Wednesday 31 July 2013

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...

Thursday 25 July 2013

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.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

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.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

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. 

Wednesday 3 July 2013

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.