This last week, I (Russell) presented in our weekly Monday morning devotional.The subject matter was assigned to us and the audience was the employees and missionaries of the Area’s Welfare and Self-reliance Department (“WSR”). Over a hundred individuals are invited to attend the weekly on-line meeting, but usually less than that actually make it.
The assigned topic was Priority 3 of the WSR 5-year strategic focus, “Increase the impact of Church humanitarian priorities and promote community service.” The previous two priorities, covered in prior weeks, focused on self-reliance principles and services for Church members. As Priority 3 and my presentation dealt specifically with what Eileen and I work on in our missionary service, I thought including it here might be appropriate. Since much of the presentation focused on the “how to do” part of the work, I thought it important to start and end it with the “why,” on the purpose of why we are doing what we are doing. It is easy to get caught up in the mechanics of the process and lose track of why we are serving. We serve our Savior, Jesus Christ, and seek to follow His example of serving others, particularly those most in need.
The Church’s humanitarian work in the Europe Central Area is organized in a more complex way that it was 10 years ago when we previously served here. We now have six managers/employees that we work with, three in Frankfurt and three located in the countries that we serve. The humanitarian project work is divided into roles filled by employees, Area humanitarian missionaries (like us), and the WSR field couple missionaries. To coordinate that process of who does what, a chart has been created by the Area humanitarian employees to clarify that. I refer to it as the “Chart of Many Colors.” A copy of it and my PowerPoint presentation are attached at the end of the week’s pictures below.
Each Sunday we try and invite another couple to come and have dinner with us.Since my cooking skills are limited, we have a consistent menu of roast beef, potatoes and vegetables. It reminds me of what my grandmothers would cook when they had us over for Sunday dinners. So far, we have had over a dozen couples come and share a meal with us. Getting to know the other senior missionaries is one of the best things about serving here in Frankfurt.
It is pretty remarkable that with modern technology we can have a meeting with others from around the world. Joining our Monday meeting are missionaries and employees from Spain to Turkey.
Russell wanted some nicer dress shirts. I ordered these over a month ago. DHL tried to deliver them twice previously on a Saturday and returned to the sender since the office and mail room is closed on Saturday. I thought surely it can't be that difficult when I have requested that they be delivered on a weekday to notice that the office is closed. We finally received 6 out of the 10 which were ordered. I guess it shows it is worth being persistent. Hopefully we can still get the other 4.
My daughter gives me a waxed amaryllis every year for Christmas. When I saw these in the Netherlands I thought they would be so nice to have in the office. Russell knows that flowers make me happy.
We have a small balcony which Russell has put a lot of flowers on, some are planted and some are grown in pots.
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