Paving

I've been pretty bad about keeping this blog up-to-date, but here is a summary of my time in Germany...

This spring while I’ve been here helping in the EuroTeam office, we have had two teams come to help with the parking lot paving project. In April, the team spent a week removing the hodgepodge of old pavers and a shed to make way for the new parking lot. Later in May another team was here for a week to level the underlayment and place pavers. Even now with the parking lot completed there are still many tasks remaining. Robin, a local missionary who was here with the first team (from one of her supporting churches), told me this last Sunday it was hard to feel like they had made a difference until she came by the office and saw the parking this last week. I’ve been thinking about my time here and realized much like the team in April, my three months here in the office have been spent mostly preparing for the people who will be coming after me. Sometimes you have the opportunity to see the “finished” product and sometimes you have to leave that for the next person God has in place. I’ve been privileged see some things I worked on put into use but I have also spent a lot of time on things that will help those who are working on the next step:
1. There have been two other teams this spring and there are some that will start about the time I go home. I have been able to assist with the last minute preparations the Project Supervisors do before a team arrives.
2. TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Resources office has been working on a new online cultural training course being developed for teams. I helped some in the editing of country content and inserting it into the courses. I’m excited about seeing this course ready for use for all TEFL & EuroTeam teams!
3. During the last couple weeks I spent a lot of time on the ‘Welcome Manuals’ we give to teams when they arrive (these were created about 5 years ago and were due for a fact review/update). In addition to this update, they are also being revised so that they can be used by all GEM short-term teams not just EuroTeam! It is great that with some minor changes something we have been using can be used by other ministries.

I’ve enjoyed my time here “removing of old pavers and laying new ones” and am glad that I had this opportunity to help. I would strongly encourage you to consider coming and working with the EuroTeam ministry either through GEM’s EuroQuest program (as I did) or serving longer term. There are many opportunities for either removing the old pavers or laying the new ones to create valuable tools for others in furthering His church in Europe.