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Hey All,

I'm just over half way through the training seminars for the new Pais year!
My team is a bit different than I expected. There's now Elena, who was also in Großenaspe last year, and Søren, who's new to Pais.

The seminars are going really well, it's really good to get to know all the others who're severing God and Germany this year, and the time we have together is really blessed. The seminars are all really informative and inspiring and I've got a lot of new ideas that I'm going to try to incorporate into the year!
We have just 1 week left to go, and then next Saturday I'm off back to Großenaspe, where we'll be working this year. We kick off with Vision Week, where we have a week together as a team and think about what our vision for the year is. Then we're away for the weekend with all the youth leaders and then the following Tuesday our work in schools kicks off! So it's all go at the moment, but lots of fun!
The weather is amazing, we're going to the beach tomorrow for our team social, which should be a good day (if I take enough sun lotion with me!)
:D

Wieder Da!

12:48 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hello Everyone,
As you're probably aware, I'm not very good at keeping my blog updated!
Hopefully I'll do a better job of it this time!
I'm back in Germany as of yesterday, and I'll hopefully write short updates here so you can check in on how I'm doing.
Feel free to give me a gentle reminder when it's been too long!
I'm away though for the next few weeks so don't get too anxious yet! :P

We Plough The Fields and Scatter

04:26 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hallo Hello! :)
This week has had a bit of a harvest theme! I could be wrong, but I think that harvest festival in Germany is always celebrated on the first Sunday in October, which of course is today! On Friday we had a Harvest Festival service for the Primary School here, that was really lovely; we had a lot of songs and a little play about potatoes! :) This morning was then of course the 'normal' harvest festival service, but not normal to the English! :P Well, really it's not that much different, only that people don't bring fruit and veg and the such like with them, but the children did do that on Friday, so that was all still there! :) And... what is a Harvest Festival without singing 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter' well, it was there in sorts, ie, we sang it in German! That was slightly odd but it did make me giggle that it was there at all! :)
Well, I don't think there's a great deal other to report, not much has changed really!
I'm starting something new in my blog this week, and that is word of the week! So you can all learn a little bit of German! :P
This week it's: verwirrt, which means: confused! A very important word for me to know haha!
'Till next week then!
Tracy.

Nicht Geschafft

12:28 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hello all,
Sorry that I didn't manage (nicht geschafft) to write my blog on Sunday!
I guess I don't really have an excuse!

Firstly, I have a picture for you this time, it's from the confermation class weekend away! :)

So... updates...I'm not ill anymore! Yey.... oh wait... did I say I was better in my last post? I think I did... well I got ill again, and I'm better once again! :D My first (and second) MyPlaze (the youth group) were really good. It's kind of just a general drop-in cafe youth club, and we play games and stuff :). There's not a great deal new happening at the moment, everything is just plodding along as usual really! Everything in the schools is going really well! Something I'm rather excited about is that the high school we're working in have said that I'm allowed to do an English afterschool club after the half term! :D This week I'm going to be thinking up a plan exactly of what I want to do in it! This Friday we have a Harvest Festival for the primary school, so that's pretty exciting too!

News Bulletin:

My English really is getting worse! I keep putting german words in or using german grammar when I speak/write English!
My new shoes are broken in and comfortable!
I have new jeans, cardigan and other such things to go with new shoes :P thanks to a little shopping trip on Saturday!
The german word for conker is Kastanie
My tea is running out... Please feel free to send me some!
We've finished the first series of Lost now and will probably start the second this week!

That's all folks!
'Till Sunday! :D
Tracy xx

P.S
The large type is for my mummy! :P

It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

13:05 Edit This 0 Comments »

Okay... So my aim is to blog at least one every week, and that's clearly not happened so far. I got into a bit of a routine of doing it on Sundays and so I thought, Sunday is blog day, but then we had 2 weekends away, and I just didn't have enough time. So hopefully from now on I will blog on Sundays!

So to fill you in...
I'm having a great time! :D

We've started work properly now, and I'm working in the primary school in the first class in the mornings,(except Friday) helping the children with their work etc. Then in the afternoons (except Tuesday and Friday) I'm helping in an after school club, playing games etc and then a homework help session. I'm particularly good at English homework! :P

In the church I'm helping in the confirmation classes on Tuesday afternoons, they're quite cool. Kids here can take confirmation classes, and they last 2 years. We have around 55 first years (about 13 years old) and about 35 (I think) second years. We just had a weekend away with the first years and it was pretty awesome, we took 22 leaders and had a great weekend of fun around the theme of the book by Max Lucado called 'You are special'.

I'm also on the 'relationship team' for the youth club on Friday nights (MyPlaze), I basically have to talk to people play games with them etc. I haven't actually been to one yet though, as we've had 2 weekends away, so this Friday shall be my first!

Friday mornings we have 'Hub' which is where we meet with the other Pais teams in the area, share what's going on, have a bit of a theme and a worship time, they're pretty cool :)

In other news:

I've managed to wear a hole in the bottom of my shoes already! I only bought them in June! So I have 2 nice new pairs now! :)
I've started watching Lost with my team-mate... we're almost at the end of the first series
I've had a cold, but am just about over it
I have a violin! :) Someone from my church here has lent it to me.
I have tea! :D... my team-leader had some from when he went to England, and gave it to me! :)
Unfortunately, my English is getting worse and worse by the day!

That's all folks!
Tracy xx

P.S.
I realise the title has nothing to do with my blog post, but I couldn't think of a title... although it's probably quite apt for me at the moment! :P

You shall go to the ball...

06:16 Edit This 0 Comments »

Soooo, my first week in Großenaspe....
It's been a nice gentle start. The other girl in our team didn't arrive until Wednesday evening, so we couldn't start with the vision stuff until then really. Monday I had the day off, and Tuesday I had a meeting in the morning with the church leaders here, just a general what's going on type of thing. Then Tuesday afternoon, I registered, and I now have an offical piece of paper saying that I'm in Germany! Wednesday morning there was a church service for children starting school, I did a little role play thing with Maddo! I was rather nervous about that, with the German and such, but it went well :), I also used a party streamer for the first time in my life! Wednesday afternoon I had off so I went shopping!! :D Thursday & Friday we had team days, talking about vision and expectations of the year. And then yesterday I went to a ball! :D It was like a fundraising ball for Pais, and something else. That was really good fun! I don't have any really good photos though, I'm waiting for other people to upload them on to Facebook! But for now here's one

of Sarah and Avalon, the other English speakers, and one of Sarah and me! :P Funny story about them last night actually... they wanted a drink, but they wern't serving tap water, so they took glasses from the table and got water from the bathroom!! hehehe! It was quite late when I got in, so I'm pretty tired today. This afternoon there is My Coffee in the church, for young adults, and then a youth service, where I'm being interviwed! :S
Well, I guess that's enough waffle for today!
Hope you're all well! :D
Tracy x

Time To Play Catch Up

01:31 Edit This 0 Comments »

Foundational Training is now over, and I have moved in with my guest family! :D

FT was really good, we had a lot of seminars, some Christian stuff and some about children and youth work. Everyday we started with team time at 9, where we shared how we were etc and studied a bit of the bible together, we looked at Philippians and Philemon over the 3 weeks. Then we had a worship time, and then seminars till about 4/5ish. Then we cleaned. Some evenings were free, and some we had socials or ‘Pais open evening’ for anyone to come to.

I have a picture to upload! However I didn’t take it. Last Sunday, we had a social and we went somewhere... not quite sure what it’s called now. We travelled to Kiel by train and got a boat to a beach somewhere, I’ll try and find out where it was. Laboe, I just looked it up! Anyway, the picture is of some of the other Pais interns and me. I’ve never uploaded a picture to a blog before, so we’ll have to see if it works.

There is now another girl in my team! :D Whoop! She’s called Yvonne. She only rang up last week to ask if there was still room on Pais, and then she came to FT the day after. So she’s now gone back home for a few days, and will come back to Großenaspe on Wednesday me thinks.

My guest-family are lovely! The parents are called Torsten and Beate, and they have two children (twins) a boy and a girl, called Lars and Nele. They’re 9 years old. I'm getting on with them well. We went to an agricultural festival of some sort called a "dreschfest" (I think) which basically had lots of tractors! Was good fun though, and my church here had a stall up and stuff. :)

Today I have a day off! :) I think I'm meeting with my team leader (Maddo) later so sort out what we're doing the rest of the week. Wednesday we have a church service for the start of the new school year, which I think I might be taking part in! :S But we'll see!

Guess that's it for now! :)

Thanks for keeping up!

Tracy.

Ganz Schnell

08:49 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hey everyone!
I'm sat in an internet café quickly writing a blog to keep you updated!
Everything is going really well, I'm having a great time!
Most of the time I'm in training seminars at the moment, during the day, and then there's socials and stuff in the evenings.
On Saturday we went to Hamburg for the day, it was pretty awesome. Did a little bit of shopping and then went on a boat ride round the harbour, and then to a fun fair thing. I was sooo exhausted by the end of the day, but it was exciting to be a tourist!!
Tonight I'm off out for a meal, and a culture seminar.... "how to be German" sort of thing, so I'm looking forward to that.
When I charge my batteries for my camera, I'll start taking pictures and uploading them!
Hope you're all well!
Thanks for checking in!
Tracy x

Der Erste Tag!

04:52 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hey everyone!

I’ve had an amazing first day yesterday in Deutschland.

My flight went well, and despite being over the weight limit I didn't have to pay. God answered so many prayers like that yesterday! My team-leader picked me up from the airport, he’s called Maddo, and lovely. We went to the village where I’ll be working this year, that’s called Großenaspe. I looked round the church where I’ll be working, and where our office etc is. It’s a lovely old round church, built in the 17th century. Then I came to where I am now, which is Neumünster, where I shall be for the next 3 weeks for Foundational Training(FT). I have heard that I can’t use the internet in this time! So I shall keep blogging on my laptop and will up-load it whenever I can.

My German is surprisingly okay, I understand almost everything that's being said, and I'm already more confident in speaking! :D

I was the first to arrive for FT as it doesn’t start properly till today. There are a few other who arrived throughout the day and it's been great getting to know them over the course of the day! :D

Today I've just been hanging out with people, playing games and been into town for dinner (ie Lunch :P). Later I'm going bowling with my team! :D I'm so excited about that! :D

My Internet connection is a little bit special so I shall leave it there for today! :D

Tracy x

PAIS!

03:38 Edit This 0 Comments »

This year, from August, I'm going to be working with Pais in Germany for the year!
Here is where I shall blog all the exciting things I'm going to be getting up to!
In the meantime you can check out the Pais websites for more information on the project! :D
www.paisproject.com
www.paisdeutschland.de
Tracy xx

Catching Up

05:01 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hello all,
Sorry I've not updated in ages! I've had a few technical hitches, at first I couldn't get internet, and then my laptop broke!
I've been here a month today, and I'm having a great time, learning lots. God's showing me so much, and I've had chance to put a lot of the youth and community stuff into practice at festivals.
Fusion, throw community festivals, where they have big centre games for children like waterballoon volley ball, and the limbo and stuff like that, and then around the outside there's various different activities, like face painting, biscuit decorating, wind tunnels and balloon modelling. It's a great way to bring communites together and get everyone involved. Gives people chance to meet new people from their area and feel valued. I've been involved with 3 of these so far around my training.
In the training I'm learning youth work skills, how to reach groups of young people, schools work youth cafes etc. There's Bible bits, a bit og theolog, study of the gospels, acts etc and then revolutionary values such as encouragement and the word of life. As well as all this we're learning how relationships work and how humans make decisions and how to help and see things that we have from our past which affect how we see the world and act with other people.
I'm currently planning to halp at a youth camp here which starts 4 days after my training finishes, and I'll help there for a week with teenagers before making my way back to (hopefully) sunny England. I haven't boked my flight back yet however, so this could depend on when I'm able to fly.
Thanks for all your support, I'll try and keep you better informed over the next 3/4 weeks.
God Bless!

Updates Updates Updates...

12:18 Edit This 0 Comments »

Helloooo!!

I have internet on my laptop now!! Yeyy!! Hopefully I can update more now! Don't worry, I've learnt my lesson... English is spelt without a c in English, and yellow and orange equals bad couolrs for blogging!

I can't remember where I got up to last time, so I'll just overview my past few days! :)

So up until Tuesday I was just cleaning. Helping get all the huts and rooms and stuff read for when people arrive. They started to arrive on Tuesday, and so now there's plenty more people around, and they've started training for whatever they need to train for. I think they're learning how to teach the units of the course we're starting on Sunday.... Foundations.... yeyy... the excitement! :D

So now I'm not really doing very much to be honest. I have been helping cook in the mornings so far this week, but I'm not needed in the afternoons and evenings so I'm just hanging around reading and stuff. I went shopping to Poland yesterday, that was fun! :) We're rather far east, and stuff is cheaper over there, so we just pop over the border to buy some of the food and stuff. The fun bit is understnading the packets.

I guess that's all I have to say for today! I'm really excited about starting Foundations on Sunday whooop! But until something exciting happens.... Tschüss!

Beginings

10:30 Edit This 0 Comments »

Hallloooo!!

Ok so the internet is not as accessible as I'd thought, but all the same.... I'm here! :D

I'm having a great time.

Tuesday - travelling... the journey was good, apart from maybe a bit boring, but that was expected really. I didn't really do much else.

Wednesday - Started work. Basically, Derfflinger Hof, where I am, is a site with lots of little huts! There's like a big kitchen and dining room one, and little library and a laundrette. Then there's lots of other huts with about 8 beds... 3 rooms and a bathroom. A few of them are in good condition, but we're cleaning up and making the others fit to live in, for when more people come, to do Foundations. So Yesterday we cleaned one of those out.

Thursday... today!! Today we cleaned all the windows in the dining room... 11 in total... the windows are a bit strange.. they're like double glazed, but the two panes have their own frames, which then screw together.... so really we've clened about 22 windows! But we did that a lot quicker than expected, so then we bottomed the rest of the dining room. This afternoon I've been helping to build a wardrobe, and table. The wardrobe was fun... they kept getting it wrong, and I didn't know how to explain in German how it was meant to fit together, but we got there in the end and it looks good... all that's missing is the clothes rail haha!!

There seems to be a sort of daily routine. We eat breakfast at 9, then 9:30 we have Bible study and prayers. Then 10 we start work. Then about 1-1:30 we eat, and then we nap!! Hahaha!! Although, so far I've just been reading or learning vocab in this time. Then back to work before tea. After tea free time. Last night we played a game... Phase 10, it was good fun! :)

I'm having a great time, I'm glad I can actually be of help. Noone here speaks Englisch, so I'm putting my German to good use. There's a lot of stuff I don't understand, but I get there in the end. My dictionary and bilingual bible are coming in handy!

Right, sorry this has been such a long post, I'll try and make it shorter next time.

Thanks for reading, especially if you made it this far!

Introduction

Hey! I'm Tracy, and on 9th June 2009, I'm going to Germany to work with a group called Fusion.
If you want to support me financially please click the donate button over to the right.
Please pray for me! :)
This is where I shall post all the interesting stuff about my time there!
Oooo the excitement! :D
Thanks for reading!