The Late Now

I haven't posted much lately. (I know, I know. Way to state the obvious, Jessica.)

I'd like to say I have really great reasons for not writing anything.

I could say that I've been traveling. Which is true. I went to Pennsylvania last weekend for a missions conference at a little church outside of Gettysburg. I love this church. Our two contact people are the sweetest old ladies. And they love to take care of us. And when I'm there, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll get to visit the battlefield. For the twenty-sixth time. (I haven't counted, actually. But it's a lot.)

I could say that I've been busy. Which is sort of true. I'm in training to learn more of the production process of T&M. I've been working on the Christmas video. When I'm not at work, I'm usually walking or watching TV.

I could say that I have nothing to write about. This is both true and not true. There are things I could write about. But they have little to do with mission stuff. And that's why I created this blog. To talk about my ministry and life in missions.

Here's what my life in missions looks like: I sit at a computer for eight hours a day. I do roughly the same things every day. It's very technical and complicated. Occasionally, I hear a great message in chapel. And I usually write something based on those. But I am by no means on the front lines. There are things I'd like to do. But those things cost money. And funding has been extremely difficult lately.

So why haven't I written anything? The truth is simple.

I feel uninspired. I feel redundant. I feel like everything I might want to say has been said by other people in much better ways. I feel like some things I want to say would get me into trouble. I'm tired and lacking in purpose. And I really don't think anyone is reading this. Except for you, Lori. Which I appreciate.

Shockingly enough, I'm not depressed.

I'm just living life. And the day to day is just not that interesting.

I have some pending drafts that I'll start rolling out shortly. And then I don't know.

I need some ideas. I need inspiration. I need...

Something.

A Random Tuesday

How do my days usually progress? I'll tell you. Or at least, I'll tell you about today.

My alarm went off at 6:40. I'd been having this weird dream about a hotel by a river and trying to find someone who owed me $4.

I hit snooze. There's no excuse for being up at 6:40.

Nine minutes later, I figure I'm obligated to get up. First thing I do is check my phone for the overnight happenings. A few news alerts and a text from Arika, asking way too deep a philosophical question for 6:49 in the morning. But I answer, and it makes sense to my brain, so good enough.

I don't wash my hair on Tuesdays. It gives me a little extra time for morning ablutions, and also morning devotions. Sarah Young makes her usual frightening amount of sense. I hang out at the kitchen table and ponder life's mysteries.

It's 7:50. Getting dressed might be important. I have to wear blue today. Normally, a few of us in ECC will try to match. I get a text every morning. But my matchy buddies are in South Africa this week. I still have to wear blue. We're filming today.

I get to work about 8:03. First thing is to fire up the computer. While it's coming up, I check the ECC box in the mailroom. Nothing. Then a pen and new post-its from central supply.

I check my email. Two Gmail accounts and the main Office 365. Naturally, 365 isn't working. Shocking. Reload. Nothing has come into the T&M account, and it's mostly junk everywhere else. I check Facebook. I'm friends with T&M partners and people who are traveling. Things are going well. I schedule a post on the T&M page.

It's 8:55. Time for chapel. There's usually coffee and hot chocolate for people to get before or after. I don't usually like hot drinks, but as the weather cools, you can see me with a hot chocolate.

Today's chapel speaker is Graham Houghton. Graham has been in India for 50 years, and he always has great stories. And a very unique way of telling them. He retired once. It didn't take. He's 78 and ministering in North India. There are encouraging things happening, but there is also a great deal of darkness.

Chapel normally lasts until 9:30 or 9:40. Graham finishes at 9:55. We still have announcements and introductions. We pray for a missionary leaving for Hungary tomorrow.

10:05. Back in the office. I do a bit of cleaning up and then start working on my article for Outreach magazine. It's about the history of prayer at OMS.

10:45. Time to do a bit of walking. Since we started the wellness program, I've been endeavoring to get at least 10,000 steps every day. It's also not good to sit for too long. I have a route through the building, starting by going through Communications. Lori and Susan are talking about the magazine. I chat with Beth for a minute. Then upstairs. There are a lot of people out. But there are muffins at the front desk. Score.

Back downstairs. 11:00. More research for the article. I've copied articles and notices from old Missionary Standard archives. I'm only up to 1946. Sometimes I forget OMS has been around more than 100 years. Not today.

11:40. I check my phone and see that I have a voicemail. There is pretty much no service in the basement, so I never hear my phone ring. I just randomly have messages. It's Arby's. I did a survey this weekend, and they have follow-up questions. But when I call back, there's no answer.

12:10. Time for lunch. But first - oh look, Arby's called again. Free food! I've never been so happy to have undercooked chicken. (Okay, I wasn't that happy. But Arby's is cool for following up.)

12:18. NOW I can go to lunch.

We have an hour for lunch. I used 20 minutes of it to walk. That gets me to about 5,500 steps on the day. I'm ahead of schedule.

The fare today is chicken salad. It's cheap and easy to make, which pretty much describes most of what I eat. I'm spending any extra money I have on fruits and veggies. They're healthy, you know.

1:20. Back at work. Foster has been in, judging by the ladder in the middle of my office. We'll use it in a few minutes when we start filming.

We're doing a top secret project for the OMS Christmas party. It's been a lot of fun (and a lot of work), but the secrecy has probably been the most fun. People keep asking what we're doing. We maintain the cone of silence.

It took about eight takes for me to be happy with today's segment. By the time we finished, it was time to welcome the myriad of superheroes, knights, and various and sundry costumed (or not) children so they could extort candy from the hardworking folks of OMS.

I'm kidding, it was adorable. We do this every year. OMS kids come around to the marked offices and receive candy or treats or whatever. It's a safe way to trick or treat, and though it's a bit early, it is a nice thing we do.

It does kinda disrupt the workflow, though.

I spent some time looking up a word for the #WeirdWordoftheWeek segment I do on Facebook. It's a silly little thing, but it's fun for me. This week's word is carminative.

Onward and upward. With infrequent visitors, I continued working, this time on the ECC blog posts for the OMS website.

Around 4:10, I take another gallivant around the office. I get sidetracked in Communications (which happens frequently) to talk about ramen and the filming for tomorrow (separate issues). Then I continue, stopping to compare everyone's offerings. Lots of good stuff this year. Oh, to be a kid again.

Back to the office and work at 4:35.

5:10. Time to go home.

Immediately, I get ready for my long walk. This has become a staple of my day. It finishes up the rest of my 10,000 steps and gets the kinks out. Usually lasting anywhere from 30-50 minutes, today's is about 35, putting me well over my goal.

Dinner is frozen pizza and grapes. Highly nutritious. I watch an episode of Air Crash Investigation while I'm waiting. It's the one with the pilot who gets sucked outside of the airplane and is only held inside by flight stewards. It's a really fascinating series, and there are a ton of episodes on YouTube. I wouldn't recommend watching too many in a row or right before a trip. Very interesting stuff, though. And the pilot lived!

The show turns out to be a little too interesting. I watch at least six more episodes while playing mahjong.

And now it's 10:45. I've been dinking around on Facebook for 30 minutes. Not a very productive evening. But it was a relaxing evening. Just what I needed.

And that's a random Tuesday.