Since January of 2017, ADG has hosted a Monday morning prayer call for our entire team and leaders. This 20-minute conference call is totally focused on prayer for our companies, our teammates, our leaders and those we serve. These prayer calls have been especially meaningful these past weeks as each one on the call is facing so many unique challenges…which most have never faced. What a blessing it has been to unite with our team as we seek the Lord together for His guidance.
As our advisers and leaders have come together to pray and to share information about decisions they are making at their individual companies; to share interpretations of the SBA payroll and loan assistance programs; and share creative ways to generate new business during this time, it has been my distinct privilege to see God answering these prayers. Yes, we have had to make some difficult decisions at ADG and throughout our portfolio. One of our companies, Fusion Event Staffing, has been hit especially hard due to the complete shutdown of the events industry. Although Fusion has either laid off or furloughed most of our staff, I have walked alongside our leaders and seen the incredible care they have shown to each teammate, vendor and customer throughout these past several weeks. I addition to watching some amazing togetherness occur within the ADG team, I am watching our neighbors talk to each other as never before. There’s more eye contact and smiles as we walk around our neighborhood and make that occasional grocery store run.
For most of us, we are accustomed to being able to make most of our plans and decisions based on our education, whether it came from a textbook, advisers, or significant mentors in our life. We then couple that with or our own life experience to make the best possible decision. However, the current situation we are in is totally unprecedented in our lifetime. It is requiring us to navigate the storm in a totally different way than we have navigated previous storms and challenges. Gratefully, those of us who are running faith-based organizations have already been operating from the principle that, at all times, prayer needs to be the foundation of our planning and decision making. None of us know for sure what the future will be as it relates to the current conditions. For that matter, none of us really knew what the future was going to be before the Covid-19 outbreak. However, it is my belief according to the Bible, specifically what we are told in Psalm 24:1, that “The world is the Lord’s and everything in it.” I don’t believe that God is surprised by what is happening in the world today…nor is He ever. We can rest in the fact that we know He is in control.
In conclusion, I’d like to share a verse that I continually fall back on and that I pray will be an encouragement to you as well. “And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” - Romans 8:28