What I'm working on...

I know it might sound at times like my life here is all crazy animals and great food, but I wanted to take a minute and assure all of you that I actually am doing some work! This is an exciting time for CARE for AIDS, so I'd love to update you all on what's happening with the ministry.

A few months ago CARE for AIDS finished a long process of applying for and being granted registration as an Non-Governmental Organization with the Kenyan government. This was great news, as it gives us a lot of legitimacy in interactions with official Kenyan departments and programs and it means that CFA is a "real" entity in the eyes of the government. The flip side to this is that registration comes with a lot of requirements and regulations that we must adhere to in order to maintain good relations with the government. These regulations made clear the need for many systems and procedures to be put in place in an official fashion, a job which has fallen to me in a large way. Part of my original goals here were to add a sense of efficiency and organization to all of CFA's operations in Kenya, and the government regulations have made that even more important.

If you haven't gathered this from my descriptions of the way Kenyans work, words like "efficiency," "organization," and "systems" are not brought up very much while conducting any sort of business, which has made this a real challenge. I have found that most of this is starting from square one - while CFA has been doing a great job over the past couple of years here, many pieces of the foundation existed only in the minds of our Directors or in the verbal agreements and plans that all of our employees made. Because of this, I have spent a lot of time over the past few months creating things like personnel policies, job descriptions, and official contracts for all of our employees. I've also been helping a lot to come up with standard schedules for the centers, as well as systems for the workers to report their progress each week and month. While these aren't jobs that I would consider part of my specific expertise by any means, my experience in the States and other parts of the world has provided me with exposure to the way companies work and a familiarity with basic models of doing things that is simply unknown to any of our workers here. It's been really amazing to see how God has used small experiences in my life to help put things in place here that are already making things run much smoother. Much of this has required long hours in front of a computer screen doing research and typing long documents, which isn't my favorite kind of work, but it is extremely rewarding to see the fruits of those hours and know that these systems should help CFA to operate successfully in the years ahead, even after I am gone.

Along those same lines, it has been really cool to see how God has used the simple skills that come from growing up and going to college in America to really benefit this ministry. Things like working on computers, making spreadsheets, or even typing things quickly have turned out to be invaluable in helping this office run smoothly. Most of our administrative employees are still in the two-fingered typing style and don't have much exposure to things like spreadsheets or backing up computer data, so I've been able to teach them a lot of practical skills that I can see helping them on a daily basis.

Another big part of my work consists of being a sort of link between America and Kenya for CARE for AIDS. It's difficult to have a full understanding of what actually happens here on a day-to-day basis from across the Atlantic, so part of my role is serving as the eyes and ears of our American staff, our board of directors, and all of our donors in the US. We have also seen that it is much easier for me to communicate directly with all of our Kenyan employees than to try and pass messages from the States, via email, to our Kenyan Directors and then on to the other employees, which gives me a great opportunity to encourage everyone here with news of what's happening in the states and the future of CFA.

Apart from these fairly consistent jobs, the rest of my schedule here is almost impossible to predict, which is just how I like it! Every week I have meetings with pastors, hospitals, or representatives from other ministries, which are both challenging and exciting at the same time. I also spend a good amount of time meeting with our Directors and planning for the short- and long-term future of CARE for AIDS, or helping to advise them on bigger-picture issues facing the ministry, which is another thing that makes me feel that my time here is being used well and is truly adding to the vision of CFA. I'm so thankful for all of these things - one of my biggest worries a few months ago was that I wouldn't really have anything to add here, but I have seen God use me in a real, tangible, way so far and I am sure that I will get to see even more happen in the future!