Paperclips to billions

When we were considering taking this role one of the reasons we were excited about it, was that I would continue to have challenging work in the accounting arena and get to participate in the ministry that happens on this ship. But when we talked about it, we spent most of the time talking about what the ministry does. I would certainly let people know what I would be doing, but there really weren’t very many questions or discussions came up about the actual finance director position. I was not surprised by that nor hurt or anything like that. I know accounting and finance is not the world’s most entertaining subject, except to people who do what I do (and maybe not even then).  Admittedly, my job at the mine was pretty boring except for getting to talk about the cool machinery I got to be around all the time.

That being said, I really had no idea what my job would entail when we were preparing to come. Turns out I get to be involved in a ton of things. Things that have many numbers, some that have just a little to do with finance and some that have nothing at all to do with finance and accounting. I have been asked the best part of my job several times and I am never quite sure what to say, because I still don’t know exactly what my job is from day to day. I have said, the best part of this is the finance and sales staff. They take my ideas and make them reality. Most of the things up here I am just involved in the ideas and others actually get them done. They serve without notice and I am so blessed to serve along-side them.

So now that my role has a little more excitement, we thought we would let you in a little bit on some of the things I have done in the last 45 days that somehow fall under the category of finance director.

Check writer - Wrote a letter requesting bank to pay our fuel provider. 3,900,000,000 (3.9 billion, yes that’s billion) Guinea Franc. I control all of that!!!!

Banking – received 280,000,000 Guinea Franc (about $40,000). It was delivered to the ship in 2 laundry baskets.

Payroll – Processed payments for our 200 day workers (once every two weeks). 

Personal Financial consultant - Helped our West African crew organize their finances, so they could attend the Gateway course in Ghana. (Gateway is the course new crew take as part of joining Mercy Ships, similar to what Tracey and I did in Texas in June and July of 2012).

Tax Consultant - Helped friends on the ship with taxes and W4s

Financials – Designed a new layout of our departmental financials to give a little more information to our managers (had lots of help from other finance staff on this as well)

Inventory and Supplies - Organized inventories of our ship shop and hospital supplies.

Sales – Worked with our sales manager on ideas to help have the ship shop and café open more hours. Also worked on the procuring of a new coke machine, so crew could have access to soda (or pop, or soda pop, or coke or soft drinks, or whatever you wish to call it) outside of the hours the café is open.

Office Supplies – Reorganized our office supply process. Went to the supply store to get some paper clips, laminating sheets and other stuff.

Customs - Visited our agent about 3 times or so in order to get about 10 boxes that had been held up in customs. Some for over a month.  Also helped get a container here that had been held up for a week.

Diplomat? – Went to the Marine House at the US Embassy to watch the Super Bowl. Got back to the ship at 430am.

Interior Decorator - Thought up a plan to make layout of our finance offices and supply closet more efficient. The staff actually took my ideas and made them reality, much better than I could have dreamt up.

Welcoming Party- Part of the group that welcomed the FIFA president Sepp Blatter on board during a stopover he made in Guinea (FIFA is the governing body of world soccer).

Preacher? - Was the speaker at one of our Thursday community gatherings. Profit and Loss was the topic and was generally about the post I did about Monday Night Football in Guinea. For all my accountant friends, I used T accounts in the talk and an excel spreadsheet was the slide background.

Dental - Helped organize dental appointments for some of the people at the bank we use here in Guinea.

Hospital - Attended a dress ceremony for our VVF ladies and gave a gift to one of them as part of the proceedings.

Surgery? - Gave blood that was used in an emergency surgery at 3 am. That was pretty cool.

Food Service – Gave ice cream out to the crew after one of our community gatherings.

Blessed - Met a family that takes care of 19 kids in their three bedroom house (see last post)

Travel Agent – Helped Tracey buy tickets to come home this summer. Yeehaw!

The best story is I ended one day by writing that payment request I mentioned for all that money. In the morning that day, I was helping the staff know how to get some paper clips in town. The full gambit.

Who said, being a finance director was going to be boring?