The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 22-26, 2022

Hello, friends!

Has this week felt super long to anyone else? Every day just felt interminable. I had a fair few meetings, sure, but it's not usually quite this bad. Maybe I'm just trying to subconsciously stretch out the summer. Who knows?

So, like I said, meetings, not least of which was the big secret project celebration! Yay!

So, Sarah and I have been working on this for pretty much ever. We knew ECC was coming to an end (though it lives on in our hearts!), and we wanted to do something for Mike and Larry, our two fearless leaders. Mike has been the Global Director of ECC for many years, and Larry served as the director of church multiplication. They have truly been rock stars. Sarah and I wanted to show our appreciation, but it can be difficult to do when we all live in different places and those two tend to travel. A lot.

But we made it work. We know (thanks to our past work on retreats) that Mike and Larry's languages of appreciation are both Words of Affirmation. So Sarah created word clouds from things people sent us about how they felt about Mike and Larry, and then she helped me put together Shutterfly books with quotes and pictures from over the years. They turned out pretty well, I think. We were also, through the generosity of our fellow coworkers, able to gift each couple a weekend away. 

I honestly don't know what I'll do with my life now that this project is done.

HA! There's plenty to do. For starters, I finally got my passport renewal form out this week. It has been waiting a while, mostly because no one was going anywhere and also because I still don't know if I can force myself onto an airplane anytime soon. Last time I was on one, I had a massive panic attack, though I didn't know that's what it was at the time. It triggers me something powerful. But there is no healing if we don't try, and we can't try if we don't have the proper tools. So that's done.

I also finished my prayer letter this week. I don't want to call it a chore, because it really isn't, but it can be difficult to distill everything I want to say into two pages. I can't just be stream-of-consciousness like I am on here. There has to be a theme and cohesion, and that's not always my bailiwick. But I do hope you enjoy that when it arrives. If you do not already receive my prayer letter, please leave a comment, and I'll get in touch. 

I have also been working on Spanish booklets this week. Yes, we have officially been done with Spanish for a while, but we decided it might be a good idea to have a different art set, so I've been converting those files. It's actually taking a decent amount of time to do. I might have to interrupt it next week. We'll see. 

That just about covers it. I did run A/V for chapel on Wednesday, which is always an adventure. I guess the most I can say about it is that I learn something new every time I do it. But I think it ended up mostly okay. We survived, and I got to see Sarah (and Cody and Brian) get recognition for their years of service with OMS. I am very happy to count her as a friend, and I could not do this job without her. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 8-19, 2022

Yo.

Yes, we're covering two weeks since I took some time off last week to hang out with my parents. They came down to spend a day at the State Fair and to generally just relax a bit. We had a lovely time!

While we've been waiting for translators to send in work (which they did this week), I have been working on other projects. Family Fun Night has become quite involved. I don't think I've bitten off more than I can chew, yet, but I will need to be better about prioritizing things. 

But in the meantime, I've been creating forms, recruiting people, brainstorming theme ideas, creating posters, and more. I need to remind myself sometimes to curb my more crazy or sadistic tendencies - this is supposed to be fun for everyone, after all. Sarah has been a big help along with Lydia, so I don't think I'll go too far over the line. 

I've been scheduling Train & Multiply posts on Facebook. Honestly, I haven't done too much with it, especially in the last few years, because we couldn't really offer training to interested parties. But things are ramping up again, so I figure we can be a little more social. If you need a side job and like social media content creation, hit me up - there's no way I can keep this going on my own.

My next prayer letter is in the works. It's always a struggle to narrow down what I want to talk about. You're pretty well informed if you read the blog, but not everyone does, and there are always things I forget to talk about. But I'm relying on my old standby - history. I do hope it will be entertaining and informative. 

Like I said, we have more translation work coming in, so I will probably be back to my regular work next week. I hope you are all doing well.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 1-5, 2022

I am doing my best to enjoy whatever downtime I get now, because I know that things are only going to get crazier as we move further into the year. I am already starting to feel it - more meetings, more emails, more 'brief chats' in the hallway that turn into mini brainstorming sessions. But that's the normal warp and weft of things, and I'm okay with that. 

This week, I was asked to take over the coordination of our Family Fun Night. This is something Julie Bishop (wife of our Executive Director USA) started last Fall as a way to gather the OMS family for something that didn't look at all like work. We have played board games and watched funny videos and eaten all manner of fun foods. I'm excited for the opportunity to come up with some fun themes for future nights. 

We had another safety team meeting this week, our first since February. There was so much transition happening and all of us had too much going on. But, and partially in light of recent events, we are back on track with making OMS a safe and healthy place to work and live. I know we are all grateful for what has already been done, but there are small improvements we can make for everyone's peace of mind. 

That's about it for the week. I have been cat sitting for the last few weeks, and this is my last full weekend with most of them. So hug your pets, bask in the sun, and have a lovely weekend. 

Bye!