CFCA-Kansas staffers reach new heights in travel days

You wake up. It’s 4 a.m. and you need to leave for the airport soon to catch your flight to another continent.

Rama John, right, with Rogelio, a chieftain of the Filipino Dumagat community.

This is life on the road for our international programs team.

In 2012, 24 international team members from our Kansas headquarters traveled a total of 918 days. That equates to more than two-and-a-half years of combined travel!

The team is dedicated to making sure the Hope for a Family program is serving CFCA sponsored friends and their families in the best possible way.

Sometimes, that means spending time away from their own families to visit those in the field.

We spoke with Rama John, CFCA international financial auditor, who traveled a total of 92 days in 2012!

Q. How do you tend to family needs when you travel for CFCA?

A. I think the most important thing to remember relating to family and work is COMMUNICATION. This is absolutely essential between loved ones and friends, as well as team members here in Kansas and within our project teams around the world.

If there is good communication, all things can be accomplished.

Q. How do you stay in touch with family when you are away for long periods?

A. Sometimes it is hard to plan too far in advance, so often we need to use our online resources.

Those resources include email and Skype, which has been a lifesaver for me to communicate with my family and with CFCA staff members around the world.

I’m very grateful for these tools. We also have wonderful staff support from our co-workers in Kansas so that these tools don’t fail while we are traveling.

Q. What does your family think about the time you spend away from home?

A. I could not do it without the help of my family.

My family believes in what we are trying to do here at CFCA — helping those in need to rise above the conditions they live in and the daily struggles they face to change their futures for themselves and their families.

I’m very grateful to be a part of that.

I hope that one day I might have the opportunity to take my son on a CFCA awareness trip so he can see what we see, experience what we experience and maybe it will change his life.

We are so blessed to live where we live and to have so many opportunities that many others do not have.