counseling seminar

wow, what a weekend!
from friday till tuesday i was at the counseling seminar of the jesus freaks. the topic this time was street work! i wasnt as excited about the seminars, because they were basics and things i already practice. but thats ok, it was nice to have everyones attention focused around the kinda stuff i do for a change. usually there are about three of us there that are street workers, and the others do counselling in their church. it was encouraging to be able to see a bit more support than usual and more interest in what we do. it was also good to see eddie (my old mentor from hamburg, the drug counseling head guy) who gave his lecture and the others.

the topics of the lectues were addiction and addicts; relapses; sex addiction (from a catholic monk!); demons; profile of the b3 team in muenster; self-defence basics (non physicle); self-defence advanced (included some physicle); small groups "experiental excercise." the information wasn't new, but it was a good time for reflection.

the highlight of the weekend though, were the conversations. anyone suprised to hear me say that? with one of the monks i was able to have a really cool conversation about "the calling" and personal struggles in ministy, with the other monk i talked about the differences in protestant and catholic theology and the effects of various aspects of both on us personally. when i though of monks in the past, i thought of old men with serious faces and very few words.. these guys were different. one 25, the other 32.. both extremely funny, good looking, outgoing, and nice. and they really gave me a good picture of the catholic church.

one evening, a girl i had never talked to before pulled me aside and we ended up haveing an awesome conversation about the exact things that have been twirling through my head in the past few weeks.

i could go on... but its not that important who i spoke to about what. main thing is, it really boosted me up. so now i am back in bremen and ready to put it all to good use...