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.