Learning New Skills...

Life continues on here and time seems to speed up. I can't believe I've been here for almost 6 months now. It doesn't feel that long but at the same time I'm starting to forget what it's like to live in a country where I understand everything that's going on!

In the past couple of weeks I've managed to establish some sort of routine with all the groups, sessions, lessons and Bible studies I'm involved in. The one to ones are progressing well and I really feel like I'm getting to know the teenagers a lot better. One thing that has helped a lot is that they all love to read! One family is like the library for the church. Their books get passed around from household to household and I get to join in with this. Firstly as most of you will know, I love to read anyway and I actually really enjoy teenage fiction. Secondly it helps me to engage with the youth because it means I know what they're talking about and what they're interested in.

One area of church work I'm involved in but not yet written much about is the music. I have been learning music since I was about 4 or 5 and have been involved in music in church since I was a teenager. Over the past couple of months though I have become more passionate about music in church and congregational singing. I have been influenced a lot by the work of Keith and Kristyn Getty. They wrote a book a couple of years ago called Sing! which has been really helpful for me as a musician and for someone involved with music in church. It's not just for musicians though, it addresses why singing (whether you're musical or not) is so important in the church. The Gettys have also started putting on conferences each year addressing these ideas from a Biblical perspective. I was able to watch the live stream of this conference in Nashville a few weeks ago. It was based on the Psalms and for the first time I really started to appreciate how amazing it is that God has given us a songbook to use.

In my church, the lady in charge of the music also has been influenced by the Gettys. We have been watching videos of last year's conference and it has been such an encouragement to both of us. It's great that I can have someone to talk about these things with.
Although she is in charge of the music in church, I am able to be a sounding board for her ideas and I try to help her where I can. One job I've taken on is starting to prepare carols for Christmas. Carols are fairly new to my church although they have been translated into Slovene. What they don't have, however, is all the different parts and harmonies that go with the tune. As a flautist, every year growing up I was given the descant part (the high bit some ladies sing in the last verses of some carols) to play and so I know these parts very well. I volunteered to write out the music for 3 carols with this extra part. The music itself isn't the difficult bit, I have to try and make sure the words in Slovene fit in correctly and sound right when they're sung. One strange consequence of this work is that I've been starting to get in the Christmas mood and so spent a lot of yesterday afternoon listening to Christmas songs - it's not weird is it?


I've also been given the opportunity to learn a new musical skill this week. Many of the girls in church play the ukulele. Last Sunday I was lent one to see if I can teach myself and then join them in playing in church. Between the ages of 7 and 13 I learnt to play the Spanish guitar - that means playing tunes not chords. I think that knowledge is buried deep in my brain because I seem to have just been able to pick up the ukulele and play it. It's great! I may well be annoying my flatmates (sorry if I am) but I am really enjoying picking up the music for hymns and songs and playing and singing them. It's also quite therapeutic and gives my brain a rest from learning a difficult language and preparing Bible studies. Now I just need to work on developing calluses on my fingers...

When the Road Doesn't Quite Lead Where You Expected...

Predjama Grad (Yes it's a castle in a cave!)

Last week I had my parents visiting me. We had a great time together getting to see lots of different parts of Slovenia. I really enjoyed introducing them to the country I love so much. I also enjoyed getting to see places I'd not been before such as the Postojna caves and the Predjama castle. They really are well worth a visit if you ever visit Slovenia.
Most importantly, they were able to come to my church and meet some of the people I work with. They were even invited along to the youth group on Friday evening where they were interviewed!

I'm sad that they're gone but I know it won't be too long before I see them again as I'll probably have a short break in England over the Christmas holidays. The only sad part of their time with me is that I managed to twist my knee getting up off the sofa to let them into my flat. It's not too bad but I just need to be careful with it.

I thought this week I would be starting to get into my new routine now that the term has started properly. I was all set to write about my experience at the language school where I was due to start this week. Unfortunately that experience was very short lived! I had paid for the course and filled in a written placement test. I arrived on Tuesday morning where I had the introduction before we were taken one by one for an oral test. After I had finished my test I went and had coffee with some of my new classmates. I began to get a bit worried at this point because we had been told there would be only two classes and everyone I spoke to were complete beginners. We had been told that we would find out what groups we would be placed in before class on Thursday so I arrived in plenty of time only to find that I wasn't in either group!

Basically I was way too advanced for the beginner class but the other group were nearly fluent and so there was nothing for my level. There had been a misunderstanding and I should have been emailed so I didn't turn up. I'm actually grateful I did go along though because I was able to get the contact details of someone I met on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with her.

My walk from the bus stop

Fortunately I have already been in touch with my previous private tutor and I'll be starting lessons with her again next week. It's not quite what I expected but I'm sure I'll make quick progress with her. I've also been promised a refund from the language school. I guess I'll try there again next semester. Anyway, as I was leaving the school and starting to make my way home I was trying to sort all this out and wasn't really paying a huge amount of attention to the buses. To be fair, the bus I got on had the wrong destination on the front and so I thought it was going my way. It wasn't! The next thing I knew I was at the end of the line, the wrong end of the line. Due to my stubbornness and slight embarrassment I didn't want to just get back on the bus and go the opposite direction, instead I decided to walk to the next bus stop. Thirty minutes later I was slightly regretting my decision especially with my sore knee but it was a lovely day and I explored a part of Ljubljana I'd never been to before. It was also slightly surreal to be surrounded by fields in the middle of the city!

This week has been a learning experience for me. Even though things are not going as I planned, I know that God has a reason for it all happening this way. I just need to keep trusting him through these changes to my plan!