The Luck Of The Irish!

(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!