11 days to go...

What on earth do you write in your first ever blog post?! As a keeper of a more traditional diary or journal (yes, one that requires pen and paper) the concept of keeping a record of what I get up to on a pixelated page which can be seen by anyone in the world, is perhaps slightly unnerving. Needless to say, I haven't discarded either the pen or the paper yet. But for obvious practical reasons, trying to keep in touch with everyone and share my experiences with them is made far easier by blogging.

With only 11 days to go until I leave for Germany I don't really know how I feel about it all. At least, there certainly isn't just one word to summarise the wealth of emotion you get when you suddenly realise that apart from not seeing your friends and family for a few months (the anguish of which is certainly lessened by the internet), you have to set yourself up in a foreign country, start a job, plan english language lessons, find a place to live, find a church, make friends, resist the temptation to make jokes about the war...the list is endless. Plus, there's probably the greatest fear-in my mind at least-of having to sort all of that out in a foreign language, and one that you don't believe yourself to be any good at! I don't ask for sympathy, but I do ask for prayer!

That said, it has been blatantly obvious how God has answered prayer over the last few weeks. Before I went on holiday to France at the beginning of June I still did not know where I was going to be working in Germany. I only knew the Bundesland. That last week at university I'll admit that the prayer I uttered the most was that I'd find out where I'd be going before I went on a three week holiday where I would have no way of receiving any correspondance! Literally hours before I packed up and left the country I received the letter confirming my placement and telling me that I'd be working in a college in Göttingen. God's timing is no doubt the best.

France was a wonderful time for relaxation-though I was also ill and very lethargic for nearly the first two weeks-and allowed me to reflect on the past academic year. Plus I finally got around to the reading I had so desperately wanted to do for ages! A book I particularly recommend is 'The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World' edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing for me as a christian especially when I reflect on how the Lord is faithful even when I am not. My exam results were another thing for which to praise God, and before anyone thinks that's simply because I did well, I must admit that there were a couple of exams I thought I had really messed up. My german oral-hence my apprehension-being one! I went into that exam believing that I had prepared what was necessary. Indeed, after having prayed that whatever the outcome God would still help me to give Him thanks, I truly did experience that peace which surpasses all understanding. However, I don't think I really need to describe that feeling as you leave the exam room, when you realise you've potentially (and dramatically so at that!) lowered your marks. I don't think I deserve the mark I got in the end, but I remember being able to put the failure behind me and to still praise God for teaching me to rely on Him. Something I don't think I have ever had to put into practise in such a way before.


After coming back from France I spent 4 days at home, most of which was spent flat-hunting and emailing my tutor in the school at Göttingen. Then on 31st July I travelled to Belgium with two friends to spend a week at La Panne on a christian mission (Mission Vacance) If you speak french and want a challenge, go! After years of attending beach missions in the UK where I have worked alongside christians I have never met before to present the gospel in a tangible and exciting way to children and parents on the beaches, the prospect of doing all of that in french is still quite daunting! But again, prayer won throughout.


Teaching Bible verses in french and german, translating stories from french into german, as well as playing the accordion were all new things for me, and ones I didn't always do very well. Here too I honestly saw God at work. How on earth? Well, for the plain and simple fact that I am a proud woman and throughout the years I've been studying has also had an immense fear of failing. But for the past month I have praying that God would change the root of this problem; self. I often found that when I concentrated on the task God had trusted to me to do and upon His power (the kind that raised Christ from the dead and now lives in me), self was quite adequately and firmly crucified! For who of their own accord really wants to stand up in front of children, parents and bystanders, all of whom speak the language you're messing up far better than you do, and speak about a message that they despise and pity? If you want to crucify self, tell the gospel. Thus a verse that's been in my mind recently has been Galatians 2:20. An excellent read which I honestly believe has lead me prayerfully to be able to change (bit by bit) is a compilation of C. H. Spurgeon's sermons called 'A Passion for Holiness in a Believer's Life.' Read it!

Finally....honestly! The last week has mainly been spent chucking out old clothes, toys, games etc and having a laugh at the daft and pretty useless things I own. It was a necessary task as I hadn't had time to properly unpack since coming back from university, and with all of the books I now own it would have been nigh on impossible to squeeze so much into such a tiny space (anyone who's seen my room would know exactly what I mean)!
Now comes the preparation for Germany.... the flight is booked, travel insurance underway, but as yet I don't have anywhere permanent to live because I'm hoping to visit a couple of flats in Göttingen the first week I'm there. (My tutor is letting me stay with her-yet another answer to prayer!)
In some ways the physical preparation is relatively easy. You make a list, you tick things off the list when you've done them. But none of it comes about (as I have learned quite painfully at times!) without first being committed to God in prayer. Perhaps I should rather have named this first blog 'prayer', as I seem to have spoken more about that than anything else. But what is apparent is that despite all of my human fears, the God who knit me together in my mother's womb is the same God who has promised to keep on doing His work in and through me, right up until the end. Another answer to prayer on that note would be that I've managed to get in contact with a baptist church and the equivalent of the CU in Göttingen. I don't know how it will all turn out yet and I'm certainly not saying that I am not scared (I am human) but I trust God. And I think He's pretty much got the final Word on that.