Thanksgiving Party

So the Thanksgiving Party yesterday was just so fabulous that I had to let you all know right away. Including the STINT team, there was about 50 people there! That's about 35 students! And it was really a blast. I think the German students really enjoyed it - even the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, which they thought was so bizarre. But many of them brought store-bought or homemade German desserts so it was a wonderful blend of German and American food. And it was just really awesome to have the friends I have made so far meet each other and also meet other students from other universities. It was really special and definitely evidence that God is doing a lot this year in Berlin. But I know I'm not just speaking for myself when I say that we're all running on very little sleep and are physically and relationally exhausted from the party (think of 7 solid hours of conversing and being social - enough to make the biggest extrovert tired). Not to mention all the setting up, cooking and cleaning up that it took to accomplish the party. So please pray just for some good rest for us this week. Also, our second Fire-Abend is on Thursday - please pray it will be just as successful (if not more) as last month's. Danke sehr!

Happy Thanksgiving

While the rest of Berlin carried on with their lives, us American celebrated a very traditional American Thanksgiving. Luckily we had some visitors bring us very American necessities, like cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin, corn syrup, cream of mushroom soup and other things from an American military base here in Germany. So we cooked up a storm yesterday morning and then carried our wrapped dishes on the U-bahn (quite the sight to see) to go eat at the Sfura's. We ate and ate and ate, played with the kids, watched movies - it was nice.

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving party for students. We're expecting a lot of people - around 40 to 50 including us, which is super exciting. And once again, there will be much cooking (and eating) happening. :)

First Snowfall

It's funny how the snow today made me feel more at home here. I guess four years of Syracuse weather will do that to you. But it does really bother me that it is currently 4:25 pm and it's pitch black outside...

Getting Cultural

So, it's been a pretty busy month so far. Our first Fire-Abend was really awesome - 15 students came! We definitely have high hopes for the next one. We had Cultural Training in the beginning of this week, which was certainly a learning experience for all of us. We talked about the difference in American values vs. German values and the differences in how we converse. It certainly stirred up a lot in us, but I think we can take what we learned and really use it practically as we develop relationships with the German students. We also had our second Kurz Film and Keks this past Thurs. We had 8 students show up and the topic was 'exclusivity'. The cool thing about these discussion times is that students will hang out and talk with us after the event is over and stay pretty late.

I'm starting to develope some good friendships with a few TU girls, which is really exciting. As a TU team, we're trying to decide if we could start a TU Bible study or some sort of 'Christianity Explored' sort of gathering. Please pray that we'll have wisdom to figure out the best thing to do and also that we'll meet more interested students and also continue to grow the friendships that have already started.

S-Club

Our first life topics discussion (aka Kurz Film & Keks) was last Thursday and was definitely a success. We had 7 students come out and had a really good discussion about "justice". I was able to meet up with a girl from the TU who came to K&K which was really cool. I have really loved being able to meet up with interested students one-on-one. I've had a few opportunities to really share with a few girls, which is just awesome.

On a random note, I met 4 people from PA on Sunday. I met the pastor of the church I'm going to start going to (Berlin International Church) and he's from York, PA. In fact, the mother church that planted BIC is in York. Then a girl sitting in front of me was also from York. And that day, the mother church's pastor and his wife were visiting so I met them also. Pretty cool.

Slightly funny cultural experience moment: Emily, Bryce and I went to a military music festival, which was pretty awesome, because it's about as close to marching bands Europe gets. So we get there and after only a moment's hesitation end up buying scalped tickets. Ha! And then on the way in, they were checking our bags. So the woman checking my bag pulls out my Bath & Body Works hand sanitizer and asks "Was ist das?" in absolute bewilderment. I swallowed down a laugh as I quickly racked my brain for what "sanitizer" could possibly be in German and only ended up saying "Hand?" It was pretty priceless.

This this week is our first "Fire-Abend", which right now is our monthly meeting which has a similar goal of Cru's weekly meetings back in the states. Please pray lots of students will come! Thanks!