It has been raining for I don’t know how many days. On the 15 day weather forecast it showed no change. Clouds and rain with the occational thunder storm. Weird weather. I know Switzerland is not realy the suniest place. We are usualy blessed with a lot of sunshine and unusual heat here. This is depressive and I get reminded how often people feel in wintertime in Europe when there is no sunshine for weeks.
One of the bad things is that I am loosing my hard aquired tan from the holiday we had. I was hoping to keep it till we go to Switzerland to show off. There goes the attempt to cause jealousy from my friends
Category: Every day life (Page 4 of 4)
Today I turned 38. Lillian threw a little party for me last night. (thanks lillian you the best). I wondered what the things are I should be worried about, I mean old age approaching. To my mind came midlife crisis, heart attack, divorce and being made redundant. Then I realized what a happy man I am.
- Midlife crisis hasn’t hit yet. Perhaps it is not the middle yet, or my life is already in a continuous crisis that started with me following Jesus. He keeps me kind of busy.
- Heart attack is something that does not run in my family. Two years ago I realized that I don’t feel as fit as I used to and decided to do more sports. Today (except the cold I have at the moment) I feel fitter than ten years ago. I go to the gym twice a week. Now I can at least keep up with the hill tribe people, when I trek the mountains.
- Divorce is something which would not even come close to my mind. I married the greatest and the most beautiful women. Our love and trust for each other has grown in the last 14 years to a beautiful secret garden
- Being made redundant is impossible. I’m unemployed for the last seven years working for the King of kings on a provisional basis. He made a promise that he would take care of us. This promise He has kept to this day.
I actually like getting older. I hope that wisdom and good character would kind of grow naturally. I wish it would be that easy. I feel I understand God better today though my quest is far from coming to an end. Looking back in my life I realized that some of the stops on the way were necessary. Some of them are painful. I used to say no pain no gain. Today I would understand that suffering is part of life. Not something I should charge into, but endure with the hope of understanding Christ and what He did for me.
The week is coming to an end. It is Saturday morning 8 o’clock and a comfortable 23 Degrees. When I woke up all my "chores" went through my mind.
- Working in the garden (planting and cutting)
- removing the sand bags from last years floods
- changing the electrical plug from the water pump
- Painting and adjusting the back door
- changing a built in ceiling light
- cleaning up the paid bills in the office
- Book my flight to Laos
- practicing the Lahu alphabet
And there are many other things to do. I think I start with making some coffee, have some breakfast and take it slowly. Like in the song from Simon and Garfunkel "slow down, you move to fast. You’ve got to keep the morning last."
I’m recovering from the food poisoning incident. It was a real marathon this time and I’m sick of being sick. But I’m still to weak to conquer the world or even the mess in my office. I had bad food and diarrhea before, but never like this. It usually is over after a day or two. This time it took seven days. Six of those I took antibiotics. I still have to take it slow this week.
Thanks to everybody who prayed for me and for all the well wishers.
On Monday I must have eaten something that caused a major infect in my stomach. Usually I let those things go by and just feel unwell for a day or two. This time I was not exempt from taking a load of antibiotics. I had high fever and was running out. After three days the fever had gone down but the infect was still strong. Yesterday I was in hospital to get me checked. Because of my "line of work" I’m exposed to all sorts of parasites, worms and sicknesses and I needed to make sure were no aliens nesting. (by the way, way do they give you such little cups to give samples for the laboratory?) The doctor could not find any creepy crawlies and set it’s fine. He gave stronger antibiotics for another four days.
The whole ordeal brought my life to a hold and I’m hanging around at home feeling totally exhausted from doing nothing. Even in the hospital I nearly fell asleep while waiting for the lab results.
A new year has started and my blog is in a kind of extended hybernation oder "Winterschlaf". I still want to whish all (three) faithfull readers a Happy New Year. It is hard to keep something like a blog up to date. With all the work in Dezember blogging was lowest on my list. This is not realy good to build up a vast readership and become famous and rich. On the other hand this was not my intension after all. So anyone who pops in here…. Welcome!
I like books next to my bed. Even more so when they pile. I always read a view pages before I go to sleep and sometimes before I get up. Here is the list of books on my bedside table.
NIV bible by many authors inspired by one God
this book has followed and inspired me on my lifes journey. I got a realy nice new thinline italian duo tone version. At the moment I’m reading through Ephesian
"the life you always wanted" by John Ortberg
This book I’m reading now for the second time in a row. I like Ortberg’s aproach to spiritual disciplines and how to be transformed trough them.
"Success God’s way" by Charles Stanley
This one I just started reading two days ago. I found it on a yard sale for 20 baht. I liked the outline and hope to get some answers about "the true meaning of being successful as a believer in Jesus.
"the nine ways of working" by Michael J. Goldberg
"How to use the enneagram system for success" by Ginger Lapid-Bogda
Both books are about the Enneagram. They were given to me to read out of a desperate attempt to show how weird I realy am (just kidding) Actually they helped me a lot to understand certain areas in my life and the way I work, especially in conflicts, feedback, expectations and how I work and tick.
"the first-time manager" by Lorin B. Belker + Gary S. Topchik
Believe it or not I’m reading a book on management. I only finished the first chapter. It then dawned on me that a lot of my understanding on business, leadership and management are interlinked with the church. I just never have seen it work well in those setting. I think one problem is that the church needs spiritual leadership but often applies secular principles
At the moment I am challenged how to build questasia and what it would/should be? How do I lead/manage my team?