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!