The week leading up to the big day, I accompanied Ronny and Adina into local schools, where Ronny put on a show, with magic tricks, hand-held puppets (he’s a ventriloquist), moral-type stories, including short snippets of his own humbling story, and mentions of Jesus, following which, in some cases, he invited the kids to the XXL-Kindertag if appropriate. He uses a method called something like sketch and tell, where he tells a story and paints its events onto a board at the front, rather interesting.
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| Ronny's show in a school in Frankfurt, with sketch-and-tell board |
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| Ronny and his newest hand-held puppet, Sascha, the Russian eagle, who makes some funny mistakes speaking German |
All in all, I worked 67½ hours during this particular week, the most yet, though it wasn’t as exhausting as it could’ve been, and actually a lot of fun.
I got on really well with Ronny, a 95% hyperactive, ex-alcoholic hardman turned Christian, who now does children’s programmes throughout the country with his wife Adina, originally from Romania, who I also got on very well with. Ronny is very good at/enjoys being childish, and I also enjoy being childish, so we had great fun together. And I was honoured to be told I was welcome to work with him in future...well I never!
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| Ronny being childish with me, probably wiping his spit from my face, or pretending to... |
Ronny seemed to really like the fact that I was from England (from London Heathrow, he said, the only place he really knows/remembers), and he made jokes about living with rain and fog (a typical continental view of day-to-day life in Britain), and made me laugh with attemps at speaking a very German English („I can speak a paar broken.“)
On the last day of school visits, we visited the Christian primary school where I run an English club. In a room of about 100 children, I was surprised by the number that put up their hand when asked if they knew me – about half, it seemed like. And after Ronny going on about me lots during the school visits and XXL-Kindertag as well to some extent, people were telling me that every child in Frankfurt must know my name.
The week was made all the busier by a Tensing ‚Kurzkonzert‘ (short concert) on Thursday evening, which made for carrying a lot of instruments and sound equipment up stairs and down again on the Friday. The concert was part of an event that evening with a sort of interactive, participant-led Bible study, which was part of the evangelical (big, state) church’s youth week, and, needless to say, it didn’t go that great at all. When singing in the choir, the bass were really quite lost until the choir leader came and stood next to us and sung our tune.
But Saturday 9th came, sure enough, with lovely sunshine (thankfully, after rain two days before, which had us worried) and I (having been held as a ‚joker‘ to replace anyone in their role who turned out to be sick or some such), I was glad to be allocated a group of 6 kids, quite mixed, with some 10 and 11 and some smaller ones aged 8, which I on occasion carried on my back when we ran through the city from one station to another. I also had two good friends from confirmation class to help me, so we were a nice, big group.
Link to photos of all participants in front of the town hall and (part of) my group (amongst other photos)
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| Me and Ronny on the 3-metre high XXL red chair, in the town hall in the morning |
25 teams were divided into five cities competing against each other, each team being assigned one of five initial career paths, gaining points for completing training and education at primary, secondary or university level. We were assigned ‚cook,‘ and our first task was cooking a dish I’ve never come across before: grated potatoes, chopped-up onion and flour, fried in oil and topped with sugar. After completing primary school we were able to move to the level above, cooking (and eating) the same dish but decorated with whipped cream, smarties, chocolate sauce, etc, (and it tasted quite good). But we also trained to be waiters (carrying a tray of filled glasses around an assault course), barbers (removing shaving foam from balloons using rasors without them popping), nurses (drawing blood – pink squash – from the arms of a puppet) and fitness trainers (wearing ourselves out on a kind of bungee bouncy castle where you attach yourself to a big elastic cord and try to run as far as possible before being whipped backwards to the ground by the cord). We also completed the exams for primary school and secondary school, and enjoyed the fantastic XXL-burgers for lunch. And had to complete cultural tasks to receive special culture points to get a theater. At the end we had to rush back to the central HQ (in the town hall, which was where the event started) to make sure our latest points counted – particularly tiring for those that had worn themselves out on the fitness trainer.
We then made our way to a ‚community house‘ belonging to the evangelical (big, state) church, where the rest of the programme took place – first in the street, with the Double Dutch group NoLimit giving us a chance to skip with two ropes.
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| Me, about to have a go and fail at Double Dutch skipping with two ropes |
Then Ronny took to the stage in the hall inside, with a few Christian songs, appearance of a hand-held puppet, a magic trick, and a story based on one of Jesus‘ stories about a man finding a treasure in a field, and selling everything he had to buy the field in order to get the treasure.
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| Kicking off the afternoon programme with the kids |
He then talked about Jesus Christ being the treasure he found in life, and invited the children to accept him into their lives, and pray together afterwards, which a handful did, including one girl from my group.
That evening there was a party in the CVJM youth house for all the volunteers/helpers who made the day possible, during which I taught Ronny the word ‚thingamijig,‘ which he found hilarious.
The following morning Ronny appeared again in a church service, this time at the Baptist (evangelical free church) church here in Frankfurt (Oder), which I attend most regularly. He made some rather outrageous jokes, including one insider about a ‚thingamijig,‘ and preached using his sketch and tell method again, about Jesus giving us freedom, love, and eternal life.
NoLimit then hosted a Double Dutch competition, seeing who could achieve the most skips with two ropes, in which I came second with 238 – the record being 304, made by an 11-year old. Then, people started to go their separate ways, with NoLimit taking the train home, Ronny and Adina heading off home in their big ‚Time for Jesus‘ bus, back into everyday life, which I greeted by enjoying a relaxing afternoon and a bike ride in Poland.
Yes! I’m glad this week was.
Here, Ronny and Adina Kropf's website (Google translated into English).
