14 May 2009 - Letter from Leon [Number 12]
Thu May 21, 09 6:45 pm
I am an uncle. He is the cutest nephew ever. It is so much fun to hear him gurgling and crying over the phone. The few times I have chatted with my nephew over Skype video have been highlights of the week. 
It is great to have Phil, my housemate, back from New Zealand. His absence has meant that I have been living alone for several months. Just before he returned after months of trying to get a new visa for the UK, I also got a second housemate from Germany, named Mathias. So now the house has 3 occupants.
I am trying to make it to the US in June to see my nephew. I want to see him before he gets too big. At the same time I am hoping that OM USA will be convinced to let me help them on a few IT projects. They have 3-4 large projects that I would like to help them with but they are resistant. They don’t have the technical expertise or manpower to do them, but for various reasons they have been resistant to allowing outside help.
***Work***
Work is keeping me very busy. After 1.5 years of work on one of my projects, OM has signed a contract with a company in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, to outsource our management of email for OM. I am very happy to have this contract signed as it the culmination of so many months of work. Now the project needs us to migrate 1000 mailboxes from Carlisle, England to Atlanta with minimal interruption to those checking email. Do be praying about the migration as 1/5 of all mailboxes and probably half of email traffic within OM will be effected by this change. The amount of data being moved is half a terabyte! It can’t go wrong otherwise our main method of communication will be interrupted.
I am so excited about this migration on so many levels. It is a great experience for me to be stretched. The end result is going to be a much better email solution for OM that will be able to grow to handle email services for the vast majority of email users in OM. It will also have a lot of redundancy built into the system, which is a good thing.
On the work front my housemate who has been absent for 6 months returned three weeks ago. He also works in the IT department at the office and I had to do quite a bit of his work lately because of his prolonged absence. The timing of his return is good because I really need to devote most of my time to the email migration project.
I also find myself helping OM Ireland a few times a week with various IT questions. It has been really great for me to help them because it gives me a better understanding of the practical issues that a typical OM field experiences. Helping OM Ireland gives me a better perspective on how God is bring the lost people of Europe on OM’s front lines into a saving knowledge of Christ.
I had the chance over the Easter holidays to visit the Logos Hope up in Edinburgh for a week. It was great to see the ship now that it is in fulltime ministry. I volunteered in the book fair by performing a variety of tasks as required – pricing books, info desk, greeting, stocking shelves, worked the cash desk, making announcements over the loudspeakers. I really enjoyed my time there although I was knackered when I got back into Carlisle. It had been the first time I had travelled by train with my bike. That was good fun. I am planning on volunteering again down in Cardiff for another week if my work with the email migration will allow it.
***At The Last Minute***
OM Ireland hosted its first golf camp from April 6-10. The camp is a partnership venture between OM Ireland, OM SportsLink, and the golf branch of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The camp was run by former Ryder Cup Vice Captain, Anders Forsbrand, and a number of other golf coaches from the US. Forty-seven campers ages 12-18 participated.
One week before the camp was to take place, the OM team received devastating news. The golf club that was hosting the camp had decided that they were not comfortable with OM sharing about Jesus and handing out Bibles to the campers. They told OM that they couldn't use the facility if they wanted to speak about Jesus at the camp.
With just a week to go and no other club lined up, the OM leaders prayed and met with the manager and owner of another golf club in the area. The team was praying that they would have space for them, and would allow them to have the camp. God answered abundantly more than was expected. The two men were very sympathetic of the situation. They even asked for a copy of FCA's Athlete's Bible for themselves! They offered OM whatever was needed for the camp, and a beautiful practice area was exclusively designated for the campers. They even allowed OM free use of their golf buggies.
"The week was amazing," said OM Ireland Leader Mike Mullins. "Parents and campers alike were touched. One parent contacted us the following day and said that the camp made a huge impact on her son's life. She also contacted the local pastor who was working with us and asked if she could meet up with him sometime. She was very interested in finding out more about the church."
I have been asked to preach at church for the first time this upcoming weekend (this was last weekend now). I am quite keen to do it. It had been something I have been wanting to do for a little while, and then a few weeks back one of the elders at church sprung the request upon me.
I am bonding quite well with my small group at church. We have had some good times together over the past few months with challenging discussions and good prayer for each other. I and another bloke in the group are organizing our church’s involvement in a football (soccer) tournament with the hope of bringing non-Christian men into contact with a Christian environment.
***Prayer Requests***
- That the email migration project continues to go well
- For travel arrangements to work out for Cardiff, US and other fields who have asked me to help them with their computer issues
- Direction for what I should be doing at the end of this year when my commitment with OM ends
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