I'm sitting on my bed, surrounded by empty walls.  I've filled around six boxes, two suitcases, two garbage bags, and one large backpack, all of which are cluttering my floor.  I've said several see you later's, and have postponed the goodbye's till absolutely necessary.

I'm heading home!  And... I'm coming back.  :D  I am absolutely thrilled that I'm only saying "see you later" to the city, many friends, and the work here.  It's been an amazing year, and one I'm so very thankful for.  I'd love to share more about the process of deciding that my time here would continue... Send me an e-mail, or, if you're in the US, you can call me in a week or so!

Everyone keeps asking me how I feel about the fact that I have only x number of days here in Berlin.... and it's sort of a long answer.

I'm sooo not ready to say goodbye to those who won't be here next fall... even as I write this, I'm getting a little teary.  I love that the world is big, but it makes goodbyes so darn hard!  What great friendships I've been blessed with this year.

And, I'm sooo excited to see the people I love at home!  Skype is awesome, but I can't wait for face-to-face talks with my parents, hugs from my sister, fun with my friends, and worship in my church.

I'm looking forward to the work I'll get be part of at home this summer-- I've got a lot going on, but I think it's going to be great.

 And, I'm already really excited to start work here again in the fall.  I've been talking with others about ideas, plans, and hopes, and I can't wait for another year!

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...On another note, I'm also worried that I'll never be fully packed... :0)  And, I'm looking for something to read on the plane ride home... Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Some things in my life this week.

I've already written about the fact that Berlin is like a miniature world... meaning, people from everywhere come here.  I love it.  There's so many languages... and a lot of people want to practice their English.

So, we've decided to start an English cafe group.  We're going to hang out at Starbucks, sip coffee, and talk to people who wanna practice.  How fun is that?  We meet for the first time on Friday.

Sometimes we'll check out song lyrics and texts in English, too... So I'd love to know your favorite song, poem, etc.  Maybe we'll read it one night!

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Last night, a bunch of us met together to sing to the Lord.  We do that every week, and I'm so grateful.

There's a lot of things that I love about this time.  I love to sing.  I love to sing about the goodness of God.  I love to study something in the Bible and then pray about it with everybody else.  I love the fact that God uses this time to reveal things... cool things or convicting things.  I love that when I'm convicted of something, I can confess it to God and to others, and nobody condemns.  I love that God created music, and that He's worthy to be praised.

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"And I am going to shoot you."

"Dynamite.  Blow up!"

"Wait... can she shoot me?" ...  "Yep, she has a big gun."

"Jail time."  ... "Ughh.  I've spent a lot of time incarcerated."

"Finish her off..."

This is a selection from the conversation happening in my living room.  As I write this blog post, removed from the battle, my friends are threatening death.  They suggested that I blog about it, and so I am.

They're playing Bang, which is best explained as a sort of Western (sheriffs and outlaws), card-ified version of Mafia.  It's kind of a big deal on our team.  I might get in on game two.

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My family comes to visit me in three days!!!!  

I.  Can't.  Wait.

There's different kinds of questioning.  Sometimes, finding the answer is a process in which I rush from door to door-- I'm gonna find it-- slamming shut mostly untouched rooms after a brief glance.

And then there's the questions for which I want to make time in my day to open a door, jump on the bed, peel back the wallpaper, run my finger over the photographs, check for inscriptions in the books, try on the dresses in the closet, and know... And then, leaving the door wide open, make my way down the hall and turn the next knob.

These are the kinds of questions written all over my journal these last couple of weeks, coming from wise people and curious people.  They're questions that I need ages to answer, but it's okay.

I'll try to post my thoughts on some of these, but I've got some more thinking to do first :)

On a semi-unrelated note, Easter's next week.  Three quick thoughts, because I'm going to post more about Easter later.  

1)  I-can't-believe-it's-the-middle-of-April.  2)  Looking forward to celebrating here.  3)  Love hearing people's holiday traditions... so, how will you celebrate?

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  (Hebrews 13:8)  I'm glad we've got a holiday to celebrate, but I'm also glad that we can celebrate all the time, because we serve an unchanging, living God and Savior.

Tier = Animal

Kangaroo.  It tastes like steak.  I know this because they serve kangaroo at an Australian restaurant in the city, and I recently ordered it.  The first time, I had kangaroo on a Caesar salad, and the next time, I had a kangaroo wrap.  They also serve crocodile.  I might try it sometime, but I'm not sure.

Bulldogs.  Are headed to the Sweet Sixteen!!  Go BUTLER!!  :D

Polar Bear.  Ohh, Knut.  Berlin Zoo's famous polar bear.  Apparently they're supposed to live until, like, 30-something, but he died yesterday at the age of 4.  I never even met him.

Mice.  Can apparently haul a lot for their size.  I saw a piece of bread moving along the u-bahn tracks today, and peered closer to find a mouse of similar proportion clutching it.

I'm told that last winter, the sun was so scarce in Berlin that the news TV's in the U-bahn kept a count of Days Without Sun.  But for the past I-don't-know-how-many-days, we've been amazed to see the sun show up.

Even though temperatures have been mostly below freezing, I still catch glimpses of spring every once in a while.  I'm looking out my living room window, and I see the bright, sunlit apartment building across, a patch of cloudless, light-blue sky, and the branches of a tree that I think has begun to bud.  Sidewalks are slowly filling with people, dogs and their owners spend more time outside, and one of my teammates has a box full of flowers poking their green stems out of the soil.

My favorite season is Christmas, I think that snow is magnificent, and there's nothing better than a fire in the fireplace.  BUT, I really love spring.  And I can't wait for summer.  Hooray.  :D

He reigns.

Psalm 47:8 says, "God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne."  

This is how you say "God" in the languages of just some of the people I've met in Germany this year.


(I used Google Translate, so hopefully this is correct...)

Belarusian:  Бог
Chinese:  神
Czech:  Bůh
German:  Gott
Greek:  Θεός
Italian:  Dio
Korean:  하나님
Portuguese:  Deus
Russian:  Бог
Spanish:  Dios
French:  Dieu


The name of God is a beautiful name, a powerful name, and a name worthy of praise.

(Sometimes I'm intimidated to write a blog about what I'm learning from the Lord.  This is mostly because I feel as though I should have incredibly insightful things to say, and that I should say them in incredibly impressive ways.  But really, all I want to do is share.  So... this is what I'm learning from the Lord. :0)

Last Monday, my friends and I were asked the question, "What do you need in order to hear from the Lord this week?"  I wasn't sure, and so I asked the Lord what I needed in order to hear from Him.

He led me to the end of the book of Job.  You know that part where God's telling Job about how amazing He is?  I really love these chapters.  Read Job 38-41... it's sweet.

What I needed was to understand who God is.  I was reminded as I read that God is so God, and I am so not.  I don't know why I deceive myself into thinking that I have the authority to question Him... I totally don't.  I do believe that I can ask Him about the things that I don't understand... but what I realized is that I've been doing that with an attitude of frustration, without recognizing God's goodness and authority.  I toss questions at Him to complain.

But you can't read Job 38-41 without seeing God's authority.  And after hearing the Lord talk about His greatness-- a talk so powerful that before He starts, He tells Job, "Brace yourself like a man," (38:3)... after this, Job concludes:  "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" (42:3).  I love this... the realization that when I don't understand something, when in my head I say, 'I don't like that'... in reality it's too wonderful for me to know.

And what's even more crazy is that this God who created the universe, God who knows and has control over every detail of the universe, and whose ways are too wonderful for me to know-- this God, knowing how sinful we are, came to earth to die on the cross so that we could have a relationship with Him.  How much sweeter I understand salvation to be when I understand how great is God who gives it and how much I don't deserve to know Him.