Brocante

Brocante is the French word for flea market, and this is what was happening today in front of my door. Every year at this time, they organize such an event in my street. I'm not really a fan of these kind of markets, but it's nice to see the street looking so differently - very colorful indeed. It seemed to me that there were people coming from all over the city; I think some folks really take every opportunity to shop around for bargains.

Spinach

This year, my father planted a lot of spinach in his garden, and I thought it would be a good idea to take care of at least some of the harvest. So we went there this morning and I was able to pick quite an amount. I wish we had better facilities to do the blanching, but with a little improvising it worked pretty well. What I find a bit frustrating about spinach is the fact that it shrinks so much - but at least it won't take so much space in the freezer!

One raised bed full of spinach

Part of the harvest before blanching

After blanching - just four bags plus the amount we had for lunch!

Ramblings from Germany

Last Wednesday, I drove to Germany where I'm spending a 10-day vacation. It was also my birthday on Wednesday, so I spent most of it being on the road. It was quite rainy, but at least there was no heavy traffic. Well, it's good to be here. Today, the family gathered together for my birthday and I prepared a vegan menu. We had a nice afternoon.

There have been some developments concerning my work lately. In fact, I offically changed my post as of 16 April. It was already in the beginning of the year that a task force for the sector food and agriculture has been split off from my unit. This was deemed necessary because of the increasing workload in this sector. And since there was no assistant for the time being, I started helping them from the beginning. However, my head of unit couldn't have justified keeping four posts in the secretariat since there is less work for the unit now. So I finally agreed to become the assistant of the task force. My new head of unit is from France and he is very nice to work with. Besides, there are six case handlers. It's still a transition for me, as a new colleague in the secretariat of my former unit just arrived, and I have to coach her now with the things that I had been in charge with. I have no idea how things are going to further develop with my work; I'm still open for a change in the medium term, but I leave it in the Lord's hands.

Now I have one more week of break. On Thursday, I'll be headed to the Black Forrest, where we are going to spend a weekend with our ministry team. The preparations for our summer camp meeting are going pretty well now, but I'm still a bit apprehensive, as it will be the first time for us at this new place. I hope and pray that we can work out all the little details and get an answer for all the open questions.

I've been participating in a bible reading plan initiated by the General Conference, called Revived By His Word. The principle is to go through all the 1.189 chapters of the bible from the Spring Council meeting (which took place on 17 April) until the General Conference session in the summer 0f 2015. It's one chapter a day, and there is a blog written on each one on the website by some pastor or bible teacher. It's been an enriching experience, especially knowing that many other people are joining this endeavor. Sign up if you haven't done so yet - you won't regret it!

With my cousin Antje

Mother's Day picture: My mother, grandmother, and aunt