Stresstember

The title of this blog came from a facebook message I got this morning. It's a little misleading since I am under a minute amount of stress compared to like, say, July, but I have been feeling it since about Thursday, when Chris and I picked up 5500 newsletters and envelopes from Universal Graphics. Some were extra; the mailing list sits at 4,500 or so. To get each one ready to send, there are 3 steps:

• "stuff" each newsletter with a Business Reply Mail envelope
• "tab" each newsletter with 3 sticky seals--the USPS is REALLY picky about this part
• "label" each newsletter with an address label, and sort into trays by zip code

The past two times we have sent one out, there have been tons of hands on deck to help, but the timing of this one meant the whole process fell on the already overworked office staff. I had a big role in designing this one, so in addition to knowing that it will bring in between $20,000 and $40,000, I felt responsible for getting it sent out ASAP, and therefore put in a lot of hours trying to make that happen. I would sit in the library stuffing or tabbing or labeling away, with iTunes on in the background or talking to a friend on speakerphone. It wasn't bad, just labor intensive so sometimes I felt like I wasn't making any progress even though I was. In all honestly, I kind of enjoy busy work, behind-the-scenes projects like that. The phrase that kept popping into my head was "serve the Lord with gladness." I searched biblegateway.com and I guess I was actually thinking of Psalm 100:2:

Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

Maybe I got "serve" from some hymn lyrics or something, but whatever. I guess they are really not that different. Regardless of everything else I shoved to the back burner, or what percentage of the work I was doing in comparison to others, or anything else, I tried to keep in mind that this was how I could serve the Lord at that moment, and so to work on the newsletter...AGAIN...with gladness. Pastor Heimer took it to the post office this morning, and I hope LOTS of people pay attention to the box on the back cover that says for people to send their e-mail addresses to Ann if they'd prefer an electronic copy!

I feel like most of "Stresstember" has really been "pre-October." I've been counting down to October 4 for months now, since I'm leaving then on a Mediterranean cruise! For example, today is 5 days until we leave; the whole September 29th thing feels kind of unimportant. I have been immensely blessed by so many people in my ministry here; this time around it is my coworker Chris Hill and his family (his mom Carol is on the YLM board of directors), who are taking me on their European adventure. The ship leaves from Venice, Italy, has stops in Croatia, Greece, and Italy, and then ends in Barcelona, Spain. I am unbelievably grateful to the Hills for including me, and sooooo excited to explore some places on God's earth that I have only seen in pictures or learned about in Art History and other classes. There might be another blog or two between now and when we leave, but then expect a drought for a couple of weeks since my computer is staying in El Paso. I plan to not think about work at all so I can come back completely refreshed and rejuvenated--and missionaries can have fun too, right? ;) Of course there will be pictures when I get back!

One last thing before I start revising two sets of minutes (Church Council and Development Committee)--my goddaughter was in here earlier, and she was demonstrating both of her new behaviors for September: saying "uh-oh" and doing this thing where she kind of growls and hisses like she's trying to scare you. She doesn't realize that she is waaaay to adorable to scare anyone!

Until next time, blessings!