News from Irene

My dear friends

A letter in january - that should fill the hole, which you may have after all the christmas letters. That’s the reason why I didn’t write before christmas... Here is a suggestion: To loose weight, which you perhaps have put on after eating all those good christmas meals, you could do the following: While you are reading my newsletter, run upstairs and down after each paragraph.
Okay, let’s start.

My work - My children

Since august 2000 I have been working in the childrens home near Bern. After the second week, I had a appendectomy .So I saw a hospital from the inside and then I could enjoy 2 weeks holidays at home. But then I started again and I got to know the children and the colleagues and their characters and personalities. I take care of 9 Children between the ages of 4 and15. My duties range from waking up children , cleaning the kitchen, changing the swaddle, teaching french, encouraging colleagues, cutting the toenails, going for walks, inlineskating to comforting, laughing, complaining about everything and nothing and to opening my ears for problems.
You see, my job is full of variety and presents enough challenges. Many times a short prayer to God helps me to get some peace, specially when all the kids are bustling around.The whole group is like a family,so my problems are similar to those of a mother. ButI have so far tried to give you the impression,that I really love my job. I enjoy only to be a co-worker in this home and not to have all the responsibility for the group. That gives me more freetime and this is the big difference between my new old work: In my freetime I can do what I want. As a kindergatren teacher I always had to prepare for the next day. Now in my freetime, I’m really off and I’m less stressed.

My flat - My oasis

I mean, it isn’t all green in my flat, but ma flat is a refilling station for me. It’s a quiet place, where I can enjoy the silence. The woman below is very kind and helps me whenever she can. But she is never obtrusive. Maybe you remember, that I wrote in my last letter that this flat and the woman were a great answer to my prayers. And it is still a great gift from God. Isn’t he good ?

My private life - my challenge

Let me tell you a story: Once upon a time there were two mice. One was a field mouse and the other a house mouse. Both got to know each other and they did many adventures together and had much fun. The field mouse visited the house mouse in the cellar and the house mouse got to know the hard life in the field. Both enjoyed the new things. But after many experiences the house mouse felt that the life on the field was too dangerous for her and the field mouse didn’t feel at home in the house. It was too small for her. They got to know: A house mouse is a house mouse and a field mouse is a field mouse...

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Exactly like these two mice I have learned a lot in my relationship with my boy- friend Karel from the Chec Republic. We did many things together and since september last year he could stay in Switzerland. So we could get to know each other better. We also wanted to know, if we really could fit together. We talked and prayed a lot about that. In the last month things have got a little bit tense: We felt, that you can’t seperate the culture from the character. The differences are so huge that we need much strength to work on our relationship. Now we know,trying to force things together, despite our differences, would cost us to much energy, which we don’t have,because we don’t need it only for today and for tomorrow ,but for the whole life. Because of that and after many prayers, we decided to let each other follow his or her path. But we remain good friends.

Why ?

You must be asking yourself questions as this, why God let this difficult things to happen. But this question can drive us into madness. But the question "What is it for ?" helps us to see the difficult times from an other stand point. The following sentences may sound too easy but there is a grain of truth in it:

• The question "Why ?" looks back and searches an for a scape-goat.
• The question "What is it for ?" looks in the future and gives hope.

I wish, that in every difficult situation you might get into next year, you will find a "What is it for ?"- question and that you let God lead you, with his eyes an with his love.

I greet you warmly from the green Switzerland ( instead of snowing it’s raining all the time) and I’m looking forward to hearing from you !!

Your Irene