Page 11 - September 2022 News On 7

PRACTICAL MINISTRY, PART 3: SHOW UP, DO YOUR BEST, HAVE FUN!
BY REV. TRACY B RICHARDS

"But I am among you as one who serves" ~ Luke 22:27

Well, the news is out and you may have heard that I have thrown my hat in the ring to run for Council in Centre Hastings! As
I prepare for the next two months of “campaigning”, I’m looking forward to connecting with my community and learning
more about what matters most to you.
Those of you who read my monthly articles in the News on 7 know that my faith guides me in everything I do. With that,
comes my commitment to values of morality, integrity, truth, and standing up for what is right. This doesn’t mean that I’m
perfect or the “best” person to vote for, it simply means that you can trust that I will set the highest standards for myself and
do my best to serve my community by doing what is right, according to biblical principles.
As one of the new people in the area, I know there will be a lot of questions about who I am and why I’ve decided to run and
it’s been a really interesting exercise figuring out what my campaign message will be. It’s given me an opportunity to
examine my heart and my motives for doing this and I’m grateful for the insights and clarity that have come as a result. What
I’ve learned is that, whether I end up being elected to council or not, my commitment to my community will be the same and
I will happily continue to serve in whatever capacity the Lord calls me to.
In the meantime, though, I’m excited to have more opportunities to get to know you personally and I’ll start by sharing a bit
of my background and what motivated me to run for Council.
Whenever people have asked me what brought me to this decision, there are a couple of things that come to mind.

Firstly, getting involved in my community has always come naturally to me. As a child, I participated in many youth
organizations and was a leader and organizer of groups in camp and at school. During middle school and high school, I
participated in various community programs, was elected as a class representative, and chaired several student council
committees.
Looking back, I think my motivation has always come from a genuine caring for people, loyalty toward my community, and a
desire to always leave things a bit better than I found them.
During these early experiences, I learned the value of being a good listener and developed a great respect for the power of
collaboration. As a result, I became passionate about getting involved and doing my part in every environment I found
myself in.
The second reason I decided to run for Council is related to the ‘wake-up call’ many of us have experienced over the past
two years. I don't know about you, but the world I grew up in is becoming more and more unrecognizable, and while I am all
for progress and sustainable growth, I am very concerned about how degraded our society has become. One of the reasons I
decided to leave the city is because of its obsession with doing, being, and having “more”. It has become void of values,
morality, and conscience, as people seem to be incapable of prioritizing what really matters. They complain about the
injustices of the world but are reluctant to get involved because they “just don't have the time”. So, part of my “why” for
running for Council is that I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I know I have a lot to learn and it will be challenging at times, but I
want to be able to sleep at night knowing that I am doing what I can to make a difference.

So, in a nutshell, getting involved is just who I am and when I get involved, I tend to go “all in”.
Now that I have made Centre Hastings my home, I want to make a sincere investment in this community and, given my skills
and unique perspective, serving as a Council member is the best way I can think of to do that.
I hope you’ll continue to follow along on this journey and if you feel led to support me in my campaign, I would be very
grateful for any help you can offer. There are volunteer opportunities available in every capacity so please feel free to reach
out and let me know how you would like to help :)

My campaign email is info@tracybrichards.ca
The campaign website is tracybrichards.ca

If you enjoyed this post, I encourage you to subscribe to my blog at tracybrichards.com/blog.
For more information about my ministry email me at tracy@tracybrichards.com.
For wedding or life celebrant inquiries visit xolifecelebrations.com
Listen to my Practical Ministry segments on the Born To Fly Podcast here