I love teens!

Last night I was at a church in Michigan. I had the privilege of sharing both with the youth group and the adults about the English Camps in Germany. I was thankful for the interaction I had with both groups, but especially with the teens. The pastor had asked me to share my ministry with them....to give them a burden to pray for me. This was the first youth group I had shared my ministry with, and I felt a bit inadequate, but I prayed that God would give me the words to say. And He did. I had fun interacting with these teens. Some of them knew a bit about Germany, and they asked lots of questions! It was exciting to see some of them already excited for missions, and it is awesome to think of the potential they have and how God will use them both now and in the future! This is what excites me about working with teens - to encourage them to keep seeking God and obeying Him step by step, wherever He leads them!

Praise God for His faithfulness in our lives!!!!!!!!!

Bouncing around....

The month of January has been crazy but good as I've been bouncing around seeing people, sharing about the English Camp ministry, etc. Honestly, it's been a bit physically draining (I'm currently fighting a cold) but emotionally and spiritually, it has been encouraging! I am thankful to have been able to make this trip and to connect with old and new friends! God has blessed me in so many ways...more than I can put in a blog post...and I am learning lots. I am definitely enjoying being "at home" in the US, where I know the language and culture and am enjoying seeing familiar faces. However, I think that when the plane touches down on German soil on Feb. 1st, I will step off the plane with a joy and peace in my heart, knowing that is where God has called me to serve.

Note: I want to share pictures of my time in the States with you all, so I will have to post some soon. :)

Happy 2008!!

I hope that you all are enjoying a good start to 2008. How did it get to be 2008 already? I remember when I started college thinking that 2003 (my graduation year) seemed so far away. How time flies! But as I look back over this year and the ones before it, God's goodness shines through.

Obviously I've been going through a bit of a blogging "silent period" recently. It has been busy but good here in NY celebrating the holidays with my family. I've also had the opportunity to see other friends and family, and to share with three churches here in NY (two plus my home church) how God is working through the English Camp ministry. Through it all, there's been a lot going on inside my head, but not much that would be coherent on a computer screen.

This next month promises to be busy as well. I leave tomorrow to spend a few days at a conference in Colorado. Then I'll be in Ohio (and some other surrounding states:) for the rest of January, before flying back to Germany on the 31st. Please pray that God will give me many opportunities to share the English Camp ministry with people. Moreso, please pray that He will give me the strength I need to keep my focus on Him. And that through it all, joy will shine through, rather than busyness.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and God-honoring 2008!

My new passport

I have my new passport! YAY!!! Praise the Lord for His provision. I fly to the US on Wednesday, so the timing is perfect! God is good.

Oh yeah...as for leaving...I am pretty much packed and ready to go. I am very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but am not naive enough to think there won't be any reverse culture shock to deal with. Oh the joys of transitions.

Christmas and the Cross

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. I’ll admit I’ve never really celebrated Advent. I think I want to change that though. A few months ago, I read a book by Lauren Winner entitled girl meets GOD. Winner grew up practicing Judaism, converted to Orthodox Judaism during her college years, and then converted to Christianity (attending an Anglican church) during graduate school. I am not sure I completely agree with everything she said, but her thoughts on Christmas and Advent challenged me. Allow me to share with you some of what she said:

“Perhaps the problem is that we don’t know what the meaning of this holiday, of Jesus’ pushing into the world, is. If we did, we wouldn’t have to worry about consumerism; if we knew what the Incarnation meant, we’d be so preoccupied with awe that we wouldn’t notice all the shopping…

Jo Bailey Wells has an Advent rule. She doesn’t go to Christmas parties held before Christmas. She says Advent is about anticipation, not about celebrating weeks before His birth. The waiting, she says, is meant to be a little anxious. I picture Jan Austen heroines. They never are quiet sure if their intended will come. We Christians can be sure, we can rest easy in the promises of Scripture. But we are meant to feel a touch of that anxious, handkerchief-wringing expectation all the same.

The calendar tells us that this all culminates on December 25th, but really the whole season slouches toward Easter. Jesus becomes incarnate now, in that manger in Bethlehem, but if His incarnation is meant to make Him more relatable to us, if we are meant to have better access to God because our God has a body like we have, if we relate to Him better because He knows what it is like to weep and throw up and be tempted and suffer, then the Incarnation that starts on Christmas isn’t finished until Good Friday. And the miracles that start in the strange, inexplicable Virgin Birth aren’t finished until the Resurrection. As Reverend Barbara Cawthorne Crafton wrote of the Virgin Birth, ‘Hard as it is to swallow, it is nothing compared with what we’ll have to deal with come Easter morning, a few short months from now. Look on it as a little something by way of a warm-up.’ Even his birthplace takes us to the Last Supper: Jesus, the Bread of Life, is born in Bethlehem, bet lechem, ‘house of bread,’ and at the Last Supper He will break bread for us, and then on the cross He will break His body. Nothing in Scripture, even the names of birthplace towns, is coincidence.” (p.35-36)

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about Advent. Who celebrates it? Why? (I need to do some research.) But I think I like it. It seems more Christ-like to spend this time before Christmas focusing on Christ and what He did for us rather than focusing on shopping and Christmas parties. I’m not saying that fellowshipping with friends and family is bad, but what is my focus?

Yesterday at church the first Sunday of Advent was definitely commemorated. The service focused on darkness and light. Christ came to give us light (John 3:19) - to rescue us from the darkness – that we might have our thirst quenched by the Living Water (John 7:37-38) and a Shelter in the storm (Psalm 55:6-8).

Recently I’ve definitely felt the darkness of my own imperfection. (They say that transition makes you more aware of your weaknesses. I think they’re right.) Sometimes I can temporarily pretend my depravity isn’t as deep as it really is, but soon that façade comes crashing down and I’m left staring my weaknesses in the face. Thankfully, God gives grace and mercy. Little by little, He is making me more like Himself. Sure it’s hard. Sure it’s probably only happening one-tenth of a millimeter at a time. Sure it’s sometimes one step forward and one step back. But this is life on earth. I am thankful for the promise that I have the promise that one day I will spend eternity in the presence of my Savior, where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

My Trip To Hungary That Wasn't Meant To Be...

So I was supposed to go with some friends of mine and a group from their church in Heidelberg to serve at an orphanage in Hungary over Thanksgiving. I went. But I didn't get past the Hungarian border. I lost my passport a few weeks ago (I don't know how). I am waiting for my new one, but in the meantime, I have a temporary one. Evidently that wasn't good enough for the Hungarians, so after spending two hours at the border, I started a very long train ride (on Thanksgiving Day) back to Germany. :)

Of course, nothing in my life is ever simple. I had left some of my stuff in Heidelberg, so I headed there instead of back to Kandern.

Oh and get this - after January, there won't even be border guards evidently.

I didn’t travel back to Germany alone. Two military guys on the bus also were refused - they evidently don't have passports and normally military orders are good enough. Two different group leaders had called the US Embassy in Hungary before the trip and been told those two guys would be okay. Well, they weren’t. So the three of us set off on an adventure back to Heidelbeg - which was an adventure. :) It took us a while to figure out how to get out of the little town on the border that we were dropped off at. We had food at a hotel (see picture at right) - the lady was very nice and helped point us in the right direction. I had some Viennese coffee (yum!) and some cake (chocolate with cherries, etc.) Not a very good breakfast, I know, but at that point I didn't really care. (After being on a bus all night and then facing a long day traveling back to Germany.) It sounded good so I had it.

Here is a summary of our adventurous journey back to Germany:
- The bus dropped us off at a train stop (not worthy of being called a station) in a small town in eastern Austria called Neusiedl am See.
- We then walked (after “breakfast” at the hotel) a couple of miles to the real train station on the other end of the village.
- From there, we took the train to the Vienna South train station. (See picture at right)
- Oh, but trains to Germany don’t leave from the south station – they leave from the West train station. So we took the tram to the West train station.
- From the Vienna West station, we took the train to Frankfurt, Germany.
- From there, we took another train to Heidelberg.
- I then took the S-bahn (another train) to the town outside of Heidelberg that my friends live in. I arrived at their house around 11:30 Thursday evening. (I had been travelling almost constantly since I left Kandern at noon on Wednesday.)

Side note: I have a CU friend who lives in Vienna (See picture at left), but I didn't have a phone number for her with me, and it was Thanksgiving Day, so I didn't try to contact her. I had the thought that I should make the most of being stuck in Vienna, but at the same time I just wanted to be home, you know?

After hanging out with their cat, exploring their town, and otherwise relaxing and resting, I headed back to Kandern on Saturday (which involved trains and a bus).

So that is how Kari spent Thanksgiving 2007. Oh, but I did have a lovely Thanksgiving meal on Sunday with some wonderful friends here.

I know this post is getting long, but allow me to share with you some reflections, now that I’ve had some time to process all of this:

* I have added Austria to the list of countries I’ve been to. But I do hope to go back.

* I have mastered public transportation in Europe. I can get wherever I need to go.

* Am I on a blacklist and won’t be able to get into Hungary? I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. I’m going to try to find out.

* At first, I was beating myself up over this. I feel some personal responsibility in this. Not just in that I lost my passport, but that I should have known it (the temp passport) would not have been good enough. Had I known this would happen, I wouldn’t have gone. But as someone reminded me, that’s pretty obvious. More so, I am reminded that God has a reason for everything that happens in our lives. For some reason, He didn’t want me in Hungary. I don’t know if He was protecting me from something, or what reason He had. I just need to trust His sovereignty.

* I have learned more about which countries are EU and which aren’t. And that it is not just being EU that matters. There’s evidently this treaty known as the “Schengen Agreement.” This agreement evidently allows people to travel freely between the countries that have signed this treaty. Note: Not all EU countries have signed this treaty, but more are. That’s important to know.

* Money is money. As much as we’re supposed to be wise stewards of our finances, sometimes you just have to spent money. Like on train tickets to get from the Hungarian border back to Germany.

* So the moral of the story is to always travel with a valid passport and never lose it. I’m trying to decide what to do once I get my new passport so that I won’t lose it. EVER. I think I might sew it to myself. Anybody have a better idea?

Another Year Gone By....

A few random thoughts with Kari:

*This past Saturday I went to Titisee - a small town in the Black Forest - with a friend. I had been there after English Camp in 2004. While I thought it was a beautiful place, it wasn't my favorite place because I thought of it as a bit of a "tourist trap." (And probably because I was tired after two sessions of camp:). Well, on Saturday I was refreshed by the beautiful snow-covered scenery (see above picture:). There were people milling around, but it was not crowded. As we perused the shops and admired the buildings, Black Forest culture abounded.

*Yesterday was my birthday (my 26th, in case you're wondering). I've been thinking about why we celebrate birthdays - I mean, isn't it kind of selfish and egocentric? Perhaps. But maybe moreso it's a day to celebrate who God created us to be and to remind each other why we appreciate each other. But shouldn't we be doing that everyday? Yes. (I think there are a few Bible verses that talk about that.:)

*Yesterday I learned that I have been a very bad German. It's amazing that my apartment isn't falling apart and rotting away due to mold. Evidently because of the way German houses are built and the way the heating systems work (neither of which I can explain to you), you need to open the windows every day for a little bit. Don't worry - I opened them this morning for the necessary amount of time.

*Tomorrow I leave to spend the next several days in Heidelberg and Hungary. I'm going with some friends (who live in Heidelberg) and a group from their church to serve at an orphanage in Hungary over Thanksgiving. So that's how I'm spending my first Thanksgiving away from home. And I'm excited about it!

*My trip back to the States is quickly approaching (I fly the 12th of December), which I am excited about. I am a bit anxious about all of the details that still need to fall into place, but I know that God will cause all things to fall into place in the way He wants them to.

I am praying that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving however or whereever you're celebrating with family and friends! Take some time to stop, step back, and remember all you have to be thankful for. God is good!