We had a break from groups for a week or two week. We worked on the wood chip path, moving huge rocks for border stones, filling in holes, laying down gravel and putting woodchips on top. We made fantastic
progress! It's so rewarding to see the path come together. It's also a
lot of fun to work with this group of people. Sometimes we couldn't work
because we were laughing so hard. On Wednesday that week we had an intern outing.
We went to Granna, the town that invented Polkagris, which is a kind of
candy that's usually on a stick. It's a cute, kind of touristy town. We
had a barbecue at a nearby lake and then went to Jonkoping for a couple
hours. In Jonkoping a group of us hung around the lake, took our shoes
off and walked along the shore and in the water and then back through
town. It was a fun day, but I was tired so it was hard to be around so
many people. One day I baked some
blueberry muffins with some blueberries I picked in the forest. The blueberries were everywhere, fun to pick and eat! I love picking berries!
During the second week working on the path, we also did a lot of planning for the German Teen camp and German family camp in August. We also had a group of ten Austrians who are leaders in youth drop-in centres with a certain organization. They were a really cool group. They ran most of their own program, but I enjoyed going for a canoe trip with them on Saturday. The weather was mostly cloudy and rained hard for about 10-15 minutes about an hour after we started, it rained enough to soak us but we dried out pretty fast. The sun came out in the afternoon with perfect timing to coincide with our arrival at a swimming spot.
One weekend my friend EJ took a trip to Latvia. I picked her up from the train station on Tuesday morning at 6:30am with a bike and a pair of roller blades. She rode the bike and I roller bladed until we got to a gravel path and then she gave me a ride the rest of the way on the back of her bike. While we rode, I got to hear about all her adventures.
The next weekend I went down to Luneburg, Germany (near Hamburg) to visit my friend Corinna from Spring School. It was
awesome! I missed one train on the way down because it left from a different platform than was written on the board, but I didn't have to pay for a new ticket. I had fun trying to figure out how to use the payphone to call and tell her I'd be an hour late. That weekend we mostly hung out and talked, went for a walk, and played
games. While she was at work, her mom showed me around Luneburg; parts of the city date back to the 1300s. We went up an old water tower and got a beautiful view over the city. On Saturday we went to a barefoot park; we took off our shoes and
walked along a path where you got to walk across or through all sorts
of different things: cobblestones of different shapes and sizes, sand,
gravel, pebbles, heather, pinecones, polished glass bits, and at least
four different kinds of mud. I loved it! That evening Corinna
invited a friend over and we talked, played Corinna's favorite game called Ubongo, sang worship songs
and prayed for each other. Sunday morning I went to church with Corinna,
and she translated for me, and I was impressed with her translation ability. I left Sunday afternoon and managed to make it back to Holsby without missing any trains, despite the fact one train was 10 minutes late and missed the ferry it was supposed to take and had to wait for the next ferry. It was so cool to be on a train that took a ferry! All in all, it was a much-needed, relaxing weekend. EJ and Elke picked me up from the train station. EJ had thought about picking me up with a bike, but decided against it since it had been raining off and on all day.
Monday was the beginning of the German Teen Camp. Even though I knew the campers would be coming from Germany, I hadn't realized how much in German it would be. The two weeks were the most intense ones of the summer because we ran pretty much all the program. There were 75 German teens here for the camp. It was challenging,
especially with the language barrier, and I felt I had a hard time
connecting with them, but others on our team had some great
conversations. On Tuesday night of the second week Luke gave them
an opportunity to accept Christ for the first time or re-dedicate their
lives and some of them did! Pray that it was not just an emotional
moment but a permanent, life-changing decision. On Saturday night we had a
girls' evening. Judith taught Taibo, Yiskah gave a devotion in German
on beauty in the Bible, and we had stations where they could paint their
nails, have face masks and massages. I gave back and shoulder massages
for almost an hour and a half! It was great, though since I got to talk
to girls at the same time. One day during the camp we went to a water park with them; we had a ton
of fun racing down the slides and diving off the diving platforms. On Wednesday night I shared part of my story of my struggle with self-worth and had some interesting conversations afterward with students and a lot of encouragement.
This
week we have a German family camp, and I'm working with the 8-9 year
olds in the mornings. I working with Stefan and Danny, who speak German,
so they have to do most of the explaining and talking. I was a little
worried about communicating with the kids
since they don't speak much English, but it's actually gone better than
expected. They are pretty friendly and talkative and try to talk with me
even though I don’t understand much of what they’re saying. Sometimes I
get it, sometimes I just smile and nod,
and sometimes I ask someone for a translation. Tuesday afternoon I
helped run the giant swing and one little girl went on the swing who is turning 7
next week. Thursday I ran the bottom of the zipline, running back and
forth like 30 times, but it was so much fun! In between
I talked with Valerie, a 12-year-old girl, and used just about all the
German I knew and hand signals and stuff like that to try to fill in the
blanks. Now she asks to sit at meals with me and comes to talk to me
when she sees me. I’m excited to see how the
week continues.
On Thursday night EJ, Friederike and I started experimenting with homemade hair treatment. We put yogurt in our hair, left it in for 20 minutes and then washed it out. I can't say I notice much different, but it was fun to do. EJ says she still smells yogurt in her hair! This next week we are going to try a variety of other things including avocado, honey, banana, and chamomile.
Today I am feeling really drained. It's exhausting to try to listen to German all the time and figure out what is going on, never mind trying to communicate what I want to say. A lot of people are going to the lake this afternoon, and I've decided to bike there on my own to take some time by myself. It's a beautiful day!
That's most of the highlights and probably more than enough for you to read. I hope your summer is wrapping up well!
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