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'.