End of the Week

This past week I developed a couple new documents with Adobe Acrobat, shot/edited/posted another video on the MMS blog, handled a stack of email, worked with prospective candidates, gave a tour of the facility, supervised the approved candidate's support raising efforts, and answered the mission phone nearly every time it rang.

It was also a week of meetings. Department Head meeting, Senior Management Team meeting, a meeting with representatives of another mission organization, a meeting of hangar and admin staff to review our revised Standard Operating Procedure's manual, and before too much longer the hangar crew will sit through a review of our Certificated Repair Station manual. I'm exempt from that meeting.

Meetings move mountains. Prayer and faith do too, don't get me wrong, but in missions (as in any business or ministry) the better the information flow, the higher the level of communication, and the greater the level of combined creativity. When a group of well-informed, hard working, creative people all pull in the same direction with a high level of commitment motivated by faith in a Cause...God can really work.

Meetings and paperwork probably don't come to mind first when most folks to think about what it means to be a missionary, but after 14 years as a full-time missionary...communication is critical and meetings, good meetings, facilitate, enable, and provide a forum for effective communication.

Karen handled her own paperwork all day Monday, Thursday, and Friday, worked for the accounting department Monday/Friday, and worked for me Thursday.

Locally, the high temps are climbing into the 30's, the snow is slowing melting, and the Cleveland Browns have a new head coach. That may not be news to you, but for a transplanted Californian who misses the Los Angeles Rams and has adapted to rooting for the Cleveland Browns, it IS news. It hasn't been easy being a Cleveland Browns fan since they returned to the NFL in 1999. After 2, 5-11 seasons, the fifth head coach in 13 years is on his way into town. Of course, I guess I could always root for the Cincinnati Bungles...NOT.