The Weekly Wrap-Up: November 4-8, 2019

2.5 days left in the office, then nothing until December.

I'm super excited.

Like, you have no idea.

I need a vacation.

so. very. badly.

But we're not there, yet. Much work was done this week. Mostly on the retreat, actually. We have to be ready to go three days after I get back, so the more we finish now, the better the experience. I'm actually really excited about the retreat. We have a good theme, some fun activities planned, and important truths to uncover. We just have to pull it all together. Fortunately, my partner in crime is very experienced in these things. ;)

On Tuesday, of course, we had to change things up a little. We call it a Work Day, but honestly, we do work every day. I heard a few decent alternatives to the name, but we'll just call it a "Work We Don't Normally Do But Have Been Press-Ganged Into Doing Because We Have A Small Maintenance Team And A Lot Of Trees" Day. Yes, I spent most of the day raking leaves.

I slept really well that night. In my bed. Not on the table. But it was close. 

On Thursday, we had a big meeting with the T&M Management Committee. Yes, we have a management committee. It has to do with the long and varied history of Train & Multiply. Anyway, Brian has been in Africa this week, so I gave the update on what we've been doing. I think it went well. 

Next week, I'm going to spend two days making sure people can survive without me, and then I'm going to forget about everything except sun and sand. 

Try not to miss me too much.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 28 - November 1, 2019

Oh, the drama! Between scripts not running as they should and questions of when documents are due, it's been quite the week. I stayed out of some of it, but this VCP project is really taking its toll. We're close to being done (at least with the first volume - there are SEVEN MORE in FIVE LANGUAGES), but I have violated almost every principle I have regarding producing T&M in order to get there. We're publishing French booklets that haven't even been looked at by native French speakers. It's giving me the heeby-jeebies. But hey, we all do what we must, right?

Otherwise, it's been a decent week, though I haven't much cared for the weather. Retreat planning continues, and I constantly have to remind myself that it's supposed to be a time of relaxation instead of a time for me to act out whatever sadistic fantasies I've had about anti-team building. (I'm mostly kidding.) We still haven't mapped out the actual sessions, though, and I'm feeling mild anxiety about that.

Guys, I have one more week in the office until December.

One.
Week.

God help us all.

We had a lunch & learn this week that I found quite interesting. I heard two things (one was actually in chapel) that are somewhat related, but they have given me a lot of food for though. The first was from John Piper - he said Christians can be one of three things: a goer, a sender, or disobedient. You can always count on Piper to distill everything down to a few well-chosen words. But then I also learned that only 2% of the people who are called to organizational missions actually end up serving. That's pretty staggering. And I can definitely tell. We're hurting for people at OMS. And we've had several begin the process only to back out later.

I don't know about you, but I think I need to ponder this more. I can't just learn something like that and not think about how to fix it.