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Extraordinary is right.
This fine young lady is constantly a joy. I first met her when the Mercure Hotel had it's "soft-Opening" She was in charge of marketing and showed us the hotel; She went abroad after about 1 ½ years. We didn't hear from her till she came to us and applied for a position.
She was making a significant salary and the hotels wanted her back. But we offered her such a significant cut in salary (about a 75% cut in pay) that she accepted. Saying she must. God told her she is to work for GIBTK.
I was concerned she was not for us. Simply because she was so accomplished. Trained and successful in an international corporate environment. But she insisted God told her she is to work for us If God called her who am I to say no.
Boy, am I glad she is part of the GIBTK team. She has taken to her calling.... Continued to hard to make the needed changes and now is bringing her talents and gifting to us. Truly another one of the amazing team God has placed into gibtk.
Here is Nguyen (lovingly called "Q" by me J) writing;
I AM EXTRAORDINARY and I KNOW THAT.
"When Robert asked me to write a journal, at first I thought it's an assignment. I am never good at writing and now I "have to" write. That's challenging. But then I realize it's for me to review about myself at first.
Today he showered the whole team with the concept of extraordinary and ordinary. The lesson really relates to me. Everybody wants to be extraordinary but rarely anyone do the extraordinary things.
Just like everyone else in Vietnam does, my parents expect me to be a "normal" person. It's a "definition" in Vietnam that you grow up, graduate from college, get married in a particular range of age, have a good job and raise your kids. Well, nothing's wrong with that. It's a path that someone drew up before and you just gotta to follow as everyone else does. We are too busy looking at our self and scared to loose what we own. We don't want to change as we all want easy stuff and afraid to make mistake. "What if this doesn't work?" "What if this path will take longer?" We are doubtful and don't want to look different from the others.
I made a change in my life when I decided to leave the hotel industry to work for GIBTK. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. My family, my friends and my co-workers said: "You are crazy, something's wrong with you." Someone kindly advised me that let's earn money first and then you can do whatever you want later. So don't leave the job that will promise you finance and position in a big hotel chain. It really ordinarily makes sense, doesn't it?
I came for an interview at GIBTK and knew that it's not easy at all for me to work here. First, financially, I would get lower paid than what I expected. Second, honestly I didn't really know what I am going to do, I didn't have experience in humanitarian work, which meant I had to restart and learn everything from the beginning! To work at GIBTK, it requires the "extras" and it is never easy. I prayed and thought about it over and over again. My God loves me so much that He wants me to live my life at its fullest. The things I already got was great and it's always to me a gift of God, but He also got something even way greater for me to choose if I dare to. We always have a choice in our life. I want to live my own life, not a default one as someone expect me to be, and in an "extraordinary" way. Yes, I am not "everybody."
I have never regretted about my changing decision even just once, but it was a very tough time for me at the beginning to understand what Gibtk is and how they do things. The first time I was in the leadership meeting, I wondered myself why those leaders spent hours on this meeting just to talk about each staff member while we got a lot of things to do and thousands people to help out there. In my previous companies, they never do that. They discussed strategy, revenue, lost and profits. Now here, Gibtk discuss people, their strength and weaknesses, how we build them up. Huh? I was so confused! We want our staff to be extraordinary and at their best to benefit the people they help with. I am a slow learner. It took me a while to get that.
A preacher said that life is from the inside of you, not the things you own or the position you have. The change I have been working on is not about changing my job from this to that, but from the heart. God put me here with skills and experience, and now through Gibtk, He is building me up from the inside. Traveling with the team from Danang to Quang Binh, I'm proud of our gorgeous scenery but a little bit sad. The country is still very undeveloped, not only in economy but also in people's awareness and spirit. For sure I believe that our country is in need of extraordinary people to make an extraordinary move. Let be courageous to step out and make a difference in our life and many others!"
Nguyen
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