What are you doing?

Welcomed home by my church family and my friends that I've known since elementary school, I am frequently met with the question of "so what are you up to now?"
Ashamedly, some of my friends that I knew outside of a church context are surprised to find that my faith is an important enough aspect of my life for me to do something like CEM. (I was hoping it was obvious, but I guess my Actions weren't speaking loud enough to make up for an absence of Words.)

That would be a good topic for this post, for those of you who haven't been reading my updates since the very beginning.
The short answer is that I am attending a Bible study/Missionary apprenticeship program run by a small church in the south of France, called "Christians on Mission."
The day to day life begins with a devotional, including the reading of a Psalm and singing, and then 3 hours of classes, taught by the 3 preachers at the church here. Then we have a two hour lunch break, because this is France, and then we do about 3 hours of service in the afternoon. Afternoon projects include: visiting a nursing home to play games with the residents, painting with the residents at the nursing home, working at a program for autistic children, helping with Club Cool (a children's catechism class), offering homework help or english class, etc.
One night a week we have choir practice, another night prayer, and one night we have a Bible study at the local university.
To get us familiar with the church in Europe, we travel frequently: going on retreats and short term mission trips. We also have a short term mission/service trip in the developing world (This year, Madagascar and Mauritious). The idea is to get us to try all kinds of new things and to learn to serve.
There are currently 10 students in the program, which is a big group for this kind of program. 2 come from Marseille, 3 from Paris, 2 from Switzerland, and 3 from America. We are all 18-24; either about to go into college or finished with our education and going to look for a job.
CEM runs from September to the end of July, when I will return to the states and most likely be looking for a job!

I was thrilled to be able to gChat with a big group of college friends in November (the occasion was all the America-dwellers being locked inside for the hurricane and having nothing to do). I had a hard time explaining what I was up to: my friends were in the process of starting their PhD programs, or just getting out of training for their new full time jobs. They were learning about new business systems, taking challenging classes and getting their own apartments. They were gaining in technical knowledge and furthering their careers. That week, my big accomplishment was learning how to get along with my fellow students a little bit better than I did the week before. This is not a very big deal in comparison and was hard to explain. My work is to let God do His work in me while I am in France and everyday for the rest of my life. Maybe someday that work will be training me for a new degree or a cool job, but for the moment it is learning some character and learning how to throw a fancy French dinner party.

One of our afternoon activities is volunteering with the "Blouses Roses" or "Pink Blouses." Decked out in our pretty pink blouses, we do a new painting project every week at the local nursing home.

Long-Awaited Update: Wait just a little bit longer!

Hi Blog readers!
Sorry I haven't updated in over a week! (updating every week is one of my goals for this blog. I don't know if you're disappointed, but I am a little bit).
In the meantime, while I collect my thoughts into proper blog material, the most exciting updates are that the Chapelle's Choir Concert and Musical/Christmas Pageant is THIS SATURDAY! Please pray for a good audience and that the message of Christmas is heard!
Also praise report, I have returned home safely! I am home early because I don't have a real visa so I could only stay in France 90 days. Now that I am home, I have time to apply for a real visa, which I will do tomorrow in NYC. Please pray that I get my Visa app approved!

When I do get a chance to write, you may hear about:
my birthday
prep for the musical
my trip to Vieux Port
cookie baking
Hippie Night
Church Breakfast
my 17 hour layover in Portugal


December 20 Update: Still no update! My fellow CEMistes have finished their exams and are all headed home for the holidays. Also, check out the link to the right: I finally typed in the right URL and found the official CEM homepage! Check it out if you want to see what I am up to.

CEM Sample Class "L'Ancien Testament"

We just finished up "The Pentateuch" in our year-long class on the Old Testament! Now we're starting the Books of Wisdom. For those of you interested in the style of instruction at CEM, in knowing what we learn etc., here is a sample from my notes this past Thursday. Imagine this spoken live and in French, and you're practically here with us in class!

Introduction to the Books of Wisdom
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
Ecclesiastes: First of all, why is this book in the Bible?
Why are all of the "books of wisdom" in the Bible?
What is the theme of Ecclesiastes? Vanity, vanity.
What is the theme of Job? Suffering.
What is the theme of Song of Songs? Love.
You can read these three books like Dante's Divine Comedy. Ecclesiastes as 'Inferno', Job as 'Purgatorio', and Song of Songs as 'Paradiso'.

3 "Philosophies of Life" in these Books
BOREDOM: Ecclesiastes. There is no meaning to life, and that makes existing boring!
Hope: Job. Job suffers, but with hope of an end!
Joy: Song of Songs.

Biblical Approach to the Books, each representing a virtue.
FAITH: Ecclesiastes shows that without faith, life is boring.
HOPE: Job lives life with the faith lacking in Eccles., but he has no hope.
LOVE: Song of Songs, this book definitely has love.

The questions posed in these books will be answered over the course of the entire Bible, through the entire Bible.
You have to remember who you were to better understand who you are now.
These books aren't great revelations of the Divine. These books discuss the experiences of life. In each of these books, you will see people living with one of the 3 philosophies above.

Introduction to Ecclesiastes
The author of Ecclesiastes is looking for the supreme good of life; what we are all looking is looking for, to live a good life. This book is the most accessible to our modern world. You can quote it to your friends, and they will agree with you. It is filled with questions to which the author keeps saying, "I don't have the answers! I keep looking, but I don't have the answers!"
The author of Ecclesiastes is EXTREMELY honest. He wants to communicate all of his experiences.
The author appears to live in a securalized world. God is there, but he is not a character who intervenes. God is presented as a way of attaining a good life. As in the modern sense, he is just an aspect of life and not as a speaker.
The structure is very easy to follow and the thesis is clearly indicated:
These: Every thing is Vanity. Eccl. 1: 1-3
Argument Eccl. 1-12
Conclusion Eccl. 12:8-14
Who is the author of Ecclesiastes? We assume it is Solomon. Towards the end of the great kingdom of Israel and the reign of Solomon, he was led more and more into idolatry by his many wives. The original title, Qoheleth, means "Speaker before the crowd." Normally, Biblical authors communicate the word of God. Here, the author communicates what HE thinks!
The ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM of Ecclesiastes, the BIG QUESTION, is why do we exist? What is the meaning of life? Like the proverbial elephant, it is very possible to avoid this question our entire life, i.e. by pursuing pleasure, using propaganda (such as: there is no elephant in this room!), showing indifference, pursuing happiness, returning to subjectivism etc.
The courageous author of Ecclesiastes does not avoid this question, he attacks it!

(Quick Logic Review!) Syllogism! Fact=>fact=> conclusion.
Syllogism of Ecclesiastes:
Fact #1: All work is done under the sun.
Fact #2: Everything under the sun is vanity.
Conclusion: Works = Vanity

What is vanity? Vanity is "smoke." Smoke rises, diffuses and disappears. In the Old Testament, the gods of the nations are described as smoke-they disappear and no one remembers them.

In his search for meaning, Solomon tries to do 5 great works:
1) WISDOM (Solomon's wisdom comes from God). He tries to fill his soul/mind with good things.
2) PLEASURE: good things for the 5 senses.
3)RICHES and POWER: Materialism (Solomon is the richest King of Israel, ever!)
4)ALTRUISM: Do good for others.
5) RELIGION: piety. Trying to fill up the hole in our soul.

What are we trying to fill? Our minds, our pockets, our soul?


Note taker's note: At this point we started to discuss the different works pursued by Solomon to achieve "a good life." In this introduction, we opened up and speculated on some of the most important questions in life, as posed by the Bible's Books of Wisdom. Over the next month, the CEMistes will be noting what these books have to say on these topics. I hope that you continue to speculate on the question of and the answer to the meaning of life. If you haven't already arrived at a conclusion, I will give you a hint that it has something to do with God and his will for your life.

The mayor of Rothenburg, Germany was a very wise man. He built his house on a tower so that the local citizens could not come up and visit him whenever they wanted.

Americans, Assemble!

The CEMistes just returned from a week of traveling in Germany, France and Switzerland.
Last Saturday, we drove 10 hours from Marseille to Rothenburg, Germany, for the 49th Annual Euro-American Family Retreat for the Churches of Christ. On the way, we passed through Switzerland and Liechtenstein!

Now I can say I’ve been to Liechtenstein!

The Euro-American retreat began as a retreat for families in the military and over the years has morphed into a retreat for American missionaries and military personnel working in Europe. It is put on every year by a church in Texas that sends speakers, song leaders and Bible class teachers for the adults and children. This year, there were about 100 people, including 10 CEMistes, four of whom were hooked up to headphones for an English to French translation.
To me, entering a room full of people singing in my native tongue, with the songs I grew up with, and speaking with the same kind of folksy idioms and love for “sermon illustrations” as the church where I was raised, was like entering a little oasis in the desert. To be able to sing again with my eyes closed and knowing what every word means greatly encouraged my spirit.

a scene from down-town Rothenburg odT!

During the 5 day retreat, we were encouraged to break our CEMiste group into smaller, more manageable chunks, and visit, talk and eat with as many different people as possible. There were all sorts of missionaries in attendance: families with kids, single women, internet outreach-ers, old-style campaigners, camp counselors, preachers, chorists, pub evangelists, short term and long term. Ireland, Germany, Albania, Switzerland, France (us), Romania, the Netherlands and Austria were represented.
During the “break-out session” time, I attended a class on “Transitions,” particularly applied to the transition of changing cultures.
During the copious free time during the retreat, I went on a hike down to the valley surrounding the town with tour-guide Wayne, a member of the church in Stuttgart. I walked along the ancient wall surrounding the town, went in bookstores, ate a "SpaghettiEis" and a “Schneeball”. As a group, we went on the Rothenberg “Night Watchman” tour, hosted by a sinister character who kept the city safe. I had a great time meeting people and learning about God's laborers in Europe.

Me attempting a siege over the Rothenburg wall!

After the retreat in Rothenburg, we went to Geneva, Switzerland. We were hosted by Lorine’s family, who live on the border of France and Switzerland. We had a 2 day, 6 HOUR PER DAY, seminar on evangelism, instructed by Doyle Kee. Doyle and his wife have been missionaries in Geneva for over 30 years. Doyle’s evangelism seminar was very different from what I expected; the other evangelism trainings I've attended focused on methods of getting people talking about faith and how to lead Bible studies. We did discuss some popular Bible-study approaches, but the main crux of our seminar was WHY and WHAT of evangelism: why we need to evangelize, and what message of salvation we are spreading.

Doyle's illustration of a complicated-but-yet-simple response to the question that our non-christian friends may have for us: "If I become a christian, and then I mess up by sinning, what happens?" For the response, we have this illustration. A bomb is about to strike your hypothetical country. You can either quickly get on the lifeboat, or stay and be blown up. The lifeboat represents the church, and the gangway is baptism. You're hurrying on the boat, so you're not entirely ready; you don't have your sea legs, and you fall down all the time (falling down=sin). If you stay on the boat, your friends will help you walk. If you give up on staying on the boat, because it is too much of a challenge for you (leaving the church) then you are no longer saved by the lifeboat. But you can still grab onto a life-vest and return to the lifeboat (God/the church) if you decide you want to give the lifeboat another try. CONCLUSIONS: 1. People in the church still sin and make mistakes. 2. You don't have to be saved if you don't want to be. 3. God will always take you back, if you decide to return after leaving.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN (in the church)**

After the teen retreat, one of the CEMistes posed the question: “what is the role of women in the church? Is it just to make food and watch children?”

This launched a two-week-long discussion during our Boite-a-Question hour. Rather than jumping right to 2nd Timothy, our professors began with the idea that culture changes. Perhaps Paul’s letters were written for a specific cultural context and/or perhaps our culture has changed so much that it refuses to recognize the role that God has established, since the creation of man, for the different genders.

During the Church Family retreat, we split up into groups and listed all of the ministries we have at the Chapelle de Fuveau. We came up with over 60!
A sampling of the list: Group and individual Bible studies, pasturing, visiting the sick, visiting nursing homes, supporting an orphanage in Madagascar, Club Cool, teen group, dance classes, summer camp, homework help, agape meals, welcoming, cleaning the church, encouraging, women’s Bible study, preaching, making cards, media and brochures, prayers, organizing various retreats, etc.

We then went through the list and noted the things that women don’t do at this church: preaching, Lord’s supper etc.

The conclusion was:
“If you think of “church” as Sunday morning from 11-12 PM, women have hardly any role in the church. But if you see the church’s work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, women can do 95% of the work of the church.
The role of a woman in the church is to be a servant.
What is the role of a man in the church?
To be a servant.”



**Opinions expressed in this post may not express the views of the blog author. Depiction of opinion expressed by CEM Professors is not complete and may be inaccurate.

Prayer Room

Retreat!
For the past two weekends, the CEMistes have been on retreats! Both retreats were at the church’s camp in the Centre Massif. Last weekend, November 1-4, we had the all-Francophone teen retreat, with teens from the churches in Lyons, Geneva, Lilles and Paris. The best represented church with the largest group was, of course, Marseille, with two van-loads of CEMistes and teenagers. The theme was “The Mission” and every session came with a discussion group/prayer time afterwards, which was a great way for the teens to share their experiences and encourage each other. I was really impressed by two teens from Lyons, Naomi and Constance. Naomi said that she had prayed to have a Christian friend in her class, and this year she had two! The two talked about the difficulties they have in getting their friends to listen when they talk about Jesus. Nevertheless, it sounds like they share their faith a lot in class.

A photo from a walk in the woods during Free Time at the teen retreat.

This past weekend, November 8-10, we had the Marseille Church “Family Retreat,” a time where all church members were welcome to enjoy Centre Bonnefoi, share great meals together and have a mini retreat. The theme of the retreat was “make me a servant.” On Friday night, we shared stories of persons who helped lead us to Christ and our “dreams for the church.” Some of the dreams were rather humorous. Katie’s dream was that some of the old CEMistes would come back and help serve and expand the church in Marseille. Joelle has her own version of the same dream: that all of the CEMistes (except for her of course; she is going back to Paris) find spouses in Marseille and have at least 3 children. That would be a very effective way to expand the church. What terrifies me is that I am never sure if Joelle is serious.

Derek, Esther and I worked on making a “Prayer Room” for this retreat. I went on 3 out of 4 of Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Fall Retreats” while at college, and each one had a “prayer room,” a dimly lit, quiet place with various stations, prompting prayer for different subjects.
The CEMistes worked to put together something similar for this retreat. We wanted to make 5-6 stations, each with a corresponding verse, an activity, and a prayer-prompt. Our prayer room:

1. Adoration-worship the Lord. Psalm 104. Praise the Lord for his marvelous creation. Each person drew a picture of something God created and that they wanted to praise him for.
2. The world/my country. Verse: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” and, from Revelation, “every tongue, tribe and nation will confess that Jesus is Lord.”
3. My church. At this station, we provided paper and envelopes for people to write a note of encouragement/thanks to someone else in the church, particularly someone who wasn’t able to come to the retreat. I delivered about 10 notes at church on Sunday.
4. My friends/my family. For this station, I made a less sophisticated version of Dan Cooper’s “Friendship Evangelism” cards, encouraging people to pray for five friends or family members to come to know Christ. When Philippe asked for prayer requests at church on Sunday, Benjamin (one of the teens) spoke up and reminded the church family to pray this week for the people on their card.
5. My Enemies. We read the story of a Christian martyr, who saved a soldiers life and, as a result, lost his own.
6. Moi-meme, myself. At this station, we posted 2 CEMistes who offered to pray with the people finishing the prayer circle, for whatever requests were on their heart. In my 30 minute “shift” I got to pray with Monique and speak with Hughette. Rather than sharing her prayer request, Hughette shared a Psalm:
“How good and pleasant it is
When brothers live together in unity!”
Psalm 133

I was very honored to get to pray with the people of my church. I ended up spending (almost all) of my free time in the prayer room, watching people go through the stations, seeing the CEMistes at the 6th station praying with each other when there were no visitors, and even seeing a few church members linger to pray in their own corner after finishing all of the stations.
Even if I had been the only one to use it, it would have been worth all the work on the prayer room.

The CEMistes are trying to think of more ways to better integrate prayer into our everyday lives. We may set up a prayer group, a prayer room, and/or have a few fasting events.
We appreciate your support through prayer! Thank you for your prayers for the CEMistes during our year of christian-apprenticeship.

REPORT on Mission in Albacete, Spain

I was not the most motivated Spanish student (but compared to the other students, I was very motivated), so I never particularly wanted to go to Spain when there were enough other countries where I spoke the language enough to visit. But, CEM was going there on a trip, so I was happy to be forced to come along.

Just any old BEAUTIFUL traffic circle.

The Mission Trip to Spain was a collaborative project between the churches in Geneva, Switzerland, Lille and Marseilles, France. We were working with the very small Church of Christ in Albacete, Spain. They had organized a conference and wanted us to spread the word, to “go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in.”* The Marseille church chorus (composed of CEMistes and the Young family) sung in public parks, schools and nursing homes. While we were singing in the parks, the Geneva church would hand out flyers to our audience. While the choir was singing at a school, the Geneva team would go through the streets to hand out the flyers.

The choir headed out for our next singing engagement.

Our mission trip to Spain, in terms of spreading the gospel, was not visibly successful. We handed out over 2000 flyers to individuals and apartment mailboxes, inviting everyone to a Conference entitled “The Work of His Hands.” Each night, there were 3-5 faces that we didn’t recognize already who came. The conferences were held in the hotel where we were staying at, which was an excellent idea. It is possible that some people don’t feel comfortable coming into churches, and besides that, the church itself was very small.

The Church in Albacete needs your prayers: it is very small (third or fourth time I said that) and recently lost some members to become even smaller. The conference had the potential to infuse them with new contacts. The attendee yield was low but unfortunately not nonexistent, so there is potential for growth through the conference. And though not many people came to the conference (they found at about it at short notice; maybe they already had plans) they still have flyers in their mailboxes with the church’s information on the back. And even if they throw away the flyer immediately, they will still see the words “Existe Dios?”** for a split second and be forced to momentarily consider this life changing question.

For me, the trip to Spain was excellent. I was able to spend 20 hours in a car with Katie Young, one of the full-time missionaries at the church in Marseilles, and 2 other CEMistes (I dubbed us the ‘MERICAN MOBILE because I had the guilty pleasure of being a linguistic slacker and speaking English with them). On the car ride to Albacete, we shared stories of times when God’s spirit clearly led us to do something great or when we trusted in God’s power and He did it. My eyes were open to the beauty of a life spent following the will of God. God's plan for us are way cooler than our own. On Saturday, during our free day, I was able to take a walk with some CEMistes and we discussed the goals and methods of the conference and the difficulties of evangelism in Europe.

I am very thankful that I am doing CEM and I think that the friends I make here will be the future spiritual saints. My friends from Columbia will be great in the World: they will lead countries, corporations and businesses and make great contributions to the environment and their respective fields of technology. My friends in CEM will be the founders of churches, the builders of orphanages, the neighbor who takes care of everyone and shares her faith through gentleness and compassion: they will be great in God’s Kingdom. I think the two sets of school friends complement each other nicely.

Besides all that deep stuff, I really like Spain! Albacete is a really pretty town. It was bright and colorful; a relief after the dullness of Marseille (no offense). The country side, which we drove through, is different from that of any country I’ve visited; it inspires me to imagine knights, i.e. Don Quixote, setting out across the wilderness in search of adventure.

The impressive landscape to which I am referring!


*Luke 15:23
**Does God Exist? Would be the translation. And btw, if you have never researched this question, you should think about it, talk to someone about it (I recommend a Christian) or, if you don’t feel like talking to anyone, check out this website: www.doesgodexist.org

Mission in Albacete, Spain

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going on our mission trip to Spain! We will be working with a very small church there by helping them to invite people to their sermon series taking place Thursday-Saturday night. We will be "La Coral," and be singing in various public places throughout Albacete. As a choir, we have prepared a number of Christian songs in both French and Spanish.

This will be my first time in Spain. It is a 10 hour drive to Albacete, so I will see alot of the country out the van window.
We return Sunday night late and then have a day off from classes. Expect some updates and pictures from the trip next week!

Pray for our team; for our good spirits, and that God works through us and our singing (which at the moment is kind of iffy) to bring many people to Him.

A "Typical" Week of CEM

"Typical Week" of CEM is a misnomer; there are no typical weeks! After one month of weeks with almost-the-same-schedule, we will enter a month where EVERY weekend we will be traveling to a retreat/another country (see the side-bar calendar). But to give you an idea of what the life of a CEMiste is most-often like, I have composed the schedule below:

We begin each day with a 30 minute devotional with singing and the reading of a Psalm. At 9 AM, we start our three hours of classes. Then we have a 2 hour lunch break, because we are in France.

What happens after lunch:
Monday afternoon:
1:30-3:30 we have a meeting where we talked about what we learned the past week.
5-6 I help out 2 women at the church lead an English class for 3-6 year olds at the local community center.
6:30-8 Choir Practice

Tuesday Afternoon:
2:30-5 Prepare for “Club Cool”. Rehearse puppet show and skits.
5-6 Club Cool, a weekly Bible fun time for kids ages 3-18
7-8 Prayer time with the church family

Wednesday Afternoon:
2-5 help children with their homework at the church OR help at a program for autistic children OR work on a painting project with residents at a local nursing home

Thursday Afternoon:
2-5 Attend a Bible study on the book of Hebrews at Eliane’s apartment. She always provides an excellent spread of cookies and chocolates. She has been hosting a Bible study for at least the past 10 years.
8-10 Attend a Bible Study at Constantin’s dorm room. He lives in University housing. We have just started meeting there and are hoping to create a space where we can invite University students to study with us.

Friday
2-5 St. Maurs Rest Home: Sing, play games and talk to nursing home residents.

Saturday
(FREEE)
7-10 PM Every other week, attend a Youth Group Get-Together for ages 12-25.

Sunday
10-12:30 Bible Class and Worship Service
4-6 Soccer practice and match with church soccer team

A typical CEM girl's night with not-so-typical fancy French desserts.

To see which weeks will be "typical" and which will not, check out the blog's Google Calendar side bar!

Boite a Questions

*Box of Questions*

Today was the first opening of the CEM Box of Questions. We are going to open and unleash our questions upon the CEM teaching staff almost every Wednesday, starting today.

The French do not have an idiom equivalent to "Opening a Can of Worms." They say "Opening Pandora's Box," an ancient Greek mythology reference that doesn't appeal to my love of ridiculous folksy sayings.

Here is a sampling of today's questions and responses. Perhaps it will encourage you. If anything, I think the questions asked really display the raw hearts of the CEM students; their desire to follow God as best as they possibly can.
As my readers, let me know if you have any big (religious-related) questions you'd like me to pose to the CEM staff and students!

Q: How do we know if we love God? What if we are motivated to serve God/be baptized/become a Christian because we are afraid of God’s wrath or because we want to go to heaven?
A: Fear: fear is not necessarily a bad thing.
Desire for heaven: What is there in heaven besides God? A desire to be in heaven is a desire for God.
To answer the question with an illustration from marriage: When I got married, I thought I loved my wife. Looking back, I see how imperfect my love was and how much of my own egoism was in it. My love is imperfect because I am not perfect. But over time, we LEARN how to love God.

Our baptism question, after being read, spawned live class participation and further questions posed by class members, the dynamics of which is somewhat conserved here:

Q: Is baptism essential for salvation? What purpose does it serve?
A: John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentence and conversion in preparation for Jesus’ kingdom. AFTER Jesus has resurrected, in the great commission and in Acts 2:38, Jesus commands the disciples to baptize for the forgiveness of sins.
Q: Do we have to be baptized to be saved? Is baptism the only way to be saved? Do we have to be baptized in water to be saved?
A: (Avoids saying Yes or No) First, I AM SAVED BY CHRIST. It is the work of Christ that saves me. Let’s look at what the apostles taught, and follow that as closely as possible. In the early church, baptism always meant immersion and was used to represent the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. There weren’t unbaptized Christians in the New Testament Church. Believers were baptized.
Q: If you are a baptized Christian and fall away into sin, are you still saved?
A: Grace before and after baptism. What if our theology is wrong? We will be saved by grace.
Q: Can we be Christians without being baptized?
A: This was not even a question until after the reformation. Protestants questioned baptism and every ritual of the Catholic church. Baptism had become a magical ritual. It had nothing to do with faith. The Protestants wanted to get rid of all rituals. They reacted too extremely in the opposite direction. Let’s look at the principal question: When you are before the throne of God, will you say, “God, I am before you because I had faith” or “because I was baptized”? You are going to say “Jesus has saved me!"

We still don't have a straight answer to the above question: perhaps we will receive an answer next Trimester when we study the book of Acts, or perhaps there is not a "straight answer."

SUGARSUGARSUGAR

An account of one of our rare free-Saturdays:
One of the skills we are to learn at CEM is hospitality. Over the course of the year, we are to have invited the entire church over to our apartment for a meal. Today was our free Saturday, and I spent most of the day baking cookies so that we will have snacks ready for spontaneous guests. Normally, it is hard to have guests spontaneously if you are too much of a cheapskate to order pizza, so I am trying to be creative.
For lunch/a very late breakfast, we were invited to the other CEM girls' apartment for American-style pancakes, with Canadian-style maple syrup. After lunch, I made yet-more cookies and went shopping for yet-more ingredients, returned and made churros for our "Soiree des Jeunes", tonight with a Mexico-themed meal.
"Les Jeunes" meet every 2 weeks and includes ages 13-25. This Soiree and the last had about 30 in attendance, each time including a few young people that we've never seen before at the church.
At our Soirees, we first eat a very long meal, then play a few large-crowd-party games. After, we sing about 10 songs in a circle and then have a lesson. Last time, we went over the story of Joseph and how it is similar to the story of Jesus, and this week we did the same with Moses. After the 20 minute lesson, we have discussion groups, which are very fruitful and unfortunately too short.
Fortunately/unfortunately: The next Soiree des Jeunes is not for a month! That is because there is a country-wide youth retreat in mid-November. That is great for the young-people in our church but unfortunate for our visitors. Please pray that they will keep their interest in the Lord and come to our next group!

Your essential vocab for this blog post:
soiree-("swah-ray") your evening. Not necessarily a night out on the town; can be used for hanging out with your friends, having a dinner party, watching a movie; any evening activity.
Jeunes- young folks

Sample Class from "The Gospel of Luke"

Hello dear reader,
This week I shall attempt to entertain you with my notes from Monday's class. We have "The Gospel of Luke" four times a week from 9-10 AM. Hopefully the notes below will give you an idea of the kind of things we learn at CEM and the kind of thinking we do. Please note that these are only my notes and that you are not at all getting the full CEM experience.

The Temptation of Jesus

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’" 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’" 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’" 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Lecture Thesis: Jesus’ life mirrors the nation of Israel except that, when Israel failed, Jesus succeeds.

First, His baptism parallels the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
After the Israelites cross the Red Sea they spend 40 years in the desert: Jesus faces 40 days of temptation.
The temptations Satan presents mirror temptations faced by the Israelites.
In Greek, temptation and test are the same word. Temptation/tests bring out what is inside of us.
The devil gives Jesus three tests. The goal of the tests is to turn Jesus away from his program of suffering. In each test, the devil proposes a counter-programs to Jesus’ Messianic program, all of which avoid suffering.

1 Temptation: to avoid/end his own hunger.
Hunger and exhaustion are a form of adversity. What’s wrong with being hungry, and what’s wrong with eating?
In the desert, the Israelites don't want to suffer hunger: they whine until they get what they want,(Numbers 11:4-6) just as children who always get what they want are spoiled. They don’t suffer. Jesus waits for his food and suffers.
2nd Temptation: To rule the world using the methods of Satan.
God alone is sovereign over the nations but he allows Satan to exercise a lot of influence on the world. Satan's control is shown in the use of lies, seduction, violence, the thirst for glory, militarism, injustice, cults of power etc. The Israelites tried adopting other gods to gain control over the Canaanites when they invade their lands. They were using the methods of Satan to accomplish the will of God. The conquistadors are a good example of christians deceived into thinking they could use methods of violence to accomplish God's will, telling the natives: "convert or we’ll kill you."
At the time of Jesus, the Jews wanted a political Messiah and they supported many false Messiahs who proposed to free them from the Roman's using Satan’s method of violence.
If Jesus uses Satan's methods to accomplish the will of God, he will have failed in his mission because it is impossible to accomplish God's will using Satan's methods.

3rd Temptation: To be protected from all suffering and danger.
The israelites believed "God is with us, all will go well" (Exodus 17:7). Jesus uses his power to accomplish the will of his Father, which is to die for us. He follows God's will and he suffers.

In all of these tests, Satan tries to get Jesus to keep his distance from the common people. Do a miracle to feed yourself, become ruler of the world, call on the angels to save you. Satan wants to keep Jesus from identifying with us. Part of Jesus' mission is experiencing what it is like to be human. Why?
God wants to destroy sin without destroying the sinner. To do this, Jesus must be able to identify with man! Jesus is our representative with the father. Praise the Lord that he succeeded in being the 2nd Adam, in resisting temptation to which every other human in history has fallen, and at the same time, learning what it is like to be human.

Ecole de la Foi **

School of the Faith


I thought nothing of the name "School of the Faith" when I came to CEM. I thought of "The Faith" as Christianity, as used in expressions like "keep the faith," to represent the tiny part of God's kingdom that you adhere to and defend.

But here we are literally learning faith. We have access to 3 excellent Bible professors, who have devoted their lives to studying and practicing God's word. Every faith question we've ever had is open to discussion and our teachers have read the scriptures, background materials, done their research. They are ready and willing to answer our questions.

And still, sometimes the answer to a particularly big question is "I don't know."

Q: "Is Jesus God or human?"
A: "He is 100% God and 100% Man."
Q: "How can he be both?"
A: "I have no idea, but isn't it amazing!"

Yes, we are learning the answers to some of our biggest questions. But we are also learning faith: how to say "God, I don't understand. It's a mystery. But it's awesome!" I hope to get answers to some of my questions, to learn more about my faith. But we must also learn faith for when there is no answer that we can comprehend.

Pray for my fellow students and I; that we take the opportunity to ask big questions, to learn all we can, to develop a habit of always learning and always asking questions, and to be content with God's response.

Les Carottes Rapees*

Thursday, we had our classes and we rode in the church van to Eliane’s apartment (we picked up Eugette along the way). We sat around Eliane’s well-set table, drinking tiny cups of coffee, and eating chocolate and cookies. Then, we sang many songs from the songbook and had a Bible study on the first chapter of Hebrews. Reading Hebrews more slowly, in a second language, was very illuminating. I was kicking myself for not having read it more seriously before; it’s full of good stuff! We had a free evening.

On Friday, after classes and after our lunch we all walked to Saint Maur and had a tour of all the buildings. The Maitresse told us about the sorts of things we could volunteer to do there and we filled out forms about what we were interested in helping with.

Friday night was the kick-off of the first FOI en FOLIE, the group of 7-12 year olds at the church. They kick off the year with a Progressive dinner with one stage at each of the CEM apartments. Our apartment was the first visit, the Entrée. Afters, they went to the girl’s apartment above the church for the main meal, and then to the boys’ apartment for the dessert. Joelle and I worked hard all Thursday night and Friday afternoon for our entrée.

We had our first almost-argument fueled by a culture clash Thursday night. Joelle made mini-omelettes for each child, called “Tortillas”. A Tortilla in Spain is an omelette; different from the definition of a middle-American tortilla. We decided we should give the kids a little bit more, so I suggested we give the children carrots.
“You can’t just give a child a carrot? How’s he going to eat it?” Joelle exclaimed, and did a bugs bunny expression.
“Yes, that is how you eat a carrot.” I said.
“You can’t just give a child a carrot!”
“Yes, you can.”
“You must ‘rapee’ the carrot!”
I use rapee in the context of fromage rapee, grated cheese, but I was praying that in this case, it meant “pealed.” “you mean, remove the skin?” I said, hopefully.
“No, rapee!” and Joelle showed me how to grate the carrot.
The first law of cooking with me is that, if you don't have to, you don't. I did not want to grate a perfectly ready-to-eat carrot, and I thought maybe the children in this country need to learn to use their teeth a bit. But Joelle explained the concept; you grate the carrots, you cut up tiny pieces of tomato, you add her special sauce, and you have a salad for children. I had also never heard of a children’s salad, or children liking salad, but I finally ceded to Joelle’s superior knowledge of her own culture and began grating carrots.

The meal turned out to be a success: each child got the tiniest cup of fancy salad, and most ate it! As Joelle said “they’re children, they don’t eat a lot.” (I'd never heard that one, either, but I'm glad I went with it). The children came with Philippe, they asked us a few get-to-know-you questions, they gave us clues for a game of “name that Bible story” sang us “my God is so Big!” and left after 20 minutes, onto the next apartment for the main meal.

Saturday, I was thinking of going downtown. I went over to the other girls’ apartment, to see if any of them wanted to come with me. In the apartment under them, I saw that Djijiga had many guests, including Katie Young. They invited me in to meet everyone and say hello. The guests left, but Djijiga gave me coffee and I ended up staying. Her three children invited me in to watch a documentary about sea life, and after that we all ate lunch together. I had the children help me with my homework, which was to read Genesis. We read Genesis Chapter 37, 38, and unfortunately 39 (after which I said “sometimes kids, people in the Bible do things that God doesn’t want them to).

Tonight we have our first “Soiree des Jeunes,” a young adults group for ages 13-25. If everyone in this category shows up, we’ll have 30 people! We shall see. Joelle has made a beautiful "Carottes Rapees" salad and I made an apple pie and vanilla pudding.
There is a risk that this will become a food blog.


Words of wisdom for the week:
Why did God call Abraham? Because Abraham would listen; Abraham would say yes.
Why did God choose Mary? Mary admits she doesn't understand God's plan, and she doesn't see how the whole Virgin-bearing-a-child deal is going to work out, but she says "I am your servant" and agrees to play her part in God's plan.
What is so special about we CEMistes? Why are we here? Because we said yes!


*Grated Carrots. No direct translation into American.

So You Think You Can...

...Throw a fancy dinner party?
I thought I could; but my waffle/soup/chili gatherings do not hold a candle to my apartmate's vision of how a dinner party should be!

Monday we had our first classes and then a meal together; lasagna made by Katie, Dolores and Prisca. After that we went through our schedule for the week. The guys went to pick up our 11th CEM student, from the train station. Joelle and I went back to our apartment and prepared for dinner. We invited all the CEMistes for dinner. I had made dough in the morning and prepared pizzas. Joelle prepared mini croques monsieurs. We had our first chorus rehearsal, and afterwards all the CEMistes, came over for dinner. First, we brought out the croquet monsieur, cut up into 1/6ths, and passed them around. Then, Joelle brought out a beautiful salad, with tomatoes and hard boiled eggs cut into flower shapes. It was a bit too beautiful and we had a hard time getting the crowd started at eating it! After that, we brought out one pizza at a time, four total, concluding with a not-quite-CiCi’s quality macaroni and cheese pizza. After that, we brought out rice pudding, delicately spooned into mini-expresso mugs. Very classy. At the end, we sang and ate a birthday cake.

Tuesday: Today after class and our 2 hour lunch break, we took the metro together to visit Odette, the oldest member of the congregation. She is 94 and in the hospital at the moment.

Tuesday evening we had the first Club Cool. The lesson was about Peter. There were about 12 children, and they (almost all) love answering questions; they squirm and jump up and down and shout “moi, moi” without any offer of candy! Very impressive.

Wednesday we split up for our afternoon activities. Joelle and 3 others provided homework help. Only church-kids came, and not very many, but it looked like the tutors were sufficiently occupied with the few who came. 2 went to a school for autistic children, and myself and 3 others went to St. Maur Maison de Retraite, or Home for the Aged, and worked with the Blouses Roses (Pink Blouses). We donned our pink coats and worked with 6 other woman, who had set up a little art project. We traced “leaves” on the paper, and gave them to the residents to paint. Afterwards, we cut out the leaves and pasted them on an orange background to make a Fall Scene.

The First Week of CEM

On Sunday, en lieu de Bible Class, we had a small welcome ceremony for this year’s CEM students. After the church service, there was a meal with the congregation, and after that, we loaded ourselves into the church van and drove 3.5 hours to the church camp in the Ardeche mountains.
We spent the first two days being introduced to each other and to our CEM Professors, Max, Greg and Philippe. We went over the history of the Chapelle du Fuveau, the church which we will be worshipping and working with for the year. We listed most of the ministries and activities available with the Church, and talked about what we’d like to learn this year and what activities we’d like to get involved with.

We will have four classes this trimester, and 3 hours of class Monday-Friday. We will be studying:
The Gospel According to Luke (an in-depth study with Max)
The Old Testament (requires a lot of reading)
The Church (studying it from the Old and New Testament perspectives)
God’s Plan (ambitious title, only 1 hour of this class per week so not to blow our minds)

On Tuesday, six Seniors arrived for the francophone Church of Christ’s Golden Age (l’Age d’Or) retreat. I got to sit next to them a lot during meals, but unfortunately was not able to understand much of their wisdom. One of l’Age d’Or, Danielle, did CEM years ago, and gave us much wisdom, her blessing, and encouragement of the worthfulness of our time spent there.

Good to remember:
CEM n’existe pas pour vous. CEM existe pour les autres.
CEM doesn't exist for you, it exists for your church. The goal is that you will bring what you’ve learned back to your home church to edify them.

<

A few of the mountains surrounding our camp.

You know you're... when....

You know you’re in France when:

-Two of the women on the Golden Age Retreat spent their free time searching for giant mushrooms. Wednesday’s dinner was a 30 egg mushroom omelette that had far more mushroom than egg.
-After dinner every day, we would pass around a cheese platter. I listened to a “How Stuff Work” podcast about cheese, and it said that the French eat at least twice as much cheese as Americans (and it is not often that a people eat more of anything than Americans). I see how it is true.
Every meal, at a camp, has at least 3 courses and lasts at least an hour. Complete with dessert and snacks in between meals.

You know you're with the Church of Christ when:

-The guys in this group are crazy about singing. At the moment, it’s entertaining (I like singing too), but soon I think I’ll feel like I’m trapped in a Glee Episode.

Thus Begins the Next Stage of My Life

Short Version:
Took plane from Newark to Brussels, bus from Brussels to Marseille, successfully found at bus station, heading to Retreat Center Sunday for 5 day retreat with the other CEM students

Long Version: I boarded my Eurolines bus for Marseille at around 9PM and I think I slept fairly solidly until about 6 AM, vaguely regaining consciousness at some of our bus stops.
In my waking hours, I mostly read “And the Band Played On,” which I had started to read on the plane and was quite the page turner. A recommended read for anyone who is not trying to relax and fall asleep in a plane thousands of feet over the ocean.
As the sun rose on our bus ride through France, I looked out the window and felt like it couldn’t be real that I was on a bus going to the city in France where I would spend a year; I didn't really know what "a year" or what being a CEM student actually meant. But as we drove further and the sun fully rose on the sunniest day I've seen in Europe all summer, and we went a little further and I saw some mountains, I began to feel welcomed and stopped worrying about what I didn't know.

Tomorrow, all the CEM students will meet at church and then head to the church retreat center in the Massif Central (mountain range) for five days.

12 Hours in Brussels

My flight arrived in Brussels at 8 AM and was catching a bus for Marseille at 8:45 PM; plenty of time to see some of the city!
I had printed out walking directions (well, I hadn’t printed any of the individual directions, just the overview googlemap with the suggested root outlined.) It was a little under 12 kilometers from the airport to the bus station, where I was hoping to get a luggage locker. I figured I could just use the map, get my bearings in the sky, and walk generally in the right directions until arriving at the Gare de Noord, where my bus would be leaving from at 8:45 PM.
Even if I were the most competently trained scout, there was no sun available for identifying the morning’s southeast; I only saw the sun for about 20 minutes in the course of my day-long walk through Brussels.
I started going South from the airport and ended up in the Zaventum neighborhood, which was a little bit East out of the way, but I figured I could rectify that by turning right at some point. I wandered confusedly behind an old woman, turning my map around and pausing at the circle, until she showed concerned and I asked her the direction of Gare de Noord. She gave me directions to the train, though I thought I was saying I wanted to walk (I was saying “Je veux promener” and later persons asking what I was up to corrected that to “Je vais a pied”). The very nice older lady led me all the way to the Zaventum train station, and showed me the office where I could buy a ticket. On the walk there, I decided that I should probably give up my foolish walking plan, as it was already a silly idea and an even worse idea if I didn’t take the help offered by this very helpful woman.
At Gare de Noord, I left my luggage in a locker and went out to see the city!

Ever since we did a unit on Belgium in high school French, I have wanted to go to the Comic Strip museum in Brussels.
I only ended up spending about 2 hours in the comic book museum. The best part were the statues of famous comic book characters that I got my picture with.

Recognize this one?

There was a terribly small and simple exhibit on the history of the comic strip, beginning with the cave painting. Then there was a whole gallery of 200 original pages of comic books by various authors, rotated regularly. This period’s exhibit was on animals. They only had one page of a superhero comic from the states, a page from an old John Buscema Spider-man where he is fighting the Lizard. The next exhibit was on Belgian comic book authors; a short biography, examples of their work, and commentaries on periods in their work and how their areas of focus/storylines/characters changed throughout their careers.
I took a break from the museum to eat lunch and decided to go and see the EU and other Brussels government buildings, which turned out to be quite fancy.I returned to the Gare de Noord at around 7 PM, after visiting the Brussels Info Place (bip), walking down the Rue de Loi, through the Jubel/Centenaire Park and a huge arch. The "arc de triomphe" pictured below was dedicated in 1905. You can also get an idea of the threatening weather that fortunately only threatened me the entire day.

I went immediately to reclaim my luggage, and found that the locker was unlocked and the door ever so slightly ajar! Praise God, so far I haven’t noticed that anything was stolen (or anything creepy added to it); the door probably popped open on its own as many of the lockers were malfunctioning. I suggest that you be very suspicious of your own travel-locker services, as I hopefully will be in the future.

Departure!

I am trying to enjoy my 4 days at home as much as possible before I fly to Marseille on Thursday, Sept. 13. Stay posted and prayerful!

Hopefully I didn't forget that thing that I really need to pack... what was it again?

Abschied!

Today was my last day of work and my last assembly with my church family here in Bremen. Monday was my goodbye party with my beloved neighbors. Tomorrow I travel by bus to Berlin and the next day I fly home for a short time. Pray for my safety in travel and that I do not immediately forget all the German that I've learned.

I am the least sad about leaving my church family (no offense) as I will see them again. Yesterday we read Psalm 23 during our women's bible study. I am glad to have read it; I realized that for 3 months I have been "dwelling in the house of the Lord" quite literally (although it is not as spiffy as our eternal house). We Christians can look forward to "dwelling in the house of the Lord forever." It's great to live in a church; that I can testify. Let us look forward to our eternity there.

I have come so far with language, and am a bit disappointed that I have to stop! The most common-place phrases here run through my head when it is quiet enough:
Shau mir mal (let's look)
Musst man angucken! (yeah, I'll check that out)
Liebe Himmlischer Vater (our loving God in heaven)
probier es noch mal (try that again)
ah, Sch*$#@# egal! (whatever)


Today's vocabulary lesson: Abschied = Farewell = ձտէսութիւն

Street Circus Festival

I read in the paper and saw signs for Bremen’s “Street-Circus Festival,” La Strada. Like the Maritime Festival, I was culturally confused. What exactly is a street circus, and what makes it worthy of its own festival? On Friday after work, I went and found out!

In the grassy park across from the Stadt Bibliothek, there was a puppet theater (with Mr. Roger’s style puppets, rather than the VBS, Muppet or Marionette style puppets I am used to) where a man performed “Rumpelstiskin.” Besides being my first proper German puppet theater show, I could understand the whole thing! A landmark in German-learning.
After the puppet show, I went over to watch some acrobat/dancers at the stage on the other side of the park.

Joseph and the Amazing Technically Unrelated but Yet Touching Parallels to the Story of Jesus

I thought that I was listening to a relatively standard sermon about the life of Joseph, and was checking my watch when I saw that we had already gone half an hour and still hadn’t gotten to read the part where Joseph saves the Egyptians and then forgives his brothers (and our preacher for the day was reading every passage and then clarifying and summarizing it, so I assumed this would go on for a long while). Then the sermon took such a sudden turn towards a meaningful application that my soul gasped in surprise. The preacher stopped the story at the interpretation of the baker’s dream, and pointed out the similarities between Joseph and Jesus.
Both were sold by their brothers/friends for silver
When Joseph is in prison, and Jesus on the cross, they encounter two men. One is saved, the other isn’t.
Joseph starts serving Pharoah at the age of 30.
Both forgive those who do them wrong.

A fresh take on an old story!

Getting my Money’s Worth

German that I couldn't learn from a Dictionary:

Angucken- This means “to look at” or “to take a look.” Essential here! Used all the time.

Siebung- Sieving, panning. What our soil laboratory technician does everyday to figure out the soil grain size distribution. Ok, maybe not a particularly interesting word for normal people, but, as far as I can tell, not in Collins Dictionary, Leo, or Wikipedia! Shame shame!

In Pudding- taking a walk around the block. For example, after you’ve eaten a lot, you should go for a walk so that you have more room to eat dessert!

Es geht vorbei- “It will get better with time.” “It’s not so bad.” “It is what it is.” You can say this when something bad happens, when you are disappointed, etc. As expected, “Kommt vorbei!” means “come by!”

Ne? – “Do you understand?” “Do you agree?” Use at the end of every sentence when you are explaining something to the foreign Praktikantin.

Oder? “isn’t that so?” “Do you agree?” “I’m right, aren’t I? Undeniably so?” A more exact translation would be the Canadian “eh?” I don’t think we have an equivalent in English, and if we do it is not used as frequently. Maybe it’s closest to “y’know what I’m saying?” or Rocky’s “y’know?”

Better than Listening Through a Conch Shell

I had seen Billboards around Bremen advertising the “Vegesack Maritime Festival,” at which there would be a celebration of all things sea-faring and maritime music. I was intrigued as to what they meant by Maritime music.
The Maritime festival proper started in the afternoon. In the morning there were street performers throughout the pedestrian town center. I saw the Vegesack Seeman’s Chor (pictured here) singing sailing songs-the North German equivalent of a barbershop choir. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. Their signature song is “Wir fahr’n nach Vegesack” but since they were finally performing in Vegesack, they sang “wir sind in Vegesack.”
My heart was first moved by natural beauty on my bike ride and then by beautiful music in Vegesack.

I then raced to the church, to pick up the decorations and desserts I’d made (Amerikaner cookies and apple pastries) and raced over to my American friend's apartment for our 4th of August party.
We had planned to celebrate the 4th of July together but because of unfortunate circumstances our celebration was cancelled. My friend had the clever idea of moving the celebration to the next possible 4th.
We decorated Amerikaner cookies in red, white and blue and decorated the walls and table as well ("Amerikaner cookies" are what we in New York would call "Black and White cookies", only they have them here in all different colors. I don't know what Americans call black and white cookies that aren't black and white.)
We took a healthy walk across a pedestrian bridge over the Weser, overtop of a hydroelectric system and a canal/lock system for skinny coal barges. We also went to Staples, where I had a few nerd moments and felt very much in America. Back in the apartment, we made burgers and talked a little bit about Americanny things. I am glad to not let my nation's special day pass without a celebration.

He feeds the sparrows!

So far, whenever I haven’t had time in between work and Wednesday night church or Bible study to eat dinner, someone brings cookies or cakes and sets them on the table during the Bible class. 4 out of the 6 or so times that we have had snacks at church were times when I hadn’t had any dinner before hand. (And the one time that I slept until 10 minutes before church started on Sunday was the one time that we had cookies.)
I need not fear hunger. God provides for me!

Helgoland Day Trip

Helga and Wolfgang took Jana and I on a day trip to Helgoland, an island in the North Sea. It is a 3 hour boat ride to get there (and then also 3 hours back). On the way over it was rainy, so we sat inside in the restaurant level of the ship and only went on deck a few times for about 10 minutes (in full rain gear). On the way back, the sun was shining and I spent an hour sitting on the top deck in the back of the boat, watching Helgoland grow smaller and smaller, until I could hardly see it anymore and I could no longer stand the weirdness of large-bellied old men snuggling with their wives sitting next to me. Then I went back down to the restaurant area with Helga, Wolfgang and Jana and we ate cookies that Helga had packed (and carried around the entire day without eating all of them-restraint I have not yet learned).
We spent the last half hour on the front deck together as we approached Bremerhaven. Behind the loading decks you can see Bremerhaven primed for delivering its offshore-wind turbines somewhere offshore. The brochure I read said that Germany is planning to install 2000 (or maybe 5000) offshore wind turbines in the next few years. I told this to my companions and they shrugged. “We already have 20,000 regular turbines.” No big deal.

In between the going and coming, we spent 3 hours on the island of Helgoland. We first ate lunch, fish, fresh from the sea, the best food I’ve eaten in months. Then we hiked over Helgoland. The North side of Helgoland has steep high, red cliffs made of a soft rock. The land we were walking over is pastureland with high grass and pretty wild flowers.

The landscape is even more beautiful because of its rolling landscape. The landscape “rolls” more than would be natural (naturally I would assume it would be flat, like most things in this region). The island was heavily bombed in WWII (there was a U-Boat hangar carved into the island) so much that all the houses on the island were destroyed.

Herbal Tea

J, a woman at church, collects and dries her own teas. On Tuesday night’s Women’s Bible Study, she noticed that I had a cold and asked if I wanted some tea. On Wednesday she brought me a little bag of tea materials. At work, they have fill-your-own tea bags that I stuffed full of dried flowers and leaves and left to steep. The tea has a very mild taste and does not need sugar, honey or creamer. I think that drinking it makes me feel a bit better. I am very thankful for the church people who are taking such good care of me.

Today’s Vocab:

Erkaeltung=cold

Besuch

Today, Bola, a friend from college, came to visit Bremen for the day. She is working at the University of Potsdam, doing Science, until the middle of July.
The Story of Our Lovely Day:
I had planned to make pretzels as a snack for us during the day. I baked some last night to see if I had the recipe down. Through this baking attempt, I learned the importance of kneading the dough; I didn’t knead the Friday night batch hardly at all because the recipe from the internet didn’t really emphasize kneading, or time to let the dough rise or any of those other useful things. But now I have learned more about how kneading forges connections between the individual molecules of something or other within the flour and creates a chewier product.
I was running late and met Bola on the platform. We found a place to sit and looked at my tourist map. Then we went on, still without a real plan. We walked through the “Central Park of Bremen”, past the random old windmill that is in the center of town.
We went towards the Schlachte, along the Weser and then crossed the river with the intention of taking the 11:30 Becks tour, but there was no 11:30 Beck’s tour. We then went to the Viertal (the hip student quarter) and walked up and down the main street and back. Unlike our trip to Berlin, we did not stop once for hot chocolate!
Sitting on the Dom steps was, I think, the first time we had sat down since our map-pow-wow. We all headed for some Mexican food with our Bremen tour guides, a friend from work and a friend from church.
From there, we went to the Old Rathaus for a tour. We were only shown 3 rooms on the second floor of the Rathaus, and there were very clearly other rooms there that we did not see at all (torture chambers, I think).
After the Rathaus, we got a picture with the Bremen town musicians and Der Roland. We quickly went to Butcherstrasse at 6 PM for the Glockenspiel show. It was the most unexpected spot for a Glockenspiel down a narrow street that opens a liiittle bit so that maybe 30 people can cram in and peer up at this set of bells. And to the left of the bells, not in the center where you would think you’d be focusing your eyes, is a rotating cylinder (well, I assume it’s a cylinder, I don’t really know how it works) with pictures that look like engravings, of pictures of famous innovators and inventors from Europe and our Americas, with their names and a picture representing the field they impacted. Definitely something we wouldn’t have found without our guide!
We went back to the Schnoor and wandered about until 7. I suggested we get Bubble tea at McCafe, as Bola and I had gotten Bubble tea before in Potsdam. It was again very bad bubble tea; I must find my own source of properly sized black tapioca balls so that I can explain to my friends at the church what bubble tea really is.
We sat outside and drank our bubble tea by a playground in the pedestrian section of town. It started to barely spit, which I said meant Bola was getting the full Bremen experience, because one couldn’t be in Bremen without being rained on. Otherwise, we had had perfect weather, in the 80’s and sunny!

Amerika

More things to appreciate about America:

1. 1,   Here, I am registered to pay a church tax to the Protestants. There were about 10 choices of church types, “unbekannt” and none included, and Elsa says there is a way to select Frei Kirche and not pay any tax. I was not sly enough to get out of it. Ah, America and your clever separation of church and state!

2. 2,    I filled out the application, had my name on a Library card and then was led, card in hand by the librarian, to a cash machine, where she instructed me to scan my card and insert my money. It only costs 15 euro to join the library for the year (not including fines), but it is the principle of paying for a library, eradicated by our own Benjamin Franklin for a better system ages ago, that gets me. Besides, I am only here for 2.5 more months, not a year. I will just camp out in the library as often as possible and work on reading Artemis Fowl #’s 6 and 7, and hopefully borrow books from Elsa. 

Firma Fussball

The Firma Fussball tournament was so much fun to watch!

After the tournament, I went back to the church and found that the children’s Saturday class was still going on. It went until 6 and then there was a teen event. I awkwardly hovered around for a while and then decided to stay. I had pommes and fried chicken with them, and then we watched Courageous auf Deutsch. Very appropriate for me, given that American Father’s day is tomorrow. 

Do you speak German?

Before I left for Germany, many people asked me, and rightfully so, "Do you speak German?" The more optimistic folks who had more confidence in me would ask "how is your German?" assuming that I already had some.
My honest reply, as to most things, is to admit my absurd overconfidence but do nothing about it. "I think I do, but I think that I will soon learn that I do not." or my other standard reply, "I've only had a year in college and a year in High School, and I have never learned environmental engineering German."

For CEM, the question I am asking myself is, "can you handle the French language?" and I know that I am being a bit overconfident in my 6 years of school French, but am not sure what I can do about it. I know the first few days I will have no idea what is going on, until my brain and ears catch onto the speed and the gait of local speech.
PRAYER REQUEST for comprehensibility and comprehension in CEM, for the language as well as comprehension of our complex theological topics.

Short Intro!

I am B.Sc. Bethany Schneider, fresh out of college, and working for 3 months as a Praktikantin for an Environmental Engineering company in Bremen, Germany. During my time here, I am living in a church building (fun fact). For entertainment, I ride my bicycle (into the ground), try to learn German, talk to my neighbors, and go on trips whenever sympathetic church/work people are willing to take an me along.

In September, I will be a student in the Chretiens en Mission (CEM) program in Marseille, France (Lord willing, as we say). At this point, I hope to faithfully keep up a blog, as the last blog I can find online about the program is from 2008. Then you can keep up to date on what I am learning and doing as a CEMiste.

FYI
Bremen Church Website: http://www.gemeinde-christi-bremen.de/
Info about Christians on Missions!
...um, web address is incredibly hard to find using google. will post later