Dawdling is good for you

Classical music. A candle. A cup of tea. Lazy Saturday. A day when I can do a few things, but don't have to do anything. Do one thing at a time. Or not. Tidy up a bit, read, communicate.

The last few weeks have been super intense. I usually make sure that I'm only away one weekend a month so that I can spend the other weekends building the boat and relaxing. That hasn't worked out at all in the last few weeks because two conferences and my brother's wedding have been arranged at short notice. These were all appointments that were important to me.

And it was wonderful. Spending time with thousands of Christians from all over the world to listen to God together was deep and moving. What will remain unforgettable was a speech by a Jew to the Arab Christians present: „As descendants of Abraham, you are our elder brothers and we want to recognise this and honour you here.“ Goosebumps.

Meeting my new French family at my brother's wedding was also wonderful....the food was delicious - and has cancelled out my weight loss successes of the last few weeks. I can start all over again. It's a shame, but it was worth celebrating together.

At both events, I shared my room with people who snored or slept fitfully. As a result, I only slept about 3-5 hours a night for 8 days. When I came back, I had a whole host of problems to solve and mountains of work to get through - I often woke up very early because my head was so full.

Yesterday morning - when I looked at the clock on my mobile phone as soon as I woke up - I saw the Message I read that during the night in Berlin the refugees were driven out of the heated waiting tents onto the street where they were supposed to spend the night. The empty, heated tents were then guarded by the security service. I just cried at first. Because I was so exhausted. And because I couldn't understand it. How can you be so inhumane! There were children and babies in thereter! And prayed for solutions. There is so much confusion - divine intervention is needed. 

Today I took a look back at October and was impressed and surprised at how much I managed to get done in that time, even though I was only in the office for a few days at a time.

What I achieved in October

• The Quadro Welcoming culture has been published and has already reached many people who find it helpful
• We have a department for this Welcoming culture launched in the Down to Earth blog with helpful information
• We have a Facebook group Welcoming culture iwhere you can find inspiration, tips, links to materials, etc.
• We have set up the Facebook group „Volunteer Translators“, which translates short texts that refugees need help with: Emergency exit. // They are very welcome in our neighbourhood café // We are still working on the associated website „Signs for Refugees“.
• The 226-kilo stove is on board - and can soon be connected. It has torn a deep minus hole in the account...but it was simply important to get it before the winter.
• The Quadro „Strongly believe“ proofread, so that it can now go into the graphics.
• Further lessons for the online course DAN. Gratefully take everything written.
• Gave two lectures and participated in several planning meetings, gave an interview for a magazine
• Some people coached. Live on site, via Skype...
• The translation of the house rules of „my“ refugee emergency shelter into English, French, Arabic and Russian is organised
• In between, I organised donations by asking in the shops in the neighbourhood: 5 bags full of medicines, 2 huge boxes of clothes and an armful of jackets, 5 bags of glasses, orthopaedic stockings...

Phew... when I look at the list, I'm amazed myself: that was really, really a lot.

Still to come 

• Dilly-dallying today...doing one thing at a time.
• From Tuesday: A trip to Romania (10 - 13 November) to present my book „The Hut and I“, which was translated for the Hungarian minority in Romania
• A women's holiday in Austria with the theme „Swing. Your life in balance“.

Then a few days in the office and then my annual holiday. I'm going to visit Matthias, the friend of mine who had the serious stroke. He's doing amazingly well, he can walk and recently started moving his right side again and speaking short sentences. I am so grateful and am looking forward to spending time with him and his family and then with other friends.