Hey everyone!! I was so glad to hear all your voices–it makes me even more excited to see all of you in September! We miss all of you who couldn’t make it. I want to appologize in advance if these notes aren’t the best–forgive my spelling-I never won the spelling bee or anything 🙂
Roll call:
Serina
Cameron
Sarah Burrows
Traci
Dan
Nancy/Gary
Sarah Barkie
Amy
Heather
Kelly
Kari
Megan
Dan opened in prayer (thanks Dan)
Serina started off by talking about team financeson the field:
While we are on the field AIM is accountable to the board and we are accountable to AIM.
Each group will have a team bank account and a team treasurer (wich will be chosen closer to the time they are putting the teams together). The bank account will be in the treasuers name like a personal bank account. They are in charge of making sure everything balances out–but the team is there to help out as much as possible.
Break down of finances can be found in the ‘Finance Handbook’ on the intranet.
Each team is given a budget depending on how many people are on the team. The budget it more of a guide rather than a set in stone amount. Being good stewards of the money is EVERYTHING. You may spend more on food and lodging in one country than you would in another–It will all balance out.
AIM will divide the years cost by 11 months, and make a deposite the first Thursday of every month into the team account.
RECEIPTS:
EVERY TIME we spend money we have to come up with a receipt with the date and amount written on it, and there needs to be a signature. We have to have a receipt for everything—even if there’s not one avaliable we have to make a hand written one. Then stuff all recipts in prelabled (by AIM) ziplock bags, and send back to AIM AT LEAST once a month.
Examples of categories for receipts:
Food-Lodging-Debrief Cost-Internet/Communication/Stamps for AIM stuff-Supplies for outreach; such as Bibles, ect.-Translators-ATM fees/Internet fees
As far as plane tickets–AIM purchases all tickets in the office so they will do accounting in house. We will have to budget that out of our spending (
tell me if that’s wrong–I wasn’t quite clear on that)
(We will go over this in more detail at camp)
Support Raising—FUN!!!
There are only a few people on the team that are in good shape. At least half of the team needs to be bringing thier support up.
Continue to pray, fast, encourage eachother, make phone calls, meet face to face with people. BE BOLD!!!! Ask directly! People know you need money…
New feature on the online supprot accounts—on the right hand collumn next to your supporter it will tell you whether it’s a one time gift or monthly pledge.
Passports: Laura covered that in a blog posting today 🙂
Preparing our hearts to set out:
Heather: She was one that was accepted later on, and she hasn’t really been thinking about the leaving part and being prepared until about 2 weeks ago. She has started to freak out a little about all the things that she hasn’t been able to do because of other time consuming tasks she had to do. She has gotten away from preparing her heart. Now she has laid it all down, and God has been so faithful with support and has been very encouraged.
Jackie: She has been on AIM staff this whole summer, and she’s thankful that God has brought her here, and laid it on her heart to be a part of the WR. The Lord has been teaching her time management, and also teaching her a lot by having to live with 40-70 people every week.
Cameron: Her life has been in constant transition since training camp this summer. She has moved from NY to her mom’s and then her mom moved houses, and she has had to move churches. She’s been feeling like God is preparing her for the race because that’s how life will be–in constant transition. He’s been preparing her heart for the journey, the unknown and moving around. She’s realizng how hard and heart wrenching it will be, but God is soverign and He’s in controll!!
Serina encouraged us to rest and be ready to deal with our emotions.
Kari: She’s learning to trust God with finances. She hasn’t been worried about it, and she’s had a lot of joy–God has been providing!
Dan: There has been a church meeting in his church building durring the week–it’s a Mexican church, and he has been able to be involved with them and learn about thier culture. There are also people that he knows that are going to start to teach him about the Asian/Chinese culture.
Serina told us that it’s important to be a student of other cultures by serving and loving them–being careful to not try to turn them into our American ways, but just to learn and see how they live.
Random Info:
We will probably see both January and June racers while we’re on the field. Hopefully in mid November we will all debrief together.
OUR FIRST DESTINATION IS IN ASIA!!
Jan. team will be in Thailand August 1st
June team will be in Thailand starting at the end of August—-So maybe we’ll see them then??
How much toiletree items do we need to pack to start off with??? EMAIL LAURA TO FIND OUT.
Someone will be posting soon on the new policies for people coming to visit us while on the field.
Kari clsoed in prayer!
SORRY THIS IS SO DANG LONG!!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL VERY VERY MUCH!!
