Of Pet Sitting and An Artist

This weekend I did some pet sitting. Hanging out by this pool was such hard work. ;-)

I also accompanied one of my roommates to the animation studio at UCF where I played a very small role in helping her make this. It's a beginning step in a long process. 

Here's the artist hard at work. To see more of her creations, check out her blog.

Yesterday was Bible Translation Day

This week I have two exciting announcements. Drum roll, please...

To celebrate Bible Translation Day yesterday, MY TEAM at Wycliffe Bible Translators released an awesome new video: Why Bible Translation?

[Did you click on that link to watch the video? Yes? Thanks! No? Do it now!]

OK, second announcement, I've been working quite a bit this summer on a new website for my grandfather. Now the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency has a brand new website! Go, look, read, recommend it to your friends who have that book they're writing.

Presenting stobbeliterary.com/!

Of course I'm still working on it and thinking of new ways to make it better. That's going to be an ongoing process. Just like the rest of my life.

A Trip to Virginia

So I didn't write a blog post last Tuesday evening because I was up in Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University representing Wycliffe Bible Translators at Liberty's fall Global Focus Week. I spent Monday through Wednesday speaking with students at Wycliffe's booth. So many good conversations! This is a photo of Bob Creson, president of Wycliffe USA, and his wife, Dallas, speaking to students during our Tuesday evening 'Get to Know Wycliffe' event.

It was time for me to take a trip out of Florida - I was at the three month mark of living here and the traveler in me was getting restless. While in Virginia, I got to see mountains and experience a bit of cooler fall air before returning to the flatness, warmth, and humidity of central Florida.

Then this weekend I ran off to northern Florida to spend Saturday canoeing along part of the Suwannee River with one of my friends. We spent three hours just floating down the river, enjoying nature, and then we realized that we probably needed to start paddling if we ever wanted to make it back to civilization.

Notice the subtle Houghton College advertising...

She and I also rode around the village on my grandfather's two three-wheeled bicycles. We definitely wanted to get a picture of that - and of course, we forgot. Next time!

Florida Life: Universal

This weekend I visited the land of Harry Potter, the Hulk, Spiderman, the Minions, and Dr. Seuss. By which I mean that I went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando.

A highlight: butterbeer in Hogsmeade.

My Job

So what I am doing for work? I mean, I moved down here to start a job with Wycliffe Bible Translators and then my posts all turned into Disney, culture shock, the Suwannee River, and books I'm reading. Here I will provide the brief history (so far) of me and my first ever real job.

I was hired as a marketing coordinator in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) department of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. My job was to help the two marketing strategists and the director of communications do whatever tasks they put on my plate. I also ended up helping our project traffic coordinator* and our director of public relations.

Then things changed. Our department reorganized, and I got a new boss and a new job and a new title. I'm still waiting to hear what my new title is - I'll let you know when I know. My new supervisor, formerly one of the marketing strategists, is now the head of our digital marketing team, of which I am now part.

I'm still working on my short, interesting, understandable description about what I do. Here's the current version: Wycliffe wants to provide people with the information and resources they need so that they can get involved in Bible translation. As part of the digital marketing team, I am using new technologies, such as cool ways to create and send emails and communicate through other digital mediums, to provide our individual audience members personalized, relevant information as they take steps to learn about and get involved in Bible translation.

Right now this involves me learning a lot. And I get to work with cool people, which makes me happy.

*What is a project traffic coordinator? you might ask, as I did when I started my job. She helps all of our marketing projects - whether they are web, print, video, or otherwise - actually get done by making sure all the team members know what they need to be working on when. Pretty important.

2013 Summer Reading List

Well, clearly I did not follow through on my intentions to write up a post on Tuesday about how my job has changed since I started. My excuse is that I spent Tuesday evening working on creating a new website for my grandfather's business. (Once that is completed, I'll share a link so you can see my handiwork.) For now, I'll say that I'll try again this coming Tuesday to write about my job, but today I wanted to share with you about some books that I've been reading - or have on my 'to read' list.

I am not only a writer (and evidenced by how long this post turned out), I am most certainly also a reader. This was made clear in several posts I shared last summer - one about the reading suggestions I requested from friends and the other about the books I actually read on my daily Metro commute.

When I left North Carolina in April, my church choir friends generously gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card. Once I arrived in Florida - and actually had a mailing address that would last longer than a week - I ordered four books:

• Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church by Philip Yancey - 
• I actually read this one this spring while living in North Carolina (my grandfather has a copy signed and addressed to him by the author...) and found its perspective on life and faith so incredible that I decided I needed my own copy to highlight and take notes in to try to absorb and adopt some of the important thoughts and perspectives it contained. I would highly recommend this book to two groups of people: 
• Anyone who is a writer/author would definitely benefit from this book. Of its 13 chapters (all of which are excellent), 7 of them are on people who specifically wrestled with their faith and influenced the world through their writing (G.K. Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Donne, Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner, Shusako Endo, and Henri Nouwen). 
• This book is for anyone who has been hurt by or frustrated with the messiness of the Church and people who are or call themselves Christians. Yancey doesn't claim to have all the answers - he is very honest about the questions he has - but he seeks to share the stories and thoughts that have helped him to daily gain a better perspective on who he is, who the people around him are, and who God is.
• Permission Granted: And Other Thoughts on Living Graciously Among Sinners and Saints by Margot Starbuck
• I'm still working my way through this book but I would recommend it wholeheartedly. It's serving as a convicting reminder that I certainly have a LONG way to go in actually loving people - whether I categorize them as Sinners or as Saints - the way that God loves them.
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown, Ph.D., LMSW
• I heard about Brene Brown through a TED talk of hers on vulnerability that I watched this spring with the youth group of my North Carolina church (she also did another great one on shame). Turns out my parents were actually reading this book at that same time, so I got to read part of it out-loud with them while driving home from western New York after my college graduation in May, but I haven't had a chance yet to open my own copy and keep going.
• The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus by Brennan Manning
• I've heard about Brennan Manning for years (he also wrote The Ragamuffin Gospel), but I haven't ever read anything by him. When he died this spring, I read a Christianity Today article about him that made me decide it was about time I read one of his books.

I also visited my library at the beginning of the month (now that I have a permanent address!) to get that wonderful piece of plastic: a library card. So far I have read the following:

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4, for those of you who don't know) by J.K. Rowling
• I hadn't ever read any of the Harry Potter books until last year when I discovered that my little sister at Houghton absolutely loved them. I figured that was as good a reason as any to finally catch up on the Harry Potter-ness that so many of my peers grew up with. To be honest, my parents never said I couldn't read them, I just hadn't made the time until now.
• My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir by Dick Van Dyke (actually I listened to this while driving to and from work as a book on CD read by the author)
• I grew up on Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as well as some of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Enough said. 
• Wish You Well by David Baldacci (an author suggested by a friend last summer)
• The part of me that wishes I lived and worked on a farm in the mountains surrounded by woods loved this story.
• Priceless by Tom Davis (a novel/author suggested by a friend last summer)
• I stayed up past midnight to finish reading this one. People who know me know that this is dedication because I usually turn into a pumpkin at some point around 11 pm.

Now I still have on my 'checked out library books to read' list:

• Absolute Power by David Baldacci
• This one sounds very different from my usual book choices, so I'm getting ready for a new literary adventure when I finally have the time to crack this one open.
• Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Leo Tolstoy
• Yes, this choice as well as the following book by Dostoevsky were influenced by Philip Yancey's chapter about them in Soul Survivor. 
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• I started reading The Brothers Karamazov once and got about halfway through that tome before I lost the (library) book for several years. It did show up again at some point, but I haven't had the heart to start in again. I'm just moving on to the next one for now.

And last, but not least, I am quite excited about two books I just ordered from Amazon:

• The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin
• Seth's blog is pretty awesome. I was introduced to it by my fellow marketing people at Wycliffe, but the ideas he writes about cover so much more than 'just marketing.' Oh, that reminds me, I did read another book this summer, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, also by Seth Godin, that my boss's boss lent me. I'm still working on figuring out what I want to do with my life after reading the challenges in that book.
• David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
• I just heard about this one through Seth Godin's review. That's pretty much all I know so far, but I'll give an updated report once it arrives and I've read it.

After all that reading, I have lots of new or rearranged thoughts floating in my head. Now I have to sort out how I want my life or thinking to change based on everything I've learned. That's where the rubber meets the road.

What have you been reading lately? Any good suggestions to add to this list? If you got to the end of this, you must be a reader, too.

Way Down Upon the Suwannee River

I'm going to start this post with a promise: Next week I will write about what I've been learning at work and how my job is changing. It's all good news, so be excited.

Tonight, though, I want to write about my weekend. On Thursday after work I ran away up north...to Dowling Park. Never in my life did I think that I would live somewhere where I would travel north and be in Florida. And yet here I am.

Anyway, I left behind my big city life and traveled to the land of Florida's first retirement community on the banks of the Suwannee River. My grandparents are up - truly north - in Maine for the summer, so I actually went to spend the weekend with my grandmother's cousin.

This picture doesn't do the Suwannee River justice. It gives you an idea, though.

We had a lovely weekend. After I finished working remotely on Friday, we talked, went on adventures, and told stories. Having grown up with my grandmother (their fathers were twins), she has lots of good stories about my grandmother as well as many other relatives and long-time family friends. :-)

One of my favorites is about her great-granddaughter: While on a visit to Dowling Park a while back, this little girl was quite excited to see the Suwannee River. When everyone walked out on the dock, though, she turned around and said, "Excuse me, I have a question: Where are the swans?"

I also have a friend up there that I was able to spend some time with over the weekend. We made delicious pumpkin pie ice cream, and I helped him and his dad haul chicken manure as one step at the very beginning of his plan to start an all natural farm.

One of the evenings, he and I also had a long conversation about God, Jesus, the Bible, Christians, the Church...and all the frustrating messiness that goes along with all of that. I don't have nearly enough space or time to cover our discussion here right now, but I do pose to you this question: If I truly claim to love God and say that because of his love I am able to love the people around me - no matter who they are - why am I not living a life consistent with this truth?

This summer, my new church has been going through the Not a Fan video series (and book of the same name) by Kyle Idleman. The foundational message of this series is that God has called us to be his Followers, not just Fans who cheer from the stands but aren't willing to participate out on the field. As Followers of Jesus Christ we have been saved by God's grace, but have we really allowed God to change how we live our lives?

Ultimately, "We know that we have come to know [God] if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did" (1 John 2:3-6).

This is no easy task, but I've found no other calling in life worth living for. So, step by faltering step, I choose to continue living life, learning how to love the messed up people all around me (including myself), and ask the hard questions that often don't have easy answers.