Hello! December 2010
As I sat down to write this month’s update, the question dawned on me, how many of you actually know what I do, specifically, at Word Made Flesh? Hopefully I’ve made it clear by now that I am the staff accountant at WMF’s International office in Omaha, Nebraska, but many of you may not know what an accountant for a non-profit does on a day-to-day basis. So without further introduction, A Day in the Life of Jeff…
I walk into Word Made Flesh’s downtown Omaha office at roughly 8:55am Monday through Friday. After switching on my computer and grabbing a cup of coffee, it’s time to gather with co-workers for our morning prayer and devotional. This includes reading Scripture and reflections from Henri Nouwen and Oscar Romero. From there, it is only a few steps to my desk where the day’s work is waiting.
My first objective is to go through the email inbox and respond to any inquiries or tend to any mail that needs my attention. Depending on the day, I will have had contact with WMF staff from any or all of our twelve international fields by day’s end. Some of the things that our staff come to me for help with are financial reimbursements, receipts from purchases, support account updates, and general financial questions. After sifting through my inbox, I move to the stack of mail sitting on my desk. This means that it’s time to pay bills and credit card statements, or reconcile one of our bank accounts.
Sometime around noon, everyone in the office pauses for a half hour to come together and enjoy our lunch. (On most days I pack a lunch or bring leftovers.) I love that we take a break from our respective jobs and commune with each other over a meal. It’s certainly a highlight of each day!
Afternoons consist of whatever work I haven’t completed from the morning, and also larger projects. My projects are generally focused on ways to improve our accounting process and thus help the administration department function in a more efficient manner.
Some of my tasks that happen less frequently but still fall under my responsibility are sending funds to any of our fields, preparing financial reports, doing monthly payroll, filing government and tax documents, and coming up with ways to make the administration department function more efficiently.
Every day I’m grateful for the opportunity to use the gifts God has blessed me with to serve people all around the world! And it’s because of the prayer and financial support from friends and family like you that I’m able to serve with Word Made Flesh. I am currently half way to my monthly financial support goals (praise God!), but am still in need of about $1,000 in monthly commitments. If you are willing, I would ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting me at Word Made Flesh. Thank you for your consideration!
Have a blessed Holiday Season!
Sincerely,
Jeff Swart