3 Months!

I sat in church on Sunday morning and realized that it was the first of November which means I have been here for 3 months! Unbelievable. In some ways I feel as if I have been here forever but in most ways it feels like I just flew in yesterday. Whether I like it or not, the fact is time is flying by. The semester is more than half over and the girls are beginning their countdown to Christmas break.

There are a few important events to note in the past few weeks. We had out second outbreak of lice and this time...they got me! I can know tell the girls that I understand their pain and annoyance at these little guys that just love our dorm. Thankfully there weren't as many girls with it this time. Unfortunately we found them the day of Herbst Messe, an annual fall party in Basel, Switzerland. This festival has been going on for 500 some years and it's a tradition for BFA to go one Thursday night at the end of October. Because of our little friends, however, 5 of us ended up quarantined and couldn't go. Instead, some of us went the next night after one chemical and two vinegar washes. This is a picture of the ferris wheel set up in the church square.

And this is Hannah and I on the bumper cars, another BFA tradition. This was our first experience on the bumper cars but I think we are both big fans of them.

And here is Hannah Jo and Ashley. They are old pros at the bumper cars.

After the bumper cars we did one more ride and then hit up Starbucks. This made me feel more like I was back in Chicago than in a foreign country. And to finish off the night we got some roasted chestnuts, a must if you ever end up in Basel for Herbst Messe. So, while we were a day late for the festivities we made the most of it and had a great time with just the four of us. Even though it's blurry, here is a picture of the four of us on the Rhine.

It was a beautiful night and the city was alive with activity, the atmosphere was incredible and I enjoyed just drinking in all the culture around me. One thing I know for sure, Europeans know how to throw a party.

Even with our little epidemic, things are still good here. I am learning to much about what it means to live in community. I'm seeing what it means to live sacrificially in order to love others better. This isn't a sacrifice that leaves me drained and useless but one that energizes me. When I see those that I live with growing and learning and thriving, I have all the more motivation to give what I have. Sometimes it's hard, and I get frustrated at times but I'm learning life lessons that I wouldn't trade for an "easier" job. I am continually amazed at God's goodness to faithfully bring me to a place feeds my soul and stretches me to trust Him more and more.

A few things to pray about...

- After going through a lot of paperwork and working with my mission I found that I'm still 8% short of what I need for two years. While this doesn't mean I have to come home now it does put a strain on my longer term finances. I'm only a little over $100 short a month of my goal which is incredible but I do need to reach 100%.

- Continued growth in my relationships here with my girls. Also the the opportunities to go deeper with them.

- Energy. November is a daunting month in the dorms. The staff is getting tired and the girls are stressed. Pray that we will find ways to break up the monotony and enjoy this season.

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. It's so good to hear from you and know that you are praying for me! And as a parting picture, here is a picture of took on a walk the other day. The leaves are beginning to fall so we are enjoying our last bit of color for the year.

Peace.

Still Here!

Wow, it has been awhile and so much has happened since my last post. I'll do my best to do a summary of the past few weeks.

The junior class went on a weekend field trip to the beaches of Normandy and stopped by Paris on the way back. The seniors went on a week long field trip to Rome. (I know, I thought I trip to the Toledo Museum of Art was a big deal in high school.) All the girls came back raving about how much fun they had and were full of stories. It's really amazing that they have this opportunity to see things they learn in history first hand.

Since the trips things have settled back in to place. We once again found a rhythm to life. I got to take a weekend off two weeks ago and it was incredible. I was able to travel to Adelboden, Switzerland with some friends and stay at a chalet that belongs to my missions organization. This was the view out my bedroom in the morning. Unbelievable.

Driving here is the same distance as driving to Columbus, Ohio from Bluffton. On the way home we also drove through Reichenbach, Switzerland! I was so excited I took a picture. This is for all the Reichenbach's in my life. Sorry it's a little blurry, we were driving fast.

That was the calm, then came this storm. This weekend we had some visitors in the dorm. They are very small and make your head itch. You got it, lice. I have to say, for as much work as it was, it was still a very fun extended weekend. We did at least 50 loads of laundry and washed 10 heads of hair 3 times each The girls even got got to stay home from school on Monday. The girls were great sports through everything and helped out wherever they could. And now, I have something new to add to my resume.

I am continuing to have dreams about lice, even though all my bedding and clothes have been washed and I have had my head checked by Susie at least 10 times. Because most of the girls stayed home on Monday my day off was pushed to Tuesday. Monday night when I got to my room exhausted and ready to collapse I found this and was reminded why I love my job. My girls make all the hard work worth it. I'll pick out their lice out any time.

For my day off I went to a castle outside of Lorrach with some friends for a picnic. It was a beautiful fall day and a nice walk. Here is part of the castle.

And here is a bench we found on our walk to the castle. It was in a grove of trees that were all changing colors. So picturesque.

Things are continuing to go well here. I am beginning to feel an ache inside me for home but that's okay. I do know that I am still exactly where I am supposed to be and that is a comfort. I also have sweet people in my life who send my packages and love letters. I am blessed. I will be staying here for Christmas and though it was a hard decision to make I know that it was a wise one. I'll get to experience my first German Christmas and I hear they are wonderful. Thank you for all your support and prayers. I am putting together an email update list so if you would like to receive updates via email just let me know and I will add you. And just for fun, a parting picture. Meet my new friend, the Swiss curly haired cow. I almost brought her home with me.

Peace.

Pumpkins, Birthdays, and Butterflies

The last two weeks have been busy and wonderful. We have had several days of sunshine which everyone is feeling the need to soak up before winter weather is upon us. It is definitely fall now and the leaves are beginning to change. Last weekend Soyoung (my fellow Blauen RA) and I took the girls to a pumpkin festival in Witt. The festival was small and quaint but enjoyable. This is a picture of Soyoung and I with a pumpkin cow. There was also a pumpkin circus and pumpkin people on pumpkin swings. See a theme here? All the roommates picked out a pumpkin to be carved at a later date.

Now I would like to introduce you to a Blauen tradition. Each girl gets to have a birthday celebration on a Sunday, usually the Sunday closest to their birthday. The birthday girl picks a meal and dessert and we make it for them. There is LOUD singing/yelling and then the birthday girl gets "bucketed". In other words, she gets doused by buckets of warm water prepared before hand while everyone sings High School Musical's "Breaking Free". Naturally, the birthday girl can't go along with this too easily so often we end up with a chase down the street and then carry said birthday girl back to the house. The draw back to running away, however, is that the creek is on the way back to the house and it's easier just to dunk them in the creek instead. This weekend it was Anna's birthday and she put up a good fight but, as always, ended up in the creek. Here is a picture of the girls carrying here to the creek.

Here is a random picture I thought I would include because it makes me really happy. On Saturday I walked into my room, where I always have my windows open, and there on my window sits a butterfly. I took the opportunity to practice my photography skills (which I don't really have) and take some shots of it. This is one of my favorites. It reminds me of one of my dear friends from home who not only love butterflies and what they represent to us, but also love blue glass. E, this one is for you.

And here is another view of my valley. This is a view of Marzel from the top of Hoch Blauen, the big hill/mountain right behind my dorm. When this picture is bigger you can actually see the back of my dorm and my room. I hiked up to Hoch Blauen on my day off yesterday and took this.

For those of you who have been asking about a picture of my dorm I thought I would give you a link to see a video of it instead. One of the RA's from across the street took this time-lapse out the front window of their dorm. My dorm is right across the street, the white house with the blue shutters. Nothing too exciting happens but you can see the students leave for school, come home from school, one of the guys get creeked for his birthday, and then everyone leave for a worship night at school. When you see the black van drive up in front of Blauen and then turn around in Sonne's parking area that is me. Here is the link to check it out on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiqrKljHFPw

That's all for now. Thanks for all the support and interest in my life here. I am so blessed to have

the support of all of you!

Peace.

Schlaf im Stroh

Today is the final day of my first weekend off. When I found out that I would have a weekend off this soon, I wasn't sure what I would do with myself. Fortunately, I found some other RA's who had the same weekend off and we made plans. Little did I know what I was getting myself in to.

We decided to go visit Berner Oberland, a valley in the Swiss alps that's a 2 hour drive from school. Although the weather was overcast most of the 2 days we were there, it was still absolutely beautiful. Below is a picture from a waterfall we hiked to by the lake we stayed on.


And this is a picture out the front "door" of where we stayed. We were in the little fishing village of Iseltwald right on the lake.


Now one might be thinking to oneself, how could this possibly be affordable? Such a beautiful place, right on the lake, in the middle of the Alps. Well, in order to travel without spending much money we decided to "schlaf in stroh" or in English, sleep in straw. It's common in this area for farmers to rent out the stalls in their barns to tourists in the summer months, while the cows are grazing in higher pastures. One of the girls I travled with found Heidi and Christian, two friendly Swiss farmers who don't speak any English, and we stayed in their barn. I stayed in Elena's stall for the night as seen below.


This is a picture of the inside of the barn and our beds for the night. Though it was fairly clean it still smelled like manure, not quite like waking up to the smells of breakfast in the morning.


And here is our barn. The joke of the weekend, "Were you raised in a barn? No, but I slept in one!" Hilarious, I know.


All in all it was a great time. Heidi made us a wonderful and very Swiss/German breakfast the next morning and minus having "barn breath" in the morning, we all had a great time.

As I write this I am still in disbelief that this is my life. I took a walk on Friday in my hills and valley in Marzel, and was just blown away at how well God knows my needs and how He meets them. When I think about where I was last year, at Moody studying, I am so thankful to be where I am. I loved Moody and miss my friends more than I can say, but being here is so good for my soul. The beauty that surrounds me is healing and just what I need after four years of school. I am convinced that though it is hard to have faith in where God is leading, it is the best place to be.

If you couldn't tell, I am doing well here. I am also enjoying my "job". I'm almost positive it is the best job there is. My girls are absolutely wonderful and I am enjoying serving them in every way I can.

A few things to pray about....
-Adjustment both for me and the girls. We're all kind of coming out of the "honeymoon" period and really settling into life.
-Building relationships both with everyone in my dorm and other staff in the BFA community.

Thanks for all your support and prayer. Peace.

So Faithful

So much has happened since my last post and I hardly know where to start. Last night one of the counselors from the school came up to our dorm fellowship (a time where our dorm does something fun together which often includes visitors or food or games). Mari Ellen asked the girls to put together a picture of what their life looks like for them right now. After considering this question for awhile I decided that my life is like a hike in the area around where I live. Sometimes I working hard to climb a steep hill and other times I'm enjoying a flat area with a great view. Every so often I come to a place where I look out and know unmistakably that God is faithful.

For those of you who don't already know, my Papa (my dad's dad) passed away August 28th. While not completely unexpected, I didn't think this would happen so soon after I moved here. I wasn't sure if I should go back for the funeral and went back and forth in my mind. In the end I decided to make the trip and was completely supported by the dorm staff here. When I made the decision I wasn't sure if this would negatively affect my relationships with the girl since they had just arrived. Not only that but I absolutely did not have the money to by a last minute plane ticket. What I did know is that God is always faithful and this is direction I felt He was taking me in.

Now on the other side I can again say, He is faithful. Through unexpected sources my ticket was completely paid for. My girls where more than understanding about everything and I feel like I never even left. Jet lag was almost non-existent when I got back.

My time in Texas was a sweet time. It was exhausting and at times heart-breaking but it was good. The whole family was able to be together and mourn together. We were also able to see my grandparents community reach out and care for us in our time of need. My papa had a clear testimony and I have no doubt that I will see him again. I think the picture below is a testament to my papa. He was always making us laugh and keeping us on our toes. You wouldn't think that the this picture was taken at a funeral and I think that is exactly how Papa would have wanted it.

On a completely different note, I went to my first rugby game on Saturday. The 3 guys dorms gathered to play each other and the 4 girls dorms followed to cheer on the guys. My dorm is across the street from Sonne, a guys dorm, so we became their cheerleaders. The girls painted their faces and made signs and cheered so hard they lost their voices. It was a beautiful day and a great time altogether. This is Anna (on the right), a senior in my dorm with Jordan (on the left), the sister of one of the guys from Sonne.

And this is the poster the girls made for the guys to run through.


That's about all that is new here for now. Today is my day off so I'm going to go for a hike and enjoy the sun while it is shining. Thank you for all your prayers and hopefully my next post won't be so long coming.

Peace.

Sheep!

Yesterday while I was cleaning the girls rooms in my new dorm, I looked out a window and what did I see? Why, a street filled with sheep of course. After standing in awe for a second I yelled to the other RA in my dorm to look out the window and then got my camera. These were taken from the upstairs window of my dorm.


You can see the farmers before and behind them and their sheep dogs. The woman at the back was carrying a little lamb which was adorable.

And there they go. It was picturesque and surreal, one of those moments where I catch myself thinking, yes, I'm really in a foreign country.

I've had many of those moments lately. On Sunday I went out to a local Chinese restaurant with some friends here for lunch. At one point I was just struck by how unreal it all seemed. The little street we were eating outside by. The window planters. The people from the town speaking a language I can't understand a word of. In these moments I'm reminded of how faithful God has been. What seems like it can't be real to me is a reality. God has taken me beyond where I ever really pictured myself being and made it a reality. This amazes me.

The final picture I'm posting was taken on a walk on Sunday. This is about 2 minutes from my dorm, up a very steep hill. My dorm is just to the right of all the buildings in the valley but this is my valley.


I'll be spending the next two years living in Marzell, Germany in a dorm called Blauen. Follow this link to see a picture of the dorm on the BFA website. By Monday night all 13 girls will be moved into the dorm and school will start on Wednesday. I am so excited for the girls to get here!

Just a few quick prayer requests:
- Safety as all the boarding students will be traveling on Sunday and Monday
- Health for the students as they're traveling. There is still a lot of talk about the H1N1 virus (swine flu) here and it could have huge affects on the dorm if a case shows up.
- We are still missing a set up dorm parents. Sonne, a boys dorm across the street from mine, is waiting for the dorm parents to have enough support to travel over here. It's a huge stress not to have this pivitol part of the dorm not in place.
- Continued personal adjustment. The other day I told someone that I didn't understand why was so tired. She told me I was going through a major life adjustment and it's okay. I know these next few weeks are going to be full of ups and downs as I continue to adjust and get used to a new life. Pray that it will be smooth.

I have arrived!

So, I'm here! After 24 hours of travel and very little sleep I arrived in Germany safe and sound on Saturday afternoon. That, however, seems like a lifetime ago. Since then I have been immersed in busyness. I have German classes in the morning, driving lessons all afternoon, then some kind of evening activity. I'm learning not only how to drive stick but also directions to the major places I will be driving kids. Today I had my first drive on the autobahn which was really exciting for me. Because of all this activity, however, I won't have a whole lot of time to update in the next two weeks. Tomorrow I should find out what dorm I will be in which is exciting but I would appreciate prayer that the leadership would have wisdom in this decision. Next week I will move into my new dorm, finish up orientation, and get ready for the kids to arrive. I can't wait! That's all I have time for for now. It's going on midnight and I have class in the morning. Thank you for your prayers!