Sunday Veritas: Teamwork

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The last day and a half of the Basic Safety Training covers Personal Survival Techniques (PST), which teaches how to survive at sea. The exercises for this course involve jumping from a two meters platform into a pool, or the sea, donning life-jackets and put on an immersion suit; boarding a life-raft from the water and learning the technique to turn a life-raft side up in case it lands in the sea upside down.

 Along with leadership, preparedness and drills, teamwork is vital to survival; the sea survival exercises are done in groups with each one helping the others. Mercy Ships’ swimming pool is not big enough and we used the Cain Center’s swimming pool in Athens, Texas, not to be mistaken with the ancient city in Greece. The Texas’ Athens is about one hour drive from the Mercy Ships Training Center in Garden Valley. 

 In contrast with the TJC pool in Tyler, at the Cain Center we use half of the large pool while other summer activity happens in the other half. As we conducted the exercises a lady who was leading a summer program for children approached us. She wanted me to talk with the children because the teamwork she saw in the sea survival exercise was the theme of the week in their program. 

 Despite of the image portrayed by Hollywood of the Lone Ranger character who does not need anyone, this episode reminded me of how God created us to live in communities and to depend on others. Bolt Old and New Testaments convey a corporative mindset. James encourages his readers to pray for each other, to be happy with those that are happy, to bring back those who wander from the truth. 

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