Thursday 3 November 2011

2011 Aims: October update

Here it is! the latest instalment of my 2011 aims! You can see the page with the previous months here.


1.I will give at least a 10% tithe in addition to any other giving I will do.
Confession time, I forgot to bring it to church on Sunday! But I have the money set aside I'm going to give it on Sunday. Another thought that I've been struck by recently is that it should be our "First fruits". I get paid in two sets, it would be easier to pray this money from the second lot but God want's the First fruits of my labour. So he's going to get my best. 


2. Making Prayer a stronger habit. 
Prayer has been an interesting issue this month, there have been moments when it has been great and moments when it hasn't. However thankfully the trend at the moment is on the up! I've added to the side bar a resource from the Joshua project to pray for unreached people groups and on a personal level I have started using a memo pad on my tablet to keep track of prayer requests. I have already seen some of them answered!
I'd love to prayer for you. So please leave a comment with a prayer request and let's see God answer them. 

3.Use skype more to chat to people back home/Britain
Again I have been using Skype lots this month, the only downside has been that certain people [aka family] have somehow missed speaking to me this month [with the exception of a couple of minute chat] as such this is my priority for skype! A family catch up!

4.  I will improve as an EFL teacher.
Well my three courses are going well. I prepared a seminar for the Lviv conference [but couldn't visit in the end] I did however get to lead a trial version at the school. I have prepared to run my language awareness course tomorrow. I have been teaching a full work load with no repeat classes and I have even managed to continue reading some of Scott Thornbury's how to teach speaking and teaching unplugged [by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury]. PLUS I have made early progress with "A Noobs guide to TEFL" and a few online progressions.
Best of all I've noticed changes in my lessons and I have remembered a few basic principles which have really improved the quality of them. All in all a great month.

5. I will improve my Russian.
Unfortunately I can't say the same here. I have certainly had some great speaking experiences and agreed to start a Russian conversation club with some other teachers but finding time to sit down and study [especially using on line resources when I have so little free time. However the slightly more worrying point is that I have probably spent more concious effort working on Spanish. I guess this is partially down to having Spanish language CD's and reaching a plateau in Russian. Hopefully when this conversation club becomes more regular things will pick up but otherwise I will just have to organise something at the weekends to make the most of my time then.


6. I will write more songs.
As stated before this aim is no longer being pursued. HOWEVER this month I am trying something new to do with creativity which is to write an ebook! More on that at the end of the month. 

7. Host a weekly meal at my flat.
This really has failed this month. I've attended two meals I feel but I haven't really had people round. As such I'm inviting people round this weekend to change that!

8. Regular and higher quality blogging.
This has definitely picked up. The second blog is up and running and I'm quite happy with it so far. I've also had the second largest number of views this month. 

9. I will get involved with some form of charitable work in the Ukraine.
Still searching for a new charity to be involved in. To be honest with everything else on my plate I haven't actively pursued this. 

10. I will make a Public video each month.
I posted my Video challenge 3 which hasn't really been taken on by anyone [and had very few views!] mainly due to lack of publicity. SO this is your time to shine! Let's invite people to contribute meals and to make this challenge take off!

Well that was last month. I'm quite excited about a few things I'm planning for this month but Time management is becoming an increasing issues. At some point I may have to reassess these goals again. In addition there are only two more updates before the year is over and next year will have to start with it's new goals.