the gift of Gab

Well, it's about time I gave you an update.

It's been a flurry of e-mails and phone calls with both World Venture and Flying Mission.

Last week, I asked how I could prepare for my conference call with Bryan and Yvonne of FM. One of the things they wanted to know was whether I would be coming as an individual member or on loan from another organization. The act of being on loan is called seconding in missionary circles. It was something I really hadn't given much thought prior to that e-mail.

Last Friday I spoke again with Larry from World Venture. I'm still quite interested in becoming a member of their organization. They would be able to provide a lot of the support structure that a group as small as FM is logistically unable to provide. (I won't bore you with details, but it has to do with finances, taxes, home furloghs, etc.) When I asked him about seconding, he told me that they have a number of people who do that within their organization. He encouraged me to continue the application.

So now I've received 29 documents (literally) from Linda (she handles all the long-term apps) at WV which are all part of the application! Yikes! I'll be busy for a while. Everything needs to be completed and returned to the main office no later than April 30.

In the mean time, the conversation with Flying Mission also went well. They would really like me to visit for two weeks in November or December. When I asked them for more details on seconding, they mentioned that approximately half of their members are seconded from other organizations. Another encouragement for me.

I continue to pray that God opens only those doors that need to be open. I'm also praying that those doors which are shut are quite obviously shut. I've added to that, that God remove any desire from my heart that is not part of His will. For now, I will continue to work with both groups. I am getting the impression that they will both be very important in this adventure.

Things are definitely moving along. And I am excited. And somedays - a little overwhelmed. But the great thing is that God has it all under control. Even though I can't see it all yet, I'm sure that all will work out the way God has intended!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and notes of encouragement! I appreciate them all.

Posted by Gabi at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ever have one of those days?

Yesterday I was a bit pushed for time and grabbed a sweater out of the dryer on my way out the door. As I walked into my chiropractor's office, I realized that I had a spot on the front of my sweater.

Oh dear.

So as I was chit chatting with his assistant, Deb, I crossed my arms to try to cover the spot. Deb kept looking at me funny. Finally, she leaned in real close and whispered, "Do you know that you are wearing your shirt inside out?"

Oh dear.

Posted by Gabi at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I found out today that my conference call with Flying Mission will be at 8:00 AM on Tuesday morning. Yippee!!

Please pray with me as I continue to seek God's will and direction in this decision. I have felt much peace about going with FM since October, 2004. But as will typically happen, I've started to feel some doubts now that I've been provisionally accepted. So I just want to be sure that I am going with the group God has intended for me.

I'm sure after the call is over, I will have much more to tell you. And I'm sure I'll have a lot to do in preparing to leave.

Posted by Gabi at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And I took a nap
To the sound of raindrops
Falling on my roof.

Glorious.

Posted by Gabi at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since Wednesday (when I found out I'd been provisionally accepted by FM), I have been feeling under attack by Satan. I've been feeling anxious and depressed, and even having self doubts and doubts about missions.

This morning God reminded me of yet another song (musical tourette's wins again!). Count Your Blessings. You know the old hymn: Count your blessings, name them one by one...

So that's what I've decided to do today, in no particular order:

1) Wonderful, close family (I even consider them my friends)
2) Fabulous church that supports missions and has embraced me as a member of the church family.
3) Great job -
- co-workers with whom I get along well;
- a very entertaining boss (he hates it when we call him that) who treats us all fairly, kindly and with great respect;
- incredible view of the mountains from my desk;
- great compensation for my work
- silly kids toys from Oriental Trading Company to play with for stress relief
4) Super group of friends - they love and support me in my quest for missions - and just in general
5) Fantasic house!
- I've been able to use the equity in the house to payoff all of my debts! Wee hee!
- It's wonderfully big and I've been blessed to be able to share it with a lot of people (lot's of parties and game nights)
- Got to paint the walls any color I wanted, decorated in my style!
6) Very reliable little car that doesn't guzzle gas
7) Daffodils that I got at Trader Joe's for $0.99 a bunch. They're now brightening up the front office.
8) Playful cat that jumps on and off the wall behind our office (I watch the kitty out my window from my desk)
9) No voicemails on my phone when I came into work today!

There are so many more things I could mention. I'm sure I'll think of them as the day goes on.

If there was ever a time that I would say YeeHaw! this is is. I'm sure Jesus is saying YEEEEHAAAAW for me as well. :-D

Posted by Gabi at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got some great news today! I've been provisionally accepted by Flying Mission!!!

So in about two weeks, I'll have a conference call with some of the folks from FM. They'll be in Botswana and I'll be here. I don't even know what the time difference is.

Oh, what an exciting day!

Posted by Gabi at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I bid on eBay for the first time yesterday. And tonight - I won!

This is quite exciting. I just saved myself about $150 on a new PDA. This may be the new way for me to find things. Yay!

Of course, I'm also realizing that continued use of websites to sovle all my needs may lead to never actually seeing or speaking with another human being again. You can do banking on line, shopping, dating, getting a college education, virtually everything.

In some instances, no human contact could be a wonderful thing.

For example, not having to stand in line at Wal-Mart. Specifically, in the return line. Around Christmas, when it it moving like molasses in January. And the lady behind you continually (and loudly) sighs and talks about how slow the line is moving! You know the one. She's tapping her high-heeled foot (stomping might be more accurate), popping and snapping her gum and berating the people at the counter - who may, or may not, be doing their best.

On the other hand, it could also be a sad thing: the lady at the grocery store checkout who has a kind word and a cheerful smile for you, or the waiter that flirts with you at Uno's, or the mailman who's got a quick little joke for you. You'll just never get that kind of real human contact on the internet.

Posted by Gabi at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Every now and again the words of a song touch me so deeply they cause me to view an aspect of our Christian walk in a new light. Sometimes, the words are just a great reminder.

This song has been bouncing around in my head since rehearsing it on Wednesday night. We sang it this morning in church.

Knowing You

All I once held dear, built my life upon,
All this world reveres and wars to own,
All I once thought gain I have counted loss,
Spent and worthless now compared to this.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You - There is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're the best, You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You, Lord!

Now my heart's desire is to know you more,
To be found in You and known as Yours,
To posses by faith what I could not earn,
All surpassing gift of righteousness.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You - There is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're the best, You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You, Lord!

Oh, to know the pow'r of Your risen life
And to know You in Your sufferings,
To become like You in Your death, my Lord,
So with You to live and never die.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You - There is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're the best, You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You, Lord!

Song by Graham Kenrdrick (1994)

Posted by Gabi at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My first year of teaching was in a tiny village in Northwestern Alaska. It included half a day of 7th grade and three periods of high school English. One of those classes was Technical Writing and Oral Communications – affectionately known as TWOC (but pronounced like "talk" with a Jewish NYC accent). The intent of the class was to provide students with the more practical aspects of writing: filling out applications, writing resumes, writing instructions, public speaking, etc.

An obvious unit for TWOC would need to be one on giving and following written instructions. So I asked my students to partner up and write out a set of instructions to something they knew how to do well. I also asked them to be able to go through the motions of following the directions exactly as they were written. I thought I was being pretty clever by allowing the students to select the activity they wanted to describe.

It was during this unit that I became fully aware of the importance of clarity in my own instructions. Shortly after we began this unit, I realized that I had failed to give one crucially important instruction: “Everything you teach the class must be legal.”

(Having grown up the daughter of missionaries, I never had much desire (or opportunity) to break the law. And in my wide-eyed, first-year-teacher idealism, I never assumed that my students would want to share their law-breaking frivolities. I’m not sure who received more of an education that first year!)

Some of the students picked safe topics: how to build a campfire, how to change a baby’s diaper, how to bake a cake. Some of the students wrote out directions, but left out very important steps. For example, in building a fire, they left out the part about striking the match to light it.

Still others told me about illegal activities such as the best way to break into the school, how to steal a snowmobile, or how to make homebrew.

Now, homebrew in Alaska is not the well-bred, well-mannered beer that middle class white folks create in their kitchens. Rather, it is the one-eyed, gap-toothed, illegitimate cousin of moonshine. This gut-rotting concoction could put a grown man under the table for days at a time. Making and selling this vile mixture was illegal. But sadly, it was also the main source of income for a number of people in our tiny community.

So here I was in my classroom with two boys pantomiming how to make homebrew. I was stunned! Ironically, theirs were some of the easiest - and clearest - directions to follow.

The two boys received an “A” for their project.

I, of course, changed the directions of the writing unit for the following year.

Posted by Gabi at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So all week long we've been dealing with the robbery from last Saturday. Everday we're noticing little things that are gone. But overall, we're getting back into the swing of things.

Most of the people I've talked to about their stolen checks have been very understanding and helpful. Of course, there's always the one guy who thinks it's our fault that the office got broken into. Ah, what can you do.

Interestingly enough, the police who came to our office on Saturday, didn't really spend much time looking around for clues or equipment. After they left, we found our little gas grill on the back patio under a bush. On Tuesday, our tech guy saw one of our monitors in the desert behind our patio wall. (I'm way too short to really see over the wall.) He just jumped right over the wall and brought the monitor back. Don't the police normally look for that kind of stuff?

I think we'll be getting back to normal soon. I'm still so thankful that no one was hurt and our servers weren't taken. The rest of it is fairly easy, albeit time consuming, to deal with.

Posted by Gabi at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Another sunny Saturday and I was planning on getting a lot of work done at the office. No phone calls, no e-mails. Just me and my computer cranking out nastygrams.

When I got there, around 11:30 AM, I found the garbage can lid scattered across the floor in pieces. Hmm, odd. Our cleaning lady would never do that. I walked into my office and sensed something was wrong. It took me a moment to realize what was going on.

My monitor was missing. So was my printer. And my CPU, and my scanner, and my keyboard, and my mouse!!! I checked in my co-worker's office. All of her stuff was missing as well. Even power cords, ethernet cables, and universal power supplies were missing.

Before calling 911, I checked with one of the attorneys to make sure there wasn't something else going on that he had forgotten to tell us about. But he confirmed my fear that someone had broken in and stolen our things.

The police arrived very quickly and gave me some inventory sheets to fill out after the fingerprinting was done. My co-worker and the attorney showed up soon after that. As we walked around the office, we found other things that were now missing - our postage meter, garbage cans (probably to carry the loot), personal CDs from my desk, USB hubs - generally anything that could be sold for quick cash.

When I realized that they had also stolen thousands of dollars worth of checks written by homeowners, I got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know that people chemically wash checks and then use them again. My biggest fear is that the stolen checks will be used to steal the homeowner's identities. My prayer request is that the thieves don't have an opportunity to do that with the checks or misuse the information on them.

As we went through the office making up the inventory of missing items, we also realized that there were a number of items that were not taken, and we realized just how much worse things could have been. The thieves did not take our servers (though it looks like they might have tried). Without the servers we would have been up that proverbial creek without a paddle. They didn't do any major damage, and no one was hurt.

On Sunday, my co-worker and I met our boss half way between Phoenix and Tucson to pick up some surplus computers, printers, etc. from our Phoenix office. Our boss reminded us that the insurance will cover all of this and he was planning on getting us new computers soon anyway.

So today we were able to get everything loaded back onto the "new" computers and get moving again. I spent most of the day figuring out which checks were missing and then calling those homeowners. Not fun to tell them that their check had been stolen and they would have to put a stop payment on it and reissue it as soon as possible.

Two more police officers showed up this morning to ask a few more quesitons and to let us know they had found our postage meter and a whole bunch of cords. We'll be able to get that back soon. It appears the police have a suspect: a female meth addict also under suspicion of stealing a car.

All in all, this has been a somewhat crummy experience that could have been much worse. Thankfully, everyone is ok, and we are back on line - just slightly behind now.

Oh, by the way: remember the chocolate in the bottom drawer of my desk? They stole that too!! I actually laughed out loud when I realized that. God does have a great sense of humor. :-D

Posted by Gabi at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So I did try the chocolate again - with the same result. It's still making me sick! :-D

All of the chocolate, most of the one-pound bar of chocolate and about half the tub of TJ's mini peanut butter cups, is still in the bottom drawer of my desk. Not sure why I'm keeping it around, but can't quite get myself to throw it out yet.

Posted by Gabi at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight I went to a presentation about the work that Flying Mission is doing in Africa, particularly their move to Zambia. More specifically, it was a report from a local man who had gone to visit Bryan and Diane.

He had so many wonderful pictures and stories. My heart is already there! When I told the folks at the presentation that I had applied with FM and was looking forward to leaving next year, Kent told me that Bryan had mentioned me several times in connection with projects he is already lining up for me to work on when I get there. What an encouragement!

Please keep praying with me that God clearly opens the doors for me as I need to walk through them.

Posted by Gabi at 10:13 PM | Permalink

Any one who's ever seen me knows I have a food addiction. Oh, I could try to blame it solely on the Candidadis, but I'm sure there's more to it than that. I've become so tired of the cravings for foods that harm my body and make me sicker, and yet, I've continued to eat them: any wheat product, chocolate, caffeine, dairy, etc. (If it's fun, or easy to prepare/procure, then it's on my do not eat list.)

So recently, I've taken to writing down some of my prayers in my journal. Last week, I wrote/prayed that God would take away the cravings I have for things that make me feel sicker. I've prayed this a number of times before, and then apparently, I take the prayer back again. Hmmm, not so useful, I've found. This time, however, the prayer felt much different to me. It wasn't that I meant it more than usual. It just felt like I couldn't take it back. Perhaps it was because I had actually written it down.

Keeping all of this in mind, let's switch gears just a little: On Monday and Tuesday of this week, our server went down. We are completely dependent on the server in our office. So I wasn't able to get nearly as much done as I wanted. By Tuesday afternoon, I was pissed - primarily because there was nothing I could do to solve the problem.
In order to deal with the growing frustration, I decided to take a break. I headed directly for the Trader Joe's across the street from my office and bought a one-pound bar of milk chocolate and a one-pound container of TJ's mini peanut butter cups. As any woman can tell you, chocolate will immediately remove any negative emotion you are feeling.

After getting back in my car, I ate one rib of the chocolate bar and about three peanut butter cups. Then I felt nauseaus. I tried eating another 3 peanut butter cups the next day, and again today. Each time I got so nauseaus that I wanted to throw up. Are you seeing the pattern here? So now the chocolate is sitting in the bottom drawer of my desk.

It wasn't until I got home this evening that I realized what was going on. I had to laugh out loud at God's sense of humor. I am literally sick of chocolate! In my little world, the cravings would simply have gone away, but I guess that's not what God has in mind for me.

It looks like this might actually be it. But I'm sure I'll give it another try at some point - just to make sure.

Posted by Gabi at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It seems that Fargo is in the midst of it's fourth annual film festival, showing such gems as The World's Most Dangerous Polka Band and If There Were No More Lutherans... Would There Still Be Green Jell-o?

Most of the films are shorter than your average feature film, some as short as two minutes, and are primarily documentaries. It's being billed as an international independent film festival. Does Saskatchewan *truly* count as international?

On opening night, the festival ran a 10th anniversary showing of Fargo. Of course, rather than the traditional method of showing the film, festival producers found a distinctly more northern method: outside, on the side of a 16-story building, in the falling snow. And while an RSVP to attend is not required, I'll bet a "Ya sure, you betcha" would be appreciated, doncha know?

Posted by Gabi at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)