I’m not sure if I’m writing this for you, or because I feel like I need to clear my brain.
We have a lot going on. Here is a snippet.
I am working on my paper for my first MA class. Which overall I am enjoying, but I’m never been great with writing thesis statements. Most of my writing the past 3 decades has been writing for sermons or blog posts. Switching to academic writing has been a challenge.
A few of us are working to set up some organisational stuff for the Table. While we have wanted to keep things simple, we are at a stage where we need to put some logistical stuff in place. For example, if you want to hold a public gathering, you need insurance. If you want insurance, you need to have a child protection policy in place, and Garda vetting set up. It has been good in that we have several people who are taking on various tasks so that has been encouraging.
I am applying for Irish Citizenship. I’ve put it off for a while because it is not cheap and I don’t need it to be in Ireland. However with Brexit happening next door, and immigration discussions in the States, I’ve been encouraged to get it now. It seems to get more and more challenging as time passes. I’m gathering all my documentation, including 3 proofs of address for each of the past 3 years.
Taxes. Ugh. I am working on getting our American and Irish taxes together. Did you know that the US is one of the few countries that still requires you to file income taxes even if you don’t live there? We don’t need to pay anything, but we have to gather all the information and pay an accountant who specialises in taxes for expats (or immigrants:).
Support Raising This past summer we were able to increase our monthly support and get us to a point where we were quite close to being fully funded. Alas, support is cyclical. Over the past few months, we have had a few of partners that have needed to stop or temporarily suspend their monthly gifts. That has meant we need to work on raising about $500/month in new support. I think there is a prayer request in there:-)
Monthly Prayer Meetings. Me and a guy from Greater Europe Mission have been working to start up a monthly prayer meeting for people who are doing similar work. We also have a time for people to network and hear what others are doing and dealing with. We have been getting a lot of positive feedback, however it has gotten off to a relatively slow start. We’d appreciate prayer for this. Our next one is this Sunday (February 17).
Missional Community. Our Friday night meetings have been going well. Our big challenge this year was figuring out how to get the kids more involved in the discussions, and that has been going well. We alternate weekly between our place in Marino, and another family’s near St. Anne’s Park.
Violin Lessons. Liz is still teaching in two different schools. One on Monday and a second on Tuesday. Then on Monday through Thursday, she teaches violin in our house. She picked up 2 new students this week.
And on top of all that, we are trying to acquire a mortgage so we can buy a house…But I think I will save that until tomorrow. In fact, I’m just about to go drop this stack of papers off to a broker now.
Tomorrow, I’ll post a bit more about our search for a mortgage and a house…because clearly we don’t have enough going on:)
PS: and someone just tried to steal my salary. I received an email about an hour ago asking if I wanted my expense reimbursements to also go to the new account. Turns out, someone sent a request form to have my salary deposited to their WalMart money card. Thankfully it was caught, but that was a nice adrenaline rush.