(This blog was written while listening to Dave Matthews Band and while wishing I still had Irish teabags)
Hello all you lovely people!
So, this week was again pretty good! On Monday night we were invited over to Katja and Matthias's house for dinner. They're a lovely young couple from the church in Chemnitz, and it was very nice. We had Spaghetti Bolognese, twas very tasty.
We had breakfast with Barry again on Tuesday and we ended up talking about all different work things for 3 hours! It was long, but good! Meant we got all our concerns, ideas, suggestions, everything talked through.
Then that afternoon we as a Team sat down and organised things for the week, and any other things that needed sorting. That was also good, it all went pretty quickly and smoothly. It was also roasting on tuesday, so we had our TeamTime on the roof.
After that we had Home Group outside as well, and it was nice and we had a good discussion about friendship and community.
On Wednesday we again spent most of the morning organising things. And it again was grand. You may be noticing a pattern here: whenever I talk about team things, I seem to usually say that they went well. Well, that's cause they are. Even when an event doesn't maybe go so great or to plan, there's no bad feeling and finger-pointing like there was last year. It's a lot more like, "Look, don't worry, it happens, let's just do it better next time!" And we encourage each other. I'm very thankful to God and my Teammates that things are going so well.
On wednesday night Matthias (mentioned above) came by to fix our bikes. We have three bikes and all 3 were unridable. Is unridable a word? Ah well, I'm saying it anyway. So Matthias was fixing them and I was trying to help. I was useless.
On Thursday we had Kids Club and Youth Group as per usual. Kids club was great. I did the story of Noah's Ark, and got all the kids on a group of chairs that was the Ark, then I kept flicking water at them, twas a great laugh! Then Youth Group was a bit strange, all the young people were either not feeling great or really stressed with school or other things, so the atmosphere wasn't great, and poor Judit felt terrible after, because she was leading it, but it really wasn't her fault.
Afterwards I decided to buy us all chocolate! I just really felt like chocolate, and I wanted to treat the other two to something nice too, especially since they weren't in great form. So I bought us all Milka, yummy. When they asked why I just said, "Because life should be enjoyed, and for that, sometimes you need chocolate!"
On Friday Katja (mentioned above) took the three of us to get new T-shirts to be made into team T-shirts. We chose a navy colour, looks pretty nice. Now they just need to be printed. I'm looking forward to see what they look like. We then later had Youth Group and, in what is becoming a bit of a tradition, lots of us went and had a Kebab afterwards again.
On Saturday we had our first Family Afternoon and Saturday Night Live in Augustusburg. Unfortunately both of them were practically washouts. One couple with their two kids and one mother with her daughter came to Family Afternoon, and only two people came to SNL. We've decided to advertise the rest better.
Today we had a special kids service, Promiseland, a monthly kids service started by the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, and it was good fun!
Now I'm going to watch the latest episode of The Office, and eat some Ice Cream!
God bless all ya'all!
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
What's new?
(This blog was written while drinking Punjana Tea and listening to the Scrubs Season 1 Soundtrack)
Heya everyone!
So, what's new since I last wrote? Well everything's still going grand! On Saturday I had my first match for FC Arche this season. Beforehand they had played 5 matches already (3 losses and a draw in the league and a loss in the cup). Not a great start, it has to be said, but we were all determined to change that against one of our lower end of the league rivals on Saturday. And change it we did, with a very convincing 6-1 win! It was 5-0 at halftime, and we could take the second half fairly easy, with the opponents not offering much in way of a challenge.
And, I'm very happy to say that I had a hand in 4 of the goals! The first of the game was an own goal coming from a defender trying to clear away a pass aimed at me, but rifled it into his bottom corner. The 6th goal came from a header from a free kick which I won!
And our 2nd & 3rd goals? Well, they were scored by none other than yours truly! If I sound like I'm bragging, you should know that in almost 150 games, they were only the 3rd and 4th goals I've ever scored! I've a scoring ratio of something like a goal every 37 games, lol! But I'm mainly glad we got the win, and hopefully we can get a good run going!
An already good day was made better with the news that Agape FC, my team at home in Northern Ireland, won 13-0, and then it got even better when Man U won 3-1 against a very good Spurs side.
On Sunday we had dinner with a very nice family from one of the churches here. It was very funny though: There were 10 of us at the dinner table, and in the middle of conversation the 4 year old daughter says "Steven?" and I reply "Yes, Lea?" "I think I love you! In fact, I could see me marrying you!" LOL! We all laughed, it was very funny!
On Monday I watched Valkyrie for the first time, tis very good, if you've never seen it you should watch it some time. I later on played football too, which was good fun, apart for a few people throwing the strop because their team was losing.
On Tuesday we had our first Breakfast/Work Meeting with Barry, which went fine apart from us being a tad late. Then on Tuesday night we had our first Home Group of the year, which was ok, although it was only two of the old regulars who made it. Hopefully we can reach a few more people soon.
I was then sick on Wednesday and ended up most of the day in bed! But I'm pretty much all better now!
We had Kids Club and Floha Youth Group yesterday. Kids Club was good fun, although we only had 3 kids. I had a chat with the mother of 2 of the kids who regularly come, and she said that Thursday is a bad day for some of the kids. So we may be looking to change that at some point, but that's still only an idea. Youth group was great as well, we had fuller numbers again and had a nice practice for Abenteuerland. And then, in candlelight (which was really nice, though it was only because the power's out in our youth room because work's being done), we chatted about God's protection and plan for us, looking into the Bible a lot. It was very encouraging and I really enjoyed it.
On Thursday and Friday, Judit and I took part in a First-Aid-Course, so I'm now a qualified First-Aider, yay!
For those of you who can, you should swing by the Lesecafe in Augustusburg on Sunday between 14:30-18:00. IMT are on duty, ya see!
For all of you, I hope this weekend is a lovely, relaxing, fun, and blessed few days!
Love to y'all, from your Ginger Nut!
Heya everyone!
So, what's new since I last wrote? Well everything's still going grand! On Saturday I had my first match for FC Arche this season. Beforehand they had played 5 matches already (3 losses and a draw in the league and a loss in the cup). Not a great start, it has to be said, but we were all determined to change that against one of our lower end of the league rivals on Saturday. And change it we did, with a very convincing 6-1 win! It was 5-0 at halftime, and we could take the second half fairly easy, with the opponents not offering much in way of a challenge.
And, I'm very happy to say that I had a hand in 4 of the goals! The first of the game was an own goal coming from a defender trying to clear away a pass aimed at me, but rifled it into his bottom corner. The 6th goal came from a header from a free kick which I won!
And our 2nd & 3rd goals? Well, they were scored by none other than yours truly! If I sound like I'm bragging, you should know that in almost 150 games, they were only the 3rd and 4th goals I've ever scored! I've a scoring ratio of something like a goal every 37 games, lol! But I'm mainly glad we got the win, and hopefully we can get a good run going!
An already good day was made better with the news that Agape FC, my team at home in Northern Ireland, won 13-0, and then it got even better when Man U won 3-1 against a very good Spurs side.
On Sunday we had dinner with a very nice family from one of the churches here. It was very funny though: There were 10 of us at the dinner table, and in the middle of conversation the 4 year old daughter says "Steven?" and I reply "Yes, Lea?" "I think I love you! In fact, I could see me marrying you!" LOL! We all laughed, it was very funny!
On Monday I watched Valkyrie for the first time, tis very good, if you've never seen it you should watch it some time. I later on played football too, which was good fun, apart for a few people throwing the strop because their team was losing.
On Tuesday we had our first Breakfast/Work Meeting with Barry, which went fine apart from us being a tad late. Then on Tuesday night we had our first Home Group of the year, which was ok, although it was only two of the old regulars who made it. Hopefully we can reach a few more people soon.
I was then sick on Wednesday and ended up most of the day in bed! But I'm pretty much all better now!
We had Kids Club and Floha Youth Group yesterday. Kids Club was good fun, although we only had 3 kids. I had a chat with the mother of 2 of the kids who regularly come, and she said that Thursday is a bad day for some of the kids. So we may be looking to change that at some point, but that's still only an idea. Youth group was great as well, we had fuller numbers again and had a nice practice for Abenteuerland. And then, in candlelight (which was really nice, though it was only because the power's out in our youth room because work's being done), we chatted about God's protection and plan for us, looking into the Bible a lot. It was very encouraging and I really enjoyed it.
On Thursday and Friday, Judit and I took part in a First-Aid-Course, so I'm now a qualified First-Aider, yay!
For those of you who can, you should swing by the Lesecafe in Augustusburg on Sunday between 14:30-18:00. IMT are on duty, ya see!
For all of you, I hope this weekend is a lovely, relaxing, fun, and blessed few days!
Love to y'all, from your Ginger Nut!
Thursday, 10 September 2009
The Old Days!
Hi everybody!
So, IMT 2's going really well so far. Judit and I organised Jungschar (Kids Club) together for today, and it was great because she has a bunch of experience as well. So we could just bounce ideas off each other and work out what we think would be best. And to be honest, it was one of the best Jungschars I can remember. Not because of us or what we did, or what our ideas were, because I'm pretty sure we've done better stories in better ways with more fun games and more interesting crafts before. But it was great today because the kids were all on really good form. They were really well behaved, were good craic too, and listened well enough to the story, seemed to really enjoy the games, and got really into the craft. It was nice and easy today, which rarely happens.
Things are also comfortable within team-life too. Maria and Judit are both very nice, Maria's very talkative, almost to a fault, and Judit's still a bit shy but lovely. No problems there. We also can sit down and share ideas fairly openly and easily, which is also good!
Lukas came to Floha Youth Group tonight too! Lukas is the guy who was on team with me last year! He's working in a church about an hour away now, and starts tomorrow properly, but has said he's gonna try and come to our things as often as he can. He then came back to ours after for a cuppa. And it actually started to get me kinda sad. See, it was just like the old days, him being here again, and I started to miss it. Last year was an incredible experience, extremely difficult though it sometimes was. And now it's all so different. It's just strange. It's gonna take me a little while still to get used to it all!
Tomorrow I'm going to be spending pretty much all of my day translating. I don't exactly how long it'll take, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna take a good while, and could take me a normal working day, 9-5. That's what I'm aiming for anyway, that length of time. If I'm done anytime sooner, then happy days!
I also have my first game of the season for FC Arche on Saturday, which I'm looking forward to immensely! They've played four league games already, three losses and a draw, and a cup match, which they lost. But this Saturday they hope to take all 3 points. I can't wait! I haven't played a full match of football since the last day of last season, so I hope my fitness holds up!
I hope you're doing well, whoever you are, wherever you are!
Your Ginga Ninja!
So, IMT 2's going really well so far. Judit and I organised Jungschar (Kids Club) together for today, and it was great because she has a bunch of experience as well. So we could just bounce ideas off each other and work out what we think would be best. And to be honest, it was one of the best Jungschars I can remember. Not because of us or what we did, or what our ideas were, because I'm pretty sure we've done better stories in better ways with more fun games and more interesting crafts before. But it was great today because the kids were all on really good form. They were really well behaved, were good craic too, and listened well enough to the story, seemed to really enjoy the games, and got really into the craft. It was nice and easy today, which rarely happens.
Things are also comfortable within team-life too. Maria and Judit are both very nice, Maria's very talkative, almost to a fault, and Judit's still a bit shy but lovely. No problems there. We also can sit down and share ideas fairly openly and easily, which is also good!
Lukas came to Floha Youth Group tonight too! Lukas is the guy who was on team with me last year! He's working in a church about an hour away now, and starts tomorrow properly, but has said he's gonna try and come to our things as often as he can. He then came back to ours after for a cuppa. And it actually started to get me kinda sad. See, it was just like the old days, him being here again, and I started to miss it. Last year was an incredible experience, extremely difficult though it sometimes was. And now it's all so different. It's just strange. It's gonna take me a little while still to get used to it all!
Tomorrow I'm going to be spending pretty much all of my day translating. I don't exactly how long it'll take, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna take a good while, and could take me a normal working day, 9-5. That's what I'm aiming for anyway, that length of time. If I'm done anytime sooner, then happy days!
I also have my first game of the season for FC Arche on Saturday, which I'm looking forward to immensely! They've played four league games already, three losses and a draw, and a cup match, which they lost. But this Saturday they hope to take all 3 points. I can't wait! I haven't played a full match of football since the last day of last season, so I hope my fitness holds up!
I hope you're doing well, whoever you are, wherever you are!
Your Ginga Ninja!
Sunday, 6 September 2009
"I couldn't find the way home again..."
Hey y'all!
Today we had our welcome service! It was nice, a lot of rounds of applauses...rounds of applause...yeah, I think the second one's right.
Barry brought us up to the front and introduced us. He said first of all something like, "Now one of our team you'll all recognise, but can you work out which one?" at which everyone had a giggle. It was nice to see them all again, they gave me my own wee round of applause which was nice. Barry then asked me how it came about that I was here again, saying, "apart from the fact that I 'love' hanging out with him." To which I replied, "I couldn't find the way home again..." which got a nice wee giggle!
We were then at the Sloan's for dinner, Gillian had made a proper sunday dinner, with roast chicken, carrots, green beans, mashed potato, gravy, and best of all ROASTIES! And then after that we had Gillian's own homemade apple pie, warm with cream, which was also reeeeaally good! Twas a great dinner, compliments to the chef!
I then played minigolf with the other two on team. I won. Woo! I got 93, Judit 94, and Maria 98! I've never seen a more poorly thought out minigolf course though, it was somehow at the same time boring and impossible. Or maybe wee Northern Irelanders are just spoilt with the Pirate Golf at Dundonald.
I'm going for a nap now, looking forward to skyping with the parents tonight.
If you're not in the same country, drop us a line, if ya are, I'll see ya soon!
Love from the Mighty Ginger One!
Today we had our welcome service! It was nice, a lot of rounds of applauses...rounds of applause...yeah, I think the second one's right.
Barry brought us up to the front and introduced us. He said first of all something like, "Now one of our team you'll all recognise, but can you work out which one?" at which everyone had a giggle. It was nice to see them all again, they gave me my own wee round of applause which was nice. Barry then asked me how it came about that I was here again, saying, "apart from the fact that I 'love' hanging out with him." To which I replied, "I couldn't find the way home again..." which got a nice wee giggle!
We were then at the Sloan's for dinner, Gillian had made a proper sunday dinner, with roast chicken, carrots, green beans, mashed potato, gravy, and best of all ROASTIES! And then after that we had Gillian's own homemade apple pie, warm with cream, which was also reeeeaally good! Twas a great dinner, compliments to the chef!
I then played minigolf with the other two on team. I won. Woo! I got 93, Judit 94, and Maria 98! I've never seen a more poorly thought out minigolf course though, it was somehow at the same time boring and impossible. Or maybe wee Northern Irelanders are just spoilt with the Pirate Golf at Dundonald.
I'm going for a nap now, looking forward to skyping with the parents tonight.
If you're not in the same country, drop us a line, if ya are, I'll see ya soon!
Love from the Mighty Ginger One!
Saturday, 5 September 2009
IMT 2
Hi y'all!
So, here I am in Chemnitz, Germany again, doing a second year! I know some of you are asking yourselves how that has come to be, so let me explain!
I had studied German & French in Queens, though I had never really enjoyed. The people were all lovely, including the lecturers and all, I just didn't enjoy it a lot. Anyway, in 3rd year you have to do a year abroad, in one of those countries. I heard about IMT and wanted to do that, but there were problems with it and all, and what the plan ended up being was that I'd take a year out from Uni, do IMT, then do my Uni Year Abroad in France.
During my year in IMT though, I decided that I wanted to study Youth Work, and become a Youth Worker. So, I left Queens, and was hoping to apply for a Youth Work course in Jordanstown, but my application would have been too late, and they were already full. So, I can re-apply again for next year, and I'll be applying to Belfast Bible College too.
But that basically gave me another year with nothing to do. So, because we all on IMT last year agreed that the work here needed to be continued, and that the young people, who are amazing, still need someone to help them along in their faiths, I spoke to Barry and said I'd be up for doing another year, if they'd still have me! And luckily they would! Crazy Germans, huh?
So thats why I'm here again! We started on Wednesday with training things about how you do kids clubs and youth groups, and all that stuff, and child protection and all. I'm on team this year with a girl from Germany called Maria, and a girl from Hungary called Judit, who's coming tonight. We hope! See, she had said she'd be coming, then said she couldn't actually come, then said she could again, then said she'd be late, so we all are just like, "We'll believe she's here when we see her!" So, fingers crossed!
Anyhoo, it's been nice, strange that I'm here and Fiona isn't, mainly, but I get on fine with Maria, and hopefully will too with Judit, and it's nice to see everyone here again. I'm still knackered after the summer, but I'm sure I'll live. Lol! And I'm looking forward to getting stuck in to working once Judit gets here. Our first big task is translating a video about new forms of church! So, I'm gonna listen and translate, and then Maria is gonna correct any grammatical things, and then we're gonna dub over the video! So it should be good fun! I ain't ever done that before! I wonder will it lead to a career in dubbing work...probably not, I dunno if I'd have a nice voice for that...not like Morgan Freeman, he could do a commentary on paint drying and you'd be hanging on his every word!
Anyhoo, I miss ya, if you're not here, and I hope to see ya soon!
God bless y'all!
Love from your favourite Ginger!
So, here I am in Chemnitz, Germany again, doing a second year! I know some of you are asking yourselves how that has come to be, so let me explain!
I had studied German & French in Queens, though I had never really enjoyed. The people were all lovely, including the lecturers and all, I just didn't enjoy it a lot. Anyway, in 3rd year you have to do a year abroad, in one of those countries. I heard about IMT and wanted to do that, but there were problems with it and all, and what the plan ended up being was that I'd take a year out from Uni, do IMT, then do my Uni Year Abroad in France.
During my year in IMT though, I decided that I wanted to study Youth Work, and become a Youth Worker. So, I left Queens, and was hoping to apply for a Youth Work course in Jordanstown, but my application would have been too late, and they were already full. So, I can re-apply again for next year, and I'll be applying to Belfast Bible College too.
But that basically gave me another year with nothing to do. So, because we all on IMT last year agreed that the work here needed to be continued, and that the young people, who are amazing, still need someone to help them along in their faiths, I spoke to Barry and said I'd be up for doing another year, if they'd still have me! And luckily they would! Crazy Germans, huh?
So thats why I'm here again! We started on Wednesday with training things about how you do kids clubs and youth groups, and all that stuff, and child protection and all. I'm on team this year with a girl from Germany called Maria, and a girl from Hungary called Judit, who's coming tonight. We hope! See, she had said she'd be coming, then said she couldn't actually come, then said she could again, then said she'd be late, so we all are just like, "We'll believe she's here when we see her!" So, fingers crossed!
Anyhoo, it's been nice, strange that I'm here and Fiona isn't, mainly, but I get on fine with Maria, and hopefully will too with Judit, and it's nice to see everyone here again. I'm still knackered after the summer, but I'm sure I'll live. Lol! And I'm looking forward to getting stuck in to working once Judit gets here. Our first big task is translating a video about new forms of church! So, I'm gonna listen and translate, and then Maria is gonna correct any grammatical things, and then we're gonna dub over the video! So it should be good fun! I ain't ever done that before! I wonder will it lead to a career in dubbing work...probably not, I dunno if I'd have a nice voice for that...not like Morgan Freeman, he could do a commentary on paint drying and you'd be hanging on his every word!
Anyhoo, I miss ya, if you're not here, and I hope to see ya soon!
God bless y'all!
Love from your favourite Ginger!
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