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!