DA COACH

In Chicago, all you have to do is say “da coach” and everyone knows you‘re referring to Mike Ditka.

He took on the job of coaching the Bears and turned the team around and helped them once again, become a winning team. The Bears won six NFC Central titles and three trips to the NFC Championship game during his time. The highlight of “da coach’s” career was an outstanding 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Superbowl XX.

One of the pleasures and passions of my life is encouraging people. It is such a pleasure to be able to sit down with someone, listen to them, let the Holy Spirit guide me in what I ask them… questions that help them to open up and to see aspects that possibly had not been considered.

A friend on Facebook wrote the following comparison of Coaching vs Mentoring:

• There is a difference between Coaching and Mentoring. Coaching is about listening, drawing out, and assisting in discovery. Mentoring is about telling, teaching, and imparting expertise.
• There is a difference between Coaching and Counseling. Counseling is about the past, helping people process, deal with, and be healed of past issues. Counseling prepares people to begin to look forward again.
• Coaching is about the future. It is forward looking. It helps people discover what's next and then helps them build a solid strategy as to how to get there.

I guess my love is to Coach. I love to help people explore, examine and strengthen their dreams and then give them permission to “go for it.”

What a pleasure it has been to work with pastors, their staffs and churches as they have allowed me to be “da Coach”.

Living Life

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

TREASURE IN THE TRASH - MONEY IN THE MATTRESS

What was she thinking!?!

JERUSALEM – An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress she said had almost $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites on Wednesday. The woman told The Associated Press that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise present on Monday — and threw out the old one.

The next day, she said, she remembered that she had hidden her life savings inside the old mattress. "I woke up in the morning screaming, when it hit me what happened," said the Tel Aviv woman, who asked not to be identified.

She went to look for the mattress, but it had already been hauled away by garbage collectors, she said. Searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.

She said the money was in U.S. dollars and Israeli shekels. She refused to say how she acquired such a large sum. "It was all my money in the world," she said. There was no way to verify her claims, and she refused to disclose key details.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said he was not familiar with the case and no report had been filed.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the woman searching through garbage at a dump in southern Israel. The picture shows the woman, dressed in a white top and black pants with her back to the camera, picking through a huge pile of trash that fills the frame about 10 feet (3 meters) in all directions.

Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told Army Radio that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared "totally desperate." He said the mattress was hard to find among the 2,500 tons of garbage that arrives at the site every day.

He said he increased security at the site to keep would-be treasure hunters away.

The woman said the money had been stashed in a mattress because she had had "traumatic experiences with banks" in the past. She would not elaborate.