It has been a quinquennium of surprises, challenges and opportunities. Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic caused everyone’s life to change in profound ways and gave everyone a chance to exercise their prayer life even more. So, too, for those in the IT department. Within one week, in March 2020, all Northwest conference offices went from being fully open to fully closed due to the pandemic. Normally, about 50 percent of an office’s staff has a portable computer and can work remotely, but the other 50 percent needed a solution, and fast. With God’s help, the IT staff went above and beyond, and with the staff’s patience, all NPUC workers supported by IT were soon able to work remotely. While the pandemic was an obvious elephant in the room over the last two years, it has not been the only elephant that needed our attention. Thankfully, with much prayer and perseverance, the NPUC and our Northwest offices are pushing forward in spreading The Good News of a loving Savior who will soon return.
To Facilitate Christ-centered ministry
Loren Bordeaux, information technology director
Daniel Cates, information technology associate director
Tami Edwards, Support Specialist
Fast Facts:
Teams and Zoom Meetings
- Average number of monthly online meetings — 370*
- Average monthly total attendee meeting minutes — 160,000*
- Attendee client systems — 50% Windows, 19% Mac, 15% iOS, 8% Android, remaining other
Average Ransomware Payouts‡
- Average ransom payment — $220,298
- Median ransom payment — $78,398
Thankful For:
- The IT staff has survived COVID-19 — literally and figuratively!
- Resources to deploy over 115 new staff computers throughout the North Pacific Union territory.
- New internet connectivity solution for Big Lake Youth Camp.
- Leadership that understands the importance of doing IT well.
- Opportunity to serve the technology needs of NPUC and area conferences.
Pray For:
- Cybersecurity wisdom for all staff. The bad actors are constantly trying to find our weaknesses. Pray that we find them and act on those discoveries before they do.
- Transition to the Zero Trust model. Doing things in a new way can be extra challenging. Please pray that we all work towards being #CYBERSMART.
- Resources to replace lots of aging IT infrastructure (servers, wired/wireless network hardware, phone system, etc.) and being able to acquire them. With supply chain issues, some hardware is a year out at the time of writing this.
- Our schools — especially small schools — and finding a way to help them manage the technology they need to prepare students for service to mankind in the 21st Century.
- Our church, state and world leaders.
* Estimated meetings from all North Pacific union and conference offices based on actual numbers from a portion of North Pacific offices. Does not include meetings hosted by local churches or schools.
‡ coveware.com/blog/ransomware-attack-vectors-shift-as-new-software-vulnerability-exploits-abound
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