Inspiration

I wish it was due to a sudden flash of inspiration I find my self at the computer, but it isn't. More a realisation that it is an awful long time since anything has been posted on this blog. In many ways there is enough to write about, but the elusive opening line or that surprising punch line ending has evaded me and so finally I have to succumb and accept that this will not be a work of artistry, but plain workmanship.

I sit here looking at the blank screen wondering what I should write about. Maybe our short holiday a month or so ago to Scotland? Our trip on the Falkirk wheel? A rainy day in Edinburgh with a visit to the famous castle? Or maybe a fantastic trip home through the Lake District, sun shining all the way. I could maybe show the photo of Lukas sitting at the top of what for a Dane was a high mountain. We left the car and climbed upwards, reaching a point more than 700 m above sea level. Might not sound impressive, but to a Dane it certainly was.

I would have to mention the trip down south for the dedication of Luke, Richard and Heidie's son. We drove down the day before, stayed overnight at a hotel, where Lukas and I watched the 2 first matches or the European Championships (Lisbeth went for a loooong walk!), but the highlight was meeting family we had not seen for a couple of years. Sitting in the service during the opening prayer my mind wondered off, but I was brought back to paying attention when I heard "God of the Christians, God of the Jews, God of the Muslims, you are the same God we worship". I opened one eye just to make sure I really was in The Salvation Army. At the end Lisbeth and I looked at each other and just said "Very Green!" (for those of you ignorant of the 3 Colours in Natural Church Development, please follow this link and you might understand).

We spent the rest of the day with family and friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is so easy to forget how much you appreciate people when you don't see them for a long time. I was reminded of many other friends in Denmark we haven't seen for a long time and got a bout of homesickness – but it was very short lived.

While I haven't been active writing on the blog front, I have been doing some writing. I was asked to write an article about small groups for the Army in Denmark. I would not call myself an expert on the subject, but have had some experience through the years. Ended up writing about "9 Things I Have Learned about Small Groups" – whether this was the reason I don't know, but I picked up "Cultivating a Life for God" by Neil Cole, which is his introduction to Life Transformation Groups. I have never read it before, but got very inspired. All I need now is 1 or 2 other people who want to meet for an hour every week and read 30 chapters of the Bible in between and I am off – just don't know who to ask.

I probably also should mention an "all by it self" week. Adam Johnstone from NCD in Australia was on his way to Germany, and we persuaded him to stop over for a week in the UK. We did three one day seminars in different locations in the country with him and also managed to push in a breakfast with one of our planting teams here in Manchester. I went along for the ride to all the seminars and I certainly wasn't going to miss the breakfast (would have been difficult, as we had in our house!). You probably won't be surprised to hear that I enjoyed it, not just the seminars, but all the talks in between with someone speaking the same language and having the same dreams. It wasn't all serious though. At one time in our chats we (well, to be totally honest: I) began to imagine the scene if Christian Schwarz comes to heaven, only to discover Jesus is colour blind! (For those who think this is deeply heretical or offensive I apologise – but hey, lighten up, I am sure God has a sense of humour – otherwise he would never have created The Salvation Army)

I definitely should mention that after years of living with pain in her shoulder, Lisbeth underwent surgery Thursday the week we just have left behind us. It went well, but she had been given so much anaesthetics during the operation, and morphine afterwards, that she was not much awake the rest of the day (so I decided instead of sitting at the hospital watching her sleep I might as well go home and watch Spain play Russia). She was discharged Friday morning and is doing fine, as long as she remembers to take the painkillers at regular intervals. She cannot use the arm at all, and is not allowed to either, so for the moment I have the double role of head nurse and chief cook. Apparently the rumour of my legendary skills in the kitchen have spread in the North West, so today our DCs came by for a house visit, bringing a flower – and a big home made lasagne, ready to put in the oven! They are quickly becoming my all time favourite DCs – and Lukas' as well!

Friday Lisbeth will be going back to the hospital to meet the surgeon and a physiotherapist and then it will be decided for how long she will have to be on sick leave. 2 ½ week is the average – if you are looking for a good investment our local pizza shop or McDonald's might be a good idea, turnover should increase the coming weeks.

Maria is coming to the end of her 6 month visit to the US and Canada or so we thought! According to plans she should land at Manchester Airport Tuesday morning, but Wednesday last week she called us and asked what we would say if she stayed another 2 months. Didn't really matter what we thought – she had been offered a "job" on a camp in Canada as Bible Coordinator and found out she actually could stay not 3 but 6 months in Canada and so she has decided to stay on. We were really looking forward to seeing her again in a couple of days, but there you go. Suppose it is the price for raising your children to be independent. I know many of you will be thinking whether somewhere in this story there is a young man involved (I had a flashback to many several years ago when Ilona called and asked if she could extend her holiday and stay another week in Sweden and ended up getting married – not straight away, but to the young man she had met) but I can inform you that I have posed that question to Maria and received a negative answer – or was it an elusive answer, where she didn't really answer the question? Will have to wait and see (she is probably going to kill me for writing this J)

And so, not with the style and finesse of the Spanish, but with the slightly boring grinding work of the Germans, I come to the end. You have once again been brought more or less up to date what is going on in and around the Andersens. I have realised I need to set my self a more challenging target if I am to keep a steady output on this blog. My original goal for this year was to at any given time have more postings than Sarah – but to reach that I might not have to write a single line more for the rest of the year. Even Dace is not a real challenge just now. The two ladies might point out that I should be the first to know it is not about quantity, but quality – but when it comes to words, I'd rather compete on quantity!

I did not find the elusive opening line, and I have not found the surprising punch line to end with either. So I will just end here.

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Being wrong when you are right

If it wasn't because Monday was the first day back after a week's holiday (a few pictures might follow) I would say that I needed a break – at least judged by my somewhat strange behaviour (no reason to comment that there is nothing unusual about me behaving strangely, I've done it myself now!) during the day. We had a Strategy Day for the whole division, the final of a series of such days trying to discern the way forward. I have been responsible for facilitating the process and so we turned up Monday morning outside one of the corps with the car full of flip charts, projectors, pens, paper and of course the absolute essentials: Post-it Notes – loads of Post-it Notes.

I parked the car outside the main door and after unloading ran out (yes, I was running late) to move the car to the car park behind the hall. A quick U-turn, full speed up to the next corner, getting ready to make 3 left turns after each other, which hopefully would bring me to the back of the hall. I did not bother to put on my seat belt or switch on the lights, as I just was going round the corner (actually 3 corners, but you get the drift of it, right?). As I was going up the road a car came towards me and the driver flashed his headlights towards me. I didn't get it, what was he trying to tell me? Surely he couldn't see I was not wearing a seat belt, and even if he could, why should he care? I looked around, but could not see anything that was wrong or any pending dangers, but he kept flashing his lights, clearly trying to draw my attention to something. As we passed the driver of the other car looked with amazement at me, slightly shaking his head. I was still confused, what was his problem? Suddenly dawned upon me: I was driving in the right side of the road! Which, in England, of course is the wrong side of the road, right? Fortunately there were no other cars around, and I quickly switched over to the right side of the road, that is the left side of course.

The day went reasonably well, but at the end of it I was tired. For once it was not raining (doesn't mean the sun was shining, but you learn to be grateful for small things when it comes to the weather here in the UK), so I sat in the garden and relaxed a bit. I really wanted to go for a bike ride or something, but just could not get my act together. Fortunately we were running low on milk, so we went for a walk and picked up some milk on the way. As we walked up to our front door I got my keys out and could not understand our front door wouldn't open, until I realised I was standing in front of it, pressing the car key, expecting the front door to automatically unlock! It was at that time I decided it was time to go to bed, probably I should never have got out of it that morning!

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