Okay, so it was the president of Greater Europe Mission, Ted Noble, with whom we were having dinner.
The next 8 days were some of the most intense days we've experienced. It was a time of GEM getting to know us and us doing likewise with GEM. We had made a conscious decision to be totally up front with our shortcomings and failures as we went through the process. The purpose for this was so that we knew that we hadn't manipulated things in our favor at all. We wanted this to be a God thing. The last thing that we wanted was to be oversees living in a foreign land and realize that we weren't supposed to be there.
There was so much to cover in just over a week and our days were jammed full of
general meetings and one-on-one evaluations. We did, however, have enough time to get to know our fellow candidates and formed some really great friendships that I'm sure will last a lifetime. Many hours of a game called Farkle were played. We had learned this game on our first trip to Ireland. Including ourselves, there were 14 individuals in our orientation class -- 6 couples and 2 single persons. Wednesday was the day we met as a couple with a committee of GEM personnel and were asked all the hard questions -- those which help to determine if you are really cut out to be a missionary or not. At the end of the interview, we were told that we would be recommended for appointment to Ireland! So we had passed the mustard -- whatever that means. They liked us and we liked GEM, so we accepted the post as "appointees".
The next morning, everyone seemed so much more relaxed and convivial, as all had been appointed. The remainder of our week was mostly spent learning how to raise funds. Then it was back to the real world.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It snowed while we were there! We hadn't seen snow in years, having been in Florida. It was a wonderful treat. Many of you reading this may live where it snows and think, "I don't care if I never see snow again in my life." You might feel differently if you lived where it never snows.
So now -- the task facing us was no small one. We had a large monthly sum of financial support to raise. We had been given tools to work with and now came the challenge of putting those tools into service. Could we raise that much money? We'll see...
To be continued...
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