BARBIE
She’s the First Lady of CRF. She’s the quarterback of CRF. She is the voice of CRF. She is the best person I have ever met. She is the Beautiful Barbie Jones.
And she has now retired.
After 17 years Barbie is going to quit working full-time at CRF. Barbie started working for CRF before I did. I have never worked at CRF without her. She was there when we started most of our ministries in Africa. She was there when we started in Nicaragua. She has not only been all over the world helping—she has also been at our headquarters. After years of working as a field director for Kenya, Barbie became the receptionist for CRF. We like to call her the quarterback. When something comes into our office, she takes the ball. She may run with it herself. She may hand it off. She may pass it to someone else. But she makes sure everything goes to the right place and is moved across the goal line.
The first voice you hear when you call CRF has been Barbie. When I travel around the country, donors always tell me how much they are encouraged when they get to talk to Barbie. I often have people tell me how thrilled they were that Barbie called them. I usually know that it was probably because their credit card had changed or they had forgot to send a sponsorship fee. But they were just glad to talk to Barbie.
People ask me what is Barbie going to do now. I tell them that she will probably volunteer at CRF. But if your credit card expires or you forget a sponsorship payment—you may still hear from Barbie.
Barbie’s goal from childhood was to help poor children in other lands. Her dream came true. Good job, Barbie! If you want to drop her a note of thanks, I am sure she will absolutely love it. She might even have one of her grandchilden read it to her.
