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.