Teamwork

By Jeff Becraft

I’m up at my dad’s right now. And part of the reason is that we need to have some really huge trees taken down. We’re talking 60 to 70 feet tall, three to four feet in diameter. So we hired a company to come in and take care of it. Several trees had to come down.

Probably the most dangerous was a live tree. It had these really big branches that went out over top of the house. Even though it was a live tree, we still had the branches cut back because of how they were positioned.

It was amazing for me to watch this crew in action. They were so methodical, so efficient. They did everything with chainsaws and ropes and that was it. There was no crane or anything. Again, these trees are 60 to 70 feet tall… near the house.

They had two climbers and they would go way up in these trees. It was like watching Spider Man. Way up in the air, they would tie all these ropes to different trees. As they are cutting branches off and pieces of the trunk, those are getting tied into or caught by the ropes that they had strung up… kind of like a spider web almost. It was thrilling to watch this group of guys.

There were eight guys and then there was a supervisor (named Elvis… I joked around with him that Elvis really is alive) and the owner of the company… but the ground crew was comprised of the eight guys. To watch them go to work was captivating. They moved like a well-oiled machine… but it wasn’t a machine.  It was a group of people… who had heart.

The job was supposed to take two days but 95% of the job got done in one day. I just couldn’t get over it. When I saw the lead climber (his name was Angel) 50 feet up in the air out on a branch… a branch… not even on the trunk of the tree… he’s out on a branch and it is making me as nervous as all get out. He waves to me and gives me a thumbs up. I’m out there praying for him and the rest of the crew and I told them that that I was praying for them.  Even with those branches way out over the roof, they took them down one by one… with the spider web of ropes and Angel out on the limbs cutting them back with his chainsaw.

There’s just something really thrilling and exhilarating to work together as a team.

It brought back so many memories of being at SOTO camp out in Arkansas when we were doing firewood duty (on the ground) with a whole group of children’s home students and staff. Cutting firewood, splitting firewood, loading it onto trailers and trucks, unloading it onto piles down where it needs to be needed… and watching everybody work together. Even though it was incredibly hard in 95 degree heat with poison ivy as the state plant and the humidity out the roof, it was inspiring… and fun. Getting to the end of the day and even to the end of the week and seeing all that was accomplished.

Or the Youth Corps days when you would see those 36 students work together as a team whether it was at Harvest Hope or Home Works or something else… to see everyone going 100%, working together, and just flat out gettin’ it. Not only does it accomplish a lot but it’s just a thrilling way to live.

This tree crew was a model of that. I told them over and over again how impressed I was with them and just how efficient they were. And I told the owner of the company, too. I told him I could not be more impressed with his crew.

To work alone can accomplish a task.  But working as a team accomplishes more.  It is an inspiring way to live.

Jeff Becraft is the Interim Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Youth Corps is a life-changing leadership development experience that inspires high school students to be leaders in the Midlands and beyond. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].