Train rides and broken bones

Sorry for the 2 week absence. But i will do my best to fill you in on what has gone down. As I said in my last post, we went on a Middle School retreat to Nurnberg, a really cool city about a 45 minute train ride from my post. There were 8 different Club Beyond communities there, most from Germany, but also a couple from England. I love when we can get multiple communities together. It is a great chance for our kids to meet other people who are in the same types of situations as they are. And i really like being around the other staff as well. The weekend was a success i would say. Aretta was the camp director, so she was busy with camp stuff, so i was the community director for the weekend. I will admit it was a little stressful getting 30 middle schoolers on and off the train and getting them across the city, which was about a 20 minute walk with all of their luggage from the train station to the hostel we were staying at. But it went well.

We stayed at a hostel that is attached to a castle, so it has a very midevil look to it. It was pretty cool. Since we were staying there, our speaker spoke about the knights of old and the code they lived by. The speaker was Dale Mace, who is a club beyond staff guy in England and someone i have become fast friends with. He is the only other single guy on staff in Europe, so we have that in common. he is an extremely gifted speaker, and had a number of the students in tears each night. Working off the code for knights, he spoke on self worth and how we should draw our self worth and views of ourselves based on what God thinks of us, not what others think. It hit home with a lot of students, and helped them to confront both their own feelings of inadaquacy as well as how they speak to others and put others down.

Unfortunately, i missed he talk on the 2nd night. In a game leading up to that talk, we were doing a relay race where two students are dragging a third student on a sleeping bag. One of the girls from here was running backwards and fell and broke two bones in her wrist. We called an ambulance and went to a german hospital, which was a new experience for me. She ended up having surgery that night to repair her wrist and is doing well now, wih the addition of a cast. Her x ray looked like her bones in her wrist turned completely sideways, as if they were on a hinge like a door and the door was thrown open. pretty gross. So i went to the hospital with her and was there for a few hours until her Mom was able to get there. So unfortunately i missed the talk and small group time with my guys, which was really unfortunate but i was needed in the hospital more.

This coming weekend is obviously Thanksgiving and therefore a long weekend. I am thinking i will be heading out to a lake that is on the German/Austrian/Switzerland border. I have heard it described as one of the most beautiful places ever, so i am looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it goes. Two days ago I also went to Prague for the day, which is a really cool city. Gorgeous view and city skyline. I love living in Europe.