Back to Work I Go...

The Lovely Lake Bled

For those of you who are eagle eyed, you'll have noticed that I missed a week. Well I would be sorry but I'm not because I was on holiday. September has been quite a quiet and easy month for me for a variety of reasons. Firstly I was ill straight after coming back from England in August and then I only had a week of work before I joined a group from Oak Hall in Lake Bled for a week. Although term has started, things have yet to settle down into a regular routine. Whilst the beginning of term is incredibly busy for all the youth and their parents, that has meant that things have been slower for me whilst everyone works out their new routines.

To give a bit of explanation of how crazy things are for the youth, I need to give a bit of detail on their schooling system. When I was at school in England, it started every day at 8.45 and finished at 3.30. If I went to any after school clubs or orchestras or music lessons, these were always at the same time every year. Although my lessons may have changed within this structure, the structure itself didn't change. Not so here. Every year, everything changes. This includes what time they start and finish school every day and what time all their extra curricular activities are on. They could start school at 7.15 and finish at 2 on one day and start at 8 and finish at 4 another. This has made it interesting trying to find times when I can meet people so that all the schedules mesh together. It has taken a bit of time but I think it's finally all organised.

Another reason it has been quiet is that many of my weekly evening meetings have not yet started up again this term. After a busy summer I'm actually quite grateful for a slow start to the term as the number of Bible studies I will be preparing each week has tripled... One of the teenage girls I meet with has asked for an extra separate meeting each week and due to the loss of our youth group leader, I will be leading it every other week instead of once a term. I've also been asked to meet with another teenage girl to give her some English practice with a native speaker. I'm due to start at the language course again next week (if they have a class for me), so I'm enjoying the calm before the storm!

The view from my hotel window

I won't go on too much about my holiday, except to say that it was exactly what I needed. (Ok I did succumb and add a few photos from my time there!) I had a great time with the group from Oak Hall and really appreciated the fellowship with them. It also gave me the opportunity to visit a church in the nearby town of Radovljica. I know the pastor and his wife there and it was a great time seeing how another church works in Slovenia. I was also quite proud of myself since I understood about 80% of what was going on. This was especially good for me considering I'd been functioning in English and with British people for the past week so it was interesting to switch back to my Slovene brain.
 Well I'm now back and although things have been quieter, I'm now back into work mode and am fully prepared for the term to come! (I think...)

Recovering From Summer...

Yes some of them did go swimming in the North Sea

The HBC team

Well my jam packed summer has finally come to an end. Schools started back this week and next week I'll be starting to get back into the swing of term time. That being said, I'm actually finally taking my summer holiday the week after next. I've been looking forward to it all summer, so much so that my housemate commented that she was wondering why she hadn't heard about it. I'm going to be spending a week at Lake Bled with a group from Oak Hall. I'm very glad to let someone else take over the duties of leading Bible studies etc!

Anyway, after the church weekend away a couple of weeks ago, a group of us went to Beccles in Suffolk, England. We were helping out with the Baptist Church's Holiday Bible Club. It was the first time they'd held one for a few years and it was a great opportunity for our teenagers to go on a mission trip and see what it's like to be a Christian in another country. I was so pleased with all of them, the way they behaved and the way they were so willing to help out with whatever was asked of them. It was also a time of sadness as we finally said goodbye to the Box family who have now returned to Sydney, Australia.

We were so grateful for the love and welcome we had from the church in Beccles. They were great in including all of the Slovene team, myself included. I saw my main role for the week as looking after our teenagers and helping them to serve. I also was given a couple of responsibilities during the HBC, the biggest of which was to give the talk on the second day about the healing of the paralysed man. The theme of the week was Jesus makes the Impossible Possible (Jezus naredi nemogoče mogoče is the Slovene version for those of you who were wondering) and how he alone is able to forgive sins. I was also helping to lead the group for the 9 year olds. Although we would have liked more children through the week, we still had 36 on the first day, 30 on the second and 38 on the third.

As well as helping out at the HBC, the Slovene team were also given the opportunity to partake of traditional English experiences. These included fish and chips on the beach at Southwold and a cream tea. It was all very tasty!

The only downside of the week was the generous sharing of germs within the Slovene group. Many of us (myself included) have since gone down with colds. I am very grateful that out of all the weeks it could have happened, it was this week. All in all, praise God for a successful collaboration and for all that we learnt during our brief trip to England.