Saying No.

I think a major problem many people have is saying no. Me? I don't have this problem. I love saying no.  

I say no all the time.

Saying no lots liberates me to say yes when I need and want to.

The director of the branch has been really great at telling people no, too. With so much work to be done and so few people on the field, new arrivals means help with super awesome projects. And they are (mostly) all super awesome projects!
But he keeps the eager chomping on their bits.

"No, you cannot ask the Smiths to do x, y, AND z! They just got here! They're about to have baby #2! Give them a break." But I have informed him that I am very good at saying no. And so they come, people with projects, albeit super awesome projects, and I say: No.

I'm about to have a baby. We're about to get a guard puppy (by the way, if you have info on training a guard puppy, hook me up!) And we're about to allocate and start our own super awesome projects.

To sign up for anything really would be stupid.

And I am not stupid.

So I keep my obligations few and only commit to very very short term things.

For this reason, when Lindy the Awesome came to me and said that she could use some help managing her workload, I was able to say Yes. Not only is the project important and worthy but I can help someone I love manage their commitment to a project they signed up for before they signed up for a REALLY IMPORTANT PROJECT, which is very time consuming.

So while I'm in Australia, I'll be working on generating Translation Helps in Tok Pisin! We have a ton of resources in English, but if you don't know English, you're kind of out of luck. But together with a huge team of people, PBT is working to compile information helpful to Bible translation together in the trade language. This information will be specific to Papua New Guinea and challenges that their culture and language rules often encounter.

We have a ton of Group Directed Projects in our organization alone who are forging down the long and hard road to get the Word of God in their own language without the constant and focused help of a translation specialist. This will help them in that difficult endeavor.

Now neither Lindy nor I have enough experience to read a passage of Scripture, immediately see all the problem areas and write up help on how to translate it in Tok Pisin, like the other people working on the project. She has to sift through a million commentaries and translation helps in English. Very time consuming. Well, I just so happen to be very good at sifting! So I said Yes. To Lindy. 

Now, when I was asked by the Director of Language Affairs if I wanted to be a part of this project, I said: No.

I want to help Lindy with her part of this pie. That's it! I don't want my own piece of pie! No. I'm helping Lindy. Because that's what friends do. They help eat pie so that there are no upset tummies!

And I have the time to do so! All thanks to my "No" Policy!

Just say no! - This message was brought to you by DARE. (not really)