As we planned on moving down to Costa Rica last year, I was asked to be in charge of the administrative side of things once we arrived. When we got here, someone more capable than myself had filled that role so I was left without a specific assignment. This is not the first time that this has happened to me.
When I went to Mexico as a missionary in 1999, I was going as a logistics coordinator to organize mission trips coming from a church in Del City, Oklahoma. Upon my arrival, I learned that this partnership had fallen through and I didn’t have an assignment. So I filled in at the IMB’s main office for Mexico and I helped out on a church planting team. Though I had not anticipated these changes, it all worked out for that is how I met my wonderful husband.
In hindsight, I am glad that I did not have an assigned role when we moved here. While I had many days when I was bored, I am now thankful for the six months that I had to get adjusted to our new way of life which is very different from living in Alpharetta, GA. I can see that God was giving me time to get used to things before He rocked my world in February of this year by making me the small groups assimilator. I was originally just helping my husband in his role as the small groups director, but as the church grew and we kicked off enrollment for small groups, I had my hands full with making sure everyone interested got plugged into a small group according to their age, location, marital status, etc. – no small feat!
At the end of April, I was given an additional role as Waumba Land (nursery) director. Our wonderful WL director (and pastor’s wife), Ashley, moved up to lead family ministries (newborn to 14 years old) and put me in charge of children newborn to five years old. While I have no formal training in children’s ministry nor do I feel called to lead this area, I willingly accepted the position. When I was in college, I went to a special BSU meeting at UGA where I heard Tony Campolo say, "It's not your ability, it's your availability". I don't feel that small groups assimilator and children's ministry are my calling, but if that is what is needed, I am available! Not that I know what I’m doing, but under Ashley’s tutelage, I’m getting the hang of things. I had no idea all of the behind-the-scenes work that is involved on a daily and weekly basis to make sure that the two Sundays a month that we meet run smoothly!
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| Waumba Land (ages 0-4) and UpStreet (ages 5-10) volunteers at the hotel where we'll start meeting in August. |
My main responsibilities include:
- Coordinate the volunteers for two services twice a month. (This is harder than one may think.)
- Recognize volunteer’s and children’s birthdays.
- Send new children’s parents a welcome e-mail.
- Update enrollment and attendance records.
- Submit attendance records and expense reports.
- Print out updated sign-in sheets, new volunteer nametags, worksheets, etc.
- Buy the supplies needed for activities, crafts, and snacks.
- Get the lessons translated into Spanish.
The last two responsibilities are becoming easier. Volunteers are stepping up to the plate to help find certain materials needed (I have no idea of where to get them because there’s not really an arts and crafts place like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby). The lessons that we currently use are from the Orange curriculum which is amazing. Everything is spelled out beautifully for the teachers to lead efficiently.
As I wrap up this post, I would like to ask you to pray for four things:
- We need more volunteers for the nursery and for the elementary-aged kids.
- The volunteers need to come prepared on Sunday, meaning that they have read the lesson ahead of time. They frequently arrive without having studied the lesson.
- We are moving to a new location on August 12. It is a hotel ball room that we will rent bimonthly and have to set up and break down everything each time. Ashley and others are brainstorming about how to create an attractive (portable) environment from scratch.
- Enrique and I fill basic church planting roles while here during our term. Since we don’t plan on living here forever, we would like to eventually replace ourselves by finding local folks to coordinate small groups and Waumba Land.
