One week ago I moved in with my new host mum and her 18-year-old daughter. I was again warmly welcomed and I am settling in well. I do enjoy being able to have my own routine, especially in the morning. I consciously take my time to wake up. I read the bible and have a little morning prayer before I eat my breakfast (mostly porridge and tea).
During the last days I got to know more and more of the youth work here in Heswall. It is divided into several age groups. The 11-14-year-olds meet twice a week. We play games, read the Bible, talk about what we have read and pray together. I was positively surprised by the ideas and thoughts of the young people and that they sat down concentrated in front of the screen for an hour on a Sunday morning.
On Sunday evenings there is a service called "Encounter", which is organised by young people. Mostly the 14-18-year-olds are present, but some adults also take part. In so-called Life Groups, we then talk to the young people about issues that concern them. We come together, discuss, play and pray for each other.
On Thursday evenings a group of 18-30-year-olds comes together. It’s great to get to know people in my age or older and to get some spiritual input instead of leading a group. Normally we would meet at a church member’s house who is a really good cook. We would have a meal together and afterwards study the bible. I pray that I will be able to experience this after lockdown but for now I am happy that we are at least able to meet online. We decided to keep it “short and sweet” due to the fact that everyone is already a lot in front of the screen.
Even though the groups need to meet online, you are still allowed to meet one other person for a walk. So I can be outside in the fresh air a lot and get to know people and the environment. In my freetime I repeat the new vocabularies I have learned throughout the day and I also started listening to the audiobook of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".
Besides the work at church, I have some sessions with the English organisation "Time for God". I find it hard to really get to know the other volunteers, but it is still great to see them and to know who else is in the country. Hopefully we will be able to visit each other at the end of our services.
I also have a spiritual director who puts emphasis on the growing of my faith. In our first session we just got to know each other. We will now meet every 3-4 weeks to talk about my thoughts and questions. She is a pastor in a different church but knows about the work in Heswall because she supported the former German volunteers as well.
Despite being online so much, I feel very welcome here in the congregation and look forward to spending more time with the people. Last Sunday’s preaching was about not using the waiting for lockdown to end as a time of doing nothing. I try to concentrate on the things we still can do, instead of worrying about the things we cannot do and I usually manage to do that quite well.