Introduction

I am not English nor is English my mother tongue.  I had the opportunity to work for multinationals and the UN during my working years so I read and write English fairly well.  I am deliberately writing these in the language hoping that my works –like the internet- will reach a lot more audience beyond my traditional habitat.

 Finally the 5^th of November came and passed. This was my last day of work in a Project at an Indonesian Ministry to which I have been providing consultations since early February. I have had some job offers a couple of month before such as consulting, teaching PR and Investor Relations classes, help manage overseas investment seminars and last but not least doing a marketing communications job for a non-profit institution. All were not to be materialized in time so here I am, idle and fearing that I will soon lose my intellectual edge. I was having flu early in the week so the first two days after 5^th of November were spent entirely at home, I even managed to have a nap daily while “justifying” that it was the after-effect of the flu.

The worst thing was that finally I re-thought of doing something for God exclusively. And why this idea came after all ? Because I have nothing else to do ! God must be mocking me up there, I knew it. In all those fruitful and wonderful years He gave me, I only thought of doing this on and off, while always made excuses of having no time and pretending that everything I did was for Him anyway! Disgusting ! Back in 2000 I founded a non-profit organization which I named ‘Foundation in the Service of Global Information and Communication’, just in case I’d need an entity to operate under. I had it legally registered by a Public Notary, paid some fee, drew a draft website with a Godly introduction and forgot all about it afterward. And this was my compensation for all the grace that God bestowed upon me ! Disgusting !

Earlier in life when I embraced Christianity, I was so enthralled by this paragraph which apparently was a commemorative phrase of my (late) husband’s baptism. He was 1 or 2 years old by then. It was from John 3 : 16, the much cited sentence from the New Covenant : “For He so love the world that He gives His only child so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have an eternal life.” (Note : In fact the concept of God’s love that preempt everything in this world was my way to Christianity. It is so different with what I have been taught so far: that you do good things because you want to make God happy and tip the scale towards yourself). And what have I done for Him and His love ? Nothing !

I believe that I need “to go to the world” and be “fruitful”, be “a light in the darkness” and be the “salt of the world”. I believe that this means my life should be meaningful to others; my existence should be positively influence people, so in turn they too will glorify God. Enough said, but not enough done.

Years of work have built me into a knowledgeable communications expert; public and marketing wise so to say. My talent is in my work; my perseverance in work has been especially and understandably those with monetary compensation.  I have heard of the contemporary Christian dogma to avail oneself for Godly works in their respective “market place”. Ha ! I then find myself creating my near future marketplace as the internet where you can reach as many “souls” as possible, well beyond the traditional boundary. My tools will be my network of friends and relatives as well as the blog which I have yet to create. I fortunately am in possession of “information and communication facilities” to enable me to begin working. Everything seems all set, except one thing: my will of iron.  It is zero, plain zero, just like me in 2000.

Please God, help me build my iron will !

 

9 November 2008

 

 THE ART OF PROCRASTINATION

 When I’d have to define my challenges doing and keeping my work going, I am unhesitant to write down this disgusting word : myself.  I have to fight myself, my “art of procrastination”, my indifference and my preference for anything commercial or monetary compensation for my efforts.  I have to learn and stamp another concept into my brain, that I’ll do this for God that has been so kind to give me His love during all these years !

My goal however, is ungodly.  The goal is the prosperity of the people to whom I dedicate my work through this blog.  I know it will be tough, but I will rejoice in however small things I manage to give to or make some changes on the people.  Children finish their –at least- basic schooling, the youth find proper jobs and are free of addictions, parents happy to see the children finish schools without them digging deeper into their almost empty pockets, a chronic condition that I evidently found during my writing the first paragraph. They are more than a dream (I hate the word ‘dream’ for it has the connotation of ‘sleep’ and ‘do nothing’.  Mine is more than that, perhaps ‘vision’ is more appropriate).

10 November 2008.

 

 

WHAT, WHY, WHERE, WHICH, WHO, WHOM

 What would I do ?  That was an afterthought; I did mention ‘why’, ‘where’, ‘which’, ‘who’ and ‘whom’ but no ”what” yet.  What would I do with the children, the youth and the parents ?  How would I achieve my goals ?  I’m going to start with the charity work using my own money first, so God help me.  I have been doing this for a couple of years in a very small scale which I will mention in the blog later on.  The money was used to finance the children’s schooling (paid school fee, bought books and school uniforms, distributed writing books at the start of school year, donated an old computer, built a small library, etc.). People in the developed world would not believe me when I said that for as little as € 25, you can pay a child’s school fee for a whole year, including the child’s books and school uniform !  I insisted to the parents to bring me their report cards each semester so I could monitor their progress.  What I didn’t do and regret not doing (procrastination !!!) was liaise with the school/teacher.  Too bad the works were scattered, and unorganized, inconsistent and “simply charity”.

That is my plan.  When I’m able to broaden the financial base (with the help of outer sources) I’d need to be strict with regular reporting, fair enough.

 

12 November 2008