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!