Time for a reboot

Well, it's been almost 5 years since my last blog post, but today, I'm giving it a reboot!

My main reason for rebooting is that I want to use this blog, "Speaking Hope" to record my thoughts and some pictures as I walk the Camino de Santiago beginning May 18, 2018.

The Camino de Santiago, known in English as the Way of Saint James, is a network of pilgrims' ways serving to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwestern Spain. Many follow its routes as a form of spiritual path or retreat for their spiritual growth.

I've been planning this pilgrimage for several years as I've been interested in the journey since my good friend, Andrew Collins, walked the Camino in 2008. Like Andrew, I'm walking the Frances route, beginning in St. Jean Pied de Port and taking 31 days to reach Santiago de Compostela.

I've been thinking about this pilgrimage for a number of years and, I've been planning my May start for about one year. As well, I've been training for about six months. Now that my start date is under a month, I'm getting excited to begin.

You can join me on the journey via this blog, and I'll post pictures on my Instagram account under my username, 'neilostrander'.

BTW, I shot the sunset picture on my phone while visiting my Brother-in-Law's, Boat Lake ON cottage.

Customer Service is Not a Department via Change This

Customer Service is Not a Department: Realy? 

It’s also not a complaint desk, or a website, or a phone number, or an option on a phone menu. Nor is it a task or a chore. It’s the responsibility of everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the lowest-ranking front line employee. In effect, everyone in the company is a customer service rep, because each of them has some impact on the customer’s experience.

As an executive, you may never see or speak to a customer, but you model how they should be treated with every interaction you have, with vendors, creditors, suppliers, and especially your employees. Treat everyone with sincerity and respect and it will trickle down to your customers.

For more insights check out Change This

Why You Need an Empty Chair at Important Meetings

Why You Need an Empty Chair at Important Meetings:

It’s widely known that Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, frequently leaves one open seat at the company’s most important meetings. It’s there to remind his fellow executives and managers of the most important person in the room—the customer.

Forbes reports that Amazon tracks its performance against five hundred measurable goals. Nearly 80 percent relate to customer objectives.
But if the people at the meeting don’t have cultural intelligence, it’s unlikely the chair will be of much benefit. The participants will simply assume the person represented by the empty chair values what they do. And if everyone in the meeting comes from the same cultural background, it’s going to be tough to get a grasp of preferences and opinions of the customer.
So go ahead and add an empty chair to your most important meetings. But don’t stop with that. To make the most of this creative practice, follow these “empty chair” guidelines:
1. Break the Golden Rule: Remind everyone in the meeting that their own values and perspectives can’t be applied to all customers. Treating everyone with kindness and respect is an aspect of the Golden Rule we can all embrace. But there are a thousand different interpretations of what kindness and respect look like, largely shaped by one’s cultural background. It’s an elementary point, but one that is quickly forgotten: Don’t assume everyone wants what you want.
2. Focus: Most of our organizations aren’t trying to become the earth’s largest retail machine (a.k.a. Amazon). So who is the primary target related to today’s conversation? Who isn’t? How much do you know about them? The days of mass marketing are long over. Every choice is a renunciation. To focus on one type of customer is to renounce a thousand others. What are the specific needs and desires of this target audience and how will today’s agenda address those?
3. Perspective-Taking: The empty chair assumes people in the meeting are adept at perspective-taking: the ability to step outside their own experience and imagine the perceptions and motivations of another. This means being able to predict:

• What does our customer (or prospective customer) value?
• What’s going on in her mind?
• What would she say about the ideas we’re discussing right now?

As you improve CQ Knowledge—an understanding of how culture influences the way people think and behave—your team can more accurately predict the perspective of culturally diverse customers. And this understanding needs to be based upon empirical research. Avoid letting meeting participants describe the behaviors of all teenagers based upon their child’s behavior or declaring what Indian women think based upon what their friend is like. What does research reveal about the dominant norms among these various subcultures?
4. Adjust Perspectives: Make this a dynamic, ongoing process. Based upon further observations, emerging trends, and real-life interactions with customers, move beyond broad assumptions to more specific insights about your target group. Norms about Hispanic men, Chinese-American women, or millennials provide a good hypothesis for predicting what these customers will want. But be open to adapting those insights.  And find ways to fill the chair with live customers from time-to-time to get their first hand input.
The obsession to understand the customer gives Amazon the confidence to innovate freely without fretting about short-term results. Bezos says. “We don’t focus on the optics of the next quarter; we focus on what is going to be good for customers.”
Without cultural intelligence, there’s little benefit from adopting this Amazon practice. But an empty chair + cultural intelligence is a smart, strategic way to keep your meetings focused on the most important people your organization exists to serve.

The Kenyan connection to the Boston Marathon via Gary Cymbaluck

The Kenyan connection to the Boston Marathon.:

Kenyan Rita Jeptoo reacts after crossing the finish line

From the Christian Science Monitor:

When it comes to the modern Boston Marathon, no country has closer ties to "Beantown" than Kenya. Since 1988, Kenyans have won the men's race 20 times and the women's race 10, gracefully loping across the Boylston Street finish line in what now seems a nearly automatic "first" for the East African country.

So it is not surprising in wake of Monday's unsolved bombings that the Kenyan public is slightly shocked, but also that Kenyan athletes and runners have rallied. In emotional statements and press events, the marathoner community here is urging unity against the attacks, and calling for participation in London's upcoming marathon as a protest on behalf of the human spirit.

“I urge all athletes to go to London with confidence. They should not fear. Sports are more powerful," said Paul Tergat, who held the marathon world record between 2003 and 2007.

Mr. Tergat told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper that runners should not be intimidated and said the London marathon on Sunday should be turned into a display of the power of sports and its unifying factor. "Let’s pull together and shame the people who targeted innocent fans in Boston."
In Kenya, as has become traditional on the third Monday of April, citizens were glued to the television, keenly following and cheering the race as marathoners went down familiar grass-lined suburban streets before reaching the downtown finish line.

This year's defending men's champion, Kenyan Welsey Korir – now a member of Parliament – placed fifth in the race, while another Kenyan, Micah Kogo, came second.

Kenya's Rita Cheptoo took first in the women's race, her second victory since 2006, and celebrations broke out in Eldoret town, the hub of Kenya’s long distance running.

Nearly three hours later, after Ms. Cheptoo had left the scene, two explosions close to the finish line killed three people and injured 140 more.

“It is very sad some people decided to attack the world’s oldest marathon. We condemn the act," says James Kattam, Ms. Cheptoo's coach at the administrative police unit athletics team. "However, this is unlikely dampen our running spirit because Kenyans love athletics.”

David Leting, Kenya's national marathon coach, added that, “there is some fear among some of our athletes … but I want to assure all that we shall participate in all marathons as we have done before. We have already also been assured of security.”

He was referring to the London marathon set for next Sunday, which race organizers have said will take place despite the attacks in Boston.

The attacks have reminded us that we should give special interest to security during future international marathons, says Douglas Wakiihuri, the first Kenyan marathoner to win the world championship, in 1987.

“We never stopped competing and I would like to urge all runners not to panic [but] they should also remain very cautious about their security,” says Mr. Wakiihuri, who now mentors young athletes.

New Refugee House for Winnipeg

Winnipeg will soon be home to an International Teams Canada refugee housing community. Tim Nielsen of City Connexions Winnipeg says that the new house will provide much-needed temporary housing for many of the refugees expected to arrive in Winnipeg over the next few years. "We have a number of very strong private sponsorship programs going here in Winnipeg. Canadian churches won't be sponsoring any new refugees in 2012 due to a cap implemented by the government to try to clear up an application backlog, but we expect quite a few of the backlog will be coming here. The need for housing in Winnipeg is greater than ever."

City Connexions, along with a private foundation committed to paying the bulk of the mortgage, are in the process of making an offer to purchase a house that was formerly operated by another ministry as a halfway house. Tim and the rest of the planning team are confident it is an ideal fit for their needs. "It's a 9 bedroom house with lots of flexibility in its layout. The renovations on the home completed by the previous owners were all very well done in terms of safety. Right now, we're in the process of hiring a potential director. We're also in the process of developing our programs, philosophy of ministry, procedures, and budget. A lot of the details are still in development, but we expect the home will open in the fall."

Tim says that as they work out the purchase of the home and their strategy for the coming months, prayer and financial support are their greatest needs. "We're very grateful for the foundation's money, but still need to raise approximately $50,000 each year to support the costs above and beyond the mortgage, plus some additional funds to cover furniture, kitchen supplies, paint, and some renovations. We would also appreciate prayer for wisdom in developing the structure and programs, that our financial needs would be met, and that God will open the door for solid partnerships with local churches. We want to find churches to be behind the ministry, to send their people to serve at the house and be a key part of it."

To learn more about City Connexions Winnipeg or to make a financial gift in support of the new refugee home, click here.

Kosova Albanians: By David Field

I saw this great post on David's blog and thought I'd share with you! 

Although there are not any Kosova Refugees in the camp (Refugee Camp in Austria) anymore I still have a special place in my heart for them. Following on from 'What people think I do' series. Here are the Albanians

The Sanctuary: A Place of Hope

For the former street kids living at The Sanctuary in Jinja, Uganda, a group home gives them more than just a safe place to sleep – it gives them access to education and vocational training with the power to truly transform their lives.

Founded by Henry Wanjala in partnership with Melissa Maertens and Tom Dale, The Sanctuary is a project of International Teams Canada's Impact Uganda program. In 2008, Henry was a high school student working at an internet cafe in Jinja when he happened to meet Melissa, a young Canadian woman volunteering in Uganda with Give International. During her visit, Melissa befriended a small group of street kids and was inspired upon her return to Canada to raise funds for them to attend school. After Henry met Tom, the idea for The Sanctuary was born, and the three worked together to make it a reality. Starting with just Henry and 5 boys in a 3-room house, the group home now houses 15 boys on a larger property.

Henry says the group home gives the boys a chance to break the cycle of poverty that traps kids who live on the streets. "For many of them, their parents don't believe in education. Some of them are addicted to alcohol or glue sniffing. If they weren't living at The Sanctuary, the boys would be marrying young and having kids they can't take care of, kids that would end up on the streets themselves. But our volunteers tutor them, advise them, and teach them about God. In addition to sending them to school, we are also training them in practical life skills so they can take over their own care at a certain point. They're motivated and transformed and our hope is they can turn around and transform their communities as well."

Tom, now Chair of the Board of Directors for The Sanctuary, says that their most pressing need is for regular monthly donors, which helps them to budget effectively in the face of Uganda's high inflation rate. "Food and rent have doubled in cost, and many of the boys are now in high school, which means higher tuition fees. Our yearly budget has almost doubled as a result. We're praying that God will send people who will catch the vision, and encourage us as well as encourage the boys we're working with in Jinja."

Henry's dream is to someday provide a home for 100 boys. To help make his vision a reality, visit their website and click How Do I Get Involved? in the main menu.

Give Hope - One Christmas Gift at a Time!

For many people in Canada, there is often a feeling of conflict between what Christmas should be about – sharing the joy of Jesus’ birth and the Christmas story, connecting with family and friends – and the reality of the season.

It is stressful and busy, and everything is further complicated by the need to find the time and money to shop for gifts that aren’t always needed or used. Last year, as a possible solution to this problem, ITCA created a Christmas catalogue filled with items designed to simplify gift-giving and support International Teams programs at the same time. The catalogue contained everything from ice cream for orphans and high school tuition for teenagers to vocational training for widows and bicycles for pastors.

Philip Sheldon, Canadian Team Leader for Impact Kenya (PACE), says that the catalogue allowed them to do something special for the large number of orphans attending PACE Academy. “The catalogue funds allowed us to buy special foods for the children in December. One of the most purchased items was the $5 gift of bread and milk at the Victory Nursery School in Maina. We were going to be short for January because of a drop in our regular donations, but these small gifts were enough to enable us to continue until our regular donors came back.”

One of ITCA’s regular supporters emailed to share how an article about the catalogue in the December issue of Momentum resonated with her. “I really loved your article. I’m at a point where I can honestly say that I hate Christmas. Last year, I hated it but still wasn’t able to say it out loud and this year I’m dreading it. I’m dreading the shopping, the wrapping, the decorating, the traffic, the noise, the people, the expectations, and the disappointments. It’s too much and I just want to close my eyes and make it all go away. Reading your article made me feel like maybe there’s hope... it inspired me to think of ways to simplify Christmas.”

Simplifying Christmas can be as easy as visiting our website at http://catalogue.iteams.ca during the holiday season and choosing one or more of the many unique items in the catalogue, such as Bibles for pastors in Sudan, juice for a family-style dinner at Welcome Home, tuition for a former street kid in Rwanda, or baby chicks for widows in Kenya.

The 2011 Christmas catalogue – new and improved, with many options to give genuine hope in tangible ways – was launched in mid-November and we would love for you to join us in Giving Hope, one holiday gift at a time.

New Online Services Department Makes Online Giving Easy

Chris Fane

International Teams Canada's new Online Services Department is an exciting step forward for ITCA's head office infrastructure, one that Neil Ostrander, CEO, believes will provide increased opportunities for genuine engagement with ITCA's people and programs.

ITCA's total revenue has more than doubled in the past three years, an increase that he says was driven in large part by programs, people, projects, and teams leveraging online services as more donors choose the convenience, reliability, and security of donating online. "We created the Online Services Department this summer and gave it a focused mandate to grow our donor support and partnerships by simplifying the online donation process and empowering leaders and teams to tell their stories. We believe that the new tools we have access to can help engage our supporters and get them truly excited about giving."

The new team operates under the leadership of Chris Fane, previously a sub-contractor for ITCA who brings a wealth of real-world web, graphics, and branding experience to the role, as well as a unique perspective on user experience and usability.

Chris says that his primary focus in the new role is on making sure the stories of ITCA's missionaries, staff, and indigenous leaders are being told. He believes that leveraging online tools is a great way to supplement the various offline ways those stories are currently being shared. "This role helps both donors and fundraisers from beginning to end by streamlining our process. We can help people who are raising funds by giving them the resources they need to communicate their vision for the project, as well as the tools they need to come back to the donors after the experience and communicate that story effectively. We're also making better use of donor dollars and scaling back the number and frequency of print materials by giving our supporters the opportunity to receive updates via email, Facebook, and our website."

Chris believes the best barometer for the success of the new department is the comfort level of ITCA's donors with the new technology. "We'll know we've done our job when everybody has a great experience using the online tools, because we've made it accessible and easy to use for everyone, regardless of their familiarity with online giving. Everything is a work in progress, so we're always looking for feedback. We want our donors to tell us what works for them!"

Stay tuned to our website for further enhancements to the online donation system. To share feedback, please email Chris directly.