Reflecting on a year...

June was a month of endings and reflections: Jonathan and I finished our language course and passed well – we’ve been encouraged by our progress and now have to get to grips with actually LEARNING VOCABULARY and SPEAKING FLUENTLY; I finished Harry Potter 1 in Greek and understood most of it; Joel finished at his ‘kindergarten’ (νηπιαγωγείο) and took part in his end of year celebration; Hannah sort of took part in her end of year concert (both described in slightly earlier blog); and we all went to Barcelona for the IFES Debriefing conference.

Our time of Debriefing didn’t begin well as we missed our connecting flight to Barcelona in Milan, due to easyjet delays in Athens. It worked out well though (as it tends to) – we had planned to arrive in Barcelona a day early anyway, so we weren’t late for the conference – and we ended up staying with IFES colleagues Dean and Jo Ingham, their four kids (aged 9 to 14) and their dog. It was great to meet Deano’s family for the first time. They are Australian and have been in Italy for 7 years. We were able to pick their brains a bit about raising a young family overseas in two languages and multiple cultures! It also meant that we arrived in Barcelona mid-morning rather than late evening, so the transfers felt more sane and sociable.

Debriefing itself is a wonderful place to be. The hotel in which we stay serves good buffet-style food (eat as much as you want/can!), has a lovely little outdoor swimming pool and its own playground, and is only 5 minutes walk from a beautiful sandy beach. The kids had LOTS of friends to play with: there were eight 4 to 9 year-olds and five who were 2 and under. The conference programme is fairly relaxed so there is space for leisure and just hanging out together.

This year a team of us from across Europe were planning and running the conference and Jonathan and I were definitely more involved than last year. It was great to meet up with good friends and share reflections of the year, hear good teaching, encourage one another and pray together.

One of the first sessions, ‘Telling Your Story’, was about reflecting on the year and being able to talk about it in a God-centred and God-glorifying way (rather than self-centred/-glorifying). We were encouraged to write our own Psalm of Thanksgiving and Psalm of Lament. It was a GREAT exercise both in reflecting on the Psalms and trying to express experiences and feelings through a Psalmic medium (if you like).

Anyway, my Psalm of Lament remains unfinished and I’m happy to leave it like that. I felt a bit like a spoilt child in some parts – it IS an honest reflection of how I feel! – but it was good to write this stuff down. Laments aren’t always good for public consumption (though obviously some are!). However, I wrote the Psalm of Thanksgiving with a deliberate focus on thanksgiving sometimes in spite of difficulty. I MIGHT well finish the Lament and put it up at a later date. The Psalm of Thanksgiving isn’t very poetic, but it is an accurate reflection of one of my main struggles and why I can and will praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, all you people, praise the Lord!
Praise the One who is Sovereign, He is a Father to His People,
A Gracious Father who cares for his Loved Ones.

I was troubled in my language learning,
Humbled by my inability to speak or understand.
My heart was low and I had little hope of fluency.
Like a huge mountain was the goal of understanding and fluency.
I was barely in the foothills and the climb was always before me.

But the Lord is good and encourages those who falter.
He has set the hope of glory in our hearts so that, though we stumble, we will not fall.
He gave me hope through His People.
Every Sunday as we praised God and heard from His Word
I would read or hear a word or phrase I had learnt
And know that God knew my troubles.
A message to me that He is with me,
That He is Sovereign and will enable me to learn.

Trust in the Lord, all you people.
Trust in the Lord who knows every detail.
He knows your troubles and will help you persevere.
Give thanks to the One who has saved you by grace,
Who has made you for glory and is refining you.
Humble yourselves before the only one who will make all things new,
Who is able to keep you from falling.

Praise the One who is Sovereign. He is a Father to His People,
A Gracious Father who cares for His Loved Ones.
Praise the Lord, all you people, Praise the Lord!

Language acquisition is hard. It's humbling because I want to be more eloquent than I can be, so I have to know my limits and accept that I sound like a ten year-old. It's frustrating because progress is slow and we need to make more time and opportunities to USE our Greek in order to improve. It's disheartening knowing just how much MORE language there is to learn... My exam results reflect my ability: I got 55% for my speaking, 80% for my listening and 85% for my written test - my overall mark was rounded up to 80% because the result is weighted towards the written result. I KNOW the language quite well, but my speech is faltering.

Pray for us, especially as we spend 7 weeks in the UK, that we use our Greek as much as possible, take opportunities to read (I have Harry Potter 2 and Persuasion by Jane Austen in Greek to read!) and study the language whilst we're in Blighty, and make sure the kids are still exposed to the language so that our return to Athens in September isn't too horrible a culture shock. Pray too for our continued humbling and greater motivation to get stuck into the language no matter how disheartening the 'climb' to understading and fluency is. Thanks.