Fear, Thankfulness and a bad driving metaphor

So we're well into October and the weather here makes me not want to leave the house. I'm still wondering where September went and as I look over my planning sheet it feels as if the next 3 weeks of this month could disappear just as quickly. In a number of my emails this week I've written that I hope to be back at the end of October... or early November. I'm hoping to squeeze maybe another new appointment in whilst also trying to be realistic about what trips to make and what's possible in the short timeframe I have before hopefully returning to Vienna.

Note to Self

Thank you for keeping up with my blog. I now realise that writing about my everyday work in the last post means that I've sort of shot myself in the foot, when it comes to creativity. Today I've found another slot for some blogging and I am tempted to say this past week can be most easily described by re-reading the last post. Except, if I look a little closer I can say that's not totally true... 

The (Extra)Ordinary Everyday

Looking back over the past week I'm trying to think of something noteworthy to share. It occurs to me that you may be interested in knowing what a workday looks like when you're full-time support raising. I'm drawing inspiration from (& stealing the title of) a friend's old blog- he's away on honeymoon right now so will never notice ; )

Albanian Stories: Post 4 - Berti & many others

Last night on the train I finally finished God's Secret Listener. I'd started this 200 page, very readable book just before I headed to Albania- it's spent far too much time in the bottom of my bag since then. It tells the story of  how the church has emerged in the last two decades out of the former communist state, once heralded as the first atheistic country in the world.  The author uses the life of Berti Dosti to illustrate some of the truly amazing things that have happened in this country during and after Communism. To give you an incredibly oversimplified version of Berti's story:  As an army captain during the days of Communism, he came across a TWR programme in Albanian. It was Berti's job as a communications expert to block out any kind of foreign or religious content being broadcast into the country. Yet his curiosity led him to keep listening... And so began the journey which led Berti to faith. After the fall of Communism he became Pastor Berti and I got to meet him at the church and education centre he continues to lead today.

Albanian Stories - Post 3: Elena's Story

Before I started volunteering at TWR I didn't really know anything about radio and how it could be used to share the gospel. I had no idea it could engage people and bring them into contact with Christians. I didn't know that the programmes we broadcast are just the starting point of what we do as a missions organisation. As I look back over the interview we conducted with Elena, I discover her own words illustrate this far better than I could.

Albanian Stories - Post 2: Sarah

I'm calling the narrator of the second Albanian story Sarah. Sarah is 21 and lives in a town in central Albania. She's finished her education and is working out what to do next. Like many young Albanians, she's considered heading to Italy or other parts of Europe to find work. Despite the pull of foreign lands, Sarah has decided to stay in Albania. A couple of years ago she was listening to the radio as usual, switching from one station to the other in order to find the best music. As with many TWR listeners across the globe, Sarah stumbled across the Christian station on her radio. The drama programme on air that evening had a young, female protagonist. This intrigued Sarah and she began to listen very carefully.

Albanian Stories - Post 1: Anna

Two weeks ago, wedged between the end of my teaching year and the start of my summer support raising in the UK, I spent three days in Albania. Despite feeling pretty knackered and having a killer of a cold to remind me of this fact, I knew it would be a real privilege to meet some of TWR's Albanian listeners and hear their stories first-hand. I want to share some of these stories with you over the coming weeks as they are too valuable to keep to myself. I hope they give you an insight into why radio is an incredibly powerful tool, which continues to bring people to faith today. It is the true stories like these, which first got me excited about the work of TWR. So here we go...

We're not Selling Sex. We're Selling Souls.

Last Sunday I took part in the Austrian Women’s Run. It was the first time I’ve participated in a big sporting event and the atmosphere was pretty cool. No, I’ve not been converted to running but I have taken up Nordic Walking, and did so for a very good cause. Along with some of my colleagues from TWR, we walked and ran to raise some money- and some awareness- for Herzwerk. Herzwerk (Heart Factory in English) is a small organisation of incredible staff and volunteers who work with women in prostitution in Vienna.

FYI: prostitution is legal in Austria. A more important FYI: legalised prostitution doesn't bring things out into the open and break the link between prostitution and trafficking or other forms of criminality.

Collected Thoughts of the Month Gone By & the Week Ahead

It's time for the occasional blogger to pull her finger out and get writing again. [gets up, puts kettle on]... So what's been going on in the last month? More of the usual I think. OK, let's try what's going on this week. Well, TWR Europe has it's big Annual Partner Conference from Wed to Fri, and once again I have the privilege of being at part of it. It's an opportunity for the different partners (individuals and organisations) who work with us across the vast geographical and cultural expanse we call 'Europe'  to meet with us and engage with one another. It's about being inspired by the speakers we hear and being challenged to keep developing the way we bring the gospel to people today. There are so many opportunities (the range of potential media itself is amazing) and so many challenges. It will certainly be a very important couple of days.

The Time Trial

Just when you thought the blog was officially dead & buried I have a moment of sheer determination on a Friday afternoon (helped by a large cup of coffee and a stroopwafel- if you don't know what they are just trust me, they're amazing... find a Dutch person to supply you). True to the recent blog pattern I have to first make my excuses: I returned to Vienna after my week in the UK to discover that everyone was sick. Having a sick week was a spring rite of passage I also got to experience. Then I went to the Netherlands (hence the stroopwafels though that wasn't the actual purpose of my trip). Now I'm back. And yes this teaching, support raising, working for TWR combination is still fairly- to use some British understatement- intense.

Keeping Up the Commitment (for lack of a better title)

My commitment to this blog has been... err... anything less than committed lately. January turned out to be just as crazy as December was... And without making this sound like my Oscar acceptance speech, I would like to thank the friends who have encouraged me to keep blogging. Otherwise this blog would have died its death by now.

Here's to 2014!

Even by Austrian standards, the holidays are very much over and it is time to get back to work. So it's time to get blogging again after my Christmas hibernation period. And I'm writing another one of those now or next week (not quite never) posts. As 2014 starts it is helpful for me to remember where I was about a year ago. I remember sitting in a taxi in Milton Keynes (the setting of all great world events) with tears in my eyes. I had decided that I wanted to do this crazy support raising thing. I remember thinking: I don't know how long this will take, I don't know how difficult it is going to be or what's going to happen during the whole process but I believe this is what is right for me; this is my next step.