Failures in Communication...

Today has been quite sad for me. It was my last language lesson with my private tutor. I have been very grateful and appreciative of the way she has helped me learn the language. It has also helped that she is a Christian because she has also been helping me with technical Christian language. The reason I have finished learning with her is because I will be starting to learn at the Slovene language school on 2nd October. It will be strange learning in a group setting but I think it will be good for me. It also means that I will have opportunities to make new friends and build relationships with different groups of people. Please be praying for me as I start to learn in a new way.

If you really want to know, these are prepositions and
endings for 4th, 5th and 2nd cases but it demonstrates
the fun that Slovene is!

Although I am making a lot of progress with the language (I have reached the equivalent of GCSE standard) I'm obviously not perfect and this has led to some interesting communications. The hardest thing for me is understanding Slovene when I'm not expecting it. My automatic response is to say that I don't understand and that I don't speak Slovene (ne razumem, ne govorim slovensko). Unfortunately if I'm taken off guard even this can fail. Last week I was stood at the bus stop when a lady started asking me something. I replied ne razumem, ne govorite slovensko. If you didn't spot the mistake, what I actually said was I don't understand, you (formal) don't speak Slovene. Well at least I was polite in telling this poor woman she didn't speak her own language. I did realise what I'd said and straight away managed to correct myself but she did look very confused.

Even today I've had lots of fun with the language. I got phoned at 7.30 this morning by a delivery driver. At first I didn't know who he was or what he wanted. I managed to explain that I didn't understand and he somehow found someone to speak to me in English. I don't know if they were with him or not. I have visions of him wandering the streets trying to find someone to speak with me...

In Slovenia, I have learnt that it is common for items to be passed on to people in some unusual ways. For example sometimes people will give packages to bus drivers to take with them and collected at another stop. It is also common practice for items/ letters to be left at petrol stations. It looked like I might have to pick up my parcel from my local petrol station which is always a fun experience (I have somehow managed it once before). Fortunately I was home when the delivery driver
rang again to say he was outside. He didn't have his friend/ random person to interpret for him so I somehow managed to muddle through enough Slovene to work out what was going on. I was very proud of myself!

Apart from the language, things are getting busy and I feel like I'm getting settled into a routine. The youth group started again last week and I have now had 3 Bible studies with the teenage girls. These seem to be going well and I appreciate that they are starting to ask questions and that we are having good discussions.

My routine will be slightly disrupted (in a very good way) as my parents are coming to visit. I'm looking forward to spending time with them and showing them the country of Slovenia. It is also a very good excuse for me to get to see all the places I've wanted to go to but haven't had the time/ money to do it. It actually will help a lot in learning more about the Slovene culture. Please be praying for them as they travel and for all of us as we drive around the country next week.

I'm sorry I don't have many interesting photos this week. One of the benefits of my apartment block is that we have a roof terrace and so get some amazing views across the city. I'll finish up by adding in a photo of the sunset over the hills surrounding Ljubljana. Apparently they're not big enough to be mountains but I'm from the south of England and they look like mountains to me!

Starting One to Ones...

This last fortnight has gone so quickly! I only realised this morning that it was time for me to write my blog again! Thank you to those of you who were praying for me as I travelled to England. I had a good time with family and friends. Unfortunately I was ill with a cold the entire time and had a flight from Venice to England that almost rivalled my trip to America a few years ago (if you don't know the story you can read about it here https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/business/29road.html) Ok so it wasn't as bad as that one but we were sat on the plane in Venice for about 2 hours before we set off. Despite these setbacks I really did have a good time in England. I had to take most of the next week off to recover but it was worth it!

It's the beginning of a new term and so church activities are about to start back up. This means that I have also started preparing for my one to ones with some of the younger women in the church. In fact I had my first session yesterday. In this blog post I thought I would focus on some of the things we'll be looking at in these sessions. With the teenage girls we're studying the book of Proverbs. Some of you may be asking why Proverbs, I don't think it's first on many people's lists to study. I chose it, however, because I was reminded in my own study that it is a useful book for learning how to live in a way that's pleasing to God. It is full of God's wisdom that is applicable to all people in all situations in life. It is a great book for teenagers to look at as they work out how they should be living with all the pressures they face from society today. As well as Proverbs we're also looking at sections from a book called Battles Christians Face by Vaughan Roberts. This was first published about 10 years ago and was very helpful for me when I was in my late teenage/ early twenties. The first chapter is on image and identity. It was good for me to be reminded that we don't give ourselves identity but it is a gift of grace from God. It doesn't matter what the world thinks of us, what we look like, what we do etc because we have been chosen and given a new status by God.

I haven't started the second one to one sessions yet although hopefully they will begin in the next week or so. With one of the women in church we will be looking at Rejoicing in Christ by Michael Reeves. I must admit that I haven't actually read this book yet (although I have started). We chose to look at this book because it has been recently translated into Slovene and was recommended by the church. I have heard Mike Reeves speak and read other books of his. He has an easily understandable style and just effuses excitement and energy whatever subject he is talking/ writing about. The pages of the book seem to be jam packed full of gospel truths. I'm looking forward to reading it properly and learning more about Christ and the joy that we can have in him and in what he has done for us.

This next week is when things will start to get busy at church with normal activities like the youth group starting again. A few times people have commented that I arrived in Slovenia at a really weird time in the year. It was right at the end of the school year and so just as I started getting involved in activities, they stopped for summer. In reality I'm very glad I arrived when I did. I was able to get a sense and an idea of what life is like here during term time but then I had the summer to learn how to live here and to build on relationships with people. I was able to be involved in the church camps having already spent time with the people at church. It also means that I know what I will be involved with now that the summer is over. I am able to start afresh but not in an unknown capacity.

Please pray for the term ahead and especially for the people I will be meeting with regularly. Please pray that they will be learning and growing in knowledge of God and how to live their lives in a way that's pleasing to him. Please also pray for me as I seek to lead and be a good example to those around me. Pray that I will put my trust completely in God to guide and to help me especially when I am leading these studies.