843 and counting

The consolidating of the contacts continues. Catchy, huh?

Excuse me for being a little slap happy from all this computer work. I would go STARK RAVING MAD if I had to do this all day, every day! I know, I know, I know I will be glad when I'm done and all our contacts are in one easy-to-access place. But the getting there is killing me. So far I've typed in the information on 843 individuals or families. Whatever info I have...address(es), phone number(s), e-mail(s), how we know them, anything that might be helpful in "remembering" down the road. For some it's as simple as putting their home church, for others it's connecting-the-dots-to-how-we're-related, or a lengthy recitation of our history together.

Because when I grow old and wear purple with a red hat, I shall want this information at my fingertips in order to keep track of which "Patti" I'm related to, the one I knew as a teen, maybe the one who headed up the homeschool co-op, or if she's the mission chair from one of our supporting churches.

Yes, a consolidated contact list will be wonderful....this the mantra as my eyes glaze over from the repetitive-ness of the inputting... while the carpal tunnel aggravates the tendonitis in my right hand... while I check and re-check to make sure I'm not accidentally switching around numerals in the phone numbers or addresses or zip codes.

Have I ever mentioned I have a thing for numbers? As in, I do not care for them. They are the bane of my existence. They are sneaky and cause undue pain and suffering by hopping around in incorrect formations in my checkbook and other sensitive locations. Chaos, people, chaos! Should they hop around in our contact list, e-mails would bounce back, envelopes return as "undeliverable", and important information would be lost FOREVER.

Whew! Glad I got that out of my system.

The long weekend with the Bakimis was SO GOOD! On Monday poor Jonnes had his other two wisdom teeth pulled (he'd had the first two plus two molars pulled last Thursday). But he's tough and was still smiling, albeit lopsidedly, when we left them at 4 p.m. I can't begin to say what a blessing it was to spend time with them. They have so much wisdom to share... about ministry, about parenting, about LIFE. We would have liked a few WEEKS rather than days with them!

And being with them helped me remember that numbers are important only as a tool. They have been in ministry for 20 years (a nice round number), have served hundreds (a nice big number) while focusing on the children one-at-a-time (a nice do-able number). Any job or ministry can be overwhelming unless you break it down into manageable chunks -- which are fractions, which involve numbers. And that's what I need to be doing as we wind up our "home ministry" and prepare to move to Argentina.