Thanks to the one...

This past Thursday, BFA celebrated Thanksgiving. We cooked up all the fixins as well as 6 turkeys and 4 hams. We had 43 people all together around one big long table. It was loud and the food was good. Then we watched some good ole American football afterwards to polish the Thanksgiving feel off.

It was nice to have a little feel of North America here in Germany. I think that the guys really enjoyed it too. After the meal, we all went around and said something that we were thankful for. Some really good things came out. There are many neat things that people are thankful.

Tonight I go into Basel, CH with some guys for an outreach thing. It should be fine. Basel is a great city.

Eclecticism

It sleeted last night. That is right, snow is just around the corner. I like snow but everyone here tells me that I will eventually be sick of it when it gets to be April and maybe May. We shall see.

Today the guy RAs walked up to the World War memorial in Kandern. It was nice and has a nice view. It is weird to think that I am in Germany who had a pretty significant role in both World Wars. Ah, history. I like it.

Not a sermon, just a thought

Some may say that this RA position here at BFA is a pretty thankless job. I have thought it at times. The guys don't notice what you do and your fellow staff members expect you to hold up your end of the work. In the end it ends up being pretty thankless.

This got me thinking. How often is God in a thankless 'job'. If things are going well, we just expect them to. If things are going bad, we may blame God. How much do we thank Him? How much do I thank Him? Not much.

I got to work on that. I have been told before that it is a good thing to thank God for something or 5 every day. I think it would be a good practice.

A Wonderful Thing

Two Sundays ago, I had a wonderful privilege. I got to lead some worship at church. There is a church that has services on Sundays in the auditorium of the school. It is an English speaking church that many of the people that serve at BFA go to.

As many of you know, I love worship through music. I love music so that helps. It was a great opportunity that God gave me to do it. Many times God gives us gifts beyond what we can do to serve Him. This whole position at BFA is like that. The worship was just another example. I am so thankful for that opportunity.

I'm sorry

I want to do a mass apology to everyone who has emailed me. I have been horrible at getting back within a reasonable time. Sorry about that. I could make some excuses but that won't help anyway. I just need to work on it.

In other news, I thought that I would give you some information about the dorm. The house's first part was built in 1820. And the second part was built in 1899. It is an old building with a really homey feel. It used to be a guesthouse so it transformed well into be a place for 28 guys to stay. We have a soccer field near us and the Blauen dorm is across the road. I should try to get some pics up for you. Oh, I wish I had a digital camera. Oh well.

Peace all.

A New Experience

Granted I am in a completely different culture so new experiences are probably the norm. But today I did something I haven't done before. I took a guy to the German doctor. Doctors here are pretty different. First off, the waiting room was actually a room with a door. And then it was quick. Within 20 minutes of walking in the door, we were walking out.

Another interesting thing about German doctors is that they don't tell you what is wrong. They just tell you what to do to fix it. It doesn't seem to matter to them what it is and they could care less about telling you. This observation is based on more than just one experience. So I have no idea what is wrong with my guy, but we got medicine to make him better. Yippee.

One of these days I will eventually tell you about the Alps, but not now.

Also, I miss live music. I didn't realize how much I went to.

Over the river...Almost

Recently I had a birthday and it involved a certain watery tradition of the dorm. I have been wanting to get pictures up for you so you could see some of it. It took me a while, but here it is.

This is me giving my birthday speech. It was a grand thankful speech and way too long for the impatient guys. They were really eager to creek me. Notice the water on my shirt as a foreshadowing to the event.

This is half way down to the creek. They started singing, 'Nah, nah, nah, nah...nah, nah, nah, nah...Hey, hey, hey...Goodbye!" and didn't stop until I went in.

And this is me going in. They had great joy in doing it and after I went in, I was sure to give giant hugs to whomever I met on the way back to the house. That is why they are running.

Well, enjoy and have a good laugh at this.

It's been so long...

Wow, there has been lots to do recently. Many things are happening right now. The guys are getting a lot busier with extra-curricular activities and I get to take them to such places. Laundry finally went smoothly today. Hopefully I will continue to smooth everything out as I get used to it.

Football is something that I thought I wouldn't get to watch, but there is this wonderful channel called NASN(North American Sports Network) and I got to see two games this past Sunday. A little taste of home.

Nothing of great significance has happened recently, but I seemed to be reminded often that I am not in my comfy North American environment.

Please pray for me that I will respond well to the students and also work well with my fellow staff members.

Other prayer requests are a bit more personal. Probably my hardest adjustments since being here have been losing my independence and also leaving my support structure back in the states.

God bless

A weekend of Germany

This is where I, with a couple of my guys, hike to on Saturday afternoon. Round trip it was about 6-7 miles. It was pretty neat. The castle started sometime in the 1200s. I could give you more information if I knew some German, but oh well. We were able to climb up to the top of the turret and look around. Pretty cool.

On Sunday, we went into town to a festival called Budenfest. There were all kinds of food stands there were you could get pretty much anything. They also had a polka band that I got to hear. It was pretty interesting to be submerged into complete German culture for a bit. I got myself a nice and juicy bratwurst to celebrate the day. A neat experience to be sure.

A website for y'all to search. It is all in German so I apologize for that, but it is the website for the town that I live in. On the left you can click on something called 'Fotos". There are some nice pictures there.

Weekend Update

Okay, so it isn't really the weekend, but it is close enough. It has been crazy busy this week. So much has been going on. We are definitely in the middle of the school year already. Running people everywhere. Trying to keep up with everything. Nothing like doing 10-15 loads of laundry on one day.

I am slowly starting to get into a rhythm which will be nice. Crazy stuff is happening though. The ceiling in our dorm parents apartment fell in on this past Monday. A headache that wasn't really needed. I got my first day off since I got here this week. It was nice to just sleep in and do what I wanted to.

I have some contact info for y'all. If you want to mail something you can send it to one of two places. Either the dorm or the school.

The dorm address is:
Kanderstrasse 8
79429 Malsburg-Marzell
Germany

The school address is:
Postfach 1109
79396 Kandern
Germany

And my phone number is: 00 (49) 7626.8504