Studies, studies, and more studies....

Well, I've survived my first week of German class. It turns out the class isn't as scary as I suspected it might be.

I did have a rather unusual experience, though. In abbreviated form, it went pretty much like this:

-Monday morning - Went to German class, Level 5. Teacher was a woman. Had expected a man.

-Monday evening - Realized I was actually registered for Level 3.

-Tuesday morning - Went to German class, Level 3 this time. Took my registration receipt with me. Spoke to teacher (who, yes, was a man). Tried to explain my stupidity. Sat through Level 3. Got very bored. Saw a woman copying my paper. Same woman asked me to sit next to her again the next class period.

-Wednesday morning - Went back to Level 5.

I really have no explanation for why I went to the wrong class on Monday. I guess it's all worked out for the best, though. My speaking level (at least from what I can tell) is closer to that of the students in Level 5, even if I do need to review some things they already know.

Friday, however, was a bit stressful because the man from Level 3 teaches Level 5 on Fridays. I felt a need to prove myself to him, to show that I really could handle a class at a higher level than the one for which the placement test showed I was ready. He didn't express disapproval over my decision to switch classes, though he did mutilate a sentence I volunteered to write on the board. He (and the rest of the class) quickly discovered that I don't remember all the rules about passive voice.

But I guess that's how we learn, right? If I knew everything now I wouldn't need to take the class in the first place.

I've also begun the English Bible studies. Last week I studied with Sylvia, and I think our studies are going to be very interesting. She's been visiting the congregation here for about 3 years, but there seem to be a lot of things she doesn't understand about God and Scripture, and she doesn't realize that she's confused about them. Our studies together should be great eye-openers for both of us.

Also last week I met a woman named Ute for coffee. Hers was one of the messages I returned while Elsa was sick. We had a good "get-to-know-you" conversation and will meet again next week. This coming week I also have an appointment with a woman named Cornelia, who right now is not very keen on the idea of reading the Bible, saying that she's not really religious. She is interested in practicing her English, though, and agreed to meet me for coffee. We'll see how things go. You never know what God has planned.

So far I've only had one person cancel an appointment, and I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of people. Please pray for all the studies that I will not scare anyone away and that God will open whatever doors need to be opened for each of these people.

For my own spiritual enrichment and to prepare me for the English Bible studies, I've begun meeting with Jim once a week for a Bible study. We've been going through the story in the Bible of God's relationship with humanity. The past two weeks we've worked through the Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis 1-3, noticing how God made man differently than the animals; God wanted to make man in "their" image (Gen. 1:26), and one of the ways I think God did that was by breathing "the breath of life" into man (Gen. 2:7). We literally have part of God in us. God didn't do that with any of the animals. We were given a spirit and an imagination that no other creature on earth possesses.

Jim and I also spent quite a while discussing the boundaries God set up for man while still giving him free-will to make decisions; the role the serpent played in the whole story; and how the world (and therefore man) changed with the introduction of sin. My brain is still trying to process a great deal of our conversations because there was a lot I had never thought about before, but I'll post more about our studies as we go further along.

I pray that "you and yours" are well wherever you are and in whatever you may be dealing with. Thank you for your prayers for me and for the work here. I can't express to you what they mean to me! God hears your prayers and is working through them.