2011 mark (check). set (in the process). Go (almost).


airplane landed on the car, originally uploaded by Photo2217.
After I said good bye to my closest and dearest over the weekend, I found myself at the San Jose airport waiting to board on Continental Airlines to Tyler, Texas. I doubled and tripled checked my flight itinerary to make sure that I not only got the hour of my departure correct, but also the date. And after I tripled checked I checked again. (For those of you that don’t know me that well, I tend to show up to events days or weeks in advance of the actual event. I do this mostly for really exciting adventures like plane trips and musical concerts. Ask any of my friends, they’ll tell you a story).
And even at the airport the ministry that God has placed in my lap for senior citizens continued. I do feel so bad for individuals that have contributed to our society for 30+, 40+, 50+ years and are made to feel so incompetent when they’re faced with a non-human customer service representative. A computer. For many of us the world of a click away is a matter of ease and convenience. It’s been created to aid without trouble or fault and for a whole other group of reasons, but I miss humans with warm blood coursing through their veins. We’ve grown into a society that can’t live sans cell phone but sans human interactions is ok to be withou and most times preferable. Wha? Yeah, it’s true. Computer devices are wonderful and thank God for them, but we also want to see a face from time to time. Especially for those that are a bit older and don’t fully understand the computer age or for someone who is disabled and perhaps can’t maneuver all of the buttons to click. We’re marginalizing our world to that of a world that knows how to click. What about the rest of society? (Tangent)
So I’m now in Tyler, Texas at the IOC (International Operations Center). I’ve signed on to work with Mercy Ships and part of the gig is to come over here and see the campus, and do the IMS (Introduction to Mercy Ships) and Gateway programs on the campus. It’s about five weeks of training.
My thoughts of the IOC campus? The campus is huge, but not as big as some of the Cal college campuses perhaps it's  a small city park size. I think of some of the non-profit office spaces I know at home, and this space at the IOC is magnanimous in comparison. There are lots of rolling hills in Tyler and quite a bit of land space. The air is very dry here and cool. The ground is brown and the trees are bare and cool to the touch. However the entrances to the meeting rooms face the west and at the end of the day there are some amazing (almost Africa like) sunsets.
In just twenty-four hours I have met a group of people that are incredible. Each person who has come to IMS is so unique. Made instant friends with a few already. I also got to spend time with Claire and Joy. Two amazing colleagues that were part of the team in Togo and became some of my really good friends. We sat together on Monday night and talked about the fun, good, bad, and crazy times in Togo. What a blessing! And we had a day long round of meetings too. I thought the meetings (honestly) would be sleepers, but they’ve been so super informative. And coming from a story telling perspective (my job), I have lots to do and cover. I think I only scratched the surface in Togo. Truly.
IMS training will continue for the remainder of this week. I have an “interview” with HR today and my first PR team meeting. I’m excited to meet the other half of the team. Next week the folks that are coming for Gateway should arrive.

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