Getting started

At the moment, I am living on a YWAM base in Hainichen, eastern Germany. YWAM (or Youth With a Mission) is a global movement of Christians, dedicated to knowing God and making God known. YWAM is most known for its DTS (Discipleship Training School), but facilitate numerous other schools as well. Here in Hainichen, they are currently hosting the Foundation for Family Studies (FFS). I am not taking part in this school, so how did I end up here you might be wondering?
At the end of July, I received an email from a lady in my church. It was the newsletter of her cousin and his wife, who “work” with YWAM in the Netherlands. They wanted to do this school in Hainichen, but would need a nanny for their three daughters, as the girls are all under four years old and therefore not going to school yet. Now, I didn’t know this whole family, but the lady from my church had thought of me. The idea of living in another country and getting to know new, international people, excited me, so I contacted the family. We texted a bit and I let them know that I was interested in coming with them, so we scheduled a call. At that moment, I was at a summer camp in Germany and after that would go to a summer camp in Norway. By the time I would be back from Norway, they would be a month away from moving to Germany, so I wanted to give them a final answer before I left. We decided to meet on the one day between my two summer camps and together with the girls they came to visit me at home. We spoke a bit more about what they were going to do and what they needed me for and of course I got to meet with the girls. I just clicked really well, so I decided to come with them. I told my boss I was leaving in just over a month and on the 19^th of September, I found myself on a ten hour train journey from my home in the Netherlands to a small town in the east of Germany. We have now almost been here for a month and wow, time is really flying.

Every day is roughly the same, but slightly different. The family and I both live on the base here, but in different houses. They live in the so called Friendshouse, with another family and two singles. I, on the other hand, am living in one of the staff houses. I am staying in the guest room of one of the “base families”, so have a bit of my own space. The school runs in the mornings from Monday to Friday, so that’s when I watch the kids. I will walk over just before the parents need to leave for school and depending on the weather we will play outside in the playground or in one of the playrooms on the base. After we eat fruit, I bring the youngest two to bed for their naptime. The oldest girl and I spend the rest of the morning reading books, playing or watching a movie and then we go to the main building for lunch, together with all of the students. In the afternoon I’m free to do what I want, although I am involved in quite some activities here as well. On Monday we usually go on outreach to a local refugee camp and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I practice English with some Korean kids that are also here during the school. Other than that, I am free to do what I want. I can hang out at “my” place or join the family to play with the girls some more or go grocery shopping, which is always a lot of fun as we try to ride our bikes up the hill to the store (need to be Dutch right?). Dinners I always share with the family as well and then I go home again to either spend my evenings chatting with my “host mum” or doing not that much in my room.
On the weekends, I’m also off. Sometimes I try to meet with a friend or explore our surroundings a bit, other times I play with the family or just stay home. It’s a simple life and I love that I have so much free time, as I haven’t had that in a long time. We will stay here until halfway December, which is when the school finishes. That means we still have two months left here and I’m excited for all the things that are yet to come, like a weekend trip to Prague and hopefully, maybe, some snow. (It was freezing last week during the night already, but then last weekend it was 24 degrees Celsius, so I don’t know what is going on with planet Earth right now…) Autumn has really kicked in now, which means we are surrounded by the most wonderful colors of leaves, both in the trees and on the ground. It is also starting to storm a bit more and although I’m looking forward to some nice autumn weather, I hope we can still play outside for a while.

Anyways, I’m drifting away from the purpose of this post. Now you know what I am doing right now and where the next stories will come from. I hope you will enjoy reading all that’s coming and if not, too bad.

Until next time!