Paul:
February hasn't really worked out like we thought. I'm normally gallivanting off somewhere for a few days, and maybe Lesley has to pop off somewhere as well at some point, but somehow we've ended up with only 3 full days when we are both at home. Not a good plan.
This is my actual calender pictured. you can't read the detail, but the coloured blocks are when one of us is away. See the problem?
There's nought to be done about our daft scheduling at this point, but I wanted to give you a run down, so you can offer up a few when you think of us. Here's the deal:
Feb 3 - 9: Paul has dragged the Global HR team from around the planet, to little-old-England (We were going to be in Orlando, but Charis is appearing in "High School Musical" that week, so Paul wanted to be in commuting distance). We're meeting in Derbyshire.
Feb 10 - 15: Paul pops off back to the US for his usual round of meetings and eating too much food
Feb 15 - 19: Having missed Valentines day (boy; I'm in trouble) Paul has a romantic drive with Lesley, as she takes him straight from Birmingham airport to Heathrow, to catch a plane or 2 to Turkey for a few days.
Feb 20 - 21: Lesley's turn. She's away with the UK Leadership Team for a couple of days.
Feb 22 - 24: We have a weekend all together. Yeah!
Feb 25 - March 1: Lesley's attending a European Member Care Forum in Lille, France
...and then we get our lives back...maybe...a bit... At least for a week or so. All intercession gratefully received. Thanks people.
Paul:
At about the same time as a Boeing 777 was crashing at Heathrow, I was landing rather uneventfully at Birmingham International. I had just arrived home from 3 days in Singapore. 3 days in Singapore??!! Am I mad? what has my life become, that I can say that so casually?
Actually, I found there is an up-side to such a stupidly long trip, for such a stupidly short amount of time: Your body clock stands no chance of adjusting to the local time, so you are a zombie when you return, but you have virtually no out-of-sync experience.
As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the main reason for the trip was to meet with some other Agapé / Campus Crusade folk who are developing new technology for tracking our staff and their development more comprehensively. I know very little about tech and still don't have much experience of the international issues involved, so obviously I ended up with the project leader role! I feel like I am soooo in over my head on this. All prayers gratefully received.
While I was there, I got to meet with the HR guys who lead our Singapore ministry as well as a number of other East Asia HR leaders. These folk have such a difficult role, in often really difficult circumstances. Please pray for Chee Yee and Moses (it's his "English" name) on the Singapore national team as they put together their national plan, and particularly for Chee Meng who is HR director for another national ministry in East Asia, as he leads through some difficult transition issues.
We both have a couple of weeks in the UK now, before the madness of February begins. More about that later.
Hello; my name's Paul and I'm a West Wing addict. It all started innocently. A friend just slipped Lesley a legit copy of series 1 at a party. I thought: "What's the harm? it's only a TV series; I'm really just a social TV watcher. I can handle it." Oh, the slippery slope!
We tried just watching the odd episode, but quickly found ourselves saying "Oh go on - it's the holidays and its only midnight; lets watch just one more......". and now we find ourselves in this sorry state of breaking out into a sweat at the thought of going a day without watching just a little more of the President's antics. (apologies for those of you that have yet to succumb and haven't a clue what I'm wittering about)
All this to say I needed to let you know I'm going "Cold Turkey" (no Christmas pun intended). Lesley is away with all the Agapé UK team leaders, doing some training for the rest of the week and I have promised NOT to watch another episode whilst she is away. The temptation is almost unbearable. Please do pray for Lesley, the team leaders, my kids as they suffer my cooking (and take-aways) and me as I sit and look at the West Wing DVD box.
Lesley gets back just in time for us to watch one episode on Friday and then I fly to Singapore on Saturday. I'll try and blog you from there. Thanks people.
Paul:
