Some Endings and Some Beginnings...

Enjoying the blessing of my balcony

I have now been back in Slovenia for exactly 9 months and it feels like the time has flown by. Things have changed so much, especially in the last few months when all restrictions have been lifted. It's a far cry from last Autumn with the weekly protests complete with tear gas, smoke bombs and police in riot gear walking through the centre of a usually incredibly safe city. These last two weeks have started to mark the end of my year of study and now I am in serious transition to my new role. My language course finished last week but this week has been so busy I've been glad for the extra time. I will obviously keep on studying the language even if it isn't as intensive as it has been. I have already contacted my old private tutor and arranged to have lessons once a week from September. I may be reasonably fluent in the language now but there are still many situations where I have no idea what's going on. Language is a life long study and my aim is to be as good as I can be as I aim to serve the people here in their own language rather than making them always speak mine.

I had another ending this week. I gave my last talk for Cornhill, my Bible course that I have been attending for the last 2 years. I will not be continuing with study next year so this really was quite a milestone. The passage I taught on was Isaiah 40, looking at how the incomparable, caring Lord comes with comfort for his people. Yes it's a bit of a mouthful but I quite liked the alliteration. As I have done with my previous 3 talks, I will now edit and translate it ready to give to the Ladies' Bible Study group next Thursday. It's been such a great experience giving these talks to real people. It becomes less about an academic exercise and more about how can I teach these people God's word faithfully in a way that will help them best. I hope to continue writing talks for this group and give them regularly even though I will no longer have the safety net of Cornhill.

Now that language has finished and I've prepared my last talk, I'm now looking ahead to the summer and then onto the Autumn. Whilst I don't officially take over the youth work in the church until September, there are many things that I need to prepare over the summer. We also have our youth camp in a month's time. As I will be travelling to the UK for 2 weeks immediately before the camp, I need to get all my prep done before I go. This includes writing a talk, preparing a Bible study and helping to organise the music. As I say, I'm quite happy to have the extra time now I no longer have language lessons each week!

In the meantime I've been enjoying the summer weather here in Ljubljana and taken the opportunity to work outside on my balcony as often as possible. I am still incredibly grateful to God for the gift of this flat and especially for the fact that it looks like I can stay here for the foreseeable future. It means that I'm able to make it my home and put down roots here. 

Please continue to pray for me here as I head into a busy summer and then transition into my new role. Pray that I would continue to depend on our great God and not try to do it all in my own strength!