Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes, it's really hilarious what we hear from the mouths of students on campus. This past Tues., Stu and I were doing surveys on the TU. One girl we talked to, Anne, was very closed to anything really having to do with spirituality, saying that she doesn't believe Jesus ever lived and that she can't even imagine what it would be like for God to exist. She said it's just not possible for her. The very next student we talked to in the very same building, Christoph, was from the Czech Republic and new to Berlin. When asked about his desire to know God personally, he said "of course, everyone wants to know God!". How ironic we would talk to these two very different students back to back. If only they could have heard each other's thoughts and see how contradictory they were!

Yesterday, of course, was Thanksgiving. We celebrated as a team and enjoyed each other's food and company. I made an apple pie (see pic), which was really fun to make, but actually a bit disappointing for me, because what I really wanted to do was make a pecan pie. But I searched far and wide, and this country does not have corn syrup. It just doesn't. It's also funny to have off on a day when the rest of the world is going on and going to work/class just like normal. I really feel my "American-ness" on such a day!

Parties and Summits

This past week was our encouragement week, when our bosses from the states come to us in Berlin and check in on us, see how we're doing and encourage us. It's good to get an outsider's perspective on how we're doing as a team and as a ministry.

I went to my language partner's birthday party on Friday and discovered quite a few things about her and about German parties in general. First of all, I didn't feel nearly cool enough to be there. It was her 21st, which of course isn't as big a deal in Europe as it is in the states, yet there were tons of people crammed into her apartment and all of them were, well, just cool. German parties also tend to start real late and therefore go into the early hours of the morning and for a while I was concerned about looking like the lame American Christian if I was the first to leave, but thankfully I had enough endurance to not be the first to leave, meaning I was out the door at 1:30 am - still was one of the first to go. But it was really fun and very enlightening to the world these students live in. So often all we see is their life on campus, but this kind of thing sheds light on things that they enjoy and look forward to. It's a much more real picture than the one you see in the mensa.

On Sat. I had a really opportunity to sit in on a Berlin Summit meeting, which is when a lot of the most important Campus staff in Germany and Europe hang out and talk about the vision and needs of Berlin. Sweet. These people are so smart, experienced and encouraging that it just makes me really excited to be here in Berlin being a part of something so much bigger than myself. Not to mention they are just really great people.