Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: EVALUATION AND RESET

Eileen pointed out to me that this week we passed the quarter-way point of our 18-month mission. Maybe it is just because I am getting older, but time seems to pass much quicker now. Next week we have a four-day conference for the Europe Central Area humanitarian employees (4) and senior missionaries (16). Both things caused me to consider the humanitarian work within the countries we look after and to evaluate our mission so far.

Currently we have 30 projects at varying stages, from pre-approval development to final stage before formal closure. This does not count the half-dozen that are “on the horizon” that we may or may not actually end up spending much time developing. Of those 30, 10 are projects in central and southern Italy that we are in the final stages of closing. Of the remaining 20, 12 have been started since we arrived. Unlike our prior humanitarian missions where we were involved in a wide variety of project types, being assigned only relatively affluent western European countries, our projects are limited to just a few different types. About 35% of our projects are food kitchens, 25% are dealing with homelessness and safe houses for women & children, 25% are education and integration efforts, and 15% with funding psychological or mental health services and access to medications. My best guess is that 75% of our project’s end beneficiaries are refugees or migrants from Ukraine, the middle east, and Africa who now reside in western Europe.

With the way our assignment is structured, the Welfare field-couples in Italy, Austria and Germany have the face-to-face contact with the NGOs and beneficiaries. The employees compare our respective roles to those in a restaurant, where the field-couples take the orders and deliver the food and we in the Area roles cook in the kitchen. When I used to train humanitarian couples, I would describe the work as 20% meeting people (the best part - 10% at the beginning and 10% at the end of a project) and 80% office work. We have the 80% on this mission.

We have found a lot of joy here serving with the other senior missionaries in Frankfurt. This is one of the reasons we have tried to have others over for dinner each Sunday afternoon. Eileen has been going to early morning pickleball and swimming with a few of the other sister missionaries, and she will begin taking German language lessons later this month. I’ve decided I need to look around and see what things I can do which may possibly make others around me happier and then follow through.

In preparation for the conference next week, Elder and Sister Busath flew in on Friday afternoon from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They do not have the benefit of many other senior couples serving around them or access to western restaurants. We decided to invite them out for dinner on Friday night and offered to take them somewhere on Saturday of their choosing. We ended up going to a German restaurant on Friday, Heidelberg castle on Saturday, a Mexican restaurant on Saturday evening, doing their wash last night, and taking them to church with us today. While it may have been of benefit to them, it has made both Eileen and I happy to be of service, and we have gained new friends!