The Weekly Wrap-Up: November ?? - December 1, 2023

Heeeeeyyyyyy! Long time, no see. 

I don't actually remember the last time I posted on here. Part of that was planned. Most of it was not. 

So let's start from the top. Early in November, I helped out with our cross-training group. We had nine new missionaries who were here for their final week of training. My contribution was the four-culture game. We have to pretend to be part of a specific culture type, come up with a greeting and cultural norms, and then either visit or host other cultures. I was added to a group so the newbies could get a more rounded experience. Our culture was the really open, touchy-feely one. My favorite, right? But I gave it my all. It's so uncomfortable, but I tried to make sure everyone else was as uncomfortable as I was.

Then, I traveled to Michigan to speak at my aunt's church. It was my first time talking to them about Train & Multiply, but it was a good experience. I met a lot of nice people. 

But the problem is, I met a lot of nice people. Somewhere along the line, I picked up COVID. Yes, for the first time (that I know of), I succumbed to the dreaded pandemic. Sort of. Mostly, I felt like I had the flu and a really bad headache. But I had to do my quarantine duty, so everything I'd planned to do went out the window. Also, I managed to fall down the basement steps, so I jacked up my ankle and knee (on different legs) for some added fun. 

Fortunately, I had pretty much recovered by Thanksgiving week. I have been needing to reformat my hard drive on my computer for months now because it wouldn't update anymore and had some annoying quirks. That's basically what I've been doing for the last week. I was somewhat smart about it because I had a list of programs that I needed to redownload along with their passwords and registration keys. 

Of course, every plan is perfect until you put it into action, so I'm still finding things I need to fix. But it was a fairly painless process, for which I am truly thankful. 

I'm working on getting Christmas cards out to you lovely people, along with planning for Christmas around OMS. This is always a crazy time of year. 

I hope you are well and that you remain so for the holiday. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 30 - November 3, 2023

Has anyone else glanced at a calendar and started hyperventilating just a little bit?

Time is not a friend right now. 

It certainly didn't help that I was laid up for a couple of days this week with back spasms. Ain't nobody got time for that. 

Otherwise, I've been working on stuff for Family Fun Night and writing my presentation that I'm giving at a church in Michigan next weekend. It's not exactly easy to distill my job into 30 minutes while still being interesting and not getting lost in the weeds. 

To that end, I will not be posting next week, but I plan to be back for the rest of November (probably not Black Friday, tbh). 

I hope you have a great weekend, a great week, another great weekend, and enough time to get everything that absolutely has to be done DONE. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 23-27, 2023

Hello, my lovelies!

I hope you are well. This has been a topsy-turvy week for me. I am dog sitting a very adorable, very hyperactive Golden Retriever, so I have spent some time trying to attend meetings with a dog giving me sad eyes and some time in the office trying to get things done. Who knows if I've succeeded at either?

Anyway, we're working on some back-end stuff for T&M, so I don't know how exciting my updates will be for a while. One thing we did this week was add the new booklets to the Student Activity Guide. This is a relatively minor fix, but it does have a lot of repercussions for current and former projects. Some of the languages we've done in Edition 4 don't have the new booklets, yet, so we need to determine if they even want them or have time to do the translation. V and I are tag-teaming the art sets to get the updated templates out, and then we need to publish all of the English again. 

It's a process.

As we get closer to the holiday season, I'm sure my posts will be less frequent. I will try my best to keep up with things, but I have at least two weekends in November that I'm traveling and probably two more in December. As always, you can contact me directly via email or comment. This time of year gets crazy. You already know that. 

Hey, thanks for sticking around. You're awesome. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 16-20, 2023

Howdy, friends!

It has been a quiet week around here. My boss is in Kenya for a VCP gathering, so Sarah and I have been alone in our hallway. 

We managed. 

I finished the fifth group of Swahili along with the volume for Africa. I think Brian was able to show it to the trainers, so that's cool. 

We had a team meeting for T&M. You can pray for spouses and health issues especially. 

I sang in chapel on Wednesday. They were new to me songs, so I had to do some practice, but I think it went well. 

Today, I met my mom halfway to get her computer back to her after some work was done on it. It's what any good boss would do for their employee. 

I think that's it for this week. Stay warm.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 9-13, 2023

Heyo! I have returned!

Vacation was lovely, thank you. Not without its struggles, but I honestly had a great time with my parents. We visited family, toured some museums and battlefields, and slept in weird beds. All the things you could hope for on vacation, really. 

But I'm back in the office now. All good things must come to an end. (I don't know where that phrase comes from, but I don't actually believe it's true. It's just funny to use in certain instances.)

Anyway. I'm really just still catching up on things. I was gone for two weeks, but it always feels like much longer. And I still haven't slept in my actual bed since I immediately started a dog sitting gig when I rolled into town. Choices. 

I did start some work on a group of Swahili, which is going well. My boss actually left two days after I got back, so I am holding down the fort here in Greenwood. 

Two things you can pray about:

First, we lost one of our homeland missionaries quite unexpectedly on Sunday. Marty, our hospitality coordinator at HQ, had a heart attack. She had a big personality around here, and I know that she is already sorely missed. She had been with OMS for 42 years, living in Japan for much of that time. Pray for her husband David and for her children and grandchildren she leaves behind. 

Second, Israel. 

I'm struggling with this one. I saw way more of what has happened than I ever wanted to. There's this notion that Christians have to support Israel no matter what, and I'm not sure where that came from. What exists now is quite different from who God established as his Chosen People (who kinda lost that status when they rejected the Messiah, but whatever). Yet I can't and won't condone wholesale murder and rape from anyone. 

And OMS has a presence in Israel. I would ask you to pray for those individuals. Pray for the innocent civilians who are suffering. Pray for peace. I don't know what else to do. 

I think that's it. I don't really want to leave it on this note, but I'm just drained. I hope your weekend is restful for you.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: September 18-22, 2023

Hello! Is it me you're looking for?

I hope so. But if not, stick around. I do try to be entertaining. 

This has been a good week, and definitely busy, as I worked to check everything off my list before I take off on vacation. 

I started off the week knowing I had two meetings on Monday. I was nervous about one because I didn't know what it was about, and I was looking forward to the other. The first meeting was actually fine, though I don't know if anything will come of it. But it was a good conversation, and I think I made some points. The second meeting never happened. That was incredibly frustrating, because it was a meeting that was to make up for a meeting that was making up for another meeting. Lots of cancellations. 

Whatever. I've washed my hands of it.

You'll be happy to hear (or at least I hope you'll be happy) that I have finished my next prayer letter! It is on the presses and getting ready to be mailed out. I'm pleased with this one, and I hope it is informative for you. 

Finally, I have completed the first group of Nepali!

Doesn't it look like Hindi? I suppose you may not be familiar with what Hindi looks like, but I spent months working on that language. They are incredibly similar to me. It's such a clean language, though, and very easy to work with. I think it will be a very smooth project. 

That's all I have for you folks. I'm off for the next two weeks on vacation. I'm really looking forward to it. I hope you get some time for rest as well.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: September 11-15, 2023

This has been a week. 

I know. Stating the obvious. 

I am continuing apace with Nepali. It's going well, though the first group always takes longer, especially with a glyph language. Like Hindi, there are no periods in Nepali, just a vertical bar. (I'm sure it has a name, I just don't know what it is.) Sometimes it ends up on a different line from the rest of the sentence. Fun times. 

I have also been scheduling social media posts again. I can only post 29 days out, so I'm trying to get everything scheduled before I leave on vacation so it just runs without me. 

We had a team meeting on Tuesday. It was nice to see everyone on screen for an hour or so and hear about their lives. Please keep praying for Veronica, Eliana, Lynae, Naomi, and my mom (Donna). 

I sang in chapel on Wednesday. I had to learn a lovely new (to me) song by the Gettys. And now I've forgotten the name. Hang on. Google! 

Okay, I hope that worked. Anyway, we did that one and "Oh Praise the Name." 

Did you know there's more to Outreach than what you (hopefully) get in the mail? You can find it online with bonus content! Just click the linky-dink there. 

I think that's it for work. For non-work stuff, I'd appreciate your prayers. My new medication is seriously messing with me. It's moving into 'the cure is worse than the disease' territory. I really want to stick with it because it was incredibly expensive and really hard to get, but it just makes me feel awful. Please pray for that to subside. 

Anyway, that's about it. I hope you have a great weekend. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: September 4-8, 2023

It's another short one this week. Which is weird, because it feels like Labor Day was a month ago, not a week. I didn't do much for Labor Day this year. I was finishing up a cat-sitting stint, and I was also fighting a cold - still am, though it's in the final stages. 

This week, I've been working on social media posts. It amazes me how long it takes to come up with content. I feel like so many people think they can be content creators online, like they'd totally be interesting on YouTube, and they have no idea how much work actually goes into it. Occasionally I think I should do a podcast, but you really have to have the right combination of people and a good topic for it. Again, it's a lot of work. 

But I digress. 

I have also started a new language this week! Nepali is coming along nicely. It looks a lot like Hindi, but as with all languages, it has its own style. It has actually been a long time since I've started a new language and worked from the very beginning. I'm usually publishing and finishing languages, so it's nice to be doing something different. (I just hope I remember what to do at this stage.)

We're entering a stage with a lot of people traveling (including me), so it'll be weird in the office. Okay, I have to clarify that, because people are always traveling. THIS TIME, however, it's people I usually hang out with or see on a regular basis. So the usual routines are going to be thrown off. Which is fine. We all know how much I hate routine. 

O_O

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 28 - September 1, 2023

I have no idea what happened to this week. 

It started fine. I came into work on Monday. I did some proofing of Outreach pages. I scheduled some Facebook posts. I worked on Tamil. I wondered if the tickle in my throat was going to become a problem.

Spoiler alert: it was. And it did. 

My cold came on really fast Monday night. So fast that I was down for the count on Tuesday. 

I hosted chapel on Zoom Wednesday morning. I was feeling marginally better, so I came into the office in the afternoon and stayed away from other people. 

Clearly, that was too much. I was again feeling horribly Thursday morning, but I came in the afternoon again. I did manage to finish Tamil and publish it completely. I also published all of the Spanish I was doing the art swap for all those months ago. I felt accomplished. 

I'm really hoping that this cold just goes away soon. I'd like to have some semblance of a normal weekend. That probably just means a lot of sleep, honestly. 

I guess I was due for something like this, but I still don't like it. Weirdly, my sister and nephew also got sick this week. Maybe it went through the phone. Probably some government conspiracy. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 21-25, 2023

I need to stop getting into Internet arguments. 

Thankfully, there are plenty of other things to do. Tamil, for one. Yes, it's still ongoing. I'm making progress, but I get sidetracked by other things. This week it was a power outage, a bout with vertigo, and some proofreading of the next issue of Outreach. It's going to be a good one!

Honestly, the heat this week has kinda sapped most of my energy, and there isn't much more to talk about. I do like the heat more than I like the cold, but either extreme makes life difficult. I hope you are keeping cool and taking the opportunities for some relief. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 14-18, 2023

Friends!

I trust you are well. It has been a decent week for me, though I am struggling with some side effects from a new medication. It has forced me to adjust my daily schedule a bit as I am most effected in the mornings. But I tend to be a night owl anyway, so I make it work. 

I'm still working on Tamil, though that project is close to being finished. I've been adding more and more things to my queue, so I'm feeling the pressure to complete them quickly. Tamil is an interesting language because the spacing can be problematic. We decided to left justify everything, and my brain doesn't like having incomplete lines everywhere. But it works for the client, so I will live with it. 

I'm also working on scheduling social media posts, which takes a surprising amount of time. You have to make it interesting and visually appealing, which is not always easy. I don't spend a lot of time on social media myself, so I'm not really up on the latest trends. I don't really want to be, either. 

We had a team meeting this week, which I always enjoy. You can pray for Eliana, who will be traveling with her husband to visit family in the UK. Pray for Veronica to find a suitable new home in Scotland. Pray for BJ as he navigates healthcare for his mom. Pray for Brian as he works on prioritizing projects. Pray for Lynae to have good news about her knee. Pray for Naomi to have good news from her own doctor's visit. Pray for Donna (my mom) as she navigates a situation at her church. 

I hope you have a great weekend. Treat yourself. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 7-11, 2023

Did anyone else get a ton of rain this week? I thought I might have to swim home a couple of days. 

It has been a pretty good week. I was pretty tired after last weekend. My mom, my sister, and I headed over to the 127 Yard Sale on Friday and Saturday. It was a fascinating experience, but it was also very tiring. I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit more this weekend. 

I'm continuing on with Tamil. I'm looking forward to being done with it and starting the next big project in my queue. 

I also worked on Family Fun Night stuff this week. I have a great team helping me, and we were able to set the dates and themes for the '23-'24 season. Hooray! I'm hoping it will be a much less stressful experience this year. 

Also, Facebook is annoying. I've been scheduling posts for the T&M page, but then I realized I only have partial access. There's another person who actually started the page who also has partial access. But neither of us actually owns the page, and the FB support system is sorely lacking. I finally found a place to actually send a description of my issue, but I feel like I won't get anywhere until I can actually speak to someone. And we all know the likelihood of that happening. But I have to try because this is causing me consternation. 

Other than that, things are good, and life progresses on much as it has this century. I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 26-28, 2023

Yes, it was a three-day work week. As discussed last week, Sarah and I spoke at New Hope UB in Huntington on Monday. It was a great experience! I saw lots of fun people and got to talk about Train & Multiply in some detail. As a bonus, I had family in town, so they were also able to attend. Then on Tuesday, I drove them to the Indy airport, so that was fun. 

On Wednesday, we started out with a recognition and retirement chapel. Retirement is something of a misnomer because it is very rare that missionaries just stop missionarying altogether. The rest of the day, I proofread the next Global Impact Report, which may be hitting your mailboxes soon, depending on your level of subscription to OMS mailings. 

The rest of the week has been spent doing more Tamil books. I discovered today that the back page had been layered twice, so when I changed the copyright to 2023, it would show up as a 2 and a 3. That might not make any sense, but it was driving me nuts since I couldn't figure out why it looked weird. Sometimes the computer does dumb things, and I'm not always sure if it's me who has been dumb or if it's the computer. Anyway, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring that out even after my brain has fried from the heat this week. 

There will be no wrap-up next week as I will once again be in the northlands. Once that is over, I should be settled back in Greenwood for a while. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 17-21, 2023

Tamil is well on its way to being published! I've made it through three groups this week, and I'm pretty pleased with them so far. 

We had a medical emergency that I witnessed on Tuesday. One of our retirees fell and broke her hip in the lobby. I'm officially on the insurance form for the building as a witness. It's not how any of us envisioned our day going, I'm sure. The retiree had surgery, so please pray that everything heals well with minimal pain.

That was actually kind of the theme for the week. Unexpected events. I'm sure I'll elaborate more in the future, but I'm struggling a bit. I received news this week that wasn't at all what I wanted to hear. I'm working on sorting out the repercussions, but I could use some extra prayer as well. It just means my emotions are a little closer to the surface than I usually like them to be, so I apologize in advance for the snark. I cover my vulnerability with sharp, pointy things. Like a hedgehog. Or a porcupine. 

Anyway, next week Sarah and I will be speaking at my parent's home church, so if you're in Huntington, you'll find us at New Hope UB around 2 on Monday afternoon. If you want to hear more, I'd be happy to meet one-on-one as well.

Have a great weekend. Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 10-14, 2023

Sooooo....

Look, I just straight up forgot last week. It was nagging me; I kept thinking there was something I forgot to do. But then I would think of something and think that was it. Apparently, there was a lot I forgot last week. I blame it on having an extra day off and watching dogs that woke me up at 3am. 

But I'm here now! And I have actually accomplished things this week!

So, English C is done. It has been published, and hopefully to the point that I won't have to touch it again for a while. I took a quick break to write my next prayer letter, and now I'm back to publishing Tamil. I'm feeling very productive. 

I've been thinking a lot about all of the changes at OMS lately. I know it's kind of a cliche to say that change is the only constant, but that's a bit how this year has felt. I'm sure I will continue ruminating on these changes since I'm not sure how I really feel about things. Nothing to fret about, really, but you can pray for my sanity. 

Also, I'm doing some traveling in the next few months, so if I don't post, that's why. I'll try to keep everyone up to date, though. 

That's all I got. Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 26-30, 2023

Friends!

You probably heard Greenwood mentioned in the news this week. And indeed, my town had a slight tornado situation on Sunday. I actually spent the duration of it in the office working on other things. We were fine. Actually, HQ grounds had more damage from the storm on Thursday than the one on Sunday. It did cut into the work wee a bit, but we all hung out together in the hall away from the windows. 

When we weren't dodging the wind, we were trying not to breathe in smoke. That stuff was pervasive, and I have had an off and on headache all week. I did end up taking one morning off because I just could not be outside anymore. 

For the rest of the week, I continued my work on English. I was also asked to sing at the intern chapel, so I did that on Wednesday. We did a couple of new songs that made me feel like a Boomer. They were really nice to sing and harmonize with, though. 

I'm trying to think of anything else to talk about. It was a pretty standard week, weird weather notwithstanding. I have doggos next week, so I'm going to do some packing and sleeping this weekend to prepare. I hope your holiday is fulfilling.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 19-23, 2023

The Big Reveal!

People keep asking me how I feel about the reno, and it's really hard to separate it from the chaos of the last two months. I do think it looks good, but you know how I feel about change. 

It was more English this week along with some side projects. One big thing that ate into our time is that we had three (3!) chapels. On Tuesday, we heard from Michelle Ule. She has written a book about Lettie Cowman. I am working my way through it, but I am already sure it's a great read. You can order yours by calling OMS and asking for Lydia or by following the link to Amazon. 

Our third chapel, on Thursday, was for the benefit of the Board. (Yep. Board meetings this week. I want no part of those.) There was a short devotional and then a service about Stanley and Juanita Tam and their contributions to OMS. Then everyone moved to my hallway to check out the new digs. I hosted the Zoom meeting and then hid in my office. 

It's the second chapel, on Wednesday, where I want to focus. We do a prayer chapel every month that centers on a different ministry or region each time. Since we had the Board in (technically two Board, both Global and U.S.), we were praying for the top opportunities and challenges in each region. We split the world into four: Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Pacific, Europe/Middle East, and Africa. I wanted to share some of those prayer requests with you (without disclosing any security concerns) so that you can pray more specifically for OMS ministries around the world. 

Latin America/Caribbean

• The Circle of Silence in Mexico has become an area of focus in the last year. There are many historical and social reasons for this moniker, but it has remained a largely un-reached region of Mexico.
• Ivonne is a missionary from Colombia that is being sent to Mexico. This is such a cool partnership, and it's so encouraging to see mission fields send their own missionaries.
• The resident missionaries need personnel who can focus on coordinating teams to the area. 

Asia/Pacific 

• The Japan Holiness Church is aging. In fact, the whole population is aging. What young people there are tend not to be interested in spiritual things.
• There are 10 missionary units who have applied to work in Japan. Pray for funding, visas, approvals, and welcome.
• There are amazing opportunities for church multiplication in so many countries - we just need people. 
• Central Asia is reopening its seminary; this is HUGE. 
• With opportunity comes obstacles - it has become nearly impossible to get people or funds into several countries. 

Europe/Middle East

• Opportunities abound amidst new fears that have arisen in the last few years. 
• We have business as mission needs in Spain and Hungary. 
• In some cases, the growth has happened so quickly that it has become difficult to define a united goal and purpose. Pray for more deliberate action versus the spaghetti model.

Africa

• Do you speak Portuguese? Do you want to learn? We need people for our Bible school in Mozambique. 
• Approximately 70 new training centers are opening this month and in July. These centers train evangelists and church planters. 
• Poverty is a huge challenge. We need people who can provide skills training. 

That's what I've got for you this week. I hope your weekend is amazing.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 12-16, 2023

Yes, I was hearing this all week. Thanks for asking. 

It's fine. It will be done next week. It'll be fine after that. 

Right?

Anyway, I'm still working on English. It is progressing fairly well. I'm ready to be done with it, though. 

I don't have much else to talk about this week. We had a ton of missionaries here from around the world for meetings. I don't have much to do with it, but you're always going to be effected in some way or other. It's nice to see people you only hear about every so often. 

I think that's it. Take care of yourselves. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 5-9, 2023

Well, there are fewer boxes outside my office. Some of the walls are painted. I think the table in the conference room has been put together, but I haven't actually checked. Apparently, some of the countertops came warped. Did I mention all of this is supposed to be done by June 22?

Yep.

Whatever. It will get done when it gets done. I'll post pictures when that happens. 

In the meantime, no one but those of us who actually work in this hallway are allowed to enter. Not that it's enforceable, but the effort is appreciated. My suggestion that this be the status quo for the hallway was not. Worth a try.

I'm still publishing English booklets. I have uncovered a few more systemic issues, so we're working on clearing those up. 

Summer is typically the month when we have lots of work coming in. Conversely, my team tends to be doing summery things and isn't available as much. It reverses in Winter. There are probably many reasons for this. But it does make life interesting since I'm the only one in the office every day. Juggling priorities becomes ... difficult.

But we persevere. All the people are coming in this weekend for Missionary Council next week. I am minimally involved, which is fantastic. But it still throws off the groove.

Name that movie!

Okay, that's it.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 20 - June 2, 2023

Hidey ho, neighbors! How was your Memorial Day? I made a somewhat last-minute decision to go up to my parent's place for the weekend. I'm glad I did. We had a lovely time. 

Of course, this was a shorter week. But that by no means stopped people from adding projects to my list. My now incredibly long list. And everything is a priority. Shocker. 

But the best way out is always through. I do a little bit here, a bit there, and eventually, I'll be able to cross something off my list. Is that the best way to get things done? No idea. But it's how I'm doing things. It certainly keeps life interesting. And probably feeds my ADD. 

Anyway, I'm working on publishing English C and Tamil booklets. The work outside my door is still ongoing, though it seems to be moving at a slower pace. But there's only so much time because the Board arrives at the end of June, and missionary council is the week before that. 

I'm sure it will be fine. 

Don't forget to thank those who sacrificed for our freedom - whether they be human or divine. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 22-26, 2023

I told Sarah earlier this month that I had a goal to spend more days out of the office in May than I did in the office. It was mostly a joke (what are goals?), but between the work being done on our hallway and some traveling I'm doing, I haven't been far off. 

That's not to say I haven't been keeping myself busy. I have had plenty of stuff going on, to the point where I'm just giving up on getting any kind of sleep schedule. It'll be fine, right?

Anyway, I'll give an update on where things stand with the hallway. (We need a name for it, by the way. Probably one for the conference room and one for what used to be ECC. If you have any ideas, let me know.)

This was my view for a couple of days as chairs were put together, HVAC systems were fixed, and whatever else they are doing. (They asked my opinion, I gave it, but I don't think it counted for much.) 

That's what things look like right now. Yes, that is an orange triangle on the wall. It'll be fine.

We are republishing English files to account for all of the mistakes and formatting issues we've found over the last seven or eight years. This will hopefully make our lives easier as we start new language projects, and it will also look like we actually know what we're doing when people read through Train & Multiply booklets. Right now I'm working on the set that uses the Asian art. 

Fun times. 

My prayer letter went out last week. Keep an eye out for it, and if you don't receive it and want to, drop me a line or a comment. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 8-12, 2023

It has been a while, hasn't it?

I'll try to sum up the last couple of weeks as best I can. It seems like May hit and suddenly everything needed to be done pronto. Kinda drives me nuts, to be honest. But we persevere as we can. 

Last week I started what will likely be an ongoing project. I mentioned that I'm on the safety committee at OMS, right? Part of that is making sure we have evacuation plans for each building. No problem with the main building because we had those floor plans already drawn up. Not so much for the other two buildings - Research and Writing, and Men for Missions. Granted, they are smaller and have fewer employees in them. They know what to do. But visitors don't, and we need to be compliant because you never know what's going to trip you up with the law. 

So I found a website that would let me draw up some floor plans for free. (I'll probably have to eventually pay so I can get a more professional copy.) Last week, I worked on R&W. I had to know where the doors were, fire extinguishers, windows - all the stuff. I haven't done MFM, yet. This is less of a priority, unfortunately, but still important. 

We also learned during our seminar week (great timing) that our hallway would be getting a makeover to set up something to honor Stanley Tam. Tam founded U.S. Plastic and deeded his business over to God. Yes, it can be done. There's a book ("God Owns My Business"). He gave a lot of money to OMS, and we need to show our appreciation. Unfortunately, that means our hallways is a mess until that gets done. (I don't have a good before picture. Just imagine four cubicles along the wall.)

I took a couple of days last week to visit my sister for her birthday. We had a lovely time. Then it was back to work on Tuesday. 

I had to take a course on child protection. I'm sad that this is necessary, but I'm glad OMS is taking it seriously. There is no excuse, especially in the church, for any kind of abuse to be taking place. 

Continuing the safety theme, we had a Lunch & Learn on Wednesday about personal and work safety from the police here in Greenwood. We also talked about mental health needs. 

Finally, I've been working on my prayer letter this week in hopes that it will go out next week. I'm confident that will actually happen. 

Oh, and we had our last Family Fun Night of the season. I think it has gone well this year, and I'm hopeful that we have learned enough this year to make future events even better. 

Next week, they are painting the hallway, so I am staying out of the office. I'll be working on what I can from home, but I have no desire to huff paint fumes for five days straight. So I will catch up in a couple of weeks.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 17-28, 2023

I have been slacking in blog posts, and I can't promise that this one will be any better. So I apologize now and will hopefully make up for it in the coming weeks. (Not next week because I won't be here.)

We had the CMF Seminar this week, so it's not like I haven't been doing anything. Last week was spent going over the tech needed for each session and getting things ready. This week, I think I maybe sat at my desk for a total of about five hours. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but it really hasn't been much. 

Which means I haven't done any of my usual work this week. I knew it would happen and I prepared my team for that. They just kinda shrugged and got on with things, which I love about them. 

We were non-stop this week from 9 until whenever I could get home, which was sometimes after 8. I had a great tech team that was helping me record sessions and run the sound system and cameras. A lot of it is automated, which helps quite a bit, but it does still require a brain behind the curtain. Plus, it was nice to see people I only hang out with about once a year. And I like to help Sarah not go crazy. More crazy. 

My next prayer letter should lay out more of what happened this week, and I will totally get to writing it soon. I hope. I could use some sleep before that happens. But it will! I promise. 

Okay, I think that will have to be it. I gotta go de-people for a bit. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 10-14, 2023

Yes, the fun never stops here at OMS. 

I say this with all sarcasm. Obviously. It has been such a quiet week around here. 

Clearly, I missed last week's update. Somehow, I had forgotten that Friday was Good Friday and that we wouldn't be in the office. And if I'm not in the office, I can't do a blog post. (Not really. But it might as well be true.)

Anyway, we are replacing the ancient unit that runs the heating and cooling system in the building. Most people (probably the sane ones) opted not to come in since no one was sure what the temps would be in the office. Honestly, it hasn't been that bad. Maybe a little stuffy. But I also reside in the basement, so maybe I'm not the best judge. 

These last couple of weeks have been spent working on the last of the emails I needed to send to T&M users and following up with their inquiries. My computer is still having issues, so that hampered my efforts. But we had some decent responses, so I'm pleased with that. 

I was also doing a lot for Family Fun Night, which was Tuesday. I always forget to take pictures when I'm hosting an event, so I didn't get any. But it was a really good night! We had some fun Bible foods and did a quiz I devised. It took a lot out of me, though. I took Wednesday off with a headache. 

The next big event will be the CMF Seminar. I've been helping Sarah where I can with that. I'll be doing tech, and we're waiting for everyone to get their stuff in so we know what we're up against. Historically, these people are not great at deadlines. But, we'll get there. Come what may.

I did finally finish the Spanish art swap. All that's left is to publish those files. Sometime. Soon.

I think that's about the size of it, folks. Have a great weekend!

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: March 27-31, 2023

Spanish is never going to end.

Am I being dramatic? A little. But it certainly feels that way. To be fair, though, I was working on booklet 52 (Church Growth Guide), which has at least 100 images to switch. No exaggeration. But that one is done now. I just need some uninterrupted time to do the rest and then publish the booklets. 

But, I'm still working on Family Fun Night stuff and responding to email inquiries. And on Wednesday, I had a last minute request to run the A/V for chapel. 

I don't think I've ever articulated what goes into that. We stream chapel simultaneously so that our further away family can participate and keep up with things as well as HQ folks. So that means starting the Zoom meeting and spotlighting whomever is speaking. But we also record chapel so that anyone who can't watch live is able to watch later. So you have to click the right program to make that happen. And mics need to be on, words for songs need to be showing on the screens - and all of this needs to be done at roughly the same time. 

I usually remember to do about 90% of it at the correct time. I'm sure if I did it more often, I'd eventually get to 100%. But we do what we can. And it's a nice change of pace. 

Not much else to report from the week. April is going to be fairly busy, so we'll see what that brings. I hope you have a great weekend!

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: March 20-24, 2023

This was a better week. More rain, though. I'm not a fan of all the wet. 

Lots of side projects this week. I'm working on the Family Fun Night for April, and I agreed to organize a community garage sale for OMS campus folks. That always takes more work than people think.

The rest of the week, I was back to Spanish art. I'm getting close to being done! I think. 

We also had a prayer chapel this week, in which we prayed for the younger generations of OMS missionaries. I also got to sing with the other Jessica. (Did you know there's controversy about "How He Loves" by David Crowder? There's a lyric 'Heaven meets Earth like an unforeseen kiss.' But some people say 'sloppy wet kiss.' Obviously, those people should be shot. Not that I care much more for the first one. Christians argue about the weirdest stuff sometimes.)

Anyway.

Here's to clearer skies and warm breezes!

Bye.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: March 13-17, 2023

This was a frustrating week. 

It actually started out fairly well. Sarah and I worked on some stuff in our capacity as safety officers. That included some arts and crafts.

And then my computer went nuts. 

This is where my angry shark usually sits. He's not usually that angry. But I needed an accurate representation of my feelings at the time.

I spent a couple of days trying to figure out why my computer was being dumb. I still don't know. But it does work most of the time, so I'm just going to keep on keeping on until something changes. 

In that vein, I did finish one Chichewa volume. It's nice to get something done at least.

We also had Family Fun Night this week. We had a picnic and made fleece tie blankets for cancer patients. 

So as frustrating as things were, it was somewhat redeemed. And I get to see my parents this weekend, so that will help. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: March 6-10, 2023

Another day, another dollar. Another week, another blog post?

Makes sense to me.

This week was slightly shortened for me. I woke up on Tuesday feeling very meh and ended up trying to sleep off a headache. Fortunately, I felt better by Wednesday. But it does cut into the week. 

I think I mentioned last week that I would be working on getting out an email to all of our T&M license holders and users. As all things do, it turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated. But I did figure out how to do it without spending any money on email services. Except there's a limit to how many emails I can send per day. It's super fun except for all the ways it isn't. 

And it doesn't just stop once the email is sent. I included a form, and hopefully people actually use the form and give some decent responses. If they do, then I get to chat with them and find out ways to get them what they need. And then there are the emails that bounce, the ones that unsubscribe, the bad addresses, the ones that have changed - I gotta maintain a contact list of about 1700. 

An old OMSer who has since passed on would call it job security. 

I led devos on Monday for our departmental prayer time. We talked about the history of Purim (poo-REEM) and the importance of doing what God asks you to do so that later generations aren't suffering for your lack of obedience. I didn't dress up as anything, though, nor did I provide hammentaschen this year. But if you can find some, I highly recommend them. Especially the apricot. 

To wrap things up further, I'll leave you with this. OMS has been playing host this week to a group of leaders from the Korean Evangelical Church of America. They have a long history with OMS, and they asked to be trained in how to implement Train & Multiply in the U.S. I'm more on the translation and production side of things than the training one, but it was lovely to see so many smiling faces. (And hear their voices!) Their district superintendent spoke in chapel on Wednesday, and I want to share some of what he said. 

Don't settle for being comfortable. 

It's more comfortable to walk than to run.

It's more comfortable to stand than to walk.

It's more comfortable to sit than to stand.

It's more comfortable to lay down than to sit. 

It's more comfortable to sleep than to lay down.

But if you always do what is more comfortable, you will die. 

Try being uncomfortable. Talk to your new neighbor. Sit in a different seat at church. Ask how you can pray for your waiter. Go to church on Sunday instead of watching online. 

This isn't just for you. I've been a little too comfortable for a while now. It's time to be uncomfortable again. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 27 - March 3, 2023

Is anyone else worried about floating away? I'm starting to think I needed to be building a boat. A new lake is forming in front of my apartment. The creek behind my apartment is spilling out into the field. 

If any animals start showing up in pairs, we're in trouble. 

Anyway, hopefully the rain will end sometime without causing too many problems. In the meantime, let's get down to business. 

...to defeat the Huns!

This was a busy week, with lots to do. I finished up the Korean booklets and got those sent off. Next on my list was a French volume for VCP. This one is about 100 pages because it has seven booklets included. It took a hot minute to complete. 

My big project this week, and one that will continue on for a bit, is creating an email that will eventually go out to all of our T&M users around the world. We used to ask for yearly reports, but that stopped during the coof. Now I'm trying to upload contacts and create a simple form to facilitate better communication. And then, once I send it, I will hopefully have plenty of responses to go through.

(Did you know you can only send 500 emails from a regular Gmail account per day?)

Also, I now have a mini fridge in my office. I'm not sold on the placement yet, but it's a work in progress. I wanted somewhere to put more healthy snacks instead of going for the easy-but-sugary options. And if you put stuff in the OMS fridges, you run the risk of it being appropriated. Entirely by accident, I'm sure. 

That's it for the week! I hope you have a fantastic weekend and don't fall into any newly-formed lakes.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 20-24, 2023

Greetings, citizens!

This has been a full week. I have been working on my prayer letter for quite a bit of it. I have to confess, I rewrote it a couple of times. The first time, even as I was writing, I was thinking 'I don't know if I agree with this.' The words just weren't coming out how I wanted, which meant things were implied that I didn't mean to imply. Nothing terrible, just some deep theological issues that I had to reconcile and figure out how to phrase so you all didn't think I was a heretic. Lord knows there's already enough of that going around. Anyway, I'm waiting on that to be approved before I can send it out. It'll say February, but it will probably be March before you read it. I should work on getting those done earlier. 

The second big project this week was Spanish booklets. I had to put those on hold for a bit, but I managed to get another group's art swapped. Now I'm working on the final Korean booklets (the new ones) so we can have everything ready for training in two weeks. 

My third ongoing project is social media. I've been trying to do more with the T&M Facebook page. I'm just at a loss for what people want to know. But if you'd like to follow it or give suggestions, please feel free. I could always use the encouragement. 

Those are the big ones this week. I got a new project this morning, so that will likely be my focus for next week. Unless something else comes up. It's amazing how often that happens. 

But until then, I'm going to have a lovely weekend, which is also what I wish for you.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 13-17, 2023

I know. I missed last week. Mea culpa. 

We are deep into the February doldrums, folks. False Spring has passed, and the days are grey once again. I know things have happened, I've done activities, time marches on; but for the life of me, I don't know that I could give a detailed account of any specific day. 

And yet, here we are. 

I do remember that I got to participate in an interview on Monday afternoon. HR likes to have people from a variety of backgrounds when they do interviews, and my number came up this week. We spoke to a lovely woman from Georgia who was interviewing for a position in Mobilization. 

The rest of my week was spent publishing Haitian Creole booklets. It always amazes me to find little things I missed the first five times I worked on a booklet. It frustrates me, too. But we have our process for a reason, and it's not like I can't change something in the future if someone points out a huge error. I'd just prefer to get it right the first time. 

Sarah, Lydia, and I got to sing for the prayer chapel on Wednesday. We did a lovely job if I do say so myself. But I've been humming the songs ever since then. I feel like I should apologize to everyone around me. 

I think that's about it for the week. I don't remember anything else, anyway. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 30 - February 3, 2023

This was a short week for me. It wasn't meant to be, but over the weekend, I let a germ colony loose in my body. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday alternately sleeping, hacking up a lung, and blowing my nose. You're welcome for the visuals. 

But I couldn't stay away forever, so I returned to my post on Wednesday. Since then, I have been working on Haitian Creole booklets. The first group I did was great - a few minor things to clean up here and there. But this last group is not going so well. 

Those would be missing translations. And considering we're on the second pass, that's doubly not good. So I've been filling those in and trying to figure out how that even happened in the first place.

But it's not all bad news. We finally have a new app that will help us in publishing booklets. Most of the stuff out there is ridiculously expensive or user unfriendly. But Veronica found us a viable alternative. This should make things go much faster. 

Speaking of publishing, we're nearly done with the Bengali booklet. That had its own delay because the printer our partners use (and that's a profession, not a device) is using equipment from the '70s, if not earlier. It is so easy to take for granted the digital wonders of the modern world, but not everyone has access to those things. Thus, we sometimes have to go old school - meaning we make things less sophisticated so that people can still use them. It's a great lesson for us. We love making things faster and easier, but if people can't use it, then we might as well not produce anything. I think ministry especially always has to straddle the line between 'the latest thing' and the sensible thing. Sometimes we do it well. Sometimes not so much.

So that was my week! I hope yours has been productive and enjoyable. Don't let any germ colonies attack you this weekend.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 23-27, 2023

For future reference, if you see an 8 in Bengali, it's actually a 4. 

That is probably the sum total of what I have learned this week. I doubt it will ever be useful again. 

But hey, knowledge is power and all that jazz, and it's not like I learned something bad, so I'm counting it as a win. 

This week has been a bit topsy-turvy. I'm cat sitting this week, which means I'm 20 minutes further away from the office than normal. So when we had five inches of snow and some ice on Wednesday morning, I made the executive decision to stay with the cat. I'm sure she didn't appreciate it as much as I did, but we made do. Also because of the storm, OMS cancelled the in-person Board meetings this week and held them on Zoom instead. I'm sure that decreased the anxiety levels of most people around here. I, of course, have little to do with the Board, so it was no skin off my nose.

Sarah has been in Thailand for the last two weeks, so it has been quiet around here. She's good for getting me out of my seat to walk around a little. 

In addition to the Bengali volume, I did a mock-up of the front cover. It needed to be identifiable as T&M but also not, since it will be used in a country that is less than friendly toward certain activities. Ahem. So I've been playing around with some of the less obvious graphics we use. 

And, I don't know if I ever told you this, but I've also been working on the T&M Facebook page. I neglected our social media for a long time, and I felt it was a good idea to get back into things and get our name recognition up a bit. I think it is working, but do you know how hard it is to come up with appropriate social media posts? I'm terrible at it. But needs must. 

I think that might be it for the week. This time of year is never terribly exciting. I'l see what I can do in the future. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 16-20, 2023

Hello, people!

I trust you are all well. I am, thus far, enjoying the start of my 38th year on this planet (I turned 37 on Monday). It doesn't feel all that different, but it is very windy out, so I guess we could consider those the winds of change or something like that. 

My birthday was pretty low key. I took Sarah to the airport Monday morning. She's going to Thailand without me. What a birthday present, right?! But seriously, I'm very happy for her even if she is going for work. I haven't quite been able to convince myself to go anywhere by plane yet. I did some work on the Portuguese volume, then my parents came and we went to Target and dinner. We talked about lots of things, notably my strategy for getting my insurance to actually pay for the surgery in December. Why is healthcare so gnarly? Anyway, it was a lovely day, and I'm very happy my parents came to see me.

I had a team meeting on Tuesday, which was lovely, since I haven't actually gotten to connect with my peeps except by text for a month and a half. We try to keep up with what is going on in life and also how work projects are progressing. Pray for them. 

I did finish the volume for the VCP teams and started working on Haitian Creole. We are so close to putting that project to bed! We've been working on it for years, and, despite all of the conflict in the country, switching translators, and unavoidable loss of contact, we are now nearly finished.

I had to break from HC, though, because we're putting together a separate volume for Bengali. That's an interesting language, one which I actually haven't worked in before. It's one we finished a few years ago, and it's fascinating now to see how the small changes we've made to the booklets over the years have added up. The Bengali books are still great, but I can see how we have made incremental improvements for users, translators, and production.

The OMS Board will be around next week, so that will be interesting. I generally try to avoid all of that craziness. 

That's all I have for you this week. I hope you have a wind-free weekend.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 9-13, 2023

It is Friday the 13th. 

Which, really, doesn't mean a thing other than 13 is my favorite number. And that Monday is my birthday. But that's about it. 

I'm just about settled back in at work. There's always the odd person here and there that you haven't seen for a while because you've been out, then they were out - ships passing in the night. So I imagine there are a few 'how was your holiday' conversations left to have. But for the most part, they have migrated on to 'so what are you working on' conversations, and those at least provide some variety.

For my part, I have been working on African Portuguese. I just published another group, and my project next week will be to turn that group into a volume. Maybe I'll do a video post about it. Otherwise, I've had a lot of meetings of the 'what are we going to work on this year' variety. Some of it might happen. Some of it won't. We just have to trust God that we focus on the right things. 

I am still healing. I had my 6 week doctor's appointment, and aside from some incision grossness, everything is going well. (I may never wear jeans again. At least, not for a while. Ouchy. Ouchie? owchee? Bad rabbit.)

I hope you all have a warm and lovely weekend.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 3-6, 2023

Hello, friends! Yes, it's true, I am back in Greenwood and back in the office. Is it too soon? Probably a bit. But I was going stir crazy.

So, yes, my surgery did take place on December 2. It ended up taking about 80 minutes - not that I was aware of anything after the anesthetist told me she was going to start the oxygen. I had some trouble waking up, but my mom was there to keep prodding me. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but she has been an absolute rock during my recovery. 

I spent most of December sleeping or laying down or writing or watching sports. Very low impact activities. I think I'm healing quite well, though I will find out for sure next week. My only issue is the inability to wear anything other than leggings so I don't rub against the incisions too much. 

As for work, I'm still getting back into the swing of things. I sat at my desk for about 20 minutes on Tuesday just trying to remember exactly what I do. Fortunately, most of this week was spent in meetings or working on correspondence. I'm sure next week will be more intense. 

Thank you all for your prayers over the last month. I appreciate all of the messages, cards, and emails. I'm hopeful that this surgery will solve many issues and allow me to work toward better health.

Bye!