A Friendly 'Hallo, ik ben Valerie!' Goes a Long Ways

Kim and I were rather concerned about Sundays.  So far only adults had been talking to us at church, which was very kind of them, but we were really hoping to meet some young people.  There was a bit more at stake here than first meets the eye.  The problem is that the people we are in class with at the university are more into... well... the type of parties that Kim and I would prefer to stay away from.  Kim and I were quite shocked at first when we started getting invites to all these parties and events that would START at 10:00 at night (and schedule to run until 4:00 AM), and involve an awful lot of drinking (don't worry, we didn't go to any of them).  And although there are also some tamer events that occur during more earthly hours, we'd much rather make better friends with people that stay away from clubbing and crazy parties with 500 people that start at 10:00. 

So Sunday morning at church I took a deep breath, and marched up to a group of young people.  I put on the most confident smile I could, and said 'Hallo, ik ben Valerie'.  After a slight pause of surprise from the group everything went very well and everyone was very friendly.  Everyone there spoke English, but I also practised my Dutch a bit.  Kim joined us after a while, and we got invited to the Young People's Potluck that evening!  We were very relieved, and excited.  At the potluck we got to meet lots of new people.  There was a Dutch word game which I happily watched, but wasn't much help to my team.  It's so fascinating to just sit and listen to Dutch though.  If I don't listen and practise I won't be able to learn it!  Then we broke up into smaller groups.  Some of the Dutch people and Kim did an English Bible study, but I decided to be ambitious and join a Dutch group because I REALLY want to learn the language.  I couldn't understand everything, and it was a bit annoying not having enough vocabulary to say the things I wanted to say, but altogether it went alright.

So now Kim and I are officially part of the Ichtuskerk Young People's Group, and there's even a study weekend coming up in April which we're going to go to!  It's too bad I'll have to miss Maylong, but at least I still get a study weekend!

I'm so thankful to God that He gave me new friends in the church now.  I'm also hoping that each week I'll be able to understand the sermons just a bit better.  One problem is that many of the words I don't understand from the sermon aren't in the Dutch-English dictionary either, but one by one I'm picking them up, and staying optimistic!