Half Term

Hi guys!!


Great feature of my superdupercooli camera... colour change thingy or however that's called in English... I love it!

I've just had a wonderful half term! Monday and Tuesday were off. I went for a long walk with my host family and my host mum's cousin's family. It was dead cold and rainy at the beginning but though it stayed cold the whole time the sun came out later in the day and I really enjoyed the walk. In England they have the most interesting "Public Footpaths" I've ever seen in my life! They either lead you trough the toughest muddy deep puddle forest thingy or over sheep and cow meadows. And even through people's gardens. Sometimes it's also a normal path, like something you can actually walk on.

Me on a "public footpath"!! Next to some family's chickens. And in the small shed on the left there was a goat, I could have just taken them all with me.

After this really freezing walk we went for a curry which just means we went to an Indian Restaurant. I think my food didn't have any curry in it, don't know why they call it a curry then... And that food was massive! The starter almost could have been enough for me! And then the real meal. Huge. It was really tasty but just so incredibly much! I really felt like just falling asleep right where I was sitting, I was so full! But indeed good food!

Wednesday Thursday Friday was Fresh Conference. That means all the Pais teams set all over GB met in Manchester for some more seminars, some refreshings of seminars we heard at Foundational Training, sharing experiences, showing ministry, stealing other team's ideas, going shopping in Manchester and having a really good time together!
Natalie, Sarah, Alex, Anne, Laura, Ina, me

It was so nice to see them all again, seemed like ages although it was just 5 weeks! And the next time we meet with the whole group is in 4 months!! That's an awful lot of time in between...

Most of the weekend I spent with Steph, the only girl from church in my age, and her parents. We went for a nice lunch somewhere and afterwards I got to know the "Trafford Center" which is a massive shopping center near Manchester! It's got shops on two floors and each floor is one mile long! And it's got everything! Really huge! And I had a horrible encounter with a spider, it was in the car, at first we couldn't say surely that it was a spider but Steph and I were looking at it - frightened - and then it moved and we both screamed at the same time so we had to stop on the next car park where we both jumped out of the car and her dad had to save us and remove that terrible animal thing. Scary. Probably not at all as scary as what Syllie has to face and live with in Cameroon... but still. Uuaaah!! Anyway.
On the way back home that night I heard the song "Top of the world" in the car and when I came into the house I just sang the chorus of that song about 15 times thinking no one was at home and if so supposing they would just tell me to shut up after three chorusses. I knew definitely my host parents were away and I was pretty sure my two host brothers were as well. So I just sang that song in an incredibly loud volume (it was 11pm) and had my fun with it. And today I found out that Jake, one of my host brothers, actually was at home. That was indeed funny, I couldn't believe it!

Tomorrow I will start a thing that is completely new to me. Susanne, last year's Pais worker in the church I'm in now, started a kids club called "The Incredibles" where in each session they talked about one Incredible from the Bible (like e.g. David, Solomon, Jesus) and played games and made crafts on the topic. I'm going to restart it now and I've really no idea how it's going to be as I've never lead any kids club before! And I won't describe myself as a creative person which would actually be quite a good skill but anyway. I'm really excited about it and I'm glad I won't do the sessions alone, some nice ladies will always be with me to help and support me keeping all the six to ten year old girls in peace... And by the way, Jesus will be with me as well, I'm quite sure about that. (Cool, I've got the most incredible person in the world with me, I just realized that.)
So if you'd like to support me in some way you could definitely pray for me leading the Incredibles each Monday evening and also the upcoming Saturday where we're going to have "The Incredibles' Party". I really hope the kids will like it!

That's news from me. Hope you are all doing well wherever you are! Please let me know how you are doing, I'm interested in how everyone is!!

God bless!

Things that make me smile

• the way English speaking people pronounce my name
• the Sunday-phenomenon: in the morning it's grayish and rainy and during the last song in church the sun comes out and keeps shining the whole day
• my team
• German bread from aldi which is said to be ideal for a healthier lifestyle
  
• the chickens in our garden
• my host father when he tries to speak German
• the lovely people in my church
• my huge bed
• seeing people being happy
  
• dancing on Thursday evenings
• waking up on a Saturday morning, getting into the kitchen and finding a letter for me on the table
• my gorgeous niece with her 5 teeth
  
• God's wonderful creation

This day was filled with lovely beautiful sunshine! What a joy!!

Sunrise in Marple

Sunset in Marple

Arriving 'home'

3 weeks Foundational Training are over now! I had a really good time, brilliant! And now I'm so glad to be in my new home! My host family is so lovely, my bedroom is wonderful, I've got a very big bed and my own bathroom, and we have a piano and guitar and the landscape in and around Glossop is amazing!

I arrived on Saturday and on the way from Richmond to Glossop I couldn't stop wowing! The area is very hilly and there are many fields and meadows around. And on our journey the sun was shining which made it even more beautiful!
Yesterday I went for a walk with my other host parents (I'm going to change the families during my stay here) and I really loved it!

Today I had a day off, so I enjoyed sleeping in in my big bed :) and during the day Mandy and Tim (my host parents) showed me some parts of the area. And now I'm ready and very excited to start tomorrow with my team in our office. We probably won't be in schools this week because this is Vision Week, we're just going to set up plans, getting to know the area, our team and other organizational stuff. I'm really looking forward to that all!

A little bit about my host families. The family I'm staying with at the beginning is Tim and Mandy who are probably a little bit younger than my (real) parents and they have two sons called Ben and Jake, Ben just went left home for University and Jake is on his last year at school. The couple I'm going to stay with later on is Keith and Susan, two lovely people (a little bit older than my parents) who have a son called Gary who is married to Regan and they have a sweet eight-year-old daughter called Hemarnie, a very lively girl! I got to know them yesterday in Church and afterwards when we had lunch together at Keith and Susan's house. And Keith and Susan have a daughter, which I don't know yet cause she's married and lives somewhere else. But I’m sure I’m going to get to know them as well.

I wish you all a nice week.
God bless you!

ps> I'm happy about every mail I get! :)
xx

Some pictures

Ja, in England scheint auch die Sonne!

Der Wabbeltest!

Hi from England!

Heeeeey people!!

I think it's time to have some updates here...

I'm now in England for 8 days and I already experienced a lot! This first week and the coming two weeks I spend in Richmond which is a very cute city two hours from Manchester.
Some first impressions:

-when I arrived at Manchester Airport the SUN was shining! (in HH it was rainig when I left)
-next day it rained in Richmond
-everyone around me is speaking English
-the cars are driving on the wrong side
-lots of worship
-so many seminars
-kingdom principles
-proverbs 3:5-6
-when I want to cross a street I first have to watch to my RIGHT
-toastbrottoastbrottoastbrottoastbrotwabbelwabbel
-sandwich and cornflakes for breakfast, sandwich and chips for lunch...
-the tap water (leitungswasser) tastes like pure chlorine
-I'm getting to know many great people
-I'm trying to get used to all the unusual habits of all the different kinds of people
-I'm very much enjoying the time here!

I'm doing really fine although I miss the delicious Hamburger Leitungswasser and the good German bread, they really don't have any comparable bread to what we have in Germany. What they call bread here is just different types of Toast as we would call it in Germany. But well, I'll have to get used to it and I'm doing my best... It's really good that we have a warm and kind of normal meal at least in the evening. We cook with about 10-15 people, that's so much cheaper than always going to some kind of pizza hut like some are doing... and it even tastes good =) And it's fun cooking together and then eating with a very international group of people! Today we had Pasta with Tomato souce and salad! Fantastic! =)

The days are full of seminars, we start at 9 with team devotion, then worship and afterwards seminars seminars seminars. The past week has been full of information and sometimes it's hard to get everything because they mostly speak in their normal tempo and that is sometimes when they are in a flow very fast! But I always have my good friend the dictionary around and that helps me a lot. And the weekend was great! We just slept in and had breakfast in pyjama and relaxed a lot and went swimming in the next swimming pool and we just enjoyed our free time, that was great!

So the new week has started now and it's gonna be good! I'm sure! All the best for you!
God bless!
Maraike

ps: I'm sorry I can't post any pictures yet but I'll do so as soon as possible!

Meine letzte Woche bricht an...

Ich bin zurück vom Seminar in Neumünster. Eine Woche viel Lobpreis, viele Seminare, viele gute Gespräche, viele neue Freunde, ganz viel super schöne Gemeinschaft, sehr viel Wohlfühlen, sehr wenig duschen, nur noch ein bisschen Brei, sehr viel Lachen... ich hatte ne unglaublich gute Zeit! Am liebsten wäre ich jetzt direkt nach England geflogen, dann wäre der Übergang einfach nahtlos gewesen, so hab ich noch eine Woche voll schwerem Abschied, Sachen packen und dreimillionen Gedanken vor mir...
Ich werde in einem 5er-Team arbeiten. Außer mir noch ein deutsches sehr liebes Mädel, das ich jetzt in der Woche grad schon kennengelernt hab, zwei Engländerinnen und one American, ob Junge oder Mädchen weiß ich nicht. Meine Familien, in denen ich wohnen werde (ich werd während des Jahres einmal umziehen), sollen sehr nett sein, meine Vorgängerin hat sich superwohl gefühlt und mochte kaum gehen... Hört sich schon mal gut an =)
Naja und mehr werd ich dann tatsächlich erst in England erfahren.
Ich glaub ich pack jetzt mal Sachen.

Next step -> 1week Preparation Seminar

Some days of hamstering around and getting a lovely colourful face after a 4-wisdomteeth-removement-operation have passed by, now I'm not that much a hamster anymore but my cheeks are getting a beautiful greenyellowbluepurple touch. Wonderful!



Tomorrow my first preparation seminar for England starts and therefore I'll be in Neumünster for one week. I don't really know what I'm supposed to expect there but I'm looking forward to getting to know all the people that are going to do (kind of) the same work as I'll be doing the coming year! And I'm very curious about when I'm going to know all the details about my works and projects, maybe next week, maybe not until I'm really IN England... surprise surprise...

Last Holiday

I'm just back from my last real summer holiday! I had a great time in Switzerland with 150 other great people on a 2000 m high mountain named Engstligenalp. I could enjoy every moment there since I was lucky to stay well and don't get sick during Camp as well as I never froze in the night or had problems with my tent or whatever.... Also I wasn't ever punished to do the dishes or prepare breakfast. That was nice! Thanks Joel and Sophie ;-)

But what I really enjoyed most was the amazing atmosphere during singing, family prayers, silent time while the sun was rising, talks, conversations, preparing dinner for 150 people, caregroups, at the campfire, while having fun, whenever, however and wherever... it really was a great and blessed time.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this wonderful Camp!

Im Vorfeld...

...muss noch das eine oder andere getan werden, bevor es dann wirklich heißt: Ab nach England!

Inzwischen weiß ich immerhin schon, wo genau ich hinkommen werde: in ein kleines Städtchen namens Glossop, 21 km östlich von Manchester, sehr nahegelegen an einem recht großen National Park. Über die Familie, in der ich dann leben werde, weiß ich allerdings noch nichts, genauso wenig wie über die Kirche und die Schule(n) und Projekte, in denen ich mit arbeiten werde.
Bleibt also spannend, ich denke, ich werde in 2 Wochen bei dem Vorbereitungsseminar in Neumünster mehr erfahren!

Mit dieser Seite will ich versuchen, euch alle so gut wie möglich auf dem Laufenden zu halten, was so um mich herum und mit mir passiert in meinem Jahr in England!