Urlaubsreif (and then some)

I've been neglecting the blog again recently and I'm glad these things don't need food and water. In case you were wondering, I'm not responsible for the plants in our apartment. You'll be pleased to know that on my first night in, in what seems like forever, I'm getting back into it. This isn't a comment on how awesome my social life is; the point is I am completely knackered and so relieved to be at home I could dance around the living room... and I would, except that said tiredness and a leftover panna cotta are holding me back. I'm done, fertig, pooped and all of the other English or German synonyms for exhausted. Anyone who's spoken to me in German over the last month has heard me say urlaubsreif at least a dozen times. This single word in German so beautifully expresses what you can only communicate in a complete sentence in English: that I am totally, utterly, completely ready for the holidays.

Still Riding this Rollercoaster

There is a mini window of blog-writing opportunity here and I'm going to go with it. The obvious reason for not having published anything in the last couple of weeks is the busy-ness of this time of year. Yet to be totally honest, the main reason why it hasn't happened is that during this time I've had possibly one of the crappiest weeks of 2013; I really didn't want to write about it (or anything else). By Tuesday of this week I was ready to skip the next fortnight and retreat to my parents' place for Christmas- to eat their food, catch up with series 4 of Downton and possibly never return to real life.

Something for the Week(end)

I don't have a good excuse for not blogging yet this week. But I have been 'mildly rebuked' for not doing so, which serves as encouragement to get on with it. November is swiftly vanishing and we're in that pre-Advent planning frenzy where we look at December and realise the 3 weeks up to the week of Christmas are already packed. Last night we talked in my small group about how we make the time to be still and listen to God. The author of the book we're reading made the point that we live in a whirlwind of appointments and tasks to be completed. We illustrated this point perfectly (and unintentionally) by trying to find a date on which we might be able to have our Christmas party. Through the power of Doodle, we'll find something that works out but it's a bit absurd that we're thinking "nope... nope... sort of works but really isn't ideal." This is time which we want to spend with one another, it'll be fun. Yet from a planning perspective, it's another straw to add to the camel's back.

Back to Work

If I were you, I'd skip to the second paragraph... The longer I leave between posts, the harder it is to work out what I should write about. I've got a very good reason for not writing anything last week: the doctor signed and stamped the form that said stay home, rest up & try not to pass the germs on to your housemates. The days I spent on the couch did give me some good thinking time (to break up the DVD time) but I haven't worked out whether that means I should follow up on last week's post or switch to something else and write about what I'm up to back at work.  Can I do both?

Not the Single Issue

Ok, so I've been thinking about whether to write about this subject for a least a week now. And I'm pretty sure I wrote this post mentally on Sunday as I gazed wistfully out of a train window at Salzburg's craggy grey mountains and fertile green plains... a beautiful blue sky, impressive cloud formations and the odd scrap mental heap. The subject of my deliberations being, for want of a better word, single-ness.

Commitment

This week's post comes to you from Croatia. My boss had a meeting with the partner here today and I was able to come along for the ride (& some seriously good food). It's the second partner visit I've been able to be a part of and  it's a privilege to be able to join on these visits. Getting to know the organisations we work with is really helpful for me. I'm getting to know people I will be working with and the kinds of tasks I can fulfil now and in the future. Yet it's also a lot more than that.

Work for this Week (and beyond)

I'm breaking with the recent tradition of posting on Fridays and writing on a Monday, a day which I have a particular aversion to (I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one). Why do I harbour such feelings toward the first day of the working week? It takes me forever to get back into things, I'm so incredibly unproductive on Mondays and it drives me crazy. By the time I feel I am getting somewhere, the day's nearly done. And yet I'm about to write about how my biggest challenges relate to stopping and listening... interesting, huh? 

Dankeschön!

Happy Friday! I'd like to say a huge thank you to my first supporters. Today, I received my first support payment, which is made up 100% of the finances individuals have decided to commit to my work at TWR. There are times when the total goal I'm aiming for seems huge. Yet the generosity of my first supporters is also amazing to me. There are times when I wonder about what will happen when all those who know me and want to support me are doing so, and I still have a mountain to climb. Well that's when God opens up new paths and provides new people to add to that support.

The 'S' Word

OK guys, this week's post is gonna be quick & messy. Otherwise it isn't going to get posted. And since I'm not back to working a full schedule yet, it'd simply be shameful if I didn't post anything this week. Having said that, one of the things I've been made aware of this week is my comfortable, dependable relationship with the word 'should'. A friend pointed out that my German sentences often begin with 'I should...' And I realised that my English sentences do too. I have a feeling that 'should' has become part of our 24/7 lifestyle and creeps into all our lives, regardless of where we are in life and what we're doing. Each of us is juggling different things. 

These Women (part 2)

I promised to tell you more about Project Hannah and I will. I've had a few days to 'arrive' back in Vienna, which has included soaking up the last of the summer sunshine and freaking out because my support raising target just increased by a significant amount. Somewhere in between, I've unpacked my suitcase, done my laundry and contemplated what to write next. Perhaps I'll start by telling you that the prayer aspect of Project Hannah, upon which all the other work is grounded, looks like this: women (& men) in 124 countries praying through the monthly prayer calendar in 79 languages. Each month the calendar has a specific focus (this month is women in South-eastern Europe) and for each day there is a specific prayer point. People pray alone and in groups, daily, weekly... wherever, whenever, however. And it is this movement of prayer, which changes the lives of women. 

These Women

You're getting two posts from me within about four days, which means there must be something special to write about. This week's post comes from Germany (I am heading back to Vienna, I promise) where I have a week off of Support Raising. I'm here attending Project Hannah's very first European conference. Project Hannah is, simply put, TWR's ministry for women. The only problem is that's like saying Pavarotti was a bloke who sang.

Assessing the Situation

This morning I had my psychological assessment for working abroad. The first step was to prove my  resourcefulness and resilience by navigating the black hole otherwise known as the underpass system at Elephant & Castle. The second step was to talk about everything from my first memories to my last relationship. Now that I've done that, I'm not sure what there is to blog about  (my childhood traumas are sadly not the stuff of great literature). Last week I began to take stock of the things I've experienced in these past two months of initial support raising. This week I'm continuing to do so. 

A Self-Check List

I'm quite proud of last week's blog post, which means I'm feeling a lack of inspiration this week. I feel a dearth of eloquent words (assuming I had them last time) and a lack of amusing anecdotes. I could tell you that last week I managed to only top-up my Oyster card once, stretching both the £15 and my legs (lots of walking places). I could tell you that I turned a year older and was feeling pretty good about it until Vicky told me I no longer get to tick 18-25 box on forms. There is no earthly- or other- reason why the next box up should bother me but we all seem to get a bit weird about the age thing.

Getting Personal (Trust Issues)

I just wrote an email to my small group in Vienna about some really cool things that have happened in the past week. They are the kind of Support Raising stories I know happen, because I've heard them from others. Now I get to say I've experienced them myself. Feeling pretty blessed right now.

Onwards and Upwards

So I'm re-reading last week's post, thinking that I already need a few things to cling onto. It's not that I'm down in bottom of the valley after last week's seat on the mountain top; it's just time to stop admiring the view and get on with the climb. I've been in the UK for a month now and will be back in Vienna in another month's time. I'm at the stage where I'm starting to call some people from church and ask if they'd like to meet with me over coffee, hear more about what I'm doing and find out how they could support me financially. Sounds simple enough, right? The whole point of these calls is to give people a heads-up, to ask those I can picture as potential supporters if they'd be willing to discuss the (err, um...) money aspect at a later date. No nasty surprises, no awkwardness. I'm not cold-calling a list of church members; I ain't selling nothin'.

A Lot to Hold Onto

The foolishness of my last post was mentioning how quiet my week was. It was followed by an activity-packed hen weekend in deepest, darkest, rural Wales. My years of watching The West Wing have taught me that you get the embarrassing information out there first so that you control the story, hence my facebooking of late. Yes, I was the one who got the dodgy lever-brake-thing, which meant getting stuck on a part of the zip-wire that nobody else has. As the instructor began to get a bit panicked, I felt very grateful for the gift of prayer. And as I hung there in a state which is the polar opposite of anything beautiful, graceful or agile, I thought about how this is another one of those wonderful metaphors I can apply along the journey of support raising: holding on, not freaking out, trusting in the infinitely higher power of God...

An (Extra)ordinary Week

It's been a quieter week this week; the latest reason to postpone updating my blog. After the Oyster-swiping, coffee-drinking, small group-speaking pace of London, I find myself back in Wales. And I'm secretly quite glad that I haven't had any support raising appointments since Sunday. There is a danger that this week's highlights consist of a) receiving a credit card bill for £0.00, and b) successfully placing a giant food order for M's hen weekend.

Important Reminders

Sunday was my UK debut, standing in front of a congregation and attempting to coherently introduce TWR, my work and yes, well, er, the SUPPORT RAISING bit. I was on for both morning and evening services. This gave me the opportunity to dissect what I'd said that morning and give it another go later on. This was however, the least important aspect of the time I spent in this remarkable community on Sunday. The real value lay in the things I was reminded of, a few of which you'll find here: 

• I am that messy person being described during the sermon. My Father bent down to the cold, hard ground and scooped me up into his arms
• I am resilient because I am never doing or facing anything alone
• Even if I can't control any other aspect of a situation I have control over my attitude. This is good to know since... 
• ... those prejudices are still there
• 'I'm not going insane, it's growing pains; I'm not bound in chains, it's growing pains.' 

Thanks for this song Jimmy: Growing Pains There will be more to blog about this.

My 3 Minutes and 15 Seconds of Fame

Just in case you thought Andy was getting all the limelight... I've also been in front of the camera. My Support Raising video is here, ready for you to enjoy. Of course, if I find publishing my writing online a bit awkward, then seeing and hearing myself on camera takes it a step further. Yet this is all in the service of the greater good. If it helps people get an idea of why I'm support raising, then it is totally worth it. And if it serves to remind me at times why I am doing this, then that's a bonus. 

Love Writing, Hate Posting

Before I started writing my blog, I had a look at a few friends’ blogs (now that I’m writing a blog I might actually commit to reading some blogs regularly). I was slightly surprised and rather encouraged to read Phil’s first post. Phil is totally media-savvy, takes beautiful photos and has two very cool blogs. Yet he also resisted starting his own blog for a long time. Reading and writing are two of my passions. Yet the idea of publishing my thoughts online is one that I’m not really comfortable with. Why? Because it seems rather self-absorbed. I write to friends not simply to tell them things, but because I also want to know what’s going on in their lives. Writing is therapeutic. Yet publicly sharing the dirty laundry of my mind doesn’t seem therapeutic.

If Phil could get over the awkwardness and blog, then so can I. And as I begin to throw ingredients into the pot I’d love to hear your thoughts. I plan to add different things to the blog- links to other blogs and sites, book recommendations, maybe even some music. Standard blog fare? Maybe. But then again, maybe the beauty of the blog is that each one is as individual as we are.

The First Post

Welcome to my blog! This blog is going to be a sort of diary about my life and work in Vienna, Austria. This statement is as much a reminder for myself as it is information for you. I only asked myself the question: ‘What do I want this blog to be?’ after I had set it up. As you may know, I’m starting to work for TWR (see my profile) and in order to work full-time for this amazing organisation, I will be raising support. This means, technically-speaking, I’m becoming a ‘missionary’. The ‘M’ word still scares me a bit and whilst it might not be completely true, I do feel like I’m the world’s most unlikely missionary. This is something I could not have imagined a year ago and it’s really exciting. Sometimes it’s also pretty overwhelming. So here we go, this is the first post. It all starts here. This blog should be honest, informal and- I hope- interesting. After the first post, comes the second. There should be a bit more meat to it so please come back and check it out. Thanks for stopping by.