Your mission, if you choose to accept it

After you read this blog post, it will self-destruct.

Well, not really, but I have been notoriously bad at posting of late. By the time I find a moment to write everything is old news anyways. To spare you of that, I'll give the 4 sentence summary and fill in the blanks later. This actually will result in the deletion of this post :)

This past weekend I went to Angola, Indiana for a retreat with the college group at my church. The time was packed with great teachings from God's word, kayaking, and new friends. Since coming back I have been spending most of my free moments registering voters. If you happen to pass by me on Grand River with my clipboard in hand, say hello.

Blessed Be the Name. . .

So, it has been a rough couple of weeks in many respects. My internet went down, my phone was lost, my glasses broke, my garden is under more than a foot of water, I had a really bad test day, I need more money to have any chance of going to the nursing program that I like, I led a bible study that I was not happy with, and scheduling people to run the new church venue has been a real headache.

Despite all of this, I have felt surprisingly content. I am still in awe at the wonderful aspects of life in East Lansing (lots of healthy food, old friends, a wonderful apartment and roommate. . . ) and I have felt a strong sense that there is nothing that I am under compulsion to do at the moment. Of course my schedule is ueberfull, but I truly feel the freedom to just let things go right now. Whether this is healthy or not remains to be seen.

The Politics and Pride of Blindness

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." - Leo Tolstoy

gains and losses

This past Friday my friend Anita was kind enough to cut my hair for me. All 15 inches of it will eventually be bundled up and sent to Locks of Love. I think that this is about the 5th time that I will have sent my hair in. It would be cool to see one of the wigs made out of it some day.

Many of the plants in my garden, however, have gained well over 15 inches in growth since I planted them upon my return to the States. I currently have tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, zucchini, green beans, squash, pumpkin, onions, cabbage, lettuce, sweet and hot peppers, collard greens, cauliflower, and melons in my garden. They are even hosting a free workshop on how to do canning in a couple of weeks. Although I read a book on the subject, I am looking forward to being able to ask some questions at the workshop. I love the Garden Project!

In other gains, I helped my parents with a garage sale this past weekend and we were able to sell quite a bit despite a very rainy Saturday. The proceeds should help me to pay a bit of my tuition at LCC this fall.

Dog Days

This weekend I am taking a break from the job search and watching dogs for THREE families. From Friday to Sunday I am making a more-or-less continual circuit between the Cambern, Van Nada, and Barrett homes while looking after a total of 5 dogs. Since I love animals so much this is more a relaxing pleasure than work.

There was a bit of excitement this morning, however. I decided that each of the Cambern dogs would enjoy a bit of one-on-one time so I started by taking their Australian Shepherd out for a walk. A half hour later I returned and began to leave with their miniature Schnauzer. The other dogs, disappointed at being left behind, began to bark. Before we reached the end of the block I heard a sudden silence. Pleased that the dogs had calmed down so quickly, I went to turn the corner. Just as I did, the other 2 dogs ran up!

Somehow they had managed to get out of their fenced-in yard. Thinking that I must not have shut the gate firmly enough, I corralled the dogs back in their enclosure and, double checking the latch and placing a wooden block in front of the gate, I headed back out with Ike (the Schnauzer). Minutes later they were there again! Apparently they have somehow figured out how to open the gate. Now I am tying the gate shut with a leash when the dogs are out there and only letting them out when I am in the house and can see them.

The rest of the story

As I have been labeling my posts from the last three years, I have been struck by how much is not said. Despite the 8 pages in my passport decked in German visas, the struggles necessary to get them barely amount to a footnote in my blog. In order to keep friends from worrying, I never mentioned that a gun was pointed at me in Bahnhof Deutz a couple of weeks after arriving in Germany, or that a few days later my wallet (with all of my credit cards and other documents) was stolen from my purse as I sat in a crowded Starbucks.

No mention is made of all of the cleaning and tutoring jobs that I've held. The exhaustion exacerbated by three moves is not at all apparent (for those who never put it together from the oblique references here, I went from the Bonnets to Mullheim-Wienerplatz to Stegerwald Siedlung to the Studentendorf in Efferen). The frequency with which I was blessed by being able to host American and other international friends is memorialized primarily through the absence of posts because I had no time to write. Wonderful trips to Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, France, the Netherlands, and various regions of Germany are either briefly related or ignored completely. Most notably, my work for the church here has often been so carefully written about (because of confidentiality issues) that I am no longer sure about whom I was speaking in many of my posts! It should be interesting processing it all when I am in the States. If I am able to find the time, I hope to write down some of the more interesting stories here so that I do not forget them.

Joy

I woke up this morning feeling joyful.

The feeling has persisted throughout the day without any particular reason. I am joyful that I was able to thoroughly share the Gospel twice in the past couple of weeks, and both times I felt as though God spoke through me. I am joyful that a new woman came to Bible study tonight. I am joyful because I was given the opportunity to go to the women's retreat and that in the next month I will also be able to go on a camping trip in the Netherlands (with English Conversation and church friends) and visit the church in Madrid. I am joyful because I was able to comfort a grieving friend. I am joyful because a stranger gave me canning jars simply because I asked for them on the internet. I am joyful because I am alive. Because I am God's child. His servant. His friend.

Internship Highlights

As many of you know, I am completing an internship at a christian school while in the States this year. Here are a few thoughts/observations from my first week.

1) after getting accustomed to the relative innocence of German schools, reading the lock-down procedures on the walls of a 1st grade classroom here and wondering, "how have things gone so wrong in the States?"
2) going to staff meetings where the faculty prays for the needs of its students and homerooms where students pray for one another
3) sitting in a literature class and being surprised that I could still answer all of the reading questions from memory (from the same textbook I had in high school) even though it is 10 years later; remembering how much I loved that class and why, if I had too, I could love being a teacher
4) sitting in the same class and being appalled at how much English grammar I have forgotten
5) on my second day in school I was asked to take over a sixth grade class for the entire day. Surprisingly enough, I had a great time.
6) After saying the pledge to the American flag, discovering that there is also a pledge to the "Christian" flag. strange.
7) having the question frequently come to mind, "how many of the students/faculty at this Christian school actually have a relationship with Christ?"