3 July 2007 Update
Thu Feb 14, 08 9:11 pm
Greetings from wet England. After many months of very little rain it has started raining again. For the last 3 weeks I don't think we have gone a single day without a little precipitation. My ankle is doing much better although it still dictates some things I can and cannot do. It is still sore when I bend it to the side and clicks a little. Please be praying that it will fully heal for reasons you will see later in this email.
*Whitehaven Maritime Festival*
I attended this a few weeks back. I have uploaded some photos from it up on the web. They had a bunch of tall ships that I was able to tour, an air show and a brilliant fireworks show. The fireworks did not start until 22:45 because it gets dark here quite late.
*Oasis 10 Peak Challenge*
I mentioned back in May that I was organizing my church's team for this fund raising event. My ankle was not about to stop me from participating in this event. Despite rubbish weather and sore ankle I was keen on walking. There were five of us in our team. We joined 100 other people to walk 12 miles over 10 peaks with 1.7 km elevation change. We got soaked (the British understatement would be "a bit damp"). Some of my stuff has yet to dry 48 hours later!
Four of my team camped out Friday night just up the hill from where we were going to start the walk on Saturday morning. This was because we needed to be there at 0610 on Saturday morning. The midges (or no-see-ums) swarmed us while we setup and took down the tent. My ankle was a bit sore at the end of the walk and my knee joints were a bit sore. Muscle-wise I did not get sore or stiff.
Sunset during our tent setup time
Our team finished well. We were the second team (after the police Officer's team) to finish. It took us 8 hours to complete the walk despite the weather. We were able to raise, as a team, about £500 for the impoverished orphans in Guadalajara, Mexico served by the Oasis En-Gadi Project. Check out some photos from the walk here:
Our team as we finished
More information about the project can be found from: http://www.oasis.xtn.info/
*Ukraine Trip*
This is the reason I want my ankle to be fully healed. I am going on a short term outreach in Eastern Europe with OM. It will have nothing to do with computers (although the OM field did ask if I could do some computer work while I was there.)
I will travel out on 8/4 and come back on 8/19. After four days of training in Chisinau, Moldova, I will travel to Odessa, Ukraine. There I will participate in a week long football (soccer) day camp in villages in the Odessa region to teach children sport skills and share the Gospel with them through sport. For this I will need a fully functioning right ankle.
I would certainly appreciate prayer for me during this event. I know it will be good to get out from behind the computer desk. If anyone is interested in sponsoring me especially for this event please let me know and I can get you details. The cost of my travel to the Ukraine is being picked up by the Carlisle team, but I want to do as much as possible to help defray this cost and travel to Eastern Europe is not cheap.
*4th of July*
What should I do for it? Last year I did nothing. I cannot get fireworks and I don't own an American flag. I have thought about having a BBQ and inviting a few people around. I had almost forgotten about the entire holiday until Mum reminded me on Sunday.
*Work Load*
I am very overwhelmed with my work duties. I have put together a list of my duties to go over with my manager to better prioritize my work tasks. I have a number of documents to write along with many other duties that took an entire page to list. I know that my work is valued by OM because of various emails and comments I receive. It is encouraging to know that my work is not just about ones and zeros, but is really helping OM's ministry goals. I try to keep that in perspective when I work.
I just finished a lengthy (1200 pages) book on Exchange Server 2007 design and implementation. There is a good likelihood that OM will implement this technology and I am trying to research and update my skills from Exchange 2003.
My work on a software distribution solution is making much progress. It had been stalled with dependencies on others. I am very glad that it is now moving forward, it just adds to my work load.
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