So They Stole My Bike but Left My Helmet...

Spot the Missing Bike

I think it's fair to say that this past month has had it's fair share of challenges. Up until now I think I've had a fairly easy time of it here in Slovenia. It's been a pattern in my life that things seem to plod along quite happily until suddenly lots of small (and not so small) bad things happen at once (Feel free to ask me some time about the defining week that led me to Slovenia in the first place!).

This past month has felt a bit like that. Nothing huge has happened, but lots of small things, one after the other. If you read my last post, you'll know more about things that have been happening. For a quick update on my thumb, I went to the orthopaedic specialist yesterday but he immediately decided to send me to a plastic surgeon instead. Apparently they have more knowledge about hands, who knew? I have an appointment on Monday so hopefully I'll know more then.
The title of this post kinda gives away the problem I've had this week. The picture quite nicely shows the scene I was presented with on Monday evening, just as I needed to use it! If you're British, you may well be asking the questions, was it insured and have I reported it stolen. The answer to both is a resounding no. Ljubljana is a very safe city apart from the loss of bikes. The police therefore don't care about one missing cheap second hand bike. The really sad thing though is that I'd just got it serviced and replaced the basket that was one rusty screw away from falling off. I think the nice new basket is what made it a target to be honest. It's been sat in the same spot outside my flat for the past year and there are definitely nicer ones to take...

Moving on to the bizarre parts of my past two weeks. Obviously, the thieves weren't safety conscious as they didn't take my helmet. However, this morning I got a message from a friend saying that someone had taken her helmet but not her bike...
If that wasn't strange enough, last week I saw a man casually taking an ostrich for a walk in the middle of Ljubljana...

Yes I've been facing a few challenges but the last month hasn't been without its joys. I've settled into a good routine and have especially been encouraged by the responses of the girls I meet for one to ones. In one group we're looking at the book of Esther and it's great to see the expressions and responses of one of the girls who doesn't know the story. In another group we've been looking at 1 John and the true meaning of love. It's a real joy for me to see how these teenagers are learning and growing. Tonight we're having a light party, celebrating the light the Reformation brought to Europe (Reformation Day is a National Holiday here and is on 31st October). It's been a lot of fun this week bringing together different ideas so hopefully it'll go well tonight.

Please be praying for me as I'm facing these challenges, that I would depend fully on God rather than my own strength. It's tiring facing one after another but I know that God is sufficient for me and that he can and will lead me through.
Anyway I'll just leave you with a picture that is just another reason why I love living in Slovenia. I took this picture on the bus last week. The Slovene literally translates as reserved for the reading of books. I'm not sure how successful the scheme is but at least it made me smile!

Sometimes Lots of Things All Happen At Once...

Today as I look out of my window, the sun is shining and it's a beautiful autumn day. We're well into the Rugby World Cup and at time of writing Wales is doing pretty well. I even tried to teach rugby to the youth last week. I'm not entirely sure how well it went down. They didn't seem to appreciate the whole passing backwards thing. At least I made the attempt and slowly I might be able to persuade them that it is a good game...

Last week was just one of those weeks, where everything seemed to happen at once. Firstly, it was the first week where I was really back to normal work. Everything has now started up again, which is great, and I now have a better idea of my workload and weekly rhythm. Yes I have more work than last year but I enjoy it all and I like to keep busy. Sadly not everything went smoothly. Last week I again attempted to join the language course. It seemed to be going well, the assessment was ok and then when I went to see if I had a class on the Thursday, hurray, I'd been assigned one. Unfortunately it was far too easy for me. I don't want to disparage other people or their learning but the range between me and some of the other people in the group was massive. The people themselves were lovely but it wasn't helpful for me to spend a lot of money just to make friends and not learn anything. I might have stayed to see if it got better but I had a frustrating conversation with the teacher after the class. I won't go into what was said but sufficed to say that it was that conversation that swayed me to leave. I'm not upset about it as I'm back again with my tutor and I know that I will continue to learn lots with her. I've also made the decision not to even bother applying for the course next semester. It would be my last semester and it's just not worth the hassle when I know I have a good teacher already.

Don't worry, nothing's broken, this is quite normal!

This now leads me to the second big thing that happened last week. I finally got to experience the Slovene medical system. If you know me at all, you will know that I'm no stranger to doctors and hospitals due to the number of injuries I've had. What you may not realise is that I do have an underlying condition that is probably a major cause of many of these problems. Anyway, I've managed to injure myself again. It happened when I was in England at the end of August. I'm not entirely sure what happened but my hand/ thumb started being painful. I tried to shake it off, thought it wasn't a big deal, but if anything it has got worse over time not better. I eventually realised that I couldn't put it off any longer. I would have to go to the doctor. I am very grateful that I have private health insurance as it has made my life so much easier (I'm not eligible for Slovene health cover). I firstly had to find a doctor that spoke English. I was surprised that I was able to get an appointment that afternoon. I arrived, went to the reception and I was just sort of pointed in the direction of a waiting room. I had no idea what was going on. Everyone else seemed to know what to do but I was just sat there! Eventually I was able to speak to a nurse and she took my Slovene identification card. I then had to wait again and pray that my identification would be returned to me! In the end it was all ok but in those 45 minutes when I was waiting, I was incredibly stressed. The doctor wanted me to have an x-ray and an ultrasound on my hand but apparently it's up to me to organise that. I was able to get an x-ray quite easily and they even gave me a copy of the images as a souvenir! The ultrasound was more difficult and stressful. I ended up speaking to about 4 different clinics each sending me from person to person and department to department. Fortunately most of them spoke good English with the exception of a few people thinking I said 'son' instead of 'thumb'. At one point I was asked for my son's details... In the end I've got an appointment on Monday so the saga continues.

All in all, it's been a busy and stressful couple of weeks but I know that God is in control of it all and that he is upholding me through it all!

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.

Enjoying the Church Weekend Away...

View from the centre we were staying in

For those who follow these regularly, I'm sorry that I'm a bit late with this one. Last Friday I was still on the Church Weekend Away and it's taken until now to be able to recover enough to sit down and write about what happened.

We were staying in the same place as last year in the Soča region of Slovenia (near a town called Bavšica). For those who need a reminder of their Slovene geography, that's in the north west of the country in the middle of the Julian Alps which are part of the foothills of the Alps. We were very close to the borders of both Italy and Austria and it truly is a beautiful part of the world.

Playing Viking Chess

I may have mentioned a time or two that I was responsible for preparing all the the material for the children and younger youth. The topic of the camp was the Image of God. Over three sessions we looked at humanity being created in God's image, the distortion of the image of God in humanity and the future restoration. For each session I prepared a game, a memory verse, a craft as well as the study itself for young people aged from 10 to 14. It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed it and the feedback has been pretty positive. We split the young people into 2 groups and I took the older group for two of the three sessions. We had some good discussions but the teenage boys did draw some interesting conclusions including the fact that in heaven we'll be better off than superman... As both of them are sons of the pastor and assistant pastor, I decided to let them talk to their parents about that one...

Altogether it was a great time getting to know my church family better. It was also a time of sadness as we have finally (sort of) said goodbye to the Australian missionary family. They left for Ireland on Monday and so the Weekend Away was the last time they saw many people from the church. That being said, the group of us who are travelling to England on Saturday will meet up with them in Beccles, Suffolk where we will help out with a Holiday Bible Club. They will depart for Australia a few days before we go back to Slovenia and so I'm sure many more tears will be shed as we say goodbye finally.

That leads me into my final point. We are setting off for England on Saturday at about lunch time and will return the following Saturday, the 31st. Please pray for our journeys and the Bible Club itself. It will be a great opportunity for many of these young people to see what the church in England looks like. Some of them have never flown before and so it is a big exciting adventure for them. Please pray that the sadness of saying goodbye won't overshadow the joy and excitement of serving in another country.

Mosquitoes Ate My Face...

Ok, I know that sounds a bit dramatic but it's reasonably true. Last week we had our youth camp and my first camp of the summer. The theme of the camp was looking at different problems in light of the cross. The picture here is of my booklet which was designed by one of the teenage girls I meet with regularly. I think she is very talented! Anyway the text means, from top to bottom, selfishness, ignorance, unrighteousness, sickness and death. We had a great time together learning about these things but also singing songs, playing games and just hanging out together. We were camping in the same place as last year, on the side of the Kolpa River on the border with Croatia. More than once I had to shout across the river to try and get the kids back from the other side!

Every night we had a bonfire and we enjoyed sitting around it and talking together. One night we had a particularly long discussion on whether true love exists and what is the Biblical definition of love and marriage. It was difficult to follow everything that was going on as it was all in Slovene but it was interesting to see and hear many people get involved in the discussion.

The camp, of course, was almost entirely in Slovene. I was fairly proud of myself because I spoke more Slovene than I ever have before. I've started to get confidence in the fact that I can just about make myself understood and I am able to speak the language. I'm still very grateful that I have English to fall back on when my Slovene runs out. I think I've managed to surprise quite a few people because I'm not sure how many of them have heard me speak much Slovene before now. Anyway, it felt like another step forwards which was a great encouragement to me.

Ok so now I'll tell you about the mosquitoes. Some of you may remember that last year I slept in a tent for two nights but then was in a hammock for the final night. This year I decided it was so much more comfortable in a hammock so I would not even try in a tent. The first night was great but I was slightly on the cold side. As a result I slept with my sleeping bag over my head. I woke up a few times but you expect that when camping. The second night I decided to put on an extra jumper. I was a lot warmer and so didn't have the sleeping bag over my head. This was the result. Actually that was the result after the third night. I was too hot with the bag over my head and so I got bitten even more. In total I counted about 25 bites on my face. When I went to church a few days later, people thought I might have chicken pox/ measles etc. I was very grateful though that none of them hurt or itched, they just looked bad. Fortunately they are mostly gone now.

This week has also been quite busy. I've had some friends from the UK staying with me since Tuesday and they left very early this morning. Added to that, some other friends from the UK messaged me Tuesday morning saying they were travelling through Ljubljana that afternoon, was I free. I was able to meet with them, say goodbye and welcome my next visitors. It also looks likely that another family I know from the UK will be visiting my church on Sunday. It's been very unexpected having so many people through but it's been really enjoyable and enforced rest for me. I think I would have been very tempted to work too much this week rather than recovering. Next week, though, is back to the grindstone as I prepare from the church family camp. Prayers and visitors are always gratefully received!

You Know You Work in Ministry When...

Well it's finally happened. I've been expecting it for quite some time and it has been happening slowly until now... my room/ home office is becoming overrun with craft supplies, equipment for games and books to help me write Bible studies and study Slovene. The picture shows only a small part of the problem...

I have a slight confession to make. I always quite enjoyed the craft sessions at youth groups and camps etc. I may have also wanted to go and play games and pretended I found the craft boring but really I enjoyed it. This week for the first time it's been up to me to work out what craft we will be doing and how to actually make the things. It's been a steep but fun learning curve trawling through pintrest and other internet sites. It's also taken creativity on my part to try and merge ideas together to make what I want. Nothing online quite worked and so I've decided on my own versions. Time will tell if they actually work... (if they do I'm sure I'll share pictures, if not, you'll never hear about them again!)

You might be able to tell that I've been completely occupied with camp preparation this week. I've been doing everything from choosing and practising songs to writing studies to trying to make a kaleidoscope. Thankfully I think I am almost there. I only have the resources for the crafts to prepare and since these aren't needed for another month, I should have time to worry about them later.

Next week, on Monday, our youth camp starts. At the moment we have 21 young people coming between the ages of 10 and 18. The youngest will have their own separate group for the studies so that it is more appropriate for their age. The weather is due to be very hot which is great as we'll be camping next to a river. Please be praying for this camp, not all the youth are Christians or come from Christian homes. Pray that God would be working in all of their lives and that they would be growing in knowledge of him. The theme of the camp is the cross as the solution. Please be praying for those teaching and leading the sessions that God would be giving them the words to say.

Camp is a great time to build relationships with the young people. Please be praying for me and the other leaders as we try to get to know them better and to help them understand what is being taught on the camp.

Pray for safety but also for lots of fun. Camp is meant to be a time that everyone enjoys and does fun stuff together. For example, one day we will be travelling to Croatia to do rock climbing. I was tempted to sign up for it but I don't trust myself not to get injured...

I'm looking forward to having a great time on camp and then after that I have two friends coming to visit me in Ljubljana. I had another friend last week and it was great to be able to share some of my life here with her. I love having visitors and being able to show off the country of Slovenia so I'm looking forward to my friends coming. It will also be a good time to rest and relax after the exhaustion of camp...

I also just want to quickly share this video, if you want to know more about the work and the challenges in Slovenia it is very helpful, and short!
https://vimeo.com/338605562?ref=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR2Yhym03tKMqFjf5QvQDxKkFIF9CNwMtmC87VfBEXH4pEkosEI2r9-es6c