After a year and a half of familiarity with the organization, my answer is a resounding: YES, more than a full-time need! Since joining staff there have been more non-stop staff support tasks and infrastructure maintenance and improvements. At least that was 2018 for me. In this new year there are some major projects developing which I am very excited to share this in three short lists.
But first, I hope you follow the many updates Back2Back provides from their front-line ministry sites. I receive these by email, and you can also browse through them online here: back2back.org/blog. I want to share one which has stood out to me in the last month, and involves staff with whom I have been collaborating with in tech projects.
In Cancún, Mexico the ministry to vulnerable children is focused primarily through the "strong families" program, which develops families to have the rights, recognition and resources necessary to thrive. This is a model of "premptive" orphan care!
Last spring, after local staff got to know families using the community center for holistic care they learned many of the parents lived and raised children together, although weren’t legally married. As they discussed commitment and God's design for a family to be sustainable a dream was realized to have a wedding celebration in which three couples would commit to marriage.
This was a special day as each man and woman pledged to commit their love and lives to each other, but also because their children were present. In some instances, this was the first wedding for the children. To see their parents taking this step, and beginning a new chapter together, will hopefully leave a lasting impression, and a model for them to live out.
Now, what's been keeping me busy?
LIST ONE—my quick summary of what I'm doing begins with a "pre-list" to demonstrate the amazing context in which this happens.
- Everything in the following lists represent God's amazing work in aligning my role at the right time in the organization.
- Your prayers and financial contribution to make this role possible.
- Partners inside and outside the ministry have incalculable insight, data and expertise in areas I have needed and am grateful.
LIST TWO—the tasks and support areas I jumped into in 2018 consisted of:
- Implementing a new digital phone system, which includes our mobile staff connecting with key partners around the States.
- Administering a website which allows global staff and partners to receive trauma-informed training online. This means creating multi-lingual translation strings into a learning management system, and writing code into custom reporting modules.
- Bringing security measures to our web and email systems, and disaster recovery plans to our global operations.
LIST THREE—projects I'm currently leading in 2019 are:
- The ministry-wide efforts last year to bring trauma-competent training to all our staff proved:
- we are a learning community of staff
- many more of our partners need similar resources
- we need a platform to deliver this
- Therefore, because of our learning in the first point, I am helping transition us to a new, stable and scalable online learning management system. This will serve as a method by which we can continue to share and partner with a growing community of Christian ministries walking with children from hard places.
- Addressing needs of the especially Haiti and Mexican staff as they integrate multiple locations with remote access to their administrative system. Also project-leading a new database which will provide an easier method for case workers in the field to enter data about children and families to cooperatively build care plans and goals. Modern cloud computing for the win!
Thank you again for your incredible partnership. I am so glad I'm doing this with you as teammates.
Please contact me any time, I want to serve as a connection between you and this mission to provide sustainable, holistic care for orphaned and vulnerable children.
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