Bio Craze

There are a lot of fun things about Germany: for instance, they have these awesome, colored marker-pens that you can't buy in the States, Ascension and Pentecost are national holidays, the mixture of beer and sprite and/or cola, and their language contains nouns for such things as "a song you can't get out of your head", "a slap in the face", and "a not-so-good idea of something to do that someone put into your head and now you can't get rid of".

And then there are a lot of things that drive me just a little bit crazy: like always having to wait for the traffic light men in order to not kill the children, how every single piece of documentation needs to have an "official" stamp on it, how there is an authority for "order" (don't ask), and that we never, ever go against tradition (seriously).

So when I came to understand that the Germans are incredibly ecologically friendly, it fell somewhere in between for me. I like the environment, I care about it, but have never been overly conscientious of my own actions. But, every German has about 4 trash cans in their apartment: one for plastics/packaging, one for paper, one for biodegradable materials, and one for normal trash. So ok, we'll go with that. That's not too difficult and it helps the environment...

But then today I heard something so perfectly German that it made my head spin. People keep asking me what Germany is like, what defines it, etc. Well, here it is. I have no clearer picture than this. My friend was complaining to me this morning that her car was dirty. I made the mistake of asking if Germany had "student" car washes...no, they don't. But it's not simply that it hasn't caught on over here or something. It's actually against the law to have them. Why? It's not that they block off massive portions of usable space in parking lots or that the students might harass people with the water hoses. It's because the soap is bad for the environment. And how is it bad, you might ask? Well, the soap gets mixed with the water, which then flows either down the drain and/or into the earth. The soap goes into the earth and contaminates it. Theoretically, one could use biodegradable soap. But that's too difficult to monitor, because one could buy biodegradable soap once and then refill the bottle with regular soap and then we would be stuck with the same problem that we started with.

Therefore, we won't worry about how soap, exactly, is bad for the environment, how we use regular soap in our bathrooms, or how our children will pay for their summer trips. We will simply abide by the law, and not hold any car washes. :)

You Are Dust, And To Dust You Shall Return

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, seriously one of the greatest days of the year. A pastor can get up and tell people that they are sinful and that only the cross saves them any time, but rarely is there a sermon illustration already built into the service. And rarely do people come to church WANTING to hear that they are nothing but dust. Really, a bit more hope is generally desired. However, on Ash Wednesday and throughout all of Lent, there is even more of a mandate to give this, if that is even possible.

But for those of you who think that pastors, worship leaders, etc. simply have all their materials at-hand, or for those of you who have struggled with putting things together yourself, here is some insight into worship preparations and going-ons. There is a tradition (that I love) where on Ash Wednesday, we receive the mark of the cross - made with ashes - on our foreheads with the words "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return". It's a reminder of our humanity but also of being marked with the cross of Christ. But little did I know, there is a whole lot more to be uncovered about this tradition:

- Normally, ashes are meant for the fireplace or ashtrays. On this day, we transport them to peoples' foreheads. But beware of gray ashes as opposed to black ones. Gray ashes were probably taken from the fireplace or the ashtray. This would be a scandal to rock the church and we would not want that, of course.

- Actual, Ash Wednesday ashes can be acquired in one of two ways. Either you go to Augsburg Fortress' catalog and order them, or you keep a jar of palm branch pieces from last year's Palm Sunday service in a jar on your shelf in your office. That way, when people come in and see a bunch of dried leaves amongst your theological books, you actually have something to talk about. But theoretically, you are really keeping them for the following Ash Wednesday when you burn them to create said ashes.

- Once you have the black ashes that these leaves create, you must mix them with olive oil. This is trickier than it would first appear. First, one must realize that ashes are not automatically infinitely small pieces of matter. They can be rather "large" and look more like tiny twigs. Since this is rather rough on the penitents' foreheads, they must be ground smaller. Secondly, the balance between oil and ash is very delicate. Too little oil and you will be etching crosses in their foreheads in order to get the ashes to stay instead of lightly caressing them. And we obviously don't want them to get any ideas about the cross being a harsh reality. But too much oil, and not only will the cross not show up well because the oil is keeping the ash particles away from themselves (i.e. the ashes don't stick together well enough to create a dark impression), but you then have the "cross" dripping down your forehead and nose and you now have one oily, drippy mess with a few black specks thrown in for good measure.

- Use your thumb and not two fingers. This is difficult for people who are used to standing in front and making the sign of the cross in front of the congregation for a blessing. The traditional stance is to have two fingers up. So the normal, cross-making hand position would suggest to use these fingers. But that results in a double cross, or simply a "cross" that makes people wonder if they're looking at you cross-eyed. And when people are contemplating whether their eyes are seeing correctly or not instead of contemplating the cross, then we have done a disservice, of course.

- When giving the imposition of the ashes at the same time as communion, beware of which fingers you are using when. Combining imposition of the ashes and communion is wonderful; the we come forward for the ashes, being reminded of our humanity, and with the next step we are given literal, tangible forgiveness and grace. It's excellent. However, the people serving communion and giving the ashes must also receive these blessings as well. In my situation last night, the pastor was giving the ashes and I was serving the bread. We both needed to receive both. Here is how you do it: one person holds the ashes while the other takes their THUMB (as previously indicated) and dips it into the ashes and marks the sign of the cross on the other. Wipe it completely dry on the paper towel also being held by the person holding the ashes. But be careful not to get your other fingers on it because they will then be oily and full of ash as well. Take your third and fourth fingers and pick up a piece of bread so that no oil or ash gets on it and give it to the other. Direct them to the person holding the wine. Repeat for the other person.

- And finally, save that now-empty jar for a few weeks until we hit Palm Sunday again. We wouldn't want to miss out on the experience the next year!

And now you, too, can prepare for Ash Wednesday. Have a blessed Lent!

Dezember/Januar

So. I haven’t written anything for over 3 months and all the people who used to read this have actually quit asking me to post anything because they’ve given up on me. Schade. I would like to say that this is a new start for me; the beginning of a resolution to post more often. But knowing myself, I can’t really promise that. So cling on to this post and enjoy it to its fullest. :) Since there has been so much that has happened in the past 3 months, I am actually going to break this up into 3 posts so that it is possibly not so overwhelming. What you are looking at is actually the third post, so scroll down a bit…

Bremerhaven:

I have a friend here who is German and whose family lives in Bremerhaven (a port city in the north of Germany). Her family was getting together in early December for their Christmas gathering and she invited me to come along. It was 3 days of nothing but German. I started off alright, but one can only concentrate in a foreign language for so long. But, I went to an emigration museum, which is one of the best museums I have ever been to, saw the North Sea, drank lots of tea, and had a great time. One of the traditions this family had was to go on a hike before and after their Christmas meal (which was at a restaurant). So, that’s what we did, mud and all. The other part of this is that every time you hit a corner in the path, you have to take a shot of Schnapps. We didn’t have any corners, so we made some up. Different, but fun. Also, at the meal, I tried something for the first time: beer mixed with Sprite. For those of you who have never had it, it’s equal parts of each. I’m not a beer fan, but I thought this was good and definitely something I’d have again. The Germans also like “cab”, or “cola and beer”.

Geneva:

Over New Year’s I went to Geneva with a seminary friend and a few other people from my church to a Taizé conference. Taizé is a community in France that holds a monastery. There is a lot of history that is behind this community, but in short, “Taizé” has also evolved into meaning a style of worship, music, and prayer. This conference was for young adults all over the world (about 30,000 came) to learn about and experience Taizé. The idea behind Taizé is one of peace; the service is very calm, quiet, and meditative with lots of repetitive songs (chant-like), prayers, scripture readings, and silence. We were placed in home-stays with local congregation members in the Geneva area and then met in our assigned churches every morning for prayer and small-group discussion. Then we had common prayer with everyone just after lunch, then some workshops, common prayer in the evening, and then went home. There were many purposes in my going to this conference, but one is that I am responsible for setting up the Lenten services at our church this year, and they are going to be in the Taizé style. Therefore, learning about it is a good thing! Of course, while there, we saw the buildings for the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Red Cross/Crescent, and the United Nations. My new plan is that, when it comes time for me to learn French, I will simply move to Geneva and work for LWF until I master it. :)

Berlin:

Yes, I do actually live in Berlin most of the time.

Das Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

And something that I noticed after my most recent trip was that Berlin feels like home to me and it’s always nice to come back. I absolutely love this city, and if I didn’t have to go back for another year of school in the fall, I would do everything in my power to find a way to stay here. Working at ACB is going well; December was exciting in that my friend came to visit, I was an angel in the children's Christmas play, I preached twice (one was on Christmas, with my friend who graciously helped out at the last minute), and I was able to go to several Christmas markets and parties.

ACB at Christmas

For life currently, I’m beginning to know the congregation members better and have conversations longer than just the receiving line at the end of service. I’ve finished teaching the 3-5 year olds and am now teaching adults (which I love). I’ve started my “intern project”, which is a study on prayer – and if anyone wants to help me with that, let me know… - and that has been very well-received in the church. I continue to work with the youth and young adults here, along with all the other ongoing projects we have. I’m even almost through my German language course and am starting to make friends outside the congregation. So while the work seems overwhelming and daunting some of the time, and there are certainly days when I wonder if this is really what I want/need to be doing, I do enjoy it a great deal, and it’s generally a surreal feeling to be here. So now you have been caught up on my life. I hope all of yours are going well.

November

Only one trip this month...

Turkey:

I took a week of vacation at the end of November and went to Turkey. There is another ELCA intern in Oslo, Norway and she and I met at the Istanbul airport and went from there. We stayed there for a few days and saw many mosques, the Hagia Sophia, where we had a chance to practice reading Greek (long history there – it was a church, then a mosque, and now a museum and had an incredible amount of history happen there), the Galata Tower, Topkapi Palace, spice markets, and just lots and lots of life in general there. Including odd men on buses, out-of-commission rail lines, fishermen on the bridges, and the overlapping calls to prayer from the hundreds of mosques there. The crazy thing about Istanbul is that half of it is in Europe and half of it is in Asia…We then decided to go to Chanukkale, which is near Troy. We had thought we could take a boat across the Sea of Marmara, and were wrong. But we decided that we were at the dock, so we might as well take a boat, and got on one to Bandirma. We got there about 9:30 at night, found no one who spoke either English or German, but managed to get to the inter-city bus station nonetheless. We got on the bus, the driver left to talk to some policemen, came back and we gathered that he had told us we all had to get off. We did. They put us (about 20) into a 12-passenger van and drove us to some random city in the country. We got out and they put us in another van of the same size. They drove us some more until we got to Chanukkale at about 2:00AM. We found our hostel, slept, and woke up to realize that they (and the rest of the neighborhood) had no running water. We went to Troy, came back, had lunch at a place where our common language was German, and then at night watched a documentary that was being shown in a nearby hotel. Took a bus that night to Selchuk, which is near Ephesus. We arrived at 6:00AM and were basically accosted by an over-eager pension-owner. I had no intentions of following him to his hostel, but lost to my friend who didn’t care. It ended up being a nice place with great owners, just no heat. But Ephesus was amazing, and then we also were able to get a personal tour of a ceramic factory. We stayed there another night and then the following one took an overnight bus back to Istanbul. We were put into a van that would take us back to the district of Istanbul that we wanted, and in said van, our driver had an extensive amount of energy, which led him to dance to disco music all the way there. We went to the international church there in the morning and then I flew back to Berlin that night. It was a crazy week, but we met a ton of people with fascinating stories and just had a lot of fun. I wanted to upload some pictures here, but the intern in Oslo did a much better job of taking pictures than I did, so I want to use hers. Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of trouble downloading them. So they are "soon" to come.

Oktober

In October, my "tour of cities" began. In this beautiful, fall month, I had 2 major trips and 1 minor one.

Paris:

When I arrived in Berlin, one of the first things I was told was “Congratulations. You have inherited the youth trip at the end of October and no one has done anything with it yet. We realize that it’s in 2 months, but we thought you could handle it.” :) So, at the end of October, I took a group of 6 youth to Paris for a few days for a conference. The conference could have been much-better organized, but really, how great is it to hop on a plane and arrive in Paris 2 hours later? The city is absolutely beautiful and, although I would be an instant outcast there because of my lack of interest or conscientiousness into fashion, it is a fascinating place and one where I would certainly go to again. The conference was for the youth of all the churches that are a part of the “Association of International Churches in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa” (AICEMEA). So it was an English-speaking conference with youth from churches all over Europe but from countries all over the world. The theme was “Crossings”, where we talked about what it meant to cross paths with ourselves, our “enemies”, our future, and Jesus. And in the middle of all of it, we went up the Eiffel Tower (did you know that it actually started out as a temporary radio tower?), to the Louvre, Notre Dame, on a boat tour of the Sienne, and many other things. And the company of the youth was fantastic. Seriously, who gets paid to go to Paris?

The Eiffel Tower and the American Church in Paris on the left (where we were).

Notre Dame

Wittenberg:

For Reformation, I went to Wittenberg itself. 490 years to the day after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church, I was in that very church at a worship service. I really have no words for it. As a Lutheran, you really don’t get much better than that. It was actually part of my job to be there, because there are ELCA missionaries in Wittenberg (who work with a program to help tourists (especially Lutheran groups) understand and learn about Wittenberg) who were running a confirmation retreat over Reformation. A member of my church and I went down to help with the program. So, I got to work with youth, attend a huge medieval festival, go through Luther’s house/museum, and have all of my expenses paid. Phenomenal.

The city square with the medieval market. The Stadtkirche, or "city church", is in the background. This is not to be confused with the Schlosskirche, or "castle church". This is where Luther preached - not where he nailed the 95 Theses.

Schloss Charlottenburg:

There is actually a palace by my apartment. It's about a 10 minute bike ride along a canal to get there. So on my day off one week, I rode down there. I didn't actually go in, but there are these beautiful Baroque-style gardens behind it and I rode through there for a while and then sat by the pond watching people. It was a wonderful, fantastic day and one I hope to repeat when we get out of winter and it doesn't rain everyday. I actually love the rain, but it makes bike-riding and garden-touring a bit difficult...