Late nights, early mornings and learning new things - it must be communication!

I am responsible for the communications aspects of the Uniting General Council, a job description that in the corporate world would encompass media relations, promotion, translation/interpretation and publications. When working for the church, it means all that plus being called urgently to consult on where the steps should go for the stage, to book hotel rooms for journalists, and to help disinfect bed bug bites caught in New York.

It's 11:00 p.m. and I am alone in the News Room with only the sound of hip hop coming from the cleaners' boom box next door for company. But just now someone knocked on the door and I turned to see one of the News Room Stewards, Andrunie from Guyana, appear with a piece of birthday cake for me from a celebration of two birthdays that the Stewards had this evening. Suddenly life is bliss again.

I'm working with an ace team of communicators from around the world: journalists who work in German, English, Dutch, French and Spanish, interpreters and translators who will make the meetings happen in English, French, German and Spanish, a floor director who knows everything from where to place a pulpit on stage and why, to sound technicians who can hang "heaters" on a wall to make it possible for us to connect to the plenary hall translation system via headphones... magic. Not to mention the magic of Jane who has created this blog and is even prepared to teach me to twitter ... or is it to tweet?

Over breakfast, I talked about the theology of mission with a man from Korea and two women from Guyana and Nigeria. At lunch, I was planning the story line-up with our news editor. Supper was spent identifying communication challenges with a colleague from Geneva.

Now I am off to bed... trying to beat the midnight bell. Tired but with the taste of cake and the memory of Andrunie's thoughtfulness to sweeten my dreams.

Kristine Greenaway is executive secretary for communications for WCRC.