What exactly have I been up to lately, you ask?

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for me and for the congregation here. Here's a (hopefully) quick round-up of what's been happening:

1) German class
My German class is still going strong. I'm in class over 11 hours each week and then have homework to do as well. The Referat (report) that I had to do recently went well enough. Despite the fact that I've done numerous class presentations in my time, I was petrified when it came my turn to speak. I managed to make it through, though. I then felt very sorry for Laura Nancy, who's from Argentina. She prefaced her time to speak by explaining how nervous she was, and even though she did a wonderful job with her presentation, when I looked over at her afterwards I noticed her face was bright red and a couple tears slid silently down her cheeks.

After all of the presentations were over and we had discussed them, Herr Reiter said, "Okay, we're going to take a break and then take a test," to which we responded with various displays of disbelief and dread. He had told us the week before that soon we would have a test over Lessons 3 & 4, but we weren't yet finished with 4. We reluctantly took the test, and it turned out to be a very good indicator of how much information we had actually retained. I ended up with 27.5 points out of a possible 40, which I thought was reasonable considering that we had only spent about 2 minutes covering one of the grammar sections and that we had discussed Lesson 3 more than a month before.

Overall, the class has been very good for me. Not only does it help improve my German, it also has provided me a chance to make some friends outside of the congregation and has given me several opportunities to talk about why I'm here and what I believe.

2) Jim's library
I'm still working on Jim's library. Honestly, I'm not sure I'll be able to get everything done before the end of my promised 2 years here. He has close to 1,000 books that have been partially cataloged. He also has about 300 or so that have not had anything done to them, and those are the ones I'm working on now. I basically have to figure out what each book is about, how Jim might use it in his work, and then place it in an appropriate category based on Jim's classification system. About half of the books are in German, and they are not easy for me. I end up skimming through the books to get a feel for the overall subject and the author's perspectives, and in about 2.5 hours I can get through only about 15 books. At that rate, I estimate it will take me at least 5 months to get through all of the new books, considering I only work on the books one afternoon each week. After that I'll move on to the partially cataloged ones. Like I said, I'm not seeing myself getting through all of it before I leave. I guess anything I can do helps, though.

I have also been given the task of repairing some children's books from the church building, but I think that project will need to wait until later in the summer when some of the current projects are finished. I'm looking forward to getting started. There's just something about giving new life to a book that makes me happy. :-)

3) New church building
A LOT of work has been done on the new building. For the past 3 weeks, at least one person has been there working almost every day. Saturdays are big work days when we work on large projects that require more hands. I've spent many hours removing wallpaper and painting. Though I've had experience taking down wallpaper in the States, that was nothing like what I've done here. Germans like to give texture to walls, so the wallpaper has little woodchips or sawdust under the paper, making it more difficult than normal to come off of the wall. I've found several muscles in my shoulders and back that I didn't realize were there before.

Other projects have also seen great progress: the linoleum and glue residue have been removed from the stairs; tiles have been removed from the floor of the old kitchen and the walls of the bathrooms on the first floor; a wall has been removed to make two rooms into one; two doorways have come out; Mark has repaired several door locks (he used to be a locksmith in Little Rock); and one of the upstairs bathrooms has received new caulking. It looks like we should be able to make our deadline at the end of May to be out of the old building, but we're all going to have to keep up the current pace.

4) Babysitting
I have continued to babysit for Mimi and Rüdi as they plan the work on the new building and meet with the contractor. From what I can tell, of all the work I can do for the congregation, right now babysitting is one of the biggest ways I can help. It gives other people time to use their skills and do work I wouldn't be able to do anyway.

It's also been good to feel like I'm having a positive impact on the children. Rebecca, who's 3 and a half, constantly wants me to play with her, both when I'm babysitting and when we're at church. Recently she decided that calling me "Alish" was tremendously funny. I decided to play along and started calling her "Rebeck," which she thinks is even funnier. To add to my amusement, Johannes (18 months) tries to imitate Rebecca, but his pronounciation sounds more like "Azhish." While I know I'm helping out, I like that I can in some way be part of a family here.

5) Bible studies
These are the people I'm still meeting with:

Horst - We have been meeting each Monday afternoon and currently are studying the the book of Acts. His English is better than he thinks it is, and his self-confidence in his language skills and Bible understanding are improving.

Soyoung - It's been really good to get to know her better and to study with her. She is very curious about the Bible and genuinely wants to know more. Her university classes resumed 2 weeks ago, and we've set up a running appointment for Friday afternoons after she gets out of class. I'm trying to work through some basic Bible stories with her in an effort to give her an overall picture of Jesus: who He is and was, what he did, and what that means for us. This past Friday she asked about the books of the Bible, so I opened my Bible to the table of contents and went through the list describing the different types of books (law, history, prophets, etc.). I guess I had never thought about the fact that the different books would be very confusing for someone who is not familiar with the Bible. Up until now, when we would read from 1 Corinthians, for example, Soyoung had no idea to whom "I" or "you" was referring. Hopefully our discussion Friday will help her.

Sylvia - In all honesty, it has not been easy to meet with Sylvia, both for scheduling reasons and for the toll it takes on my patience. Two weeks ago we finally met again for the first time since mid-February, and I'm trying to keep her committed to meeting every Thursday morning. She tends to have trouble focusing on much of anything, as demonstrated in her inability (or unwillingness?) to commit to ANY sort of relationship, including that with her family, and as experienced when you try to have a conversation with her. Distractions come easily for her. My discussions with her take many twists and turns, and I often later reflect on what was said and try to figure out exactly how we ended up where we did. She has gotten the impression (from the state church, from what I can gather) that Christianity is synonymous with oppression. Because she has difficulties having relationships with people, the concept of a relationship with God is foreign to her.

While I ask that you pray for all of the people with whom I'm meeting, please especially pray for Sylvia that her eyes may be opened to God's love; that she can understand that God gives us free will to make choices; and that a decision to seek and follow God produces obedience to Him. Please also pray for me as well. I want to be a friend to Sylvia, to show her what that means, but it's not easy to do.

Cornelia - I have not been able to introduce the Bible to my meetings with Cornelia. She stays home while her husband works during the day, and she seems to be a bit lonely, so I've decided that I can probably do more good by spending time with her and being her friend than by trying to force her into reading the Bible. We recently visited a museum here in Bremen and next week will take a trip to Bremerhaven, Bremen's port town. I think inviting her to some of our "English" get-togethers will also be beneficial.

Kristina - After not hearing from her for about a month, Kristina suddenly called me 2 weeks ago, and we met for dinner on Saturday night. She attends what I think is similar to a Baptist church and has no qualms about reading the Bible. She really wants to improve her English, but she thinks it will be easier and more beneficial for her if there are 3 or 4 of us meeting together instead of just the 2 of us; however, because her English skills are not as good as Cornelia's, and because the others I'm studying with have very specific needs, I don't really have anyone else to pair with Kristina right now. I told her as much and that I'll look for other people who are interested, though it will be a few weeks before I can get do that.

Right now it seems my time and energy are best spent helping with the work on the new church building since that greatly benefits the congregation. Jim even says that babysitting is a type of evangelism since I babysit to allow parents to plan for the new building, which will be used to spread the Gospel. In the next couple of months when that work is (hopefully!) finished, I will have more time to devote to other ministries.

So, that's been my life lately. It's been busy and often tiring but often fulfilling and encouraging. I covet your prayers for me and for the work going on here in Bremen and throughout Germany. Sometimes it seems like the "modern, developed" parts of the world are the most challenging mission fields. People have science to explain the world, jobs to occupy their time and focus, and money and things to make them "happy." There's no room for preparing for the life after this increasingly material one. It doesn't help the situation that many people seem to be very embittered by the state (Lutheran) and Catholic churches.

The solution: Jesus Christ, "the way and the truth and the life."

My goal: to plant the seeds so the "true vine" can grow.