the first week

*big blush*
Ok, well… yeah, I havn't been very good at ALL about writing in my blog. I know it's a shame. *looks down and shuffles feet* I thought I could do better, but everything has been soo busy the last 2 months. So, here I am again, going to write about the amazing time that I had.

Well, my last post was me scared stiff about school. Wondering about how it's going to be, how my class will be, how the schoolculture was going to be. In short, every single small thing from wondering if I have the right pencils to anxiety about getting laughed at because of my German.
God surprised me. Again.

First, the new experience of having to wait for the bus in the freezing morning hours of the day. (Yes, when I look back I laugh at those 10 degrees, compared with the 0 degrees we had 2 weeks ago.) And, then boarding the bus and seeing row upon row of faces staring blankly ahead. Now, our bus is packed - and, we happen to be the last stop before heading up the hill to the school around 4 km away. That means that I never have a place, and never always have to stand for the 15 minute drive… which isn't too bad actually.
Well, the first day of school I was quite ignored by my class. I came in, sat down and was immediately told by a student to "Vote for Felix"… Ok… who is Felix? What are we voting for? Aren't you going to say something else?
Well, I did vote for Felix; partly because I didn't know the name of the other candidate (ok, mainly because…). But the cool thing was that the other candidate, who actually one, ended up being the closest thing I can call as a 'friend' in my class, which is great. After the voting our teacher went through the list of rules about the school.
Some information about the school: it's name is 'Reichsstadt Gymnasium Rothenburg ob der Tauber' (Rothenburg is our town), and it is the 3rd and last step of high school. From grades 5-13, there are 3 types of school available: Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium, respectively placed in order of education level.
The Gymnasium has roughly 800 students and has a reasonably modern campus, which is always nice. Thankfully, they heat in the building; so I don't have to freeze during the first few lessons of school.

After the very short school part on the first day, there was a 'Church service' for all the students in the Landchurch. It's all tradition though, and very few of the students actually care about whatever is said, or think about it… from what I picked up, at least.
Of course, I went there, and was completely surprised by God, who really proved to me that He is watching over me and cares for me in this new situation that I am in.

During the summer I really made it my goal to try and spend at least an hour of my time in prayer and bible reading in a quiet place. Since our house is quite small, I cannot concentrate in the few rooms that we have and am forced to go outside. I am very thankful for this 'inconvience', as it really provides me a place of peace and quiet where I can talk with my Savior and Lord. My spot was a beautiful little niche along the banks of the Tauber, surrounded by forest and all kinds of amazing wildlife (like an otter).
And once during one of these prayers, there came to me the sudden thought about praying for an MK. I though, "What?? Praying for an MK in my school? Pleasee… that would be too much to ask. I mean, what are the chances of that." It wasn't that I doubted that God could do that. I was very aware that there is absolutely nothing that can stop God from carrying out his plans. But someone, I just did not think that God would do it. I couldn't see why God would do it anyway. But the thought was persistent and for the next 2 days it kept on coming back to me. And then finally I thought, "Why not? I might as well. The Lord already knows my thoughts and wishes (It was certainly my wish!), so what stops me from simply asking.
So, that's what I did, but I went the whole way, and made my prayer request as unlikely as possible. Maybe I still thought that nothing would come of it, but if I ask for much, maybe I won't be disappointed. I was about to be surprised.
And so, I prayed for an MK to be in my age group, in my class and to live in my town. And, the first few weeks after my thought I did pray for it - but slowly, it began to fade as different subjects flooded my mind and eventually I forgot all about it.

Then, about 1 week before the start of school, I went to our bibelstudy group on Thursday, which was composed of alot good strong Christians from our church, and is led by our pastor. I really like the group, even though it is mainly adults that come there, but that's ok with me. On that Thursday, we met a Christian from the area who was going to be leaving for Bibelschool the next week. And then, on Friday, our youth pastor called my bro and I and asked if we were interested in attending a goodbye party for this person.
At first I was kinda skeptic. I barely knew the person, and was hardly qualified to go to a goodbye party… but in the end I decided to tag along all the same.
And at this party, the host introduced me to another Christian who would be in my class. (I had previously wondered aloud on Thursday whether I would have any Christians in my class.
I said "Hi" to her, smiled a bit…. and moved on again, since conversation wasn't exactly on the menu.

Now, several days later I'm sitting on a bench outside of the massive, 800 year old church in our town and waiting for the service to start, scanning the crowd for a glimpse of one of the 3 people I know. And then this same person that I said "Hi' to, sits down next to me with a bunch of her friends and starts a conversation. Now, that caught me slightly off guard… since, put bluntly, that is not German! My previous years of experience tell me that the average German youth will not go out of their way to say "Hey" to a virtual stranger, let alone start a conversation.
But, I was more than happy to talk, bored as I was and explained part of my life as a missionary kid in Africa.
Response: "Hey, cool! I also grew up in a foreign country! The first 10 years of my life I lived in Paraguay with my parents!"
I nearly fainted.
As it turns out, this person in my class was a christian TCK for 10 years, and was the first person to talk to me on the first day of school.

Immediately my thoughts flashed back to my prayer many weeks before; for an MK in my class and age group… and I was so surprised. I really didn't think that God would grant me my 'crazy request' and I was perfectly fine with receiving a clear 'No!'. But, once again God proved to me that He watches over for me and listen to all of my crazy ideas.
Yes, granted a TCK isn't exactly an MK, but a Christian TCK comes pretty close. And granted, the class of 10b isn't exactly 10a… but some classes and the same and the intra-class relationships are much better than intra-grade relationships.

The first week of school slowly got better and better. God completely surprised me in making it far better than I ever expected and really helping me to adjust to life in school. I started to make friends and was blessed with kind and friendly teachers.
And, although my TCK friend seemed to have disappear back into the unknown and I rarely talk to her anymore, I'm still reminded of the hope that the Lord placed in me on that first day.
"I'm looking after you, and love you more than you can imagine…"