This is a great week at IMM. We welcome Matt Nelsen on board to the office on a regular basis. Matt and Rachel arrived last December and have been primarily in language school, even though we've asked them for help from time to time.
In addition, we are moving from a top down structure to a lead team structure. Matt is going to take the production team lead. It will be a big learning curve to sort out all the programming we have available in a variety of languages as well as organize new production that will keep us moving forward on new products. Of course this isn't all Matt will do. He's a certified professional in Final Cut Pro, so he will be very busy with editing projects also.
Tom Khazoyan, one of our Denver team members, is going to field training requests and help coordinate as the team lead of training for the next year or so. No one on the team gets to wear just one hat. Tom also does editing and writing among other production skills. This week in fact, Tom is in Turkey doing training on guerrilla media tactics for people that don't have all the gear but want to impact their culture for Christ with video pieces. He is teaching people how to tell stories that impact hearts with the tools at their fingertips.
Henry Marsh is a team member based in the USA. He's in the process of raising a new budget and will be team leader of distribution. Pray his budget comes together soon! We really need his help. Henry will field requests for products we have and help network with other ministries to do new language versions to minister in more and more countries. Henry has already started doing liaison work with various offices or national district officials even while he's working on his budget. Henry will also be involved in training, production, marketing, and recruitment of personnel. In fact, one young man Henry talked to is coming to intern this summer.
Elena Monzon, who had a long career at American Express before joining us in Spain, has already been here a number of years and is team leader of office and operations. She also does finance and hospitality. She and her husband Guillermo, our building manager, help us to be able to put our energies into doing the video work rather than making sure the facilities are functional. This is an urgent matter of prayer--they will be leaving at the end of this year and we don't have replacements yet.
By moving these various areas off the plate of the IMM director, I will be able to focus more on expanding the support base of the ministry, communicating with donors, and finding funds for projects. I will still be able to write scripts and do some production as well from time to time. I'm working on the script of Tamar: A Life Recovered right now.
We have a new couple starting the Missionary Training process this week too. Hallelujah! It's beautiful to see the hand of God at work in our lives bringing us together as a team.
It's interesting how God prepares us for things we don't know are coming. All our team leads and all our IMMers can look back and see how God built skills into them through job experience or hobbies that have become key components of their work today.