This week we spent our time figuring out how to make our transfer
processes better. Last week, we did
okay. By that I mean everyone got to
where they needed to go, with keys, a companion, and a bed to sleep in, although
I did end up with an extra pillow after all, so I’m not sure everyone had a
pillow that night. But we were
unsatisfied with our social distancing.
It seems the in-field missionaries were too casual in their willingness
to get out of their cars, congregate, and take too much time in getting the
work of the transfer done (there is a lot of exchanging of information, keys,
phones, people, cars, etc.). This
created some amount of confusion when the newly arrived missionaries came, and
President and Sister Bell were concerned that there was more social interaction
than was healthy under the COVID-19 circumstances we are in.
We had been conducting the transfers in the parking lot of the mission
office during the last couple of months during evening hours. No one was working at the office park
anyway. And the Frontenac church
building where transfers traditionally have been held is right next to the city
offices and public safety officials. It
just didn’t feel right to look like we were flaunting the “no meeting” rules by
having lots of cars and missionaries descend on the church, putting at least
our reputation at risk. Curiously, we
decided to have a staff meeting at the Frontenac building, for several reasons,
not least to take a closer look at the facilities and whether we might want to
start moving our transfers back there.
But we were still a bit concerned for appearance sake. When we arrived at the Frontenac building for
our staff meeting, to our surprise, the parking lot was jammed with fire engines,
police cars, ambulances, and too many first responders and city officials to
count. What was going on here? Whatever it was, we noted that the city
didn’t seem to have much worry about congregating at the church or careful
social distancing. That relieved our
concerns about conducting transfers there.
I was still perplexed about what was going on though. Later that night, I learned that like many
places around the country, there was a special air force flyover of St Louis in
honor of the brave caregivers. (I think
it was a formation of KC-130 refueling tankers manufactured by Boeing here in
St Louis). And wouldn’t you know, I saw
a bird’s eye photo of the Frontenac church:
the first responders had used our large parking lot to space their first
responder vehicles in huge block letters spelling out the word HOPE as a part
of the honorary flyby. This was an
effort not at all apparent to us when we arrived for our meeting!
Sister Hatfield with all here organizational skill, had been ruminating
and putting on paper ideas on how to standardize, streamline, and make our
transfer process more safe in the COVID environment. I finally caught her vision. So then working together, we came up with
checklists for each type of missionary coming through the transfer: those just arriving, companions of those just
arriving, and missionaries transferring in-field without involvement of a new
missionary. We went through many drafts,
small meetings to build consensus, physical layout planning, stations, color
schemes, cones, parking zones, and considerations and elements too many to
mention. Everyone would know their
job! I am tempted to, because it really
was a monumental effort, but I will spare you any further details. (Just let me know if you want color copies of
the various missionary transfer checklists.)
Finally, on Friday, May 15th we had one more staff meeting to
get last inputs, make some adjustments, and be ready. We will make good use of our detailed
planning in the weeks to come.
It should be said that all of this may seem very engineering like, and
it certainly had those elements, but it also was quite difficult. The COVID environment takes its toll not only
on those that suffer physically, but the emotional deprivations of social
distancing showed themselves in our transfers and transfer planning more than
any other of our experiences so far. Our
goal was to keep already isolated missionaries, including ourselves,
continuously isolated through the transfer process. So while they might see fellow laborers in
the vineyard, they were to be kept from enjoying anything but a wave from a
distance. That is hard. More, for those of us doing the planning and
execution, there was plenty of strain as we tried to find processes that suited
everyone, when each had a different perspective on what would work and the most
important objectives. We will all be
happy when we find a normalcy that feels more human.
In the midst of this transfer work, there was regular housing to work
on. We worked hard to ready the St
Charles North apartment for missionaries, hanging closet doors that of course
had been removed, unclogging a drain, tightening the kitchen faucet,
lubricating the door lock, and bringing clean bedding, all of which becomes
common place. I got a call from the
sisters in Lake St Louis that their washer stopped working. We had an extra one in inventory, so we took
it out to them. It only took one extra
trip to Lowe’s for a replacement drain hose that was long enough to reach. The sisters were grateful, and we always
enjoy the Spirit in our departing prayers with the missionaries as we leave
them.
Saturday, May 16th was different. We didn’t feel the need to clean an apartment
for the first time in a long time for our preparation day. Mitchell and Patric had purchased us a
membership to the venerable St Louis Botanical Gardens, but now that the
weather was good enough to go, everything public is closed. We decided to go check out the gardens
anyway. Sure enough, the entrance had a
closed sign, but we were able to slip in the delivery driveway to take a
peek. We could see this was a place we
would enjoy when the time came. But the
security guard on the golf cart was making sure we did not get too close just
yet. Because it is set in a fairly quiet
part of town, it has a sidewalk all around it’s several block size. We parked the car and walk the perimeter,
peering in where possible. We were surprised
when we made it around to the original gates that it was established in 1859. Henry Shaw had come from England up the river
to the city of St Louis to seek his fortunes 40 years before and his success
allowed him to give a grand gift to the city and its residents. RaDene and I thought about our own ancestors
that were immigrating from England during this same period of time starting new
lives in this strange new land. I wonder
if any of them stopped long enough to see the gardens?
On our way home we decided to get some food. I rarely turn down the chance for a burger,
and it turned out she was willing. I
coaxed her out of the car from her missionary help call, we donned our masks,
and went in. I was the first time we had
together been inside (as opposed to in the parking lot) of a restaurant. We stood carefully on the socially distant
circles marked on the floor until it was our turn to order. As we rather awkwardly hung around for Mitchell’s
name to be called (our go to name for such occasions), we observed the kitchen
workers with masks, but pulled down to their top lips, leaving noses
exposed. That didn’t seem particularly
sanitary. When we got our bag, we
stepped outside and saw several tables with umbrellas, all vacant. We decided to eat there rather than in the
car. But it all felt a little
uncomfortable, not knowing when the last time the tables were cleaned. The experience left us uneasy about eating out
still.
No comments:
Post a Comment