What have we been up to?

So much has happened since our last update.  It’s been exciting to see how God has led us — here at International Teams, as well as in many other areas of our lives.

My role at International Teams has continued to evolve.  As we’ve grown, and had various staffing changes, I’ve been able to narrow the focus of my role.  The main graphic and web design work are now being done by a really talented graphics designer we’re working with.  This has released me to serve the organization in other technical areas, including using my background in Software Development!

I’ve been developing several systems to help automate, and better organize various things our home office does.  One such system has enabled our donor services group to handle the organizations significant growth in the last year without needing additional staff.  The Ride for Refugees had 37% more donations this year over last, and yet, donor services has been able to close their books in half the time, with more accurate and detailed data in our accounting system to boot.

I’m now working on a project to bring our various database systems together so that we have a simplified, controlled, accurate picture of the information we need to track as an organization.  This will provide great benefit to our mobilization, communications, and donor services departments.

I’ve also been busy maintaining back-end systems for the Ride for Refugees.  This exciting fund raising event has raised awareness of the plight of refugees, and over $800,000 to help with about 100 different refugee ministries around the world.

In addition to these main tasks, I assist in various projects for our national office, and with missionaries as they pass through.

As a family, we’ve been enjoying getting involved in the kids school, and our community. Our kids attend an extremely multi-cultural school.  We have kids who were born in over 30 countries, and half do not have English as their first language.  We’re enjoying building relationships with families of various faiths.  Please pray for us as we seek to be Christ to our new friends!