language milestones

Learning German.... I don't know quite how to describe what it has been like.  Some combination of surreal, exhausting, exciting, facinating, tedious and overwhelming.  I still feel like I'm talking and listening from underwater when I'm speaking to a German person in German; I still have so many more words to learn before some of the haze of it all clears.  In the same breath, I've learned so much!  It's pretty remarkable, actually, what a person can learn in 9 months. What God did in creating our minds always dazzles me.  

So, I took my big government B1 language level certificate test on Friday (though I've actually studies to nearly the B2 level).  It marked the end of my planned time for formal German instruction.  The test seemed to go well, and the process of taking the test pointed out how much more I've learned in the past few months beyond B1.  So encouraging!

But I had reached another personal milestone in German language on Sunday that absolutely delighted me.  I drew during the German sermon!

 

I've been drawing my sermon "notes" in church for years.  When I started, it was a "why didn't I do this earlier?" kind of moment.  Years of struggling to keep my wandering thoughts focused while listening in church were so easily solved by simply drawing as I listened.  I have some rules for myself: draw 1) something I am directly observing in the moment 2) something related to the content of the teaching 3) if neither of those fit, draw designs that don't require me to generate ideas (that kind of thinking distracts me).

So far in Germany we've attended church primarily in German.  It takes so much concentration to understand anything, that I have been unable to draw while trying to decode German.  But this Sunday was different.  The man teaching had beautifully clear German; I could understand, and since I could also draw, I could stay engaged the whole time.  Such pleasure.  I've missed drawing in church - my own personal process with the Lord of taking in and understanding what He's teaching me.

I have drawn a couple of times at English services this year, so I included photos of those just for fun.