schon tag!

today i am 22!
i had a lovely birthday breakfast with anja, and katja and the coffeebar crew all sang to me and gave me cake with a little candle! and i have had 3 cups of kaffee, mmm lecker. later tonight we will do the Tim Tam Slam at the coffeebar and have some good fellowship. church was amazing this morning,
last night i went with keith and christy to Neuwied, where there is a bible study. it was at this turkish family's house, and their 2 little kids were amazing!! Magnolia is a spunky little curly-redheaded turkish-german girl whose birthday is on tuesday! i think she is turning 3 or 4 [got a little lost in translation.. she definitely let me know it was her birthday soon though!] we danced, and exchanged hair clip for necklace for a while, and spun circles, and made shadow puppets, and had an all-around grand time. the bible study was cool too! it's so great to see the Lord's hand orchestrating it all, and giving people a heart for the Word!! He is working everywhere!! i led worship on guitar, all in german. that was exciting!- i had never played most of them before on the guitar, and all but 1 or 2 i had never sang in german before. but, Preisen Den Herrn! He provided. and it's not about me!! i was so nervous about going and doing it but as we prayed beforehand the Lord blessed my heart with peace. talk about flying by the seat of your pants. amen! God is good!
lydia is making an amazing lunch for us now, and then we shall see what other fun things may come about today. tomorrow night we girls are going to the Schwarze Schafe!
ja, ganz genau. ciao!

deutschland!

i am here! it is going well! not too jet-lagged.. i stayed up all day yesterday after an early morning arrival.. it was a little rough but i made it through! slept pretty well besides a 4-hour awake time in the middle of the night.
that's about it for now! hoorah.

last day at church.

we have had such a wonderful weekend! john bonner came out friday night, after being at the missions conference in murrieta all week. we so enjoyed his fellowship. saturday morning all of "The Men" from church plus a few other friends gathered at our restaurant in the meeting room for a breakfast fellowship. all the reports say it was fantastic! afterwards there were around 8 people from sioux falls calvary who came over for lunch and an afternoon of fellowship. that too was encouraging. then after a quiet evening at home last night, we headed off to church this morning in the beautifully falling snow!
church was great. i led worship with my little bro for the last time before june. :( it really hit me that it was my last sunday with our calvary Body until summertime when i started the last song.. which definitely had to be "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases! His mercies never come to an end! They are new every morning, new every morning, and great is Your faithfulness, O Lord! Great is Your faithfulness!" it was one of the hardest songs ever to get through without breaking down in tears [although several escaped me!]. truly, truly, the Lord's faithfulness is SO GREAT! just looking at how He's blessed our church, our family, how He's blessed me so infinitely beyond what i ever imagined.. what a great God we serve.
so it took a bit during pop's announcements to pull myself together before they called me back up front to be officially sent out by the church to Germany. i explained a bit of what the next year may entail, and then all the men of the fellowship came up and one of the leadership-type guys prayed for me. i was blessed. i cried, haha. but what a privilege to be sent forth into the world!!
john's message was great, just exhortation to truly Know the Lord, and some ways that He might speak individually to us. plus he worked in his testimony. all of it was very encouraging! afterwards our "fellowship feast" [aka potluck to beat all potlucks] was great, with tons of amazing food. plus, i got to catch up with some college friends who are back in town to start classes this week, and nearly everyone stuck around after church for the feast, so that was great!
so we all [my parents and i] compared notes this evening and agreed that we have certainly been blessed and refreshed through these past few days. the Lord is so good.

quickly comes wednesday's departure, and not long afterwards the beautiful donnerstag morgen im Deutschland!

but i get to play with Bryce tonight! no packing till tomorrow! :)

I will wait for You, O You my Strength;
For God is my defense.
My God of mercy shall come to meet me...

But I will sing of Your power;
Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning;
For You have been my defense
And refuge in the day of my trouble.

To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises;
For God is my defense,
My God of mercy.

psalm 59:9-10,16-17

departure.

my time here is quickly coming to an end, and germany looms ever closer on the horizon! it is only 10.5 days until i leave my home and homeland for 5 months, and walk down this new [yet rather familiar] path. i am supremely excited to return to my dear-beloved siegen. the very first day i arrived in germany, in summer 2006, i knew that i'd love to return, not only to graduate [which was accomplished by His grace alone!], but also to serve on staff as an intern. i'm going to be a missionary! truly, as we delight ourselves in the Lord, He fulfills the desires of our hearts. it will be lovely to be reunited with the old friends, and build friendships with the new.

one week from today will be my last day at our dear old calvary chapel here. i'll miss it, truly. the Lord does indeed know what is best for His children, for there is no greater blessing than to be in fellowship with other believers. i'm not particularly close with any of them, but it is still an honor and a privilege to be a part of that Body, and to lead them in worship. i will especially miss playing worship with my younger brother. he is a phenomenal self-taught drummer, and in the past year has become one of the best cajon players i've heard [and i lean towards the fastidious end of the spectrum concerning drummers]. i'll also dearly miss my dad, who is my pastor, my boss, and my friend, to mention a few [in no particular order]. my mother, too, has become a dearer friend than ever in these months at home. what grace she's shown me! she is a wonderful woman of God, and we definitely sharpen each other as somewhat differing pieces of iron at times! :) my youngest brother- what a guy. i love him to pieces. his guitar skills blow mine to bits. [i shall also greatly miss my oldest brother, sis-in-law, and dear little nephew! i'm sad to miss even a day of his growth and Becoming of a Little Man]

in exactly three weeks i will turn twenty-two. it will be my first birthday spent away from the company of my family. but is it not true that when we seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us- by the one Good Father, who loves to give good gifts to His children? oh, He is good.

So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life." Matthew 10:29-30

For this reason, I also suffer these things [not that it's huge suffering, but it is a slight deprivation on behalf of the Lord's calling!]; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Timothy 1:12

He is good.
here's to home! and here's to the future!

ping pong quick fix!

my little bro and i made a quick video today when we found that this amazing tactic actually works.
perfect remedy for dented ping pong balls.