Today was the day

Excactly one year ago we published our very first post on this blog with the title "Today is the day". My plan was during the last week to post every day, so we also could have made this blog number 100, but that failed, there is still another 6 posts to go. Still, 94 posts over 52 weeks is quite acceptable, in my mind at least.

The reason I remember the date for the first post is not because blogging is so important to me, but rather because it coincides with today being 1 year since we left Latvia to move to Manchester. That makes one realise what a strange thing time is. In one way it feels like this year has gone very quickly, in antoher way it seems like so long ago we were in Latvia. It has been a year with many changes and adjustments, new experiences and of course also of looking back, of thinking of and missing good friends, as well as making new friends.

Is Latvia "out of our system"? Certainly not, we still get very enthusiastic when talking about Latvia, still not only read blogs from Latvia, but also news from Latvia almost daily. We definitely miss Latvia, miss our friends and miss being involved in extending God's Kingdom and see his power and presence manifested in that setting, but also have perfect peace in that we made the right decision to move when we did.

I had of course planned to write a long blog reflecting over the year that has gone, but just now we are in Denmark visiting Maria and my mother, also just like a year ago. This also means there is limited access time to the computer (as well as the champions' league game starts in 2 minutes), so this will have to be all for this anniversary post.

Read more...

Backlog

I haven't blogged for a while. Wish I had an excuse for it – like Sarah – but I don't. Just have not got down to it. There are several things I have thought about blogging about, but either there was not the time or energy just to do it, or the idea was there, but a bit more time needed to be invested in developing it, and as time goes by the ideas accumulate and it becomes more and more insurmountable (wonder if anything can become “more insurmountable”, it is like “absolutely all”, how can anything be more than all?) to even think of beginning to put fingers to keys.

Today I got up really early, not to blog, but because Lisbeth and I are off to Denmark, via Dublin, this morning and suddenly I found myself with a few minutes to spare. Not time to really write anything, but enough to write something. Just to let you know we are still here and doing well. Do not have time to write any of the entries I had thought about, but here are the titles to some of them:

Age – what am I to do with all of?
Three good books
Back to school
Arrival of a new DC
What am I doing here?
What the Church can learn from Ikea
Latvia on the telly
Vision – what does it have to do with me?
“Mr. Anderson?” Another call from the school

There you go, got them all done. If you want to read any of them, just click on the title above. If the link does not work, please contact user support.

Now I just need to keep this blog up to date without thinking of the backlog.

See you again soon!

PS! Concerning the opening line: Sarah is not my excuse for not writing. I probably could blame her for a lot, but not that. I referring to Sarah's blog, where she, after not have blogged for ages got round it by blogging about why she hadn't blogged, listing all her (lame) excuses. How can one spend time writing without really writing anything?

Read more...

Miracles do happen!

They don't know what is about to hit them, but tomorrow Natural Church Development will be introduced to the Central North Division. Tonight they will be at home, probably watching Champion's League football, or maybe leading something at the corps, tomorrow they will be “hit right between the eyes” Through 2 identical seminars (tomorrow and next week) 54 of our leaders will sit through a day long presentation of NCD, a presentation which I now have added a warning to:


The 2 seminars are the first step in launching a NCD process in the division, but it will only happen if there are corps who will decide to join the process, after have sat through the seminar for the leaders, and then shorter evening introductions for local leaders next month.

I have presented NCD more times than I can remember, but I still get nervous. Problem is I am so convinced that NCD works; that it can make a significant difference in the life and growth of (in this case) The Salvation Army in our division, and I feel the pressure of responsibility. What if I mess it all up and people decide against implementing NCD because of my presentation? I almost manage to convince myself that it all depends on me, but then I am reminded that it will come “all by it self”. NCD is so obviously build on divine principles and as people hear it, the Holy Spirit will confirm this in people's hearts.

The miracle is not that we are presenting NCD, it would be more of a miracle if we didn't do it! The miracle is that we left the office at 16:35, 16 hours and 25 minutes before the seminar is supposed to start and everything is ready! All presentations made, all notes printed, books packed. Everything is in the car, ready to set off tomorrow. I don't think that has ever happened before. As we traveled home from the office we realised that part of the reason of course was that there was no translation needed. If we had been in Latvia people would sit and frantically translate as the material would be finished in the last minute, often staying late into the evening to complete it (I do apologise for all those times Linda, Dace, Undine, Ilona and others!). Today the last presentation was completed at 16:00 and half an hour later it was printed as notes, sorted and packed and we could turn of the computers and go home. There are some advantages of knowing the language you work in.

I might not be nervous any more, but definitely excited and looking forward to these seminars. Even more excited about the possibility of seeing several corps committing to a long term implementation of NCD, but now the second half of Manchester Untied vs. Roma is about to start, so I will turn to another passion of mine for a while, resting assured that I must have done enough blogging tonight not to disappear again for a while (read the previous post if you don't get what I mean)

Read more...

Cogito, Ergo Sum or maybe not!

I never realised the possible consequences of blogging when I originally started. It is almost like what the Bible describes as “those you got to know as friends now comes as enemies”. It is quite scary and not wanting to push my luck and see what will happen if I continue to ignore my blog, I have decided to get up early on a Monday morning to write a post (I hope you all appreciate this commitment!).

What is it I am thinking off? Well, last Friday I spent quite a lot of time on the phone, trying to get through to the Inland Revenue. I have no idea how many times I listened to the message “Thank You for calling the Inland Revenue Service. All our lines a busy, but we will deal with your call as soon as possible”. You might ask who in their right mind wants to talk to the IRS, but horror stories in the office about what could happen if the IRS had not registered the fact we had a car at our disposal kind of settled that issue. So there I was. In the beginning I was reading a few mails while waiting, as time went on I pushed my chair back and planted my feet on the desk (beginning to feel at home here now!) and spent the time studying the walls.

Finally I got through. Before anything else they wanted to be sure of who I was: “Could I please have your National Insurance Number, sir?” (I am not quite sure she actually said “sir”, but have decided to give her the benefit of the doubt). I had my NI (National Insurance) card right in front of me, so that was no problem. “Your full name?” - fortunately I found that on the card too, so I was still OK. “Your address?” - “Date of Birth?”. I thought of cracking a joke about this getting a bit personal, or maybe asking her the same kind of questions, but experience have told me people at the IRS do not have a fantastic developed sense of humour, so I only answered the questions, knowing full well anything I said could, and probably would, be used against me.

I could hear her typing on her keyboard, wondering whether she was checking me, or maybe chatting with someone else, irritated that I had disturbed her. After a while she returned and now came a list of questions and answers I have tried many times after moving to the UK:

“Is that Henrik with ck?”

“No, H-E-N-R-I-K” I spelled out for her

“And Henderson?”

“No, Andersen! Like the author – Hans Christian Andersen – that is A-N-D-E-R-S-E-N”

I don't know what it is with my accent that makes people mistake my A for a HE, but it happens all the time.

She typed some more and then said:

“I am really sorry, but I cannot find you anywhere on our system!”

She did not say it outright, but what she was saying was: You do not exist! At this time I might even have fallen short of Decartes proof of existence: “Cogito, Ergo Sum”. I grabbed hold of my arm, just to assure myself I was not dreaming and half way expected immigration police to come through the door, arresting me for living and working illegally in the country, but all I could see was the DC looking suspiciously at me from his office.

I quickly got my feet of the table, tried to control my breath and managed to utter a weak and very intelligent “What?”“

I am really sorry, but I cannot find you using the NI number, nor on the address you have given me”

Well, you don't argue with the IRS and she was actually very kind, but she could not help me. I was given a number to helpline for non-existing people, but they couldn't help me either and so I was given a new number, but that office was closed for the day. It was over the weekend I realised that maybe this was the punishment for not updating our blog. Not wanting to take any chances I straight away started writing, and when I Monday afternoon got through to the office I suddenly had appeared on the system again. So there you are, not writing on your blog can have serious consequences.

Well, there is news to share, but I have now used a lot of space and time writing about absolutely nothing (and before anyone comments: Yes, it is just like my sermons!) that you will have to wait till tomorrow, as tonight is Champions League night with Man U on the telly.

Read more...