BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

Are you ready?!

It's time for The Weekly Wrap-Up! I know, right?!

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Sorry. I'm not usually one of those people. But sometimes you just gotta.

Anyway.

This was an incredibly quiet week. Not because I didn't have anything to do, but because everyone else was gone for most of it.

This week was our annual Church Multiplication Facilitators Seminar. I only had to be there for part of one afternoon, but almost everyone else was off site for most of the week. I really like these weeks. I get a lot done.

This week was all about tagging. And no, not this kind:

Although, now that I think about it, there was a lot of spray paint.

But that's another story.

In preparation for the Diamond Jubilee in India in June, we're trying to get all of the booklets and handouts translated into Hindi. However, we're also reworking the Student Activity Guide. There are particular activities that go into the back of the books on which we are focusing, so those needed to be retagged first. What does that look like?

Now multiply that by roughly one thousand. That was most of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. One code at a time. It's great fun. 

Chapels this week have been nice. Our CFO gave a presentation on business as mission on Tuesday. Yesterday, Bob Biddulph gave a sermon on forgiveness. He and his wife have served in Spain for more than 40 years. 

My app meetings have been short since most of our people were at the seminar. I like short meetings. We did have to fix a few things before we presented the app to the CMFs yesterday afternoon. I think this will be a good testing group. 

Today has been a bit crazy. I had to chauffeur two coworkers to the auto shop so they could get their cars fixed. Then Foster and I went to Menard's to pick up more air filters, spray paint, and tape for stage decor. (See, I told you spray paint came into play. We bought eight cans.)

Next week we go back to the normal routine. Or as normal as it gets around here. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 18-22, 2016

There are some weeks that are crazy. Meetings, deadlines, people in an out...

And then there are weeks where you're twiddling your thumbs, waiting for someone, anyone, to give you a job.

Guess which week this was?

Since I finished Japanese last week, I was anticipating getting some work from my London friend this week. She keeps track of projects and what needs to be done. I think I mentioned that we're redoing the Student Activity Guide. It will go from 2200 tags to 800. This will be amazing for our translators, and it will help us a lot as well. But it takes some work to retool everything. So I was anticipating working on that this week. But alas, there's a long string of things that have to happen before I get my hands on the SAG. So I focus on other things.

Like the app. Meetings have continued to be super long, especially as we gear up for the testing launch at the coordinator's seminar next well. The Church Multiplication Facilitators (CMFs) are people who help national leaders find more effective methods of church planting and multiplication, so they are big proponents of T&M. The app would be incredibly beneficial to them because they wouldn't have to be in the same country to provide assistance. Anyway, we're trying to get the changes made from the alpha testing so that we get better data from beta testing. I've been working on the feedback function of the app. It's not super intuitive, and I'm trying to get the message across of what we want without being wordy. Not always easy.

I also finished proofing Outreach pages. This next issue is a good one, but it's also the first of our new, shorter issues. The decision was made to cut down to 16 pages and expand the online version. You can read that by following this link.

Conference is fast approaching, and I've been working on my responsibilities. I'm in charge of the flag ceremony and the photo opps. I'm not really sure how I'm going to get these done in time. But we soldier on. I spent a frightening amount of this week trying to figure out how to print to a transparency and finding an overhead projector so I can create a stencil. It's amazing the things you find yourself doing. (Also, it's impossible to find these things nowadays. I may need to upgrade my methods.)

I've also been working on some things for a new mentor program. It's not really a work thing, but it kinda is - if that makes sense. Anyway, I think it will be a good program.

I think that's about it. I'm anticipating a crazy week ahead.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 11-15, 2016

I think I might actually be fully done with Japanese. For reals. 

At least until the proofs come back. 

Anyway, spent most of the week getting the proofs ready. It's amazing what you find without blue codes everywhere. (Long story.)

We had super long app meetings this week, so I missed most of the chapels. The app meetings are good and necessary because we're close to releasing for beta testing, but we sometimes get a little lost in the fog. I suppose it's my job to keep us on track, but I have to keep my mic muted most of the time because I share my office with someone. It makes things harder.

We revamped a radio ad that we did for the last conference about the 5K Fun Run. Just a few tweeks to make it fit the new dates and funding stuff.

I've also been proofing pages of the next Outreach issue. This one is about Islam and our Muslim ministries. I like that I get to keep a hand in the magazine even when I'm not in Communications. 

Foster and I went to Menard's today to pick up some air filters for stage dec for Conference. It will be really cool (I hope) when it's done, so I'll keep you apprised.

Finally, we had an internet outage today for a little over an hour. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it), I had plenty of work to do that didn't require the internet. But I did run out toward the end, so I included a little video so you could see how I spent my time.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 4-8, 2016

So this is a little late. And the date is a little wrong. Both for the same reason. I actually took half of Thursday and all of Friday off. Because I could. And I needed a break. And no one else was in the office. And I had planned to.

So.

I had my usual App meetings. We're starting to see some interesting bugs and features from the testing. I have found many a weird thing. But that's the beauty of it! Every bug we fix now means a better experience for users later.

I finally finished (FINISHED!) the Japanese finalization. Now I get to go back through the booklets again to do a final screen check and export PDFs. Then our guys can proof and make final changes. Woohoo! It really is incredible how involved the process is for setting up new translations.

No chapel this week. There was a prayer rally, but I was on FaceTime with someone in London sorting out next steps for Japanese. It can be difficult working with people in different time zones. There are only so many good hours for connecting.

I actually did work outside of normal hours, but I was repaid with dinner, so it was worth it. Sam asked me to help her come up with an overview of Dynamic Women in Missions. It's a ministry that helps connect women around the world with missions and missionaries. They do a lot of trips and conferences. I often help Sam with wording and clarity of message.

It is both good and bad when no one is in the office. I tend to get a lot done, but I also tend to be easily distracted. Case in point, I (and a few others) got caught having a dance party by the president.

Oops.

So, short week, but a productive one.

I'll take it. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: March 28-April 1, 2016

I do not like this day. Like, really hate it. Because I never know what's true and what isn't. So you're just going to have to accept on faith that everything I'm about to say really happened. Because it did.

Train & Multiply

I'm almost done with the booklets! I feel like this is taking a really long time, and it kinda is. But that's because a) there are 40+ things to check in each booklet and b) I keep having to do other things. But I'm almost done!

I spent about a day and a half testing the new app for T&M. There are a few bugs still to work out, but it's looking great, and I can't wait for everyone to see it!

Speaking of the app, last week I told you about a new role I'm taking on. I've been asked to act as quality control for the app. In effect, I make sure that the team doesn't get so focused on the forest that they forget the trees. I also make sure they don't get so focused on the trees that they forget the forest. And other woodland-related metaphors. Similes? No, no likes or ases. As'? Whatever. We meet every morning at 8:30 via video chat. It'll be an interesting job.

Pursuant to that role, I also got to code this week! I haven't coded since I built a website-ish in college. I enjoyed it, though. I'd forgotten how much fun HTML can be. Also, if I did much more than tag paragraphs, we might be looking at a War Games scenario.

Chapel

Due to the aforementioned meeting, I actually missed most of chapel on Tuesday. I made it to the hall outside the chapel about 9:22, so I heard some interesting stories about U.S. Plastic. They are a major donor for us, and the new president came to share his vision for the future.

On Thursday, Jim Hogrefe shared about India. Jim is part of ECC, my department, and he talked about the amazing things happening in the country. They are having a diamond jubilee in June, and part of that will entail training 7,000 people using T&M. Each person is then expected to plant at least three new worshiping groups.

Other Projects

I'm pretty sure there was some other stuff that happened. Possibly a moon landing. Maybe a rodeo. It was all a bit of a blur. But now the weekend can commence!