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!