Tale as Old as Time

Germany celebrates their unification as a country on October third each year which means students don't go to school and teachers go to France.

Well, maybe not all teachers do, but three of my housemates, a neighbor, and I chose to adventure over the border while everything in our resident country was closed. We piled in a car and stopped off at the bank to get cash for any groceries or goodies we might find in France. As we tried to pull out of the parking lot in town, we discovered a flat tire was preventing us from going very far. Sandra and I sat aside as the other two Garni girls took charge. It was a humbling experience for me to have nothing to offer the situation. I'm used to being a fairly productive member of society, but I found that stranded in the middle of town, I could do nothing other than sit on the curb and provide moral support for the two girls changing the flat for a spare.

Even once we got home, all I could do was play music on my phone for the same two girls as they changed the front tires to winter tires that we could use to drive over 80kph to actually get to Colmar in a reasonable amount of time. I cheered them on to the best of my ability while pondering my usefulness as a member of society in a country where I don't have a clue what to do in a vehicular crisis. What occurred to me was that my value as a person is not related to my utility by my personality.

When we finally arrived in Colmar, I wasn't a frivolous member of the excursion; all of us were integral to contributing to an amazing day. We stepped out of the parking garage into a street that looked nearly identical to the village Belle wanders in Beauty and the Beast, and we sang and danced through town. It likely looked so similar to the cartoon because Colmar is rumored to be the inspiration for Belle's village in the Disney production.

This was literally right outside the parking garage door.

My long weekend also gave me an opportunity to see some of a closer city to my home over a different international border. My organization's member care team planned an excursion to teach us the local bus system, and a few friends and I journeyed into Switzerland to wander around the streets of Basel for an afternoon.  

The bus dropped us off just outside of a Starbucks, and I enjoyed my first Starbucks in nearly two months. (I did get a shot of espresso at a Starbucks in Freiburg back in August, but that hardly counts.) After savoring my massive mocha, I window shopped through Basel with my friends and had another opportunity to be thankful for the relationships I'm building in this new home. 

One of the unique things about my service here as a missionary in Germany is that I'm not always (often... ever...) interacting with local German (or French) speakers. I'm limited to who I can interact with right now because of the language barrier, but that doesn't limit me from growing in my faith and living on mission with the people I do interact with. These weekend adventures were opportunities for me to spend time with the people I live and work with in an environment different than our daily routine. We don't have distinct lines between work, church, or other friends here. Instead, I get to adventure with these amazing individuals in Colmar, Basel, and the halls of BFA in Kandern. We get the privilege of sharing life with each other and growing in relationship with Christ in our adventurous lives - a tale as old as time.