Backstory: Moving to Thailand

Last year at this time, almost to the day, I received the news that I had not been selected for the WV post in Panama.  It was disappointing to say the least, as I had felt my prior experiences, including moving to Spain a few years out of college, had been preparing me for this role.  World Vision did express interest in having me apply for the same role but serving a different region – East Asia based in Bangkok, Thailand, instead of Latin America/Caribbean based in Panama.  I had never been to either location but somehow Panama felt like a local move (my sense of “local” has been warping for the last 20 years) and Thailand felt like the other side of the world (because it is!). 


There was a feeling of calling that required my availability and responding I moved forward and began the interview process. By February I was in Bangkok for final face-to-face interviews.  During this trip I met with strategic leaders for community transformation, advocacy, child health, poverty eradication, and anti-trafficking.  I learned that 900 million of the world’s poor live in Asia, more than any other region in the world, including Africa, and that there was measurable evidence of progress to addressing and, possibly eliminating, many issues related to poverty, including poverty itself.  It was inspiring and daunting, all at the same time.  I'm not sure how to describe what I felt when the offer came through, but I realized the opportunity it represented and so after prayer and consultation with friends and family, I moved forward and by the first week of April I had relocated to Bangkok accepting the role of East Asia Director of People & Culture.  For more on this region and the work I am involved in check out this site (it also has coverage on the flooding in Thailand).  www.wvasiapacific.org

Backstory: Pepperdine University Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship and Change

In October 2010, as I contemplated the major shift that was underway in my life I realized that I would need to become conversant in an entirely new field.  While my past experience in leadership, change management, operations, and human resources would be relevant and applicable this was an entirely new landscape for me and I needed ways to come up to speed quickly.

I was led to the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/welcome/mission/) where I discovered a Master’s Degree in Social Entrepreneurship and Change program that seemed to be tailor made to meet the needs of my transition.  I was immediately interested, signed up for an information session, and began the application process for the Spring 2011 Cohort. 

The program brochure http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/masters-social-entrepreneurship-and-change/content/sec-program-brochure.pdf provides a great overview of the objectives and content of the program, and as I am now finishing up my third term and preparing for my Global Change Experience (see Champions Education Alliance page on this blog) I can attest to the quality of the program, and the incredible value it is providing as I continue my immersion into the field of Social Entrepreneurship and Change. 

Backstory: World Vision International

The vision and work of World Vision is both inspiring and aligned with my core values. Sometime in 2010 I began monitoring the World Vision employment website submitting one unanswered application for a program management role in Haiti and another for a role leading People & Culture (HR) for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, based in Panama City, Panama. Also around that time I was reading The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns the President of World Vision U.S. and found that the book provided exceptionally detailed information on the needs of the poorest of the poor and the hopeful yet inadequate response of individuals, organizations, and governments to address those needs. The interviews and candidate selection process was set to be completed just prior to Thanksgiving (2010) and I felt very good about the interviews, although I would not actually learn the outcome until the second week of December...

From World Vision International's website: http://www.wvi.org

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.

Inspired by our Christian values, we are dedicated to working with the world’s most vulnerable people.

We serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

           

            Our vision for every child, life in all its fullness;

Our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so.

Backstory - Beginning the Transition

I left Kaiser Permanente in August 2010.  Almost immediately several opportunities presented themselves, most with lucrative salaries and opportunities.  A series of conversations and interviews with Google ended in the recruiter’s conclusion that I should probably work for a non-profit due to my desire to serve and time allocation devoted to missions. A short term consulting assignment with the Santa Rosa Community Health Centers (through Resources Global Professionals) was especially fulfilling and I also began working on a change management book I had set aside a few years back. While these opportunities were reassuring and genuinely entertained, it was through prayer, not planning, that my next steps were chartered.  My attention was ultimately drawn to two organizations that would offer an opportunity for immersion in the field of social justice and humanitarian aid: World Vision International and Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

Backstory: Short-Term Mission Immersion Continues

Over the six months following The School of Nations I participated in missions to the Amazon (June 2010) with Mike Silva International, Indonesia (July/August 2010) with Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara and Revive Indonesia, and again to Indonesia (October 2010) with Revive Indonesia. Whether providing medical or dental clinics, or sharing and showing God’s love, I found each trip reinforcing the call to help and refining and confirming ways in which I could make a difference in the lives of people throughout the nations. I was fortunate to be born into the wealthiest nation of all time in the course of human history.  It was neither my right nor my fault.  It is my privilege, and with that privilege comes responsibility.  I am called to serve.

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”.  1 John 3: 17-18

Backstory: The School of Nations

In December 2009, following the trip to Fiji, I enrolled in a newly developed program sponsored by the same group (The Mission, Vacaville, CA). The School of Nations evening program had ten students, and each week from January through April, we studied a different region of the world. Each student would prepare and present a five-minute presentation on a country within the given region for that week. The weekly research, done mostly online and through multiple media sources, was eye opening and humbling.  It again reminded me that there is no excuse for inaction, no excuse for ignorance, no ability to say “I didn’t know”.  Each week we also hosted indigenous people or missionaries from a country within the studied region and learned from first hand experience what was happening in that country – areas of success and areas of need.  I heard chilling first hand accounts of ethnic cleansing in Croatia, starvation in Malawi, oppression in Romania, and devastation in South Africa caused by Aids and lack of clean water.  The reports were real-time, not historical recounts from 50 – 100 years ago.  Right now.  This course and community provided an amazing heart broadening experience that helped solidify my call to serve and informed my decision in  May 2010 to leave my executive post with Kaiser Permanente to create more flexibility to pursue my passion to serve those in need throughout the nations.

Backstory: Short-Term Mission Immersion and Important Realizations

In October 2009 an opportunity was presented to participate with another organization on a mission trip to Fiji. This trip was quite different from the trip to Indonesia. We happened to be there during a two-week national campaign to raise awareness to the social issues of gender inequality and child abuse. The dynamics in the groups we were leading, the Tala Tala, who were both the church leaders and village chiefs, confirmed what I was reading in the papers in the areas of gender inequality and the importance of addressing it for the stabilization and future of Fiji.  This trip also provided additional insight to the importance of respecting, and in some cases restoring, indigenous culture.  As in Indonesia the culture supports community and sharing to a much greater extent than most Western cultures. It was a reminder that providing aid or assistance to another culture is a delicate venture.  The West does not have all of the answers and many of our ways are not only unappealing to other cultures, they can create disharmony in well-balanced communities if not done appropriately.