Out and About

I have been delivering and collecting surveys in the Upton area this last week, as well visiting the sales offices, I felt like I was back in Swindon again. No rejections so far, I always find them off putting and it makes me want to cut the time doing it short, it has never my favorite job but at least you begin to get a feel for the kind of people who live in an area. I know I won't get a high proportion of responses but hopefully enough to get a clear impression and some statistical facts.
We are planning a prayer walk in this area in August, it would be good to have clear information to pray with. I am hoping to manage more collections and deliveries this week though I am beginning to suspect I would be better not delivering and just doing the survey on the doorstep.

I am also beginning to have a vision of what we might do in these development areas. It needs more prayer and some conversations with others (I don't always see downsides to potential projects but I've learned to consult before I get too carried away).


I am still struggling to get the outline of my dissertation sorted. If I don't manage it this week I am going to postpone it for a year, I don't really want to do that especially as it looks as if other issues in my practical life might resolve themselves pretty soon giving me more time and more energy to focus. The trouble is this kind of structural thinking from the beginning isn't my natural style, I absorb information of all kinds and then some time later solutions and ideas arrive full blown in my head and heart. So much of it is intuitive; I don't often know in detail how I get from A to B though I can usually identify some of the strands. Doing a dissertation outline is like standing my normal processing on its head and I'm not sure I can do it! I'd much rather take something I'm doing or a project that is already forming and work backwards trying to understand how and why I came to that conclusion. Why it worked or didn't work: a kind of reflective practice. But that is not how MA dissertations are done, shame.

Never mind, being willing to venture outside of your comfort zone is half of what being a deacon or pioneer is all about. I just wish my challenges didn't have a tendency to come all at the same time. I don't mind a challenge, in fact I enjoy them, it is just sometimes it would be nice to have a short period of safe water and no responsibility! 'It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!'