Lige midt i missionmarken -Right in the middle of the mission field

Hvor vildt! Nu behøver man ikke at tage langt væk for virkelig at være på "missionsmarken" (hvis vi altså ikke allerede vidste dette). I følge John Blake fra The Billy Graham Association så er Europa den mindst evangeliserede kontinent i verden. Så er det bare med at få smøget ærmerne yderligere op!

How amazing! Now we don't need to go far away to really be on the missionfield (if we somehow had that misconception). According to John Blake from the Billy Graham Association then Europe is now the least evangelised continent of the world. So I guess it is time to roll up the sleeves a bit more!

Lederkursus - Leadership Course

Jeg skulle have opdateret min blog for længst, men livet løber lige lovligt hurtigt for tiden.
Men her et par minutter i frokost, kan jeg da lige fortælle om et fantastisk kursus jeg havde i forrige uge på min bibelskole i Tyskland. Det handlede om lederskab og vores underviser var Dr. George Murray som har verdensomspændende lederskabserfaring. Han havde bedt os om at læse seks bøger, inden kurset begyndte, og selv om vi også brugte tid på disse bøger, så fokuserede han mere på bare at dele liv og lederskabserfaringer med os. Wow – tænk at få sådan en oplevelse. Det var meget inspirerende og et af de kurser, man ikke bare glemmer men skynder sig at omsætte i praksis. Derudover var kurset også fyldt med totalt spændende kursister, som arbejder i lande nær og fjern og har meget forskellige erfaringer med lederskab og hvad der kræves af dem i forskellige kulturer. Helt klart virkelig horisont-udvidende. Jeg tror, at dette kursus ville have været nærmest ubetaleligt hvis det var blevet afholdt i den almindelige forretningsverden.

Nå, men hvad lærte jeg så? Tusind ting, men jeg tror, at det mest vigtige var: ”Karakter kommer før arbejdet.” Det lyder måske logisk, men jeg tror, at vi meget ofte fokuserer så meget på, at arbejdet skal gøres, at vi ikke følger op på en kollega, som har opført sig dårligt. Men i virkeligheden er det bedste vi kan gøre jo i kærlighed at konfrontere og forvente forbedret opførsel. Dette er selvfølgelig nemmere sagt end gjort men især når man sidder i lederstolen har man jo en mægtig anledning til at vælge at insistere på god opførsel uanset omkostningerne. Som kristen organisation ser jeg ikke virkelig noget alternativt. Hvordan kan vi betjene verdenen omkring os, hvis vi ikke først og fremmest kan udvise god opførsel overfor vores kolleger??!!

I should have updated my blog a long time ago, but life flows really fast at the moment.
But here a few minutes in lunch time, I thought I would drop a few lines and tell you about a great course I had last week at Bible school in Germany. It was about leadership and our teacher was Dr. George Murray who has global leadership experience. He had asked us to read six books before the course began, and though we also spent time on these books, he had decided to focus more on just sharing life and leadership experiences with us. Wow – what an opportunity for us. It was very inspiring and one of the courses that will not be forgotten easily but must be put into practise ASAP. And on top of that, the other course participants were working in many different locations around the world and had lots of very different experiences of leadership and what is required of them in different cultures. All in all - extremely interesting. I think this course would have cost a fortune if it had been taught in the business world.

Well, what did I learn then? A thousand things, but I think that the most important was: "Character comes before work." It may sound logical, but I think we often focus so much on the work to be done that we do not follow up on a colleague who has behaved badly. But in reality the best we can do is in love to confront and expect better behaviour. This is obviously easier said than done but especially when you are in charge of something you have the possibility to choose to insist on good behaviour no matter what the consequenses are. As a Christian organization, I do not really see any alternative. How can we serve the world around us if we do not first and foremost demonstrate good behaviour to our colleagues?!

Sommerkursus - Summer Course

Som tiden dog går! Lidt for hurtigt for tiden, men det er nok meget godt. Vi har haft travlt med at gøre alt klar til vores sommerkursus, som løber over tre måneder. 14 kursister er kommet og en mere er måske på vej. Derudover har en flok børn også indtaget Kilchzimmer og vores hjerter, så det er jo skønt. Kursisterne er nu igang med deres anden uge på skolen, og de har virkelig hurtigt fundet en god rutine og der er masser af hygge og glæde omkring dem. Jeg har virkelig nydt at undervise dem. Og så er Danmark jo også godt repræsenteret denne sommer, da min kollega Hanne's mand Simon (fra Wales) er hernede for at tage de første seks uger af kurset. Og så har han ovenikøbet slæbt Hanne med et par af ugerne, så vi tøser har virkelig fået fniset og sludret en masse. Simon sidder i midten af billedet.

Time is running so fast at the moment. We have been busy preparing for the Summer Course which lasts for the next three months. 14 students have arrived and with them a bunch of children too. One more student might be coming soon. The students are now in their second week of studies and have quickly settled into a rutine. Lots of joy and fellowship are taking place at Kilchzimmer and I have really enjoyed teaching them so far. This summer even Denmark is represented in the class (more or less) as my Danish colleague Hanne's husband Simon (from Wales) are taking the first half of the course. And he has even brough Hanne along for the first weeks so I have had plenty of opportunity to giggle and chat with her. NICE. Simon is in the middle of the picture.