(Steven is down to the last 25% of his teabag supply, let's hope it holds out til christmas!)
Hiya Everyone!
Well, the last two weeks have been somewhat strange, and not quite what I'd hoped they'd be! Basically it all started on Tuesday two weeks ago.
Having had a nice, fairly lazy day off on the Monday, I came into Tuesday refreshed and up for work. We had our usual breakfast meeting, organised our week and got on with the work that needed to be done. We went out again handing out flyers for our Hilbersdorf Kids Club, and then I organised Home Group for that night. It went well, and we had a good wee discussion.
Then afterwards I was planning on going to training for FC Arche, when Corny, a player from Arche and a youth worker with whom we do the Hilbersdorf project, calls and says that he needs another player for a tournament he's at with his youth group. So, I of course say yes! I was really looking forward to it, thinking "Wow, this is gonna be a great couple of days, footy tournie tonight, world cup tomorrow (more on that later), this is gonna fun!" Well, it was fun, and we were doing really well in the tournie, with 3 wins and 1 draw in the group stages. We then went into our fifth group match against an absolute bunch of thugs! This was a 5-a-side tournament and by the end of the 10-minute long match, they were down to 2(!) players! We won 5-0, but I got hurt! This is where things started to go bad. I got injured, and went to the doctor who was there, and he couldn't find anything, strapped up the knee, and said I could play on. But, when I tried to play, I just couldn't. The team made it to the semis but unfortunately went out on penalties.
So that was the start of the knee problem that has been hurting me for two weeks now. I went to the doctor on Thursday, and she said it appears to be my Meniscus, commonly known as Cartilage. I had an MRI the next day, and I'll find out the results of that tomorrow. That will tell us more, but the first look was that I'll need an operation! It is possible that I'll only need a support for a few weeks, but nothing will be clear til tomorrow. If I do need an Op, it'll be my second in less than a year! Another annoying consequence is that it looks like, for the second year in a row, I'll not be able to go skiing!
So, due to the pain that comes with walking, and the fact that I need to rest my knee, I've been sort of half off work. I've still tried to do what I can, and leave out the things where I know I won't be needed, and that the other two can handle themselves. Also, I've not been sleeping very well because any movement of the knee hurts a bit, and also as I'm someone who sleeps pretty much always on my side, which I can't do comfortably due to the injury. So I've been pretty knackered over the last two weeks.
But anyway, on the Wednesday after my injury we had a fun time with the Youth Group where we played our own wee World Cup on the Playstation, and played a Foozeball tournament, before watching the Republic of Ireland vs France World Cup Qualifier, which the Republic very unluckily and unfairly lost!
This loss along with my injury is why I named this Blog "The Luck of the Irish!" Where's it gone?!
Anyhow, I wasn't working at all on the Thursday, as I spent most of the day at the hospital. On Friday I told Barry, who was gutted for me, and told me to take it easy, and to rest up a lot. I went to Youth Group that night anyway, as I figured I'd just be sitting there anyway. It was ok, though my knee was sore most of the night.
On the Saturday we only had SNL, to which no one came, which has lead to the next one being cancelled, and discussions as to how it should go on.
On the Sunday I didn't go to Church in the morning as I hadn't slept well at all. That afternoon Maria and I went to the Augustusburg Cafe, cos we were on to work, but Maria most of the work, while I sat on my Laptop preparing things for English Language Fellowship that night.
We then went to ELF, and surprised Barry and Gillian by driving them to our house where Judit had cooked and set up a candlelit dinner for them, and I'd set up the laptop and projector for them to watch a movie. They were very surprised and I think they enjoyed it. We then went and did ELF, which also went pretty well, I spoke, on "Why do Bad Things happen to Good People?" and it seemed to go fine.
Then this past week was more of the same half-working, half-resting. The past while's a bit of a blur because I've been knackered. But on Tuesday we went out with the Home Group for a social night, went to see Public Enemies at the cinema, which I quite enjoyed, and then for something to eat. On Wednesday we had Kids Club, which was fine, we baked christmas biscuits with the kids.
Then on Thursday I went along to kids club, where I had a number of close run-ins with the knee, either kids nearly jumping on it, or it near being hit by a ball. Then I took Youth Group, and even though numbers were down a bit, we had another decent discussion about a passage from Galatians.
The weekend then saw our first ever Hilbersdorf Kids Club on Friday afternoon. We had 5 kids, which we hope will increase over the coming weeks. But for a beginning it was ok. I then didn't go to Youth Group as it was just a Game Night, and I decided I could give it a miss to rest up a bit.
On Saturday I went along to watch FC Arche play, and they unfortunately lost 3-2, a poor first half which ended 3-1 to the other team couldn't be made up for by a better second half. A draw however probably would have been a fairer result. That night Maria and I watched Hot Fuzz, such a brilliant film, while Judit skyped with her entire family, as they were all gathered in one place!
On Sunday we were at Church in the morning, which was a nice service, the first advent. Twas nice then chatting to people afterwards as well. We went then after the service to the family of David and Alicia, two of the youth group, for dinner. Twas very nice, they're a lovely family. Then in the afternoon I prepared a bit for DreamLabs that night, and then we had DreamLabs, which was interesting, had again a good chat.
So, that's that. If you could I would like to request that you pray for my knee, that it'll heal well, whether or not I need an op; for SNL, guidance as to how it should proceed; and Hilbersdorf Kids Club, that it will grow and more kids will come.
Wishing you all a lovely Advent Period, your clumsy Ginger!
Monday, 30 November 2009
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Video-Refereeing
I just wanted to write a wee quickie regarding the Ireland-France match tonight.
As you may know, I was born in the Republic but have lived most of my life in the North. But, with regards to football allegiance, I often feel very attached to both. Indeed for many years I was more for the Republic, always making my character in a football game Irish instead of Northern Irish, and saying that were I good enough to play at International level, I'd play for the Republic. It's only in the last 2 or 3 years that I've switched my allegiance a bit more to the North. But I really do have a place in my heart for both of them. After all, I do have double-nationality.
So when it came to ROI playing against France in the playoffs for the World Cup, I was fully behind them. So I was gutted tonight when we lost. It was shocking. The bad luck of the deflected goal in Croke Park is one thing, but to be done out of going to the cup because of the type of goal France scored tonight is just downright wrong.
And it makes one think, it cannot be much longer before world football changes its rules. I do not understand why football does not yet have TV-Refereeing! American Football and Cricket both have it, and have done for years. And while one can correctly argue that they are very slow, start-stop games, and therefore it's ok to take a pause to check a replay, this argument falls down on the fact that Rugby also uses a TV Ref, very successfully, and Rugby is arguably a faster sport than football!
It would be so easy, there is already a fourth official there, would it really be so difficult to extend his duties from keeping the managers at bay, checking the subs that come on, and holding up a sign with numbers on it, to also include watching a TV during the match? They already have those little headsets, use them in a good way, for goodness sake!
It's so simple, yet FIFA refuse to bring it in, and constantly teams are being outdone or lose thanks to decisions from referees which, with one quick look at a replay, which takes 10 seconds for goodness sake, could be completely avoided.
So, rant over. I'm gutted that neither Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland will be in South Africa next summer, but I will enjoy the football anyway. Come on ye South Korea! Lol! No, don't know who I'll be going for yet. May Football win! Meaning good, well-played, fair, competitive football, with good performances from the referees!
Love from The Ginger Football Nut!
As you may know, I was born in the Republic but have lived most of my life in the North. But, with regards to football allegiance, I often feel very attached to both. Indeed for many years I was more for the Republic, always making my character in a football game Irish instead of Northern Irish, and saying that were I good enough to play at International level, I'd play for the Republic. It's only in the last 2 or 3 years that I've switched my allegiance a bit more to the North. But I really do have a place in my heart for both of them. After all, I do have double-nationality.
So when it came to ROI playing against France in the playoffs for the World Cup, I was fully behind them. So I was gutted tonight when we lost. It was shocking. The bad luck of the deflected goal in Croke Park is one thing, but to be done out of going to the cup because of the type of goal France scored tonight is just downright wrong.
And it makes one think, it cannot be much longer before world football changes its rules. I do not understand why football does not yet have TV-Refereeing! American Football and Cricket both have it, and have done for years. And while one can correctly argue that they are very slow, start-stop games, and therefore it's ok to take a pause to check a replay, this argument falls down on the fact that Rugby also uses a TV Ref, very successfully, and Rugby is arguably a faster sport than football!
It would be so easy, there is already a fourth official there, would it really be so difficult to extend his duties from keeping the managers at bay, checking the subs that come on, and holding up a sign with numbers on it, to also include watching a TV during the match? They already have those little headsets, use them in a good way, for goodness sake!
It's so simple, yet FIFA refuse to bring it in, and constantly teams are being outdone or lose thanks to decisions from referees which, with one quick look at a replay, which takes 10 seconds for goodness sake, could be completely avoided.
So, rant over. I'm gutted that neither Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland will be in South Africa next summer, but I will enjoy the football anyway. Come on ye South Korea! Lol! No, don't know who I'll be going for yet. May Football win! Meaning good, well-played, fair, competitive football, with good performances from the referees!
Love from The Ginger Football Nut!
Sunday, 15 November 2009
"Laughter is an instant Vacation" - Milton Berle
Hi Everybody!
So, hope you're all doing well, have had a good week and a relaxing weekend.
My week went well! Had a nice relaxing day off on Monday, went into town and had lunch in a cafe for a bit, then went round the shops a wee bit, bought a couple of things I needed, then sat in a cafe for a couple of hours writing letters. Then, that night, as it was the Day of Freedom, the festival celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall, we were invited over to Katja's for dinner, where we made our own pizza, and then watched the big festival that was taking place in Berlin. There was literally nothing happening for it in Chemnitz, which was a pity.
Then on the Tuesday we had our meeting with Barry and Katja, and that was good, we hadn't seen Barry in a wee while, as he's been very busy and travelling a lot. We then organised our week, everything we were doing and who was in charge of what etc.
We then went to Mittagsgebet, Midday Prayers, and it was awful, as everyday we read the Psalm for the week, but we do it kinda paragraph about, with whoever's taking it that day saying one paragraph, then everyone saying the next, and so on. But Judit accidentally spoke out loud a bit she wasn't meant to, and that made me, her and Maria all start to giggle, and ya really can't giggle at it, which made it even more tense, which then made us giggle more. It was awful. It was one of those situations we've all been in at some point or another where ya just can't laugh but ya really need to. And it went on for ages and ages and so many people were giving us dirty looks, and the lady taking it was clearly raging. I apologised lots afterwards for us, and didn't go again until Friday, when I had to take it. This story's why I named this blog with the above quotation.
On Tuesday afternoon we had our first KidsCafe, where parents can bring their children and there's stuff for the kids to do, while the parents can just sit back and have a coffee. It went well enough, and will hopefully develop well.
Afterwards I was only able to be at the start of Home Group as I was heading on to take Youth Group as a guest speaker for the group of one of the other football players from my team here. It went pretty well, they seemed to enjoy it, and had a few questions for me at the end as well. Then afterwards we went on to training, and I played awful for most of the night, apart from the last match, which was ok, but I was really annoyed at myself for how bad I was playing. 1) I need to get fitter! 2)I need to play more football!
On Wednesday we organised BOOMerang for the Saturday, and also a little for Youth Group for Friday. We also then in the afternoon had Kids Club, where we walked with the kids to another church where a special drama and program was taking place as it was St. Martin's Day. St. Martin's whole message was to be a light for others in that you help others, so it's tradition for the kids to walk through the streets with little lanterns that they've made. So that was kinda fun.
(I just finished the last Breakaway, which means we have no more British chocolate in the house! Aw!)
On Thursday we organised BOOMerang a little bit more, then in the afternoon we had Kids Club. It went well, we were talking about Samson, and the kids seemed pretty interested. Twas good fun. Then we had Youth Group, and that also went well, Maria talked about...something...lol. I remember it being interesting and lots of discussion coming out of it. I just can't remember what the topic was.
On Friday then we had the School Service first of all at 7.15-flipping-am, and I then went to back to bed for a little bit after. We then spent the morning organising Youth Group for that night, and I organised Mittagsgebet too, which we then did, and it went pretty well, we managed not to laugh! We then had Hilbersdorf Projekt meeting, where we went and looked at the hall and discussed what all we can do with it and what all we need to do for the following week. Then we had Youth Group, we were taking it, and while it may have been kinda long and a bit much, it also went well. And after we met with Michael and Friedemann to organise the plan for the next couple of months.
That night Michael and I watched a Greatest Hits of British Comedy DVD, which was very funny. And then I skyped with Fiona from like 1:15am til shortly after 3am.
So, when I got up for BOOMerang at 8:30am, after just 5 hours sleep, I can say I wasn't entirely looking forward to 5 hours with rowdy kids. But it was actually really good fun, I was just knackered after.
That night I went with Maria and Judit to a nice club in Chemnitz where there's a ton of pool tables, so we had a bite to eat and then played some pool. Twas a good laugh.
Then today Judit and I went to church here in Chemnitz while Maria was at her church in Crottendorf, where she's from. Twas nice chatting to everyone after the service, was ages before we got away. Then today I've had a fairly relaxing day. Just watched the U17 World Cup Final between Switzerland and Nigeria, twas a good match, Switzerland won 1-0.
Well, that's enough from me for now. Planning on working at getting fitter and playing more football this week, and then workwise we have youth group to organise again, we're starting with our Nativity Play practices, and we're taking the English Language Fellowship Service next week. So, lots to do!
God bless you, whoever you are, wherever you are!
Your Ginger Nut
So, hope you're all doing well, have had a good week and a relaxing weekend.
My week went well! Had a nice relaxing day off on Monday, went into town and had lunch in a cafe for a bit, then went round the shops a wee bit, bought a couple of things I needed, then sat in a cafe for a couple of hours writing letters. Then, that night, as it was the Day of Freedom, the festival celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall, we were invited over to Katja's for dinner, where we made our own pizza, and then watched the big festival that was taking place in Berlin. There was literally nothing happening for it in Chemnitz, which was a pity.
Then on the Tuesday we had our meeting with Barry and Katja, and that was good, we hadn't seen Barry in a wee while, as he's been very busy and travelling a lot. We then organised our week, everything we were doing and who was in charge of what etc.
We then went to Mittagsgebet, Midday Prayers, and it was awful, as everyday we read the Psalm for the week, but we do it kinda paragraph about, with whoever's taking it that day saying one paragraph, then everyone saying the next, and so on. But Judit accidentally spoke out loud a bit she wasn't meant to, and that made me, her and Maria all start to giggle, and ya really can't giggle at it, which made it even more tense, which then made us giggle more. It was awful. It was one of those situations we've all been in at some point or another where ya just can't laugh but ya really need to. And it went on for ages and ages and so many people were giving us dirty looks, and the lady taking it was clearly raging. I apologised lots afterwards for us, and didn't go again until Friday, when I had to take it. This story's why I named this blog with the above quotation.
On Tuesday afternoon we had our first KidsCafe, where parents can bring their children and there's stuff for the kids to do, while the parents can just sit back and have a coffee. It went well enough, and will hopefully develop well.
Afterwards I was only able to be at the start of Home Group as I was heading on to take Youth Group as a guest speaker for the group of one of the other football players from my team here. It went pretty well, they seemed to enjoy it, and had a few questions for me at the end as well. Then afterwards we went on to training, and I played awful for most of the night, apart from the last match, which was ok, but I was really annoyed at myself for how bad I was playing. 1) I need to get fitter! 2)I need to play more football!
On Wednesday we organised BOOMerang for the Saturday, and also a little for Youth Group for Friday. We also then in the afternoon had Kids Club, where we walked with the kids to another church where a special drama and program was taking place as it was St. Martin's Day. St. Martin's whole message was to be a light for others in that you help others, so it's tradition for the kids to walk through the streets with little lanterns that they've made. So that was kinda fun.
(I just finished the last Breakaway, which means we have no more British chocolate in the house! Aw!)
On Thursday we organised BOOMerang a little bit more, then in the afternoon we had Kids Club. It went well, we were talking about Samson, and the kids seemed pretty interested. Twas good fun. Then we had Youth Group, and that also went well, Maria talked about...something...lol. I remember it being interesting and lots of discussion coming out of it. I just can't remember what the topic was.
On Friday then we had the School Service first of all at 7.15-flipping-am, and I then went to back to bed for a little bit after. We then spent the morning organising Youth Group for that night, and I organised Mittagsgebet too, which we then did, and it went pretty well, we managed not to laugh! We then had Hilbersdorf Projekt meeting, where we went and looked at the hall and discussed what all we can do with it and what all we need to do for the following week. Then we had Youth Group, we were taking it, and while it may have been kinda long and a bit much, it also went well. And after we met with Michael and Friedemann to organise the plan for the next couple of months.
That night Michael and I watched a Greatest Hits of British Comedy DVD, which was very funny. And then I skyped with Fiona from like 1:15am til shortly after 3am.
So, when I got up for BOOMerang at 8:30am, after just 5 hours sleep, I can say I wasn't entirely looking forward to 5 hours with rowdy kids. But it was actually really good fun, I was just knackered after.
That night I went with Maria and Judit to a nice club in Chemnitz where there's a ton of pool tables, so we had a bite to eat and then played some pool. Twas a good laugh.
Then today Judit and I went to church here in Chemnitz while Maria was at her church in Crottendorf, where she's from. Twas nice chatting to everyone after the service, was ages before we got away. Then today I've had a fairly relaxing day. Just watched the U17 World Cup Final between Switzerland and Nigeria, twas a good match, Switzerland won 1-0.
Well, that's enough from me for now. Planning on working at getting fitter and playing more football this week, and then workwise we have youth group to organise again, we're starting with our Nativity Play practices, and we're taking the English Language Fellowship Service next week. So, lots to do!
God bless you, whoever you are, wherever you are!
Your Ginger Nut
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
A Great Weekend!
Hi y'all!
So, I just gotta say, I had a really good weekend.
On Friday everything ran fairly smoothly, we were organising different things, and working towards the Table Quiz, and it was all good.
Then on the Friday afternoon we met up again for Hilbersdorf Projekt, and one of the guys from another church who's helping out, Cornelius, had made some headway with a sports hall. We could have it Fridays 16:00-17:30, and there's room there to cook and also to do crafts and things, as well as the hall for games and sport. Which is great! God answers prayer! We're having another meeting on Thursday night to talk about advertising, planning, funds etc. and hope to get something started in 2-3 weeks time! Yay!
Then on Friday night we had planned that the Youth would help a l'il bit with the tidying up and setting up of the church now that the Sanctuary is ready to be used again after all the building work that's been done on it. We were just helping out for a little while, as there was already like half the church there and we were heading on to the Foozeball tournie as well.
Funny story though:
I arrive, and am saying hello to everyone who's there already, as in Germany whenever you arrive somewhere you always go around and shake everyone's hand. I then am standing talking to Matthias, when he also starts speaking to another guy Andre, who belongs to the church but is also a builder and was in charge of the work that was being done, and the conversation went like this:
Matthias: "Andre, who's going to get the materials?"
Andre: "We'll send Steven, sure, he has a car."
Matthias: "But Steven doesn't know his way around the material."
Steven: "Well, if ya write a list I guess I could just ask somebody from the shop."
Andre: "Yeah, just tell him what to get and that'll be fine."
Matthias: "Ok, Steven, this beer is called Pozar, it's in Pennymarkt, just get another crate of that, ok?"
Lol! The whole time I thought they were talking about building materials and were sending me to a BnQ type shop, but nope, they just wanted a beer for when they were finished working that night. And they send me, lol, the person there with literally the least clue about beer. Lol! But I went and got it and all was grand.
After we, the youth, were finished helping out in the church, we went on to the Foozeball Tournie, and to be honest, the less said about that, the better. Daniel and I were in a team together, and we came 9th out of 10, having lost all 4 of our group games. The annoying thing was we were so unlucky, every game we had was really tight, and in 3 of them we only lost by the 2-goal margin necessary for a win. It was very disappointing, cos Dani and are both pretty good, but it just wasn't happening on Friday. We won our two-legged 9th-place-playoff 18-2 though, I reckon taking out a l'il frustration!
On Saturday morning and afternoon we had Wesley Scouts, for which we were doing "Basic Knowledge every Scout Should Have". So we were doing things like wood-chopping, building a fire, cooking with a fire, how to use a knife, and knot-tieing. It was fun, as I basically spent my morning chopping wood (how alpha-male am I?), and then eating soup we'd cooked over the fire. As I said at the time, "Ah, es fetzt, mal ein Feuer zu bauen und damit zu kochen! - Ah, sometimes it's just nice to build a fire and cook with it." After the kids had then gone home we had a wee meeting and planned the next Scout meeting in December, where we'll be having a Christmas Party.
We then got home at around 4pm, and I basically spent two hours finishing off all the finer touches for the Table Quiz that night. Then I got a quick shower and we headed to Augustusburg for the Quiz. Although not too many people made it, we did have a good night, with the winning team only 3 points ahead of the runners-up. Some of the rounds were pretty hard, like Judit's Art, History and Literature rounds, lol, and others were pretty easy, like my Bible and Music rounds. But it was good fun, and everyone there seemed to have fun.
After that we got home and I was knackered, as I hadn't had a minute free since like 9am. But, as Megan couldn't make it to our service the following morning, I had to learn lines for the drama we were doing.
On Sunday morning we then had our 3rd and last service of the series in Floeha. And it again went well, though due to sickness or being in Chemnitz to be accepted into full-membership of the church, there were a few of the young people not able to be there. And also, due to duties elsewhere on the circuit or being away, we also didn't have anyone to play the hymns. But Maria and Friedi, who were originally only meant to be playing guitar and bass for the two songs the youth were singing, decided to give the hymns a go as well, and that was really great of them, and it went fine, and was much better than nothing. The service and my sermon were well accepted, and it was not as chaotic as it could have been. Barry said later, "Ya see, God sends 2 fish and 5 loaves and outta that He makes a feast." And he was right, God may have sent us without everything we thought we needed, and what we may have thought was quite little, but He can make something good out of that.
Afterwards we went back to the Erloeserkirche as there were 3 people being accepted into full-membership and two others who were being adult-baptised, and they were pretty important people to me. So it was great just chatting to people afterwards and stuff, and the church was buzzing when we got there, everyone standing around having a coffee and chatting. That is the best thing about church, and what we really are called to in a church: fellowship with one another!
After that I got home and couldn't find my housekeys, and therefore couldn't get into my bedroom. So I was searching everywhere I'd been that morning, couldn't find it in our kitchen or our living room, I checked every little nook and crannie of the car, no sign, so I then drove to Floeha to check the church there, couldn't find it, then I drove to the Erloeserkirche, where I was sure i hadn't had it, and again no sign of it. So I got home really quite down, cos that basically meant I couldn't get into my room all day, and, it being Sunday there was nobody there who'd have a spare key, I wouldn't be able to sleep in my room that night either. So I sat myself down in front of the TV with my lunch and was eating that. Then at one point I needed to go to the loo, and what do I see when I walk in but my keys sitting on the windowsill of the toilet. Lol!
Speaking of the TV, I hardly ever watch TV here in Germany, apart from maybe football or the odd bit of news. On Sunday I was sort of reminded why I avoid it. I turned it on and there was the German version of Britain's Got Talent, "Das Supertalent"! In a half hour I saw a couple who played "alien pop" and the woman said "I've always felt like I'm an alien", a 74-year-old man who showed us his bum, and a middle-aged man who said through his dancing he could give women orgasms. It was the weirdest TV I've seen in a long time!
That night we then had DreamLabs, which was again very interesting and encouraging. We discussed how it should go on, what form it should take, and how Barry would like to step out from it and let us, though we're all younger, lead it and make it our own. I'm ok with that, and I still think it's a great wee thing, as it not only gives you good tips, but also encourages to go out seeking tips, ideas, mentors yourself.
And that was my weekend, and even though there were one or two difficult or annoying parts (playing crap at Foozeball, Key missing) all in all it was a really lovely weekend!
So, God bless you!
Your Fave Ginge!
So, I just gotta say, I had a really good weekend.
On Friday everything ran fairly smoothly, we were organising different things, and working towards the Table Quiz, and it was all good.
Then on the Friday afternoon we met up again for Hilbersdorf Projekt, and one of the guys from another church who's helping out, Cornelius, had made some headway with a sports hall. We could have it Fridays 16:00-17:30, and there's room there to cook and also to do crafts and things, as well as the hall for games and sport. Which is great! God answers prayer! We're having another meeting on Thursday night to talk about advertising, planning, funds etc. and hope to get something started in 2-3 weeks time! Yay!
Then on Friday night we had planned that the Youth would help a l'il bit with the tidying up and setting up of the church now that the Sanctuary is ready to be used again after all the building work that's been done on it. We were just helping out for a little while, as there was already like half the church there and we were heading on to the Foozeball tournie as well.
Funny story though:
I arrive, and am saying hello to everyone who's there already, as in Germany whenever you arrive somewhere you always go around and shake everyone's hand. I then am standing talking to Matthias, when he also starts speaking to another guy Andre, who belongs to the church but is also a builder and was in charge of the work that was being done, and the conversation went like this:
Matthias: "Andre, who's going to get the materials?"
Andre: "We'll send Steven, sure, he has a car."
Matthias: "But Steven doesn't know his way around the material."
Steven: "Well, if ya write a list I guess I could just ask somebody from the shop."
Andre: "Yeah, just tell him what to get and that'll be fine."
Matthias: "Ok, Steven, this beer is called Pozar, it's in Pennymarkt, just get another crate of that, ok?"
Lol! The whole time I thought they were talking about building materials and were sending me to a BnQ type shop, but nope, they just wanted a beer for when they were finished working that night. And they send me, lol, the person there with literally the least clue about beer. Lol! But I went and got it and all was grand.
After we, the youth, were finished helping out in the church, we went on to the Foozeball Tournie, and to be honest, the less said about that, the better. Daniel and I were in a team together, and we came 9th out of 10, having lost all 4 of our group games. The annoying thing was we were so unlucky, every game we had was really tight, and in 3 of them we only lost by the 2-goal margin necessary for a win. It was very disappointing, cos Dani and are both pretty good, but it just wasn't happening on Friday. We won our two-legged 9th-place-playoff 18-2 though, I reckon taking out a l'il frustration!
On Saturday morning and afternoon we had Wesley Scouts, for which we were doing "Basic Knowledge every Scout Should Have". So we were doing things like wood-chopping, building a fire, cooking with a fire, how to use a knife, and knot-tieing. It was fun, as I basically spent my morning chopping wood (how alpha-male am I?), and then eating soup we'd cooked over the fire. As I said at the time, "Ah, es fetzt, mal ein Feuer zu bauen und damit zu kochen! - Ah, sometimes it's just nice to build a fire and cook with it." After the kids had then gone home we had a wee meeting and planned the next Scout meeting in December, where we'll be having a Christmas Party.
We then got home at around 4pm, and I basically spent two hours finishing off all the finer touches for the Table Quiz that night. Then I got a quick shower and we headed to Augustusburg for the Quiz. Although not too many people made it, we did have a good night, with the winning team only 3 points ahead of the runners-up. Some of the rounds were pretty hard, like Judit's Art, History and Literature rounds, lol, and others were pretty easy, like my Bible and Music rounds. But it was good fun, and everyone there seemed to have fun.
After that we got home and I was knackered, as I hadn't had a minute free since like 9am. But, as Megan couldn't make it to our service the following morning, I had to learn lines for the drama we were doing.
On Sunday morning we then had our 3rd and last service of the series in Floeha. And it again went well, though due to sickness or being in Chemnitz to be accepted into full-membership of the church, there were a few of the young people not able to be there. And also, due to duties elsewhere on the circuit or being away, we also didn't have anyone to play the hymns. But Maria and Friedi, who were originally only meant to be playing guitar and bass for the two songs the youth were singing, decided to give the hymns a go as well, and that was really great of them, and it went fine, and was much better than nothing. The service and my sermon were well accepted, and it was not as chaotic as it could have been. Barry said later, "Ya see, God sends 2 fish and 5 loaves and outta that He makes a feast." And he was right, God may have sent us without everything we thought we needed, and what we may have thought was quite little, but He can make something good out of that.
Afterwards we went back to the Erloeserkirche as there were 3 people being accepted into full-membership and two others who were being adult-baptised, and they were pretty important people to me. So it was great just chatting to people afterwards and stuff, and the church was buzzing when we got there, everyone standing around having a coffee and chatting. That is the best thing about church, and what we really are called to in a church: fellowship with one another!
After that I got home and couldn't find my housekeys, and therefore couldn't get into my bedroom. So I was searching everywhere I'd been that morning, couldn't find it in our kitchen or our living room, I checked every little nook and crannie of the car, no sign, so I then drove to Floeha to check the church there, couldn't find it, then I drove to the Erloeserkirche, where I was sure i hadn't had it, and again no sign of it. So I got home really quite down, cos that basically meant I couldn't get into my room all day, and, it being Sunday there was nobody there who'd have a spare key, I wouldn't be able to sleep in my room that night either. So I sat myself down in front of the TV with my lunch and was eating that. Then at one point I needed to go to the loo, and what do I see when I walk in but my keys sitting on the windowsill of the toilet. Lol!
Speaking of the TV, I hardly ever watch TV here in Germany, apart from maybe football or the odd bit of news. On Sunday I was sort of reminded why I avoid it. I turned it on and there was the German version of Britain's Got Talent, "Das Supertalent"! In a half hour I saw a couple who played "alien pop" and the woman said "I've always felt like I'm an alien", a 74-year-old man who showed us his bum, and a middle-aged man who said through his dancing he could give women orgasms. It was the weirdest TV I've seen in a long time!
That night we then had DreamLabs, which was again very interesting and encouraging. We discussed how it should go on, what form it should take, and how Barry would like to step out from it and let us, though we're all younger, lead it and make it our own. I'm ok with that, and I still think it's a great wee thing, as it not only gives you good tips, but also encourages to go out seeking tips, ideas, mentors yourself.
And that was my weekend, and even though there were one or two difficult or annoying parts (playing crap at Foozeball, Key missing) all in all it was a really lovely weekend!
So, God bless you!
Your Fave Ginge!
Thursday, 5 November 2009
The Last While
(Written while drinking Nambarrie's Tea, eating Hungarian chocolate called Boci, and listening to Crooked Still)
Hi Everybody!
So, sorry, this next blog has been a good bit longer coming than I had planned. I'm doing good, not feeling quite 100% since yesterday, but getting better. Otherwise we've been fairly busy here, everything picked up again right after we got back from Auschwitz.
On the Friday after we got back we had a prayer meeting for the Hilbersdorf Project and Youth Group that night. Both were fine, and I can't quite remember much about them now, lol, but I'm pretty sure there was no problems with either of them.
After the Prayer Meeting Barry sat down with us as a Team and gave us some feedback on how we've been doing since we've been here. He gave us some encouragement and some constructive criticism as well, but on the whole he's very happy with us and the work we've been doing.
On the Saturday I then wrote a sermon that I'd be preaching for the next 3 weeks in the 3 different churches. I'm pretty happy with it, I think in one or two parts I could flesh it out a wee bit more, but on the whole I think I get across what I'm trying to say pretty well. More on that to come!
On Saturday night we technically had SNL, but with us having been in Auschwitz and Barry having been on holiday in Ireland, nobody knew it was on, so nobody came apart from Barry, Gillian & Michael. So after a while we dropped Michael home and the rest of us went on to the Irish Pub, which was nice, had a good chat with Barry, and we all talked about the Ski Trip in February, Maria and I are both definitely going, and Judit is thinking about it. Twas a very nice evening in the end actually.
Then on the Sunday morning we had our Service, and everything went very well, we sang two songs for the church as a youth group, and 4 of the young people did a drama for us, and I "preached". It went well, one lady said I did excellently with my German, and how clearly I spoke, and another man asked me a few questions about the version of the Bible I used and a poem I'd mentioned. And Gillian said to me later on that she thought it was very good, and that what I'd said was very important for the church to hear. So thumbs up all round, heehee.
That afternoon I played football, for FC Arche again, and unfortunately we lost 3-1, but it was to the top of the league, and it was a closer match than 3-1 suggests. Their third was just a late goal on the counter while we were piling on the pressure for an equaliser. I'm getting fitter as well, which meant I was able to cause their left back a few problems from right-wing. And it was a nice physical match too, actually, which I really enjoyed, I was able to put in a few good hard sliding tackles, especially in the last half hour when I was moved to centre-midfield. I was actually a little surprised that I never got a yellow card. And one of the other players said he hard the other team talking after the match, and said they were all singing my praises. Yay!
That night we had English Language Fellowship, and it was very good, Barry spoke very well, very challenging but encouraging at the same time!
Football on the Monday night was the last for a while, it's been moved to a different hall, and to Tuesday night, when I have training. I felt pretty good again on Monday, scored a couple of nice goals.
Judit also went home for a wee holiday on the Monday for a week. That left Maria and I alone to take care of everything for the week, which was ok actually, it wasn't too much to handle.
On Tuesday we had Home Group as per usual, and it went grand, then Wednesday was Kids Club, and we thought we were meant to be taking it, but we weren't, lol, but it meant we had everything prepared for this week when we were up. On Thursday we had a great wee kids club about the 10 Plagues. I had found games for each Plague, and it was really good fun. Then we went 10-Pin Bowling with the Youth and I scored 134, so I was pretty happy.
On Friday we had to take Schulandacht, the little service for the Nursing students, and it went ok, Maria did the talk and it was grand. As I've said before, it's always strange doing it for people who just aren't interested. We then again had Prayer Meeting for Hilbersdorf and Youth Group. David did Youth Group about the creation and theories about that, and it was very interesting.
On Saturday we had Family Afternoon, and it was nice, and good fun. I wrote a l'il story about a fox and a bear and how they shared food for the winter, and they we made animals out of conkers and matchsticks, and sang a few songs, and drank coffee and ate cake! It was good fun!
Afterwards Michael Sloan, his girlfriend Anne, Maria and I all wanted to go to a showing of Urfaust in the theatre, but when we got there a poster on the door said it was cancelled "due to sickness". So that was disappointing. But we got our money back and went to see Pope Joan in the cinema instead, which was quite interesting.
On Sunday we then did our service again in Augustusburg, for 7 people, which is odd. It went fine, was a little chaotic, because we didn't have anyone to play piano for the hymns, so had to sing a cappella, but it was ok. Afterwards Megan and Theres were taking the mickey out of me for my speaking melody when I preach, lol. They said it's fine, but it's just funny.
It was also the 50-year anniversary of the church in Floeha, so there was a lunch in the church there after their service, so we went to it and ate there. It was nice, as I got speaking to Beate and her husband Georg, Beate was the Pastor in Floeha last year but moved in the summer, and also Simone Focke who I know from her work in Bangor, but who comes from the circuit here originally.
On Monday I had a nice day off and didn't do much apart from read, go shopping and pick Judit up from the train station.
On Tuesday we had a good breakfast with Katja Foerster, the Pastor who's now in Floeha, and chatted about all the things we had to do this week. I also prepared Home Group for Tuesday night, and it went quite well, there was a lot of discussion and it went pretty long. I then went to training with Michael, but when we got there the whole place was empty. I found out today that it had been called off because of the rain, but the manager had accidentally texted my old number. After Michael, Barry and I watched the Man U match, which was a crazy game, but I'm glad we didn't lose.
On Wednesday we spent most of the day preparing the Table Quiz for Saturday night, and then went to Kids Club, where I did the story, and it went pretty well. Afterwards I started to feel sick though, and went to bed quite early, and slept right through.
Today was more preparation for the Table Quiz, then Kids Club which went very well today too, the kids were all in good form, and the tonight we had Youth Group, which was also good tonight.
Unfortunately though it seems as though somebody came into our house today and stole Judits laptop. It really sucks and is also somewhat strange, considering Maria and I are both pretty sure that our laptop's were also wide open to be stolen, but weren't. It really sucks.
Anyhow, God bless all of you, and whatever you are doing!
Love from the Ginger!
Hi Everybody!
So, sorry, this next blog has been a good bit longer coming than I had planned. I'm doing good, not feeling quite 100% since yesterday, but getting better. Otherwise we've been fairly busy here, everything picked up again right after we got back from Auschwitz.
On the Friday after we got back we had a prayer meeting for the Hilbersdorf Project and Youth Group that night. Both were fine, and I can't quite remember much about them now, lol, but I'm pretty sure there was no problems with either of them.
After the Prayer Meeting Barry sat down with us as a Team and gave us some feedback on how we've been doing since we've been here. He gave us some encouragement and some constructive criticism as well, but on the whole he's very happy with us and the work we've been doing.
On the Saturday I then wrote a sermon that I'd be preaching for the next 3 weeks in the 3 different churches. I'm pretty happy with it, I think in one or two parts I could flesh it out a wee bit more, but on the whole I think I get across what I'm trying to say pretty well. More on that to come!
On Saturday night we technically had SNL, but with us having been in Auschwitz and Barry having been on holiday in Ireland, nobody knew it was on, so nobody came apart from Barry, Gillian & Michael. So after a while we dropped Michael home and the rest of us went on to the Irish Pub, which was nice, had a good chat with Barry, and we all talked about the Ski Trip in February, Maria and I are both definitely going, and Judit is thinking about it. Twas a very nice evening in the end actually.
Then on the Sunday morning we had our Service, and everything went very well, we sang two songs for the church as a youth group, and 4 of the young people did a drama for us, and I "preached". It went well, one lady said I did excellently with my German, and how clearly I spoke, and another man asked me a few questions about the version of the Bible I used and a poem I'd mentioned. And Gillian said to me later on that she thought it was very good, and that what I'd said was very important for the church to hear. So thumbs up all round, heehee.
That afternoon I played football, for FC Arche again, and unfortunately we lost 3-1, but it was to the top of the league, and it was a closer match than 3-1 suggests. Their third was just a late goal on the counter while we were piling on the pressure for an equaliser. I'm getting fitter as well, which meant I was able to cause their left back a few problems from right-wing. And it was a nice physical match too, actually, which I really enjoyed, I was able to put in a few good hard sliding tackles, especially in the last half hour when I was moved to centre-midfield. I was actually a little surprised that I never got a yellow card. And one of the other players said he hard the other team talking after the match, and said they were all singing my praises. Yay!
That night we had English Language Fellowship, and it was very good, Barry spoke very well, very challenging but encouraging at the same time!
Football on the Monday night was the last for a while, it's been moved to a different hall, and to Tuesday night, when I have training. I felt pretty good again on Monday, scored a couple of nice goals.
Judit also went home for a wee holiday on the Monday for a week. That left Maria and I alone to take care of everything for the week, which was ok actually, it wasn't too much to handle.
On Tuesday we had Home Group as per usual, and it went grand, then Wednesday was Kids Club, and we thought we were meant to be taking it, but we weren't, lol, but it meant we had everything prepared for this week when we were up. On Thursday we had a great wee kids club about the 10 Plagues. I had found games for each Plague, and it was really good fun. Then we went 10-Pin Bowling with the Youth and I scored 134, so I was pretty happy.
On Friday we had to take Schulandacht, the little service for the Nursing students, and it went ok, Maria did the talk and it was grand. As I've said before, it's always strange doing it for people who just aren't interested. We then again had Prayer Meeting for Hilbersdorf and Youth Group. David did Youth Group about the creation and theories about that, and it was very interesting.
On Saturday we had Family Afternoon, and it was nice, and good fun. I wrote a l'il story about a fox and a bear and how they shared food for the winter, and they we made animals out of conkers and matchsticks, and sang a few songs, and drank coffee and ate cake! It was good fun!
Afterwards Michael Sloan, his girlfriend Anne, Maria and I all wanted to go to a showing of Urfaust in the theatre, but when we got there a poster on the door said it was cancelled "due to sickness". So that was disappointing. But we got our money back and went to see Pope Joan in the cinema instead, which was quite interesting.
On Sunday we then did our service again in Augustusburg, for 7 people, which is odd. It went fine, was a little chaotic, because we didn't have anyone to play piano for the hymns, so had to sing a cappella, but it was ok. Afterwards Megan and Theres were taking the mickey out of me for my speaking melody when I preach, lol. They said it's fine, but it's just funny.
It was also the 50-year anniversary of the church in Floeha, so there was a lunch in the church there after their service, so we went to it and ate there. It was nice, as I got speaking to Beate and her husband Georg, Beate was the Pastor in Floeha last year but moved in the summer, and also Simone Focke who I know from her work in Bangor, but who comes from the circuit here originally.
On Monday I had a nice day off and didn't do much apart from read, go shopping and pick Judit up from the train station.
On Tuesday we had a good breakfast with Katja Foerster, the Pastor who's now in Floeha, and chatted about all the things we had to do this week. I also prepared Home Group for Tuesday night, and it went quite well, there was a lot of discussion and it went pretty long. I then went to training with Michael, but when we got there the whole place was empty. I found out today that it had been called off because of the rain, but the manager had accidentally texted my old number. After Michael, Barry and I watched the Man U match, which was a crazy game, but I'm glad we didn't lose.
On Wednesday we spent most of the day preparing the Table Quiz for Saturday night, and then went to Kids Club, where I did the story, and it went pretty well. Afterwards I started to feel sick though, and went to bed quite early, and slept right through.
Today was more preparation for the Table Quiz, then Kids Club which went very well today too, the kids were all in good form, and the tonight we had Youth Group, which was also good tonight.
Unfortunately though it seems as though somebody came into our house today and stole Judits laptop. It really sucks and is also somewhat strange, considering Maria and I are both pretty sure that our laptop's were also wide open to be stolen, but weren't. It really sucks.
Anyhow, God bless all of you, and whatever you are doing!
Love from the Ginger!
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