About the Blessing

For me the problem with blogging is that I feel all I have to share is my emotional state from the previous week. And when it comes to support raising, I generally only have too states: freaking out or being amazed at what is happening. Today I actually feel quite balanced on the emotional scale, which is odd but also kind of nice. Maybe it's because I've been here 3 weeks and I'm adjusting... or maybe it's because I have no big presentations this week. I'm mostly meeting with individuals and catching up over dinner or coffee. I can do eating and drinking, that's quite alright. And I would say it's mostly meeting up with old friends and getting to hang out... but then you might think, I'm not working hard enough.

So what is worth sharing from the past week or so? Well, the more churches I speak at, the more I appreciate the opportunities I have to worship in different ways and see different people's desires to serve as part of a church. This can be in supporting the running of a church or in reaching out to others in the community. After my last presentation, I had two people ask quite specific questions (one on the refugee crisis and one on working with women affected by trafficking and prostitution). It was an encouragement for me to be able to pass on some links to resources I have come across in my work in recent months. In a group of about 25 people, I was also surprised to hear two people share how they'd been encouraged through the radio broadcasts of TWR on two different continents. These are just a couple examples of a very blessed few weeks.

The problem with the word 'blessing' is that there is the risk of overusing it. In Christian circles it can make a nice greeting or way to sign off an email. I use this myself and I am trying not to overuse it - I want to mean it when I say it. Yet I also want to acknowledge it - the many forms of blessing I am experiencing during this time of working hard and being on the move. I want to thank God for looking after me and I want to make sure I'm not so caught up in what's going on with me that I am able to be a blessing to others. A colleague recently signed off an email to me with the words: 'Be blessed (and be a blessing).' I thought, 'Yes, this is what it's all about.' Then I began to think about what this might mean. And to be honest I haven't gotten much further. I hope I'm an encouragement to the people I meet this week... And I'd like to grow further in this area. It is very easy to get very me-focussed and to lose sight of God at this time- whilst preparing all my lovely presentations on working for a Christian mission. Lord, help me to want to bless others and be willing to put such words and thoughts into action.