We ran our first 24/7 Prayer Weekend last weekend and it was amazing to see the development of the room over the course of the time. I wasn’t really sure how people were going to respond to this idea when I first presented it and the fact that we only had 9 hours out of 48 filled the weekend before was a little disheartening to say the least. I was rescued however by a great idea to use a Doodle-List and we managed to fill 30 hours! It was so encouraging to see people using the room and connecting with God over the weekend, something we will definitely do again at the church :)

I’ve now had a grand total of 24 appointments at the dentist in the past 4 months and I’m still not actually finished. The students are however on a semester break so I get a little pause until April. I’ve actually become pretty good friends with my 2 dentists over the course of this time and I went out for some food with them last week to celebrate their semester break. I’ve also invited them round to my house in the near future for something “traditionally British”….not quite sure what I’m going to make yet, any suggestions? I’m also currently trying to fight the German health service as they want me to pay for some of the treatments I’ve received even though I was originally told I wouldn’t have to pay anything. More on that as it develops.

I now have 2 6-year old drum students and the 2nd one is even better than the first. I’ve taught him 3 times nows and every week I’m blown away by how much we get through and he doesn’t even practise! I’m starting to push to teach more here and have made an advert that I’ve posted around a few shops/schools. I’m also going to put an advert in a local paper so we’ll see what it brings. So if you know anyone in the Freiburg area looking for lessons, send them over to me ;)

Yesterday I went to help at a youth centre near to where I live and helped with an after-school craft evening they run there. It was soooo much fun and the kids there were fascinated by my “accent” when I spoke German. One lad couldn’t understand why I couldn’t say the word “Foto” properly….it sounded perfectly fine in my head I’ll have you know but he wasn’t convinced. I think I’m going to start helping there more regularly….hopefully every week if I can manage it.

And to help improve my German I’m currently receiving German lessons from a man called Charly at the church, who is possibly one of the nicest men I’ve ever met, he’s an absolute legend! We’re working through a book called Drachenblut. We’re focusing a lot on my pronunciation and a lot of the time is spent with me reading sections of the book outloud which is surprisingly challenging. He said: his aim is to get me to think and sound German…perfect!

My favourite phrase at the moment is, “Die dümmsten Bauern haben die dicksten Kartoffeln.” Which literally means the dumbest farmers have the biggest potatoes or I believe the English equivalent is, “Fortune favours fools.” My favourite word is currently is, “Frösteln” which is an oldish word meaning to feel chilly/shivery….the word just feels cold to me :)

Finally, just to let all you lovely Coventry folk know that I’ll be back in Coventry from the 5th to the 12th of March so it would be great to catch up if you’re around :)

Thanks for reading!

Barky Me!