The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 27-31, 2024

Ey up!

Quiet week, eh?

I'm not going to get bogged down in politics on here. That's not what this blog is for. All I will say is that we have entered dangerous territory where lawfare is de rigueur, and that should terrify us all. 

In the mission world, I can't say it's much better. If you haven't heard, a young missionary couple was murdered in Haiti along with the director of the local mission. OMS no longer has missionaries in Haiti, but we do have national partners and relationships that have lasted for decades. What is happening in Haiti is heartbreaking and infuriating. It does not bring glory to God in any way. I am praying that God works through the violence and upheaval to raise up strong, godly leaders who stand against such activities. 

I almost forgot that I was actually out last week. I organize an annual community garage sale for the folks who live here on campus, so I was doing that last week. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in such a short time. 

This week, I was fully back to it with art swaps for the templates. I was going to change each individual set of files until V reminded me that I can just swap out the art. It's not fool proof, but it does save a lot of time. Right now I'm working on Art F. (Usually, I would say F Art, but that makes things awkward. So Art F it is.)

I'm also working on my funding. I should honestly probably talk about it more on here, but it's my least favorite part of being a missionary. Yet it's so vital to what I do! We all need to make a living. Mine just happens to be dependent on people graciously supporting me with funds. I'm working to meet new people and make new connections so I can raise my salary to match inflation and maybe even start travelling to fields again. If you would like to start giving, you can visit www.onemissionsociety.org/give/JessicaHollopeter to learn more. If you know someone who should hear more about my ministry with Train & Multiply, please leave a comment or email me with some info. 

I am going to a Fiber Festival and a Strawberry Festival this weekend. I hope you have some great experiences as well.

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: 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: 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: November 14-18, 2022

This is it. The last weekly wrap-up of the year. Next week is Thanksgiving. The following week is my surgery (at 7 AM!). The rest of December is recovery. So, yeah. This is it.

Try not to cry too much.

I'm feeling the pressure even more this week. I was able to get quite a bit done, but I feel like I just keep adding things to the list. 

Lots of meetings this week. Mostly important, but a couple of them definitely could have been an email. 

I'm still working my way through Spanish booklets. Some booklets are easy because they only have five or six images that need to be changed. But I did one the other day that had at least 30 images. That was a struggle. And of course, they all have to be roughly the same size so you're like a crazy person trying to figure out if someone's head is the same size as another person's head, and are they in the right eye line, and all that jazz. 

I worry sometimes that you think I'm too caught up in the aesthetics of the booklets rather than thinking about what they're used for. Or maybe I'm worried that I am actually more concerned about the aesthetics of the thing. But I know how much that can be a distraction. A book I once read for a history project was so poorly written that I nearly didn't finish in time to complete the project. It was in need of a good editor. If someone isn't looking in the right direction or, to be more specific, if a hand is clutching a piece of paper and yet the side of the paper is still visible in someone's hand, it's distracting. (Yes, that is something I had to fix this week.) I don't want there to be anything that takes away from the message of the booklets. It's too easy for people to attack something for how it looks rather than on the merits of what it says. The same goes for people. How often are we told to look past the surface of something? But it's not easy, so if I can remove those temptations, I will. 

Anyway.

I continue to not sleep well. I'm hoping to catch up on some of that this weekend. But tonight, I am going to see the first two episodes of season three of "The Chosen!" So I hope you have a great weekend, and I hope all of your holiday plans come to fruition, and I hope your New Year is blessed. 

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: February 14-18, 2022

It's the week of love! Or, if you're like me, it's exactly the same as every other week. I did get a lovely card from my father, but otherwise, Valentine's Day might as well not exist. Except for the movie. That one was kind of cute. 

I did capitalize on the day to do a devotional on Monday about love and society's obsession with love songs. We decided that most were quite shallow and focused on external attributes. 

I completed the fifth English volume for the Village Church Planting curriculum. This one is fairly small, so nothing too complicated. My next project, however, will be quite the doozy. I'm publishing a group of Amharic booklets and then creating a volume of them. Amharic is quite a beautiful language, but it is also one that looks quite complicated. Lots of different punctuation rules and things to look for. 

Thursday was quite a long day. We had to move our monthly production team meeting up to 8am, and if you know me at all, you know I'm not a morning person. Then we had a mini CMF workshop from 10-12ish, talking about all of the changes coming to OMS. (Have I mentioned those on here? I keep forgetting who knows what. That might have to be its own post.) Then we had a T&M committee meeting at 2:30, discussing where we are with current projects and what future languages we should be starting. 

One other thing I do want to mention here - we heard this week that the creator of what became Train & Multiply passed away. George Patterson started writing hundreds of little booklets when he was a missionary in Honduras in the 1950s. He was responding to an immediate need, and his efforts did not go unnoticed. Somehow, the booklets got into the hands of SEAN International - Study by Extension for All Nations. They consolidated the booklets, but it wasn't until they were discovered by Lloyd Niles of Project WorldReach that they started to look more like what we do today. Throughout the history of T&M, we've kept in touch with George and kept him up to date on how his work was being used around the world. I will always be thankful for his legacy.

That's my week in a nutshell. Temps are continuing to roller coaster, which is weird. We went for a walk outside one afternoon this week, and then this morning, I was slipping on ice. Welcome to Indiana. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 31 - February 11, 2022

Welcome to the February Funk. 

I don't know who first coined that term, but I am claiming it as my own. But first...

Yes, we did miss a week! Remember when I said snow had finally come to Greenwood? That was nothing compared to last week. Granted, what we got was not what they originally predicted, which I was fine with - no one needs that much ice in their lives. But we did get about 8 inches of snow, which prompted an office closure on Thursday and Friday. 

I'm not able to do much work from home. Firstly, I only have the Internet that occasionally sneaks across the street from the office, so it's spotty at best. Secondarily, I'm pretty much tied to the computer at the office. It has all of the programs and the virtual computer, so I didn't get much done with T&M on those days. But I did still have meetings and other things I could do, and I made up for the T&M stuff this week. I sent off a group of Hindi booklets for proofing, and I published the second group of Tamil! There's a big India training event coming up, so I'm hoping this will put us ahead of the game. 

I've also been working on my next prayer letter this week. This one should be quite colorful, so that's something to look forward to. 

But yeah... the February Funk. I enjoyed the snow, I really did, but now we're getting into the grays and browns before Spring, and it's still dark all the time, and I'm just over being cold. 

The only way out is through, though. So we go on. I don't want to end on a down note. I'm not in a bad place. I just really, really like sunshine. So feel free to send a little my way!

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 24-28, 2022

Well, it's finally happened. 

Snow has come to Greenwood. 

Seriously, though, I know it has been everywhere else, but this week we got the first significant snow we've had so far this Winter. I'm enjoying it thus far, but I don't trust it. I fully expect some random blizzard to inundate us sometime soon. 

But you didn't come here for that analysis, so let's get on with it. 

This was a Board week - not a boring week - with the OMS USA Board here Thursday and Friday. I don't usually have to do much when they're in town, but I did get called on for some tech assistance. Fortunately, I know how to Google and make phone calls to people who understand what to do, so I was successful. 

I finished the re-publish of group 1 of Tamil and started on publishing group 2. This group will take longer as we've changed a few styles since the last time it was worked on. Also, I had to interrupt it to work on a Mozambican Portuguese project. 

The rest of the week has been spent trying to keep warm and attending the usual meetings. Fun times. 

That's about it. Stay awesome.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: November 1-5, 2021

This week has been all about Mozambican Portuguese. Just like Spanish and Castilian, Portuguese has differences depending on where it is spoken. Since we're using Portuguese in Africa now, we've had someone go through what has already been done (based on what is spoken in Brazil) and make a few changes. This mostly effects T&M booklets since we haven't already translated VCP materials. But it's a quick turnaround because they want to start using the materials ASAP, so I'm doing my best to get it ready for proofs and publishing. 

I've had so many meetings this week, and while they have all actually been good and useful, they also make my head hurt. I'm on the team planning the OMS Christmas party, I'm planning the ECC retreat with Sarah, I've put myself in charge of working on some safety plans for OMS (also with Sarah), and I still have to do the development stuff for the app and download sites. I am ready for some downtime. 

I don't have a lot of side rambles today. Sorry. 

I will leave you with a riddle, though. What did the Gingerbread Man put on top of his bed?

Comment with your guesses.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: September 6-10, 2021

20 years ago, life was pretty normal. Monday, September 10, 2001, I probably had the usual Monday blahs. I don't actually remember anything about that day. Why would I? Nothing remarkable happened. And then Tuesday. I was moving from one class to the next. There was a weird undercurrent. Mr. Weaver was late to Geography. When he arrived, he told us that there had been a plane crash in New York City, a big one. The school started to realize that something bigger was going on, so we were all herded into the cafeteria to watch the news. My timing is all mixed up, but we were definitely watching when both towers fell. We watched the Pentagon in flames. We watched plumes of smoke in Pennsylvania. 

I'm pretty sure we were sent home early that day. I remember going to the gas station and seeing endless lines. At school, my best friend had asked what the World Trade Center was, and I said it had something to do with finance. I didn't really know. But I knew something fundamental had shifted. My mom was flying somewhere a few weeks later, and our car was searched for explosive material before we entered the airport grounds. The airport had checkpoints now. We couldn't go in with her. When I took my first flight ever a few years earlier, my sister had come with us all the way to the gate. No ticket required. 

I don't think I'll ever forget where I was when I first heard the news. But other memories are fading. Unity gave way to tribes and factions. Our love for the first responders turned into distrust and fear. A war that started when I was 16 turned into something undefined and "ended" in disgrace. 

The echoes of what happened on September 11 will be felt for decades to come. I will likely never know in my lifetime everything that happened before, on, and because of that day. But I know what it did to me. I know how it made me feel. I know that for one brief moment, this country was unified in a common grief. I will never forget that. 

It seems a bit cheap to talk about my week after that, but another thing I learned that day is that life goes on. There was a September 12. The world didn't stop turning, and so, neither must we. It is appropriate, though, that we started our week with Rosh HaShanah. Or Labor Day. But I prefer a good shofar. 

I FINALLY finished my thank you cards and prayer letter this week. They have been long delayed, but I hope the content will be worth the wait. 

A good part of my week has actually been spent talking about next week. We will be having Missionary Council. Many of our top regional leaders will be in Greenwood to discuss the future. This typically happens every year, but, you know, 'Rona. Normally, I have very little to do with MC. But we did such a good job of running the CMF Seminar that our glorious leaders asked us to do the same. Of course, it's next week. Running a successful Zoom call isn't simply a matter of clicking a button. We'll be fine, I'm sure, but I do appreciate slightly more warning. 

Otherwise, I've been working on Tamil. I'm getting so close to being done! If I was a better employee, I'd stay and finish it. But I'm exhausted. And any work I do right now would be pretty much useless. Maybe I'll come in this weekend. 

Bye!

(Where were you 20 years ago?)

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 2-6, 2021

நண்பர்கள், அயலவர்கள் மற்றும் நாட்டு மக்கள்: உங்கள் காதுகளை எனக்குக் கொடுங்கள்.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I have spent this entire week working on Tamil booklets. Will I spend the next couple of weeks doing the same thing? Very likely. Do I wish they could find a way to say things more succinctly?

Absolutely.

Look, I love the people who speak Tamil. They are truly beautiful, and the language itself is also gorgeous to look at. But it does make publishing quite difficult. The kerning is at least 20% larger than English, and even when we reduce the spacing, it never fits within the template. I think I added about 16 pages across 5 booklets. I have to add in chunks of 4 because that's how the printing spreads operate. I don't mind adding, but that means our partners are using up more paper and ink, which can add up over time. That's why we're trying to get more people using the app, because you can do pretty much anything on there.

The rest of the week went pretty well. I had devotions for our Monday prayer time, talking about God's Will and how we determine what that is and why it sometimes takes a while to understand. 

I am also the Zoom host for chapel this month! Basically, I attend chapel online and make sure everyone has what they need since they can't be with us in person. Talk about trial by fire, though - we had an Internet issue that meant everything that came through the microphone was stuttered. It did make for some funny moments, but it was also frustrating. 

But hey, I got a great sash out of it from Sarah.

That's the week! I hope you have had a fantastic start to your August. As far as I'm concerned, Autumn is still a dirty word right now, so if you want to talk about pumpkin spice, find someone else. It's all Summer, all the time around here. 

பிரியாவிடை

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 26-30, 2021

Who else thinks we should institute the wonderful tradition of an afternoon siesta here in the U.S.? I don't know if it's the heat or my general inability to sleep through the night these days, but I have been feeling so sleepy in the afternoons. I've never been much of a nap person, but I'm thinking it might be time. 

This has been a fairly quiet week. Sarah left me to go on vacation with her family (only fair since I did the same thing to her a few weeks ago), and that has meant I'm regularly one of the few people downstairs. Add to that the slight hiccup with the A/C this week, and you have at least three days where I was the only one in my hallway. It's not an unheard of phenomenon, but it does get awfully quiet when you can't hear other people on Zoom or arguing with the printer. 

I spent most of this week making videos, which is not my normal state of affairs. I'll try to upload them sometime, but I'll tease you with this - I downloaded both the Law & Order theme and the Looney Tunes theme for these. If I tell you it has to do with the CMF Seminar coming up, what conclusions would you draw?

The rest of the week, I've been working on Tamil booklets. They are rough. We reduced the font size, and they are still overrunning just about every space they'd normally fit in English. I'm definitely going to be spending a fair bit of time on these. 

We had a special prayer time today for a man who has done a lot of work with OMS over the years. He's in the hospital with COVID. I know it's a hot button topic these days, but we were talking afterward that our mission hasn't changed. Beyond politics, beyond personal pronouns, beyond whatever distraction the world throws at you, what we are interested in is people's souls. Don't forget to do a soul check every now and then. 

We know how to love because Jesus loves us.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 19-23, 2021

This is a late one, boys and girls. I gotta say, I'm not normally around at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon. As soon as 5:00 hits, I tend to be off like a shot. But this has been an interesting week, and I had a lot of things to finish up, so here we are.

I started this week hearing some disappointing news. Not bad, and certainly not disappointing for the person bearing it, but it was certainly not news I expected right now. I'm happy for the person who told me, but sad for me. And yes, I'm being deliberately vague, but that's really all I can say until it's official. 

With regard to the workload this week, I was swamped. Still am, but we have to put it down sometime. I created two volumes of T&M booklets this week - one in Swahili and one in English. It's something new, and I'm glad I learned how to do it, but they do take some time to compile and check page numbers and such. 

Sarah and I created scripts for the CMF Seminar in August. We're trying to illustrate the benefits of digital collaboration, so we wrote some things to be filmed. I tried to tone down my usual brand of humor, but I do have a particular style, so there will be one or two sarcastic moments. I'll post a link to one of the videos if I think of it. And if it's any good. We'll see. 

I haven't been sleeping well this week. I had one dog sitting gig with an adorable Golden, and I never sleep well in different places, but these days, it turns out I don't sleep well in my own place, either. Any ideas?

That's all, folks. Have a pleasant day whenever you read this.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 28 - July 2, 2021

This will be a quick one today. There were two major projects - proofing the Global Impact Report and publishing GR01 of Tamil. I think I finished publishing Tamil right at 5 on Friday. Craziness. I wanted to get it done before I'm off next week, so I just kept pushing. As always, there's more that we did this week, but those were really the major ones. The GIR (I have another name for it, but it's less polite) was fairly easy, but it's amazing how many little details get missed in publications. Lori and I were talking about it, and she said something along the lines of "Who really reads it that closely?" Granted, most people won't. But people pick up on the mistakes far more quickly than they will compliment the design, unfortunately. I always notice stuff like that in magazines and flyers. It makes me think less of the companies that produce those materials, like they don't have pride in what they do enough to make sure it's perfect. Maybe that's an unhealthy perspective. But that's just me. 

Anyway, pray for my family as we travel, and pray for good weather and a lovely time of fellowship and fun. I appreciate all of you so much!

Bye! Happy Fourth!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 1-4, 2021

Greetings, mein friends!

No, you're not crazy. There was no blog post last week. My trip wasn't really last minute, but I was trying to get a lot of stuff done in a very short amount of time, so I neglected to tell you I was going anywhere. 

Sorry.

But I had some lovely time away, so I hope that mitigates your concerns. I spent time with my family, met with a few supporters, and generally laughed until I pulled a muscle. Not even kidding. The trip was also a bit of a test for myself on driving for three hours by myself and seeing how I handled being away from my base for several days. I did okay. There's always going to be that question, that niggle of doubt in the back of my mind, but overall, I succeeded in my quest. I did, however, come back exhausted, so we can blame that if this post goes off the rails. But that's never happened before, so I don't know why you're talking about it now.

...

Between the two days I was in last week and the four days I was in this week, I managed to finish GR08 and GR11 of French. This language has been incredibly frustrating. We started doing it with one art set, but then we switched to another mid-stream. We also started using French with the NVP (formerly VCP) material, which meant the booklet grouping needed to change. But we'd already done some things according to the old groups, so now, it's basically a mess. But we're making progress. We'll get there, I'm sure. 

We also had our first in-person chapel this week! 

We had a good turn-out, and LOOK, no masks. So this might be the last week I add our 'panic' tag to a post for pandemic-related reasons. It might turn up for other reasons. We'll see. My brain links things in weird ways. 

My big project this week was Chichewa Volume 2 for NVP (New Village Church Planting Program). This is a compilation of booklets that will be used by African church planters. As with many things in T&M, creating a volume is not necessarily complicated, but it is complex. I'm still learning a lot about what InDesign and other Adobe products can do, but they make my job 100x easier at least, so I'm very thankful to have them. 

On a side note for the week, we have changed the Bus to the Mood Squad. The Bus is what we used to call the group of us who walked around the building to stretch our legs once a morning and afternoon. During the lockdown, our numbers dwindled, and walking around was discouraged. But now that masks aren't mandated, we have a solid group of four who do security checks and wander around fostering community at OMS. (That's what we're calling it, at least. You'd have to ask the people we chat with how they'd categorize it.) We were christened the Mood Squad this week, and I'm quite in favor of it. Plus, if we don't have all four, we could become the Mod Squad, the Od Squad, or the O Squad. Silly, I know, but it helps keep us sane. 

Anyway, one of the things the Mod Squad (there were three of us) got up to was hunting down some missing forks. We had a lunch on Wednesday, the first in more than 15 months, and a few utensils had walked away from the kitchen in that time. So Lydia, Sarah, and I did some investigating, and we did actually find some of the missing items. We also found a cupboard that hadn't been cleaned or organized in quite some time, so I took it upon myself to change that. 

I really should have taken a 'before' photo, but I was so incensed by the random collection, I couldn't help myself. They were stacked on top of each other, there was coffee from 2016, and some cups in there didn't belong. This satisfied my once in a great while urge to clean. Please don't ever ask me for a picture of my desk. Or my apartment.

So that's the tea, ladies and gentlemen! I trust you are well and that you will have a fantastic weekend.

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: May 3-7, 2021

I made a baby this week.

...

Yes, I did write that just for the shock value, but I did actually make a baby this week. Out of play-doh. At a shower. Totally legit. One of my coworkers recently started fostering, so we had a book shower for her. It was a lovely day. 

Anyway, I finished a group of Telugu this week! Yay! The situation in India is only worsening, so it's a bit bittersweet, but I have faith that progressing with this language will bring a small amount of joy in an otherwise dreary time.

The next language is French. For now, the French booklets are only used in Africa. But there are 29 countries in Africa that speak French (at least a little), so this is definitely a worth endeavor. Loathe as I am to give any credit to colonialism, it does act much like Ancient Rome in creating a common trade language that many people use. Quite useful in evangelism, though we do still like to have materials in the heart language of a people group. 

The rest of the week was pretty much devoted to the boot camp. It's next week, people! We had a 3-hour rehearsal on Thursday that went fairly well. However, we have lost one participant, so that will require some reconfiguring. Good times. My team and I will definitely appreciate your prayers for this event. 

On Thursday afternoon, I was able to help out with our semi-annual work day. I couldn't work all day because of the aforementioned rehearsal. I did a bit of feathering of mulch, but it was cold and wet, so I was only out for a couple of hours. 

In other news, masks are no longer required at HQ! We're that much closer to getting rid of the panic at the disco tag. I'm still not totally sure what the arbitrary line for that is. We'll get there.

Shout out to my fantastic mother and all of the amazing support she has given me over the years! Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms and like-moms out there. 💜

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 26-30, 2021

Is anyone else looking ahead at the next few months and wondering how you're going to get everything done? I am definitely there. I guess I'll do it the same way I've always done it - one step at a time. But some of those steps will feel an awful lot like lava, so, you know...

Okay, belaboring the metaphor a bit. But there is a ton to do, and I always feel like there's not enough time. This week has been largely focused on the boot camp. I would really appreciate your prayers for this event (May 11, 13, and 18). I don't know that I ever feel fully prepared for these, but this one in particular has me concerned. Two members of my training team are very new to this process, and the other has a lot of personal stuff going on at home. I want this to be a good, informative event for the trainees, but I'm feeling the stress big time!

My other project this week has been Telugu. It's been somewhat bittersweet working on this language. Telugu is primarily spoken in India. If you've watched the news at all, you know that India is being hit hard by COVID. Many of our national coworkers have been quite ill, and I know a few have died from the disease or the lack of available care. It's so easy to narrow our focus to what is going on in our own country and forget that there is a whole world out there experiencing tragedy and upheaval of their own. Quite often, I pray for the countries and people who will be using the booklets as I'm working on them. This has felt even more pressing this week. 

There was some palaver in my own personal life this week that started with a bulb burning out and ended up with the possibility of having to move my fridge, stove, and cupboards out of my kitchen. Fortunately, I have been spared that, but it was quite the nail-biter for a while. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy all of the sleep I get this weekend.

Happy Orthodox Easter!

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: April 12-23, 2021

Yes, it's true, mea culpa, I didn't do a blog post last week. I had to go up north to do some visiting. I had a lovely time and saw many wonderful people. It was exhausting, though, moreso mentally than physically. It's the most traveling I've done in a while. 

So, last week, I was able to publish that group of Russian. I did some proofing for the magazine, which will be out shortly. I hope you'll recognize my handiwork. 

Boot camp prep continues apace, and that has been somewhat challenging. We're all approaching Zoom and facilitation with different levels of comfort, so patience and practice are the key words. These are not my favorite words, however, so a little humility comes into play as well. I'm confident we'll be able to put on a good training event, but I'm also glad we have plenty of time beforehand. 

This week, I was able to finish a group of Telugu and send it back to the proofreader. I also got a prayer letter written, so that will be going out next week. 

Of course, the big news is that I got my first vaccine shot on Tuesday. My arm was a bit sore, but I felt okay after. We'll see what happens after the second shot. 

That's about it for me this week. 

Bye!