Crazy busy but crazy good in Germany!

If me not writing in nearly six weeks tells you anything at all it should say we are once again crazy, nuts busy here in Germany.  It's a good crazy though which is different from the just crazy crazy of times past. :)  Here's what we're up to...

Language School - Alan was going every day through February and into March which meant I stayed home with Chloe until 2pm and then got about one day a week where I could go into Heidelberg and try to catch up on ministry stuff after he got home.  The other days I had to watch her pretty much constantly because Alan is in the B1 level of German now and it's really tough so his homework time took about as long (or some days longer) than the four hours of class each day.  He really loved the class though and learned a ton.  He even got to share his faith with the class after a conversation he was having with a Muslim man who was trying to convert Alan to Islam ran over the break time and the teacher allowed the two of them to continue their discussion with the attention of the whole class.

About two weeks after he started language school I went back in the evenings on Monday's and Wednesday's.  My class is B2 and it last 4 months.  It.is.hard.  I will probably take this class several times given how I'm faring so far.  Still, I can manage to hold my own with the other students but the teacher often gets impatient with us stressing that we should know things already that the majority (ok all) of us don't apparently know.  I struggle with basic stuff like articles for nouns and knowing what things mean.  Unfortunately in German if you don't know that then you are really, really in trouble because everything else is dependent on that.  The way the article of the noun changes depending on the case, the way the ending on the adjectives changes depending on how it's used in the sentence.  It's complicated.  English is a simple language.  I like simple!  If nothing else going to the class gives me the opportunity to hear and speak German for 6 additional hours each week with people from 11 different nationalities.  In my class there are two girls from Iran, the teacher and one other from Morocco, a Hungarian, a girl from Holland, one from Croatia, another from Bulgaria, a guy from Iraq, a girl from Poland, me from the states, a girl from Romania and I can't remember the others.  I usually write all the class members down on a sheet of paper and where they are from but I can't locate the one I did for this class.  Still, I think language school is one of the best ways to meet other foreigners desperately trying to learn German to have a better life.

CVJM construction - Alan has been working since school ended 3 days a week when at all possible on continued renovations to the CVJM loft project.  We really wanted to get approval from the board of the CVJM in writing that we could have use of the loft for missionaries coming to work with us from around the world for 2 years after the completion of the construction work.  We went to the pastor and his wife with this request and they went to the board and permission was granted.  What this means is Alan is now targeting completion for spring of 2015 and with this permission in writing we can begin to actively recruit new members to our team who could live there on a short or medium term basis.  God of course knew that permission was going to be granted and in his great way has organized for us lots of interest from potential Venture and other more long-term candidates which is exciting.  More on that below...

Teams and new team members - This year we will have two site visits in July - one from a young man from Alabama who attensd Lee Anne's old church in Birmingham where David Platt is the pastor - he's interested in our University ministry and youth work and another from a couple from Ohio - he is a pediatrician, she's a stay at home mom who are interested in church planting in Germany.  Both really feel called to Germany which is neat.  We also have one of our Edger's who is in the application process to join us full-time next Spring and we have multiple GAP or Venture students talking to us as well - three in fact from Australia.  Super excited about that! The Teen Missions team we hosted in January is really bearing fruit!

In July we also welcome the first Great Exchange team from our sending church Watkinsville First Baptist.  Actually I will say they are from our sending church but the majority of folks that have signed up are from other churches across Georgia.  The team is being orchestrated by Jon Deans, missionary and champion of the Great Exchange in the United States.  The Great Exchange is an evangelistic outreach using spiritual background surveys with University students.  We have used Jon's survey at the University here since we arrived three years ago but this will be a 10 day concentrated effort with our church and many others we hope in the area to reach students with the gospel. We are excited to be the first international location for the Great Exchange.  For more information about the trip, message or email Jon Deans.

MOPS - As most of you know I agreed to help out the organization Mother's of Preschoolers here in Heidelberg to get to know other women in our area, help Chloe practice her German in the nearly twice weekly meetings and use some of my expertise in computers to be a blessing to the group.  I have really enjoyed working as the registrar for the group welcoming new women to the group, managing all the Evite's for the various events and helping to ensure everything runs smoothly.  Please pray God will raise up other leaders for this group because while the work I do is desperately needed and it does bring women closer to God, it does not align completely with our vision and so at this time I do not plan to continue into next year.  I have been asked to share my testimony to the group on the May 6th meeting so if you could pray for that I would appreciate it.  Right now we have between 30-45 women that attend these meetings plus nearly the same amount of children.  The mix is roughly 50% German, 20% American and 30% International.  It's a great group.

Chloe - Our precious, couldn't be any more adorable Chloe turns three in May and goes to Kindergarten in September although where exactly is still TBD - please PRAY!  We've applied to the Evangelische Kindergarten in Kleingemund where we will be living as of May (more on that below) but the administrator has not gotten back to us with whether they will have a place for Chloe or not.  I have not investigated too many others at this point as this Kindergarten is only about 700 meters from our house and with only one car it would be ideal.  So please join with us in praying that we will hear something soon and that the answer will be positive.  Other than that, Chloe has learned her abc's and numbers up to 10 and lots of sweet songs like Jesus loves me which she sings over and over and over again to her daddy and me.  She's such a trooper and makes being a missionary here so much fun. 

Jesus Abend with SAM and the Refugee Camp - Every Friday night Alan has been attending with a friend of ours who volunteers his legal expertise with SAM a Jesus Abend which is a bible study and meal with men from the local refugee camp.  He really enjoys this time as a way to practice his German, meet many men (mainly from the middle east) who are recent converts and partake in the bible study and great food. Please pray for additional team members to join us who have a heart for refugees!

InTent in Altensteig - In two days we head to Altensteig, Germany again for our 4th and final InTent Pioneers European conference.  We are not attendees but rather helping out with facilitating the communications with the hotel and airport transfers.  At the end of April we head to an area conference near Budapest, Hungary for our area conference as attendees.  We've been told we are being made Team coordinators for Pioneers in Germany but given it's been nearly a year since this was first mentioned and it hasn't been finalized yet we're not holding our breath.  :)) 

Holland with mom and dad - in mid April mom and dad pay us a visit from Georgia and we join them in a house they've rented for a week to attend the Tulip Festival.  If you know me pretty well you will know that tulips are my favorite flower and my mom and dad and I have always wanted to go to this festival.  Such a treat that it's only 5 hours away for us by car!

MOVING!!! - when we return from both conferences and our trip to Holland we will be moving about 15 minutes closer to both our church and our work in Heidelberg.  We have found an apartment within a home to rent that has a fireplace, winter garden (or conservatory) and a large garden for Chloe.  It has a fish pond too which thrills us even though I've warned Alan he's not allowed to go fishing!  Please pray that we can get all the things done we need to get done between now and then.  It's a little overwhelming at times!

Finally it's our 5th wedding anniversary in less than 2 weeks!! (wow how time flies)- Alan and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on the 4th of April.  Although we've had our share of ups and downs over the past five years we're both so happy with the place God has us right now.  In the last 5 years we've managed to live and work with homeless families in England for 2 years and then be in Germany for 3 years doing the work God has called us to do.  God has helped us to have a little girl, host 27 missionaries to work alongside us, do massive construction work at the CVJM, volunteer hundreds of hours with die Birke (ProLife) and MOPS here in Heidelberg and still manage to go on some great hikes, swim, attend several conferences and visit England and the US at least once each year.  SO very blessed.  Thank you to all of you that have been part of our lives for all or a part of that time!

So that's about it.  Sorry for the great length but God is doing great things and we wanted to keep you updated with it all. 

Our TMI team members

So I started these posts and didn't finish them.



Jay and Aden

Typical me.  Sorry about that! 

Now let me tell you about our team members that joined us this Christmas. 

Aden - spoke really good German!  Trying to convince him to come back to work with us LONG term!  Very kind, extremely hard worker.  Great kid. 

Hayden

Hayden - quiet but hard worker.  Turns out he's a metal fan - I should have guessed that! He's entering YWAM in Australia which I think is awesome.



Chloe Lee and Tegan

Chloe Lee (yeah I'm not joking that was really her name!) - beautiful blond.  Loved cuddling with everyone but especially Morgan.  Her brother was also on the team.  She has a sensitive and sweet heart. Loves nutella but this is true for all the girls I think!



Teegan

Tegan - great voice.  Wants to try out for X-factor in Australia.  I think she'd do great.  Loved listening to her sing and play the little banjo for worship services and the school assembly.  She'd never seen snow before she came to Germany. Hopefully she'll come back to Heidelberg to do a Venture program with us with a girlfriend of hers.  Waiting and seeing! :)



Tamzin - she reminds me of a cute puppy dog.  The youngest on the team at age 14.  She asked a ton of questions but extremely logical and helpful.  She had a good heart and was very open to doing anything asked.  Enjoyed hearing her share her testimony... finally!



Calvin, Tamzin, Jacinta and Travis

Calvin - Chloe Lee's brother which I didn't realize until at least a week into the trip.  Don't ask me how I didn't realize it because they look a lot alike.  The first thing I noticed about Calvin though was how polite and thankful he was for everything.  He worked hard, loved his sister and was a great addition to the team.



Talia and my Chloe Lee

Talia - I thought Talia was gorgeous - inside and out.  She really stood out to me when she helped to lead the kids program we did at the schools.  She was a sweet girl, funny, quiet.  A lot of things going on in her head I think!  She's going to be a great social worker one day...

Well that's it.  Short and sweet but we loved this team and miss them a LOT!





Tegan, Chloe Lee, Talia and Hayden



De-friending and De-friended

So recently I went through my Facebook and de-friended about 30 or so people.  I didn't do it to be mean or because I didn't like the person anymore or even because I didn't have good memories of their friendship but rather only to indicate that this person hasn't spoken to me, liked any status or commented on a status of mine in at least 9 months to a year and I've met new people and want to see what they are up to, interact more with them in this stage of my life and not focus on the folks that have their own "new folks" in their lives. It's not to say we weren't friends at one time it was to say that God put you in my life for a season for whatever reason and now we're not in contact.  You've moved on and so have I.  Sad in some cases and in other cases it's just the way life is. 

Why do you de-friend someone? 

The people that have de-friended me (that I've noticed) in the last year however have de-friended me for apparently other reasons I am guessing.  I get the distinct feeling and no I don't know this to be fact but I can name at least 8 individuals who have de-friended me because they know I'm a Christian and because the word of God does not agree with or otherwise condone the way they are living their lives or the decisions they've made and they don't want to be reminded of it. 

Now the one thing I want to point out is that I have not spoken to any of these individuals directly and said anything about not wanting to be their friend, not agreeing with their lifestyle or being unhappy, disappointed or otherwise afraid for them and the choices they made.  They just decided based on the fact of who I was and who I represent to de-friend me.  I wanted to keep these friends.  Pray for them, encourage them to come back to God or to seek Him out if they've never known them.  I wanted to say, "WAIT!  You're going the wrong direction and it leads to death.  Believe me I know because I traveled down your road and God had to kill that part of me that was so rebellious. " But I didn't.

Why?

hmmmm I've come up with four reasons:

First, I was afraid of being de-friended both on FB and in real life and therefore never having an impact on this person's life by the posts I post or interactions we might have (ok pretty reasonable and likely I think). 

Secondly, I think maybe I was afraid of the nasty and fear mongering techniques currently in place by most people who disagree with you on nearly any topic of importance.  They attempt to put you on the spot, call you intolerant or judgmental (not just non-Christians do this btw), talk about you to others and try to get them to agree these bad things about you, etc.  (Keep in mind that these people are supposedly your "friends"!)

Thirdly, I am not going to say I am 100% certain on Jesus' response to all of these controversial topics discussed on FB today.  Some, according to the bible are extremely clear cut and therefore I am also (thou shall not kill) but others are trickier and I pray a LOT about how Jesus would respond to things. 

Four - I just didn't care deeply enough about the person to speak the truth into their lives despite the consequences.  (God help me to love like YOU love!)

Only one of the people who de-friended me because of my beliefs had the guts to message me and tell me she was doing it because of my stance on abortion.  We had a long and heartfelt discussion but in the end agreed it was best to not stay in contact.  I still think about her and pray for her.  Her de-friending me actually made her come to mind a lot more often than she normally would have if I'm being honest.  It wasn't my idea to be de-friended but those that know me know there's nothing I'm more passionate about that protecting our children - both in the womb and outside it and she didn't agree.  So that's that.  Jesus walked away from many, many people after speaking the truth into their lives.  He didn't beg ANYONE to be his friend or his follower.  He just presented the facts and told them to go and sin no more. 

Oh to be more like Jesus and less like such a wimp.  God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,. The courage to change the things I can,. And wisdom to know the difference.  - Serenity Prayer

James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

My question to you is, what do you do?  Do you speak truth in love or do you try to intimidate, frighten or bully people into believing like you?  Do you have pet sins that are in your eyes far greater than others despite what the bible says?  As a % of your income how much have you tithed in the last year?  How many missions trips have you gone on in the last 3 years or how many missionaries do you regularly support that are taking the gospel out?  How many people have you shared your testimony with in the last 6 months?  How many "things" did you buy that you or your children did not desperately (BE HONEST!) need (PS: It doesn't matter if it was a REALLY great deal!) How many children have you saved from starvation or sickness around the world in the last year?  How many "white" lies have you told in the last week?  Do you steal?  Gosh the list of our sins could go on and on and on and on.  Yes praise God that He grants grace.  Does it mean we can sit back and ignore our sins or worse, celebrate them?  NO!  Those Christians who believe you can continue in a lifestyle that is in direct conflict with the word of God without constantly seeking God, asking for forgiveness and truly repenting ("turning away from") are just desperately in need of truth in their lives.  Truth isn't what happens to be right for you or the guy down the street.  Truth is 2x2 = 4.  It's the same in Germany, in America, in China. 

Find truth.  Stop justifying.  Speak up and out and love. 

Above all else, love one another for love covers a multitude of sins. I Peter 4:8.

Our TMI leaders - Jacinta, Jay and Morgan

Morgan, Female Assistant Leader

Alan and I were blessed by the leaders God sent our way on the team this winter.  Morgan, a former five time TMI'er was the assistant leader of our team.  Morgan has a zest for life, loved loving on her team members and was a lot of fun to get to know.  She's cheeky (as the English say) and always up to something. :) She and I shared a lot of back and forth banter which I think we both enjoyed.  Morgan is 19 years old.


Jay - Male Assistant Leader

Jay and Morgan on the piano

Morgan and Jay

He's going to kill me for this one

Jay, who I met the first day is working with YWAM in Brisbane.  There are no coincidences with God and yet both he and I were surprised to find that he did his DTS with YWAM at the same time and place as my cousin Dusty from California.  Jay was quiet.  He didn't share much emotion but his testimony about his relationship with his earthly dad and his heavenly father probably touched me more than anyone's on the team.  He was gracious to forgive me when I got the town names messed up for his school program and he spent nearly two hours searching for the right location.  oops!  Jay is a great photographer and most of the pictures in this blog are courtesy of his picture taking abilities.  Jay is originally from New Zealand but is living in Australia now.  He hopes to return to NZ one day.

Jacinta - Female Head Leader

Jacinta was our head female leader and she was so easy going and great with the teens.  It's probably because this is what God has called her to do in New Zealand - devote her life to teenagers.  She works as a youth worker and isn't daunted by much.  She was always kind to us, very organized and willing to do just about anything.  She never once had a bad attitude and was easily able to keep the team in-line but also having a great time too.  I think New Zealand is very blessed to have her!

All in all, the three leaders above and our addition of Travis yielded a team that was well fed, worked incredibly hard and learned to love Jesus and others more over their time with us.  We'd welcome any of these leaders back again on another Teen Missions team or with Pioneers and pray God will bless them as they continue to serve Him with their talents, passions and futures.



Tamzin (team member) and Jacinta




2013/2014 TMI Australia/NZ Mission to Germany

 


BEFORE

AFTER

Well it's Sunday and the team that came to work with us from Australia and New Zealand just left yesterday morning.  7 teens, 3 leaders (2 from Australia and 1 from New Zealand) plus an extra leader from TMI Florida who had been serving in Malawi for the past year and wanted a stop over in Germany on his way back home for a few weeks.  It was a terrific 3 weeks with the team and a ton was accomplished. Each week the team worked 4 days on an attic space we are hoping to convert into apartments for short and medium term missionaries that want to work alongside us.  In addition they did spiritual background surveys at the University, enjoyed some sightseeing and went to church services both in Meckesheim at the CVJM and in Heidelberg at Calvary Chapel.  I think they enjoyed the variety in their schedule.  Alan worked with them on all their work days and I helped doing behind the scenes organization of everything from evangelism and sightseeing to meals with church members, presentations at church services and schools and running leaders on errands, primarily to the grocery stores. 

I want to use the next few posts to talk about each of the team members individually and show the work the team accomplished.  Alan and I couldn't be prouder of this group of on fire for God, hard-working teens.  In addition to nearly 8 hours work each day they also manned a prayer closet for each of those hours, held private and group devotionals, bible marking class and library reading time. In addition each team member is required to learn one new bible verse a day and review those verses in quiz-off's each week in preparation for a competition with others teams at debrief when they return to Australia. Teen Missions is such a good program because it is so varied in how it prepares and equips each young person who goes on a team for a future walk with Christ.  I still remember verses I memorized on my TMI team back in 1985!

Well, now back to the team members.  The first person I'll talk about it Travis.  Travis is not from Australia but instead from Minnesota in the states.  He had been on my TMI team to Wales and Iceland back in 2008 when I was on staff.  He was one of my "favorites" on the team because his personality was so crazy contagious.  He just had a way of making everyone feel good and he really shined Jesus.  He was 16 then.  He's 21 now.  We kept in touch over the years and I encouraged him more than once to come over to Germany to see us or work with us.  God worked it out so he could come this year and while we didn't know what exactly to expect nor if and how he'd mesh with the Australian team it was clear after about 20 minutes that he was going to fit in just fine and be such an asset to us all.

I cried when he left partly because of how much we'd miss him but also partly because of how proud I was of him.  Everywhere we went in Germany Travis was the most outgoing of us all, introducing himself in his broken German and trying to share the love of Jesus.  He loves to preach and never shies away from any opportunity to do so.  He shared his testimony at our church and I could have listened to him for hours.  He's just filled up with Jesus so he overflows onto people naturally.  Alan and I joked that we could see him running Teen Missions one day or pastoring a big church somewhere.  He could also stay a missionary running an orphanage because children just navigate to him.  I know our pastors wife at the CVJM is already trying to recruit him back to Germany as am I but no matter what God decides for him we'll keep in touch and continue to support his work for Jesus.  Please pray for him as he takes the next few months to pray and seek Gods direction for this next phase of his life. 

A JOB WELL DONE

Full steam ahead into 2014

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3: 12-16

Alan and I returned from a wonderful vacation in Georgia last week.  We had to leave on Christmas day because we were anticipating the arrival of a group of teens from Teen Missions in Australia on the 27th.  We thought we'd have a day to recover but the last mail we received from the head office said the flights had been moved up and they would now arrive the same day as we would only about 10 hours later. 

A family of angels picked us up from the Frankfurt airport at 7:30 in the morning.  Frank and his wife Christina and their son graciously came and got us in their van which was a good thing because we each brought back an extra suitcase and wouldn't have had any room otherwise.  I guess we got home around 9:30 or 10 and we didn't do much except crash until around 3pm.  It was sooo hard waking up to return to the airport but Alan did.  I dropped him off at the CVJM where I stayed to help get the rooms and dinner ready for the team.  Frank once again came with Alan in his van and Alan took our pastors van and they got the team back about 9pm. 

I was assisted by an old teammate of mine from my 2008 Wales and Iceland team, Travis.  He was one of my favorites the whole summer because I was fortunate enough to have his brother Joe on my team in 2007.  We kept in touch with me watching keenly his adventures as a BMW student with TMI and his internship in Africa.  His love for Jesus and for others was so evident.  He kept telling me he wanted to visit and work alongside us when he was finished with his time there but honestly I didn't count on it until a few months ago when he wrote me to make plans.  It was great catching up with him.  What a blessing!  Travis was to serve alongside the Australian team as another male leader and that was terrific for us because we know what a hard worker he is and what an infectious spirit he has. 

The team was justifiably exhausted when they landed and unfortunately all the grocery stores were shut in Germany due to it being a holiday so I ordered some pizzas and made chocolate chip pancakes for them when they arrived.  We gave just a few words of welcome and instruction to them to keep them safe and warm and then let them sleep.  We would see them in only a few hours with breakfast.  At first glance the team was great.  We were excited to get to know each of them.

The last week we spent doing lots of work days, taking the team sightseeing, to church in Heidelberg and ice skating to do some evangelism.  Tuesday night they participated in the New Year's Eve church service at the CVJM singing as a group and sharing.  Tomorrow they'll sightsee again in Heidelberg and then Sunday we'll go to Calvary chapel in the morning and then help run the evening CVJM service.  Monday Klaus doesn't want the team to work as it's a "ruhig" Tag (holiday) and it might disturb the neighbors with all our banging.  We'll probably spend part of the day resting and getting caught up and also work on some programs for the schools later in the week.

I have so much respect for Teen Missions and the work they do with teenagers.  Alan loves the organization too.  We owe them quite a bit as that's how we found each other but also just the way they use loving and godly discipline with teens seems to answer what is so desperately needed in our world today.  My next door neighbor has a 15 year old daughter who I hear screaming, cursing and fighting with her mom several times each week.  Tonight she's having a boy/girl party and they are loud and throwing things around without a care in the world.  Today's teens need the discipline and love and respect that organizations like Teen Missions drills into them.  I experienced it when I was 14 and it was the best summer of my life.  What God teaches in the bible (love and respect for your parents, others, yourself) isn't meant to spoil your fun but to do the very opposite.  It gives LIFE!  These teens from Australia with TMI here working with us reflect that.  They are hard working, kind and really trying to seek God for their lives.  So far Alan and I have been really impressed.

Still, coming back to wet and dreary Germany was hard.  We had such a wonderful but also such a crazy, at times hectic and overwhelming visit to Georgia/Disney World/South Carolina that when I think back it's kind'of a big blur.  Did we REALLY do all that in just five weeks?!  My husband managed to work most of the trip helping my parents rebuild 3 porches, repairing an old train set from my father's childhood and putting up guttering on a 100+ year old house.  I took care of Chloe mostly, got all the supplies we'd need for the next year, made contact with supporters, bought all the Christmas gifts and organized a talk at our church about our work here.  I also had fun co-hosting a German afternoon tea with my good friend Brita Barry at her beautiful home in Athens.   Together we went to Walt Disney world for a week with the whole family, celebrated my birthday, Alan's 50th birthday, my dad's 70th birthday, went to see Santa, the Watkinsville Christmas parade, helped host the 30th plus annual Monday night bible study Christmas party at my parents house and the list goes on and on.  It was a tremendously blessed visit but I'm not kidding when I say we needed a vacation from our vacation! :)

A few days ago I came down with a cold and this morning on our way into the CVJM Chloe starting vomiting in the car.  So this afternoon I was in a feel sorry for myself, I can't be bothered type of mood.  I decided to just bite the bullet and try to get caught up with MOPS stuff I've been putting off and once I did I felt a bit better.  Then Alan came home and really helped with Chloe, made homemade bread, cleaned her car seat and put her down to bed.  Poor thing I think has fallen asleep in her room.  He's been in there for hours!

Well the teens in the apartment next door don't seem like they are going to sleep any time soon.  I'm seriously considering sliding a TMI brochure under the door to the apartment before I go to sleep.  Pray for them and us and pray for the team that they would be greatly blessed and encouraged as they serve God and others here in Germany.

10 Things I will teach my daughter

There are things that you notice as you get a bit older.  Those things are things you expect everyone to know, recognize, acknowledge or abide by.  These are the things you'd definitely want your child to understand and respect.  So with that here's my list for today:

1.  Don't ask for a lift, anywhere (to a meeting, to town, to the airport, etc) without paying for the gas required to get there.  It's rude. If the person says, "no, it's ok." Insist. Usually if you insist they will accept. If they then give a reason why they don't want to accept your money, then respect their wishes and go to number 2.
2.  Say Thank you - never, ever be ungrateful and take others for granted. 
3.  Give things to others without any strings attached. ie lifts to the airport, your seat on the bus/tram, a cake for a birthday celebration, help when you have the time to give it.  CAVEAT - make sure you're doing it without any strings attached, otherwise it's disingenuous.
4.  Say Please - it's just not your God given right to expect anything from anyone.  The world is half full of selfish people who don't really care too awful much about you.  Sure they pretend that they do but (like you), they really don't.  The other half of the world is divided into your mom and dad and maybe a best friend or two and everybody else.  This everybody else group (minus your mom, dad and best friend) really likes to do things for other people but will after a time or two (or maybe a dozen) stop if you don't appreciate it. Then there's your mom and dad and best friend who will probably go a bit further than everyone else but will eventually feel neglected, uncared for and unloved if you continue to not appreciate them or be polite.  Also these are the people who you should be treating better than everyone else anyway.  So if you ask for something, ask nicely, politely and always say please.  It will go better for you.  Then once you've got this down, refer to number 3 on the list.  The two go hand and hand together.
5.  Don't think your emergencies, priorities or stresses necessarily equate to anyone else's emergencies, priorities or stresses.  I love that sign, "Lack of preparation on your end, does not constitute an emergency on my end."  SO TRUE - respect those that work alongside you or for you.  Respect THEIR time like you respect your own.
6.  If you say you're going to do something, DO it!  It's much better to say no or maybe or we'll see then yes and then not do it.  Also make sure you are under a mutual understanding with the person asking of what timeframe "doing" it means.  If you say for example that you'll "do the dishes" but that to you means you'll do them next week at some time when you feel like it, you probably shouldn't volunteer to begin with.
7.  Never, ever, ever put something into print that can come back to haunt you.  This includes Facebook, Twitter, Email, Websites, Blogs, etc, etc.  If in doubt - DON'T write it down. 
8.  Get anything important - IN WRITING!  There are many reasons for this - people forget things, YOU forget things, people and especially companies will try to cheat/trick or rob you.  Protect yourself!
9.  It's no one else's responsibility but yours or as my grandma Abney would say, "OHIO - only handle it once"  If you open it - shut it, turn it on - turn it off, take it out - put it back, dirty it - clean it.

And last but not least and what actually prompted this silly blog note:
10.  If you're a girl - don't go pee before checking to see if there's toilet paper in the stall. Enough said.