Guest slippers

This is one of my favourite German traditions ever. It is so sweet! When you go to someone's house, it's quite common to take off your shoes and put on slippers which the host offers you, so that your feet don't get cold. I love it! Here is a picture of some of my lovely lovely housegroup as we met on Monday for an evening of amazing international food. Take note of the slippers!




And here you can see my bit for representing British cuisine... apple crumble! People liked it :)









I really appreciate spending time with my house group. It was especially nice in the holidays when I didn't have much on. Us ladies (plus cute child) met once for a yum breakfast which was a lovely time.


The weekend was busier which I enjoyed! Sunday was so great; a great service then I chatted to so many different people. So different from my first Sunday when I felt like a complete outsider! On Sunday evening we had 'erleuchtet' (illuminated), a service for 20s-ish people, from all different churches around. There was about 100 people there which was exciting. I sang in the band and loved it! The music was great. I prayed a lot that I wouldn't think about taking the credit but instead really worship. The days leading up to it I felt a cold brewing, but it never came! So grateful.

Today was the first session of the new confirmation group (they have this for a year and a half before getting confirmed, to learn more about being a Christian). I'm looking forward to getting stuck in with it and seeing the group form together. Today we played some fun 'trust' games to start (I'm in the middle of this picture somewhere!).

On Sunday it is 'Hallo Luther', a pretty big event organised by several churches here. It is to celebrate the Reformation and there is a load going on. It's going to be in the busiest square in the city. Our church is particularly involved in a family program with music, drama and the giving out of 1500 really great kids bibles. Please pray that through this there will be a huge interest in what the Bible actually has to say for people today. I'm involved in the music, singing and doing the actions for the kids songs. It is going to be pretty funny! One of the songs does involve some air guitar! Just picture that projected onto a big screen in the city centre. Haha!



This is the square on a normal day so you can visualise the venue and the place where I may become famous for my air guitar skills.





I had a lovely time this lunch time at the lady's house I visited in my first week here. I was thinking how much I have learnt since then and that my German has improved :) In case you're wondering how it went hanging with my new friend, it is happening on Friday, so not yet.
It is pretty cold here and I have been wearing what I would consider to be my normal winter clothes. Think I will have to invest in even warmer stuff for when actual winter comes!
Loads of love xx

German trains > English trains!

Not sure where this last week has gone! I've been doing little jobs but not actually sure what! I know I've had a couple of practices for a monthly event for young adults on Sunday night- really looking forward to that. I have to say I'm definitely more comfortable with the English songs- there's this one German one with so many words to fit in, massive tongue twister situation. Praying it will turn out ok on the night!

My highlight of the past week was going to visit my good friend Irina down near Stuttgart for the weekend. I went down on the train, which deserves the mention in the blog title. My seat had a pillow on it!! It was SO comfy! And the train was really spacious. Plus it was quite fun jumping over the chasm to the train door (and I thought some London tube gaps were big!). Anyway, Irina and I were roommates when I was in Germany in 2008. It was SO good to see her! I last saw her about a year and half ago at our other room mate's wedding. We chatted a huge amount. As well as laughing together she was a real encouragement to me. It was just really relaxing and good to have a change of scenery too. In the photo above you can see us together and below, me in front of an impressive building in rainy Stuttgart!

It obviously takes time for people to get to know me but I appreciated chatting with someone who already knows me really well. It has been generally so quiet here with it being holidays, and I've struggled a bit with this! I wasn't feeling too well the last couple of days too so that sort of added to the emotional mood. I felt lonely. It's already getting better though, since people are filtering back from holidays and today for example I had a really lovely morning with the other women in my housegroup, followed by kids club which went really well. We had a lot of fun together and I told the story of Jesus stilling the storm, complete with paper boats that we made! And tonight I think David and I are going to chill and watch a film. I prefer it like this, having a more social day! Thanks for your prayers, and keep praying that I make good friends. Actually I had an invite from a girl I met at church about a month ago so really looking forward to that. I showed I was grateful but didn't want to seem too desperate when she first mentioned it! In my head I was thinking 'yay, a friend!'!

The language side of things is weird, sometimes I'm pleased and know that I've improved by other times things just do not go well and can be really discouraging! Like at points in band practice last night when I didn't understand what we were doing a few times. People are totally nice but without blaming them I know it can be annoying!

Almost forgot to mention, I had my first ever visit to the German hairdressers. I did not lose my hair. Achievement!

It is good to hear from you from time to time, keep it coming!
Love and God bless,
Ruth.

Recycling is fun!

As I write this I'm chomping through a pack of Haribo- so many kinds here! I also got a bit too excited when I saw a Haribo advent calendar the other day. I've got better at cooking properly for myself, though today I had ran out of fruit and had a rather exhilirating combo of yogurt and oats for breakfast. The only prob being that I think the yogurt was a bit on the turn. I've been shopping now though :)
Youth went well on Thursday, it was fun. The quiz I made was quite entertaining though I think I only reinforced stereotypes by teaching them about the queen's speech and toad in the hole. I may have also painted a violent picture of us Brits as I explained that we burn Guy Fawkes on 5th Nov. I made scones which they liked though ashamedly I did not give a good enough demo because in the corner of my eye I caught some of them sandwiching the 2 halves together. No! And also worse was putting a wad of cream, then a bit of jam right on the top. Also no!

I am in some respects adopting to German ways. I love the Pfand system, I won't lie! This basically is a small extra charge you pay when buying bottles of water or whatever, then when you give them in at a shop you get the money back. I've been saving up loads of bottles so I well enjoyed having money off my shopping today. It's such a fun system. It actually makes recycling fun! (geek!) I'm also bringing in a rubbish separation system in my room. Yeah!
On Sunday I went to the African church that meets in our building after our service. It was really good! I was made very welcome and well enjoyed dancing. Can't help but move to the music! We also had some amazing food afterwards.
On Sun morning I got up quite late and bumped into some guy in the corridor on the way to the bathroom. This doesn't seem a big deal but I was in my froggy pajamas and anyone that's seen me literally as soon as I get out of bed- it is quite a humourous sight. So the guy said good morning and asked me where someone was. When I was in church I realised this guy was in fact the speaker. It was a special youth service where hundreds of youth were there and as he was speaking it crossed my mind that at any minute he could announce to the world/make a joke about seeing me in my froggy pajamas!
Yesterday I had a great day in Goettingen, a really nice city not that far away from here- see photos :) (more will be on Facebook soon). I got transport by going on a not-as-dodgy-as-it-sounds website thing where you find people who are going where you want to go and are offering spaces. It was so much cheaper than getting a train and quite interesting travelling with a complete stranger both ways. I had a great time walking around and enjoying the sunshine. The buildings are gorgeous, though many are literally skew, it was quite funny to see! Another funny thing I observed was the mass of cyclists and bikes everywhere- photo below is a very small tribute. (I almost gave this blog the title 'There are 9 million bicycles in...' but decided it was too cheesy. I've told you now anyway so I'm not any cooler!). I enjoyed much good German food there and then relaxed with a Thai massage! (Private joke- no dark corridors!) My back was loving that after swimming.
Yes I finally did go swimming! The novelty of a new costume helped. I enjoy it but definitely can improve a lot in fitness. I'm going to go again tomorrow. It was so great going on a fun excursion but the only thing is that it would have been so lovely to share it with someone. Though I have met a lot of great people, I haven't really got to the stage of that good friends yet.

It's the holidays so I haven't got much to do officially though I am still keeping myself pretty busy! I have still got Rothenditmold group tomorrow though (which went really well last week, working with my usual team).
I'm wondering what on earth winter will be like here. Today it was absolutely freezing! I may have to start on my winter clothing soon if it carries on!
My blog wouldn't be English without mentioning the weather :)
I hope you are well and thanks for all your news. I love hearing it! Just to mention as well that the first line of the address I gave is not needed- apparently it will get to me personally more quickly if you leave it off. So:
Kleine Rosenstr. 4
34117 Kassel
Germany.
Loads of love x

What a glorious day

Another weather-related blog title! Sunday was a glorious day. The meeting at church was filled with thanks and praise to God as we celebrated Annemarie's induction as new youth leader, and as we took communion and were reminded afresh of the life he gives us. It was really moving. I sang for the first time too which I really enjoyed. After the 20+ meeting which was good fun, the weather was so gorgeous that I had the urge to go out on a run! It was so good to get moving and enjoy the sunshine. It was so nice that when I got back I went out again with my camera. Hope you enjoy a few of the photos :) Since then I have been running a few more times with David. Think my body is appreciating the exercise! I decided that I will take up swimming as well, and bought a new swimming costume today to make sure I do!

Thankyou for praying and supporting me. God hears, it is so true! He is good! On Wednesday it suddenly clicked that I would have to lead the kids group on my own (the one that didn't go too well the week before!)- I hadn't properly thought that through before. Weirdly though I was quite calm and I had instant inspiration for a fun craft to go with the story, which they loved. I can only thank him. It must have been him because confidence came from nowhere, and somehow I had the words to have better control than last week. Amazing! It was still really hard work but much better. I'm looking forward to working with the usual leader again this week :)

On Thursday I'm leading Jesus to go (youth group) and doing an English evening. As well as hopefully having a lot of fun together, I'm planning to work in a few stories of my experience of God- I really want to be honest and be an encouragement to them.
I have also really been enjoying time with my housegroup- they are such a lovely group. We enjoyed some more Korean food on Friday again as well as laughing loads.

After this week everyone has 2 weeks Autumn break so that will be a nice holiday. I'm going to visit a friend in Stuttgart one weekend but apart from that I'm planning to do some exploring and visit some other cities perhaps! There is talk of a girls night as well with the youth, so that will be fun. Visits are welcome though, for anyone that fancies a spontaneous trip! No joke! Meanwhile though I have Skype up and running (had the first run with my parents tonight which was lovely but my English was pretty stuttered!) so just let me know if you want to organise a Skype date.
Keep in touch,
Much love x