Now that everyone is relatively up to speed on how my summer went, I would like to keep you all updated on what the next season has in store for me. As of last week, I am now in a staff position with Adventures in Missions, working in the Logistics and Setup department for the World Race program. Logistics is the group of people who first talk to ministry contacts we have around the world. We find all of the amazing men and women in other countries who make our ministry possible. They house us, feed us, and move us around. And the logistics dept is what kicks that off.
My particular role consists of two things:
Setup: I am working under Jake Rodriguez, the logistics director, but I work directly with Mark Schandel in setting up the contacts we will work with in particular countries. We look several months ahead to make sure that everything is worked out so that when a team arrives in places like Manila, Philippines or Chisinau, Moldova they can jump in without having to worry about whether or not our budget will work, etc. We hammer out the details so that the teams can focus on ministry. I’m very excited to be a part of this process.
Evaluations: One part of my time in Uganda that I really had a passion for was to make sure that there was clear communication and follow-up with our contacts during and at the end of our trip. Though it was difficult to always sit down with contacts and process during the trip, I made sure that we sat down at the end to give feedback to each other, frustrations and concerns, as well as joys and praises, so that the partnership with World Race and the contact would be strengthened and straightened out. When I spoke with Jake about what I would be doing here, he was the first to bring up the idea of having me work on an evaluation process, not just for our Real Life and World Race participants, but also for the contacts we work with. We want to keep up the communication process even after teams have left so that we can have a better experience in the future when we send teams back. These are more than just strangers we work with overseas. These are ministry partners we want to continue working with in the future, and if we can be intentional in working out the kinks, we will only become a stronger, greater ministry. I am incredibly excited to get to work on this, brainstorming and compiling, and I believe I will be a good asset to this process.
I am working on a new support-raising “campaign” that you will all find out about soon, but for now, please be praying that God would strengthen this department and organization, and that His Kingdom would be all that we seek.
Thanks for reading.
