Finishings.

In about two weeks, I will hit one of my favorite times of the year.

The first week back in the office will be over, and I'll have learned everyone's name and new cubical placements, caught up on everyone's summers, and settled in for another year of ministry. Football seasons will be just getting underway, and the hope of a decent season is still intact. Cooler weather settles in (I hope), along with changing leaves and beautiful landscapes to capture with my lens.

...And a certain pumpkin-flavored drink will appear at one of my favorite coffee shops down the road.

I have another simple reason for enjoying this time of year:  time is on my side. The new (school) year is just beginning. I only have a small number of very important things to work on, that don't take too much brain power. Meaning I can spend a majority of my time and energy mentally and physically preparing for the craziness that is ahead. I can reorganize my desk and filing system, clean out my e-mail folders, and update files and processes.

I love this stuff. Taking time to reorganize, realign and reformat things at the beginning will make me more effective when I get to my busy work seasons (TCX, SPDT, KC...all the important times of the year are apparently represented by acronyms).

The "beginning" stage is typically the most fun stage for me (diving into why that is true would take another post altogether). But lately I've been finishing things, and that's been fun, too. Here are a couple huge things I've been working on that will be finished soon, or have recently finished:

1. Preaching my first sermon.
Last week my pastor was out of town and I stepped in for him to preach a sermon on Evangelism. I had a 3 month lead time on this project, which included 6 weeks in East Asia where I didn't give one thought to the sermon, so I needed the lead time. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment for this project, which included a ton of prep work I didn't anticipate.

2. Closing the Books on Our Summer Projects.
From Nov 1 to Sept 1, my schedule is packed with summer project planning and prep. We're just 2 weeks away from wrapping up our finances and student accounts. I love our SP's, but I can't wait for the books to be closed on this season. Luckily I've had some awesome help throughout the summer to ensure the books will in fact get closed in a proper way.

3. Finding an apartment.
The hunt for a new place to live has been arduous, to say the least. It started in March with trying to find a new roommate. Now two weeks before I get kicked out of my apartment, I have a roommate... but still working on that place to live. We're still figuring things out, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I think. I'm growing in areas of patience and perseverance with this one.

4. Reading.
It seems a little weird to include this one, but I'm notorious for reading 7 books at one time and finishing none of them. I started and finished two books during my 6 weeks in East Asia, and have recently finished 2 more that I began before I left. Now, on to the other 3 I'm in the middle of...

For someone who loves to start new projects, but struggles to finish them, putting the cover on the box that contains these major tasks, and putting the box on a shelf in a closet and closing the door, feels really good. Here's to a new year, complete with many startings and finishings!

Resisting a Rest.

Do you take all of your vacation days every year? 

I took my first full week of vacation last week, (and I now have that I-need-a-vacation-from-my-vacation feeling). My first year at my first job out of college, I didn’t even know how many vacation days I had. I think I took 2. I had that gotta-get-ahead-because-I’m-young-and-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing mentality. I wanted to prove myself to my coworkers, my parents - but mostly, to myself

Add those sky-high expectations that I set upon myself to my arrival in a new city where I didn’t know anyone, and reporting to my job right before a 6 month stretch of craziness, and you have a recipe for burnout. And bitterness. And they definitely both happened.

The problem is, we think rest is for whimps. Taking a break means we're weak. Having boundaries shows you don't really care about your work. If you really wanted to be the best, you'd push yourself harder.

During the Olympic coverage tonight, Minneapolis/St. Paul's NBC station had a spotlight on teen swimming sensation Missy “The Missle” Franklin. The report mentions that she takes weekends off, refuses to go pro, and that she’s a normal teenager (as normal as you can be when you're an Olympic Champion at 17).

Her coach designs creative workouts in a way that avoids burnout. Her parents don’t push her, but encourage her to enjoy the process. This rest/work balance is not a new idea, but it could be one that becomes more central after Missy’s Olympic success.

Matthew Edlund, M.D. has spent two decades researching rest, sleep, performance and public health. Edlund is the author of several books on the subject, including “The Power of Rest,” a book detailing how to actively rest - physically, mentally, socially and spiritually – to control regeneration and maximize efforts of passive forms of rest (like sleep). He claims that active rest techniques, performed within a minute, can call you down or revive you when tired, while improving productivity.

The NBC article also quotes Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the U of M, on the idea of rest/work balance: "Missy Franklin is living proof that there are many pathways to elite performance."

Edlund’s website claims that using rest can “actively rebuild body and brain... active rest can improve the public health, and is a skill everyone needs.”

How contrary this is to our fast-paced, competitive, work-obsessed culture. Why rest when you can just take a shot of caffeine in your favorite form and boost productivity? (Guilty). Last May, after my biggest work weekend of the year, I was totally burned out. A dear friend suggested a take a day off. My response? I have to work. It’s already a 3 day weekend (Memorial Day was the following Monday). I can’t dare take 4 days off in a row!

I took her strong advice and took 4 days off. It was glorious! It took at least 36 hours to calm my anxiety about the work weekend, and all the projects I wanted to catch up on over the summer. Once I fully disengaged from mulling over my mental to-do list, I was able to get some solid rest.

There's another facet to this idea that resting can make us more productive. If you have a strong resistance to rest, there might be an alarming reason. It might be that we obsess over our work because we base our self-worth on what we do. When that happens, rest is impossible.

Or, when I fear what my coworkers will think of me if I take a personal day, I'm hurting not just me, but my team, too. It creates disunity and competition.

When we work weekends and travel out of town for conferences, Cru gives us comp days proportionate to the amount of time we were gone. I'm grateful that my boss always encourages me and my teammates to take these days off. And once a month, we are encouraged to take a half or whole day off to spend with the Lord.

What are your thoughts on rest and productivity? On rest and our values as a society?

Code Words.

One of my childhood dreams was to be in the CIA or FBI. The allure of living a double life was so intriguing and exciting to me. Walking around town like a normal person, yet having this secret identity, and this super significant mission that no one new about (and I couldn't tell them or I'd have to...you know).

I feel like I got a glimpse into that this summer. Not necessarily from the secret mission part, but from the code words we used. In an effect to draw the least amount of attention to us as possible, we'd use code words out in public (and usually in private, too). We even had a code word for when someone didn't use the appropriate code word:  mango.

Here's a brief paragraph, something that I'd probably say when telling a teammate about my day:

Today I disked at Dragon with Abby. We talked about how the book explains the HS and why it's important when we're doing EV, and just living a cool life in general. Dad's been teaching her about that lately and I've been rapping about it, so it was fun to talk about it. Over lunch we met with this girl Caroline, who has an American professor that's been taking her to building, which is awesome. We had an sp convo with her but haven't shared the 4 boys yet - maybe we can during our next go time. I'm excited for Iron Man on Saturday so we can learn how to do 7 ups - I know the gathering at Star Wars has been sharing the G and has had people PRC so now they can learn how to do 7 ups.

I think that's the bulk of our code words! Most of them make sense when used in a sentence but at least right away we had to really think about what we were going to say before we said it.

East Asian Food.

One of the most common questions I get about my summer in Asia is, "How was the food?" Truthfully, I was a little worried about the local cuisine. I've had some not-so-great experiences with spicy Thai food here in the cities, but I figured I'd be ok. (I actually didn't have stomach issues with any of the authentic asian food. The Asian version of American food was a different story!).

Here's a pretty typical meal for 8 people - 4 or 5 meat and veggie dishes, rice, soup and tea. Most tables had a lazy susan spinner in the middle. Every single meal was eaten with chopsticks (except at Pizza Hut!)

I'm not someone who likes to share my food, and I actually rarely eat with other people, so this style of eating was a little strange at first. But I quickly grew to really enjoy it. Our schedule was so busy that mealtimes were one of the best chances to really get to know fellow project students and staff.

Even the chopsticks became familiar and fun to use - my poor skills made me eat slower, which is probably more healthy, anyway. Several times we ended up playing a game of 'grab the peanut,' where we'd spin the lazy susan and see how many peanuts we could grab with our chopsticks. A messy but ridiculously fun game. Here's a shot of Rebekah and Becca attempting to grab a fish ball with their chopsticks - easier said than done!

One great thing about East Asia is all the awesome street vendor food. In Brazil we were instructed to eat at your own risk (aka: do not eat it at all). We tried all kinds of street vendor food in East Asia, especially for breakfast and lunch. One of my favorites was the breakfast sandwiches: a pocket of fried dough, with some type of brown sauce, a meat that tasted like chicken, lettuce, and strings of potatoes. YUM. And only $4 kuai (about 60 cents US). Plus the man and woman selling them were always so chipper early in the morning :)

Bill Gates follows Jesus.

If I told you I met Bill Gates this summer, would you believe me?

Well, I did. He is a student at a university where we did ministry in East Asia. The first time someone from my summer project mentioned that they met "Bill Gates," we all chuckled. I can't even remember who met him first, or where. I think it was at an English club. It's typical for students in East Asia to give themselves an English name (or to have a friend give them an English name). Some other fun names were heard were Magnet, Jet- and one of my favorites, Adolf (more on him another time!)

Throughout the summer, Bill Gates kept popping up in conversations (and every time, I'd chuckle at his name...easily amused, I guess). After Andrew, a student on project, met with him a couple of times, Bill Gates decided he wanted to follow Jesus. Andrew had the opportunity to teach him about prayer, quiet times, and many other things. Who knows where Bill Gates will end up in the future!

One Week Home.

I'm back from the Orient! Been back a week actually, and a crazy week it has been. I was not expecting major jet lag or any sort of culture shock. But there have been quite a few surprising things to experience this week.

Today I was greeted at my church with a very warm welcome. It was so good to be back at New City and the authentic and caring community present there. We didn't even get through verse 1 of the first song and I teared up, overwhelmed at the ease with which we were able to sing whatever we wanted, as loud as we wanted. Not so in East Asia.

Throughout the service, I felt small moments of anxiety, which I quickly realized was due to the atmosphere. I was sitting in a room with 20 other white people who were not speaking in proper code. I pulled out my Bible - which was not covered. I actually caught myself looking around a couple times to see if people were watching us! And all of this occurred at our small church plant - I can't imagine being back at a huge "cool building" (I mean, "Christian church").

I remember moving to Minneapolis two years ago and being so overwhelmed; like it or not, this bustling, confusing, sometimes dirty city was now my home.

Since being home, I catch myself day dreaming when I'm driving and biking and walking: I know that I don't have to watch out for a large van barreling driving down the sidewalk straight for me. Sirens and airplanes and car horns that once bothered me throughout the day are not even noticed anymore.

The sun is blinding. (On a good day in East Asia, you could look directly at the sun, which was only the size of a quarter due to the thick layer of pollution constantly present in the atmosphere). I had a love/hate relationship with the smog. It made the sky as full gray as a winter day - but it kept the temperature a little cooler. When you're walking several miles a day with a heavy backpack in 95+ degree weather, the smog isn't so bad.

I can't wait to go home to the farm in a few weeks to take in the rolling hills and peaceful surroundings!

Sending a Sender.

It was a weird spring for me this year, as I labored to send out teams of students and staff on mission projects this summer, but also prepared to go myself.

Now more than ever before, I see the importance of a support team to stay in the US while people are sent out around the world with the Gospel. Being a 'sender' myself, I recognize the strategy and significance - but this summer I step into the 'go-er' role (I know, probably not a word...).

A few weeks ago we had our Briefing conference, where 150 people gathered together before being sent out to 6 countries for the summer. As I sat with my team learning about security issues and campus guards and code words, a dozen people worked behind the scenes to ensure that these 150 people could go to the world with the Gospel this summer. As I type this from my international dorm in a rather large city in East Asia, I see the importance of people back home that can directly support what we are here to do: take the hope of Christ to Asian college students.

Speaking of support teams, I can't forget about the awesome financial and prayer partners I have! The senders at my office would not have a job to do if it wasn't for faithful friends who give and pray generously - not only to me, but to all our summer project students. More than $500,000 came in this spring for these 6 projects. That's a LOT of givers- and lots of pray-ers who go before the Lord to ask for provision for others. If you're a sender, giver, or prayer, thanks for what you do!