No Room in the Inn

Well, they are all here. We have have 26 students living in the dorm. This is a good thing and has made it a lively place. We wished them off to school today. At the opening ceremony today we had kids stand up who are from or live in 52 different countries. It was really neat to see.

These kids have so much more international experience than me. I hope that they accept me in spite of that. There are so really neat people here. It will be great getting to know them.

Please pray for a family from here. They just found out that their son who is a freshman in college has cancer. He is in Canada right now and they are going back to Canada to be with him. He is having surgery on Wednesday.

It's the day

Today, it started. 15 of the students staying in our dorm came. I met people who live in Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and many other countries. Very cool. Four brothers came, all living in our dorm. Very cool.

Tomorrow the rest of the 26 students arrive. It is great to start meeting the people that I will be spending the next year with. Right now the computer room is full here. Us RAs are just chilling a bit after a long day of welcoming kids and parents. I met many different varieties of many different people.

Please pray for safe travel.

Sperrmüll

This is the German 'large trash' day. Basically what happens is that 3 or so times a year the German people put out all their big items that they want to throw away. The night before, they put the stuff on the side of the road. Some of it is nice stuff that they don't need or want anymore. There will be couches, chairs, tables, skis, and pretty much anything else that you can imagine.

Here is the kicker. The night before, you can drive around and hunt for things that you can use or like. If you decide that you want it, you pick it up, put it in your vehicle and take it home. There are some very interesting things that you can get. It is a great way to bargain shop, especially since it is free.

Laugh your head off!

That's right 2 posts in 2 days. I had something too good not to share.

Tonight I was in a German pizza place. I was necessarily in the mood for pizza so I decided to order something different. I thought that I would go the pasta route. I looked through the menu and found something that I thought looked very delicious. This whole time I was enjoying the fact that I seemed to be figuring out what was on the menu even though it was in German. I ordered my meal and then waited.

When the food arrived at the table, everyone's food looked right except for mine. Why? Because what I ordered was not what I thought I had ordered. Instead of a nice plate of pasta, I got a plate of rice and cheese. That's right. Think of macaroni and cheese and instead of the macaroni, substitute a large plate of rice. Rice and cheese. What a great dinner. I laughed quite well for a while over my fumble. I hope that you enjoy laughing at it too.

Maybe tomorrow I will talk about Sperrmüll.

Where am I going?

This is where I am headed. On Tuesday I found out that they choose me to be an RA in Sonne. This is a house with 28 guys and I will be on the first floor. It is up in the hills of the Black Forest and very beautiful. There are new dorm parents for Sonne and me and another RA are also new. There are 3 returning RAs. Please pray for me as we try to come together as a team to best minister to and serve the kids.

We talked this week about 'Whose home is it anyway?' We have 28 guys coming to live here. We also have dorm parents who are creating there home here and are in charge. Add on top of that, 5 RAs that want to create a feeling of home for themselves and have been living in their own homes for the past years. This is an interesting situation and really requires us to treat each other with love, grace and respect.

One week until the students come. This last week we will do projects around the house and go to an all staff conference. Hopefully I will get some pictures up soon of where I live.

1 week down...or so

Well, I just finished my first week. Guess what I am doing today? Shopping! Oh yeah, how I love shopping. No, seriously, there are a few things that I need to get and this will be very helpful.

This week has been very eventful. I have had the pleasure of having German every morning. I have learned some to make me a little dangerous and stick my foot in my mouth, but not enough to have a conversation.

The residence life staff has taken us through training in the afternoon. That has been helpful but a bit of information overload. After dinner, I have had some driving practice. It has been useful since I will be taking 8 high school kids in van when school starts.

I have headed into a couple of small cities and done some enjoyable little things.

Please pray that I develop good relationships with the other residence staff and that I take information in and not just in one ear and out the other.

Quick one

With what has happened today with airports, many problems have been created. Many teachers and returning people are arriving from the States and Canada over the next few days. Their travels will be turned into nightmares. Please pray for all of this, especially the ease of travel. At least as much ease as possible right now.

What a place!

Okay, I finally got these pictures to work. First off, these are not pictures that I took, but they are pictures of a place I was to on Wednesday. All this week we have had driver's training. The group of people I am in all know standard show driving has been a pleasant experience. So pleasant that our trainer for the day decided to give us a more advanced route. He decided to take up a mountain. The name of it is Hochblauen. It is 1165 meters tall which is about 3800 feet.

Wow, it was beautiful. It looks over the Rhine river valley into to France, Switzerland and also into the other bits of the Black Forest in Germany. On a very clear day, one can see the Alps. Yesterday was not that clear. We got there a bit before sunset. Wow, God's creation is amazing. I wish that I had had a camera.

Am I actually here?

Well, I am here. After 15 hours of traveling, I arrived in Germany. God has been good and everything has arrived safely. I am tired from virtually no sleep, but that's okay. I'll get some over the next couple of days.

It doesn't feel real at all. It just feels like I am visiting a different part of the US. I wonder when it will hit me?