Forty years is a long time to be doing something. For us it means celebrating, reflecting, and rediscovering on a number of different levels. Anniversaries are great times to get friends and family together to count blessings, enjoy shared memories, and realize just how fast time goes. Those memories often make us reflective, remembering important events that have taken place over a long course of time, some of which that were nearly forgotten, buried under the advancing years. It is also a time to rediscover things about yourself, just who you really are and maybe take a look at how you’ve changed – for the better, no doubt – through the years.
Since people make up organizations, it is people who engage in all of these things. As much as we are celebrating the forty years of Roundup Fellowship, the organization, what we are really doing is celebrating the forty years of hundreds of people who have served, are serving, and who have been served. After all, without people in need of someone in their lives, there would be no Roundup. Neither would there be Roundup without people choosing to join with us in building relationships with those in need. Funny how that works.
It’s also funny to begin identifying some of those memories. If I were to go to any of our staff, past or present, what would they pull from their memory banks about their time working here? Would they relish those moments spent in the office, filling out paperwork or would it be that touching moment when they connected with a young person for the very first time? Silly question, right? Roundup is in the people business so Relationships ‘R Us!
Celebrations are about joy, above all. Certainly, over the course of forty years we have had our share of disappointments, frustrations and sorrows, but that’s not what we take away. What stays with us are the triumphs, the laughter, the satisfaction of influencing someone in a positive manner so that he can see life in a new and more hopeful way. In the midst of abuse and limiting circumstances, we have been here to bring hope, to create an environment of hope. Hope is what gives us all something to look forward to, no matter what our yesterday was. Hope can encourage and sustain us even when things look bleak.
We treasure our forty years of service and look forward to many more, God willing.
