Shanna Makes Me Sad

Shanna makes me sad because tomorrow is her last day on the job with The Rightnow Campaign. Shanna and I have worked as a team for the last four plus years. She is as much responsible as any other human being for the implementation and success of our ministry and specifically our Leadnow and Fusion Conferences. I have leaned on her in so many ways and it's honestly hard to imagine doing our ministry without her.

I was always told that it takes 10 positive statements to take away one negative statement. So I'm going to say 10 positive things about Shanna and one negative. That way she won't feel bad if she reads this.

Positive

1. She a servant
2. She is married to an Aussie
3. She has bailed me out of many, many situations
4. She doesn't like Aggies
5. She is has backbone - the girl is tough
6. She makes tasty cookies
7. She is passionate
8. She makes everyone else look like they know what they are doing
9. She is the real deal
10. She really, really loves Jesus

Negative

1. She is leaving The Rightnow Campaign

I don't like to say goodbye. And in a very real way I am not saying goodbye to Shanna tomorrow. She is going to work for her church and they are really involved with our ministry. She has even agreed to help out with our Dallas event in September. But I've also been around the block enough to know that things never stay the same. Our ministry and our events will literally never be the same without Shanna working on them. Don't get me wrong, I believe that God will take care of us. I have no doubt that God is in control. However, God is going to use different people to do what Shanna has done and therefore, things will never be the same.

My favorite memory of Shanna is from our very first Fusion event in 2004. We were the first ones to arrive in the Dallas Convention Center on November 12th and the last ones to leave at something like 2 am on November 14th. As we left that mammoth, empty space we paused for a moment to just soak it in. I'll never forget that. The look on Shanna's face completely captured my emotions: it was a mixture of absolute praise to God for what He had just done and amazement that He let us do it.

Don't tell me it will be the same, because it won't.

I'm gonna miss Shanna.