A song, some tears, and a few thoughts

Now for something just a bit different....

I've mentioned before how hard it is for me to sing in German. It was almost impossible for me simultaneously to concentrate on saying the words, singing the notes, and understanding the meaning, especially during the weeks right after I arrived.

It's been nice to move slowly past the stage of trying to pronounce the words and into the stage of concentrating on the notes. Over the past 8 months, I've been able to recognize more and more of the songs that we sing regularly at church, which allows me to branch further into translating and understanding the song since the notes are now familiar.

I've noticed that most of my favorites are written by Peter Strauch. He seems to be the Fanny J. Crosby of German hymnists: he's written a large number of hymns and many of them are well-loved and often-sung. From a foreigner's perspective, his hymns also seem to have simple melodies that fit well with the words, and his lyrics are more to-the-point, everyday language than poetic musings, which for me makes them not only enjoyable to sing but also easy to understand.

German hymns generally don't have titles but are instead referred to by their first few words. My very favorite Strauch hymn begins with "Gott wurde arm für uns." ("God became poor for us.") The first time I sang this song was at the ladies' retreat at Neckarzimmern, and it made me cry.

Here is a rough translation of the hymn:

Refrain:
God became poor for us.
God became poor for us
So that we can become rich
Through His poverty.
God became poor for us.

Wealth, honor, careers, influence, power, and money.
All these we seek but are still lonely in the world.
We are never at peace. We always want more
And still our hearts stay empty.

God does not let us go. Come and hear the sound of joy:
When the time came to pass, God sent us His Son.
He left heaven and became human just like us.
His poverty opened the door for us.

From the cradle to the death on the cross at Golgatha
God carried our sins. Our salvation is now here.
He gives us life. He gives us security.
His grace carries us through time.

Strauch based the text on 2 Corinthians 8:9, and the German is simple enough that I could understand while we were singing. I sat there and thought about how true those words are. Jesus really did enter poverty by coming to this earth, and He did that so we could have a chance to become rich in Him. He left heaven, took on a human form, and suffered death in order to carry our sins.

And yet we as humans so often don't realize that or take it for granted and instead seek the "treasures" of this world. As King Solomon discovered, though, it's all "a chasing after the wind." We're still lonely. We're still unhappy. If only we can hear the Freudenton of security in God.

And that brought tears to my eyes.

I'm glad God's grace carries me because I sure do need it.

The long-anticipated update: Part 1

I know I said I would post on Sunday, but it turned out to be a long and tiring day. The building planning committee is still meeting to make the final decisions for the remodeling project, and I babysat for the Renkens again Sunday so they could attend the meeting. The discussion lasted much longer than normal, and when Mimi and Rüdi came home, I was half-asleep on their couch. By the time Mimi brought me home, I could hardly keep my eyes open long enough to climb in bed, let alone write a blog post.

Then yesterday I went to the church building to help Elsa with some work there, and we ended up staying until the evening, much longer than anyone anticipated. A lot was accomplished yesterday, though. Sergej and Helga painted some door frames, and Mark and Elsa put in a new drywall ceiling in the downstairs hallway and entryway. It turned out great. A sample conversation from yesterday afternoon:

Me, coming into the room and surveying the work: "The ceiling looks great!"
Mark: "I guess so, even though it slants."
Me: "The ceiling slants?"
Elsa, a while later: "You can't even tell it slants 2 inches."
Me: "2 inches?! Which way does it slant?"

That's how good the work was. I would never have noticed if they hadn't pointed it out to me.

The fact that the first floor used to be a bar has proved a bit problematic for us lately. If you think that nicotine and tar from cigarettes are bad on teeth and fingernails, you should see what they do to walls and window casings.

The plaster applied to the walls was white...that is, until it dried and began to take on a funny yellowish-brown hue. Apparently, the nicotine and tar from years-worth of cigarettes soaked into the walls (the CONCRETE walls) BEHIND the wood paneling. The paneling has since been removed and the walls were thoroughly cleaned by me and several other people (not a pleasant job), but the chemicals still came through. They then had to fork out a small fortune to buy a special paint to go over the plaster that would dry fast enough to prevent anything from showing through. Thankfully, it worked, and the walls look white again.

The walls may be back to normal, but the window casings are another story. Ingrid and several other people began cleaning them on Saturday, and Jutta and I continued the process yesterday. After about 4 hours of work with the help of a concentrated cleaning chemical, an old toothbrush, a kitchen scrubbing sponge, and a razor blade, I got 1.5 windows reasonably clean, and they still have a yellow tint to them.

Elsa and I then rushed to shuffle things around because "the carpet man" came to sand the floor to prepare for laying carpet (hopefully) later in the week. By the time Mark finished the hallway ceiling and we got things cleaned up, Mark and Elsa were both saying that their spouses would be wondering where they were. I headed home and barely had time to go to the grocery store before it closed.

So, finally, here is the update that I had hoped to post 2 days ago. I think, though, that it will have to be delivered in two parts because, frankly, I'm exhausted.

*****

My German class finally came to an end on Friday. After having class for almost 12 hours a week for 4 months, I was glad to be done.

I'll miss the people I met, though. Olga, who sat next to me almost every day, turned to me during one of our last class sessions and said, "Alicia (uh-leets-ee-uh, as she says), I'll miss you when the class is over." She is going back to the Ukraine in a few weeks, and while I know she wants to see her family, she seemed to be noticing all of the bonds she'd formed during the German course. I could definitely empathize with her.

I will miss Olga, as well as Hiba, the young woman from Iraq. I have to admit, it was a bit rough at points along the way. She initially showed skepticism at the intentions of an American, and I felt a need to push away guilt for anything the U.S. government does. In the end, though, I feel like we were really able to move past basing our communication on the countries we come from and instead to see one another as regular people. It's a lesson we all need to learn.

*****

When I was here in 2003 for the campaign, Jutta studied the Bible with Amber, another student in the campaign group, and then in 2004 studied with someone again. She mentioned last month that she'd like to start the studies again, so I met with her today for our first study. I'm basically
following the same study program that we used during the campaign, which includes reading and discussing passages from Ecclesiastes ("it's all a chasing after the wind") before moving on to John.

I think the study will be good for both of us. Jutta has dealt with a lot in her life and was baptized sometime within the last couple of years, and I think she needs a lot of encouragement. It will also be good for me to get to know her better and to reach out to her in whatever way I can.

*****

I am still studying with Soyoung. She also meets with Mark and Karen on Sunday afternoons, and I think it's good for her to study the Bible with several people. We approach the Bible from different perspectives and personalities, and that seems to give Soyoung a broader picture.

It's been really exciting to see her growth over the past few months. She mentioned last week that she's starting to believe more, which really intrigued me. She told about how her boyfriend in Korea had lost his wallet on the subway (or bus maybe?) and about how she had prayed that someone would return it to him. Later he contacted her to say that someone had called him saying they had found his wallet.

I had never heard her talk about praying before, so I asked a few questions. She had prayed alone, and while she had prayed before, that was the first time she had prayed in the name of Jesus. I took the chance to read with her a few things that Jesus said about prayer and to explain a bit about why we pray. Overall I thought it was an excellent development in her journey of faith. It seemed to be the beginning of a personalization of what she's been studying in the Bible and hearing about at church, of applying those things to her own life. Definitely a good sign, in my eyes. Please pray for her as she continues to study and for me and the Abercrombies as we do our best to guide her. She will only be here in Germany for another month and a half or so, and we hope to influence her life for the better during the time we have with her.

*****

The weather here has been really funny over the past few weeks. We had about 6 days when the temperature was between 85 and 90 degrees, which is really warm for northern Germany in early June. When you consider that public transportation and most buildings (including my apartment) don't have air conditioning, it was easy to feel like you were being roasted alive. Elsa let me borrow a fan from the church building, and that added to keeping my windows open 24 hours a day helped me sleep at night.

The weather thankfully then dropped back to a more tolerable level of about 65 - 75 degrees during the day, and the rain returned. Today, however, along with the rain came 20 - 25 mph winds and another drop in temperature. I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket, and then after ladies' Bible class this evening I wished I had also worn gloves. The low wind chill for tonight is about 38 degrees. If it stays like this much longer I'll have to turn the heat on in my apartment. If I did not have a calendar to look at, I would think it was November, not the end of June.

*****

Well, that's about as much as I can muster today. More soon, including a report on the trip to Neckarzimmern. I'll try to post more pictures, too. God bless, and I hope you're staying warmer than we are here.

Almost done....

Well, since it's been almost a month now since I last posted, I thought it was about time I updated on what's going on here.

I'll do a more in-depth update tomorrow, but I thought I'd at least post some pictures of the work on the church building. It's incredible to see the progress that's occurred over the past two and a half months.

Here's some of the most recent work:

The room in which we've been meeting for services had to be cleared out so that the floor could be prepped for carpet. Here's Ingrid's classroom acting as a temporary closet until the floor was finished.

Before the carpet could be laid, though, the floor had to be leveled out with new cement.

Here's a view of the men's bathroom on the ground floor before...

...and after tiling. Rüdi and Bianka did the wall tiles, and Ralf and Stefan laid the floor tiles. Mark put in the ceiling. One small room but an excellent example of the partnership that's gone into this work.

Last Saturday, Jana and I were given the task of sanding the stair railings and the sides of the steps in preparation for painting. At the point the picture was taken, we were probably about a third of the way finished, but we were already filthy. By the end, our hands were almost black. And yes, I'm wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt. Yes, I made it myself (chemistry class, 11th grade). No, I'm not sure why I brought it with me to Germany (it's been put to good use, though).

Florian, Deann, and Rüdi adding the plaster treatment to the walls in the Versammlungsraum (where church services will be held). This was not an easy task, but thanks to Mark and Karen's friends, Don and Deann, the walls were finally finished this past Tuesday. They had come to Bremen from Arkansas to visit the Abercrombies but were gracious enough to spend part of their visit working at the building. We really appreciate them!

In my last post I included a picture of the beginnings of the baptistry. Here is what it looked like as the steps inside were being finished and the floor around it had been leveled...

...and here it is after it was finally finished! No water yet, of course, but it turned out really well.

This is one side of the Versammlungsraum, as of last Wednesday night. You can see the covers over the baptistry, as well as the handrail which can be removed. The ceiling is also finished and looks really nice. The walls in this room were the ones that received the plaster treatment. It's finally looking like a real room!

Here is the other side of the room. That's Florian and Rüdi cleaning. After Bible study on Wednesday, a bunch of people stayed to clean up this room, I assume in order to get ready for carpet. I guess we'll see what it looks like tomorrow. By the way, those little white specks are dust floating in the air. It's going to take forever to free the building from all the dust that's been collecting over the past couple months.

For comparison, this is what the room in the previous picture looked like just a few weeks ago. That's a big difference!

And here's a view from the opposite side of the room. Not only have the walls and ceiling since been completed, that door has been replaced as well. It's a nice feeling to know the construction zone is now gone, even if things aren't yet totally finished.

*****

On a side note, thank you to all of you who sent me birthday cards and emails last week. I really appreciated them. My birthday was not nearly as difficult as Christmas, but it was still nice to know people were thinking about me. I didn't have German class that day, so Karen helped me do some shopping for things for my apartment that I still needed, and then she, Mark, Don, and Deann were brave enough to help me try out a new restaurant that opened about 2 weeks ago not far from my apartment.

All in all, it was a good day. :-)