what fun.

i love it here.
tonight i went with another intern, lydia, along with 3 german girls, katja, tanja, and sarah, to the cinema to see a documentary auf deutsch! we saw Unsere Erde [our world]. basically lots of shots of all over the world, animals and nature. it was pretty sweet. we all were getting pretty sleepy towards the end but it was cool!
learned some new things about german culture, particularly in their movie theaters [Kino]:
-you get assigned seats, but you can also go online beforehand and reserve seats
-they show commercials first, ending with one or two ice cream commercials. then the lights go up, and the ice cream men appear to sell their goodies! amazing! then the lights go back down after a few minutes and we get on with the previews.

last night i led worship at monday night class at the church. it was so fun, and i prayed auf deutsch, during which i forgot how to say something and ended up laughing a bit [lyds thought i was crying!], but it went well.
i also got adopted by my family last night! the dad is super nice! i was really scared to get adopted, mostly because i hate/fear awkwardness, but it wasn't awkward at all.

our house smells like santa claus' house.. christy and anjulie have been baking cookies all night.

tomorrow is anja's birthday!!!!! :) should be a schon tag!

yesterday i purchased an amazingly enormous turnip [which i fondly deemed The Rutabaga], and tonight i cooked it. half was a disastrous, albeit perfectly seasoned, sauteed ordeal, which produced rapturous cries of dismay from michelle upon tasting. the other half was much improved by a good steady boil, and cooked up quite nicely. i, however, was quite through with my rutabaga by then, and willingly handed it off to a much more eager michelle [she finally worked up the guts to try the second batch]. [i love you misheru!!!!!]

and so the daily chronicle ends. it's been a good day. our cupboard is hung, our couch is fixed, our bathroom is clean, our cookies are burning [jk], and we've put our Wollemäuse to bed. bis morgen!

wie süß!!

meet and greet.

i love it here so much! the Lord had put it on my heart quite some time ago [since i first began considering this internship] to come back here and to build relationships with and be a blessing to the girls, just like the intern girls of old were to me! and lo and behold, the Lord has already begun that very thing! of our 75-member family here, there are very few of whom i can say that i've not yet had a meaningful conversation. and they've only been here a week! praise the Lord for the fellowship we have in Christ with the Body of believers! how amazing. i counted tonight, while looking at a list of student's names and pictures, and there are less than 5 girls with whom i've not had daily [if not several times daily] fellowship- asking how things are going, laughing, joking around, praying, eating together, walking together, etc. i used to be so scared of girls.. not necessarily scared, but more along the lines of Wary. being one of the boys was no problem to me, and while i didn't always flee from girls, i typically was much more comfortable with the boys. but the Lord, in His abundant, tender mercies, has given me these past 2.5 years of bible college [and dozens of roommates], and in doing so, He has stirred in me a great love and appreciation for girls. sure, they're a lot of trouble, but, in all sincerity, how blessed i am to have so many dear, precious, beloved sisters.
and so, on y va! into the semester! i absolutely adore the group of people here this semester. thank you Jesus!!

locked out of my house.

so i will update!
i have been so bad at updating! sorry.
things here are super busy to the extreme. but everything is going really well, and i love it here so very much! i haven't taken any pictures, otherwise i'd post.
my days pretty much consist of helping in the kitchen, figuring out my m199ers' schedules [i am the laundry intern this semester], leading worship [yesterday devos + tonight for all-girls koinonia], and going to inga-lill's block class "women of the bible" [3 hours/day, 5 days/week, 2 weeks].
classes and devotions have all been so encouraging!!! i'm so blessed to be here and to sit under such rich teaching. and worshiping together with the Body of Christ is also so great.
this weekend i'm on weekend team, and we're going to the Wartburg, which is the castle in Eisenach where martin luther was held captive. been there before. it's cool. so it'll be a crazy weekend of continued cooking and running around.
the Lord keeps reminding me that it's only in His strength that i am to begin and to complete anything. i've been given a lot of responsibilities, and i tend to get going in my own strength and start to burn out before i realize that all along i should have been relying upon His sufficiency in everything.
so that's definitely a prayer request! keep us all in your prayers, staff and students.. we all have a LOT going on this week and next. pray for wisdom, strength, clarity of thought, and most of all a closeness to the Lord in this time.
love!

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.