Start Spreadsheeting the News

Rachel, the queen of the Excel spreadsheet schedules, has proven why that title is well deserved. The last scheduled team of the year will be arriving this coming weekend and the logistics involved in a team visit from Lighthouse Church in Maryland are about as complex as trying to figure out the NYC subway system map. This spreadsheet may just be Rachel’s Excel version of a magnum opus! 

Lighthouse sponsors children in ten different locations. The sheer number of children they sponsor is twice as many as any other sister church. The upcoming team visit will focus on VBS programs for each of the ten locations over the course of two weeks. During the first week, the Lighthousers (Lighthousonians?) will themselves be divided into two different teams–Team A and Team B. Each team will need a group of drivers and translators.

Monday-Thursday of that first week, Team A and Team B will each travel to 3 different locations. If you’ve ever worked at a VBS, you know it is exhausting. But unless you’ve also worked for a traveling carnival–loading and unloading supplies–it’s difficult to grasp the magnitude of this undertaking. 

Each team leader needs to have the opportunity to spend time with staff and pastors in each location. Each team needs the opportunity to work with Alejandro and Secia. To complicate matters, next week is a government holiday in Honduras and the schools are closed. Sowers4Pastors needed to get permission from the teachers at each location to use the school facilities. At some of the locations, the teachers will show up on their days off to open and close the schools. At others, the teachers are giving a key to someone else, a parent or church leader. Even though the children are out of school, it is expected that they will arrive with great excitement for the opportunity to be a part of the annual VBS with the gringos! 

The teams will begin each day at the far locations. The farthest one is an hour and fifteen minutes away from Gracias. They will spend two hours at each location, moving closer to Gracias throughout the day. 

The following week, there will be ten Lighthouse team members, instead of the original fourteen. That simplifies the logistics a bit because they will work as one team. Lighthouse teams have a reputation for going all out for VBS programs. They are well organized and intentional about selecting songs and crafts. Rachel chuckled a little when she pointed out that’s not an easy thing to do when you’re in the middle of nowhere and working in another language!

Rachel’s spreadsheet magic extends beyond getting teams to the appropriate VBS sites. She is also concerned with the S4P staff. She tries to make sure that each person has a day off and that no one person is meeting with teams each evening to allow for family time. Rachel looks over each entry on her spreadsheets to make sure that things like transporting teams to and from airports doesn’t fall on the same people each time. She wants to use the fewest drivers possible, while still allowing for a comfortable ride for the team and all their stuff. 

 

Even booking hotel rooms can be a little complicated. In Gracias, hotel rooms are booked as single, double, or triple occupancy. In San Pedro Sula, where teams fly in and out, hotel rooms are only booked as singles or doubles. 

Organizing things in a way to optimize resources and productivity is a skill that is often overlooked. But it is one of Rachel’s great talents. She said, “I can’t build buildings, but I can build spreadsheets!” 

 - posted by Christi