In this edition of Chaplain’s Talk, I thought that I would write a little about what I am convinced is an incredibly important ingredient, yet at times an undervalued part of any successful team; that ingredient being unity.
When I was in grade 7, we had a fun team building day at school. I loved it because we didn’t have to sit in class that day. We were divided up into groups of 7 and given number of events to compete against the other groups. One of the many competitions was a tug-of-war. Our team was certainly not the biggest or heaviest and definitely not the strongest, but we thought that what we would do is learn to pull together on the rope at exactly same time. As the competition got going, we disciplined ourselves to pull almost like a pulse; we would pull and relax, pull and relax and so on. What we found was that instead of all of us pulling randomly at will, that we could achieve victory by our disciplined all-pulling-together strategy. And it worked! I think there were many surprised people that day at our school, as we won the tug-of-war.
As a team chaplain, I have seen the same principle in action with a hockey team on the ice but especially in the dressing room. When every member of the team learns to pull together without ego getting in the way, the whole becomes much greater than the sum of it’s parts. Just recently this topic of unity was our main discussion point a Warriors chapel. I think that this principle of setting aside ego and working in unity really is a game changer. When you have evenly talented teams playing against each other, I am convinced that unity will find it’s way to the top. Even after our final chapel prayer, I had quite a few guys chatting with me and signing up for coffee with me….
Finally, I had a great time at the BCHL Showcase this past week watching the Warriors 
come away with 2 wins; one against Chilliwack and the other against Coquitlam. (I can’t forget to mention what great games Quinn Foreman had, scoring 5 times in those two Showcase games, with the entire team playing hard and doing well.) I also want to thank our play by play broadcaster Trevor Miller for welcoming me into the booth to sit beside him and do colour commentary for the two games.
Thanks for reading Chaplain’s Talk, I trust that you will be encouraged by it.
God bless you all, Chaplain Don
chaplainstalk 