Dave’s Blog

Friday the 12th of February I took the underground to the main train station in Frankfurt and then a train to Mannheim where I changed trains for a train to Stuttgart. The train was late but Brigitta Helzner called me to say she was waiting at the end of the gate. She was there and we hurried to make a train to the Vaihingen area of Stuttgart. There was a Kindergarten waiting for me to come. We then walked quite a way in the snow to get there.

The kids were cute and had a lot of fun with shapes, letters and simple things with string. One thing they liked was making a candle and blowing it out. Brigitta`s son Cornelius was in that class. We left there and walked to her house where her husband, Robert Hoffmann was making lunch. He and Brigitta share a position as pastors at the church here. Brigitta is also the coordinator for the South German Methodist Youth workers.

After lunch she and I drove over to the Radio M station. We drove in their carshare vehicle. It is a great program where there are a few cars around town and people join the carshare. They go on the web to see where there is a car when they need one. They go to the car and use their card to get in to get the key. We used it to drive to the radio station.

It is a Christian station that produces programs for airing on regular German radio. They wanted an interview with me to air later. Never put a mike in front of me and ask a question. You might not get a chance to ask a second one. I talk easily about String Ministries, Inc. I love to talk about the way God is using a piece of string. Brigitta is one of those that learned from someone who learned at a workshop that I gave last year. It just gets passed along.

We had a good interview and they wanted some photo shots to put on the web and to use in a magazine they produce. I was showing Benjamin Elsner, the interviewer, some more figures when Brigitta said we must hurry because she needed to get the car back on time for the next user. We stopped at a shop to get some of the food for the workshop the next day then went by the church to drop off the food and then took the car to it´s parking place and walked home.

We had the traditional breads and meats and cheeses for supper and visited. Max, their 8th grade son was making a cake for the workshop the next day. He did not have the correct amount of butter so he shook up the cream and made butter. Bed time was up to the third floor of their place where they gave me the guest room.

Saturday we went to the church for a string workshop. Brigitta had all her children and youth workers coming for the workshop that started at 9;30 and went until 4:00. It was great having so much time to work with these people. We had the big pretzles and coffee etc to start and then went in for a couple of songs and then I had the morning. Uschi Hepperle was my translator. What a great job she did. She did not stumble over any of my words or ideas that I was trying to get across.

We had time to go slow, let everyone learn and help each other, talk philosophy and give history of some of the figures and the stories. A couple of people were stumbeling through some of the figures but by and large they did very well. I got so much pleasure teaching at that rate.

We broke for lunch of a local meat or vegatable dumpling called Naultaschen. They were cooked seperately in a vegetable broth and served with potato salad. Very, very good. We had rasberries in yougert and the cake that Max made for dessert. A little visiting and then people started practicing and showing each other what we had done in the morning.

We went back to the meeting area in the sancuary and after a couple of songs, Brigitta talked about some of the other resources she had for the people there. She also showed a couple of string books and talked about my books and dvd´s. We then learned some more things. I took them through a lot of figures and stories and know that strings will be a major part of the work in South Germany. Brigitta had prepared handouts that had a lot of written directions for many of the figures and web sites etc for people to use. We did not give those out until the last.

I can not emphasize how great it was to have this long relaxed time to work with people and teach them. I know that they each are going back with something they can use. We did some very simple things and some very complex ones also.

At the end of the day we had a wrap up time and I brought out extra strings for people to take back for their children and youth. They really appreciated that. Evaluation forms were given out along with certificates of attendance. Brigitta also gave me a copy of the Lutheran string book that was produced here. Thanks to all for making this a memorable day for me.

We then put things back in order for church tomorrow and while they were doing dishes I sequestered myself in a quiet corner and read. We walked home and I came up to lie down for a while. It is now 7;15 and I will go down to get something to eat for the evening. It is a good tired.

Dave