Here is another one. How many BPS managers and supervisors does it take to sign a holiday request form? 

Five...and I'm not actually joking about that one. It really did take five. 

But before you begin to wax eloquent about company inefficiency read on. There is an unusual context to what happened.

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As those of who work{ed} there probably know, if you want more than two weeks off at a time it can be a bit more difficult. It needs special approval. By this time I had completed a number of short term mission trips to other countries and I had formulated a big plan to go to various locations around Kenya {which would cover around 4 or 5 weeks if I recall correctly}. That was ambitious but it really wasn't a problem for me. I wondered whether God wanted me to continue doing things like this or whether I just wanted it it happen.

 

So I did the logical thing. I asked him.

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I'm not quite sure why I struck exactly

that kind of deal.

As far as I knew God didn't have to go along with what I said but I prayed it anyway.

 

I should add that at that time I was studying and reading about some the ancient foundations of the scripture {Before you turn off right there hold on. This isn't as boring as it sounds and I promise you is very, very relevant to what happened next.} I read about how in the ancient writings, numbers had an important symbolic value. The number 5 in Hebrew writings {The original language of most of the bible} means God's grace, favour and blessing. I don't want to read too much significance in numbers apart from their mathematical value. I know of people who read significance into silly little things. I'm a bit more rational and balanced than that. Nevertheless I had made a specific request about a specific thing and something happened that has never happened before nor has happened since. Are you ready? Listen to this. 

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I went to the downstairs packing floor to see Kevin Boddington because I was told that holiday forms had to go through him. He said I'm happy to sign it but I think you also need to get it signed by your supervisor upstairs. So he signed it and I took the form to Ken Rogers who was in charge there at the time. Ken was actually very positive about this and was more than happy to sign it. When he looked at the dates I requested he said " I think there may be a bank holiday or something in here. Let me take the form with me and check that out for you. You might need to take one less day out of your holiday entitlement than you needed to." So with that off he went. It was a couple of days later that I was approached by Anthony Antel who was then the factory manager. He had a piece of paper in his hand. He showed me the sheet of paper and said, "Steve, I've got your form and signed it. There is a new rule now that any holiday application over two weeks has to go to higher up so Linda Browett {The head of finance} has sighed it and Jerry Forskitt {The senior manager/operations director} has signed it as well.

 

So there it was. I asked for God's emphatic approval {His grace, favour and blessing upon this trip in other words} and my form was returned with the signatures of two supervisors, the factory manager, the head of finance and the senior manager/operations director!

 

I grew up an avowed atheist so I am all too familiar with the 'co-incidence' line of argument. Of course co-incidences happen. They also 'co-incidently' happen when I pray and they 'co-incidently happen more precisely when I pray specifically. Ironically, it sometimes takes more faith to believe in co-incidence than it does to believe that God answers prayer. For me this was another significant step among many during my time at BPS which has led me towards pursuing a vocation in mission work.

 

So...How many supervisors and managers does it take to approve a holiday request? The answer {and the reason why} may surprise you.