der Anfang! [the beginning.]

today is the official start of our semester! almost all of our students have arrived, and i must say it's a nice group. only around 30 on campus students.. good staff.. lots of returning people.. and nice new people. i like it already.

i got to lead worship this morning before orientation, and tonight i'll lead with roelof and caleb before david's Church History class. soon we'll be having our first worship meeting.. i think there will be plenty of people who are willing to share their gifts and talents in this ministry this semester. should be cool. i love worshiping with the students, staff, and church here!

my class starts on wednesday night!! i'm really excited for it. i got to study a while at home, on the plane, and yesterday too. hopefully later on tonight i'll have some time, and maybe more on tues/wed. lots to do, but excited to do it. and i have a basic outline of where i need to study, so that's helpful!

tomorrow is our first official staff meeting of the semester [we had one last week too before things got started]. wednesday morning is an all-girls Women's Discipleship class.. we'll be studying the names of God. really excited to sit in on that. and on saturday we're going to Eisenach, the place where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, and consequently began the Reformation!! [been there a few times but it's always cool]

on friday night i'm leading worship for the girls' ministry from the youth group, called Chosen Girls. i've done it before, a long time ago, so i'm excited to go again and hang out with the girls! i already know a handful of them and i really love them a lot!! plus i've been asked to lead worship at the tuesday night youth group sometime in the next couple weeks.. so that should be good too.

i am so richly blessed by this church here! i absolutely love coming back, and every single time being welcomed "home" and meeting even more people. plus i'm getting to spend lots of time with friends from the Bible College and church, and i've had some great conversations in the last few days with some of the new students too! what a blessing to be involved in the ministry here! hannah and i were thinking about that last night.. we truly are blessed. and as Pastor Nick says, "What an awesome God we serve!!"

time to go introduce my class to the student body, and get rolling with registration.

thanks for reading, and praying! the Lord is so good. the initial week here was super busy and kind of rough, but i'm so encouraged and blessed. AND i'm in an amazing little apartment with my friend katha, and it's a lovely little home for us!! please come visit sometime! :)

love,a.