Praises

Michele's arrived! We are so thankful that our teammate from Brazil is finally here in Berlin with us. Please continue to pray, though, as we still need to figure out how to get her a visa while she is here in country (probably a student visa). And pray for her adjustment to Germany and to us (as a crazy group of Americans, haha).

Also, praise God for a good week of going sharing on campus. I feel like I had several really good conversations this week, being able to share the full gospel several times with students who really wanted to listen. I am so thankful for the ways I see God working here!

Christmas and Silvester Freizeit

Christmas is so lovely in Germany. I can't imagine a better place to be for it. After a candlelight service at my church on Christmas Eve, we gathered at the Kent's place in south Berlin for some Christmas dinner and gift exchange. On Christmas day, we as STINTers spent the day at my apartment with dinner and games. We also took a quick trip to the hospital to visit a German friend of ours who broke his arm falling on ice a couple days before. He needed surgery and they kept him in the hospital over Christmas (so sad) so we totally needed to bring him so leftover Christmas dinner and cookies. :)

We just returned from our student conference out in the Erzgebirge of Saxony towards the Czech Republic border in a tiny town called Pockau. This was one of my favorite things we did last year and this year could very well be the same. It's such a great experience to see German students break away from their lives as students and really focus on their relationship with God. The theme this year was "Original" and they had talks and seminars on our identity in Christ. The students are so great and so fun. It was especially great to do worship songs right into the midnight on New Year's Eve. Max, one of the German Campus staff in Leipzig, challenged the students to really follow after God, take a step of faith and do whatever it is He is calling them to do. So special. We then had a hike with torches through the forest right up into a little dilapidated castle! These are the moments when I'm like "this is my life?!". So cool.

The picture on top is of me making salad during the Silvester conference and on the bottom is the STINT team in Dresden.