more crazy stories about living in an apartment in Berlin

Back in September, Katie and I were offered a free mini-fridge (you know, with the tiny brick-sized freezer in the top corner). In order to save money and avoid the hassle of finding our own refrigerator, we took it. We soon discovered that there was something majorly wrong with the temperature inside the tiny freezer as frost built up over the entire thing. Well, Katie and I were already learning how to get on without using a freezer so it didn't seem like a big deal. That is, until the frost starting building beyond the freezer walls and making it so the door wouldn't close. Problem. Since then, Katie has been going at it once and while with a knife to break it up. This results in an icy, snowcone-like mess across the fridge and floor. We had kept talking about just defrosting it and starting from scratch and finally today, we decided to just do it. In order to keep all the food we had in it still cold, we put it all in a small cloth bag and right now, it is literally sitting outside on our tiny windowsill in cold winter air with the window closed on the handles to keep the food from falling three floors to its death on the courtyard ground.

In similar news, my bedroom heater is still shutting off on me randomly. I especially feel bad when it happens in the middle of the night and I have no choice but to wake Katie up with the sound of the hammer smacking against the metal pipes. But it does make for a continuous hilarious story for the both of us...

"You haven't converted me yet..."

... Tim said cheerfully as Stu and I chatted with him over lunch in the mensa (campus cafeteria). After striking up a conversation with him, we proceeded to talk about life, religion, Christianity and truth. Tim told us he grew up atheist, but is curious about Christianity and often thinks about the bigger questions of life's purpose and the existence of God. After sharing with him the gospel and what we're doing here in Berlin, he told us about his experience with friends who are Christians and his times at church and that he's listened to what they have to say, but in his own words: "you haven't converted me yet...". These kinds of conversations are actually very encouraging to me, because they show that God is really working and placing a hunger for truth and understanding in the hearts of students. :)

Mid-year

The last week in January, we had our STINT mid-year conference in Nerja, Spain. It's such a great time to relax, be encouraged and refocus our hearts on minds on the real purpose of why we do what we do. Last year on our day "off", I went to Gibraltar, so this year I went to the Alhambra in Grenada. The picture above is of Jennie and me by one of the many intricate parts to this amazing palace. Unfortunately our tour guide, though very knowledgeable, wasn't very good. He was very quiet, seemed flustered and confused and his cell phone kept going off. And he kept apologizing for it being winter right now and telling us that we should come back in the summer. Anyway, the actual grounds of this city/palace were awesome (even in the winter!). The thing that was most striking to me was the smell, which seems strange, but it was so fresh, sweet and piney. I don't know how to best describe it, but it was very distinct. No wonder the richest and most powerful lived there! It was also interesting how, as the palace went from being controlled by Muslims to Christians, the architecture was changed or added on to in a very different way. I also learned that the word "grenadine" actually comes from Grenada's pomegranates of the gardens of the Alhambra. Who knew?

It's exam time right now for Berlin students. As you walk on campus, you can just feel the stress in the air. The semester ends next week and we'll soon be evaluating and planning for the next semester. Please pray that we'll be able to evaluate and plan well and really seek after what God wants for this city.