Tuesday's Follow-up On Thursday

From Folkestone on Monday with MAF-UK to Ashford on Tuesday with MAF-International, our second full day of meetings was as beneficial as the first. Karen and I are really excited about the discussions and ideas that were shared. Between the crew at Folkestone and the team at Ashford, I'm not sure how any other mission organizations could possibly have better leadership and management teams.

Again, Karen and I were treated as royalty (no intended slight to The Queen, I'm sure) and enjoyed interacting with the various departments and managers within the MAF International Operations Centre. Special focus was placed on time with the HR department (Mark, you're a brave man...), Keith their Maintenance Manager, and with Mike learning about WASP. It was good to see everyone there from the PFO course and those who had tutored sessions at Facts 'N Friction.

The HR department (with assist from Amanda and Kathryn) treated us to a wonderful British picnic featuring several traditional food stuffs: Savory Eggs (unique little balls of seasoned dough with egg bits inside) and some mini pork-pies (I've forgotten their official nomenclature) which were tasty bite-sized pork bits (porky-pies?) covered in a pastry dough. Of course there was "cloudy" lemonade, scones with double cream and jam, cold cuts, baguettes, tomatoes, cheese, and "crisps" (potato chips--to all us Americans). We were so busy eating we forgot to take pictures of the food flying.

Thanks again to Chris, Annie, Gillian, Keith, Geoff, Mike, and everyone else who worked so hard to make our time at their headquarters so enjoyable. And special thanks to Bruce, my Eskimo brother from "the village." Don't wear your tie too tight...

Here are some photos:

The HR Department: Gillian, Annie, and Mark.


Karen pulled away from the discussion long enough to take this snapshot of Keith
meeting with Keith.


This is Bruce my "Eskimo" brother.

And here's a shot of the bell tower of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (in the heart of Ashford) inside of which Karen and I were blessed to sit Tuesday evening to witness the bell ringers practice ringing the bells. You wouldn't believe how many stone, tightly spiraled, stair cases we've climbed these past three weeks. And I never would have guessed how much a stone tower could move once you get several tons of bells flying around overhead...

Stay tuned...