The Cradle

There is a train in Berlin that circles around the outskirts of the city centre, hence the name "ring-bahn".  I live on the western end of the ring while my friend Rike lives on the eastern end.  Needless to say it is a long ride from my place to hers.  You encounter quite a change of scenery when you go on that train as it journeys from district to district.  You also observe a real collection of eclectic colourful people and when I say colourful, read: blue-green-purple mohawked.   Today as I sat on my seat balancing my guitar between my knees and listening to my Ipod on the Ring-bahn, I see this very drunk old scruffy-looking man come onto the train.  He sits one row of seats in front of me, back-to-me, and I see the eyes of the children sitting by him go wide-eyed on their now pale little faces as the man yells loudly at many different people on the train all the while laughing hysterically.  Eventually, he ends up sitting right across from me as I'm sure the parent of the children kindly but firmly instructed him to move.  I stared out the window and made no eye contact as this man swigging back his bottle of vodka with a broken bottleneck laughed obnoxiously.  I knew he said a few things to me, not that I could understand his slurred German words, but I think the comments had to do with my awkward large guitar case and requests for me to play music.  And then all of the sudden, he just started to cry, tears streaming down his face as he clutched onto his broken almost empty bottle.  This man is broken.  This man is alone in a train full of people.  I so desperately wanted to hug this man, hold his hand and tell him he is worth it but I couldn't.  I was frightened of what he might have happened if I did and I had the lame excuse that I wouldn't be able to communicate with him.  I could have punched myself for ignoring this man.  Who am I some self-righteous snob?  The train jolted and his bottles clunked to the floor.  The young man sitting next to him, who obviously had enough at this point, picked up the bottles and dumped the remainder of the contents out the window and I stepped off the train onto the platform as if it never happened.

I've recently started a new daily devotions.  Part of the devotion is dedicated to praying for the church.  The other day as I was praying for the church and its people I got this picture of a cradle.  The cradle was nurturing God's children.  The cradle was caring for the orphaned, widowed, slaved, powerless, ill, homeless, oppressed.  Do you want to know what the cradle symbolized?  THE CHURCH!!!  ME!!!!  A baby cannot survive on its own.  It needs to be loved, educated, supported, raised, protected, encouraged, looked after, discipled and cradled.  The cradle is in works all of the time, not some of the time when it's most convenient for us or doesn't require much sacrifice, effort or risk.  As I think back to the situation on the train today, I see one example where it doesn't always come easy for me to care for God's children.  It's not something I can do on my own so openly and freely.  It takes a lot of boldness and courage.  Though in these acts, the greatness of the Kingdom shines through.  We are meant to live in relationship with one another.  We are meant to get down and messy in other people's lives.   Church let's get to work. Church let's become a spiritual family for one another.

Again back to the devotions I'm doing.  Every week there is a different hymn to focus on.  The one from this week seems very fitting.

  I like this version -->  Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Kings Kaleidoscope

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Peace & love

Being Reduced to an "It"

Let me tell you one of the many reasons I joined this profession was my utmost intolerance for bullying and disrespect amongst children.  I make it a hidden agenda to deflate any child's view that others are inferior to them or that some tasks are just too beneath their status.  Those are absolutely disgusting thoughts and believe me this change of mind set is not an easy fix. I bet you can think back to your childhood and think of a time you were bullied.  I definitely can.  Look back to your childhood and think of a time that you were the bully.  I definitely can.

What do you think of when I say the word bully?  Is it some stereotypical caricature of a large tough male student who steals lunches and beats the little children up?  Guess what... that is a really shallow view.  Read Odd Girl Speaks Out  by Rachel Simmons to see the expanded image of bullies.    

"Bullying is a conscious, wilful, and deliberate hostile activity intended to harm" Kidsareworthit.com

The above quote comes from one of my heroes, Barbara Coloroso.  Read her books.  Go to her conferences.  She hits it home.  Coloroso states that bullying is a way of dehumanizing people.  What does that mean? A bully treats their victim as if their victim is an "it", a thing that can not feel emotion or has no voice or power of their own.  When you dehumanize someone, you are demonstrating that this person has no worth or value.  Now I know I might be sounding very dramatic or exaggerative here but look up the story of Reena Virk, a student in Victoria, BC who was killed by a group of middle school girls or watch the documentary Bully.  (I bawled through the entire thing.)  Bullying is real and the mistreatment does not end when children end their schooling.  It is all around us.  For example: sexual harassment, hazing, bribery, violent threats, physical, mental and emotional abuse, cyber bullies, racist or sexist demonstrations, derogatory terms used, gossip and rumours... shall I go on?  

Again it comes back to demolishing this view that we are somehow superior to other people and able to walk all over them and treat them like dirt scum.  As Coloroso puts it, bullying leads to hate crime which leads to genocide.  The three have the same underlying reason: lack of compassion and demoralizing people to an "it", creating this idea that it's acceptable to harm and hurt others.  Prime example: Northern Ugandan child soldiers who were bullied and manipulated to witness, experience and do awful things.  These young cherished children were mistreated and forced to partake in a genocide or fall victim to the genocide.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this and think of some new innovative idea that will change the face of bullying forever.  All I can come up with is the Christianese slap-it-on-a-bumper-sticker answer of loving your neighbour as yourself.  Don't roll you eyes and say "that's nice".  Jesus commanded this for a reason.  Think about it. What would the world look like, if everyone actually did try to live out this command?  I think their would be a lot less bullying, injustice and hate crime going on in the world.  How would the world look if we taught and modelled to children respect, compassion, and acceptance of neighbours, coworkers, or the employee at the restaurant that screwed up the meal order?  As it was put in the documentary Bully, "It's time to take a stand." Friends let's live out the words of Jesus and be kind, caring and respectful to one another.

peace & love

If you would like to know more about what the heck I am talking about here are some useful resources.

Barbara Coloroso's kidsareworthit

Odd Girl Speaks Out by Rachel Simmons

Bully documentary

WITS anti-bullying program

story of Reena Virk

Pink Shirt Day Anti-bullying awareness

Restore Northern Uganda Documentary with some very graphic stories of child soldiers

Roles of a Teacher

Okay I have been terrible at keeping up my blog.  Time is just going way too fast and before I know it, it will be end of term and Christmas holidays will begin.

To think two weeks ago, I was exploring the terrain of the beautiful country of Norway.  Three of my teacher friends and I road-tripped/ferried up to Norway from Germany on our half-term break.  We had a lot of fun just driving, eating and exploring through Norway.

Some highlights include:
-  our day drive up to Norway, where we had breakfast in Copenhagen, Denmark, lunch in Gothenburg, Sweden, and dinner in Drammen, Norway.  If I had a bucket list, that one would be crossed off.

- our cheap yet fantastic accommodations
including a 3-bedroom, two-story holiday apartment with a sauna
- seeing the Watoto Children's Choir Concert and catching up with a friend from Uganda.
- driving through a 25 km tunnel to an isolated mountainous village
- taking in the winter and autumn seasons in one day

We also booked a 20 hour cruise from Oslo, Norway to Kiel, Germany.  We initially thought

we had booked a plain old boring ferry so we were quite excited when we discovered we booked a cruise.  That excitement soon ended as we all got extremely sea sick.  Did you hear about those travel warnings due to severe weather that were sent out in England around October 25th?  Well, we hit that storm full on in open ocean.  I'll spare the details but was quite glad to be off that ship the following morning.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the time off that I had.  Now I am back into full swing school mode.  I have realized more and more everyday of the many roles I take on, roles that my teaching degree never taught me.  So I began to compile a list of the many tasks I do as a teacher that are more or less directly related to teaching.

Roles:

Mother - It's a given really, especially with 7 year olds.

First Aid Attendant - Most injuries that happen on the playground will instantly be healed with an icepack or a band-aid.

Mediator - Someone has to sort out the playground conflicts.

Interrogator/Detective - Ok this sounds a lot more awful than what I'm getting at here.  Someone needs to get to the bottom of incidents that occur, and hear both sides of the story to sort out truth from fib.

Play-write/Director/Producer - Lately, I have been writing a play for my class to do in the winter concert and soon we will begin rehearsals.

Website-designer - So pumped that my class blog will soon be launched!

Photographer - See some of my photos of the children's artwork they did making patterns using objects found in nature.

Actor - Sometimes I have to pretend I'm really upset about something when I secretly think the student's idea was ingeniously hilarious.

Tour Guide - Actually, this one is not my strong point.  My class just began swimming lessons this week at the Olympic Stadium pool, which is a quick bus ride away from the school.  We got to the pool and I didn't know how to get into the building.  I told my students that they would be the teacher today and they were in charge of leading the way.  They thought this was the best thing ever.  Pretty sure the bus driver thought I was a fruitcake.

Interior Designer - There is an never-ending battle of finding places to put up students' work on limited wall space.

Public Speaker - Next week I will be leading my first whole school assembly.  Yikes!

Activist - It's really cool how schools can have a huge impact on raising awareness and promoting proactivity to children on charitable and ethical issues.

Exterminator - Today a student came in screaming my name because she had a giant wasp attached to her shirt and was too afraid to brush it off.

There are many many more roles that teachers have that I haven't even touched on.  Believe me, I am dead when I come home from work everyday but it has been soooooooo worth it.

Peace & love

Thankful

Autumn is my best season.  I love the crispness of the air, and the burst of earthy tones from the forest of maple trees.  I love wearing warm scarves and leather boots with wool socks underneath.  Autumn is absolutely spectacular at home in Canada.  I am lucky that here in Berlin, I get a beautiful autumn as well.  However there is one thing about a Canadian fall that Germany just doesn't quite live up to.  This is the first year I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving, the best holiday of the year.  There is nothing like a delicious turkey dinner complete with good friends, family and pumpkin pie!  It's times like these that make me really homesick.  I said "Happy Thanksgiving" to my one Canadian friend here today and then ate a turkey sandwich with dried cranberries for lunch.  I'm not going to make this a whine session for this holiday is centred on gratitude and thankfulness throughout the year, and I can honestly say that I have much to be thankful for this year.




I am thankful for... the help I received last year in packing up to move out of Victoria.  This includes all of the people who helped me move my boxes to the Olsen's home, the kind man at the liquor store who let me take a whole bunch of boxes for free and the Olsens for storing my things last fall. Also it includes my dad for driving 20 hours (both ways) to Victoria with a trailer to move all of my things up to store at home this summer.

I am thankful for... the six months I lived in Uganda.  I could probably write a novel on how thankful I am for the amazing friends I met, places I saw, and things I got to do.  I have learned and grown so much and continue to do so since my time there.

I am thankful for... the opportunity to meet my sponsor child and develop a friendship with this incredible 8 year old Ugandan boy.  He has so much favour on his life.  It's amazing to think that I just chose a picture of a child when I decided to sponsor a child but I know deep down there was no coincidence about that.  I was meant to sponsor him and be a part of his life.

I am thankful for...  my baptism last fall at my home church in Victoria.  I sobbed buckets and am forever grateful for all the people who came to witness.  With that step I took in publicly expressing my faith, I never would have imagined the blessings that would come out of that.

I am thankful for... a random email last February that lead to my application and acceptance to teach full-time grade 2 at an international school in Berlin. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!

I am thankful for... being able to spend time with the people I love most for the month and a half I was in Canada for.  I got to catch up with my buds in Victoria, do very Canadian things like fishing, camping, and hiking with my family in my hometown, and go visit my Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins in Manitoba.

I am thankful for... the smooth transition to Berlin.  It's difficult to move to a new place, let alone a new country.  I literally have a drawer filled with different documents and paperwork that I had to get for the various things I needed to live in Germany.  I live in a beautiful apartment next to a palace!

I am thankful for... the new friends that throw birthday parties, go to Oktoberfest with me, experience a dinner in the dark or attend my new home group.  Also I'm so thankful for the fit-for-me church community I can now call home in Berlin.  God was right when He called me a moron for not believing that I would have a loving, fun and caring community in Berlin.

I am thankful for... Skype and other means of communication to back home throughout this year.  Today I was able to Skype with my family before their thanksgiving celebration began.

I am thankful for... my family coming to Berlin for the Christmas holidays!!! I can't wait!

But most importantly I am thankful for the favour I have had upon my life this year.  I have seen His hand guiding me to new and exciting places that have exceeded my expectations.

        Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
        tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
        streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
        call for songs of loudest praise. 
        Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
        sung by flaming tongues above. 
        Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
        mount of thy redeeming love.   ~~~~  Come thou Fount

                            HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM BERLIN!!!!

Peace & love

Blessed are those who mourn

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  I used to think that this meant that you will feel good after a really awful experience of pain and sorrow. THAT'S FALSE!  As I have discovered, this actually means that we have to develop the attitude of mourning.  You might be thinking, "Why the heck would I want to mope around in a gloomy depressing state?  That doesn't sound like much of a blessing!"  Just listen to me for a minute.  Mourn means to express grief, sorrow or regret.  This beatitude actually means that Jesus wants us to express sorrow for those things that upset Him such as the sin in us that distances us from God, the persecuted church, and the injustice and corruption of the world.

Since my return from Uganda, I cry a lot!  The slightest thing will trigger it and I just sob uncontrollably for sometimes up to an hour.  The last episode hit this weekend when I decided to watch Machine Gun Preacher.  Yaaa...  that was a little too close to home for me but don't worry about me.  I'm not going through an emotional crisis.  I just hurt for a nation.  I ache for a people.  I cry over the brokenness in the world.  Everything just seems so much more real now that I have seen such an extremity of poverty, corruption, and injustice with my own two eyes.  I have friends that have overcome such terrible things in their lives and I utterly detest the fact that this has happened to them and these things still continue to go on.  I hate the ignorance of "the western world" in the hurt and destruction that continues around the world, even the hurt  and destruction within their own countries.


Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." -
Mother Teresa 





one of the pictures and quotes that triggered a crying episode











This last week, I have reflected upon my crying episodes and realized that something in me has changed since I left Uganda.  I now mourn over the world.  Before Uganda, I was so passionate about social justice, loving my neighbour and bringing the Kingdom to a tainted world but not to the point where I would be angry or visibly upset about it.  I now understand the beatitude of mourning.   The only true comfort comes from the promise of eternal life.  Think about it.  Heaven is going to rock!! Oppression and disease will be nonexistent and it will a huge party with all these incredible people that you have met and loved throughout your life.  Plus Jesus will be there!

Another thing I've been wrestling with is where am I supposed to be reaching out to right now.   I miss the Mustard Seed Street Church community in Victoria and it drives me bonkers that I can't converse with the homeless people here in Berlin the way I used to in Victoria.  Another adjustment I am finding hard to cope with is going to church once a week with a small Bible study group once a week as well.  In Uganda, I was at church every single day and at home, I had a key to the church to get in whenever I wanted!  I am coming to the understanding that right now in my life, I am not able to go to church that often, that I have a job that I need to invest time into which is where I am needed, and that I am unable at the moment to dive into the ministries that I used to partake in.  I have been meditating on the verse James 1:27 which says that the religion God finds faultless is the one that looks after the orphan and widow in their distress and refrains from being polluted by worldly things.  This has been frustrating to me as I have been relearning and rediscovering ways to do that in this new environment.  I can't serve the same way I did in my previous homes and that irks me, however at the same time it excites me to know that I am being moulded here into a new role as a disciple.

Anyway I don't know where I'm going with this and I don't exactly have a solution or inspirational message to leave you with either.  I guess we just can't assume that God will always use us in the same way our whole lives.  We can compare ourselves to how we used to serve God and beat ourselves up over it but that's not what He wants.  He asks of us to serve even the smallest cup of water with a smile to show the greatness of the Kingdom ~Matthew 10:42 and He asks of us to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Song of the day is from a worship leader in Victoria--> We are the Church by Fraser Campbell

Peace & love

Back to School

I survived my first back to school week. This week has come along with much learning and adjustment in a new work environment as well as aching feet, a dry throat and early bedtimes.  It's almost surreal to think that I have my very own set of students and classroom for an entire year.

My little year 3 students are wonderful and I am excited to get to work with them throughout this year.  We have a little United Nations in our classroom with children from Germany, England, Russia, Korea, Malawi, Namibia, Turkey, etc.  As a class, we discovered that we speak fourteen languages in total ranging from Hebrew to Mandarin to French.  Think about it, these kids are seven years old and some of them can speak four languages fluently.  INCREDIBLE!



A little background information on how my school is set up.  I am working at a school that has been implementing the English National Curriculum but due to a more internationally diverse student population, the school is in a transition year moving to the PYP, Primary Years Program, from the International Baccalaureate curriculum.  I have ten students that make up my class however I actually have a shared room and team-teach with the other Year 3 teacher.  This means that our class consists of twenty children in all. (I'm spoiled, I know!)  My partner teacher and myself do all our planning, assessment, and preparation together and we treat our two classes as one set of Year 3's.  It's fantastic to be able to bounce ideas off another professional and have the chance to really differentiate our lessons for the benefit of our students.  Most often we divide the class into ability groups and teach them separately.  I have been sooooo thankful for my partner teacher this week with all the help to my numerous questions and her wonderful ideas on how to facilitate a class.  This comes in handy when I need to answer general inquiries from parents.  There are so many things to take note of at a school, there is no possible way that you could know it all right away... or ever.  I know I will learn heaps this year and hope that my students will learn the same amount if not more than I this year.


One could say that I am slowly but surely adapting to the European life.  I have more than three types of cheese in my fridge, none of which are cheddar.  I seldom leave my home wearing sweatpants.  I ring the bell on my bike when pedestrians cross into the bike lane.  I know where the nudist section at the park is.  (That one I found out by accident as I was exploring through the trails at Tiergarten this weekend.  Scarred for life!)  I shop for produce in Turkish Markets and I only wear my runners when I'm exercising.  Don't get me wrong, I still stick out with my heavy Canadian accent.  Even when I

attempt to speak German, I get a response back in English.  Even though I am adjusting to a new lifestyle here in Berlin, I am so thankful for a God that remains constant, someone I can rely on entirely and trust His being does not change whether I am in Germany, Uganda, Canada, a classroom, a church service or on a train.  I have been reminded this week that I am not of this world but placed in it for greater purposes beyond my knowledge and understanding.  Yes, there are times I just want to rip my hair out and go back to a place that is more familiar to me but all in all, I do have a peace in my heart that for this season in  time, I am meant to be here.

"I pray for them. I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world But for those you gave me, For they are yours by right.  Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them.  For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll continue in the world While I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life That you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind. As long as I was with them, I guarded them In the pursuit of the life you gave through me; I even posted a night watch. And not one of them got away, Except for the rebel bent on destruction (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).  Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing So my people can experience My joy completed in them.  I gave them your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn't join the world's ways, just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One.  They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world.  Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth.  In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world.  I'm consecrating myself for their sakes So they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission." John 17: 9-19

I will leave you with You Never Fail off of Hillsong's new album. Also, as I edit through this post, I realize there is quite a lot of teacher jargon.  My apologies!

Peace & love

Touring Before it All Begins

Hey there!  Greetings from Berlin.  My apologies on my neglectfulness.  I promise to keep more regular updates on my blog from now on.  You can hold me accountable to it!

I have been living in Berlin now for almost a full month and am becoming more and more accustomed to life here.  Google translate has become my best friend when making grocery shopping lists, or reading through my mail.  I can't tell you the amount of times I get mail from the bank or gas company thinking it will be something terrible to only find out later that the letter was an advertisement or welcoming me to something. AH!  Google translate seriously makes up for my lack of language skills but at the same time most people here do speak English, even when they say they only speak a little but we always manage to communicate with large hand gestures and simple broken English.  I empathize with immigrants who come to a new country speaking a different language with a completely different alphabet system or those who are illiterate.  How difficult and frustrating it would be to communicate with others and get by day to day.

Since school starts in the beginning of September, this month was dedicated to getting adjusted.... aka being a tourist while I can still pull off being a complete foreigner and have time to do so.  Another new teacher and myself decided to do a two day bus tour (the kind with the headphones to make it extra touristy), where we got a quick glance at the main historical sights and popular areas of Berlin.  We also took a nice boat tour that sails down a canal right through the city.  Berlin is such an internationally diverse city.  You can crush any craving with the many different ethnic restaurants and for cheap too!  Some restaurants that I have tried so far include Vietnamese, Greek, Turkish, Ethiopian and Italian.  Also every area or district you go to has different things to offer.  Charlottenburg, where I live, is quite green and has lots of trails to bike or walk on.  I went to a Sunday fleamarket in Prenzlauer Berg which was HUGE.  I thought Victoria was the hipster-vintage-granola capital and I thought wrong.  The flea-market was filled with some interesting people like hula-hoopers, buskers, jugglers, bearded and dreadlocked hippies.  We witnessed a hilarious and very addictive karaoke in the park near the flea-market.  Needless to say, not everyone who sang would have been successful on "The Voice" but the audience was in good spirits and cheered on all the participants.  Just outside of Berlin is Potsdam, a city that holds the old residence of the Prussian kings.  It reminded me of Banff or Whistler with its shopping streets and the Prussian palace grounds were beautiful to walk around.

Potsdam

 Being extremely touristy!

The colourful people at the karaoke!












Another assignment I made for myself before I got into the routine of school was to find a church to go to.  Before I got here, I got in contact with one English-speaking international church and decided that I would give that a go.  Immediately I felt very welcomed by this diverse church community that hold their services in a movie theatre! I think that's so awesome!  Through this community, I have met people from all over the world (including some who call Watoto Central their home church!) and I have started going to a weekly home group.  So thankful to find a rock solid church community in this corner of the world.

On another note, the countdown to first day of school is approaching promptly.  This last week, I put in some hours at the school to start setting up my room and familiarizing myself with the layout and resources at the school (mostly with the help of the school secretary... they are the secret backbones that make up a school!)  I am getting anxious to begin teaching and just ease into a routine.  The back-to-school teacher nightmares have ranged from not having anything planned, being late to find all the kids with their parents waiting on me, or not finding my classroom at all.  My mother informs me that she still gets back-to-school nightmares and that these are normal.  They still AREN'T FUN!

Anyway that was long-winded and again I promise I will pick up the slack on my blog updates! Song for the day will be No Turning Back by Israel Houghton, which has been a favourite at church lately!

Peace & love

A New Foreign Land

Guten tag!  I write to you from a smokey little grill across the street from my apartment.  The owner is this kind old Turkish man and is letting me borrow his Internet while I wait for mine to be installed in my apartment.  I live on a little street close to the Charlottenburg palace with lots of beautiful trails to walk on and plenty of little shops and cafes.  My apartment is way more than I could ever have asked for with high ceilings, wooden floors, and big windows and is situated in a hundred year old building.  

Let's see... I arrived in Berlin on Sunday.  A woman who works for the school came and picked me up.  As I jumped in the taxi to escape the blistering 40 Celsius weather and head to my flat, Hot in Here by Nelly  was playing on the radio.  How appropriate I thought!! Here is a remake of that song... Hot in here by jenny owen young.  If you do some YouTube stalking, you may find a version of my old band singing it!  Pardon that rabbit trail.  When I got to my apartment, the lady from the relocation service, her husband, and my landlord were there to greet me.  Once I signed all the rental agreements, found some lunch at a bakery down the street, I crashed in my new bed for a good solid fifteen hours.

The last few days have been quite busy getting myself settled in Berlin.  Each day has had an adventure of its own such as getting a bank account, Internet and a phone, navigating through the U bahn stations or clearing my shipment through customs.  I am very thankful that I have had people to go with me to accomplish these tasks and most importantly, translate for me!  I have found it funny and challenging at the same time to have people start speaking to me in German all the time with my polite apology of "I'm so sorry.  I don't speak German" and my deer-in-the-head-lights expression.  In Uganda this wasn't a problem.  I clearly looked like a foreigner and people assumed correctly that I couldn't speak Luganda but here, I look like I could speak German.  It doesn't help that my surname is German either.

On another note of trying to survive in a foreign land, going for groceries has been quite the ordeal!  Thankfully there are two supermarkets in my neighbourhood that I can walk to. The first day I brought my backpack, a huge cloth bag, and a long list of food items fully prepared to stalk up my kitchen cupboard.  Unfortunately, I failed to think that maybe all of the labels of the food would be in German too!  Needless to say, I didn't get everything on my shopping list that day.  I stuck with the things that I knew I was buying.  I wasn't going to attempt buying spices that I couldn't identify for that could end badly.  Unluckily, I bought a jar of sweet pickles thinking they were dill.  GROSS!

Well that has pretty much been it besides having dinner with the assistant head teacher at the primary school and going for countless walks to get myself orientated.  Anyway, lots of new things!  I feel very grateful for how easy the transition has been so far and all the assistance I have had.  I'll keep you posted with my latest adventures, awkward moments, and ramblings.

Peace and love

Life in the Country

Living out in the country of a small northern town in Canada definitely has its benefits.   I love walking around the forest trails, swimming in the lake across the street, having backyard campfires, seeing snow-capped mountains from my window and taking the dirt bikes or four-wheelers up the old abandoned logging roads.  Living out in the country has its disadvantages too such as massive dumps of snow in the winter, power outages, lack of internet access, long drives to town, and moose eat all your fruit trees.  

The latest news around my neighborhood has been the coyotes.  We do get lots of wildlife on our land but the coyotes are a different kind of pest.  See coyotes like to eat small animals and have a special way of luring their next victims.  These sneaky little creatures camp out in hidden isolated areas such as the forest bush at the back of our property and begin to whine and howl with great volume as if they are injured or in danger.  The unsuspecting dog goes over to see what all the commotion is about to be swarmed by a mob of bloodthirsty coyotes. 

Lately we have noticed some signs around the neighborhood of missing dogs or cats which we have figured to have been caused by the coyotes.  Some of our neighbors keep shot guns by their doors to be ready for the first sign of the coyotes.  This has prompted our family to take extra caution and care to our little Morkie, Murphy by tying him up in the yard close to the house every time he is outside.  Murphy wouldn’t stand a chance against a gang of vicious coyotes and would end up as a side dish or appetizer for them.  Murphy is a little fireball of energy and would kill to not be tied up in the yard every time he is outside.  He barks like crazy and tugs at his chain with all of his little ten pound body when he hears the enchanting coyotes in the bushes.  Our family has a difficult time keeping this little puppy inside.  If we leave the door open a crack, Murphy slips outside like a rocket and runs around the neighborhood at a million miles an hour crying, “Freedom!!!”  We have found it a frustrating fight to get him back in the house or from getting him to stop urinating in the house.  Despite our best efforts at protecting him, Murphy still hasn’t learned that he cannot run free outside.  Sometimes we get so frustrated (usually after one of us steps in a puddle of urine), we want to give up, let him loose, and just let Murphy suffer with his own fate.  We love Murphy, he is a part of our family and even though he continuously rebels, we cannot upright desert him.

Doesn’t the enemy have a way of luring us into things that seem so attractive or the “right thing to do”?  He sneakily guides us into vulnerable places where we find ourselves the most weak and away from any sort of protection or comfort.  Despite others’ or our own precautions and attacks, we still find a way to slip out the door and run straight into the enemy’s trap thinking it’s the best thing ever.   Thankfully we have a Father that loves us and knows what is best for us.  Even though we continually rebel, complain of His warnings and precautions and do our own thing, God doesn’t give up on us.  Don’t you think He must be just little frustrated with us like when He steps in a puddle of our urine or can’t make it even more obvious of the coyote camping out in the bush?  Despite our failures and mistakes, we are His children and He loves us unconditionally with no bounds.  Our Father will keep picking us up from our mistakes and building us up stronger.

"Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. 

So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures."

James 1:13-18 (The Message)

Song for the day 
Your love never Fails - Jesus Culture 

  Peace and love