"So, wait, what do you do?"

I find that my job perplexes people.

I'm not super surprised by that, really...since I work from home, there's rarely anyone around who actually witnesses my work, and it's not the sort of thing that you just happen across.  One of my best friends works for JCPenny...that's much more self-explanatory and familiar to the general public than the organization I work for which, besides having a lengthy name, has a repetitive acronym that people generally don't even remember either.  No, people really have no idea what I do.  One person I talked to lately thought I sold insurance, and when I mentioned my job to another friend he just said confusedly, "Uh, wait, you just mean seminary?"

So, I thought that I'd take the time to explain this mystery job, so that maybe people will know what I'm talking about when I say that I'm "working."

The organization that I work for is called The Christian Community Foundation of France, commonly known as the CCFOF.  Long name right?  It's not so complicated; community foundations are, to quote Wikipedia, "instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place."  So, essentially, we are a non-profit Christian organization that acts as a mediator for financial donations to ministries located in France, as well as providing resources to pray for said ministries.

Besides redistributing financial donations to French ministries (fun fact: 98.5% of all financial gifts goes directly to aid French ministries; the rest is retained for administrative necessities), we do several other things.  Most notable among these is the annual Pray for France movement, a worldwide prayer movement for France that takes place during the three weeks before Easter (aka, starting tomorrow) in which we partner with a French ministry group (Objectif France) by translating their 21-day devotional prayer guide to English and making it available to the English-speaking community.  We also support various missionaries to France, and are in the process of developing an online resource for Christian students studying abroad in France to help them connect with a church in their area and meet French Christians.

So, why bother praying for France, you ask?  Good question.  On the whole, Europe is a widely forgotten mission field for the Christian church, because the Christian tradition is so steeped in its history (gotta love those French gothic cathedrals, right?).  But, Christianity in France has been on the decline; things like the Crusades and rigid church/state connections are so deeply embedded in French history that the French people, like much of Europe, have a very negative opinion of the Christian tradition.  Furthermore, since the concept of Christianity as a personal relationship with God is often lacking in French Christianity, they see faith as entirely irrelevant and archaic.  Basically, the people who go to church are old people and the infant grandchildren they bring along, and most of those people don't go to church regularly anyway.  In addition to this, French society promotes the value of laicite, loosely translated as "secularity," which essentially bans religious expression from the public sphere, making freedom of religion the freedom of a PRIVATE religion.  This is causing all sorts of problems with the influx of Islam that has been happening over the past couple of decades, as religious distrust and political complications fuel racism against Muslim people in France; a situation that is being revealed by the political tendencies displayed by early polls for France's upcoming elections, in which Marine Le Pen, the daughter of the leader of the bigoted Front National group of the 1980s, is carrying majority numbers in the race for the French presidency.  People in France were horrified when the Front National got a significant amount of votes in the 80s...apparently, that horror is wearing off, or the memory of the racist atrocities committed by the Front National is becoming a distant memory.

SO, to sum things up, praying for France is worthwhile.

Now, where do I come into all this?

My job position at the CCFOF is the Executive Assistant, meaning that I provide information management support to the president of the organization, represent the president to others when needed (primarily through email communications), and manage special projects (aka, the Pray for France campaign, and the student website development I mentioned earlier).  I also have an honorary title of "Pray for France" coordinator that pops up at this time of year - as such I translate portions of the prayer guide I mentioned, email people to coordinate prayer groups and generate interest, provide encouragement and support to prayer group leaders, and oversaw development/maintenance of the Pray for France website (which can be seen here).  Other common tasks include the paraphrased translation of weekly French prayer newsletters to English, assembly of monthly prayer letters, updating the prayer calendar, current event research, media research, and managing social networking resources.  I'm also hoping to get the ball rolling on Students for France (that student website) following the busy-ness that is Pray for France.  Also, hopefully I'll get to travel to Paris in the fall for a ministry conference, provided that I can raise the necessary financial support.

Because of the wonders of technology, our entire organization is run online; the president to which I am the assistant lives in Atlanta, yet I'm able to successfully do my job from Texas, Missouri, or wherever I happen to be.  The important sounding word that my college career center came up with is that I "telecommute."  This tends to sound very important and impressive on resumes even though it's just a fancy way of saying that I work online, from home.  So I may work from my couch, but I do a whole lot of stuff from it.  It's really cool, too, because I get to keep my French active and regularly communicate with people from all over the world - example, Pray for France currently has groups in the USA, France, Australia, Benin, Canada, Peru, South Africa, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.  It's a sweet gig, and I feel really blessed to have been able to work with the CCFOF for the past year and a half.  It's an organization with a lot of potential, and I'm excited to watch it grow and grow with it!

I hope that clarifies some things...at the very least, it shows that I don't sell insurance, and that even though I wear pajama pants to work, I have a real job :)

PS, if you want, you can check the website, yo!

Exciting News!

So it's ironic that my post last night was about France and my love thereof, because today I received an email oozing with exciting news from my boss regarding my job with the CCFOF (which, you will recall, is a US based non-profit that supports French ministries by mobilizing prayer and financial resources with the goal of seeing every French ministry financially independent and spiritually flourishing).

The first exciting thing is that I'm getting a 10% pay raise (woot!).

The second exiting thing is that he and the board of directors would like for me to go to a conference in France in November.


(................................................)


GNSJKNLKABNGKJDASMKFLAJKALMKCNHGCAJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(In case you're wondering, that's what your brain sounds like when it short circuits from shock and explodes in an internal combustion of excitement because you've opened the aforementioned exciting email in the middle of class, where squealing with joy is generally unappreciated.)

I'm SUPER excited.

Now, I don't want to get my hopes too far up in the air because I know very, very little about this possible trip to France - including how it would be financed.  Because honestly, if I'm the one who has to pay my way, that is probably  not an option.  Also, if the dates conflicted irrevocably with my classes or my internship, that would be difficult (although, since it's a ministry related trip, I'm thinking they'd be pretty understanding).  I've emailed my boss asking for more details - the email was really vague, and mostly just getting a feel for whether I'd be interested in going to France (as if there would be any doubt...)  So I'll keep you posted as details unfold.

Although, even if things don't work out, there are still reasons to be excited.  First of all, my boss and the board of directors clearly think I'm doing a good job if they're willing to send me off to France to represent them.  Secondly, even if things don't work out to go this year (scheduling or finances or whatever other reason), I presume they might still want me to go another year.  Thirdly, this job is shaping up to do exactly what I hoped it would.  When I started working for the CCFOF, it was only in its third year of existence, but with loads of potential, and I remember thinking how cool it would be to get involved on the ground level and grow with the organization and secretly hoping that one day it would be big enough that it would give me an excuse to go to France.  If things work out, that could actually happen this year!  It makes me feel very important that I could have to go on European business trip (haha).  More seriously, it really means a lot to me that they'd want me to go...even if that doesn't really get to happen.

So that was the big news of the day.  Other events include making homemade hummus (a little too heavy on the garlic, but tasty), watching half of the "Lost in Austen" mini-series on DVR, and having lunch at McAlister's with my friend Emily, who was my roommate on summer project and who currently lives in Dallas.  I was also unusually attentive in New Testament class and actively involved with the lecture.  Christian Heritage (my church history class) didn't receive the honor of my complete attention, since I discovered the email of joy in the middle of the lecture and was therefore good for nothing for the remaining 40 minutes.

Yes, so all in all, a decidedly good day :)

Snow! And Monthly Goal Check-Up

So even though I still don't think all those people were justified in buying out all the chicken...Dallas did get hit with somewhat treacherous conditions today.  After freezing rain throughout the night, I woke up to the following sights:

(That's Ice.)

I treated my snow day in the proper way:  laying about in panda pajamas all day, watching movies, and drinking hot chocolate.  As a rule of thumb, I don't use snow days to try and get ahead on schoolwork; I'll do whatever necessary amount of work I would usually do, but treat the rest of the day as a vacation day from God.  If the weather forces me to relax, who am I to disagree? :)

In other news, it's February 1st: we are officially a twelfth of the way through 2011.  Can you believe it?  It seems like the month went by really fast.  Anyway, I've decided to take the first of every month to do a goal-check up, and see how I'm doing in accomplishing things.

As perhaps you recall (but I don't expect you to), I chose 5 big goals to focus on for January: Rejuvenate my Relationship with God, Make CCFOF Work a Priority, Create a Budget, Exercise 2x Per Week, and Read for Fun.  Well, I'm happy to report that I've made good progress on all of these things!

First: Rejuvenate Relationship with God.  This one still needs work, unfortunately (though, to an extent, it will always need work...).  Happily, I've made steps towards getting involved in a church: most importantly I've found one to attend, and second most importantly, I've gotten involved with a women's small group that meets every week.  So I'm not only GOING to church (something that I was barely doing at all last semester), but have started to make connections with people there.  Good stuff.  For this month: I need to make personal quiet times a priority...choose a specific time to read the Bible every day, and then DO it.  One of my professors has us meditating for 10 minutes every day (you get odd homework in seminary), so hopefully I can build quiet times around that.

Second: Make CCFOF Work a Priority.  This has been QUITE well achieved; my paycheck was at its maximum level this pay period, meaning that I actually worked every day (or went back and made up hours I missed).  I've started working first thing in the morning, after breakfast.  This keeps me from falling into that laziness and procrastination that comes with working from home.  For this month: Plan out weekly tasks in advance, for better productivity.  Our annual prayer campaign is coming up and that means lots of translating, and lots of organizing lots of small groups across the country and around the world.  Yeah.  Productivity in work is important right now.

www.ccfof.org.  Check it, yo.

Third: Create a Budget.  Well, budget is created.  In a few days I'm going to take my bank statement and see how well I lived up to it.  For this month: Keep track of expenses.  I created the budget mid-January, so last month I didn't really get to LIVE by the budget, I just made it up.  My first expense of the month: the soundtrack to "500 Days of Summer."  Write it down.

Fourth: Exercise 2 Times Per Week.  HECK YES!  I've actually been exercising for half an hour a day, 5-6 days per week.  I've also lost about 5 pounds since the beginning of January, and lowered my BMI a bit.  Woot!  For this month: Keep doing things like that...

Fifth: Read for Fun.  This goal is still in progress.  I was doing really well with it over winter break, but back in the world of academia, it's kind of fallen to the wayside.  I'm still reading "The Man in the Iron Mask," and quite enjoying it when I actually read it.  It's quite long, so I'll be enjoying it for quite some time :)

So I'm making good progress!  Looking back at that intense planner (which I haven't been using day to day, but where I've been listing mini-tasks to accomplish monthly goals), I've marked "Yes" on more goals than "No" in terms of their completion (I actually just realized that that's not what that column is for, but it's my planner so whatever).  And, I think there's something to be said for keeping my New Year's Resolutions up for an entire month :)

Hopefully tomorrow I'll devise the plan of attack for February.

Financial Musings

Today I made a budget.  Yes.  I put those Personal Finance May Term Class skills to use, and listed my monthly income and fixed monthly expenses, and discovered that after paying for the unavoidables - apartment rent, utilities, groceries, gas, furniture/cable bills, etc - I will have $90 to spend on whatever else I need for the month.  Which, is essentially $18 a week for socializing, non-food shopping needs, etc...assuming that I want to spend less than my job/loans give me.

This seems...tight.  Possible.  But tight.

And there would be no opportunity for saving except for the "Keep the Change" thing my checking account does automatically.

Shortly after working out said budget I started searching for a second job.

Ideally, this job would be student-friendly, and still allow me to be able to travel home for spring break (perhaps this is babyish of me, but I would love to be able to see my family again before August.  That's kind of a priority for me.)  I feel like this instantly throws your standard retail/food service jobs out of the running.  I applied to the library (not sure if they're hiring), and looked about for things like church childcare and French tutoring, to no particular success.  Of course, if I'd be willing to forgo visits home, I could open up a lot more options...I'm not sure if I'm ready to make that sacrifice just yet.

Conversely, I could always see if I could bump my CCFOF hours up to 2 hours a day instead of 1 (this makes me sound lazy, but the salary is good enough and the work is often slim enough that 1 hour a day is reasonable).  This would depend a lot on if I'd have enough work to do...it would be bad to run out of tasks all of a sudden.  And, actually, I've been having trouble even making myself work 1 hour every day.  This is mostly from a lack of motivation and being overwhelmed and depressed all the time last semester.  (Remember that "Make Work a Priority" goal?)  If I set aside specific hours to work - effectively giving myself a "work schedule" even though I work from home - I'm pretty sure I could bump up the hours and therefore the salary.  Whether or not the CCFOF could afford to double my pay is another question altogether...being a non-profit we function completely off donations, and something like 98% of donations goes directly to French ministries (in case you were wondering).

If I find another job, I feel like it would be good if it was something sporadic yet well paying.  Once last semester, my friend Danielle and I got paid $100 ($200? I forget) to be ushers at Danielle's mom's friend's daughter's wedding reception.  I had several friends who were servers for a catering company and only worked a couple events a month.  If I could find something like that, it'd be good...especially since I'd have to give up this potential second job by August in order to do my church internship.  Babysitting would be good if I could find kids to babysit...a bit difficult since I don't know many families with children.

It's all quite complicated, and if I didn't live so far away from family that I desperately want to be able to visit I'd be in less of a predicament.  That's the glory of working from home with the CCFOF...if I have my laptop, I can do my job.  It's not location-specific.  I wish more jobs could be like that.

Ideally, the library will be hiring, and will want to hire me.  So fingers crossed everyone!

(Also, please feel free at all times to send money to the Celia-in-Grad-School Fund, Dallas, TX.  Just kidding.  But really...)