EnRautenbergs

On Ice Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Me: "So, where's the best place to get ice cream around here?"

Child 1: "I like Steffan's."

Me: "Oh, you mean the guy here in our neighborhood who has that tiny little shop?"

Child 1: "Yeah, he's got the best!"

Child 2: "I went there once and got two scoops on a cone and when I was standing outside the shop window I licked my cone and all the ice cream fell on the pavement. I was so stupid. Steffan said he'd give me another one for free, but I was embarrassed so I just stood there and ate the cone really fast and then ran home."

Child 1: "Seriously? You ran all the way here from Steffan's?"

Child 2: "Yeah, I felt stupid. I can't believe I did that."

Child 1: "You were stupid not to take the free cone. I would've taken the free cone."

Child 2: "Arrggh!" (covers face with hands)

This was a conversation I witnessed between the two neighborhood kids I tutor in English (9 and 10yrs old). It was our next-to-last class and we were trying to decide where to go for their 'final exam'; they would have to read/translate an ice cream shop's menu in English, interact with a waiter who only spoke English (my own Stefan, ha!), and then order in English.

We accomplished a lot this past school year, but it was always tricky for me to find topics that were motivating to them and not too school-esque. They're kids and total soccer addicts, so our two main themes were learning how to play soccer in English and learning how to order food, specifically ice cream, in English. When they go on vacation in other countries they'll have to speak English to play with other kids or get treats, so I figured these themes would motivate them -and it worked. We also squeezed in other vocab areas and started building phrases. The parents have been really pleased and have already asked me to continue next school year if scheduling permits (one will start upper level schooling at a local Gymnasium).

For now, though, we're all enjoying summer vacation. Stefan and I headed up to the Ostsee (Baltic) for a week and then down to the Spreewald area south of Berlin for a few days. More on that later.

Natasha Update

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 09:22:00 +0000

Thanks so much for your prayers for little Natasha. She was able to come home from the hospital on Wednesday evening and seems to be doing fine at home. She still has a horrible cough that will likely last for many weeks, but at least she is eating and sleeping well now and has no more fever. Bronchitis and colds are still running rampant in their house, so please pray for healing in that home and for no relapses for Natasha. Please also pray for my sister, Ingrid, who's been working overtime since the baby was born a month ago.

It was nice to Skype with my other niece, LiLi, the other day and see her all smiles and not looking too worried. We're really grateful for the wonders of technology offer in the 21st century!

Please pray for little Natasha

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:56:00 +0000

Last month Stefan and I were thrilled to hear that we have another new niece, Natasha Margaux. Elissa Kate (LiLi) is a good big sister to "Sissy" and we've again been thankful for Skype.

However, we'd like to ask for extra prayer for Natasha as she's back in the hospital again at only one month old. She has pneumonia and RSV and, while stabilized, still needs to 'turn the corner' as the Dr. says. You can see a nurse attending to her in the photo below.

Please pray for healing in her little body and the doctors and nurses who are treating her, and please also pray for my sister, Ingrid (she's been sleeping at the hospital) and my BIL, Chris. LiLi could also use some prayer because she's been looking worried and saying "Sissy sick?", so even a little 2yr old is able to perceive that all is not well.

Thanks for praying with us.

We're halfway there, sorta

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:54:00 +0000

Several people have been asking about updates regarding Stefan's school paperwork process, so instead of repeating myself, I'll just post the answer here!

Stefan met with his school's principal and had a really positive meeting, phew! This man's signature is the first one we needed in order to start the request process to have both Stefan's reduced hours approved and for Stefan to be allowed to receive an income from a non-school board source. The principal was very positive when he heard about Stefan's involvement with a church (this is the first anybody he works with has heard anything about this whatsoever) and warned him to guard his time. He was so relieved when he heard Stefan's situation because when the meeting first started he was terrified that Stefan was requesting to transfer schools -and he doesn't want to lose Stefan completely! We knew the principal has been involved to a degree with things from his membership in the State church, so we were hoping this would contribute towards a positive reaction, and because of how the conversation went, we're certain of it. We're really thankful that God has placed this man as Stefan's boss because this is another example of how he has enabled Stefan to do greater good in the Kingdom (previously in some things he's done in Religion classes, and now in that he's ok with Stefan reducing hours to be more involved with our church). *Bonus: Stefan also asked permission to leave his position on the teachers' union committee, which was granted. This frees up a chunk of time each week as well as ridding him of a set of phone calls that always seemed to happen. He still has two other school projects he's part of, but leaving this was a help!

What next? We need to hear the official approval from the school board both for the reduction of hours and the secondary income source. The principal seems to think the school board will not object given the principal's endorsement, but nobody can say for sure. Please keep this remaining decision in your prayers!

In conjunction with this...we have committed to financially cutting back on things this year in the hopes that we can make greater strides forward. This is never an easy thing to do, especially since I feel like the only things I buy are groceries, but we're really going to try to work on this. For this reason, however, it's important that we receive this approval from the school board for the secondary income source. It would also be really great if I were able to receive some sort of steady income.

Freelance work is great, but it's always so iffy. Jan/Feb and the summer months are typically dead times for me, so it's especially in-my-face right now. Also, because so many things were up in the air at the time decisions needed to be made, I decided not to teach another English class for the spring semester (but I will continue the grad student scientific English courses). Frankly, I will not miss the stress, however, even the pittance it paid was helpful, so now we're back to square one. While I'm legally able to work in Germany, finding a place for me to work here is just insanely difficult for a host of reasons.

Also, at 32, I'm rather sick of always patching things together, either by moonlighting to supplement a ridiculously tiny non-profit paycheck or by working FT in a job that was really about the paycheck, or now cobbling together this freelance editing gig. God's blessed me with a resume full of diverse work experience and with opportunities to acquire some really great skills that translate well into a host of things, but there doesn't seem to be a place for me to utilize them here in Germany and earn a steady income. I wish we could afford for me to just volunteer somewhere and spend the majority of my time working with the church.

Speaking of the church -last week I met with a couple of women from the church to talk about the women's ministry (or the lack thereof). We had an encouraging time together and will be meeting again next week to plan a women's breakfast with childcare in February. Last Sunday Stefan gave the announcements and strongly encouraged the men to sign up to help with childcare so even the mothers could attend, so we're hoping to see all age groups of women represented. We have a real smattering of ages and life-situations represented between those who work during the weekdays, those who don't, those with/out kids, etc. Our goal is to bring about greater unity among the women in the church and encourage them in their walk with Christ. Previous (irregular) women's activities have only been attended by the elderly and women from the village, and while there are lots of good things about that and valid reasons that it's been that way, even that's no longer happening because the woman who organized it is no longer around. So lots of challenges, but lots of opportunity, too!

So please pray about the school board's decision (we have no idea when we can expect to hear from them), financial hopes for us/employment for me, and the future women's ministry at the church. THANK YOU!

Stefan's Installation Service

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Yesterday was a really special day. It was the culmination of so many hopes and dreams and prayers; in so many ways it was a "finally!" sort of moment, but it was also an event that signaled we were only at the beginning. Stefan's installation service at the Baptist Church in Erda was definitely a climax point in our lives.

The sermon was delivered by Dr. Helge Stadelmann, an elder of (and former pastor in) our partner church in Giessen, and president of the Frei Theologische Hochschule (seminary) in Giessen. It was an excellent sermon that was especially moving in part because, for a lot of reasons, we never thought he would play the role he's played in Stefan's involvement in ministry here in Germany -so it was a huge God-be-glorified moment-, in part because the sermon was directed to Stefan (and he really turned towards Stefan and usually spoke directly to him), and in part because the text he chose, 1 Peter 5:1-4, happens to be the passage that Stefan did his most intense exegetical research paper on back in seminary in Dr. Hafeman's 1 Peter class! Needless to say, it was very meaningful to have this particular person deliver this sermon on these particular verses on this particular day!

*big thanks to a member of our church who had the presence of mind to take pictures and email us copies last night!

Following the sermon, Thorsten, the senior pastor of the partner church in Giessen, gave a short address reminding Stefan of his journey to this day, the support of the body of believers, and the unanimous vote he received from the members of our church in Erda. He closed his short address with a warning/reminder both to Stefan to remember to protect his time and make time for himself and his family, and a warning/reminder to the congregation to also help Stefan protect his time. In closing, and as a gesture of the friendship he and Stefan share, Thorsten presented Stefan with a small sculpture of two large hands cradling a baby; this is to remind Stefan that God is in control and holds him securely. Like the sermon, it was delivered very much from the heart and in the most sincere of voices.

At this point, Helge, Stefan and Markus, the other elder in our church, joined Thorsten up front and, with their hands on Stefan's shoulders, the three men took turns praying over Stefan and the ministry ahead. My German isn't good enough to tell you if somebody can pray eloquently, but I can tell you that I understood what they said and that they seemed to pray over every topic one can pray for in such a situation with the utmost joy and sincerity in their voices. Thank you God for letting me understand everything!

They sat down after the prayer and four young women came up and sang in harmony a really lovely song in honor of the occasion. I am frequently amazed at the musical talent in our small congregation and find the singing to be a real treat. These young women truly enjoy singing for the glory of the Lord and it shows -I realize they all look pretty serious in this shot, it must've been the moment the shutter clicked. Honestly, a lot of solos I have heard in churches don't tend to make me teary-eyed, but this one did! All in all, it was a really wonderful, wonderful, wonderful service!

After the service there was a congregational meeting. Several weeks ago a formal appeal was sent to all members to consider how much (if any) extra monthly financial offerings they could commit to giving to the church to help finance Stefan's salary. We were hoping to hear 750 Euro/month so that Stefan could reduce his teaching hours by 25%. By the time our meeting came to order, 32 (of 50+) members had committed to 740 Euro. (Because of a number of reasons, we're not too worried about the rest of the members right now.) We really had no idea if this 750 would happen or not, so it was a huge blessing to see this amount! We feel a sense of confirmation and are encouraged to have Stefan go ahead with the next steps.

Please pray not only for Stefan's new ministry position as "pastor", but please pray also for the paperwork process Stefan has to begin with the German school board. Not only must he broach the subject of reducing hours with his principal, but it has to be approved by the school board. Then the tricky part happens where he has to appeal to make it ok for him to earn a small 'side' income from the church (even though he'd have less than a 100% position as a teacher, the German government doesn't allow second incomes for people in Stefan's position -even if he were only half time!....don't get me started on the red tape in this country!!). This all has to happen by the end of January - at least Stefan's filing, so we'll see how fast (and how) the government responds.

Thanks so much for praying for us as we've transitioned into this new church and into ministry involvement in Erda. We are both sooo grateful!! Please keep praying for us!

Christmas 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:02:00 +0000

We had a really nice Christmas in our home this year. Since we've been married (2005), we've alternated our years celebrating Christmas between the US and Germany. And because of how things have worked out with where we've lived and where we've celebrated, this was only the second time we felt we could justify setting up a Christmas tree in our own home (see the first one here). However, we've been buying Christmas ornaments every year as we travel and visit places, so we actually had enough to fill the tree!

It has been sooooo nice to have a tree up!! It's already January 3rd, but I kind of want to hang on to it until the end of the week, if possible. We bought it the day before our Advent party, but decided we just didn't have the room to fit people AND a tree into our living room (not to mention the time needed to get it set up), so we put it up pretty late in the month. This was a major point of contention anyhow, so I'm glad it got set up! Stefan grew up setting up the tree on the day of Christmas Eve (traditional German approach, esp since Germans celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve anyhow), but I grew up setting up a tree weeks in advance. So this seemed to be a compromise of sorts...

A lot of our favorite ornaments are from our trips to the Nürnberg Christmas market with friends. Most of these ornaments came from Käthe Wolfhart, a beautiful and famous German company doing all things related to German Christmas decor. I had to smile hanging up the one with the rolling pin and Lebkuchen cookies and recipe; I tutor two neighbor kids in English and for our last pre-Christmas meeting I had them cut out and decorate some gingerbread mean from some dough I had ready. Then I made them review their body part vocab before letting them eat them. (We also watched the 20 min. Grinch Who Stole Christmas auf Deutsch, ha!) Later I washed and used the cookie cutters to finish making our tree skirt (see picture above).

Once again, I packed little gifts for the students in Stefan's homeroom class. He only has 21 students this year, which is a total gift in itself, but it still took me several days to make enough cookies to fill their bags AND have enough leftover for our Advent party (which happened the next day, so yeah, poor planning on our part - I was dead after that party!).

By the way, I totally failed at taking pictures at this year's Nürnberg gathering with the Prices and our missionary friends, Justin and Megan and their kids. Here are the two I did take. As usual, we were having too much fun to remember taking pictures! Two things: the yellow German Post carriages are there every year and you can pay to get a ride around the square. We've never done this, but we did purchase special edition stamps/cancellations from the Post's booth and sent a couple of cards to family. The other thing I managed to take a picture of was the international section of the Christmas markt. Partner cities from around the world can have a booth at the market, so I had to take a picture of the American one (from Atlanta). They were selling hard and sweet cider (their take on Glühwein), Reese's cups (!!!!), Jelly Belly candy canes, and other only-in-America treats. I have to say the Polish booth had some pretty amazing glass ornaments (Megan!) and the Greek booth was rocking some nice cheese - all in all, something fun and unexpected!

Stefan preached at the Christmas Eve service this year, so Stefan's mom and brother sat by me as we enjoyed the service. Our choir did a lovely job (almost everybody in our church is musically gifted, pretty amazing for such a small group!) and it was a great service. Afterwards we went to Stefan's mom's place in Giessen and had a fondu (or fondue? I find both...) dinner. I had never had meat fondu, so it was pretty fun!

Stefan's mother uses real candles on her tree (another German tradition), so after dinner we lit the candles and started opening presents. We really did have a ridiculous amount of presents, but then we all seemed to wrap each and every tiny thing - and the dog got presents as well! It was a really nice evening together and we all had a good laugh at one present Frank gave to Stefan and I: a set of winter hubcaps! We lost a hubcap on the way to church one Sunday a few months ago and Stefan was pretty miffed about it because we only use hubcaps when the winter tires are on. So it was pretty funny that Frank remembered this and sprung for a new set we could enjoy! (It's one of my pet peeves when I see cars driving around without hubcaps, go figure!)

On Christmas Day -or the first Christmas day, as the Germans would say-, Stefan and I opened the rest of the gifts my family had sent, in addition to our stockings (this is one of the benefits of celebrating a German-American Christmas!). We hosted the big Christmas lunch at our place this year, taking advantage of our kitchen and dishwasher, and gave Stefan's mom a break. Frank and Antje came over with the dog and we spent the afternoon and evening together.

I have to say the Christmas lunch was pretty stressful...it was our first time making a large piece of meat, and we didn't even get as large a turkey as we asked for! I used a brine for our little 7lb turkey and it was a total hassle. In the end we decided it wasn't worth it (we must've done something wrong), so next time I'll just do what I normally do for a roast chicken. In fact, Stefan said we should just roast a bunch of chickens next time, ha! We also forgot that we didn't have a proper carving set of our own AND we forgot to ask his mom to bring hers, so it turned into a hack-fest at the table. Oh well. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. Actually, the bird was the only downer, everything else about the lunch was great!

In addition to the turkey, our table sported the traditional German dishes of Rotkohl and Semmelknödeln, which came from a jar and a box, respectively. Aren't we gourmands?! Apparently this is how Stefan's mother has always done it, so since he was in charge of these dishes, that's what he did, too. Cop out. I made homemade harvest-style stuffing, sweet potato casserole for the lunch, and two pumpkin pies and pecan tassies for dessert (in addition to the myriad of Christmas cookies we had around the house).

So it was a really busy Christmas season, yet it was all totally worth it! Next year we're due to spend Christmas in the US, but we're kind of wanting the US to fly to us to celebrate here next year.... hint, hint! Summer really seems to be a much more fun season to visit people anyhow....we shall see!

Snow, snow, snow fun

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:55:00 +0000

You may have heard that Europe's been getting slammed with snow this year. Not only have there been some shockingly gorgeous winter wonderland snowy sunrises, but our balcony has also braved the storms. I'm glad we got the lights out on the balcony between storms because white lights glimmering under a layer of snow just look so pretty!

One major downside to all the snow is, of course, all the delays that come with it. We are STILL waiting for one of our Christmas boxes to arrive from the US.... Another problem that really drives me nuts is that plows here never seem to really drop; the just hover about 5 inches above the snow!! What is the point?! Needless to say the streets are horrid here. Stefan's brother likes to say we're driving through pudding; I agree. I really miss the New England plows, even though they always seemed to drop under my bedroom window at 3am...

Advent Kaminabend Party

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:03:00 +0000

I've got 3 posts in the loop right now and hopefully one will come out right after the other, so stay tuned!

On the third weekend of December we had an Advent Kaminabend party. Kaminabend means something like 'an evening fireside'. We loaded up on wood, I made vats of chili, cakes, and I don't know what else, and invited our neighbors and everybody in our new church to come over. People at church were asking us if our home was really 'that big', but we figured a lot of folks wouldn't be able to make it for various reasons - and we were right. Still, our highest count was 24 people at one time, so it was fun!

Our goal was to have a time to see people outside of church and have some fellowship in a low-key sort of atmosphere. An unexpected upswing was that the family who lives in the house next to us actually ended up staying until nearly 11pm! I do an extra English tutoring thing for their 9yr old daughter and even though she was the only kid there, she had a blast! The parents really enjoyed talking to several people from our church, so that was nice. We totally didn't expect them to 'click' with the bulk of people coming from our church and were thinking they would make a polite appearance and leave after 20 minutes or so, but what do you know? They were sincerely thankful for the invitation and had a great time, so that was pretty cool.

The highlight of the evening was something we almost didn't do. I told Stefan we should tell people we were going to do a Yankee Swap game (with nice 5-10 Euro gifts) and see how it went over. He didn't think it would really fly, but it turned out to be a huge hit! People really got into it and I think we're going to try to do the same thing next year! The gifts that were the most-desired: a set of glass serving bowls and an under-eye cream thing (hello, random!). I ended up with a cute set of scented candles, but Stefan opened a set of 'toast tattoos' and traded for a bag of coffee. Altogether it was pretty funny!

It was a lot of work to get the house ready and plan out the food, but it was definitely worth it. Not only did we get a chance to have a blast hanging with everybody in our house, but it also forced us to get the apartment really decorated for Christmas. We're still reaping the benefits of both!

Christmas music, round 2

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:53:00 +0000

We purchased a bunch of Christmas DVDs from Amazon.de...they are English versions of classic American Christmas movies...imported from England. So far "White Christmas", "A Christmas Story" and "It's a Wonderful Life" have arrived. Yesterday Stefan purchased "Kevin Allein Zu Hause"(literally 'Kevin alone at home'...wanna guess it's real title now?) to show his 7th graders during their class Christmas party. (btw-I saw this in the theater when it came out back when I was in 7th grade and I got in trouble for going to see a PG movie without my parents permission...I was invited by a church youth leader. Yeah anyhow, I digress).

So this post is about music, not movies, but I had to throw the movies in here because I'm all excited about them. 'The Grinch' (cartoon) and 'Miracle on 34th St' (b&w version) should be arriving soon. I'm all sorts of annoyed that I didn't think to add Charlie Brown's Christmas to the list, how did I forget that?! ...more digression.

Anybody remember that video with the hippo singing a Christmas song with a German accent I posted back in '07? Aside from Andrev Yonez and my brother, I'm sure everybody's forgotten. So when I ran across an updated version, I had to post it. Here it is, with a BONUS TRACK of sorts: a preamble telling a little more on the history of the song (original German roots!) and then giving you a context for the Loony Tunes style comic theater. Oh, and Stefan thinks this is absolutely hilarious, too, so no wondering if the Germans are getting offended!

And then, as an extra bonus for all you random people who love this sort of thing...I'm feeling generous (Christmas is around the corner)... check out Dominic the Donkey. I pretty much want all 2-3yr olds to watch this and learn the chorus please. Warning: Dominic the Donkey is extremely catchy!! You may find yourself singing it under your breath when you photocopy pages for your next English class. Not that I would know. I would just say that it's a good thing nobody came in the copy room before you caught yourself...you know, if that sort of thing happened to you. You've been warned!

Advent 2010 in Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:51:00 +0000

So we are getting the apartment geared up for Christmas. We've hung our Herrnhuter Stern, made each other Advent calendars, and I've made our Advent wreath. It looks good.

Stefan requests an Advent calendar each year, so I really tried hard this year to make it a 'good one'. He was apparently so impressed that he felt bad not making one for me - so he disappeared for an afternoon and that night called me into the dining room to see what he had set up. I was shocked. He had abandoned his desk and gone shopping. Those two things alone were earth shattering, much less that he went shopping all over town (as is now evident) and got creative. Every morning I pull out a Bible verse, a pack of special blend tea, and some sort of treat, usually sweet.

Isn't he the greatest? (YES!) Each tea pack brews enough for two cups, so at some point in the afternoon or evening Stefan will brew the tea and I'll straighten up the living room and we'll light the Advent wreath and sit down and enjoy the time.

Last weekend we took part in another Christmas-in-Germany tradition and went to the Giessen Weihnachtsmarkt with Stefan's mother. Of course we had fun looking around and then we of course had to eat a bratwurst from a stand and then of course we had to go back to his mom's place and light her Advent wreath and chat for a while. Frank had mailed their mother a package for Nikolaus Tag (remember this?) and it turned out to be a fondu set! He's been advocating for a Christmas Even fondu dinner this year, so now it looks like it's certain!

Next weekend we'll head down to visit our friends, the Prices. Other GCTS alums/friends will also be joining us (they're missionaries in France). We've done this the last two years (how did I forget to blog about last year?? oh well, here's our first year) and are looking forward to it again. With two babies, two toddlers, and six adults it should be interesting! This might be our last time, however: The Prices are with the US Army and will be transferred out of Germany next spring and the other family may be moving to North Africa. However, this year we'll enjoy hanging out together, visiting the Nürnberg Christmas market, and getting Starbucks and little Nürnberger sausages (all you ever wanted to know about German sausages here)!

Germans on missing Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:44:00 +0000

I have eight Germans in the English class I've been teaching at the university. The other eight are from various countries and are here to study abroad. Last week they had to hand in a short writing assignment on what they would/do miss about their home country when abroad. I had to laugh at the comments (see if you spot the trend):

German #1: would miss German punctuality, the prevalence of trash cans, and the bread. "I like the German wholemeal bread and I've never seen a similar bread which makes me happy. When I have breakfast abroad, I'am regularly not satisfied."

German #2: would miss German punctuality, how bike-friendly it is here, and the bread. "I do love German bread, which is unique all over the world." However she did say she would NOT miss: "ugly garden gnomes, schnitzels and all these disgusting sauces, which are so popular in the plain German cooking, the so called German "Spießigkeit", the state Bayern, the "Oktoberfest" and the famous but annoying carnival in Cologne." ha ha ha ha ha!

German #3: would miss German punctuality, German cleanliness, and the logic of the German highway system. "...the highway systems are very confusing in other countries. In comparison with the German intelligent highway system, which is founded by the German efficiency or thoroughness, other systems are not so well structured and helpful for the road users."

German #4: would miss German beer, clean tap water, how safe Germany is, and the bread. "...comparing to the most of the [many] countries [previously listed], the German one is the best and more tasty one."

German #5: would miss sparkling (bottled) water, orderly auto traffic, and the bread. Her first sentence is: "When I am abroad, the first German thing that I miss is the bread. The German bread tastes so good and I've never been to a country that has so many types of bread. Bread is the primary thing for breakfast."

German #6: would miss the seasons, German jokes, and the bread. "There are some sorts of food you can not buy in other countries if you do not stay in Germany, such as brown bread for example."

German #7: would miss the language, the humor, the beer, the soccer, and the bread. "...and specially the bread. I think it is hard to find bread as good as in Germany in other countries."

German #8: would miss the reliability of people, the cheese, and the bread."Germans have the most kinds of bread, I think. In Germany I will never miss the bread and I do not eat that much but when I think back on every time I spent abroad I always missed the bread."

For the record, a Spaniard tells me he misses the parties, the healthy food, and the beautiful women!

The results are in...

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:25:00 +0000

Stefan's sermon went well on Sunday, but the big story of the day was the vote. Out of 57 members, 5 are no longer attending, leaving 52 to vote. All 52 brought or sent in their ballots and the outcome was a unanimous "JA"! We are so grateful for a unanimous vote! The really wonderful thing is that this church has historically had real problems agreeing on several important issues, so while a unanimous vote was very encouraging for Stefan, it was also immensely encouraging to the congregants themselves! Hooray! Such a big answer to prayer!

The next step will be a church meeting on Dec 16 to talk plainly about finances and responsibilities. Please pray for understanding and unity. A lot of people have never had a pastor before, or have different traditions and expectations, so while this can be great in terms of diversity, it can also create additional hurdles to overcome. Overall, people are pretty aware of these things, as well as the fact that Stefan is currently a full time teacher, which brings it's own restrictions. In the next two months the church will need to further define and prioritize pastoral duties and decide if/how much they can financially contribute to a part time pastor's salary.

Ideally, Stefan would love to reduce his teaching hours to allow more time for church responsibilities. If Stefan wants to have a chance at reducing his school hours by any amount, he has to apply by the end of January (for the following academic year). Since we are not currently in a position to have our income reduced, it's important that the church be able to pay for any hours/pay reduction Stefan were to get from the school system. There are a number of tricky things that go along with these sorts of logistics, but please pray these things are able to be worked out.

The church was so pleased with the outcome of the vote, I really can't tell you! They all just burst into applause when the elder announced the unanimous results! The funny thing is, they aren't technically allowed to call him 'pastor' because it's a protected title in Germany. Stefan would have to complete a number of training type things to be able to officially be called a pastor (yes, so German), even though he has an M.Div from GCTS and would be performing pastoral responsibilities. The elder asked them what they should call him, and somebody shouted out "Hirte!" (pronounced heer-tuh), which means shepherd. We'll have to see if that sticks.

On Sunday, January 2, 2011, Stefan will be formally installed as the church's 'Hirte/pastor'. The senior pastor, Thorsten, from the sister church in Giessen, and one of their elders, Helge Stadelman (also the president of the seminary in Giessen), will be there for the blessing. If you'd like to come, just let us know!

Voting on a pastor

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:52:00 +0000

Well, it's been an interesting past couple of weeks. We have continued to enjoy our church in Erda. The people are truly warm and sincere and really seem to be seeking to live out their faith. Stefan has been meeting regularly with the elder and pastor from the sister church in Giessen for several months now. Time + meetings + lunches at people's houses = us getting to know and understand the joys and struggles of this church on many different levels. While now is not the place to go into all those things, it is safe to say we've really put a lot of thought and prayer into this situation.

Two weeks ago there was a special church meeting to formally introduce Stefan as a candidate for the pastoral responsibilities of the church. Last night there was a Q&A time for congregants to ask him more 'pointed' questions. Of course there were a few provocative questions, but Stefan did really well going back to Scripture and diffusing a few potential bombs, ha! Obviously I'm proud of him! He left the evening feeling like he didn't compromise any of his convictions and was able to explain his stance. We went in having no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a fun evening and everybody went home smiling, so that's good.

On Sunday after the service there will be a special member's meeting to give their vote on whether they want to say 'Ja' to calling Stefan to pastoral duties at the church. We would love a unanimous vote, but we will have to see. If this vote goes well there will be further meetings to determine how many hours Stefan can be hired for and what he will be expected to do in that amount of time. Like many German churches, this church cannot afford a full time pastor. We'll talk about this more if Sunday's vote is positive.

Stefan will also be preaching this Sunday - the first Sunday of Advent - so please pray for this Sunday!

Fall Break in Bavaria

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:19:00 +0000

During Stefan's fall vacation we kept Ronja with us. Stefan's mother joined her church on a two week trip to Israel, so we picked up the dog and drove south to Bavaria to visit Frank. We were only down there for the last four days of the break, so we had plenty of time to take some long walks on the outskirts of Marburg.

Frank lives about 30 minutes from the Austrian border, right in the Bavarian Alps, so it was gorgeous! He was happy to have family show up and check out his new digs. He's living in a totally cute little two room cabin. It's really cozy (isn't the entrance like a fairy tale?) and I love the painted shutters! Ronja liked napping in front of the warm stove while we worked outside. I actually really enjoyed raking -obviously there was a lot to do! We've had so many years of just having to sweep the balcony... A huge load of wood was delivered the day we arrived and the guys were outside stacking wood long after I finished raking. I made a big batch of chili to help warm everybody up when they finally came back inside.

We really enjoyed walks outside in the cold sunshine. Ronja just never seemed to tire, so we just walked and walked and walked. Most of these shots are from our walk along the Walchensee. There were little boathouses along the shore for summer paddles around the lake. We'll have to come back in the summer and rent a boat for an afternoon.

One of the things we saw on our walk was a tiny chapel. It was ancient and had a bone and skull display in the door to mark the faithful. I'd seen a fancier version of this in Austria once before, but it's still a little weird. Unfortunately the doors were locked so we couldn't go explore the inside.

I have to say I really loved this little farm we ended up walking through. The blue and white painted shutters are just too cute for words! Eventually we came back around to the shoreline and Ronja had a nice long drink. See how clear the water is? And yes, it was icy cold water!

English and a few German 'fun' facts

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:51:00 +0000

Hello? Anybody there? I've started teaching English once a week at the university and it's been the hugest, most un-anticipated time suck ever. This is the main reason why you've been left hanging about that sermon of Stefan's (which went swimmingly, by the way).

How does a once-a-week class kill my entire week? Parking in a land far, far away. Policies that don't require students to purchase the book, thereby forcing this teacher to photocopy nearly every single page in the 193 page textbook. Yes, you read that correctly. Totally appalling! You have no idea how much time this takes. And then there's collating. And stapling. For 16 students. The pictures below show copies for one class only. There are 13 sessions in total.

Another factor is the football field's distance between the teacher's workroom and the copy machines. Oh, and the fact that the copy machines rarely work. Then I have to whip out my technical German and de-jam a machine auf Deutsch. That's fun when you're sweaty from running all the way up there (yeah, it's also on another floor from where I teach/work) and the clock is ticking because once again you forgot to copy something (this is my own fault...I have lists, they just never seem to work when it comes to copies for some reason) and class is about to start.

I live in fear of the moment when a student will invariably ask me to explain what the 'present perfect simple' is and why they should use it. This happens often and so far (thankfully) my standard answers of deflection have worked: "Jane, how would you explain the present perfect simple to Tommy?" and "Let's go back and look at the examples and see if we/you can find some clues...". I'm a terrible grammar teacher! I signed up to do this to see what I thought, despite the fact that the pay is pretty much a joke. I feel fine teaching writing or topical courses (semester 3 of Scientific Writing also started and is going very well!), but this grammar stuff is for the birds!

In other news: well, not news really, but I think you should all know...spiders in Germany are HUGE!! I didn't want to post a scary close-up on the blog (not that I would get that close anyhow), but I think these are good enough. This is an average-sized spider. We see lots of big 'uns too. Yeah, you don't want to see a big 'un! If I posted a picture of one of those bad boys you'd faint, fall off your chair and your laptop would smash to the floor. Then I'd feel bad.

So, think of all the times you see a wolf spider in the US. Right, so that's how often we see these guys. I HATE them! They never cease to freak me out. This is why we put screens on our windows (b/c screens are sooo not standard in this country!). You literally can't smash these with a shoe, there will be too much mess, so Stefan (i know, i know) grabs two paper towels, makes a sweeping motion and then flushes the deceased. Burial at sea.

Fun fact #1: there are no poisonous spiders in Germany! They may be 10x bigger, but there's no worry that it's a black widow or brown recluse. I have to give them that.

Fun fact #2: there's only one poisonous snake in Germany and he's rare. However, you can easily spot him because he's black with white crosses/diamonds on his back. Phew again!

'Fun' fact #3: I took the spider pix leaning out of my driver's side door once I'd pulled into the garage. This how much space you get in a typical German home's garage. Thanks to the wall alongside the driveway, it doesn't get much better when I back out and then have to run up and shut the garage door. If I had a euro for every time I've wished I had an electric garage door opener, let alone a double garage, I'd be rich. And when a spider parks himself next to my car doors, he sets up a gauntlet of sorts for me to get out...ugh. Ugh again! I'm certain I made a total fool out of myself getting out of the garage today...sigh.

Be thankful for that double garage and electric opener folks!

PS - Sunday prayer!

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:44:00 +0000

I somehow forgot: Prayers for Sunday would be great. Stefan is preaching again, but this time at the big Baptist church in Giessen. This is our church's parent/sister church and lots of professors (and the president) from the Giessen seminary attend and we want to keep those humanistic people-pleaser fears and anxiety at bay. Preaching is about being a vessel for God, not about sufficiently impressing anybody!

Thanks!

Dinner at the castle

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:37:00 +0000

There are lots of castles around us, but one in particular is a favorite spot for dinners out. Burg Gleiberg was my dad's request when he came breezing through on a business trip and Frank's request last weekend when he came for a visit. We also celebrated Frank's birthday a little early and I made a pumpkin spice cake that went over really well. (recipe here)

Sadly I didn't have my camera on the proper setting, so everything's a tad washed out, but you get the idea. Opposite Burg Gleiberg is another little castle; just a small tower remains as you can see, but it's fun to think of knights and nobles back in the middle ages climbing these hills.

In fact, we did see two little knights scurrying around! They were of the shorter, younger variety, and their swords and armor were probably a lot lighter than the originals! There was also a wedding reception going on and another time we saw a Turkish music video being filmed.

All in all, it was a nice day out with the fam. Stefan has two weeks of fall vacation coming up, so we've planned on driving down to Oberbayern (Bavarian Alps) to visit Frank. We haven't been down there in a long while, so it will be good to catch some fall colors in the foothills of the Alps!

We also prepped our balcony for winter. Yay for winterhart (winter proof) balcony plants! We also planted bulbs in the boxes, too. Those will certainly be cheery come February!

Church Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:17:00 +0000

I don't think a church tour would really be necessary except for the fact that this church is still under construction...and used to be a cigar factory. I think that's noteworthy enough for a post! So here's the outside:

You can see the main entrance has yet to be completed, but that's ok, because the foyer and main sanctuary aren't finished yet either. So we use a side entrance to go to the sanctuary in the basement. The entire first floor is space used for church classrooms; the space on the far left is the room used by the mom & baby group each week (lots of non-church folks attend this, which is great) and it looks like a little preschool room. It also has a small kitchenette. The corner room on the right is the designated pastors office. (a corner office with a view, ha ha)

The floors above are currently all apartments. There are currently three apartments in the building, one large 4bdrm on the top floor, and two smaller ones on the second floor. One of the smaller apartments is really supposed to be a classroom/youth room, but was repurposed into an apartment. The bedroom in this one sports the big round stained glass window. Interesting, right?

Back when it was a cigar factory they used the large room in the basement to stack tobacco leaves. Now it's used as the sanctuary (who would've guessed, right?):

It's really a pretty large space, isn't it? I like how it has so much natural light, despite being in the basement; you don't feel like you're in the catacombs. However, the windows/doors face the main street in town, so you see at least 3 noisy tractors go lumbering by during each Sunday service. It gets about 3/4 full on an average Sunday morning. The congregation is pretty gifted, musically-speaking, so that music corner is used by nearly everybody. Of course my dad had to get a picture of Stefan standing behind the pulpit -Stefan hadn't even preached here yet!

There's no nursery, but there's a room with a large glass window (see B, below) that looks into this sanctuary in the back. There are lots of babies and toddlers in the church, so it's nice that they can be somewhere separate, yet still see the service. There's a speaker to pipe in what's going on in the sanctuary, and there's also a kitchen. This room also turns into the 'bistro' area every two weeks after the service.

Some other spaces currently in use, or available for use, are:

A) The designated pastor's office upstairs. If you went in those big doors, this would be the first room on the right. It's quite a massive space; there's room for the desk off in one nook, and then a huge open space for rows of bookshelves, a sitting area, and a kitchenette will eventually be added by the sitting area.

C) This is the hallway off the basement sanctuary. It's a hub of sorts; schedules and notices are up on the bulletin board, everybody has a mailbox to check each week, etc.

D) This room is right off the sanctuary downstairs. It's actually about double this length and is the youth room. The youth room also features a tiny kitchen in the back (yes, there are LOTS of kitchens in this building!). I think there are about 16 kids every week who come to Teenkreis (teen circle), almost all of them are from Erda and surrounding villages. The church itself doesn't have too many kids in this age bracket. I think it's great that this many non-church kids will come, and that their parents are ok with this. Next week I'll be going to a meeting to learn more about the youth program and where I might fit in.

Going upstairs, we'll see the main construction area. Every Saturday a few people will show up to work on construction. So the group of people you see below are the die hards -excluding Stefan and I! These guys, and a few others, have been working on this church for the past 10+ years. (yes, I know) Basically the building and materials are funded, but the manpower was budgeted as member work. Since people in the church are also experienced builders, that's what they decided to do, even though they knew it would take a while. At times outside help has come in for special projects, and several years ago a group of workers came over from the US for a week of speed building, but as you can see, there's still a ways to go.

Oddly enough, it's not as bad as it looks. The main problem seems to be twofold: They had a great site engineer for many years, but then he passed away suddenly. Another rose up to take his place, not as experienced, but capable, however he was struck with cancer and needed to take a long time off from the project. As the clock ticked, the building codes changed. So now another exit needs to be created somehow, a doorway raised, etc. He's back, but it's at a slower pace.

The second part of the problem is manpower. Because of the baby boom the church has experienced, it's hard for young fathers with building experience to build every week. Many of these young fathers are also doing further education with night and/or weekend school. Then there are those of us who are just plain unskilled (ahem). Stefan and I are pretty handy, Stefan moreso, but wiring, pipes, building walls, etc. are things we simply have no experience with. If there were clearer communication about little jobs to do, I think people like us would feel more enabled.

E) This is upstairs in the balcony.

F) Looking from the balcony down into the future sanctuary. There will be a baptismal in the bottom left corner, under that blue tarp. To the left, behind the wall, are several rooms. Some will be bathrooms and change rooms for those days somebody gets baptized, another will be a large parent/child room like downstairs.

G) This is downstairs, under the balcony, and just inside the sanctuary. The big open doorway behind me leads to the space that's supposed to become the main kitchen. (I know, kind of random location) It's a massive room.

H) If you were to look forward from the entrance into the sanctuary, this is what you'd see. The sanctuary expands off to the right and (you can't see it) has a wall of tall windows that go out to the main street. In the back corner is a small room, theoretically a prayer room.

So, it's pretty huge. There are so many rooms that didn't get mentioned or photographed, but this is the basic idea. When you consider the apartments upstairs and all the finished classrooms in the basement, it's pretty crazy that they've come as far as they have. We know God provides. It would be really amazing to actually see it finished, wouldn't it? I think a lot of people in the church are ready for that day to come!

The Blitz

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:42:00 +0000

A few random things:

In Germany most people get speeding tickets when a camera catches them (called getting blitzed), not when a cop pulls you over. I know it usually makes me drive slower, just because you never know, right? It's not like flying down 128 knowing the cops start showing up after the Pine St. exit to Manchester-by-the-Sea, or that they're always parked by the graveyard (telling, isn't it?) in Beverly Farms. Rather than go into the moral and spiritual obligations a speed limit should impress upon us, let's just say this: When you get caught by a cop, you feel like you should've been able to avoid it. But when you get caught by a camera, you can't really complain. They're hidden. You shouldn't be speeding. End of story.

Well, Stefan got blitzed. The day the ticket arrived in the mail - complete with a picture of him driving, in our car, with our license plate - we had a good laugh. See how much the ticket is for? Yep, TEN measley Euro! That's it! So why don't people just speed (after all, it's the land of the Autobahn)? Points. You may not rack up a bill with the government, but you will rack up points, and points will tell your car insurance to rack up ITs bill. See? You still lose.

So the day after his ticket arrived in the mail I proceeded to get blitzed myself. Right. Who's laughing now? So then I went out and did it again the next day. No joke. I was so mad! The first time I was 10 over, but the second time I was going right on the limit. We think the second one may have been the car in front of me....?

In other news: We are now members of the church in Erda. Giving my testimony auf Deutsch ended up going swimmingly. The usually stand-offish Germans actually gave us bear hugs after the meeting - I was floored!

So the following Sunday we decided to go to a different church. No, I'm kidding! Sort of. The sister church back in Giessen, where Stefan's mother is a member, was inducting their new associate pastor this past Sunday, so we decided to go. There were 3 good reasons: People from our church in Erda had been invited - we actually saw our elder there, we were curious to see how these church's induct a new guy, and the 'new guy' was actually an old roommate of Stefan's. He and Hans-Otto (yes, that's really his first name) and a few other guys had all lived in a huge apartment together for 5 years during university, so this was a happy occasion.

It was a nice ceremony and we were glad we could attend the service. I was pretty surprised at how integrated it was with the whole worship service. At one point Hans-Otto was 'quizzed' - did he know the names of all the elders, the address of the church, the name of the children's program, etc. etc. (He passed with flying colors) A letter from the mayor was read aloud, a official from the denomination was there to read an address and pray, the elders prayed and read a verse, and at the end of the service he was given a chance to respond and pray. There was also this thing with the umbrella...the church had written postcards of prayers and welcomes and had tied them to the ends of an umbrella. Here you see the senior pastor, Thorsten, in his address, explaining that the church had symbolically created this to create a shower of blessings and prayers around Hans-Otto and his family during their time of service. It was very nicely done and we were glad we'd attended.

I did receive pictures from my dad regarding his visit with us and his own trip to the church, so I'll be posting that next.

Sermon report

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:59:00 +0000

I have to dash in and give a quick report on last Sunday to quench the emails I've been getting asking how it went. This week has been insane with you-don't-want-to-know-what-all so here's the sermon report:

When we walked into the sanctuary on Sunday morning 90% of the congregants left. No joke. We knew a large portion of the congregants would have to leave early because of an annual choir event that happens once a year in the region, but they were supposed to be able to stick around long enough to at least hear the sermon. However, it turns out that the event's time was bumped half an hour earlier at the last minute (how did this affect the attendees??), so the participants representing our church had to leave before the service even started. They had shown up early to practice and to give apologies before heading off.

So that was disconcerting to say the least. Stefan preached his first sermon at the church to a group of about 12 people. I was sitting in the front row, so I didn't notice it so much until afterwards, but I think it must've been a little weird for Stefan. This one will go down in the books, that's for sure!

Tomorrow there will be a meeting after church where Stefan and I will share our testimonies. So I'm working on preparing for that now. We'll also become members then. I have to say I find the membership process pretty low key compared to that of other churches I know of, but I suppose every church is different. Even though we've been away for 3+ years I still feel so connected to Lanesville and my membership there, but yet not. Boy, I could easily write about 6 paragraphs on this, but I really need to go write out my testimony auf Deutsch so Stefan can correct it tonight! (he's away all day at a school training thing)

Church update & Prayer Requests

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:18:00 +0000

So we have continued to enjoy attending this new-for-us little church! I can't say enough how much we've enjoyed meeting the people, spending time in their homes, and just generally getting to know everybody better. It's sort of crazy, we feel like they want Stefan as their pastor 'like right now', but they've never even heard him preach! (we see some pros and cons to this, ha ha!)

That will change next week when Stefan gets his first chance to preach in this church. Please pray for his sermon prep and delivery - that his thoughts and words would be God-directed. It's really tempting to feel pressure to make it 'perfect' and agonize over a smooth delivery/good illustrations/clear take-home message/text-consistent, etc. While these things can be important, we want him/me to keep remembering this is God's deal, not ours. Stefan's just a vessel.

Stefan will start preaching once a month September through December. Ideally he'll also lead the service/order of worship one other Sunday each month. The goal is to give him a chance to be present 'up front'. This is as much for the congregation to get a trial of this idea as it is for Stefan to get a feel for how much time and energy he'll need to devote towards preparing sermons during the busy school year. The thing is, of the next four sermons he'll have before Christmas, two of them are during school vacation blocks, leaving only 2 'real' examples of preparing a sermon during/after a typical busy week of teaching school (remember, the church can only fund a part-time pastor at this point). Please pray for good time management as well as discernment!

On a separate but related note: Yesterday I was asked point-blank, "So, when are you planning on moving here?" Right. Well, that remains to be seen. There's not a simple answer. Stefan and I know we need to move down there to be more integrated and involved, that's obvious. However, there is a list of sticking-points, a few of which are: need for a second car, large increase in fuel costs with daily commutes, we just moved last year and had to buy a kitchen (sigh) - so it would have to be sold somehow to pay off it's remaining amount, and we'd have to be able to move into the right sort of space.

This last issue is even trickier because as of this month there's technically an apartment free in the church building, but it's incredibly tiny (one of the 3 rooms doesn't even have a window in it). I know we'd be miserable in there. We *think* most people would understand this, but you never know. We also think the earliest we would move down there would be sometime next summer, but that would be a best-case scenario. (We also have to consider moving stress and moving Stefan's office during the school year...) We both believe that something will work out when it's supposed to, but it would be good to pray for peace and clarity on the relocation issue!

One last thing that could use prayer is my language abilities. Please pray that my German skills would increase and that my communication would be clear. People often tell me that my German is great, but that's such a relative statement, truly! Oftentimes I feel I have to beat around 4 bushes before I can finally get to my point simply because I lack the appropriate vocabulary! There are also all these weird and unpredictable areas where I have no vocabulary - not a huge issue because people are understanding, but I don't want pity. These are perfect opportunities for me to re-learn to exercise patience and humility with myself, and to trust that God will guide people's understanding.

I could really go off on this topic, suffice to say I don't want to say anything stupid that will misrepresent who I am (or Stefan is) or what we believe. Overall, the Germans I've met since moving here are FAR more gracious with people trying to learn their language than what I've experienced in the US (shamefully, I can think of many times I've been impatient with people who don't speak English well in the US!). While this is good, I don't want it to be a crutch. We may be asked as early as next week to formally introduce ourselves/share our testimonies before the congregation -in German, of course! So you can guess what I'll be doing this week!

My dad just blitzed in for a mini-visit of 2 nights and 1 day (Saturday) on one of his business trips, so we took him down to visit the church we've been going to. He took some pictures of the place and the never-ending building project that's been going on, so I'll add some images later if he's able to email a few. I think it'd be nice to have some physical representation of where we're getting involved.

The funny thing is, as I look back on this post with all the potential red-flag issues it seems to raise (job-juggling, finances, language issues, moving, church building project), overall we feel peace about it. At times it can stress us out, but overall we're not feeling tons of pressure, so praise God and pray that continues, especially for Stefan with his full-time job. We want to be aware of the issues, but not all wrapped up in them!

Thanks dear friends!

First stop: Hamburg

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:50:00 +0000

So here we go with the vacation posts, as promised! We started our trip by heading north towards Denmark, our first Scandinavian country. We had debated on whether or not to just drive to Copenhagen in one day, but, while it's technically do-able, we decided to stop in Hamburg for our first night. I had often heard that Hamburg was a German city very much worth seeing; huge harbor, historical areas, modern architecture, etc. Stefan's mother grew up near Hamburg, and Stefan was born in Hamburg and lived there for a bit of his first few years of school.

So, after church we drove north. We spent the afternoon and early evening walking around the city. However, we kicked things off with a 'Hafenrundfahrt' (harbor tour). We spent an hour riding around Hamburg's massive harbor. It was pretty unbelievable! The first thing that was pointed out to us was an enormous yacht being built/modified in the shipyards (1-2). Owned by a Russian billionaire, it's the largest private yacht in the world, complete w/it's own submarine. (You can read about it here, it's pretty insane!) We also saw the Rickmer Rickmers (3). This boat has docked here for ages. Stefan's parents once had dinner on the boat!

We saw many other boats in the harbor and it was a great sunny day to be out. We also saw the famous new philharmonic concert hall, still under construction (4, see it's future here), one of the Aida cruise ships (5), the construction of HafenCity (6) with it's amazing modern architecture, and we cruised through the historical Speicherstadt. If you ever get the chance to visit Hamburg, do it! And definitely make time to do a Hafenrundfahrt!

We spent the evening trying to see if we could find the apartment where Stefan's family lived for a short time (only 2 years) when he was little. So much had changed after nearly 30 years, so it took some hunting, but we found it! This is where Stefan played hide-and-go-seek with his little brother in the tall hedges and learned to ride his bike on the sidewalk. It was nice to see that the property was still well-maintained.

After dinner at a local Italian restaurant we drove one town over to Allison's house. This was the first 'blog friend' we were meeting up with, and we were spending the night there! Allison and I had been emailing for a while and commenting on each other's blogs, so it was fun to finally meet up in person! While it was admittedly a little weird thinking we were going to spend the night at the home of somebody we'd never met, it ended up being great. As Allison's dad once said to her, "If the devil can use the internet for evil, than the Lord can surely use it for good". So true!

It turns out that Allison actually met her German husband online. This, in turn, ended up being fascinating for Stefan. He had never met another couple where the husband was German and the wife American. The men had some good laughs at the wives' expense I think! Really, though, it was a very nice time. Allison and her husband are also both Christians and active in their Hamburg church, so there were lots of other things to talk about as well. It's pretty amazing how faith in Christ really just brings people together, a beautiful thing, actually.

While it's absolutely pathetic that I only took one or two pictures of our sweet guest room and totally neglected taking photos of their darling baby boy, her amazing studio, and her jaw-dropping collection of finished work in her basement 'shop', not to mention our fantastic hosts, I think it's a testimony to the fact that I was too busy enjoying my time to take pictures. (and seriously Juliette, pictures of the guest room?! it was cute though, right??) Still, it's a shame. Maybe she'll agree to an interview post over on my Zuhause blog in the future... (hint hint)

Monday morning brought a drawn-out brunch that segued into afternoon farewells. Allison stuffed our little cooler with freshly baked spanakopita, cookies, chocolates, and antipasto before letting us leave. We literally ate for two days from that feast! We were so grateful! Stopping at Allison and Christoff's was a great way to kick off our trip and we hope to see them again sometime (and not just for the amazing food, ha!). Definitely a big 'yay God!' for connections like that!

We didn't have to go far before we found ourselves waiting in an eternal line at the ferry terminal. It turned out that their recommended arrival time was waaay off. We missed our reserved ferry waiting in line, but made a connection 2 boats later. With 5 more ferry rides ahead of us on our road trip, we learned the hard way about making sure we get there extra early. Thankfully there was no financial penalty on the short trip from Germany to Denmark!

Stay tuned for the next stop: Copenhagen!

Birthday, take 2...make that 32

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:07:00 +0000

We're finally starting to catch up on things around here. We came back to a rush of laundry, getting things ready for Stefan to go back to school, I had a stack of correcting to do and a session of my scientific english class to prepare for. We had doctor's appointments and family illnesses to contend with, and it was only a few days ago I managed to get in a huge grocery shopping trip that so desperately needed to be done. (Honestly, did our apartment eat while we were gone?!)

However, despite all the craziness, Stefan managed to make my birthday a lovely one! My own 'Geburtstagstisch' (birthday table) awaited me. Stefan was pretty sneaky during our trip and apparently aquired quite a stash of 'free' tea bags along the way, courtesy of the various hotels and ferries. I had discovered I really liked the Lipton Black Currant tea we kept seeing around Scandinavia, so now I have my own supply...and no, it's not available at any of the Marburg grocery stores!

There was also a great package from my family. I now have enough grosgrain ribbon to last a lifetime! My sister and brother-in-law also sent a really nice web cam; we're super excited about this because now we can finally use Skype (are we the last people to sign up for this?!?). We have a great internet phone, but since my little niece is getting a little older (and a sibling is on the way), we're happy to get to interact with her a little more. Maybe she'll even recognize us next time we visit!

But to get back to Stefan's sneaky behavior: The glass in the pictures is from a Finnish company, Iittala. When we were visiting our friends, John and Karoliina, in Finland (pictures will come, promise!) we all went to Karoliina's mom's one afternoon for their version of 'Kaffee und Kuchen' (coffee and cake). Her mom had a lovely pitcher that I really admired. Stefan and I later saw this when we were exploring an Iittala shop, however, we decided we couldn't really justify the expense. Apparently he decided my birthday was worth the expense, so he snuck off one day, made his purchases and stashed them away.

Scandinavian design is pretty amazing in general, but this is a pretty cool gift for several reasons: First, it has some happy associations connected: our trip to Finland and time with our friends. I also really like the design; it reminds me of rain and wood and ice. So it's no surprise that the Ultima Thule line was first produced by molten glass reacting against wooden molds. Also, the name, ultima Thule, means 'a distant or unknown region, and the northernmost part of the habitable world as thought of by ancient geographers'. So wood, water, glass, design, fellowship, and a road trip...definitely a great gift idea Stefan!

After Stefan was back from school we went down to Giessen to visit his mother. She had another Geburtstagstisch set up for me, complete with a lovely new tea set and Kalte Hund (literally, cold dog). Kalte Hund is a kind of 'cake' which is mainly just melted chocolate poured over stacks of cookies. It's so rich you can really only have one slice in a day! Needless to say, it's lasted a long time! (check out this hilarious video if you'd like to learn how to make your own Kalte Hund) We also had a lovely fruit torte with some of the best tasting peaches I've had in a long time!

ok, off to make lunch, then tutor two neighborhood kids in English, and then back to posts about our trip!! Finally!!

Back in time for a birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:16:00 +0000

We're baaaack! Summer has flown this year due to a huge rush of work-related things for me at the beginning of Stefan's 6 weeks of school vacation, but then we took off on our Great Scandinavian Road Trip for a few weeks.

I'll be posting more about it over time, but we definitely had a blast! I printed out a few pictures as part of Stefan's birthday present and we'll be hanging them on the wall in the living room later this week.

After our birthday morning at home, followed by a nice time at the church in Erda, we enjoyed a traditional birthday afternoon at his mom's house. She had made a traditional birthday cake (the small chocolate covered one with the taper stuck in the middle) as well as his favorite Apfelweinkuchen. He also received some lavender and a sunflower to brighten up our balcony. Now we're looking at enjoying this last week of summer vacation before he has to head back to work next Monday!

On the road: summer starts

noreply@blogger.com (Juliette) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:29:00 +0000

Summer has really started around here! After the crazy rush of the past 2 months, there's a lot of news to report. Attending church in the countryside has been really great. The people couldn't be more warm or friendly. On our first Sunday visit we had 2, nearly 3, invitations to lunch! We were able to take up an offer with one couple who had been in the church for over 10 years, so it was nice to hear some history and get to know people individually.

(our balcony fruits)

It's definitely a long haul out there with the shortest route still taking us 35 minutes. I've been away the last 2 Sundays (see below), and Stefan was only able to attend one of those weeks, however, the service was held at a sister church an hour away, so it was even more driving! He said the cookout afterward provided time to really get to know some of the people from the church we'd been trying out. So that was good news. We're wondering how this distance thing is going to play out, but we're going to hang in there and keep driving for now.

Our second Sunday we took two guests with us. Sarah-Christine and her brother (and Stefan's godson), Ruven. Sarah is graduating from Gymnasium this year and Ruven will be starting 9th grade in the fall. We had invited them to come up to Marburg for a 4 day weekend and they were excited to visit. We really did have a blast having 2 teenagers visit! Teenagers are such easy guests; they sleep late and actually prefer to eat cheap food, ha!

We had a great time taking them shopping (Marburg is much bigger than their town), going out for coffees, walking all over town, biking, watching movies, etc. We felt so old when they were teaching us how to use the Bluetooth feature on our phones to 'beam' each other music clips! They're really great kids who gave the church a thumbs up (the church they'd been part of had to close and they're now just part of the state church) and really liked the people there as well. Sarah is quite the talker, so there was always something going on. We're hoping to get Ruven over to Gloucester for a month this fall, but are still trying to wrassle the German/American school boards into agreement. He's dying to go and we'd love to get him to Lanesville (he's already looked it up on Google maps a million times at home he says!), so prayers for this would be awesome!

The day after they left I did about 5 loads of laundry to clean the house and prepare our closets. Stefan had to pack for a week long trip to Rome and I was going to to the US. Stefan's tenth grade class is graduating (Realschule stops at grade 10, Gymnasium goes to grade 13) and their year-end trip was to Rome. A grand total of 52 students (3 classes) and only 4 adults took a 20+ hour bus ride down to Rome. While one student had to be sent home, the rest of the week went fairly smoothly. He was exhausted when he got back, but had to get up early the next morning to pick me up at the Frankfurt airport.

I flew to Indianapolis to visit with my family for 12 days. After a few days in Indy we spent 2 days driving down to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. We stopped in Seagrove, NC on the way, which was fantastic! I'll be covering the Seagrove pottery over on Zuhause later this week, so check back.

It was really great to see my family so soon after our last visit! My whole trip to the US was pretty last-minute, and it was really too bad that Stefan wasn't able to go, but it was fun to play with my little niece again =) It was really sweet watching her experience the ocean waves and the sand. She has the sweetest little smile (and a killer scowl) so of course the camera was snapping away! It was also nice to just hang on the beach, read books in English, and eat some good 'ole Southern food! There was fresh Calabash shrimp or eastern Carolina BBQ every day, both of which are my favorites =) But WOW was it hot! 97 degrees every day with a heat index pushing it to 105F (that's 40.5C!) and 84% humidity!

On my way back to Germany I had a 9hr layover in Washington, D.C. where I was able to use some of that time to visit with some old friends. Mike and Bethany went to college with me and their oldest, Ian, is my godson. It was the first time Ian met me where he could actually remember the event, so that was fun! He's fast, as you can see, and recently a big brother. I hadn't seen them since 2007, so it was truly a special treat to get to visit with them - and have a girl's lunch out with Bethany in downtown Bethesda.

Now that Stefan and I are both back in Marburg we're back to being busy again. Stefan will finish the school year next week, so the remaining time will be spent writing a commencement speech for his graduating class, handwriting diplomas and report cards, lots and lots of school meetings, farewell dinners, and the graduating class' dance. This year's dance theme is "Tropical Night", so I'm sure that will be interesting.

I have another editing project to work on before getting ready for another session of my Scientific English class. Students have been dropping out this time (as opposed to last time's group not doing their homework), so the course is in jeopardy again. It's pretty frustrating for me. I know these students each have solid reasons for needing to drop the class, but how it's organized as a whole is pretty sloppy and calendar-wise seems set up for failure. I've already been asked to help teach it again in the fall, but I really think some changes need to be made to make the class more sustainable. This will require some diplomatic maneuvering.

In other English news, I've been offered a teaching job at the university's Sprachenzentrum (Modern Language Institute). They heard I'd been teaching up at the Graduate Center and asked me to come in to talk about working with their department. They are aware that I have no formal training in teaching ESL, but say they have lots of internal support with staff meetings, training seminars, curriculum support, etc. They are confident that with the quality of editing work that I'm already doing, combined with the past academic year of experience at the Graduate Center, I will do fine. While the class would only meet once a week for three hours (starting in the fall), it would be great for a number of reasons: I get paid to get trained, I gain exposure as a freelance editor, it adds to my resume/list of references, and I'll get to work with people some more, which freelancing from home doesn't really facilitate. (not that I mind, but I DO need to get out a little more =)

We still have a lot going on right up until we leave for our summer vacation in Scandinavia, so hopefully things can settle down before then. We're both pretty worn out!