What do you do at SIM?
This August marks my 10-year anniversary of joining SIM UK as the Mobiliser (now known as ‘Mission Journey Coordinators’) for the Central & South-West England region.
Over time, my responsibilities have gradually changed and expanded; most notably over the past five years as others moved on from the organisation and I absorbed aspects of their previous roles. I’m now the Head of Mission Personnel & People Care and part of the SIM UK Leadership team.
I still have responsibilities as a Mission Journey Coordinator to some of our mission workers but am particularly excited that we’re in the process of appointing a new person to whom I’ll hand over specific responsibilities for mission workers from the Central & South-West England region.
This will create significant capacity for me. I’m thankful I’ll still be (and even more so) available to the workers I’ve journeyed with over the past 10 years, just with a different hat on, as well as getting to know workers I haven’t yet been able to connect with as much.
What does your job look like day-to-day?
My job’s evolved significantly since 2015, but still has a mix of responsibilities woven in from my former roles, so my day-to-day job is very varied depending on which hat I’m wearing!
For the group of workers I’m still responsible for as their Mission Journey Coordinator, this means being the first point of contact and care for all things related to their assignments; ensuring a good partnership with their sending churches; debriefing them on Home Assignments and working with their receiving teams to ensure they’re well supported throughout their time with us.
As Head of Mission Personnel & People Care, this involves line managing several of the Mission Journey Coordinators and Mission Journey Administrators, as well as our Families Advisor, Health Coordinator and Missions Trainer. I’m responsible for providing leadership to both teams, ensuring they have the clear processes and resources needed to serve our workers as well as possible and to fulfil the responsibilities specific to their roles.
Within that, it’s my job to ensure that we’re working in line with SIM International principles and practices and attend regular learning and discussion groups with others involved in personnel roles across the global SIM community to nurture collaboration and strong relationships.
I’m available to the whole team and to all our mission workers for any advice, support, or consultation needed. This is often in more complex personnel/placement/people care matters.
I spend a lot of my time in Zoom meetings, either in 1-2-1s with my team members, colleagues, or mission workers, but I love it when I get to travel and meet people in-person, particularly for interviews and debriefs. That’s always a highlight!
As part of the SIM UK Leadership team, I work with other team heads to ensure we’re as joined up as we can be in the support we provide to the workers and churches we serve. We meet regularly as a leadership team to discuss and address our operational and strategic needs and goals, working closely with our Board of Trustees to do this.
What makes you passionate about working for SIM?
We’re a team that has a sincere heart to learn and grow and glorify God. The past few years have been hard and there’s been a lot of uncertainty and change. Trials and transitions are never straightforward, but one thing that hasn’t changed in the 10 years I’ve been part of SIM, is the fervent passion for making the gospel message of Jesus known.
It’s a privilege to be part of that and it keeps me going in the challenges. We’ve such an amazing group of mission workers to support and serve and I’m constantly humbled and encouraged by the gracious and courageous way they serve the Lord. To get to walk part of the journey with them is such a delight.
How have you seen God working through your job?
It’s just a joy to see people follow the call on their lives from tentative explorations of mission, through to flourishing in their work overseas. It’s exciting to get to encourage, equip, and support that journey and to see how God’s at work in their lives through the role our team plays in facilitating mission service.
Equally, when it’s hard and our people are tired and bruised, to be trusted to be ‘in’ that with them, providing a listening ear, standing with them in prayer, and seeing God use this team to bring reassurance, comfort and advice is also precious.
In what ways do you continue your ministry in life outside of work?
I’m part of All Saints Worcester alongside my husband Luke. We’re plugged in there, leading a life group, helping to run monthly prayer gatherings as part of the prayer leadership team, and we’re both in the Creative and Worship team where I play guitar in the band on a regular basis. We’re passionate about authentic community and practising this in meaningful ways, big and small, throughout the week.
Outside of the Christian bubble of work and church, I’m part of two community football groups run by Worcester City Women FC. I play in a mixed men and women’s group on Friday nights and a ladies’ only group on Saturday mornings.
I love the combination of sport and building relationships with people of all sorts of age, life backgrounds and perspectives, whose paths I might never otherwise have crossed! It’s a missional opportunity to be salt and light and be a witness to Jesus.
How can we pray for you?
- for sensitivity and wisdom to share faith with my footballing friends;
- for stamina and dependence on God as I lead the team, which can sometimes feel overwhelming when I look at everything we need and want to do over the coming weeks, months, and years;
- for this season of training and handover to the new Mission Journey Coordinator and for them as they settle in and build relationships with the team and our workers from the Central & South-West region.