A Day in the Life of a Church Receptionist | Kay Altenburger

Kay shares what it's like to be a receptionist at Ginghamsburg. In short: she gets people connected New Path!

"Hi, my name is Kay Altenburger and I serve at the reception desk at Ginghamsburg. When I'm not answering the phone, I perform tasks that various staff members may have for me, which can run the gamut from addressing birthday cards for the kids ministry to stuffing Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt. Usually I come in and I log in actually to my iPad and I bring up the screen for Ginghamsburg and New Path. What has struck me when I do take the phone calls is the amount of need in the community that people have and that they think to call Ginghamsburg to help fill in the gap when they have that need. So I've gotten calls from people who are ready to be discharged from the hospital. They're in their hospital room and they need medical supplies so they can go home. I've gotten calls from folks who have children and I can hear the children in the background and they have no running water. So they're looking to fill that gap and where are the funds so that I might be able to pay my water bill and get the water turned back on. Sometimes when people call, the question is framed in such a way where I'm not sure what exactly they're asking or I'm not sure that the need that they have is really the question that they're asking. And so sometimes it takes a little bit of digging to pull that, you know, what's going on? What do you need to get them to the most appropriate place? Probably 80 to 90%, if not even higher, are calls that go to New Path. I was shocked. I knew coming to Ginghamsburg for as many years as I've been here, I knew that that was a large part of our church, but I guess until you answer the phone and you hear all of the need out there, it really hit home. Another kind of call that I also receive are donors, people who want to donate things. The reason they have donations is maybe a family member has passed and they have their things and they want to make sure that they're put to good use. It's people with needs, both wanting to give and those who need services. I feel good that I'm able to play a role between there is a need here and there's services over here. Now, how can we meet the need over here with these services? So I feel like I play that kind of connector role in the middle to make the most of the services that we have to offer."

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