Coming home soon!

From time to time I like to imagine my life as a movie, or at certain times at least, I imagine that something I’m doing or experiencing would be or is like a scene out of a movie.  I just experienced one such moment.  As I finished working at our booth on the Weihnachts Markt, I bought a gluhwein and a bratwurst and thoroughly enjoyed them as I walked home through this small city lit up with Christmas decorations and a light snow falling.  It was the perfect scene for either the opening of a Christmas comedy where soon after I would get hit by a car or come back to find my apartment turned upside down with a note from my (now) ex-girlfriend saying she and the neighbor had gone off to Mexico together, or the ending to a drama where the town had just come together to save my tiny (and the last of its kind) handmade, wooden Christmas toy shop.  All that was lacking was the music to play with your emotions and make you feel like the director wanted you to.  And the aerial camera view to really capture the entire scene.

Whatever, in case you didn’t catch it before, I’m working at our booth on the Christmas Market here in Zeitz this week.  It has been very cold, but also a good time.  I have gotten to watch everyone in Zeitz walk by once or twice and since one of my hobbys is people watching it works out pretty well.  I have also gotten a very small view from the other side of the Christmas shopping season.  Since I have never worked in retail, this is the closest I’ve come to being the person that has to stay in one shop the entire day and sell things to people that are just looking for a deal.  The Weihnachts Markt is much prettier and “magical” when you don’t have to look at it from the same booth all day.  And much more enjoyable when after you have strolled through all the booths you’re able to head home to somewhere nice and warm. 

I haven’t written in a while, but a week or two ago I got to have a very interesting conversation with two older ladies.  I am sure that one of them is Russian and was married to a German man, but has only lived in Germany for somewhere around 10 years.  The other woman I am not 100% sure about.  They speak to each other in Russian, and I think the other woman is German, but lived in Russia until sometime in the last 20 years or so.  Anyways, they both have some very interesting life stories.  You could probably make blockbuster hits out of both of their lives.  Well, at least out of one of them.  I couldn’t actually understand the other lady well enough to say that for her, but from what I could understand, it’s probably true for her too.  The woman that is German (or so I think) and that lived in Russia for a while has definitely experienced a lot.  She told me that she lived in Russia during the war and that afterwards it was very difficult for Germans.  At some point she was sent to a kind of internment camp in Kazakhstan because she was German and had to live there for 14 years.  She said it was only because of Jesus that they survived.  She said that if you were German then you were treated especially rough and that they barely had a thin blanket to cover themselves with during the cold, winter months.  She said things got better for them after Stalin died.  I really wish I could understand them better because I feel like they probably have a lot of very interesting stories and wisdom to pass on.  I find it fascinating to hear these kinds of stories about things we learned about or heard about in school, but could honestly never really fathom or understand what it all meant to the people who lived through it.  I think that hearing firsthand accounts like this really makes the history that we learned with all of the numbers and statistics much more understandable and touchable.  I think our lessons would be much better learned (so that we don’t keep repeating our mistakes) if we were able to, or took the time to listen to people that lived through all of this history and especially ones from different parts of the world than ours. 

Anyways, I don’t know what else to update on.  I’m headed home for the holidays on Wednesday, so I’m pretty excited about that.  The past few weeks have been pretty busy with a seminar and then lots of special Christmas programs at the church.  We had soup kitchen for 4 days in a row and now we have a booth at the Weihnachts Markt.  It’s been good, but I won’t be sorry to leave this cold behind for a little while.  I also got to speak with some foster parents that are in our church here in Zeitz.  It was really interesting to hear about a different system and compare the similarities and differences between what I experienced in Opelika and how it is here.  They get a lot more financial support here in Germany for foster kids, but the biological parents also have a lot more rights than they do in Alabama.  That might sound like a good thing, but I don’t think it is when the parents are so messed that sometimes they cannot even take care of themselves.  Clearly there is not really an ideal situation in regards to this, but I think that it is better in Alabama where after a certain period of time for the parents to try and get things together and when they clearly just are not able to provide a safe environment for their kids that their rights are terminated and their children are then able to be adopted, as opposed to here where the parents have to say they don’t want the rights anymore and before that can always decide they want to take their kids back, maybe for a year or two, and then decide they are not quite ready and put them back into the foster system and continue that cycle for as long as they want to.  It was also sad to hear that, at least in this area, the social workers are also way overworked and there is no more room in the children’s homes so that sometimes children that should be are not always immediately taken out of a dangerous situation.  I had wondered why several of our children from the kids afternoon programs still lived with their parents, but I suppose that is why.  I am hoping to start at least one or two of the Bighouse programs here in Zeitz in January to help out some of the foster families.  I think it will be good to raise awareness in the church here and hopefully also in the city about what is needed and what small things everyone can do to help out.

Reformations Day

Happy Reformations Day! Im gonna try to catch everyone up with what all’s been going on since September.  Im doing an FSJ- Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr (I think most of you can translate that pretty easily), with the local Methodist Church here in Zeitz, Germany.  Zeitz is in east Germany and has really gone downhill since the fall of the DDR.  The church is called the Lighthouse congregation and they have several outreach programs like a children’s afternoon two days a week and a soup kitchen once a month.  Zeitz is kind of a rough city.  The first few weeks I was here it was really depressing.  The city is a mess.  The people in the church told me that 50000 people used to live her and now only 20000 live here.  There are empty buildings, shops and apartments, all over the city.  Many of the buildings look way out of date and run down with broken glass or chipped walls and there is trash all over the city.  I have had to walk over glass shards on the way to work every day for the last two months and that is when I am walking through the nicer city center.  They told me that many films come to shoot war scenes here because all the buildings already looked like they were recently bombed.  I think the environment here has a pretty big effect on the people too.  I have met a few other people and seen some different things now, but as recently as a few weeks ago I still would’ve sworn that almost everyone in Zeitz had some kind of problem, or was not quite so normal.  It was almost like the buildings reflected the people of the city, and I thought to myself that this was a kind of city where the rundown and outcast must come.  I see a lot of people with physical problems on the street and there is a ton of alcoholism in this city.  There are barely any young people around my age here.  I am pretty sure once they got old enough, they left for a nicer place.  It seems like just about everyone has a rather negative view of their city.  When asked how I liked it here, everyone was surprised or would tell me I could tell the truth when I answered it was nice… I was mostly just saying that to not offend, although now I have found some parts of Zeitz that are actually nice.  The people here seem to always be making a joke or a comment about how dysfunctional or messed up it is here.  There are also many people without work here.  I have talked with several of them at the soup kitchen and they all miss the DDR and say it was much better times then.  There are also several assisted living senior citizens homes here and also several different children’s homes.  It is hard to imagine in a city this size that there could be so many children’s homes, but I think so many of the parents here have lost hope and turned to drinking and drugs.  It is really sad, but also an amazing opportunity to be able to bring Gods love and some hope back into the lives of the people here. 

There are 3 or 4 churches here in Zeitz, but I don’t think any of them have more than 50 people or so.  That means there are about 200 Christians or at least people that attend a church in a city of 20000.  I suppose the numbers could be worse, but that’s a huge difference from what you would see in Trussville, for example.  The church I am working for has about 20 or 30 people each Sunday. 

That’s kind of the background for where I am now.  It is good to know to better understand what I’ve been doing here since September.  The first few weeks were pretty long for me and boring, which also meant more time to think about people and places that I missed.  Luckily I have a really awesome mom that got online as much as she could to keep me company in that time.  I was not entirely certain what the pastor had in mind for us( Matthias and I, the other guy doing the same work as me) when he signed up to have two FSJ-lers here in Zeitz.  The church does have a few outreach programs, like I said before, but there was still a lot of free time in our weeks when there was really nothing to do.  The first few weeks looked like this:  Monday- our day off… although sometimes we were asked to go to a meeting or pick up donations from a nearby city, Tuesday and Wednesday- Childrens program in the afternoons and preparing for the program or taking care of visa/bank/insurance stuff in the mornings.  Thursday morning we really didn’t have much at all to do and afternoons we go to a Book Coffee or one time a month a Bible Coffee.  The book coffee is kind of dead.  The two ladies who work in the Lighthouse programs would make tea and coffee and have a few cookies out or something and then one of them would read a book to whoever would come, usually only one older lady and at most three older ladies.  The Bible Coffees were better attended because they would serve homemade pastries or cakes so a lot of people from the Soup Kitchen would be there for that.  After eating then we read a Bible passage and the pastor says a few words about it, which is usually pretty good.  Fridays we didn’t have anything except at night we have a prayer evening.  The first time surprised me a little because the first hour was praying for Israel and they had a menorah out and Israeli flags out, at one time the pastor picked one up and started waving it around as we sang a Jewish song together.  They are very big into Israel and I have not had the right time to ask too many questions about it just yet, but I think it has something to do with their history here as well.  Saturdays we don’t usually have anything except for youth group at night and then Sundays we just have one worship service in the morning.  Reading all that may seem like a lot, but it really is not much at all.  The children’s program is only one and a half hours and we always eat and sing some songs to begin which takes up at least 30 minutes usually.  That means we only have to prepare a short devotion and maybe one or two games or something like that and then our time is over.  That also means it doesn’t take forever to prepare for it.  So those first few weeks I did not have much to do at all.  We did start talking about some different, new projects that Matthias and I could start on our own.  Now, we are finally beginning to really start some of those projects and I feel like my week is much more productive. 

We have several ideas for new projects and some of them are farther along than others.  One new thing that I am in charge of actually starts on Sunday for the first time.  I really stole the idea from Barry from Chemnitz, but I am starting an English Language Fellowship here in Zeitz, which is basically a worship service once a month in English.  There are clearly not as many people interested or that know English here in Zeitz as there were in Chemnitz, but I also went to the universities in Leipzig and advertised a little bit there so hopefully we will have a decent turnout.  A lot of the people that came to the service in Chemnitz I would not see at the regular Sunday morning service but they were interested in practicing their English and so Im hoping it will work out here too.   Another project that we have lined up is a sport afternoon for kids in the city.  We went yesterday and looked at a gym that I think will be perfect for it, and have a kind of test run one Friday in November.  We will start meeting regularly every Friday in January to just play sports and games with kids and then maybe have a little snack at the end.  We really just want to use this time to develop some relationships with different kids and have fun and provide a good place for some running around and staying fit.  We have also spoken with the mayor, who helped us with the gym, about two other projects that were waiting for a response about.  One of them is just a big trash clean up project.  I had actually envisioned a weekly kind of thing when I first got here, but it is evolved into hopefully sometime having one day where we recruit as many people as we can to come and help clean up a park in the city.  It is always covered in alcohol bottles and trash, but also has a nice playground and where we see many of our kids from the children’s program playing when were out and about.  The other idea is to go into the schools and help tutor kids in English or Matthias will help with German or Latin.  We really just want to develop some relationships with some of the teens in the area and hopefully we can slowly turn homework help into a real relationship and then maybe get them to come to youth group with us or at the very least let them know we are there to talk with or help them out whenever they need something.  We have also applied for some grant money so that we can buy some new toys for the children’s program as well as building a really cool tree house behind the church for the kids.  This past week we also had what I find to be an awesome opportunity that I think we should definitely take advantage of as soon as we get a schedule down for one or two of the other projects weve already been working on.  Last week I went to a big apartment complex where only foreigners live to pass out flyers and invited them to the English service since most of them do not speak any German but at least a little English.  While we were there the lady in charge of the place asked us if we would be interested in giving German lessons there at the house for whoever wanted them.  I think that would be great and its something that we actually know there is a need for.  Several of our ideas we came to this city with, and although I think they will be well received and helpful, we know beforehand that this is something that is really needed here, so hopefully we can get that started as well.

I think that’s about everything that I do here.  Ive found a few other things to fill my spare time which is good.  On Tuesday nights I go to a bible study at the church, although it is only old ladies, Matthias, and me.  On Wednesday nights I go to play volleyball with a group that is made up of people from several of the churches here in Zeitz.  It is really good to be able to play a little sport and we also have a short devotion to start off.  I guess that is really everything so far.  I have gotten to visit my friends in Chemnitz a few times which is always good and while in Leipzig handing out flyers for ELF I met an Australian guy that works for the English church there so I may try to go and visit them sometime or have some tea or something.  The only problem is it costs so much money to take the trains to either of those cities, so that’s kind of a bummer.  The Australian guy invited me to a bible study for international students on Thursday nights which I would love to go to, but Ill have to see if it works out with time and money and everything.  I finally got internet for my laptop last week too.  I felt bad for using Matthias’ internet the first two months and it was hard not being able to get online whenever I felt like it to chat or check an Alabama score.  Matthias and I live together as well and that has been tough, although it is getting better and better now.  He is 18 and just graduated high school but he is also really tall (that might seem insignificant, but for whatever reason, because he is so much taller, sometimes Id forget he was relative young still).  He also likes to talk a lot and will give his opinion even if no one asked for it.  He is super nice but at first I just found it annoying.  All of those things together made him really annoying to me for a while, although thankfully we have gotten to know each other a little better now and it doesn’t bother me as much now.  Its also been a good time for me to learn a lot too.  I have to learn to communicate better and realize that he doesn’t necessarily think like I do so its not always obvious that we should do this or that.  But yea… that’s basically what has been going on around here.  Now that I have internet I plan to blog much more often and so hopefully I won’t have to write long overviews that aren’t always very specific.  Also say a prayer for my uncle tomorrow, he is going for a biopsy on a tumor in his brain.  Thanks.

Herzlich Willkommen

Im finally able to blog again.  It has been a very interesting first two months here in Zeitz, and Im debating on whether or not to break up the recap into three or four different blogs or just give a very broad overview of what alls happened and how its been.  Im just gonna write and see how long it gets before I decide.  Im thankful to finally have internet with my laptop, but that story is really getting ahead a little bit, so Im gonna go back to the beginning and start there.

I got to spend the weekend before I left with lots of close friends at the lake, just hanging out and watching football.  It was a really fun weekend but I started feeling kind of sick while I was there.  My throat was hurting and my nose stuffed up and I was really hoping I didn’t have mono again.  I was flying out on Monday so I left the lake early on Sunday afternoon and went home to finish packing and be with my family a little longer.  I didn’t feel like finishing packing though.  I went on to bed pretty early and woke up in time to try and be the first patient at the doc-in-a-box to see if it was anything serious or if he could give me something to knock it out.  Im glad that I went but it was not fun.  We ended up being the 4^th or 5^th patient there so I had to wait a while before I was taken to be seen.  Once I was back there I told them what was wrong and they decided to test my blood and check out everything and then decided to give me two shots to knock out what they diagnosed as a sinus and ear infection.  The only problem was that I don’t really do needles and shots very well.  So of course I told the nurse that came to take my blood that it was very likely I was going to pass out or at least come close, and she acted like I was a wimp and told me Id be fine.  I said Ok, but in a tone that really said “Ok, youre gonna have to catch me in about 20 seconds and Im gonna be happy to tell you I told you so”, and then felt fine… well I didn’t dare move my arm too much or look at it and risk thinking about it again, but I didn’t feel woosy or anything.  Nurse 1  me 0.  Well I suppose I won too, but now they just thought I was a wimp and was a little too worried about passing out.  So, after waiting for a long while they finally came to give me the two shots, one in each butt cheek/upper thigh.  This time I didn’t dare say anything to the nurse about passing out.  Instead I stood up and did like he told me to and prayed for it to be quick and painless.  He gave me the first shot and I immediately started to feel faint.  I thought about sitting down or saying something but he had the other shot ready so I just tried to fight it long enough for him to get both of them over with.  He gave me the second shot and told me I could go as he was walking out.  I told him I thought I needed to stay there for a little while as I basically fell onto the table and rolled over so I was laying on my back.  Im not sure how long I layed there, but at some point he came back to check on me.  By then I was feeling a little better and didn’t think I was gonna black out but thought it was best for me to stay there a little longer before I tried to walk out.  I finally decided I should just go and didn’t want any more of the nurses to come by and see me.  I made it to the car and as I sat there waiting for my mom to come out, was really hoping the tradeoff of having my infections knocked out would be worth the really sore butt I was going to have to use in a couple hours to drive to Atlanta and then fly for 8 or 9 hours.

Before I could do that though, I had to go home and finish packing, then to Granddaddys for his birthday breakfast and to say bye to everyone there.  Saying bye this time around was much harder for me.  I don’t know if it was because I had only been home for a month or what but I didn’t feel quite as adventurous as last time around.  Mom drove me to the airport and I got all checked in and got to eat some Varsity before I left.  On the plane I got stuck between two guys and behind a guy that put his seat alllll the way back.  I really felt cramped.  And my butt was still sore.  I was not able to sleep at all which I was really hoping to be able to do.  I left Atlanta around 6 or 7, I think, and then got to Germany around 8 or 9 in the morning, I think, and knew I was going to have a long Tuesday, too travelling to east Germany and then to a seminar I was supposed to be at on Monday, and lugging around a year’s worth of luggage.  So after everything on Monday and looking forward to Tuesday I was really hoping to sleep some on the plane but it just didn’t happen.  The guy I sat beside probably played against my dad in high school though, so I guess that was interesting.  He played at Mt. Brook with Major Ogilvie.  Anyways, we got to Frankfurt a little bit late so I had to really hurry to catch my next flight to Dresden.  By this time I was needing to take my medicine which I was supposed to take with food and was super tired and just kinda weak.  I got to my gate and saw that my flight had been cancelled so I walked to the nearest Lufthansa customer service desk and realized there was more than just my flight that had been cancelled.  I went to the end of a very long line and as I stood there saw a tv in the airport talking about Lufthansa employees striking in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Munich.  I waited in this line for over an hour anxious about how I was going to take my medicine, wondering about how late I was going to be since I could not let the people that were supposed to pick me up know I would be later, and hoping I would get my money back or at least not have to pay for another flight.  I did try to use my kindle and email the lady I had been emailing with about all of these plans, but I had no idea if they were being read or not.  I never did get even close to the counter to talk with someone, the line was so long.  They did put out some kind of granola bars and water which was better than nothing at that point and I finally went and talked with a lady that was just fielding random questions towards the end of the line.  She told me I could go to another part of the airport and theyd help me get a train ticket to Dresden instead of flying.  I figured Id go check it out since it was clear Id be in that line for several hours just waiting to try and book another flight.  I spent the next thirty minutes walking across the airport and after being sent to a few different lines, finally found the one I was supposed to wait in.  I asked two or three different Lufthansa employees and they all told me something different, I think they were a bit under pressure too.  I waited in that line for 40 minutes or so, stocking up on water and granola bars for later in the day.  I finally made it to the counter and they gave me a train ticket voucher and told me my luggage would be sent to me in the next few days.  I wasn’t bold enough to really raise a stink and they didn’t offer to give me any money back, so I just took the ticket and left.  I then had to walk to the train station and wait in line there to book a train ticket for where I needed to go.  This part actually worked out for me.  I didn’t have to lug around my huge bag and with the train I was able to just go directly to the train stop where I was supposed to meet the people who were supposed to pick me up at a certain time.  Luckily I was able to sleep some on the trains, but did have to change trains several times and one or two that I was on were late and then I missed the ones I was supposed to take.  After all this I finally made it to the little city where I was supposed to meet the people and no one was there.  I tried several more times to email the lady and even walked to a hotel twice and used their phone to call the only number I had from the people but never got an answer.  I really didn’t know what to do.  I figured they knew I was supposed to be coming that day so maybe they would at least come back later and see if I ever made it since I was later than the time we had agreed on.  I waited 4 hours outside the train station until it was dark and I was starting to freeze.  No one came.  I should have planned for emergencies a little bit better, but I also didn’t have many Euro with me because I was planning on converting my money in a bank when I got there since Id heard Id get a better exchange rate that way.  So, I was really starting to get hungry and tired and decided Id try to figure out a way to get to the little town where I was supposed to be.  I saw a taxi nearby and went and asked the taxi driver if he knew where that little town was.  He was super nice.  He was not sure exactly so he tried calling for me and searched a few maps and then around his office to see if he had another number for the place I was supposed to go.  Another couple came up with money so he drove them to where they needed to go and then came back and helped me out.  He ended up driving me to the town and asking where it was that I needed to be and luckily we were right there by it.  He took 20 American dollars and told me to come back and exchange it when I had Euro, so he was really a blessing that night.  I didn’t want to seem like a jerk when I got to the seminar, so I went by and said hey to everyone for a few minutes and then went and showered and went to bed.  I thought I had survived.

Because my luggage didn’t get there until Thursday, I didn’t have any fresh clothes or winter clothes and it was cold where we were.  I also didn’t have a towel, but luckily had brought the blanket they give you on the airplane and used that.  It wasn’t the first time those airplane blankets had helped me out.. but that’s another story.  I also woke up the next morning and my mouth was hurting pretty bad.  I emailed my mom and asked her if that was normal or what should I do and she thought I had a yeast infection or something caused by the steroids and other shots I had gotten for my sinus infection.  The entire week of our training seminar I felt like crap.  A few times I just stayed in my bed and slept instead of going to “training”.  I was sick and jet lagged and cold.  And I missed everyone already.  It was rough.  We came to Zeitz and I really still am not sure how I did it, but we walked from the train station to our apartment and I was mad that we didn’t take a taxi.  I had not been able to really eat much cause my mouth hurt so bad and also still had a sinus infection and had to carry my backpack and wheel a medium sized bag and then my huge bag that was somewhere around 70 lbs. Sometime during that weekend the pastor here sent a doctor to me and she told me I now had a viral infection in my mouth too and that’s why it hurt so bad and I couldn’t eat.  Anyways, sometime around Tuesday or Wednesday I finally felt well enough to go out and visit the church and all.  It took me another week before I really felt well, but thankfully everything is good now.   I think this is long enough for one blog, so Ill write another one tom about my work and the city and whats been going on since I got here.  I hope this one isn’t too depressing.  It was def a rough first couple of weeks, but Im healthy now and God is good. 

Spain and beyond...

Like most of my posts lately, its been a while since my last one and I hope that I remember everything that I should, but Im relatively certain that I wont.  IMT ended.  It was very bittersweet.  I think all of us were excited to be leaving to go home and see friends and family, but at the same time I think we were all sad to be leaving our team.  The week after IMT was over I went to Spain with two of the youth we had worked with this year.  I went back to Chemnitz for two nights to do some laundry and finish packing, and as I was there alone where we lived, I really missed the girls.  I was eating dinner and just sitting in our little kitchen and started thinking about the past year and all the memories we had made.  I apologize for getting all sentimental here.  But, it was really strange knowing I was the only one there.  I half expected one of the girls to come in and sit down with me to eat.  I think I have watched too many movies in the past year, but my thoughts were really just like a movie montage with one memory blending into the next. 

Anyways, the week before in Spain was really a lot of fun.  We flew down there with no real idea of where we were gonna sleep.  We had a tent with us so we figured we could set that up somewhere if we really had to.  Luckily we found a pretty nice campground about 30 minutes by bus from Barcelona and it was not too expensive.  We stayed there for two or three nights and in the daytime walked around Barcelona seeing all the sights or just chilled on the beach.  One thing I really enjoyed was travelling with Germans.  Because we spoke German to one another and clearly the other two people I was with are German, everyone assumed that I was also German.  This came in handy for more than one situation.  There were several times when we were around Americans or English speaking people who clearly believed we were German and did not understand what they were saying.  I love to eavesdrop on other peoples conversations as Im travelling and I was able to listen to everything because the other people talked like no one could understand them.  The other times it came in handy was when people wanted to sale us something.  Because Barcelona is such a big tourist place, there were tons of people trying to hand out stuff or to get you to buy something.  They all spoke English assuming most tourists speak at least a little English.  Several times I just acted like I didnt understand what they were saying and instead spoke German with my friends until they left us alone.  It was fun. 

After a few days in Barcelona I talked them into going to Pamplona with me.  Im not sure it was the best decision, but they told me later they did enjoy it, although I thought they were a little bored, and I know I was sometimes too.  It all worked out ok for us, but I had thought the San Fermin Festival (running of the bulls) was always the first week of July.  Turns out its the second week of July.  We got a bus ticket and got there late the night before it started, although I had thought we were getting there on one of the last days of the festival.  Last time I was there I showed up late one night, saw an awesome fireworks show, ran with the bulls in the morning, and then caught the next train I could to Madrid.  Since then I had read more about the festival and learned that there was much more to it than just the running of the bulls.  Because my time there had been so awesome, I assumed the entire festival would be really great and wanted to see some of the things I had read about (mainly the parade of giants).  I had also seen a ton of people with tents and stuff just camped out wherever they could find space.  Because of this, we camped out in this big grassy area the first night that we got there.  Sometime early in the morning we were woken up by a police man opening our tent and telling us in Spanish and a few words of English that tents arent allowed in Pamplona.  So we packed up and went into the city to wait for the start of the festival.  I did not realize even during the daytime there would be so many people there just to get drunk.  It really changed my perspective on the festival.  There was definitely something for all ages, and it was clear that for the Spanish people it was also a big thing for the family.  There were all ages of people there and I believe a lot of the parades and rituals really do have meaning for the Spaniards, but I was also really disappointed about how many people were there just for a party.  I had seen how big of a party it was in the night when I was there last time, but I had believed that was just the nighttime and that during the day the parades and all would be more of the focal point and attended with respect or at least more like a parade or festival would be attended anywhere else.  I was wrong.  The place was totally trashed the entire day and people were totally trashed the entire day.  There was no break.  People were peeing wherever they felt like it.  The parades were pretty lame anyways, but I think it wouldve been better without drunks everywhere and the threat of sangria being poured on you at all times.  I know that this festival must bring tons of money into Pamplona, but I really wondered how the city and the people that live there felt about what happened there.  Anyways, we spent most of our time just hanging out and watching everything around us.  That second night we thought tents werent allowed so we just slept outside in our sleeping bags.  It wasnt that bad, but Ive definitely slept better.  We woke up early so we could take Julia to the stadium and then Philipp and I could run with the bulls.  As we walked to the course we saw tents everywhere, so that was really cool.  I guess the police had other things to worry about at that point.  Everything worked out well until about 30 minutes before the running started.  Well, at one point they drove two huge street cleaning trucks into the crowd of us waiting to run.  There was literally no room to move and yet the drivers werent stopping.  It was intense.  After waiting an hour and a half Philipp told me he couldnt see and had to get out.  I wasnt sure what he meant and just said ok... as he pushed through the crowd and got out of the course.  I waited for about fifteen minutes and then decided I should go find him to make sure he was ok.  As soon as I got out of the course, he walked up, and then by that point the cops wouldnt let anyone back into the course.  I was a little upset, but glad he was ok.  He said he needed water.  We couldnt even find a place to watch the run from because there were so many people and all the spots were taken.  It was a pretty big bummer.  After that we went back to Barcelona and just chilled on the beach the next day.  I got a really good sunburn.  I found it interesting that the Germans idea of fun in the sea/ocean was to swim out a good bit and then swim back.  I just wanted to jump up and down in the waves and hang out.  I assumed that had something to do with the fact that they go mostly to the Baltic sea for vacation, which is probably much colder than the Gulf of Mexico, and where you probably have to move around a lot or you get cold.  That night we went back into the city for tapas and a light show but missed the light show by five minutes.  We had heard there was not a bus that went to our campground at night, but we assumed they meant there wasnt a bus that went directly to it like the day bus did.  So we jumped on a night bus and waited until we saw something that looked familiar, but never saw it.  We rode to the end of the line and the bus driver kicked us out and then picked us back up ten minutes later.  He spoke a little English so we tried asking him how to get to where we needed to be and he said our best bet was to take a taxi.  I asked him if he would let us know when we were at the stop that was closest to our place, but Im not sure he understood that well.  We rode back with him for a while and then he told us to get out because he saw a taxi we could take.  We thought it was also the stop nearest our place and decided we could walk back.  About 2-3 hours later and several jumped fences we made it back to our campground.  It was quite a night excursion.

On the day that we were travelling back to Chemnitz I got an email telling me the church in Zeitz had raised enough money for them to take me and the other guy.  Ill be heading back to Germany on September 3 and staying for an entire year this time.  I think it is really an answer from God about where I should be.  The pastor was really surprised they had raised the money.  Since then Ive travelled back to the US and spent a few days in Atlanta and am now in North Carolina with my brother and his family for a week.  Zac is here as a delegate to the SE Jurisdictional Conference for the UMC, or something like that.  Ive already been introduced to so many people I have no idea who they are.  Im trying to stay open and positive to what goes on here, but it feels like a very different world than what I had kinda expected or maybe would wish for.  I need to see more of it, and get to know the people better before I really say anything, but im a bit wary of all the "politicing" that goes on here.  We'll see.  Im here mostly for vacation anyways.  Zac and I played golf today and a black bear walked out behind us on the 16th about 20 or 30 yards away.  It was pretty cool to see. 

Like I said before, I feel like Ive forgotten a lot of things I had planned on writing about.  Its prob not important.  It is strange being back here.  Sometimes it feels like I was never gone, and then other times it feels like what in the world is this?! A day or two I felt like I was just kind of watching everything happen but not really feeling or really living it.  That was really strange.  Oh well.  Ive got a few more weeks before I go back and I think they are gonna be jam packed with hanging out with everyone and taking care of different things like going to the dentist and eye doctor.  Hopefully it wont go by too fast. 

Last month...

Im finally blogging and hopefully I can remember everything from the last month or so.  The last day of May I gave a talk to the German- British Society here in Chemnitz.  They are always looking for native speakers to come and speak and are interested in different cultures and ideas.  It was really a good time for me.  I was able to speak English and tell about where I am from and some of the places I have been, and everyone had to sit there and listen, hopefully more from interest than politeness.  Either way, they were a captive audience.  As I arrived one elderly couple started talking to me and said they knew my grandparents… I had a picture of my family projected on a screen and they thought they recognized Papa.  At first I thought they knew I was from America and that Gran and Papa really did know someone in every country, but then realized they believed I was someone else’s grandkid.  It was funny.  I know my mom will be disappointed, but I didn’t really have a speech or anything that I could repost here.  I put together a slide show of pictures and then talked about what they were and what they meant to me.  I started out talking about myself and my family, just who I am, where Im from, and what I have done in life so far.  Since where you come from is a large part of who you are, I seamlessly flowed into talking about Alabama and the culture of the South.  I mentioned the football rivalries, some history of Alabama, Civil Rights and todays immigration laws, our beaches and mountains, and the connections Alabama has with Germany.  After talking about Alabama I moved on to pictures from several Mexico mission trips I had been on.  I spent a long time just showing pictures of the conditions we encountered there in the villages and dumps.  I told about some of our experiences there in Mexico and then was not sure how much time I had left.  I thought I had moved rather quickly and had only used 30 minutes or so of my hour allotted, so I moved on from my pictures and just told my story about sleeping outside in Barcelona.  After that was question and answer time.  I would have never guessed it, and Im still not sure its true, but they told me they have the Mexican Burning Plant here in Germany, and some people eat it as a kind of challenge.  Does not sound like a good idea.  Afterwards the president of the society and a couple other members took me out to eat which was totally worth all the work for the presentation.  They announced that the next week the British Ambassador to Germany would be speaking… Good luck to that guy.

                The last month has been super busy, Im not sure I can even remember in what order everything was done.  We had an Irish guy visiting us for two weeks to see what we did and to practice his German.  That was really great having another guy around and he was really cool.  We went to a big concert at some point with 15 or so youth and friends we’ve met at different conferences this year.  It was an awesome day.  There were 10 or more bands and the day ended with Newsboys w/Michael Tait and then Casting Crowns at the very end.  Ive never really been a huge fan of concerts, and earlier in the day I was thinking I kinda wish I hadn’t spent so much money to come to this one, but by the end of it, I was definitely happy I went.  I had to drive 5 hours in the morning to get there and then when the concert was over around midnight, 5 more hours back to Chemnitz, but it was def. worth it.  The music was really good and it was really a blessing to worship God with so many other people in that place.  There was also a band called Gungor I had never heard of but really enjoyed.. they are a kind of folksy, laid back music.  Daniel (the Irish guy) and I even made some money at the end of the day.  You had to buy drinks from the refreshment stands inside the venue, but you would get 50 cents if you turned your empty bottle back into one of the stands.. they do that with all their bottles here to encourage recycling, you pay the 50 cents when you buy it and then get it back when you turn in your empty bottle.  But, not everyone cared about their 50 cents.  Dan and I found several empty bottles in the trash cans and after fishing them out, cashed in with a couple of Euro.  We would’ve made a lot more money but the girls were already waiting for us, so we decided we’d better go ahead and catch up with them.  The ride back was also a lot of fun.  We played 20 questions/Who am I? until everyone but Keren and I fell asleep.  Then we talked about everything possible, and somehow ended up on Disney Princesses.  At some point I think Keren fell asleep too, after we made up a story about our team as Werewolves and vegetarians.  It was late.

                The next weekend, I think it was, we were in Dresden for a youth and kids conference.  It was the closing to their conference’s Conference.  On Saturday was the youth conference and on Sunday was the kids conference.  I was in charge of leading a creative writing workshop.  I thought I was pretty well prepared and was excited to see who would come and what they would create with the prompts I had prepared, however, it didn’t really turn out like I had thought it would.  My workshop was set up outside with several others to begin the afternoon.  Outside was not a bad place as the youth could have had a chance to spread out and write in peace with a bunch of white noise in the background.  But then the wind started blowing my papers everywhere and it threatened to rain so everyone outside moved our tables into a small room inside.  Inside there was really just an aisle down the middle with our tables on either side and no quiet or peaceful places to sit and write.  I ended up having two people actually sit down and attempt to write something.  It wasn’t a big deal to me, but I would have rather not spent my time preparing and then my afternoon sitting there when no one was interested.  The girls workshops were the same way.  Luckily we were all crammed in the same room together so we at least had fun just chilling.  That night we were supposed to go to a concert, but there were a million other things more entertaining to do in Dresden at night.  It was also Germany’s first game in the European Championships.  We all went down to the public viewing of the game on the banks of the Elbe.  It was really cool.  They had a huge screen set up and thousands of fans were crammed in there together.  If you looked to the right of the screen, the backdrop of the city of Dresden at night was as captivating as the game. 

                On Monday we all went to the Aqua Marien, a really small water park in the country.  It was a lot of fun just hanging out with the girls and Dan.  From there we went to spend the night at Claudi’s parents house and the next day they took us to a castle nearby Dresden.  It was a really good day and an interesting castle to explore.  We ate a really good dinner in a little restaurant that’s located inside the castle.  It was our good bye to Claudi’s family.  I think we will all miss them and are very thankful for them this year.  They are really generous people and offered their house and family anytime and really helped to make us feel at home when we visited. 

                The next Thursday was Keren’s last day with us in Checkpoint.  She is now at a missions school nearby Dresden.  It was really a sad day.  Several of the kids cried and it was clear she will be missed.  We have our last day there tom, so we will see who made more kids cry. 

                Last weekend we had our IMT closing together time.  We went on a bike tour from Friday to Sunday and camped out on the edge of a small river overnight.  It was a really good weekend.  The biking was at times strenuous, and my legs burned pretty good, but it was fun and with a decent bike I think I could actually get into biking.  Based on the results from our last bike tour with Barry, I was a little worried heading into the weekend that Id embarrass myself, but I never really hit my limits like I had on the other trip.  We had a good time hanging out with one another and staying up talking around the fire.  Barry did snore, but I was pretty tired from biking during the day so it wasn’t so bad. 

                In the times when we haven’t been travelling somewhere, we’ve done our last Sunday services at all three churches, watched a lot of European Championship soccer, and stayed busy with our usual work.  The last church services were the first time it really hit me we are about to leave.  As we said tschuss to the smaller churches I thought how it was probably the last time Id see these people, maybe in my entire life.  Hopefully I can at least visit sometime in the future.  Yesterday I went to Zeitz to meet with the pastor there about a possible position starting in September.  They have a kids program that is very similar to Checkpoint and want a young man to help them out.  There were some things very similar and some things rather different in their program.  The workers were all older than me by several years and it seemed to be not quite as hectic as it can be in Checkpoint.  One reason is because they didn’t have as many kids, but it was also clear they had been doing this for a while and had the program down pretty good.  The pastor also took me on a tour of the city and showed me that all of the shops are being closed and where the men go to sit and drink all day.  The problems the parents had sounded very much like the problems several of the parents from the Checkpoint kids have as well.  He told me there is one other applicant and that they want to take both of us as a team, but they only have money for one right now.  If they get the money then they will take us both, but if not then they will take the other guy since he is German and can communicate much better than I can.  Im just praying that God will make a way if that’s where He wants me.  It is a little bit scary for me.   I know Ill have to rely on God more than ever if I go to live and work there.  It is not a big city like Chemnitz and I didn’t see a whole lot to do.  Many of the shops are empty and the buildings need to be renewed.  The pastor said only 18% of people in that state go to church and in this city of 31000 maybe 1000 actually attend church.  But I know God will provide and if He thinks He can use me then Ill go for His glory.  Mal sehen.

               

April

Its been a while since I have posted, and now I have a busy April to try and remember.  I can really just remember back to around Easter time, although Im not sure exactly which day that was now.  We had a very rough start to the Easter weekend.  As we were taking all of the Checkpoint kids out to have some kind of Easter Egg hunt (they dont do Easter Egg hunts like we do), a boy that had just started coming a few weeks before was running to meet up with our group and was hit by a car.  Luckily he was not with us so that Checkpoint was not at fault, but one of the girls saw it happen and another was there with the boy as paramedics and the parents all came to pick up their kids.  Even for those of us that didn't really see anything, it was still very tough trying to talk with the other kids and not knowing for a while if the boy was ok or not.  One bright moment in the day was when I had all the kids in a circle and was trying to think of something to say.  As we sat there one of the boys that doesnt always listen suggested that we pray for the boy and then prayed out loud for all of us.  It was awesome to see every kid there bow their heads and pray and to know that they had that option.  We were also very worried that parents would think it was in some way our fault and not let their kids come back to Checkpoint.  I think that all of us had thoughts about if there was anything we could have done better to keep that situation from happening.  I dont know if it was helpful or harmful, but that day was one of the girl's birthdays and as we were closing Checkpoint for the day, friends and youth started to show up to have a birthday dinner.  It was a kind of distraction that may have been good for us, but it also kept us from being able to really talk about what had happened and figure out the whole story and how we were all feeling. 

The next day was Black Friday so we didnt have to work.  We had a church service in the morning and then that night Barry had invited all of us to his house for pizza and a movie.  The movie was interesting, called Adam's Apples.  We had some good conversations but it was more of a relaxed evening so no one wanted to talk about what had happened the day before.  On Saturday Barry and his wife, Jillian, took us to Leipzig.  It was a really fun day trip.  Our first stop was the Stasi museum.  I had never realized how controlling and crazy the DDR government was.  They listened to phone calls, read everyones mail, and kept files on every person with information they gathered from paying friends for your info.  To this day people from the DDR can go to this place and search for their files and find out who spied on them.  Some people Ive talked to since told me they didnt want to know and so have never been to look.  Leipzig was also very instrumental in the peaceful revolution of 1989 that helped to bring down the DDR.  The leader of the Stasi police said about one particular night that they had Russian tanks waiting outside the city with soldiers and were ready for everything except prayers and candles.  The protesters met in the churches because it was the only place still allowed to speak up and then marched to the Stasi HQ and placed candles all over the front steps. After that we wondered around a little while, checking out whatever we wanted.  I found the Faust restaurant which I had heard about from my college professor. The rest of the day consisted of looking around a shopping mall, an outdoor market, and seeing a couple of nice churches.  One of the churches had the largest organ in Saxon and the other was where Bach was the organ player.  That must have been pretty cool.  I guess its like if today your worship leader every sunday is Michael W. Smith or someone like that.  To cap the day off we went to a Chinese acrobat circus.  We enjoyed ourselves, but were all a little bit disappointed.  Most of the acts were really not overly impressive, and several of them were obviously nothing but some kind of trick prop.  One example was a whole bunch of girls came out spinning plates on sticks.  Their believability took several hits.  First they stayed out way too long with no one having any mistakes.  Secondly, several of the girls got bored or had to scratch or something and more or less turned their sticks to the side and nothing happened.  Thirdly, when they ran through the back of the tent you could see them place their sticks and plates in a basket.  It was really not impressive, but it was fun to laugh at. 

Easter sunday we had a nice church service and then were invited out to lunch by Ingo.  We ate at a really good Greek restaurant.  Later, Ingo came over and we had dinner and a "beauty night" with the girls.  I owed Sni a beauty night for her birthday so this was supposed to be it.  It turned out the girls painted their nails and Ingo and I played Rummikub and then we all watched Avatar. 

The next week we were away for a basic course for children and youth work that the conference put on.  I found it really a great idea.  It was very informative and gave us tons of new ideas and tips to use in our work with kids and youth.  I know that in Alabama most of the youth pastors or childrens ministers are full time or have been in/are in seminary or some kind of schooling for that line of work(or at least the ones at the churches Ive been to, I dont know about the smaller churches in the conference), and that here most of the youth group leaders are basically youth themselves and just volunteers, but I think this is something that our conference could really think about and would be a great way for the conference to serve the local churches.  It was a very busy week.  We were up by 8 every morning and sat and listened to different methods and principles for most of the day until after dinner.  We did have a few breaks in there, but it was still pretty long days, especially when everything is in German.  But, it was also fun and very informative.

We got back to Chemnitz on that Sunday and had Monday off.  Tuesday was the first day Checkpoint was going to be open again since the boy had been hit.  Because we were at the conference the entire week before, none of us really had any news or knew how the boy was doing.  We had been told he would be ok, but we didnt know for sure.  We also still didnt know what the perception would be from the parents in the neighborhood.  Tuesday before we opened we all prayed together as a team and talked a little about how we were doing.  I think its safe to say we were all pretty shaken up by what had happened and a bit scared about what had happened and worried about what it might mean for Checkpoint.  All of that was in vain though.  Five minutes after Checkpoint opened, the boys mom showed up.  We all kind of held our breath I think, not sure what she was gonna say.  She just wanted to know what had happened exactly so she could get the story right with the police.  The other kids came back as well, and the boys mom ended up staying the entire afternoon talking with Claudi.  They were able to have a really deep conversation about the boys family and she said the mom seemed to really like what we are doing there.  She also went home for a bit and brought the boy to Checkpoint for the rest of the afternoon.  It was pretty amazing.  Keren had been with him and seen everything and so she tried to prepare the kids for how he may look, all beat up.  When the boy walked in you really would not have known he had been in any kind of accident if you didnt already know.  I think it was good for all of us to see him healthy so soon again. 

That weekend we were away again.  We went to a conference for Fresh Expressions of the Church.  We were the youngest people there, but it was still really cool.  freshexpressions.org.uk is the website if youre interested.  The conference was led by people from England that work with this organization.  They had begun this movement as a way to combat the dwindling numbers in their churches.  In England 92% of people are not related with a church at all.  Their idea is instead of waiting for people to come to the church as we know it, to go to where the people are and build a new church around their likes, dislikes, and needs.  The website is full of examples of really creative ideas and new ways of having church.  As they were telling the stories and showing us how to start something like this, I really felt excited and that this is the kind of thing Id like to do.  We'll see.

Since then I cant really remember too much thats happened.  Raele made some soup for us the other day out of some kind of grass she found.  It was really pretty tasty for being grass and potatoes.  Later I did go to watch the Manchester Derby with Barry and ate fries and steak with him which was a pretty good dessert.  Yesterday Mareta, Raele, Barry, and I went on a five hour bike tour.  We probably only biked for about 3 and a half or 4 of those hours, but it was still pretty tough for me.  The girls killed me.  Apparently I have zero upper leg muscles.  After the first hour and one or two good hills my legs were already gone.  Im really not sure how I made it the rest of the way back.  It was fun though. We stopped by an old castle and then later by a little river and had some lunch.  We tried to teach Raele how to skip a rock, but she still needs some practice.  By the end of the ride I really could only ride downhill.  Today my legs are surprisingly not that sore, they just feel very tight.  However, my butt is bruised Im pretty sure.  I thought I had a good bike seat, but maybe not.  And oh yea.. its finally warm here!!

Vacation with the Fam

I haven't updated in a while, I hope no one has missed my blog too much.  My family visited the week before last and it was a long awaited, good vacation with some of the people I love the most.  I had not blogged too much before then because I didnt really have too much to say.  I feel refreshed and rejuvenated after my break, but, as will happen when you live somewhere for seven months, this has become my home for right now and in the day-to-day living I dont notice or think about as many things as when I first came over, at least nothing thats blog worthy.  Before my family came over I was trying to not overlook all the work and things I had to do here with excitement for my time with them, but nonetheless was definitely looking forward to the break.  The Sunday before they came I did preach for the first time in "real church" in German.  As there are three different churches that we are associated with here, I preached twice more, once when my family was here and the last time yesterday in our biggest church.  It was a good experience I think.  I was the most nervous when my family was here,  but Im not sure if it was because they were here or because that morning I was told that the week before Barry had received some complaints about not being able to understand me when I had thought it had gone pretty well.  My prayer every week was just that God would speak through me and open the peoples ears so that they could hear and understand whatever it was I said with my Southern accent.

Anyways, back to the vacation with my family.  It was really a good week and I think we got to see a whole lot.  In some ways it was different from what I expected but I think it was still good.  It is kind of hard for me to really say though.  Part of my criteria and expectations for it being a good trip is/was if my family (Dad, Mom, Hannah, and Luc) got to see everything they wanted to and at the same time see a different culture and learn a little about different ideas and how other people may live.  I also wanted them to see and experience the Germany that I have come to love and how different things from history have shaped the country into what it is today, as well as maybe seeing or realizing some of the connections and roles the US has played in that history.  For these reasons I can really only speak to the other half of my expectations which was just to travel and spend time with my family, which was great.  Maybe theyll comment below to the other half.  Before I give more of my thoughts about our week through Germany, Ill share where we went and what we did.  

My family started out on Thursday planning to get to Frankfurt by Friday morning and then to Chemnitz by way of car before that evening.  They flew about six hours then were told they were landing in Philly.  Something was wrong with the plane and so they had to wait in Philly for a couple of hours at 3 in the morning until someone could wake up, fix their plane, and refuel them.  They finally made it to Frankfurt by Friday evening but were so tired they decided to just get a hotel there for the night.  I know they didnt enjoy it and I know I was disappointed they were delayed.  I was hoping Hannah and Luc could go to youth group with me and then the next morning I wanted all of them to come to our Family Coffee in Checkpoint to see what we did there.  They ended up getting here Saturday evening and we went and had a nice German dinner at some place I had never been to before.  They did get to come to the Sunday service that IMT led and Sunday night to the English service where they got to meet several of the people from our main church, and entertained by our Irish pastor and his band singing and celebrating St. Patricks Day in his own little way.  From there we sped to Berlin and spent the next two days there.  We saw all of the main tourist attractions there and even had some time for Hannah to go shopping.  On Wednesday we drove to Munich and on the way stopped by Dresden and Nurenberg.  In Munich we saw most of the "main attractions" although I think it is a much prettier city during the summer when it is warm.  While staying in Munich we made day trips to Dachau, Neuschwanstein Castle, and Salzburg which were all pretty big hits I think. On Sunday they flew home and luckily my mom was pretty adamant about getting to the airport early.  I did not realize until we had seperated at the airport that the time had moved forward an hour during the night before.  My mom said they didnt notice at all.

It was definitely different from when I had travelled before.  I believe there were several factors contributing to that, but wonder how my family experienced it.  For me it felt like more of a family vacation through a country that was not that different except for some of the food and the language.  Im really interested in knowing how it felt to my family though.  Because I have lived here for a couple of months, I do not notice as many differences now, I dont think.  I also felt at times that I was more focused on being a tour guide than actually seeing what was around me.  Because I had already seen most of the places we went and because I can speak/understand a little bit of German now I was happy to do that, but I was not seeing things for the first time or focused on trying to find the differences and similarities in the two cultures as I had been when I had travelled alone or with Alana.  As the week went on I did tire a little of my family relying on me to communicate.  For one thing I am not that fluent in German that I can speak where the people always understand me or where I always understand them.  Since we were mostly in the touristy areas, most people recognized I was from the US and in the end spoke English with me anyways, which was a little bit of a downer as I would have liked to practice my German more and I was never sure if they changed to English because they didnt understand me or they wanted to practice their English.  The other thing was that I wanted my family to experience trying to communicate with someone with a different language, and of course, they could speak English with the people just as well as I could.  That was one observation I found interesting.  I think if I had not been there my family would have gotten along just fine, but because I was there and in their minds I could speak German and had visited before, sometimes they would look to me to communicate when they could have just as easily by themselves. 

This trip was also different because it was more than just me and what I wanted to do and see.  I had experienced this a little with Alana before, but then I did not realize that some of the problem was me being selfish.  Alana had basically trusted me the entire trip to lead us to where we should go and to the things of interest that we should see, which were mostly the things written about in my travel book that I found interesting.  I thought she was crazy to want to go certain places just to shop and didnt really give her much time to do that.  On this trip, as before, I was a little worried that we wouldnt have time to see everything we "needed to" and may have rushed my family at times.  On the other hand, since I had seen everything already I really only insisted on them going to the places that I had found interesting before and let them decide how they wanted to use their time a little more.  This meant that we spent some time shopping and perusing stores I would have just walked by if I had been alone.  Because I was with my parents and it was my family's spring break, we also ate much better than I had last time.  We ate at some really good restaurants just about every day for dinner and several mornings for breakfast had something good from a local bakery. 

I also felt that because I was with a group of people that I knew, I didnt notice other people as much as when I travel alone.  I guess it is some kind of human need to have some kind of communication and companionship and when I travel alone then I guess I look for it in the simple acknowledgements of other people, such as a little smile or head nod when passing someone on the street.  I think that I was more focused on my family, what they were saying or doing, than on strangers.  It is also not as easy to meet and start a conversation with random people when you are not staying in the same place such as a hostel. 

I think I have more thoughts about the trip, but I cant really think too much more.  The last observation that I found interesting is also one that Im very sorry happened.  I really felt terrible afterwards and mom I am so sorry I scared you.  She and Hannah had visited the inside of a castle while Luc, Dad, and I had walked to an icy lake in the Alps to wait on them.  We had set a meeting point at the ticket booth in the small town beneath the castle.  As mom and Hannah were walking down they passed by us on the other side of the street but didnt see us.  Thinking Id be funny I ran up behind them and acted like I was gonna grab moms bag and run off.  I feel terrible even writing about this.  Mom really got scared.  She was screaming and kind of getting ready to fight back I think.  I immediately realized it was a bad idea and how scared she was and tried to let her know it was me.  I had to kind of grab her shoulders to try and calm her down and so she didnt freak out on me and I was saying "Mom, mom, its me Joe".  I looked her straight in the eyes and said it and the thing that was interesting, although I am sorry it happened, was I swear she did not recognize me and did not realize it was me even then.  Hannah had started laughing, but mom was too scared to recognize her son.  I had always wondered how people could accidentally shoot someone or whatever, but Im quite sure it has something to do with that state of anxiety where you are only reacting to something in an effort to save yourself.  Mom told me later that her and a friend had been robbed like that before in Europe.  I  really feel terrible about scaring her so much and wouldve never done that had I known what would happen.

Skiing and Sauna- Pt. 2

Its cold.  I wear long underwear all the time now.  The only time I ever even thought about wearing it back home was the one or two days when we actually had snow to play in.  I wear a pair of wool socks over a regular pair of socks with well insulated winter boots I bought here and my feet still freeze when sitting in my room.  Im not a fan.  I find it even harder to understand what the girls are doing, how they are not doing laundry every few days or not freezing.  I have to layer so many shirts and jackets I always have a ton of laundry to do.  I am lucky I have so many shirts that Im able to go a little while before I have to wash though.  I guess the girls just dont sweat as much or dont worry about stinking and just wear the same shirts several times before washing.  I try to wear everything from the third layer up more than once, but I think the first and second layer would start to stink pretty fast if I did that.  Oh well, who knows.

We have been pretty busy during the days we have work, and then on our days off there hasnt been too much going on.  I always say Im gonna actually try to get out and do something, but its always just too cold to go wandering in the city for me.  The last two weekends have been pretty fun, though.  Two weekends ago we all went to Claudi's house for the sauna and to ski/snowboard.  The sauna went much better for me this time.  I knew what to expect and it wasn't quite as awkward even though two of Claudi's cousins came with Matthias and me.  This time there was also snow on the ground, so after coming out of the sauna, instead of cooling off in the water we just dove into the snow and made snow angels.  I didnt eat as much before we went, and I think that was probably the difference and why I didnt feel sick this time.  I went back for the second round and would have gone back for the third, but I had gotten so comfortable under a huge blanket inside a warm room I didnt feel like going back out in the cold.  Katja and Matthias both said something or asked me how I was feeling at some point though.  I was fine. 

We spent the night at Claudis and then the next day Raele, Maretta, Sni, and I went skiing/snowboarding with Claudis dad.  Everyone tried snowboarding but me.  I dont think they had another snowboard anyways, but I wanted to see how well I could ski, if at all, so it worked out well.  I have been skiing only one other time with our youth group at some point during high school.  However, I remember the hotel and the place at the ski lodge where you can eat, drink, and get warm more than I do actually skiing.  I remember that I didnt go back the second day, choosing instead to stay in the warm hotel.  So, I figured this would be a good chance for me to see what I could do.  We drove maybe 20 or 30 minutes to a nearby town and the ski lift.  I wish I had taken pictures, but I didnt want to carry my camera around all day or have it broken because I knew I was going to fall a good bit.  Where we went was just a little building where you could buy a ticket for the lift, the lift, and then a place to ski down.  It was nothing like the huge ski places I had seen before, although there were a good number of people.  All of us were learning how to either ski or snowboard so Claudis dad just had us walk a little under halfway up the mountain so we could practice away from the crowd and where the slope was gentler.  He told me how the skis should be to turn and stop and to watch how other people were doing it and then pretty much left me to figure it out.  I think that was definitely the best for me.  Sni had snowboarded last year on a trip they took with the church, so she was just trying to remember how she had done it before.  The other girls spent the entire time trying to learn and walking back up the hill after snowboarding/falling down.  After about three or four times skiing/falling down the hill and then walking back up, I was getting tired.  I also felt like I was doing more walking than skiing,  so I decided to try my luck going up the lift and on the steeper part down to the bottom.  I could have used more practice runs, but I really was getting tired of walking back up the hill so I figured what the heck.  Claudis dad came with me to show me how to swipe your ticket and then got a guy that works there to help me on the lift.  It was a thing that came around and you put it behind your legs and it kind of pulled you up the mountain as you  held on.  You couldntwasnt that fast.  Several times I ended up way far off the normal path because I was not very good at turning back to my right once I started going so fast.  I was able to turn left pretty good, but I always felt that if I tried to turn right at that speed I was going to lose control and wipe out, which I did do a few times.  Most of the time though I ended up way off the path and got into deeper snow and snow that had more bumps in it which was even worse for me ha.  The deep snow would slow me down though so I could turn back to the right and ski back to where everyone else was without falling, so that was good.  After several attempts I finally made it the entire mountain without falling.  I realized I just had to not get spooked going down the steep part and saw that I would slow down on the bottom part even if I wasn't totally sure how to stop myself while going so fast.  It was definitely an adrenaline rush.  And after that I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Sni had started using the lift too but the other girls were still walking up the hill to learn.  So, anyways I went back and got in line for the lift.  By this point I felt like an old pro with the whole process and felt pretty relaxed as I started up the lift by myself.  I got about 3/4 of the way up and it all happened so fast, I really am not sure how I managed to do it, but I somehow fell while riding the lift up.  I think I tried leaning back/sitting a little too much instead of staying forward on my knees and feet, and the bars that were pulling me up went back with me until I had fallen under them.  In a kind of reaction I reached for them to support myself but instead of the line being firm I was able to pull it to the ground with me.  From there I held on for a while, being dragged on my side up the hill.  I had no idea what I should do.  I thought about just letting go and skiing down from there, but then I looked back and decided the next person back was too close and I wouldnt have enough time to move out of their way if I let go.  So I decided to just hang on until the top and hope for the best.  It wasn't going too fast or anything, it was just kind of embarrassing ha.  I guess the lift controller saw me though, and the lift stopped long enough for me to stand up and ski over to the mountain out of the way of the others on the lift.  Two guys behind the girl that was directly behind me rode by and the lift and we all shared a laugh.  I said "whoops".  And then skied down the mountain.  I found it pretty amusing and kind of ridiculous that I was able to fall on the lift so I skied over to the girls and shared my story.  I was also trying to wait for Sni to come down so we could ride together the next time, and hopefully avoid another such disaster.  Claudi's dad had told me to always ask someone to ride with me so they could help me with the lift and I think because it was maybe more balanced with two people riding.  I finally found Sni and we went to the lift line together.  As we were waiting I shared my story and as soon as I finished it was our time to get on.  To be fair, it was a little difficult because she had a snowboard and I had skis, but we had barely gotten on before we both wiped out in front of everyone in line.  Sni somehow got ahead of me with the lift so she went on alone and I skied back to the start and came with the next set of bars.  I ended up going down the mountain twice without falling at all which I felt was pretty good.  I felt super drained after a few runs and towards the end had no adrenaline left.  It was a lot of fun though and I think we are planning to go back again in a week or two. 

This past weekend we were in Dresden for a planning weekend for a youth weekend in June.  It was good to be with other people other than just the girls and I found the meeting/planning very interesting and helpful.  We started from literally nothing and came up with the theme for the weekend, the title, a ranking of bands we want to have, and started working on the worship services and small groups we want to have.  I had always wondered how exactly the weekends at camp Sumatanga or even the summer camps were planned, and I think I now have seen the process and would be able to do that or help if ever called to do so.  One other thing, we had raclettes one night which is something my family does from time to time after my oldest brother Zac had discovered them in France.  However, here in Germany we cooked more than just the cheese, like we usually do at home.  We cooked all different kinds of meats and made omelets and all kinds of vegetables with them as well as the usual cheese and potatoes.  Its a lot of fun and something different if youve never tried them before, Id recommend it for a family dinner.

If youre going through hell...

Disclaimer for mom: If you start worrying before you get to the end, dont.  I dont really think Im going through hell.

I have felt like Ive been struggling a little lately.  When I first got to Germany and the first few months I was here I felt a surge in my faith and God's presence very close.  It was not an easy time, necessarily, coming to a new country, trying to learn the language, trying to make new relationships, living, working, eating, shopping, and living (not a typo) with five girls from different countries and languages, trying to understand girls, and most importantly doing all this while staying plenty busy with our work with the youth and kids, trying to stay in tune with God and do my best to show them love and not get in the way of Gods work and hoping hed speak through me.  Despite all of that, I could really feel God working through my struggles and knew that this is where He wanted me to be so that I would rely on Him and grow.  I believe the peace and closeness of God I felt was due to a mixture of reasons.  Being here I had to mostly focus just on the work here and I actually used up most of my energy trying to interpret and communicate so I didnt have much time to worry about a lot.  I also have more time to read my Bible and just spend with God in prayer.  I knew that the only way I was/am going to make it here is with God's strength and help.  I knew that I just had to stay focused on Him and that Id get homesick and miserable here if I thought too much about back home or how much longer I had in the future here.  It didnt always work.  There were still times that I didnt feel like being here and wished more than anything I could be back home with my family and friends.  This is a bit of an interruption, because just writing this I am remembering and can see how God answered many of my prayers from just a month or two or three ago.  Its def encouragement.  I also just thought about how God is strongest when we are weakest, and how he leads us into situations where we have to rely on Him.  I guess that kind of gets back to what I was gonna say.
Lately I have been struggling a bit.  I went home for Christmas a few weeks ago and came back on New Years Day.  It was a great time seeing my friends and family for a bit, but it was also pretty busy.  There was also a tiny bit of what I guess you would call reverse culture shock, I was just getting used to everything there and then it was time to fly back here.  I havent been sleeping very well at all since Ive been back.  I think its a mixture of jet lag, not really having a ton of work here just yet, and my thoughts.  Over the Christmas break I got some news that has been tough for me.  It may have been the answer to a prayer, but not the one that I really expected or wanted.  It was a bit shocking and made me sad.  It has brought up a ton of memories as well as fear or anxiety for the future. The memories and the fears are mostly what have helped to keep me up at night or awake way too early in the morning.  The memories have been both good and bad, happiest times and some painful ones as well.  I think I could fill a series of books rivaling Harry Potters' with all the details.  I wish I had a memory this good for all the other things Ive learned in school and then couldnt remember as I failed yet another sporcle test.  I was also reading a book about heaven and had read something before talking about hell.  Both were what theyd be like.  I was thinking about all of these things together and started thinking that hell must be where you remember everything from your time on Earth.  It must be just a place full of memories and fear.  You can never forget the painful things that happened to you.  Even worst you are never able to forget all of the painful things that you did or even others did to people you most love and care about.  Mixed in with all those memories is fear.  Fear of who you are and fear of how are your loved ones.  I think thats probably how your punishment starts, or at least a portion of it.  Of course thats just the beginning and after that comes all the emotions like hate, jealousy, shame, and basically all of the fruits that are not of the Spirit.  And then I started thinking about Heaven. I started thinking I sure hope God erases our memories when we get there.  I dont know how it works, but I cant imagine an eternity of time to sit around, even in a happy place, and have to remember the pain of those you loved.  I was thinking at the very least maybe thats one of the payoffs of following God, you at least shouldnt have quite as many memories as someone that never did.  But still, even a few are enough to make you pretty down.  And then I started reading another book, where the author compared God to a parent that was able to comfort their child during a thunderstorm.  The parent doesnt make the rain or thunder stop, but something in the kid believes their parent will protect them and finds comfort enough to go back to sleep.  And I realized, I dont think that were gonna go through a mind erasing machine when we get to Heaven, but I think that God's love will be so overwhelming that we can't tear ourselves away long enough to even bother trying to remember something else.  I also realized that God's love is here with us now, and that He is always beside me, I just have to tear myself away from my memories and fears and look full in his beautiful face and hope and love. But not just with me, He is with everyone, all of my loved ones, and He takes care of them as much as He does me. I just have to trust in Him and pray.