, our immaturity and jokes kicked in. and when that happens, work gets funny, the mood is light, and it becomes an enjoyable environment to be around each other. :) and really, that can make or break a job.
its good to be here. definitely wont be for the summer only. im aiming for a year at least. then i'll go from there. who knows where i'll end up next... i'll just put up my sails and let God be the wind and take control :)
oh yeah. also saw a flyer for "lake louise bible study". and we're meeting on a regular basis! bible studies on thurs nights, then sun nights we carpool to banff for night church :) i still havent gone to church yet (been working all sunday nights since ive known about this) so i finally get to go this weekend! its good to know who are the christians around here. makes for some good meal time conversations when we bump into each other. :)
on another note, had a "lightbulb!" moment the other day. will blog about it next post!
6.20.2014
5.12.2014
"if you're too big to build the platform, you're too small to stand on it"
if there's one thing im grateful for learning at Hillsong College, it's the title of the blog post.
there is no job/task that you are too "big" or "too good" to do. whether that be serving in church, living with housemates, at work... you do what it takes to help improve and build it up. there is no task that someone "lower" than you should be doing and not you.
i realized that today. when i woke up this morning, i had no idea i would be selling a DSLR entirely in canto. who knew? my coworkers are white, and the customer only spoke canto and mando. that is the biggest single sale ive seen since ive been here. a DSLR, along with 32GB SD card, and a carrying case. yet right after that sale, i go back to taking out the garbage, tidying up the shop, restocking... it's all about the attitude, mindset, and knowing what im doing is contributing to the company. if i wasnt working at that time, the sale most likely wouldnt have happened. but knowing my role and place on the team, this is the mindset i need to keep up when newer summer hires arrive, and i'll be training them.
i promise to not make them do all the "cleaning", or "taking out the trash" work. knowing that a cleaner looking store, leads to sales, which leads to the company thriving, which leads to me getting a paycheque, and leads to happy customers... thats what its all about.
its been good here. testing what ive been taught, and seeing how ive grown and am continuing. #LifeExperiences :)
also, best way to get your daily devos on track? move somewhere with no weekly church. i now look forward to my daily devos, seeing what the Bible has in store for me to learn :)
right now, learning from Joseph (genesis). being faithful to what God places in your hands, and He will bless it. whether he was sold as a slave in Potiphar's household, or a prisoner, or 2nd in command of Egypt. if God places you somewhere for a reason, do the best you can with all your heart, mind, and strength, and He will bless it.
there is no job/task that you are too "big" or "too good" to do. whether that be serving in church, living with housemates, at work... you do what it takes to help improve and build it up. there is no task that someone "lower" than you should be doing and not you.
i realized that today. when i woke up this morning, i had no idea i would be selling a DSLR entirely in canto. who knew? my coworkers are white, and the customer only spoke canto and mando. that is the biggest single sale ive seen since ive been here. a DSLR, along with 32GB SD card, and a carrying case. yet right after that sale, i go back to taking out the garbage, tidying up the shop, restocking... it's all about the attitude, mindset, and knowing what im doing is contributing to the company. if i wasnt working at that time, the sale most likely wouldnt have happened. but knowing my role and place on the team, this is the mindset i need to keep up when newer summer hires arrive, and i'll be training them.
i promise to not make them do all the "cleaning", or "taking out the trash" work. knowing that a cleaner looking store, leads to sales, which leads to the company thriving, which leads to me getting a paycheque, and leads to happy customers... thats what its all about.
its been good here. testing what ive been taught, and seeing how ive grown and am continuing. #LifeExperiences :)
also, best way to get your daily devos on track? move somewhere with no weekly church. i now look forward to my daily devos, seeing what the Bible has in store for me to learn :)
right now, learning from Joseph (genesis). being faithful to what God places in your hands, and He will bless it. whether he was sold as a slave in Potiphar's household, or a prisoner, or 2nd in command of Egypt. if God places you somewhere for a reason, do the best you can with all your heart, mind, and strength, and He will bless it.
3.29.2014
learn the unexpected
y'know when you attend an event or a lecture, and its got a specific topic, yet you walk out of it learning something completely different?
kinda like when you set off to go to uni or college, you've got a specific major. yet often, after the 4 years or so, you walk out learning a whole bunch of life skills. add another few years more of life experience, you've never once used algebra in life yet you had many tests on it during high school math.
that kinda happened today. it was church's production and worship training session. and no offense, but after 2 years at hillsong's hills campus, with weekly thursday team night trainings, what new thing can i possibly learn? so lets just say, i didnt have high hopes or expectations going in. then i realized sometimes thats how i treat bible reading/devos. i do it anyways, even when i dondt feel like it, and depending on where im reading (i.e. genealogy), i wonder, what can i possibly get out of this! and as "spoiled" by the blogpost title, i learnt something else completely different from the intention of the training. i learnt about my past. the past year or so to be exact. that sometimes, i can do everything right. (well, not everything. im not perfect). but i was heading in the right direction. i was doing what i was taught, with a good heart, good intentions, setting up the team for the win, and leaving a lasting legacy to future generations (aka training up new leaders). yet some times, things are just out of my control.
i took the hit and came crashing down. but i didnt let it get past me and affect my team. i think back to when i was in sydney, and pastor joshua (from NLCC) spoke about how Jesus "took the hit" for us. because of our sin, we deserved eternal punishment. but Jesus loves us so much that He took that punishment. he took it upon himself, and it stopped with him. when He died, we were no longer doomed for eternity and bound by sin. and talking about passing things down to future generations, how often do we realize we've picked up our parents' bad habits? at times, when i was younger, i told myself "why do my parents do that? i hope i grow up and not be like that!" yet i find myself involuntarily repeating some of their actions. but some times, following in Jesus' example, we need to stand up and say "no!", this ends with me. this is not going to be passed down to future generations! whether that applies literally to future kids of my own flesh and blood, or in the church, where the youth and kids of today, are the future leaders of the church! how are we setting them up to win, leaving them debt free, trained and well equipped, and they can go on to continue further expand and do greater things?
going back to me (hah... selfish. but this is my blog and my thoughts =P), i believe i did what i could to the best of my ability. my 9 months there were not wasted. seeds were planted. some fruits were seen. but other factors came crashing down and i took the blunt of it. its a compliment to hear "you left suddenly. i didn't see that coming!" it hasnt been an easy road to recovery, and im still on it. but i can take from this as a learning experience, and to come out stronger. i already know the ending of this battle (hint: the devil doesnt win. ;)). so if that doesnt give you hope, i dont know what does. haha...
kinda like when you set off to go to uni or college, you've got a specific major. yet often, after the 4 years or so, you walk out learning a whole bunch of life skills. add another few years more of life experience, you've never once used algebra in life yet you had many tests on it during high school math.
that kinda happened today. it was church's production and worship training session. and no offense, but after 2 years at hillsong's hills campus, with weekly thursday team night trainings, what new thing can i possibly learn? so lets just say, i didnt have high hopes or expectations going in. then i realized sometimes thats how i treat bible reading/devos. i do it anyways, even when i dondt feel like it, and depending on where im reading (i.e. genealogy), i wonder, what can i possibly get out of this! and as "spoiled" by the blogpost title, i learnt something else completely different from the intention of the training. i learnt about my past. the past year or so to be exact. that sometimes, i can do everything right. (well, not everything. im not perfect). but i was heading in the right direction. i was doing what i was taught, with a good heart, good intentions, setting up the team for the win, and leaving a lasting legacy to future generations (aka training up new leaders). yet some times, things are just out of my control.
i took the hit and came crashing down. but i didnt let it get past me and affect my team. i think back to when i was in sydney, and pastor joshua (from NLCC) spoke about how Jesus "took the hit" for us. because of our sin, we deserved eternal punishment. but Jesus loves us so much that He took that punishment. he took it upon himself, and it stopped with him. when He died, we were no longer doomed for eternity and bound by sin. and talking about passing things down to future generations, how often do we realize we've picked up our parents' bad habits? at times, when i was younger, i told myself "why do my parents do that? i hope i grow up and not be like that!" yet i find myself involuntarily repeating some of their actions. but some times, following in Jesus' example, we need to stand up and say "no!", this ends with me. this is not going to be passed down to future generations! whether that applies literally to future kids of my own flesh and blood, or in the church, where the youth and kids of today, are the future leaders of the church! how are we setting them up to win, leaving them debt free, trained and well equipped, and they can go on to continue further expand and do greater things?
going back to me (hah... selfish. but this is my blog and my thoughts =P), i believe i did what i could to the best of my ability. my 9 months there were not wasted. seeds were planted. some fruits were seen. but other factors came crashing down and i took the blunt of it. its a compliment to hear "you left suddenly. i didn't see that coming!" it hasnt been an easy road to recovery, and im still on it. but i can take from this as a learning experience, and to come out stronger. i already know the ending of this battle (hint: the devil doesnt win. ;)). so if that doesnt give you hope, i dont know what does. haha...
3.21.2014
if it's any encouragement...
TC was last week. and once again, God works in miraculous ways, the conference exceeds all expectations. youth's lives are changed. adult volunteers' lives are changed!
as usual, i would bring my camera (this time, i had a GoPro! wide angle lens ftw!). but as a REC coach, i would be filming all the cheers for our own recap purposes. y'know, for skits so we can parody and/or be familiar with it so we can cheer them! since teams don't play all the games, it is good to have it on video so all of REC can learn it.
i realized since i had all the cheers anyways, might as well post them for the rest of the conference and attendees to enjoy. i later found out that the A divisions and B divisions were the same for both jr and sr. for those who attended/volunteered all 4 days and were on the same team, they never got the hear the other division's cheers! so that was good. plus each team can relive their memories through these team cheer videos.
recently, i discovered a friend whom i had met in the last few years, was actually on worship team back in TC2004. then i remembered "hey! ive got some pictures and footage from back then, i shall take a look!" little did i realize TC2004 was 10 years ago. i've been doing video as a hobby since then. and to now rewatch TC2004... what a blessing it is. and to see a good amount of familiar faces, ppl whom i grew up and attended TC with, served together, are now still serving at TC2014 today.
it all started with humble beginnings. an interest, a passion for it. stay consistent and pursue it. and voila, 10 years later, im video-ing things for TC. it used to be for my own personal memories really, maybe sharing with immediate friends and teammates. back then, with my dinky first ever digital camera (yes, freshly transitioned from the film camera age), shooting 9 megapixel pictures, and a limit of 30 second video clips. shooting at 15fps and 240p... rocking my 2Gb SD card (the camera came with a 16Mb card. hah!) where i would run out of battery before i ran outta storage!
who knew that this i what i would be doing 10 years later? a trip down memory lane has been encouraging for me. amazing. for HIS glory!
as usual, i would bring my camera (this time, i had a GoPro! wide angle lens ftw!). but as a REC coach, i would be filming all the cheers for our own recap purposes. y'know, for skits so we can parody and/or be familiar with it so we can cheer them! since teams don't play all the games, it is good to have it on video so all of REC can learn it.
i realized since i had all the cheers anyways, might as well post them for the rest of the conference and attendees to enjoy. i later found out that the A divisions and B divisions were the same for both jr and sr. for those who attended/volunteered all 4 days and were on the same team, they never got the hear the other division's cheers! so that was good. plus each team can relive their memories through these team cheer videos.
recently, i discovered a friend whom i had met in the last few years, was actually on worship team back in TC2004. then i remembered "hey! ive got some pictures and footage from back then, i shall take a look!" little did i realize TC2004 was 10 years ago. i've been doing video as a hobby since then. and to now rewatch TC2004... what a blessing it is. and to see a good amount of familiar faces, ppl whom i grew up and attended TC with, served together, are now still serving at TC2014 today.
it all started with humble beginnings. an interest, a passion for it. stay consistent and pursue it. and voila, 10 years later, im video-ing things for TC. it used to be for my own personal memories really, maybe sharing with immediate friends and teammates. back then, with my dinky first ever digital camera (yes, freshly transitioned from the film camera age), shooting 9 megapixel pictures, and a limit of 30 second video clips. shooting at 15fps and 240p... rocking my 2Gb SD card (the camera came with a 16Mb card. hah!) where i would run out of battery before i ran outta storage!
who knew that this i what i would be doing 10 years later? a trip down memory lane has been encouraging for me. amazing. for HIS glory!
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