Rachel Moss has been on ServLife’s USA staff the longest, at 8 years, and serves as our Office Manager. Heather Reid has been a volunteer, intern, part time staff and this August has become our Donor Relations Assistant. They sat down and interviewed each other about their jobs, hobbies and global destinations.
What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
Heather: I’ve had pretty normal jobs, but I did house sit for people who had a pet skunk and they told me to feed it cheese, and I was terrified of it.
What is your favorite part about working for ServLife?
Rachel: For me, definitely the ministries all the pastors and families and kids we serve in India and Nepal. All those make it worth it. …I like that our office culture isn’t ‘oh we’re at work now,’ it’s real life. People have bad days and people have good days and I’ve always felt supported. We want you because you’re you, not solely because of what you can do.
Which of ServLife’s three ministries-pastor training, children’s program, and microfinance-make you the most excited?
Heather: The microfinance program. For my capstone I studied microfinance. I think it’s something that seeks a long term solution to a problem that humans haven’t totally decided if there is a solution to. I like that it is empowering to people. I like how involved they get to be in choosing their own path.
What is your favorite book and who inspires you?
Rachel: I don’t have any specific individuals who inspire me, but the types of people who inspire me are the ones who do hard things whether mentally or physically that is outside of the realm of us mere mortals. Seeing somebody who does something outside of themselves and most of the time they were thankful for their experiences. Like the authors of the Oxford English Dictionary, it took them 71 years. They sent out a newspaper ad for people to send in big or unusual words. The guy in the psychiatric ward loved books and contributed a lot of the words and the professor wrote the definitions. There’s a book, The Professor and the Madman, one of my favorite books and it makes you want to read the dictionary. I’m also inspired by things that are creative and new, so the time and magnitude of work. That book combines two of my favorite things.
Heather, you’ll be starting a new position with ServLife, tell us about that, and what in the new job that you’re excited about.
Heather: So my new position will be a combination of the position I’ve held for a year and a completely new position. My new role will be Donor Relations Assistant, which is a combination of the Executive Assistant position I’ve been filling for the last year and Sponsorship Coordinator which is a completely new facet.
I’m excited to not have my attention divided. Last year I was working and going to school, so I could only be giving my attention to my work for the 10 hours a week I was clocked in, but now working for ServLife will be my main thing. I’m also looking forward to going back to Nepal in November. I haven’t been since 2015 and this will be my third trip. Visiting Nepal the second time was felt like visiting an old friend. It was cool that I got to go a second time and now I’ll be going a third time and I expect that feeling to compound.
If you could visit anywhere in the world you’ve never been, where would you go?
Rachel: I really want to visit Antarctica. I watched a documentary about it a few years back, Antarctica: A Year on Ice. You maybe be wondering why… it’s not an open country; you have to have specific reasons to go. I’m not a scientist so I don’t have that going for me. But it’s a town with a food store. You either stay for 6 months or a year. Once winter hits, there’s no outside connection. The thing that makes me want to go is for the 6 months in the dark, you get to see the stars and it’s just beautiful and people read quite a bit because there’s nothing else to do. The only downside is you can’t bring any kids and I have two, so 20 years from now maybe I’ll go.
How have you been able to see God work in you during your journey from volunteer, to intern, to staff member?
Heather: God knew I would be here. Even three years ago when I was just coming back from Nepal I just thought ‘that was cool’ but God knew it would be a part of something bigger. The summer after my trip when I interned, I could look back and say ‘oh I see how that trip helped me get this internship,’ which is important for college students, but God knew that even that wasn’t the whole picture. This has been an ever unfolding adventure. Even when you don’t know or see or feel like God’s moving, he always is. Most of the isolated events in our lives aren’t just isolated events. God’s orchestrating this whole thing. I couldn’t have estimated the impact that trip in 2015 would have on my life at the time.
Rachel, what is your role with ServLife, and which program makes you the most excited?
Rachel: I’ve been with ServLife for 8 years. Now I am Office Manager. I take care of all our accounting and bookkeeping. I help manage some staff, volunteers and interns. I manage our database and help out whenever anyone has questions.
I love how the three different parts of ServLife work together, but I have a heart for kids. This past spring we had a number of students graduate, some who have been in the program for 12 plus years accomplish something they otherwise couldn’t is exciting for me. Getting to see them fulfill the potential that God has given them with the help of ServLife is why is one reason I keep coming back to work.
What is your favorite part about working for ServLife?
Heather: This is a good staff. We get stuff done; people care about their jobs and work with such great integrity; they care about this organization and the people they work with. I didn’t know I wanted to work with a nonprofit in college, but I really came to love ServLife and the staff was definitely a part of that for me.
My 95 year-old grandma passed away at the end of last month, and it has hit me harder than I expected. She was an amazing role model and the matriarch of our family. She had the elegance of a queen and treated everyone like royalty. Her retirement was anything but, as she daily served her church and family. As her church transitioned from hymns to rock choruses, and an old, traditional building to a new modern building, she was leading the charge and continued to serve in the children’s ministry until she was no longer able.
I am convinced that everyone needs to meet this blessed Savior, and only He can make us whole. Thank you for joining ServLife in sharing the hope and restorative love of Jesus around the world. Your generous service has helped start new churches, send children to school and provide small business loans for families. Your support and service is a shout of praise and an investment in God’s kingdom.
ServLife launched our work training pastors and caring for children in India over twenty years ago, and this July our India partner will pursue independence as a self sustaining ministry. Last June 2017, our Executive Director travelled to India solely to meet with our India partner, led by Albert Das, and his family and staff. He was joined by a missions pastor from California, who has been a long time partner and supporter of ServLife’s work in India. They all met and put together a unified plan for this transition, and summarized their conclusion in this way:
