Happy Easter

Dear All,

Christ is Risen! The tomb is empty! Unfortunately, so is our church. It has been a strange period of Lent, mostly confined to our homes and it is sad we could not worship together this morning. Although, now thinking about it, I would not have been there anyway as I had planned to go to Spring Harvest. 

I hope you have been able to celebrate Easter in some form, whether it be watching a service online or on television, or finding time for personal prayer. 

You will be pleased to know I successfully completed my Lenten challenges. As you know from previous letters, I chose to give up chocolate, which was difficult but I coped. I have not yet been able to gorge myself on this delicacy as the Easter Bunny failed to deliver to my house, but I am sure I will be enjoying some chocolate soon.

As well as giving something up, I decided to work hard at and become better at something. I chose to focus on learning German, which I have been trying to do for the past few years. I have an app on my phone called Duolingo that has hundreds of lessons from which you earn points. When I began, I was in what the app calls the Ruby League. Each week, the top ten players in the league are promoted to the next league and I made it my goal to get to the final league by Easter Day. So, for the past six weeks, I have painstakingly used Duolingo for a couple of hours each day, moving up through the leagues: emerald, amethyst, pearl and obsidian; until I final reached the Diamond League. Jetzt kann ich Deutsch sprechen!

Now, I plan to think of a new challenge to see me through the Easter period. 

I look forward to seeing you all soon. Take care. Stay safe. God bless.
Martin