Frances Update!

Turning, Turning, Turning...

The leaves turn, the seasons turn and life is full, and full of change!

Where to start?  The last couple months have been pretty full-on, with lots of things happening in all three areas of life here as well as some new possibilities for myself, specifically!  

At the beginning of October I went off to Vienna for the 24-7 Prayer European Gathering which was a fantastic week of connecting, reconnecting, learning, teaching, being challenged, worshipping together and celebrating.  My first ever seminar went well, despite some technical problems and leaving out a chunk of my notes, but it was fun to do and I got some pretty positive feedback from people who attended, which was nice!  

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

The Belvedere Palace, Vienna

Being challenged and encouraged on the pre-Gathering Leader's Day

As always, the hilarious 24-7 Auction was definitely one of the highlights, with the theme this year of “Aprons”.  Anyone could bring an apron along and we’d auction them off to raise money for various people, communities or projects happening within the 24-7 family.  For instance, a “Charlie & Lola” apron sent from Tilly Slinn (8yr old), ended up raising €1800 to go towards some of the work the Ibiza Team are doing with prositutes in San Antonio!

The week after Vienna I was unfortunately sick, but it gave me a great excuse to sleep on the couch and recover some of my introverted space.

Throughout October I also had two other options being developed.  The first was looking into getting my official German Language Certificate(B1) and trying to find a B2 language course to begin, and the second was the possibility of a new job.

I am now registered to take my B1 Prüfung (Test) this coming Friday, Nov. 23.  If you’re the praying type, I’d love some prayer for it as, although I should be able to pass it fairly easily, I am also aware that I am at the stage where I can communicate but often make silly, unthinking, mistakes...I’m not sure how “forgiving” the test will be, and so I’m hoping to remember all the seemingly little things such as correct articles and prepositions, etc!  The B2 Course can’t be pursued until after I pass the B1 Test, so assuming that I pass, I’ll be looking into courses for the new year.

The second development in my personal circumstances is that I now have a job!  It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster journey for me, but I am now teaching Grade 3 English classes four times a week, at a nearby Montessori School!  The roller-coaster came from a variety of things ranging between personal adjustments at having “mandatory tasks” within my week again, to reconciling the fact that although I like kids and have worked with them in various capacities throughout my life, I have never desired to be a teacher and I admit that I still spend a fair amount of time wondering what on earth I am doing!  Other challenges have involved officially entering the German “System”, and being required to have German Health Insurance and Pension payments, etc, which should ultimately be good things but which have also been very convoluted in trying to arrange, with the current concern of possibly being expected to pay health insurance retroactively for the past two years...

On the plus side, the children are very sweet, very forgiving and helpful in correcting my German, the other teachers have been helpful and friendly, and the partial income will be very helpful in going towards monthly expenses!  Over the course of the past several months I’ve had a few changes to my regular support amounts, and although this position (technically considered a “Mini-job” as it’s only 6hrs/wk) won’t pay enough to make me fully self-sustaining, it should replace some of the recent shortfall and lift a bit of the monthly financial pressures!  

Aside from these, I have also gained a roommate for the next few months, with our Northern Irish practicum student moving in!  Ellen is a lovely girl and very easy to live with, which is good as the poor girl is currently based in my living room! 

Ellen, my new roommate!

Autumn Sunsets on the Datzeberg

The next few weeks will see me (hopefully!) passing my B1 Test, settling in more comfortably to the teaching job and all the various lesson planning and teaching material creation which goes with it, and then we’ll be looking at the run-up to Christmas, practicing music for the Weihnachtsdienst (Christmas Service) and enjoying the annual Christmas Market in town!

So for me, the autumn has been a time of change, some expected and some unexpected, but it also feels like I’m transitioning into a healthy place of more defined responsibilities and involvement within Neubrandenburg life!