Dramatic Happenings...

Almost as soon as I published my post 2 weeks ago, the government introduced slightly stricter measures here in Slovenia. For me it's only had a small impact, the biggest of which is that we're no longer supposed to have private gatherings. This has meant that my choir has been cancelled for the time being and the Ladies' Bible Study that had been happening in my flat has gone back to zoom. There are several other new rules but nothing too drastic unlike our neighbours to the north (Austria). Despite this I think it may just be a matter of time until some sort of lockdown is introduced if cases continue to rise in the same way.

The other dramatic event also happened almost 2 weeks ago now. My neighbour's house caught fire! No one was hurt and I understand the building is still habitable as most of the fire was in the attics. I live down quite a small road and I have often looked at this house from my window (it's almost directly opposite but just slightly down another street) and admired it. It was quite a surprise therefore to hear lots of sirens and to see the street filled with fire engines. I think I counted about 7 of them! I am very thankful that no one was hurt, it definitely could have been a lot worse. It was difficult though to watch it all unfold (I had little choice since it was right outside my window and the noise was really loud) and to know there was nothing I could do to help. It's good in these times to know that there is One who can help and can comfort those strangers in a way that we can't.

Other than these things, life has gone on pretty much as normal for me. Today I went with my language school to visit a cave in Slovenia. Slovenia has many caves, about 14,000, and lots of them are open to tourists. It always amazes me that God chose to even make difficult places, underground places, beautiful. This cave, Županova jama (The Mayor's Cave), was discovered in the 1920s and has 6 large chambers open to the public. It was good exercise, my friend described it as her leg day, but it was also beautiful to see God's creation 35m below the surface.

There's a concept I learnt about at university called Uniformitarianism. It's the theory that the earth and its geology was formed by long, slow processes and that what has happened in the past will continue to happen in the future. When I looked at these caves today I was reminded that despite everything that's going on around us, God continues the same. God is the ultimate example of uniformitarianism. He was good in the past, he is good in the present, and he will continue to be good in the future. The world may be chaotic and dramatic around me but I have hope because I know that God will continue to be in control of all things. His creation shows us that!

Exploring Slovenia...

View near Lake Bled

I realise that I didn't put up a blog post last week when I was due to so sorry about that. Firstly I just plain forgot that I was supposed to be writing last week, and secondly, last week my parents were here visiting which meant that I took a bit of a break from my work.

It was half term here in Slovenia last week as well as in England which worked out very well for me. It meant that I got a break from both language school and Cornhill, my Bible handling course. (It also happened to be my birthday but that's just an aside!) These first few weeks have felt hectic at times trying to get everything done so it was good to be able to spend time with my parents and to show them parts of Slovenia they had never been to before. One of the highlights for me was visiting the arboretum. It was just amazing in the autumn colours and really made me grateful for God's wonderful creation. We also took the opportunity to go visit Lake Bled and the nearby gorge. Again, the weather was amazing and we had great views across the whole landscape.

Autumn in the Arboretum

Before my break two big things happened. Firstly, my language teacher had to withdraw from teaching the course because she needs back surgery. We now have two teachers on alternate days of the week. Whilst my new teachers are great, I do feel that we had all built a good rapport with the first one. It takes time to build that with new teachers especially when we only see them half the time each. At first I was a bit worried that it was going to be quite disjointed but having had them for 2 weeks now (1 each side of half term) I feel that we are starting to get into a good rhythm.

The other big thing for me was that I had to give my first talk of the year for Cornhill. For those of you who don't know, I have to prepare and give 6 talks this year, each on a different passage. Last year we stayed in the book of Colossians and worked on maybe 1 or 2 verses for each talk. By the end our talks had to last 10 minutes. This year we are working with larger passages and each talk is from a different genre of literature in the Bible. My first talk was from 1 Peter whilst my next one will be from the Gospel of Mark. Our talks also now have to last 12-15 minutes. It really does feel like a step up but I guess that's the point. I'm very grateful that I got positive feedback on my talk but I get the impression that my next passage will be a bit harder to work on. Please be praying for me in all these studies.

Finally, some of you may be wondering about the situation here in Ljubljana. The last two weeks have definitely felt a lot calmer than previous weeks. I'm sure there are still people protesting but it's nothing like it was the last time I wrote. That being said, cases are still rising here and numbers of vaccinated people is not increasing at any great rate. Praise God that the situation is calmer but please continue to pray for the Covid situation here as well as across the world!