Frances Update! (Photos at bottom)

Yikes! Well, for me the last couple months have been about joy, family, readjustment, and picking up speed...

For my summer holidays this year I got the opportunity to head back to England for August.  Arriving at the very beginning of the month, in time for a wonderful weekend celebrating the wedding of Holly and Callum Donaldson, then a week in Guildford catching up with friends and friends like family there, before heading to my Aunt’s for a few quiet days before the arrival of my sister and her daughter!  We then had a FABULOUS few days drinking tea, cuddling cats, driving around Shropshire and visiting family haunts, and HORSE-BACK RIDING, before I disappeared off for a weekend to Switzerland where I took part in and represented Polylux at a European Roundtable of New Monastic Communities! Basically, a networking weekend for prayer and missional communities based in Europe.  I then returned home for a final, wonderful week with my sister, her daughter, and my other 17 yr old Canadian niece who came and joined us for that week, before saying a VERY sad farewell to my sister, my nieces, my Aunt, Essex, England, and so on.

My sister, my aunt and I 💛

I have to say that returning to Germany was a bit of a rough landing this time around, not because I don’t love it here too, but simply because my time in England was so natural, so filled with family and belonging and HOME, that returning to Germany was a bit of wrench.  That being said, after a few days of lots of sleep and slowly seeing people here, I began to pick up speed again!

At the of beginning of September I ended up teaching the Caribuni German Class again for two weeks, which was fun and it was nice to see “my” Syrian ladies.  There may also be a chance that I will take it back on at the end of the year, at least for a bit, as Bogna’s contract with the charity ends in November and cannot be renewed(for some strange, german charity tax reason...).  As interest in the class has fluctuated a bit over the last year, they aren’t 100% sure if they’ll be given funding to continue it, but it should at least give me some employment over November and December.

In September I also began a new German class for myself!  The local Community College (Volkshochschule) finally received enough interest to run a B2 level course, so I have begun “officially” learning German again.  It’s fun and challenging at the same time as, while it’s great to be getting the chance to correct some of my German and extend other bits, our teacher (who’s lovely) speaks VERY quickly and bounces about a bit in her explanations! I’m also finding that although many things I sort of, sometimes, use in my ongoing attempts at german aren’t too far off being right, there’s also a lot of grammar about future and past tenses and sentence structure that gets covered in “official” courses that I haven’t actually learnt!  That being said, that is also the reason I’m taking the course, so it should be good!

One proof of my improvement in German though, is that on our Community Away Weekend in September, I managed to share my life story and “testament” FULLY IN GERMAN!!!  Complete with photos and questions, I managed, for nearly 90min, to tell my life story completely in German! :)  (a very proud moment!)

At the end of September I had a lovely visit from my friend Crystal, which also coincided with the baptism of a friend here on the Dazeberg, which meant I had a wonderful week of good conversations and celebrations.

Heading into October I’m beginning to look ahead to the 24-7 Prayer International Gathering in Belfast at the end of the month, as well as continuing to pray and “wait and see” about the ongoing Brexit developments.  I’m choosing to hope and believe that something will work out that will enable me to stay here for a while longer, as there are a number of exciting things beginning to develop within the wider community, but I’m assuming that I will at worst be allowed to stay until the end of January-ish, so am also looking forwards to a couple of other visits from friends over the winter.  Liz and Tilly Slinn will be coming for a weekend at the end of November, about which I am VERY excited, and then Rosie Frazier, a friend who I shared my room with during my Transit year but haven’t seen since, may be coming for a visit on her way to Norway(!) for Christmas!!  

So the combination of German learning, ongoing community life, the Gathering, visits from friends, Brexit and then the run up to Christmas means that the next couple of months should be fairly full!  But with lots of good things! :)

I hope this catches people up a bit, and thanks for reading!! 💛

Holly & Callum Donaldson!! (photo credit from someone else!!)

Random Guildford Crew at the wedding (photo credit to Milly Marsh?)

Spending time with one of my favourite little, yet not so little, people!!
(we went trampolining!)

My sister brought me Me'n'Ed's PIZZA!!!! :) 

Shropshire!!

My Aunt Liza, me, niece Marissa and sister Marina,
on top of Clee Hill, Shropshire

Family!

Riding at North Farm Stables, Ludlow
(this is the stable where my sister and I, as 8 and 5yr olds respectively, first every went riding, and it's STILL run by the same man!)

McLaren sisters feeling incredibly chuffed with...everything! :)

The Tyte Farm, Ackleton
The house where my Mum and her family grew up

Arial pic of what the farm would have looked like when my Mum lived there

YMCA Camp at Vaumarcus, Switzerland
(Swiss Photo credits are not mine, but can't remember who took them!...Mike Bischoff???)

View from YMCA

New Monastic/ Intentional Communities Roundtable 

Me sharing a bit about Polylux, who we are, how we "work" as a community, what we do...

Marissa, Marina and Jenna...

...and me!!!