Fall & Winter at Storch

The dorm is swirling with craziness right now. I'm sitting on the red couch in the main area by the computers, approving two of my girls' Christmas banquet dresses, helping Callie decide what show to put on tonight with the Thursday evening special snack, and looking up homemade boutonniere ideas.

This week has been one of the hardest and best so far. For about three days straight I've literally cried at least three or four times a day for STUPID reasons. But then the next second I've realized how deeply blessed I am... So yeah, I think the crazy emotions are because it's almost Christmas and I'm tired. Literally and emotionally.

But here are some of the beautiful moments I've enjoyed recently that I'm thanking God for:

-I struggled to reach one of my girls at the beginning, but she's started smiling and opening up little by little. 

-One morning I was drinking my tea and realized I could read the three word German sentence on my tea bag.

-My "tuck in" girls love to talk. Sometimes we talk about pop culture, Brian Regan, etc. and laugh our heads off. But other times we talk about marriage, atheism, and God. I never know what to expect night-by-night, but I'm falling in love with these wise and thoughtful girls.

-I'm going HOME to Guinea for Christmas!!!!!!

-I realized I like cooking. This is a big deal because I cook quite a bit now. One of the best parts is being able to help choose the menu! :) 

Side note: We're still using up our 60+ cups of pumpkin! haha... We've made pumpkin spice lattes, bread, soup, smoothies, pancakes, cookies, pies, and brownies. And there's still some left.

Pumpkin soup

-My dorm parents have been very welcoming to let Erkai come and visit me and help out in the dorm a little about once a month. I love seeing him (obviously), but it's even more amazing that he can get to know the girls a little bit and understand my life.

Erkai and I when he visited the dorm

-Christmas is coming! Decorating the dorm for Christmas was super fun. Steve and Sorche even got a fire going in the fire place. Also, the dorm car I love to drive has heated seats and a great Christmas CD.

'Tis the Season! Alice and Mary! :)

Rebekah and Emily hard at work on snowflakes

-Today, Callie and I broke our food shopping record. Every Thursday we make the 20 minute drive into Loerrach to do food shopping. It typically takes us about 30 minutes to fill two carts with food. But today, our time from elevator to check out was 12 MINUTES. (Anyone need a professional shopper? I'm taking applications for my distant future. :P)

This is the veggies from ONE Thursday shopping trip... (But not this week.)

-Weekends off have been really fun this semester. I visited Erkai in Munich the last two months and I have been staying with a German family that Erkai knows. They are so kind to me, and it's been a blessing to meet a German family. (Before you get impressed, they speak perfect English). Also, once we got to travel to Salzburg, Austria, for the day to see where the Sound of Music was filmed.

Salzburg

 -But the biggest blessing is my fun, crazy, loving sweet girls. Please pray that I can develop deep relationships with them and truly pour into their lives. I need prayer for this because sometimes I get to the end of the day and realize that I haven't really talked to any of them. Sometimes because the day was busy, sometimes they don't want to talk, or sometimes I was tired. I don't want to waste a single day with these girls. Pray that I will love them and provide what they need most.

Sillies. :P

Laura and I. This girl has such a peaceful, beautiful spirit.

Thanks for reading! Blessings... Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas (soon!)

Life in Pictures

This month has been crazy, God-filled, humbling, encouraging, and eventful. Hang on for the ride! :)

First, I adore my girls!!! All 17 of them! :) They are beautiful, fun, and full of life.

The first weekend we took the girls to France (about 45 mins away) to shop for school supplies

Mountains along the way

Kandern had a festival during one of the first weekends after school started. It was so fun to experience a little German culture...

Enjoying the food with my friends Julie and Larisa

As an RA, I get to spend a ton of time in the kitchen... I'm learning to love to cook, and I'm also learning how to be better at cooking. But the best is when the girls cook with me!! :)

Chelsea made a beautiful Earl Grey tea cake with raspberries

Every month, each staff member gets one 4 day weekend to rest and/or travel. This takes the place of having regular weekends off, since the kids are obviously in the dorm on the weekends. For my first (and only, so far) weekend off, my boyfriend Erkai came to visit from Munich. He and I traveled with Jordan and Rachael, an RA couple from another dorm, to Lake Konstanz. It's a beautiful lake on the German/Swiss border.

Checking out the map of Konstanz

The beautiful cathedral in downtown

Lake Konstanz

Our hostel

Another part of daily routine in the dorm is that each afternoon, one of the staff members makes snack for the girls to eat after school.

Smoothies!

One warm afternoon, Stacey decided that we should have a picnic on top of a mountain...Callie and I were quite happy to comply with that plan. :)

And...My ROOM! :)

This is a "before" picture

Another "before" picture

 A trip to IKEA and a little love made the room more homey...

I'm so blessed to have a TV! I love having the girls in my room to watch movies.

Little things to remind me of people I love

My own bathroom!

And...back to the door.

My room! Still a work in progress, but I love it.

Another fun event this month was cheering for our brother dorm, HBR, in the annual football game.

The dorm mom, Stacey, and one of the girls

Be afraid.

Ohhh yeahhhh

 Back in the kitchen! Callie got 6 pumpkins from a local farmer's market. Four hours later we had 66 cups of frozen pumpkin in the freezer... Mmm...pumpkin bread, lattes, scones, pancakes, smoothies... It's FALL!

Taking out our aggression on the pumpkins

 This weekend is super quiet because the juniors are in Normandy and the seniors are in Rome! We miss them, but it's also fun to have a "small" dorm and spend quality time with the freshmen and sophomores.

The seniors on our red couch, just before leaving for ROMA!

 Thank you soo much for all of your prayers and love! Please pray for me to have a continued good relationships with other staff members, grace for pouring love into the girls, and a closer relationship with Jesus. Thanks for being part of my life! :)

I'm here!!

The last two weeks have felt like a month because so much has happened! Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to post an update. :)

Erkai and I flew out of the Dayton airport on the same day, but unfortunately not on the same flight. This is us with all of our luggage. (And more of it is mine than is his. lol) It all made it! :)

My airplane in O'Hare as we prepared to leave for London Heathrow

 I arrived in Kandern on August 8th. Then, for one week all of the RAs (both new and returning) lived together in one dorm. During the mornings we had German class, and during the afternoons we had ResLife meetings/training. After a few days, the dorm parents had a meeting to choose their RAs...

....And....

At first I was placed in Liel. I was really excited!! Then, because of a new German law, I had to switch dorms with another RA who had already been here last year (that usually NEVER happens). Each dorm has to have at least one person with a certain kind of degree, and social work was one of the qualifying degrees. The RA who switched with me was very close with the staff and girls in her dorm, so it was a hard transition for her. And of course, I was nervous about the situation as well, since I didn't want to "take over" for an already much-loved RA... However, I sensed that God was in the switch. He knew all along. So I am excited to announce that I will be in STORCH!!! :) I couldn't be happier with my dorm. :)

Storch is a high school girls' dorm!! Just what I had secretly/not-so-secretly hoped for. :)

(Storch is pronounced "stork"...like the bird...)

This is Storch! It used to be a school... Now it's a huge, cozy, homey house for 17 girls and four staff members. Also, we don't actually have flags hanging out the window...just fyi. :) I took the picture from the BFA website. :)

Storch is located in the town of Holzen... It's an absolutely BEAUTIFUL little town, only a few kilometers from BFA.

And this is the view (at sunset) from my bedroom window... :) I love it!!! As you can see, it's right across the street from the church, so I hear lots of church bells. :) And I can watch the storks on the roof... soo.... I guess that's why my dorm is called Storch! :)

This is Callie! :) My co-RA... She is so kind, sweet, and bubbly. I'm really thankful to get to live life with her this year!

This is Steve, my dorm dad, and Callie making pizzas for dinner. 

These last two weeks have been full of learning German, learning which trash can to put things in (there's at least 7 or 8 different categories), driving a stick shift and learning German driving laws, sitting in ResLife training, hanging out with the other RAs.

I've moved into my dorm, and the girls arrive next Sunday!

Prayer requests:

-Continued bonding and communication with Steve & Stacey (dorm parents) and Callie (RA)

-I've been lonely some (esp. the first week). I love having deep relationships, and it's hard to be away from my friends, esp. since there hasn't been enough time yet to form new deep relationships.

-Growing closer to God

-Being a good RA... all of the learning and adjusting that will come with that...

Oh, and my driving test! :o) It's tomorrow!!

As I'm here, seeing the beautiful countryside and meeting the staff at BFA, I'm so grateful for the supporters who have given and prayed me here... Thank you!!

P.S. Stay tuned for pictures of my room...

Packing Up! :)

Going here TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!! :) My flight leaves Dayton tomorrow afternoon. Then it's O'Hare (Chicago), Heathrow (London), and Basel (Switzerland). I'm arriving in Basel around 5pm on Friday!! :) 

So crazy excited. Please pray for wisdom in packing, grace with the ticket agents (I may or may not end up taking a 3^rd bag, which may or may not end up being free, depending on how nice the ticket agent is). 

Thank you to the girls in my house for letting me take over the living room for a few days!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Erkai and I had a BLAST in Nicaragua... His family was so kind to me, and I felt so blessed by the chance to relax and rest.

Nicaragua! :)

I sold my car.

Kissing Walter goodbye! haha

Please pray for me tomorrow. THANK YOU for the love, prayers, and support so far. I still can’t believe this is really happening. J Next post will be from Germany!

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

--Hebrews 10:23

Big Smiles

I HAVE MY PLANE TICKET!!!!

I am so beyond excited!! :) Thank you sooo much for your prayers, love, encouraging emails, hosting me, eating dessert with me, and listening to my powerpoint. Each gift has been such a surprise and blessing to me. I love reading my support statements and being amazed over and over again at the people who've chosen to invest in me and in this ministry at Black Forest Academy. How can I say thank you?

Well, I realized I can’t. It’s very humbling to know that there is nothing I can do to say thank you to each one of you in a way that “repays” in any way. It’s humbling to know that it’s JESUS who will repay you… I pray that you feel my joy and God’s joy as He continues to take me step by step closer to Germany. Thank you for being part of this ministry.

I leave on August 8^th from Dayton, OH and arrive on August 9^th in Basel, Switzerland. And I get to fly from Chicago to London with another TeachBeyond missionary, so that will be fun! :)

I'll also be gone to Nicaragua from July 27-August 2 to visit my boyfriend and his family. I am so grateful that I don’t need to worry about support or buying my plane ticket while I’m in Nicaragua. Please pray for a relaxing time, and good mental and emotional preparation for Germany.

And…once again… THANK YOU!! Whether you gave financially, prayed, encouraged, or read my blog…Thank you! The journey is just starting. I can’t wait to see what God is up to!

*Note: Not only do I have the 90% support needed to buy my plane ticket, but I think I am nearing or have possibly reached 100% of my support for my two year ministry in Germany. This is not the official word from TeachBeyond, but from my Excel spreadsheet. :) It actually isn’t bad to be over-supported (something I never imagined), because things do happen. So if God puts it on your heart to support me, I’m not gonna say no (haha!). Stay tuned for the official word on my support level! :)

One Month Away

Exactly one month from TODAY I hope to be getting on an airplane to fly to Germany! :) It seems so close, and yet there is so much to do to prepare. Please pray for me! Here are some things to pray/be aware of as you think of me.

1. I have 80% of my support! :) I am so thankful by God's blessing and provision in this journey of support raising. I only need $350/month more!!

To reach full support I need:
3 1/2 people at $100/month,
7 people at $50/month,
14 people at $25/month, or
17 people at $20/month.

What's crucial right now is that I can get the next 10% (which is $175/month) really soon so that I can buy my plane ticket. If you've been thinking about supporting me, I would absolutely love it. :) Here is the link to fill out the form and mail to TeachBeyond at PO Box 6248/Bloomingdale, IL 60108.

Thank you SO much to everyone who's already joined my support team through prayer and financial gifts/commitments. I really am so thankful for each of you. God has been giving me gentle assurance that He really does want me in Germany, and so I don't know why I'm so surprised every time someone supports me, but I continue to be amazed. Thank you so much.

2. I need to find a new home for my beloved "Walter." Please let me know if you would like to take a '96 Pontiac Bonneville home. :)

Hannah (L) an RA and Johanna (R) a music teacher

3. I spent June 23-29 in Wheaton, IL attending TeachBeyond's orientation. It was so fun to meet other people headed all around the world to serve Jesus by serving kids through education. The best part was meeting other women also headed to BFA! It's so good to know that I already have friends at BFA now. We got to meet previous RAs and dorm parents and learn from their successes and mistakes.

Honestly, the biggest take away from the week is that it's ME that's going to be doing most of the learning and growing... not the students! Even though I want to serve them, I have a feeling that God is taking me to Germany to teach me to trust Him more and to refine me. I learned that the RA job may look a little more like a maid than a mentor. I know God will teach me a lot about being a servant and releasing control and independence. I'm going to learn so much. So, it's hard to ask for support so that God can work on me, but... that's the reality, I guess! :)

We had a lot of fun, too! We had deep dish Chicago style pizza one night...

I love these ladies so much already!!

Hanna (Spanish teacher), Larisa (RA), and Julie (Health teacher)

Yummy!!!

We also learned that 50-70% of missionary kids end up in some sort of ministry when they grow up. The week made me even more excited to serve the precious kids at BFA because I know that they will be influential on the world some day.

4. I am going to Nicaragua the last week of July to see my boyfriend's family. It's the last chance that we'll have to visit for a very long time, so we just decided to go! :)

5. So that means I have just three weeks left (plus a few days) to pack, shop, and finish raising raising support before Germany.

Please pray for me!! Thank you so much.