My brain is a sieve. It's legitimately starting to worry me. It's a good thing I made my December List of Doom because otherwise, I'm not sure anything would get done. The problem is I can't remember if I added everything to the list.
Oy vey.
This week was an odd one. I was trying to accomplish several things on my list and trying to figure out the priority for translation projects. Sometimes it has more to do with how active the translators are than anything else. To that end, one of our newest projects is Romanian. They aren't even formally using Train & Multiply yet, but the team is so excited about it that they've actually translated 11/12 groups already. Of course we're going to reward that enthusiasm by getting production started as quickly as possible. But I'm still having to review a lot of Marie's work, so we're down a production specialist. Fortunately, her work is pretty decent - just a few details to keep an eye on. We're getting there, but I couldn't begin to tell you when I'll actually take over as team leader. The end of the year is a terrible time for starting new things.
I don't know if you've noticed this about me, but I tend to hyper-fixate on things. It's a little bit like having an addicted personality. I get extremely focused on something and then have to research the heck out of it before I can move on. Some things are simple to get rid of - ask my two days of hyper-fixating on Scott Foley in Scandal. Conclusion: the show is dumb and not worth my time. (The MCU, however, doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.)
Anyway, this week's hyper-fixation was stamps. Specifically, the stamps I ordered at the beginning of December so they'd be here when I finished my Christmas cards. Which they weren't. I kid you not, I was tracking those babies every single day from their origin in Missouri, of all places, until they finally arrived in my mail box. The irony of the U.S. Postal Service delivering stamps late is not lost on me.
This week was budget meetings for ECC. We always do those the week after the retreat - more on that later. I, thank the Lord, did not have attend the meetings. But that did mean I was pretty much on my own for the week. Nice and quiet. I did get lunch out of it on Friday. Not bad.
What else? There was a baby shower on Thursday for one of our Mobi folks. I won a prize for guessing 8/9 items in the diaper bag correctly. I didn't think it was that difficult - what would you normally put in a diaper bag, after all? But apparently it was. Whatever. I'm awesome.
We're back on regular chapels for the moment. Did I talk about stand-up prayer times? We were trying out a new format this fall where we didn't do chapel on Tuesday or Thursday. Instead, we met for 15 minutes up in the lobby to have prayer time for some current needs. It's quite different, and there are parts I like and some things I don't. But it's nice that we do something.
Oh, and I did something this week that I haven't done for a long time - a radio ad! We've aired a lot of repeats this year because we've all been so busy. But it was nice to get back in the studio and record something new for the gifting emphasis this year. I don't actually know where it's hosted yet, but I'll try to remember the link if I find out.
I think that's about it for the work week. On to the retreat. This can count as our Pic of the Week.
So our theme was "...and the soul felt its worth." Sarah and I planned most of it (with Tarah before she left). Oddly enough, there's not a lot of resting for the people in charge even when that's a core goal of the retreat. But it was still good. We started last Friday. Sarah and I went up early to get last minute supplies and do some decorating.
We would have team discussion a couple times a day. Eric, Tarah's husband, led worship for us. We had the retreat at Shunem House up in Noblesville. I highly recommend it. It's a guest house of sorts for missionaries and pastors. I wrote a couple of devotionals for the team time, and we did a lot of personal reflection. What does it mean to save a soul? Can we adequately care for other souls when we don't care for our own?
We also had some team activities. This was by far my favorite.
We made them put together gingerbread houses and decorate them. But only one member of the team could use their hands at a time. That person had to be blindfolded. The others had to talk them through the process. It was hilarious to see, but we actually ended up with some decent houses.
Oy vey.
This week was an odd one. I was trying to accomplish several things on my list and trying to figure out the priority for translation projects. Sometimes it has more to do with how active the translators are than anything else. To that end, one of our newest projects is Romanian. They aren't even formally using Train & Multiply yet, but the team is so excited about it that they've actually translated 11/12 groups already. Of course we're going to reward that enthusiasm by getting production started as quickly as possible. But I'm still having to review a lot of Marie's work, so we're down a production specialist. Fortunately, her work is pretty decent - just a few details to keep an eye on. We're getting there, but I couldn't begin to tell you when I'll actually take over as team leader. The end of the year is a terrible time for starting new things.
I don't know if you've noticed this about me, but I tend to hyper-fixate on things. It's a little bit like having an addicted personality. I get extremely focused on something and then have to research the heck out of it before I can move on. Some things are simple to get rid of - ask my two days of hyper-fixating on Scott Foley in Scandal. Conclusion: the show is dumb and not worth my time. (The MCU, however, doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.)
Anyway, this week's hyper-fixation was stamps. Specifically, the stamps I ordered at the beginning of December so they'd be here when I finished my Christmas cards. Which they weren't. I kid you not, I was tracking those babies every single day from their origin in Missouri, of all places, until they finally arrived in my mail box. The irony of the U.S. Postal Service delivering stamps late is not lost on me.
This week was budget meetings for ECC. We always do those the week after the retreat - more on that later. I, thank the Lord, did not have attend the meetings. But that did mean I was pretty much on my own for the week. Nice and quiet. I did get lunch out of it on Friday. Not bad.
What else? There was a baby shower on Thursday for one of our Mobi folks. I won a prize for guessing 8/9 items in the diaper bag correctly. I didn't think it was that difficult - what would you normally put in a diaper bag, after all? But apparently it was. Whatever. I'm awesome.
We're back on regular chapels for the moment. Did I talk about stand-up prayer times? We were trying out a new format this fall where we didn't do chapel on Tuesday or Thursday. Instead, we met for 15 minutes up in the lobby to have prayer time for some current needs. It's quite different, and there are parts I like and some things I don't. But it's nice that we do something.
Oh, and I did something this week that I haven't done for a long time - a radio ad! We've aired a lot of repeats this year because we've all been so busy. But it was nice to get back in the studio and record something new for the gifting emphasis this year. I don't actually know where it's hosted yet, but I'll try to remember the link if I find out.
I think that's about it for the work week. On to the retreat. This can count as our Pic of the Week.
So our theme was "...and the soul felt its worth." Sarah and I planned most of it (with Tarah before she left). Oddly enough, there's not a lot of resting for the people in charge even when that's a core goal of the retreat. But it was still good. We started last Friday. Sarah and I went up early to get last minute supplies and do some decorating.
We would have team discussion a couple times a day. Eric, Tarah's husband, led worship for us. We had the retreat at Shunem House up in Noblesville. I highly recommend it. It's a guest house of sorts for missionaries and pastors. I wrote a couple of devotionals for the team time, and we did a lot of personal reflection. What does it mean to save a soul? Can we adequately care for other souls when we don't care for our own?
We also had some team activities. This was by far my favorite.
We made them put together gingerbread houses and decorate them. But only one member of the team could use their hands at a time. That person had to be blindfolded. The others had to talk them through the process. It was hilarious to see, but we actually ended up with some decent houses.
We wanted to do something different, so on Saturday night, we had everyone dress up for dinner. We went to Houlihan's, which was a lot of fun. After dinner, we opened presents.
We've done the White Elephant routine a few times, but it kinds drives me nuts. We always end up with the same things or a bunch of crap. So I instituted the Secret Santa rule, and I send out a survey so people can be specific about the kinds of things they like. We also did a contest this year on the best-wrapped gift. Jim won with his Snowman gift for Tarah.
I thought it was very cute.
I had Shane this year. See, it's a secret for everyone else but me. I have a system that makes things random, but in case I need to tweak it, I can. But no tweaking necessary this year.
I was quite pleased with my penguin themed gift. I think Shane liked it, too. I was also pleased with the gift I received. I think everyone had a good time and appreciated the personal touches.
So last year, I got a little bit sadistic with some puzzles - for a good reason, not just because it's me. This year, we wanted to be a bit nicer about it, so we put out two puzzles that people could work on throughout the weekend. But we have some very motivated people when it comes to puzzles. This was the mad scramble to finish them before we had to leave the house.
All in all, I think it went well. We'll have to wait for the evaluations.
Can't wait to hear the radio ad!
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