There are Cats in Germany too

German word of the day: Katze.

Katze means cat.

There are cats here in Germany. They are as cute and flighty as katzen (that's the plural form) in America. It's such an ordinary thing to see a cat running across the street or stalking around our windows - perhaps even running in our house when we're lufting. I used to see neighbors cats making themselves at home in my backyard in the states, so seeing them here makes this place seem a little less foreign. Cats in Germany are just one of the many similarities I've found between my old home and my new one.

There are certainly differences that are hard for me to get used to - the lack of Trader Joe's and Starbucks being at the top of the list. However, these things are barely inconveniences in light of the blessings I've found in living here.

Those of you who know me well may have caught the significance of that last statement - I'm okay without Starbucks because what I've found here is so much better.

Day by day, I'm learning more about my new home in Germany, and I'm discovering that it's a wonderful place to live. I like living close enough to walk to work, the grocery store, the bank, and the post office. I enjoy the cozy feel of a small town that's nestled into forested hills. I also have a fantastic working environment where I'm encouraged and uplifted regularly. I enjoy reading emails from the communications department because Doug makes me laugh (side note - I love working with and teaching so many fantastic Canadians). I love meeting with Jill because she gives me constructive feedback for my teaching. I smile whenever Allison walks into the office because I know she's about to make my day better by just being herself. My students are another amazing blessing of this place; I got half a dozen hugs when the bell rang seventh period Friday from students scattering across the globe for the next three weeks.

My greatest struggle in adapting fully is not knowing the language which is why I'm looking into ways to learn and practice German regularly. Portland will always be my heart's home, but I am living in Kandern now; I want to be fully present where God has planted me for this time. That doesn't mean I have instantly stopped missing things about Portland - I still want a Trader Joe's to open up in town, and I'm pretty sure I could keep a Kandern Starbucks in business by myself - but I do want to celebrate the things I enjoyed in Portland as well as the things I have now in Kandern.

For example, I loved driving out to Hagg's Christmas Tree farm every year of my life before this one to cut down our tree with my parents. I never want to forget the sense of accomplishment I had the year I sawed it down myself. This year, we all chipped in a few euros to have a pre-chopped tree carted up to our house. My housemates and I then spent last Wednesday exchanging gifts and decorating our new family's tree. I even got to bring in another one of my favorite traditions on a whim. Every Christmas morning growing up, my dad would read Luke two before we opened presents; my housemates humored me while I read the advent narrative before we opened our presents. Our Garni family then revealed our secret Santa gifts, and I was overjoyed to find that Dayla had not only bought me a wonderful warm new scarf but also got me a Christmas tree made out of words. I'm so blessed to have new family here who know me well enough to know that I would be delighted by such a fantastic book related decoration.

I'll notice more and more differences between life here and in the Pacific Northwest over the Christmas break, I'm sure, but I'm excited to see the similarities in how I can live life and celebrate my Savior on either side of the Atlantic.

Annual Checkup

A year ago this month I had a couple very rough conversations that led to this long confession about why I needed to move overseas.

I concluded my confession by admitting that I didn't know where I'd be a year from that point, but my intention was to be closer to Jesus. I stand here a year in the future thankful to say that I'm closer to my Savior than I was then; this past year has been an incredible journey as I've made my way to Germany and begun my first year teaching. I've still got a ways to go though. I never want to be satisfied with where I am in my relationship with Jesus, so I celebrate the chapters that have been written so far while continuing to write with the Author and Perfecter of my faith.

I'm so excited that this next year of my journey will be in Germany. I've got an amazing adventure ahead of me, and I love the people God's placed in my life to adventure with me. Some of them are here with me taking crazy pictures in French parking garages, and others are mourning the loss of the magnificent nature of our one time home in the Pacific Northwest. However God's put you in my life, I'm thankful for it, and I'm thankful you're sharing this journey with me.

Tony Hawk Is Old Now

"Miss Hewett, the other Sonne boys might be a while before they get to class," my early arrival to first period told me.
"Why's that?" I asked, taking in the dusting of baby powder on his head, plaid shirt, and skateboard. "What's your spirit day?" I added. I'm getting used to students from different dorms coming into class dressed according to a particular theme when their dorm has a hot lunch day. One week the Blauen girls wore inside out clothing; another day the Liel girls all dressed up like pumpkins.
"Sonne boys are dressed up like old guys; I'm Tony Hawk."
Puzzled, I started to ask why his outfit didn't match his dorm brothers' theme until I realized, "Oh, because Tony Hawk is old now?"
He grinned in agreement.

I saw my life flash before my eyes - if Tony Hawk is old, I'm getting old too.

Before I get too old, though, I'm making some amazing memories. I chuckled as I walked down the hall seeing half a dozen freshmen boys in sweatpants and robes with baby powder coating their heads. One of my boys had so much baby powder, a quick jerk of his head would send up a small cloud of dust. Halfway through class, he slumped in his chair pretending to doze off because, "Miss Hewett, old men fall asleep all the time."
"Not in my English class, they don't."
His junior dorm brother gave me the same line in my second period class.
Sonne kids really get into character for their spirit days.

I love the spirit these kids have for their dorm and their school. Every day there's something new, and I love the laughter and joy that comes into my classroom with spirit days.

I also love the opportunities I have to share my passion for faith and learning in my classroom. While I had five freshmen coated in baby powder in comfy clothes, I got to share with my students the connection between Scrooge's selfishness and our own. Reading literature gives us the opportunity to examine our own lives and see where we can change from being greedy to generous, lecherous to loving, and passive to passionate. Those of you who have seen me talk about literature and my faith know I can get a little emotional in my presentation. After my intense lecture, a freshmen piped up from the scared silence, "I get why you really like being a Bible teacher."
"You mean why I love being an English teacher," I corrected, "This stuff is in all of literature - these amazing connections between the stories, our lives, and our faith."

To be honest, I do love being a Bible teacher too. I have the best of both worlds here at BFA because I get to teach both Bible and English - the two things I'm most passionate about - to teenagers - my third great passion in life.

I love working with youth who think Tony Hawk is old and don't know what cassette tapes are. Sometimes that makes me feel old, but most of the time it excites me to see who the people who will shape the future of this world are. I'm blessed to have the chance to see these kids at BFA be silly and ridiculous while knowing that the junior who pretended to fall asleep in Bible is also one of the brightest kids in the school who is making choices today that positively change the world for Christ. He's the president of NHS here, and I've watched him talk about and plan service projects with a desire to be a servant leader in his school and community. He's not waiting until he's actually an old man to make a difference, and I admire that in the students I work with.

BFA isn't the only place that has amazing students like that either. I came here to serve the kids who dress up like pumpkins and old men, but I left behind some awesome students who prancercize and like pocket painter ponies. I had a great conversation yesterday with a young girl on the other side of the Atlantic from me who, on a regular basis, chooses to put serving others above herself. She gave up participating in the mock trial at her school to do a homework club for kids in her church's neighborhood. Even though only one grade school student comes regularly, she's committed to serving her community through this restructuring of her youth group. She's not willing to back out just because her youth group isn't popular or traditional anymore though some of her friends have stopped attending.

I teared up when she told me last night that she stands by this decision to change her youth group because she recognized that when her youth group was "normal" it was also cliquey. She doesn't want to go back to doing traditional youth group studies because that takes away her opportunity to make new friends her own age who want to impact the world for Jesus.

This brilliant kid also knows how to have fun. Aside from stealing my phone to take fifty selfies before I left, she also is a rock star at prancercizing:

Tony Hawk may be old now, but age doesn't matter when you're making a difference for God's kingdom. One of the most important lessons I've learned while working with youth is that you can make a difference no matter what your age, and you can have fun no matter what your age either. Serving God doesn't mean you can't have any fun. That's why I'm enjoying every minute of my service here in Germany.

Is it Monday yet?

Sandra gingerly placed her hand on the old door knob and pushed the door open just enough for her head to peek through. "This isn't the place!" She turned around and quickly ushered me out of the entryway in the old building.

"Well, then where is it?"

"Around the corner?"

"I thought you knew where we were going!" I whispered fiercely. Even though we were outside, I felt the need to keep my voice hushed in case any locals were hanging around the corner where we were creeping. 

"She said it was on the top floor. And this is definitely the right building. Let's try this door."

We entered a side door and tiptoed up two flights of creaky stairs; the second set was certainly less used than the first. Cobwebs cluttered to corners of the steps, and when we reached the landing all we found was dusty broken furniture and an old coat rack blocking the only door. Sandra tried to move it. "Maybe it's in here."

"This can't be right," I argued, "This doesn't look like anyone's been up here in a long time."

We retreated down a flight and found a woman on the second floor. 

Sandra addressed her, and the woman responded affirmatively, gesturing us through the door next to her. I followed Sandra and saw around thirty wooden chairs set up around a piano. It wasn't too long before the first woman entered after us. She greeted us warmly and asked a question. Sandra and I had agreed we'd both say we were second soprano; I caught that in Sandra's response. 

"Middle?" The German woman asked us enthusiastically. 

"Ya," I replied, thankful for a chance to demonstrate that I wasn't a mute who had shown up for choir practice. 

Nothing could have prepared me for the bear hug from the woman who didn't yet know my name, but I knew in that moment that I wanted to be a part of this choir just so I could become friends with this welcoming woman. More women trickled in, and our new friend introduced Sandra and I to the other choir members, emphasizing that we were mezzos. We quickly picked up that this was the smallest section; Sandra and I comprised half of it. The other women were still eager to talk to us, or rather talk to Sandra while I smiled and nodded. I was so excited to understand snippets, and I listened to one woman describe her recent trip to America. I heard, "Something, something, something, Denver, something." 

I gasped in excitement and turned to Sandra to translate my enthusiasm. "My family!" I couldn't really figure out how to express more, but I wanted her to know that's where my family lives. The conversation blazed past me again, but I kept listening for other clues as to what they were talking about. 

I was thankful when the rehearsal started because I felt I could contribute something despite my lack of comprehension of the language. Vowel sounds in warm ups are still the same. It is much harder, however, to sight read music in a language you don't know. I struggle to sound out words in German when there isn't a note to match them to and a fast tempo to keep up with, so this was extra difficult for me. The practice felt like it went on forever, but it loved every second of it because I was completely immersed in my new culture. Sandra was only able to whisper snippets of translations to me, but I was able to follow along with most of the conductor's facial expressions and hand motions. My sight reading isn't the best, but I was certainly thankful for those years of lessons from Jen that taught me how to use my voice. I'm a little out of practice, but I can't wait to go back to rehearsal next week. 

Mondays were already a joy for me because I get to see my students after a two day break from their beautiful faces, and now I have yet another reason to look forward to Mondays. My weeks here run by in a blink, so I'm learning to cherish the things that make each different day wonderful. Monday is my day to celebrate my students again as well as my opportunity to build relationships and break down a language barrier as I learn German and sing with my Kandern neighbors. 

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.

Moment of Impact

Hey, look, it's my students! (More specifically, mine are blurry in the back.) Sometimes I have a hard time remembering I've only been their teacher for three weeks because I love these students so much already. I've learned all their names, and have read fascinating letters of introduction from each of them. I have students who have come from so many different backgrounds, and I get the opportunity to teach them about story mountain all in one room. For the most part, these kids are excited to learn, and I'm delighted to teach them. The highlights of my days come after the last bell rings and one of my seventh period students wants to continue our conversation about the motives of murder in a short story or the conclusions we draw based on indirect characterization in a cliffhanger.

The learning environment at BFA is incredible. The value for education is not all that impresses me about these students; they are also eager to grow in maturity and be world changers. This week was Spiritual Emphasis Week, and we took ten minutes out of every class period to start each day with chapel. A swell Irishman flew all the way from Arkansas to talk to these kids this week about how they can partner with God to write their own stories.

Anticipation ran high through the school Monday and Tuesday as the students prepared for the first ever Impact Day at Black Forest Academy. Similar to my experience as a student at Multnomah, the school took a day off of instruction to reach out to the community on Wednesday, and I had the privilege of serving alongside a group of my students as we weeded a patio at a local church and mission office.

We were back in class on Thursday a little sore from serving but filled with joy from impacting our community. Friday night, the chaplains closed out Spiritual Emphasis Week with a special worship night where students were given the opportunity to take a stake of wood to write moments of their past on as physical representations of significant markers in their lives. At the end of the service, students and staff filed up to grab one more stake of wood as a reminder that they could partner with God as authors of their own stories and write something new on it that they would work towards accomplishing in their lives.

I'm so excited about the story God and I are writing with my life.

What will your story be?

Milestones Matter

Just before I graduated from the MAT program at Multnomah, the program director made a point to tell all the graduates that milestones matter. Graduation was a significant moment in my life.

Today was another huge milestone for me: I survived my first day teaching.

In some ways I feel like it doesn't really count because I only had eight minute class periods, barely enough time to take roll and hear each kid tell me an interesting fact about themselves. However, I'm sure I'll never forget my first opening ceremony at BFA. It was incredible to hear the parents and students cheer as the flags of the nations represented at the school were walked into the auditorium. Part of the morning gathering included a "roll call" of the nations as a staff member listed off the names of passport countries and parents' countries of service while students stood at the mention of their country. Students at BFA this year come from nearly sixty different countries around the world. 

During my eight minute class periods with my freshmen, I asked them to share their names and an interesting fact about themselves. A large number of them could just share their country of birth and it was different than anyone else in the room. It was barely a taste of English class, but I was so happy to finally put faces to the students I've been longing to teach. I'm equally as excited to teach my Spiritual Formation class as these students and I figure out what the title of the course means over the next couple of days and create a curriculum to meet their needs.

The Garni Girls got together for a picture at school on our first day!

One of the best things about today is that it did not stop being wonderful after I met my students. I was exhausted from those long teaching sessions, but Christine and I went to the grocery store and hauled up a load of goodies to make dinner for the rest of the house. Not only did I have the joy of meeting my students today, but I got to enjoy real Mexican food in Germany made with taco seasoning from America!

We paid a little extra for jalapenos, refried beans, and salsa from the American section of Hieber's, but Christine made the guac from scratch - and she rocked it.

I can't help but laugh at what an accomplishment our taco night was when that's perhaps one of the easiest meals to make in America. However, I was quite thankful for the opportunity to eat a food that's such a comfort at home. I'm so blessed that today was such a great milestone that I'll never forget, and even the little details of the day were perfect from my Longbottom coffee in the morning to the Trader Joe's soft baked snicker-doodles my Granny sent me this week.