Well, the first one at least! Monday afternoon we completed packing and left Santa Barbara. By Tuesday evening the truck was unpacked, with our few remaining belongings in a storage unit and access to where we’ll be staying for the next three months accomplished. We’re grateful that the massive sell-off and give away of most… Continue reading Move Completed!
Category: Vocation
Fun With E-Mail
So we completed our first newsletter and were all ready to mail it out today. Then we discovered that the mail program recommended to us didn’t allow you to attach documents to your e-mails! Aaack! We reached out to someone with more experience with us in this area and she directed us to another mail… Continue reading Fun With E-Mail
First Visits
We’ve been blessed to make three congregational visits this month as we finalize our time in California and prepare to pack and move away. Two in-person visits and one online presentation to congregations we are somewhat familiar with, and that I’m friends with the pastors of. We’ve never been worried about the visitation and presentation… Continue reading First Visits
Orientation Completed!
Another week here in St. Louis at the International Center, the second week of our mandatory orientation. While last go-around focused on helping prepare people to make presentations to congregations, this week focused more on considering and preparing for the monumental shifts that come in relocating to another country. Spiritual and emotional health need to… Continue reading Orientation Completed!
Envy
It’s hard to know what to talk about at this point in our preparations for overseas church work. It isn’t as though things aren’t happening, it’s just that they aren’t the exciting sorts of things that partners are looking forward to hearing about. We aren’t deployed to the field yet. We don’t have beautiful pictures… Continue reading Envy
Orientation
Maybe you’ve heard presentations from people at your congregation before. Talking about going off to distant lands and inviting you to partner with them. You might have marveled that anyone could consider such a a strange venture. But you probably also marveled that these people could get up and give a presentation in front of… Continue reading Orientation
Vocation
Vocation’s a big word with a lot of nuances depending on the context you find it in. Some people equate it with a career, but it traditionally draws in the idea that you have some gifts or abilities in the area being discussed. It’s more than making a buck, it’s doing something you were designed… Continue reading Vocation
Starting Week Two
This week there are fewer videoconferences to handle. There are some paperwork loose ends to be chased down and tied off. And then on Friday we head out to headquarters in St. Louis for mandatory new employee orientation. It’s been a long time since I’ve been part of a bureaucracy. A long time since I’ve… Continue reading Starting Week Two
What Do You Mean We Have Partners?!?!
How is that even possible? Just a few days officially on the job, and already support is being raised, partnerships created. If you doubt miracles, I can assure you they are real! I started getting notifications from a fund-raising group associated with our denomination that people were already partnering with us, sending in money to… Continue reading What Do You Mean We Have Partners?!?!
Going Live
As of today I’m no longer the employee of my congregation, but rather a Theological Educator for my denominational polity. And yes, that means a cut in pay! As I transition into my new role and prepare for overseas deployment, I continue serving my congregation, though. There’s no way I could simply up and leave… Continue reading Going Live
The Nelson Family Indonesia 