In early December I (Andy) had the pleasure of taking my first trip outside of the country for my new role. I had quite a memorable time, and I’d love to tell you about it!
In my new role, my work now is very similar to what I have done before: helping our staff to excel in ministry, wherever God has called them, through their use of technology. The difference between my old and new roles is that now the scope is our global staff, rather than American staff. Cru operates in every country in Africa, but each national ministry is unique — they function as somewhat independent entities. 
Every country has a “technical leader” responsible for the technical training and support of local staff.
We put this conference together to gather the technical leader from each country in Africa. While each of these tech leaders does similar jobs, this is the first time they have gathered face-to-face. Our goal was to provide training, direction, and vision, and to build community and camaraderie within this group of key leaders. Topics included how to be a good leader, understanding and using our preferred corporate software tools, and good technical support methods. We wanted to help them help their staff, and to help them learn to help each other. We met for four days in Douala, Cameroon, a port city on the west side of Africa. By all accounts, the week was a success — see the post-conference note after my signature.
My trip there was three flights. First: Charlotte to New York, where I met with my teammate Mark from Orlando. Then: New York to Paris. Sadly, we were inside Charles De Gaulle Airport for only one hour – no sightseeing. Then, on to Douala. We arrived at 10 p.m. only to stand in the passport line for 90 minutes in no air conditioning. Despite being 10 p.m., Cameroon is near the equator and the constant temps were the same as Orlando in the summer: Hot and Humid! 
When we eventually arrived at our hotel, we learned that our rooms had AC! Interestingly, the hallways and elevators did not.
One goal of our gathering was relationship building, so we ended each day with small working groups. Mark and I found ourselves working with attendees well beyond the dinner hour. However, having the opportunity to see individuals’ struggles was helpful for us to understand the environment in which each of them works. By the end of the week, we saw a number of them work to help each other.
I led two sessions. One on Okta, Cru’s identity management system — the username and password verification platform. To use any Cru computer product, you have to go through Okta. Each of the attendees is responsible to manage user accounts in Okta for the staff in their country. This is critical in maintaining the integrity of our systems, access to sensitive information, and managing the costs of the software and tools we use.
The second training session I led was about integrating our donations systems with a commercial product, called Mailchimp, that our staff use to bulk-email personalized emails to their ministry partners. All of our staff worldwide gather a team of ministry partners, and regular communication with these partners is a critical part of what we do. Indeed, if you are reading this as an email, Catherine and I use MailChimp to send it to you. In Cameroon, I helped these tech leaders to be able to effectively use Mailchimp, and to in turn also coach their staff in maintaining healthy partner relationships.
On the first day of the gathering I was approached by Paul who is from Sierra Leone. His computer was running slowly, acting flakey. I quickly realized that it had a bad virus infestation. Lots of malware, beyond the scope of what I had the time or skill for. I contacted Javier, a coworker from Orlando. By connecting to Paul’s computer remotely, Javier spent six hours cleaning, updating, and reconfiguring Paul’s computer. When we started, Paul stated, ‘I think I need a new computer.’ As he watched Javier remotely control his computer, Paul was amazed! Once Javier finished, Paul realized he didn’t need a new computer. Success!! Of even greater value was being able to tell Paul that he, too, had access to the team of technicians in Orlando. It was great that he left the conference with a fixed computer, it was even greater that he left with the knowledge that there is a team of people willing and ready and able to help.
When my new role was announced last March, Axon, a Cru staff member from Tanzania, emailed me asking for leadership advice. I didn’t know Axon. How wonderful to then learn that Axon is a tech leader and would be in Cameroon with us. I was able to spend a long lunch with him and we had great conversation about God’s calling and vision, and I coached him in being a technical leader within his ministry. Axon is in one of the photos at the bottom.
I really do enjoy travel. I have been blessed with very few significant hiccups, but they do happen. On my way back from Cameroon, due to a cancelled flight I had the opportunity to spend an extra night in New York, in a hotel between JFK and LaGuardia Airports, at 14 degrees and windy. Without my luggage. I finally arrived home safe-and-sound, a day later than planned, and one hour after the airline dropped off my bag on the front porch. It was a wonderful trip, but it was good to be home.
I thank you for helping to make this trip possible!
A post-conference note: After attending our meetings in Cameroon, Adéyèmi (also in a photo at the bottom) went back home to Benin and spoke to his national ministry director. He wanted to help his fellow staff with the things he had learned in his time with us. This was precisely one of the key goals of the conference!!! 
Here is a picture of staff in Benin being trained by Adéyèmi just after he returned home from our conference. The goal of the Benin ministry is to have 220 staff members by 2030. They currently have 30 staff members. Adéyèmi said, “We see technology as key to helping support those staff.” Join us in praying for our ministry in Benin.
The Kelloggs 