Life has calmed down a bit...

View from my flat - we still have some snow

Last time I wrote I mentioned that my language school was ending and my Bible course at Cornhill would be starting once more. It has definitely been very different these last couple of weeks and a lot calmer. To be honest I've enjoyed having more time to rest and to meet up with people. When I was doing both courses at once I only really had time to meet one person a week. Now I feel like I have the luxury of time to arrange multiple meetings in a week!

Two big things (well for me) have happened in the last couple of weeks. Firstly I managed to open a bank account! I know that may not seem like a big deal but those of you who have ever lived abroad will appreciate what a milestone it is. You may well be asking why it has taken so long. Well the main reason is that I was rejected from one bank before Christmas because I didn't have residency and they didn't think I had a valid reason to need an account here(?!) That meant that I needed to wait until after Christmas especially now I've had the time to deal with it all. It was also an accomplishment for me because the advisor didn't speak English and I was forced to use my Slovene. It was not made easier because of my employment status. Basically, I just didn't fit any of their boxes and they didn't quite know what to do with me. In the end though my application was successful and I can now say that I used my Slovene in a complicated official circumstance!

The other big thing for me this week was giving my latest talk for Cornhill. Some of you may know that I was quite apprehensive about it as it was on a difficult part of Scripture and to be honest I had no real idea what I was doing or where I was going with it. Thankfully we have a God who answers prayer and I'm certain that it was only with his help that I was able to get to grips with the passage (Exodus 22:1-17 if you're interested). I even got good feedback for it which was a real answer to prayer. Whilst that passage may have seemed daunting, I'm even more terrified by my next passage which is on Ecclesiastes 3! In all seriousness I do feel like I am learning dependence on God and his ability to reveal meaning of Scripture. I know that I can't do it alone or in my own strength!

Whilst the next few weeks are still looking quite quiet I am really appreciating the chance to have fellowship with friends and people from church. Now that my latest Cornhill talk is done I want to spend this extra time focussing on learning vocabulary and practicing what I have learnt. I have arranged to have conversation practice once a week with my old teacher and I am finding that very helpful. I also want to spend this time catching up on my pile of Christian books that I have started but not finished. I currently have 4 on the go, all on different topics. My plan is to finish all 4 before I start back at language school. Feel free to check in and ask how that's going!

Anyway, please still keep praying for me, especially for my language learning. It would be very easy for me to get out of practice in this period and lose momentum but I know that this is what I am here for this year. Please pray that I would use this extra time wisely and in a way that glorifies God.

Christmas, New Year and Return to Slovenia...

 

Lights in Ljubljana

It's been a few weeks since I last wrote and a few things have happened since then. I've had many adventures with Covid tests and getting all my paperwork together so that I could fly back to the UK for Christmas. I also had made the decision to fly via Venice directly to Bristol but this meant that I also had to contend with Italian rules which kept changing. Thankfully I made it back safely but then had to wait for the results of my PCR test. They arrived at 7.15pm on Christmas Eve! Contingency plans were well underway at this point but I am very grateful that I was able to have a normal(ish) Christmas with my family. Unfortunately at some point that weekend I caught norovirus. This led to a quick trip to A&E as I was so dehydrated. In the end I was fine, it just took a few days to recover and wasn't really the Christmas I had envisioned! Despite it all, I was really blessed by my time with my family and friends. I especially enjoyed being able to go to Swindon and go to my sending church. It really was an encouragement to be able to share what I have been doing and to hear preaching on the church's text for the year - 1 Corinthians 15:57. It was good to be reminded that it is in Christ we have the victory.

Sharing with my church in Swindon

I have now been back in Slovenia for a week and a half and it was back to reality with a bump. Despite not getting home until 11.30pm, I was back at language school bright and early the next morning. My language classes have now finished for this semester and so I have a break from them for 6 weeks. I really feel like I have learnt a lot in this time and that I have grown in confidence. My teachers have been very encouraging about my progress and it helped that I got 85% on my end of semester test (although of course I felt that I should have done better!) In the meantime Cornhill starts again next week and so I will be kept busy preparing my next talk. Please pray for me as I have to give a talk on a passage from Exodus 22 which is quite daunting. I have also arranged to have language lessons once a week with my old teacher. It will be good to spend time with her and hopefully I won't lose any momentum with my language.

The Covid situation here seems to get worse daily. Many people in my church have been affected by it, either by illness or by quarantine. This means that youth group has been cancelled tonight and church on Sunday will be online once more. Please pray for my church at this time, that we would still be able to encourage one another and that we would keep trusting in God alone for our help and strength. In conclusion, I have been reading the book of Daniel recently and something in the Bible notes struck me. Daniel and his friends, living in exile faced so many trials and challenges that could have led to their deaths yet they kept trusting and obeying God. God in his mercy chose to save them in extraordinary ways, not because they deserved it or to show that he will always save his people from danger, but to show that he can, that he is in control of all things. I may not know why God doesn't save us from this pandemic but that doesn't mean he is unable to. He is still in control, he has given us the victory through Jesus Christ his son!