"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