Jara was kind enough to send an inner-office e-mail about my anniversary with WMF. How I came to WMF is a bit of a miracle in and of itself.
Here are some memories from my time:
1996- brought Papa John's pizza to a board meeting meal. This would kick off the trifecta of Subway, Chinese food, and Papa John's for board meeting meals for six years. Which we became so tired of, that we resolved never to eat this again at any board meeting ever again.
1997- My first overseas trip. Spent time in Chennai and Kolkata. And loved the 40 hour train ride between them (36 hours normally plus cabin fire adding 4 hours). Broke my heart to see such suffering in the world. I remember NOT giving water to a child because it was hot and I was worried about my water lasting through the day. I pray for forgiveness for that moment.
1998- I traveled to Nepal; rode a motorcycle with Stuart Erny, ate momos with Gautam, and saw a fairly undeveloped Gotatar (a lot of rice patties as far as the eye can see).
1999a- I traveled to Romania; played soccer with mine workers and children living on the street. Was assigned position of goalie until I let a goal pass. Then I was pointed to by a 3 foot kid who gestured to get out and to let him be goalie.
1999b- Our first staff retreat in Atlanta. We had something like 60 people. We went to the Coke Museum, MLK Center, and ate on-sale oysters for .25 per oyster....cleaned the place out!!!
2000- We started getting interested in encouraging staff members to invest in 403(b) retirement vehicles through salary deferrals. We saw how much the market had been growing the previous few years. I think the stock market today is lower than it was when we started investing. :-)
2001- Our exploratory trip to Sierra Leone. We see bombed out cars and buildings, pass road check-points that have military personnel and machine guns, and thankfully new staff make a presence there. Ministry continues in Sierra Leone amidst the war-torn population. Later I will get to meet Noah, an inspiration in WMF.
2002- The WMF USA office moves by caravan from Kentucky to Nebraska carrying all 4 staff members' possessions AND all office possessions in one UHaul medium size truck.
2003- WMF leaders travel to El Salvador for a Field Forum meeting. Jared Landreth smiles the whole trip because we are staying at a coffee plantation; we tour their coffee fields and their roasting plant. We also visit the home and grave of slain Catholic priest and leader Oscar Romero.
2004-WMF sees a lot of staff leave the field and refocuses its efforts on caring for staff and making it sustainable in the midst of difficult environments.
2005-I travel to Argentina and Brazil and spend great time with our staff there. In Argentina, I am able to attend an Argentinian BBQ or Asado. There may be a video of me dancing after that dinner. I don't where it is.
2006-Partnership Platform is introduced in a more formal way in Sri Lanka. PP is one of the most exciting initiatives in missions (I think) in that it is creating opportunity for true partnership between the West and the majority world. Each WMF organization is a sister organization to the other. I have a hope that each field ends up looking like a picture of heaven. There might be Romanians, Canadians, Kenyans in a place like Peru and there might be Peruvians, Bolivians, and New Zealanders serving in Nepal.
2007- The Great Flood. Our office is inundated with water from a tenant upstairs who left the (I forget)...toilet or the bathtub running. We spend several months recovering, because of construction, paint, insurance funds, etc.
2008- I travel to Bolivia and Peru. A lot of my favorite people in the world are in WMF. Many of them are living in Bolivia and Peru. Just when I think I get to be away from the pomp and splendor of the 4th of July festivities in the States, we meet some missionaries from the US in Peru and celebrate with fireworks at their house AND sing the national anthem. There are small US flags everywhere by the food and I think some people have US flag decals on their faces.
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