I'd like to share with you some things to thank God for in the last week or so and also to pray about in the upcoming weeks.

So we'll start with praise. As you already know, my health insurance was sorted out quite quickly. I'll have to pay for it soon though, but I'm not sure when. Though I won't be able to pay for it myself this first time - because I won't get paid till 10 Sept - I will get help to pay it. It turns out I only have to pay €255 per month for my pension payments for the first 3 calendar years of freelancing. Both of my interviews were successful, though I have only been offered one class with the Cambridge Institute because of my availabilty. There is a chance I'll start a class with Knowledge Point on 20 Sept too. Also, my relationships with people at church are becoming deeper and less superficial.

My prayer request for this month is really that my timetable will fill up. God was so faithful in August that I really can't believe He won't be this month. Please pray that this Knowledge Point class will go ahead and more will become available from each or all of the three schools I now work for. Right now it looks like I will only have enough money for my bills and not much else. It's looking quite scary.

A bigger prayer request is for my sister-in-law's brother, who is very, very ill. Unfortunately, I don't have many details. My brother and sister-in-law aren't Christians and neither are her family. It would be great if this would being them all closer to God.

Thank you.

Freelance

I don't know if you have been praying for me, but it's been a while since I wrote about what's been going. Maybe you're interested in knowing how it's going... I don't know...

So, praise God, I've got my health insurance sorted out. The confirmation came today. I have had quite a few classes from Linguarama, so I've had enough money. So far, my last pay cheque looks like it will actually last until I get paid by Linguarama. Tomorrow is my first of 2 interviews for more freelance work. On Wed I'm going with one of the deacons of my church to pension place to talk to them about my payments. If you're praying for me, please pray for my interviews and the dealing with the pension payment, that I can get an affordable payment.

That's a lot to praise God for actually because things were looking quite bleak for me before. Now they're looking quite good. Of course they are difficult, but this was kinda what I was expecting because I was pretty sure that God wanted me to stay here.

As for what God's teaching me, I think he's teaching me about being a good steward. I mean in terms of what he's given me, so my flat, time, health, work, gifts, etc.. So far, I've been putting it into practise in terms of keeping my flat tidy. Now, I haven't been perfect with it of course. But my flat is much tidier than it was just a few months ago. And I've even started ironing my clothes!! Once every 2 weeks, but still. To save money I've started cooking once a week. I'm not eating my lunch out anymore. I can't believe just how much money that saves.

I've also been more careful with what I eat and I'm trying to get into the habit of doing exercise 2 or 3 times a week. I'm really actually starting to get convicted about the amount of junk food Christians eat and how much our socialising revolves around food. It's really weird how many overweight and even obese people are in the Church. Gluttony seems to be one of the sins that it overlooks... Anyway, I'm aware I'm overweight. Thankfully, not in such a bad way and not so far that it will affect my health, but if I don't watch what I eat and do some exercise, that might be lead to me becoming obese would not be being a good steward of my body. I'm not aiming to lose weight though, only because I don't want to be obsessed with it and let it become an idol.

I've been thinking about being a good steward in terms of money too. I know in terms of rent, bills and social security the total will come to €1100. This month's income is almost the same as it has been for the last year, but I may get more. So, I'm hoping that I'll be able to save some money. What is really on my heart is being able to tithe again or actually just tithing. What I did before was set aside that 10% and ask God what He wanted me to do with it and I really want to start doing that again.

This last thing is not really about being a good steward. But this is something that is growing in my heart. I really want to do something about the lack of women's ministry at my church. I mean, there is in terms of mothers and babies and an au pair bible study, but it's not quite the same. Cornerstone church and my small group have been going through Titus and the part about older women getting alongside younger women has really challenged me. I have met a couple of really great women at church, but not many older women and I miss the love and influence of an older woman in my life. I am really praying about setting up a forum where the women at the church can come together and get to know each other with the aim of them then pairing off into discipleship pairs. I don't even know if that's possible. I should speak to my pastor. Also, I'm hoping to keep praying about it and then as the women's retreat approaches in October, to then speak to the him about it. If he's ok with it, I'll bring it up with the women at the retreat. Maybe it'll be on some of their hearts already, or maybe not. But I want to keep thinking and praying about it.

I can't believe how much has changed in the last 6 or 7 months since I started going back to church. God is really working. Of course I haven't been so disciplined with bible study and praying, but I'm getting better. At least, I hope so... God's been good. Things have seemed almost impossible, but God has provided people to help. He's been good to me.

I wrote this a while ago... Sorry.

So, first of all, I should let you all know that my Kindergarten job fell through. I found out 2 Thursdays ago. I never had to write to them and tell them I was no longer interested in their position.

At first, I was in a bit of a panic because my social security payments were going to be too high. I've since been able to find a cheaper health insurance and someone from church is going to help me to find out if I can pay a cheaper, income based premium for the state pension because in my opinion €508.45 per month is far too expensive. Also, I didn't have as much work as I would need to survive this month. Since the middle of last week, I now have enough work to get me the same amount of money as I would've got normally, though I have to do half the amount of work. I also have an interview lined up for the end of August for more freelance work. When I get back to Munich, I'll have more time to look into more schools to work for.

To be honest, I've been greatful for not getting this kindergarten position. I wasn't at first. I was freaking out! I even considered leaving Munich, but as it turned out, I didn't have enough money to leave and take all my stuff back with me. Also, I would be leaving to nothing. I never had a direct, voice from heaven sign that God wanted me to stay in Munich, but it just seemed to make sense. I mean, this is the first time in a long time that I feel settled in a church. It took a long time to get to know people and I am still getting to know people, but now I have people I can call some people friends at church and I'm in the process of making more. I've also just started going to a small group. It is, however, breaking up for the summer, but still. That's really only going to be for a month and I think they will still be meeting up - albeit for more social events. Still, that'll be a good place to get to know those people. :)

Also, it's been great the amount of help and support I've gotten. This guy from church I hardly know, but he wants to help people deal with government stuff, is helping me with pension stuff. And my friend Donna put me in touch with this independent consultancy that specialises in finding reasonable health insurance.

Most of all, this experience is teaching me to trust people again. It's been so hard dealing with people since I left Glasgow at the end of 2007, but now I'm beginning to see that there are people I can trust again. I've been praying a lot about forgiveness and learning to love people again. I must say, I am beginning to see the results. I am also beginning to feel more like myself again. I suppose that makes sense since we are fully ourselves as we were meant to be only in Jesus. It feels good.

Thanks for all of your prayers. It definitely has made settling back into church and working on a relationship with God again the easiest thing about this year. Of course, it hasn't been easy, but when I was thinking about going back to church again this time last year, it just seemed so insurmountable and it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. Thank you.