The Jake Report

Lunch at the Hochschule (09.06.2008)

2008-06-09T08:13:00.000-05:00

Lunch with some friends, courtesy of Mathias!

[Andreas, Benjamin, Mathias, Tino]

[Benjamin]

[Mathias]

[Me & Sebastian]

[Andreas & Thomas]

Tübingen II (06.-08.06.2008)

2008-06-09T05:15:00.000-05:00

This weekend I traveled with Helmut to visit our friend, Martin, in Tübingen. (The three of us were together in St. Louis last year.) We took the ICE (the fast train) Friday afternoon and arrived in Tübingen by 7:00. After grilling, we headed downtown for a "night festival". We sat by the fountain in the center of the Altstadt ("old city") and listened to a "Türmblasen" (literally, "tower blowing" - but in Germany, during Christmas and other festivals, brass ensembles will climb up into a church tower and play a concert to revelers gathered below). The next morning, we headed for the Burg Hohenzollern, a picturesque castle perched on top of a large hill, surrounded by some of the most beautiful countryside Germany has to offer. Unfortunately, we missed the only bus heading from the train station to the castle (only one bus from the train station to the castle on a Saturday morning?) - but we were able to take a taxi; a little more expensive, but we made it. Unfortunately, too, it was a bit cloudy and misting, but beautiful, nonetheless. Worn out from the weather and a bit of a walk up and down the hill to the castle, we returned to Tübingen and watched Oceans 13. Sunday morning, we caught first the "evangelisch" (part of the "Landeskirche", or "state church") "Studiengottesdienst" (student worship service), then took a brisk walk through downtown to a SELK service with communion. Both very nice. After cookies and coffee (naturally), Martin walked with Helmut and I to the train station, where we caught the first of four trains on our trip home. It took about 6.5 hours to get back to Oberursel on a "Schoneswochenende Karte" ("nice weekend ticket") - which takes a bit longer, but cost us each about half of what a normal ticket would. (These tickets allow up to five people to travel on one ticket anywhere in Germany - though it excludes the express trains.) There was only one hiccough - I misunderstood Helmut and thought we had an hour layover in Heilbrunn, when it was actually 15 minutes; so we missed our train, but caught another 30 minutes later - which ended up being a beautiful ride through the countryside along the Neckar river. We got back to the Hochschule during halftime of Germany's first "Europeanmeisterschaft (EM)" (European Championship) soccer match (Germany beat Poland 2-0). A good weekend - part of my standing rule not to turn down an invitation to travel anywhere (especially these last two months) - but another one of those where it will take me the whole week to catch up!

[Helmut manning the grill. Once again, this begs the question, "which came first, the South African, or the grill?"]

[Light display at the Tübingen University main building.]

[The Burg Hohenzollern, Hechingen.]

[Martin and Helmut and our stellar view.]

[Me and Martin enjoying some bier, Bockwurst and Pommes as we wait for the bus back to the Hechingen Bahnhof.]

Sommerfest, 31 May 2008

2008-06-06T02:41:00.000-05:00

The annual Lutherische Theologische Hochschule "Sommerfest" was held this past Saturday... there was beautiful weather, volleyball in the afternoon, an outdoor worship service in the evening, followed by a "Schwarz und Weiß" themed party, with lots of food, music and skits!

Istanbul, Monday, 26 May

2008-06-06T02:13:00.000-05:00

"This is going to take more than four days." Said Aydin, our guide, the first evening as we discussed some of the differences between Christianity and Islam...

Monday morning I woke up a little early - about 7:45, which was early considering we didn't have to leave until 9:30 and I had packed the night before. My intent was to hit the pool before breakfast. So, not having a swim suit with, I threw on some shorts and headed downstairs, hoping to hit the pool right when it opened at 8:00. I stopped at the hotel bar, first, to buy a bottle of water. No sooner had I stopped, when this guy in the lounge made a line straight for me. "Hey," he said, "so where are you from?"
"The U.S., but living in Germany these days," I replied.
"Oh, working in Germany making lots of money for no reason," he said.
"Actually, no, I'm a student," I said, a bit shocked at his boldness.
"Oh! What do you study?"
"Theology," I answered.
"Theology? What's that?" he asked.
"The study of God, religion," I answered.
"Oh! Are you a Christian?" he inquired, further.
"Yes."
"Are you a devout Christian?"
"I think so." I answered. The questions were coming too fast to really think about how strangely this conversation had begun.
"Going to become a Muslim?" he asked.
"No. But I am here to learn about Islam."
For the next 20 minutes he drew comparisons between Islam and Christianity, between the Koran and the Bible, while I did my best to explain what we did in fact believe - there are many common misconceptions that Muslims in the Middle East have about Christians, most of which are errors in the Koran. He mentioned the first man, Adam, and I was able to explain original sin and why God had to send his son, Jesus Christ... and it was right about that time he had to go. "My colleague is asking for me to come," he said. He did tell me that he had been in a Christian church before. "Really, where?" I asked. "Here in Istanbul (he's from Istanbul). It was a nice experience." "Good" I responded. "Good."

After a quick 10 minutes in the pool - the sun had not yet crested the buildings and the water felt great - I grabbed breakfast. Then it was back to the university for more seminars and discussion on Islam.

After two morning sessions, we were treated to lunch in the cafeteria and then invited to sit in the back of the mosque on campus during afternoon prayers. That was a surreal experience - unnerving and confusing. I'd been in Buddhist temples before in Japan and Korea, but this was really unnerving. Hard to explain why... Part of it may have been hearing the call to prayer for the first time in more than three years while on this trip, each time being reminded of hearing the same sounds drift in over the rooftops and walls in Baghdad several times a day for a year. Part of it, too, is that as a Christian, my faith excludes all other religions and their gods - as they do not lead to life and salvation. So it was hard to operate in the different roles as tourist, student - trying to learn about Islam in an academic way - and as a man training for the office of the holy ministry...

All in all, it was an amazing experience. There was a wide range of emotions to match the various and unique experiences. Istanbul is a beautiful city. I'd go back at a moment's notice. But like Aydin said that first evening, "this will take more than four days." I think it will likely take years to fully understand and appreciate what I learned and experience in four days in Istanbul.

[Mosque on campus, Maramar University]

[Closing remarks by the vice-dean of the theological faculty, Maramar University.]

Peace to you.

Istanbul, Sunday, 25 May 2008

2008-06-01T07:17:00.000-05:00

Turkey is almost 99% Sunni Muslim. But Sunday morning we had one of the defining experiences of the trip. We visited a small wooden chapel in Istanbul where a Finnish Lutheran pastor held a worship service in Turkish. There were quite a few American and Finnish guests this particular Sunday. This isn't the only Christian church in Istanbul, but it felt like an island set in a sea determined to wash it away. Continuing the island analogy, I would liken it to a volcanic island, much larger than what is visible above the water and firmly anchored to the sea floor - in this case the power of the Gospel and Christ's church on earth. A volcanic island can seemingly emerge from nowhere in a short period of time. And given time, can become a lush tropical island. (Every analogy falls apart - in this case I want to assure you that I believe in a "young earth" that God created in six days.) I had some incredibly stimulating and "perspective-giving" conversations with my two new Finnish brethren, Ville und Vesi. As we walked back through the alleys and side streets to link back up with our group, I felt ever more assured by the power of the Gospel to bring light and life in the darkness...

So we missed the Chora Church museum - a former Byzantine Christian church - but I wouldn't have traded my experience that morning. (I'll just have to go back and see the Chora museum next time.) We met up with the rest in time for lunch on the "Istiklal Caddesi" - a street young Turks and tourists like to cruise for it's shopping and people-watching (I counted three Starbucks). By this time, I had already enjoyed five cups of chai this morning and, despite Ersin's warning, I insisted that I would try to drink ten cups of tea throughout the day. After some shopping, we said "goodbye" to Ersin and Yusef took us back to the hotel.

I had about an hour and a half before we were going to meet to try to take a ferry out to Leander's Tower (also known as the "Maiden's Tower") - featured in the climactic scene of one of the recent James Bond films, "The World is Not Enough" - so I decided to wander around the neighborhood and look for another cup of tea. I trudged up the hill through the decrepit streets behind the hotel. It was Sunday afternoon, so most businesses were closed (Turkey's secular society observes the same Monday through Friday work week as the West, even though Muslims worship on Friday afternoons). After about 20 minutes of searching, I decided to head back down the hill. I almost walked past the Cafe Kishla the first time. This was one of those "hole-in-the-wall" establishments and gave me another of those experiences that one can only have in a culture where no one looks like you and you don't speak the language. The only Turkish word I know is "chai". The proprietor nodded and said "yes" - perhaps the only English he knows - and I settled in at a table by the window. There were a couple tables of middle-aged Turkish men playing cards and another game that looked like dominoes with numbered tiles. Smokey and sweaty, I spent the next 40 minutes drinking tea and describing the setting in my journal.

When I got back to the hotel, I washed my face and met the rest of the group downstairs. We didn't make it in time to visit the tower, but after some ice cream we decided - and I have no idea how this topic of conversation came up - decided to find a cafe and try a "sheesha pipe", as Rachel and I were the only ones in the group who had every tried it. In Middle Eastern society it's popular to smoke flavored tobacco through a contraption that is essentially a water bong (I will assure you that it was only tobacco; drugs are illegal in Turkey, too, and from what I understand carry a much stiffer penalty than in the U.S.; "sheesha" is very popular at cafes in Istanbul). I've only tried a regular cigarette a handful of times, but one notices right away that it is much smoother than regular tobacco. (The first time I smoked a "sheesha" was actually on my first tour in Iraq in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert with some Kuwaiti soldiers.)

The walk back featured a beautiful view of the sun setting behind Leander's Tower on the European side. When we got back, Brent and I hit the sauna before dinner. Later that evening, Ryan and I tried to fall asleep in a room that felt like a sauna with our malfunctioning air conditioner. Keeping the door open kept the room cool, but then we heard the cheers, whistles and fireworks of families celebrating the departure of their sons into compulsory military service at the ferry landing below our hotel.

[Me and Brent Smith enjoying a chai Sunday morning.]

[Velle, me, Ryan, Vesa]

["Flat" bread (giant air bubbles). I really like Turkish food, by the way.]

[Istiklal Caddesi]

[Istiklal Caddesi]

[Ersin and me.]

[Cafe Kishla]

[Side street behind hotel. You can just make out the sign for the Cafe Kishla behind the first car parked on the right side of the street.]

[Boats on the Bosphorus.]

[Blue Mosque (six minarets) and the Hagia Sophia (four minarets).]

[Leander's Tower]

[Sidewalk cafe on the Strait.]

[Tea and sheesha.]

[Leander's Tower]

Istanbul, Saturday, 24 May 2008

2008-06-01T04:47:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning Yusef, our driver, met us at the hotel with the van. We picked up Ersin, our guide enroute to the European side of Istanbul. The first stop was the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. I can easily grow tired in historical museums (art museums are completely different - I do enjoy leisurely browsing paintings and photographs), but the collections of manuscripts and carpets was extremely interesting. Across the street was the Hippodrome. On the far side, then, was the entrance to the "Blue Mosque" (which is not its name in Turkish, but rather it's westernized nickname). After walking through the Blue Mosque, with a fascinating explanation of the design and purpose by Ersin, we walked past the Hagia Sophia to the Topkapi Palace, seat of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries. This was a little too much museum for me. When given the opportunity, I relaxed on a bench in the exhibit of the royal treasury - cooler, darker and away from the crushing crowds - and on a shaded patio overlooking the Bosphorus. I'm neither claustrophobic or agoraphobic, but it was in the upper 80s and being a Saturday, there were lots and lots of people - too much for me on this particular day.

We enjoyed a late lunch at the Pudding Shop, a restaurant made famous in the 60s as an intersection where hippies embarking on expeditions east would meet those returning (this gateway to the East being effectively sealed off by the situations in Iran and Afghanistan in the 70s and 80s). After lunch, we headed to the Hagia Sophia, which was one of the highlights of the trip. Built in the sixth century, this incredible basilica was a Christian church for over 900 years, until 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Ottomans. (It hasn't been used as a mosque since the 1950s, when the Turkish government turned it into a museum - which I'm sure is visited by most of the 21 million tourists who visit Turkey each year.) This is another one of those places I've encountered where I could simply sit and let my mind wander for hours - from the places where the cross-pieces of crosses were torn off, leaving still visible holes or mosaics of crosses or angels or Christ himself painted or plastered over, to the large Arabic seals hanging from the four corners of the basilica (the tops covered in pigeon crap, I noticed with some delight), it's a place of intense beauty and intense and conflicting emotion.

After the Hagia Sophia, we went underground to the old underground cisterns used to store drinking water for the people of Istanbul. But it was after the cisterns that we were treated to one of my favorite parts of the trip - a short seminar on Turkish carpets by our guide, Aydin. On Friday, he had instructed us that if we were near the bazaar, we should drop in and see him. Aydin has been a guide in his hometown, Istanbul, for over 40 years. These days, however, most of his time is spent with his first love, teaching lectures on Turkish carpets - either at the Istanbul Handcraft Center, where we met him, or on cruise ships in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

That evening we were supposed to see the world-renown Grand Bazaar, though at the suggestion of Dr. Hoefer, most of the group decided to see a performance by the "whirling dervishes", while a couple others went back to the hotel. So I tagged along to see this traditional Sufi Islam spiritual dance ritual (in a large, dimly-lit room in the Istanbul train station). Afterwards, we took the ferry back across the Strait to the hotel.

[Dr. Hoefer (extreme left), Yusef, and Ersin, our guide.]

[The Bosphorus Strait from the bridge.]

[Museum.]

[The "Blue Mosque" from the museum court. In the foreground you can see an Egyptian obelisk in the Hippodrome across the street from the museum.]

["Chai" - Turkish tea. I had had this style of tea in the Middle East before. One thing I really enjoyed was that everywhere you went you could find it - and almost always served in a small glass like this. They pour a bit of concentrated tea into these small glasses, draw in some hot water and serve with one or two sugar cubes. I noticed Ersin drank tea everywhere we stopped, so I asked if there was a special time of day - after meals or in the morning - when Turkish people drink tea and how many cups he drank in a single day. The answer: 10 to 15! Sounded like a challenge to me.]

[Ersin at the entrance to the Blue Mosque.]

[Inside the Blue Mosque.]

[Group photo with the Hagia Sophia in the background (from left): Ryan, Me, Rachel, Enoch and Kristin Peterson, and in the foreground, Dr. Herbert Hoefer and the Rev. Brent Smith.]

[Topkapi Palace kitchens. As usually happens, I'm more fascinated by the structure and the grounds than the artifacts inside - in this case, a collection of centuries-old Japanese and Chinese porcelain. I liked the bricks.]

[View of the Asian side of Istanbul from a patio at the palace. On the left, just on shore, you can see the pink facade of the Harem Otel.]

[Mosaic in the entrance to the Hagia Sophia.]

[I wonder what it looked like "back in the day"? (It was approx. 8" tall.)]

[Scaffolding in the dome. Ersin said they've been restoring the dome for nearly 20 years, but that it will be done in the next 1-2 years (I wonder how long they've been saying that?).]

[The next time I travel to Istanbul I'm bringing one of those little tri-fold camp stools and I will park myself in front of this mosaic until they kick me out.]

[Beautiful Savior.]

[They didn't have a stairway to get to the upper portico, rather this stone ramp. The lighting and the orange paint on the ceiling - a unique color in the Hagia Sophia - drew my attention.]

[A mosaic of Mary and the baby Jesus perched above Islamic stained-glass windows (not normal for a mosque, but they had to do something when they converted it from a church to a mosque, I guess). You can also see the top of the "niche" pointing toward Mecca at the bottom of the frame.]

[Mosaic crosses that had been painted-over.]

[The cistern.]

[Aydin delivering a fascinating lecture on Turkish carpets. After explaining the declining numbers of weavers and predicting the demise of this art, he mentioned the Starbucks on the street outside that had replaced one of the former stores where you could purchase this carpets. "The girls would rather make the same amount of money selling coffee instead of weaving carpets, I guess" he lamented. One of the carpets he showed us took two women two years to make. List price: approximately $50,000.]

[Whirling Dervishes.]

[The Harem ferry. You can just make out the bridge over the Strait in the background (right).]

[I'm really a simple guy. One of my favorite parts of the trip was this ferry ride. It lasted about 20 minutes and cost a little over $1 (US).]

Istanbul, Friday, 23 May 2008

2008-05-31T07:36:00.000-05:00

Back in February, I emailed the Rev. Brent Smith, who lives and works here in Oberursel, if we could get together sometime to chat over lunch. Later that week, he sent an unexpected reply. "Would you be interested in a Muslim immersion trip in Istanbul?"

"Sure!"

Even more remarkable than this invitation was that the very next week I received an unexpected gift from my congregation back home that covered the cost of this trip - and I hadn't even told anyone about it.

The Rev. Dr. Herbert Hoefer teaches World Religions and Theology at Concordia University, Portland. He'd hoped to offer this immersion experience as a course, but didn't draw much interest. But here in Germany, Brent, myself, Ryan (the other seminary exchange student here with me) and Rachel, who also works here in Oberursel, we had enough to make the trip worthwhile. Dr. Hoefer arrived in Oberursel on Tuesday, which allowed us to get together on Wednesday and Thursday to get to know each other and get a few introductory seminars on Islam. (Dr. Hoefer had done some traveling in the Middle East last fall to take care of some of the groundwork and networking for this trip.)

We met at 5:15 Friday morning and headed to the Frankfurt airport, where we caught a 7:25 flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airways.

[The first stop was Marmara University, where we received a series of presentations on Islam from their theological faculty.]

[That evening we checked into our hotel. This is the view from our room. You can see across the Bosphorus Strait over to the European side, with the "Blue Mosque" (six minarets) on the left and the Hagia Sophia (four minarets) on the right. Right below our hotel was the ferry landing and a container yard.]

[We dropped off our bags and went down poolside to meet with our guide, Aydin, and his Imam (known for his perfect memorization of the Koran). We were able to ask some more candid questions and gained some unique insights into the religion that claims 1.2 billion followers, globally.]

[The Harem Otel. So-named for the neighborhood, not what you think.]

[Sunset on the Maramar Sea. You can see the silhouette of the ferry in the foreground and the Galata Tower in the background.]

60. Jubiläum (19.05.2008)

2008-05-19T04:32:00.000-05:00

Today is the 60th anniversary (60. Jubiläum) of the beginning of theological instruction at the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule in Oberursel! The official celebration is in three weeks, but after chapel this morning, a photo shoot for the new Hochschule brochure provided the perfect opportunity to sit in the sun with friends and enjoy some "Kaffee und Kuchen" - two of my favorite things! (The "props" for the photo shoot were, in fact, delicious! Andrea has been busy taking photos this spring for the new brochure.) So, on this special occasion, I wish you God's peace. Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone the glory)!

[L-R: Andreas Otto, Ryan Loeslie, Roland Johannes, Andreas Berg]

[Foreground: Tino Bahl, Helmut Paul; Background: Andrea Otto, Thomas Beneke, Anna Bartelt]

[Sebastian Anwand, me]

[Little Sophie asked Adreas if she could try on his "Brille"]

Der Hausmeister

2008-05-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

You can hear him before you see him. The caretaker for the Hochschule is a gentleman in his 50s. He's always got a smile on his face when you greet him - but communication proves difficult (even for the Germans); he's got a heavy Hessian accent. (Hesse is the state I live in. When I flew to Germany last fall, I was sitting next to a couple for almost 20 minutes thinking "what language is that" before I found out they were German and from Hesse.) The students and residents here laugh that we never need an alarm on Saturday morning. Every Saturday he's out with his leaf blower - a large gas-powered apparatus - at about 9:30 - to the bane of any student who reveled into the wee hours on Friday night. (Last fall I saw him blowing the leaves out of the trees in a preemptive strike.) So, here is how I will always remember Herr Reichel, "der Hausmeister" (this picture is worth the "click" to see a larger version):

Brunnenfest

2008-05-17T09:38:00.000-05:00

This weekend is Oberursel's "Brunnenfest" (Fountain Festival). It's a lot like the Christmas Market - except fewer booths selling gifts and more booths selling beer and food. It's nice - they block off all the streets in the "Altstadt" (the old part of the city). In front of every building and shop is a food or beverage stand and it seemed like every street also had some live music. It started Friday, so that evening, 14 of us from the Hochschule walked downtown and enjoyed the weather, the food, the beer and some good conversation!

Sankt Johannes Gemeindechor (14.05.2008)

2008-05-16T02:19:00.000-05:00

One of the truly wonderful experiences this year has been singing in the the church choir - "Gemeindechor" - at St. John's. Directed by my good friend, Roland Johannes, many of them have gone out of their way to help me feel at home in Germany. Wednesday night, after a brief rehearsal, we grilled. So, here are some pictures of some of my favorite people. Peace to you.

[Hilbert and Heinz getting it started.]

[Andreas, Frau da Silva, me.]

[Back: Hilbert, Helmut, Mathias; Front: Roland, Benjamin]

[Thomas (front) and Sebastian (back, white shirt) playing "Tischtennis" with Pastor Wenz's kids; little Johannes spectating.]

[Johannes]

[Helmut, Heinz, Renate. (I'm not sure what causes what: are The South Africans attracted to barbecues? Or, will a spontaneous barbecue break out when The South Africans get together?) My kind of people.]

[Thomas, Helmut, me.]

[Sing-along with Frau Eichmeier, Herr Pick, Andreas, and Roland (playing the piano)]

Pfingstmontag (Pentecost Monday)

2008-05-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

Pentecost in Germany is a four-day weekend, with worship services not just on Sunday, but Monday, too. Today, we foreigners - Hilbert, Ryan, Rachel and I - were invited to an outdoor service at Hessen Park. Our friend, Hanno, was playing trumpet with a brass ensemble they had... assembled. Hessen Park is one of these interactive historical parks, with blacksmiths, bakers, and shops. What's unique about Hessen Park is that here they've collected and reassembled dozens of buildings from the 16th to 18th centuries. These are the typical timber-framed buildings (Fachwerkhäuser) indigenous to Germany. What always catches my eye with the old Fachwerkhäuser are the interesting textures and colors - I love the detail in the old stone and woodwork and the colors...

Weilburg (10.05.2008)

2008-05-12T02:49:00.001-05:00

"What's in Weilburg?" I was asked at least three times. "Ein Schloß, natürlich (a castle, of course)," I said. Honestly, the first two times I was asked I wasn't exactly sure. But three separate people (my German teacher, a professor and Roland) had pointed out Weilburg as a nice place to visit. So, Saturday, I invited Ryan and Hilbert to come along as I indulged my curiosity and need to explore.

"Half the fun is getting there." Weilburg is perched on a rocky peninsula about 60 km north of Frankfurt at the head of the Weilertal ("Weil-valley") on the Lahn River. I checked into transportation and saw that not only was the bus faster than the train in this case (and still kostenlos - "cost-free" - with our student pass), but it would take us straight through the Taunus forest. Well, it wasn't "straight" - I wouldn't recommend this windy, hilly, jerky bus-ride if you get car sick. It made me smile when the bus pulled up with a bike trailer attached (the Germans are very active - everyone seems to head outdoors in nice weather and on holidays). Steep tree-covered hills. Small castles seated above tiny villages. Bright green pastures dotted with dandelions. It was a beautiful trip.

The first order of business was lunch. Being a holiday weekend - Pfingsten ("Pentecost") - almost everything was closed. In principle I find the fact that most all businesses in Germany are closed on Sundays and holidays fantastic. It makes people think ahead and I think facilitates people spending time with their families. But, when you're hungry and looking for lunch, it doesn't help. We found a Chinese buffet. Oh, well. I've been eating German food all year, so I didn't feel too bad about eating Chinese. And, it was Hilbert's first Chinese buffet. You could have transplanted this restaurant anywhere in the U.S. and it would not have been out of place - except for the German family celebrating a birthday with a Turkish belly-dancer.

So what is in Weilburg? Two sights in particular... A castle. Built in the 16th century and bordered on two sides by a beautiful "Schloßgarten". (The weather was perfect for a "garden stroll", too.) And, Weilburg is home to Germany's only "Ship Tunnel". (Which is kind of like being home to "Minnesota's Largest Ball of Twine".) The 195-meter tunnel was built in 1867 to allow ships to cut the peninsula and continue with their cargo down the Lahn River. A system of locks in the tunnel - operated by other tourists at the direction of a portly little old man - allow canoeists and kayakers a novel trip through the tunnel.

We took the train back through Limburg. This trip didn't lack for beautiful scenery, either. All-in-all, a nice Saturday road trip.

Großer Feldberg (09.05.2008)

2008-05-11T17:07:00.000-05:00

Saturday Hilbert - my Brazilian friend and fellow exchange student - and I took the bus up to the top of Großer Feldberg. It's a big hill that's a bit higher than Altkönig. There's a couple restaurants and a walking trail around the top. I was amazed at the number of motorcycles we saw on the road winding up to the top - and how many were parked on top. It would be a cool ride.

[Frankfurt am Main. "Bankfurt." "Main-hattan."]

SELKiade (01.-04. Mai 2008)

2008-05-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

SELKiade. A combination of the acronym for the Selbständige Evangelische Lutherische Kirche - our sister church body here in Germany - and the word "Olympiade" ("Olympics"). And, SELKiade is their youth gathering. The SELK tries to put on SELKiade every four years, though it had been six since the last iteration. The theme this year was "Exodus" and all the worship gatherings and the games themselves revolved around this theme - God saving his people from the hands of the Egyptians and teaching them what it meant to be His people. The games were a creative mix of the standard outdoor games and ice breakers - water balloons, wheelbarrow races, tug-of-war, blindfolds, etc. We took a group from the school here - the Lutherische Theologische Hochschule (LThH). 46 teams - over 600 kids (more than the population of the host-village of Heskem) - Youth Groups from all over Germany, one from Belgium and several "old timers" teams - like ours from the Hochschule - competed over two full days (there weren't any games on the first or last days).

One of the funniest moments happened before we even got to the gathering. We took the train from Frankfurt to Marburg, where we had to wait for a shuttle. The South Africans rarely go anywhere without the rugby ball - so while we waited, we played a bit of catch in the parking lot in front of the Marburg Hauptbahnhof. Of course, it wasn't long before the ball got stuck up in a tree. We put on a good show for the cabbies as we alternately lodged shoes, my water bottle, and the ball - a second time - about 20-25 feet up. But, right as the shuttle driver found us, we had freed the last item from its branches.

Just a couple observations: I was impressed at how well organized it was. They obviously didn't have a huge budget, but did very well with what they had. There were a few cultural differences that I had to adjust to - like 16 year-olds drinking beer (legally) at a church event (which they handled very well for the most part). And the dude (not from our group) who stripped naked while changing in a co-ed (adults) room.

The weather was beautiful. I had a great time bonding with my friends from Oberursel. Had a great time meeting other pastors and young people from the SELK.

I should really write more, but it's been a week and it's late... I hope the photos are representative of all the fun we had! You'll just have to ask me more about it sometime.

Peace to you.

der Igel (29.04.2008)

2008-04-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know that hedgehogs live in the wild in Germany? Me either. They do. I saw one tonight on my way to pick up my laundry. I noticed a small shadow ambling across the driveway just as I was walking by. So when he stopped in front of the Mensa (cafeteria) I went over to get a closer look. From about two feet away, I thought he looked a lot like a hedgehog. (Not that I can tell the sex of a hedgehog at night; I'll continue to use the third person masculine singular pronoun just to be consistent.) But I had not idea they were German. As I bent over to get a good look he just stood there. I went to pick up my laundry and sure enough, he was still there when I came back two minutes later. I saw my neighbor's light on - Tino - and thought he might get a kick out of it. When I described what it was, he guessed that it might be an Igel (hedgehog). Of course he was gone when we got there, but Tino used the opportunity to take a smoke break. He said you usually see them in the Fall, but usually on the street... run over (übergefahren).

Würzburg (20.04.2008)

2008-04-20T15:33:00.000-05:00

This morning, Michelle, Diane, Chuck and I drove to Würzburg, in the northwest corner of Bayern, about 90 minutes east of Frankfurt (at least from Oberursel). We got there in time for Mass at the Würzburg Cathedral. The service was nice. What was cool was that I actually understood about 95% of the homily - and it was pretty good. [The text was from John ... ] After the service, the priest encouraged visitors to stay for a tour. (What he didn't mention was that at the end, we would be charged Euro 2.50 at the very end - conveniently in a small side chapel with the tour guide standing in the only way in or out.) The tour was pretty good, but it was all in German, so I did my best to translate. The cathedral itself is nice, but it's a mixture of Romanesque and Baroque. (The interior was pretty heavily damaged during WWII. When they were renovating, the parish was split over whether to restore it to its 1701 Baroque finish, or to its original Romanesque style. They compromised.)

[The three figures at the base of the altar are St. Kilian (center) and the other two "Franken Apostles".]

[We ate lunch outside at the cafe on the far right.]

[Chuck, Diane, Michelle, me.]

[This statue of St. Kilian is on a bridge over the Main River.]

After lunch, we wandered back toward the car. I grabbed my backpack and walked to the train station. We were already half-way back to Amberg, where Michelle lives, so I took the train back. Chuck and Diane fly back to the great state of Minnesota tomorrow.

Peace to you.

Köln (19.04.2008)

2008-04-20T14:22:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I got to hang out with my sister-in-law, Michelle, and two of her friends from back home (Minnesota), Diane and Chuck. Chuck is originally from Cologne, Minnesota, so he was excited to see the original. (The town in Minnesota has a population of just over 1,000 - this one is closer to a million.)

The cathedral in Köln is one of the coolest places I've ever been. As you drive into the city and cross the bridge, this incredible dark shape becomes visible - but you really can't get a feel for how ginormous it is until you are standing in front. The intricate stone carvings - well, the whole thing is one big elaborate stone carving. It was a dreary, cold day, but the Köln Cathedral is truly awe-inspiring.

[The interesting feature of this crucifix in one of the side chapels is its depiction of Christ. His eyes are closed and there is no wound in his side - "der Augenblick des Todes" as the tour guide explained to a group next to me - the "moment of death". (I had to zoom way in between some iron bars for this shot.)]

After spending a couple hours in the cathedral - it just went on and on, but it was all so ornate (and a bit difficult to soak it all in) - we wandered around the pedestrian zone looking for a place to eat. While we were trying to decide, we took pause to watch a street performer named "Theo Teabag" dazzle the crowd with his wit, a unicycle and some fire-juggling. Theo was as crazy as he looked - and his performance would likely have been rated PG (and you wouldn't have needed German to catch that) - which was crazy because there were a lot of kids watching, too.

[Theo Teabag]
After Theo's show - which was close to 30 minutes - we continued the search for lunch, which by now was becoming closer to dinner. But we were having a good time. What's ironic was how hard it was to find a German restaurant in the pedestrian zone. There were plenty of high-priced boutiques and a few small cafes, but no good hearty German fare. But then we found one...

[I think this helped make it truly authentic - the waitresses were chain-smoking while waiting to pick up orders right next to the kitchen. I covertly took this photo by pretending to take a picture of Diane.]

[I don't think the American Heart Association recommends this, either. But it tasted so good. We washed it down with a glass of Kölsch - the regional bier native to Köln.]

[After some souvenir shopping, we headed to the car but spent a few minutes listening to the bells sound for Saturday evening Mass.]

Katastrophe

2008-04-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

Just like the English word. As I was making lunch Friday - soup - disaster struck. I was wondering why my soup was taking so long to warm up. I turned the burner on. The wrong burner. My head was still stuffed up from being sick all week, or I might have noticed the burning plastic smell before I saw the coffee pot sitting on the stove. (In my defense - be it a weak defense - I don't have much counter space.) I drink a lot of coffee - this is a significant loss. So if any of you have any suggestions for removing plastic from a burner surface, I'd love to listen.

(Note: I probably shouldn't have tried this, but I need my coffee. It still works. All the guts inside are intact - except for that plastic piece on the bottom with the words, "WARNING: Do not remove. Electrocution Hazard".)

RIP MacBook (17 July 2007 - 13 April 2008)

2008-04-14T12:14:00.000-05:00

Well, as English rock band Queen so elequently put it in their 1980 hit, "Another One Bites The Dust", "another one bites the dust". My MacBook started making funny noises this weekend - it sounded a bit like a wrench in a blender. She held on as long as she could, but her little hard drive went "kaputt" shortly before one o'clock this afternoon. I found the German number for Apple Care and they sent me to the nearest authorized Apple retailer in Frankfurt. We tried to start it up again to no avail so the guy working behind the counter took it upstairs to the technician. When he came back he said, "Der Techniker sagt dass deine Festplatte 'totally wasted' ist." Translation: "The technician said that your hard drive is totally wasted."

Last July, my laptop was stolen - along with two years of Seminary work - so I've been through this heartache before. But you'd think I'd have learned. Well, my external hard drive had already fried back home, so once again, I'm "that guy" - that guy who didn't back his stuff up. Fortunately, I didn't have much essential data on it - but except for those photos from Germany that I've posted here, I stand to lose almost 2,000 photos and probably a bunch of music, too.

So now I'm sitting in our library checking email. My frustration compounded by trying to use a German keyboard (most keys, except for the regular letters, are in different places, plus keys for the letters with umlauts - but the most annoying is that for some reason the 'y' and 'z' are reversed, which constantly vexes me; though they probably have some research to prove why that's the proper placement for the letter 'y'). Plus, I've grown quite fond of all the little desktop tricks and shortcuts on my MacBook, so it's a bit of a shock to the system trying to relearn how to use a PC.

Oh yeah, and I managed to bring my Apple Care CD and my Office for Mac CD to Germany, but not my System CD. So when I get my MacBook back from repair later this week, I'll probably have to wait until my System CD comes in the mail. But the good news in all of this is that it won't cost me anything because I did have Apple Care (unless I have to replace music).

So, the moral of the story is twofold: get the insurance and back your stuff up.

Peace to zou.

Untitled

2008-04-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

[photo]

Dublin, Friday (11.04.2008)

2008-04-13T12:46:00.000-05:00

Friday morning, after our complimentary continental breakfast - cornflakes and toast - at the hostel, we packed up and headed back out into the city. We were traveling light - only a carry-on - so that didn't take long. Again, our hostel was in a great location; right in the heart of downtown in the middle of everything we wanted to see. Our flight wasn't until 6 p.m., so we walked up toward St. Patrick's Cathedral, on our way to the Guinness brewery tour. Roland's best travel tip was that whenever you're visiting a city abroad, check the service times at the big churches or cathedrals. Again, it would have cost €6.50 to take the tour, but we got there about halfway through Matins, sung by a small boys choir. Again, it was a beautiful service.

We got to the famous "St. James Gate Brewery" at about 11 a.m. Let me say this - whoever designed this "tour" was a genius. It was the quintessential postmodern, experiential . . . experience. It wasn't the typical "guided tour" where you follow your tour guide from point to point in the factory while they point to stuff and spit out information. It was an experience. (Leonard Sweet would love it.) Sights. Smells. Tastes. Sounds.

The self-guided "tour" was through a seven-story visitors center shaped, appropriately, like a giant pint glass. You began on the bottom where you got a taste (literally; we got to eat roasted barley) of the ingredients that go into Guinness' distinctive brew. There was a huge pit of barley - had I still been a child, you couldn't have kept me from jumping in - and you could pick some up, run it through your fingers or throw it at your friends. There was a life-size (but plastic) 15-foot tall hops plant. Running over and past the display where they talked about water, there was a huge waterfall running overhead and down into a small reflecting pool. There were monitors everywhere running looped videos describing the brewing process and how it all comes together from the brewing process to an old black and white film showing how a master cooper used to make the wooden casks. The middle floor had a coffee bar (when we walked in at 11, I told Roland, "I could sure go for a cup of coffee"). [Another excursus: the barista - she sounded Italian or Spanish maybe - when I ordered an expresso and a cup of coffee responded: "you know an espresso is little, right?" She should have just said, "I assume you're American and don't know anything about coffee." I furrowed my brow and just said, "yes".] It was also at this point in the tour where - I thought this was pretty cool - you could "interact" with the master brewer on a series of flat screens up against one wall. Eventually, he asks, "do you mind if I take a photo?" and pulls out a digital camera. You press "yes" on the screen and then it takes a picture and he asks if you'd like to share it with anyone. Then you can punch in your email address and two friends' addresses you'd like to send it to (though, as of last night, our friends still hadn't gotten the photo). Technology is cool. The high point of the tour - literally - is the complimentary pint of Guinness on top of the building. It's the tallest building on the 60-acre brewery and the bar is a round glass area offering an incredible 360-degree view of Dublin. The perfect place to enjoy a delicious pint. And, again, the weather was amazing - the sun was shining, we could see out into the harbor on one side and the Wicklow Mountains on the other. The sky was full of fluffy white clouds. It was really neat. The perfect end to a great three-day visit to Dublin.

As we walked back toward downtown to catch our bus we swung through Trinity College - the oldest university in Ireland. Ironically, according to Mallis (our tour guide from Thursday), it was founded as an Anglican university and only recently started admitting Catholics unrestricted - previously, it required a waiver from the bishop for a Catholic to attend. [Excursus: I just learned that Roland and I could have downloaded an audio tour podcast from Trinity College all the way to the top of the Guinness brewery tour. Amazing.]

We caught the city bus back to the airport that afternoon - our "tour" had lasted over three hours. As we were boarding the bus, it started to hail (perfect timing). Funny thing, too, when we got to the airport, they confiscated my deodorant ("Deo" auf Deutsch) - it was 150 ml; you're only allowed 100 ml for any one item containing liquid. It was funny - they were more uptight than the Germans. Again we were chastised at check-in for trying to do online check-in when we didn't have EU passports (we were told to "read a bit more carefully next time" but weren't charged; when we left Germany, we had to pay an extra €4). Our flight got back about ten minutes late and we missed a bus from Frankfurt Hahn airport (it's called Frankfurt Hahn, but it's 130 km from Frankfurt). This was the first and only logistical hiccough on our trip. So we had to wait about an hour for the next bus. We got back to downtown Frankfurt at about 1 a.m. and caught the "Night Bus" back to Oberursel as the trains were no longer running in our direction; to our delight, it dropped us closer to the Hochschule than the train would have anyway.

A good trip. Dublin is a good time.

NB: if you hadn't already noticed, I finally realized I could put hyperlinks in my blog text. Be prepared to see more of those. And, I realized by looking at the "Labels" tally on the right-hand side, that with this third Dublin installment, I have as many posts related to Dublin as I do to Martin Luther.

Dublin, Thursday (10.04.2008)

2008-04-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

Thursday in Dublin was a good day. We were blessed the whole trip with beautiful weather. Partly cloudy; quite a bit of sun. Beautiful!

Roland had suggested taking a tour of the countryside before we left, so when we got there he talked to the hostel attendant, and we got set up on a pretty cool excursion with Over the Top Tours. For only €25, we took a day trip into the Wicklow "mountains" outside Dublin. Again, the weather was spectacular - I love to watch clouds, anyway, and this was exceptional. We drove past some of the areas used to film Braveheart (apparently 75% of my favorite movie was filmed in Ireland - most of it north of where we were - and I was caught without the soundtrack on my iPod). Our guide was a crusty old Irish dude named, Mallis. (I forgot to ask him how he spells it; I hope that's right!) [OK, excursus time: I've turned into a coffee snob. The tour advertised a stop for a complimentary cup of coffee. It was instant. Blech!] We stopped to snap photos at several small lakes surrounded by low hills covered in winter brown heather. After we stopped for lunch at a pub in the small village of Laragh, we visited the ruins of a monastery at Glendalough. Mallis' commentary included what I perceived to be the perfect Irish, dry wit; stuff like (you'll have to imagine your own Irish accent): "this next village is so small, it hasn't even got a pub. Ha. That's pretty small."

We made it back into the city in time to catch Evensong again at Christ Church Cathedral. Again, it was amazing. Afterwards, we walked back toward our hostel, cleaned up a little and walked half a block to the Brazen Head - Ireland's oldest pub (built in the late 12th century) - for some chips (fries) and a pint. Again, it was mostly tourists, and again, mostly American. It was pretty full. Roland and I had our own table, and when I saw a family (three generations, with an adult son) walk in and stand in the middle of the room looking for an open table - there were none, I did the European thing and invited them to join us. (They were from Oregon - though the father was originally from Wausau, Wisconsin. They were a little unsure at first, but they got a kick out of it when I explained that it was the "European thing, they do this all the time".) [Excursus: the first time I met Dr. Salzmann, the rector - basically president - of the seminary here in Germany, was this past summer in St. Louis. We went to church together one Sunday morning and went out for coffee afterwards. Similar situation; no open tables. A couple walked in and he invited them to share our table. They did sit down, but they looked pretty confused by the offer.] Again, very friendly people and some good conversation! And, of course, the Guinness tasted exceptional. It really does taste even better in Ireland!

[Dublin]

[Vans. Our group included eight Spaniards and a chain-smoking Danish couple.]

[One of the Guinness family owns the estate down there (off frame to the right).]

[Mallis]

[Glendalough]

[Roland is by the door to St. Kevins at Glendalough. I haven't any idea who that other guy is.]

[Roland]

[Christ Church Cathedral]

[I didn't know that either.]

[The Brazen Head]

That was Thursday . . . again, more to follow!

Dublin, Wednesday (08.04.2008)

2008-04-13T08:21:00.001-05:00

I wasn't quite sure what to expect - or even what to think when we first hit the ground - but I really enjoyed Dublin. It was sort of "spur of the moment". My friend, Roland, and I found cheap tickets through Ryanair and reasonably-priced accommodations at a hostel. With my semester break coming to a close (classes start again on Tuesday), I knew I needed to take advantage of being in Europe lest I forever regret spending most of the last two months in my little corner of Germany. A couple weeks before, I had suggested to Roland that he should come with me to Wien (Vienna) (a city I still want to see before I leave Europe). Wien would have meant flying into Bratislava - in Slovakia, but only about 90 minutes west. Roland is South African, and unfortunately would have needed a visa to get into Slovakia. So he suggested Dublin. Well, we didn't do anything about it, even though I did check ticket prices. But the next week the urge to travel struck hard and without any arm-twisting, Roland and I decided to go to Dublin. My indecision cost us about 40 Euros each, but we were still able to get away with spending less than 150 Euros for the flight and hostel.

With so many Americans claiming Irish heritage, it's a hugely popular tourist destination. But honestly, when I first arrived, I didn't know what to make of it. Dublin is kind of dirty and many of the buildings are drab. But later that evening, I was won over. Dublin may not be the prettiest city in Europe, but it's got personality.

We landed in Dublin just before 11 local time, Wednesday morning. We caught a "double-decker" city bus into downtown - about a 40-minute trip. Our hostel - the Four Courts Hostel - was located right on the River Liffey. It was quite the place - clean and well run. And, I found it a bit ironic that the first time I stayed in a "youth" hostel was at age 32. Though, I was surprised at how many "older" guests like me were staying in hostels. The eclectic decor was matched by the colorful characters who worked and were staying there. I'd definitely recommend the Four Courts if you ever find yourself in Dublin.

Our first tourist stop after we checked into the hostel and dropped off our bags was the Chester Beatty Library. Being aspiring pastors, we really got a lot out of seeing the ancient manuscripts in this collection. It was funny, too, that the only exhibit that is open at the moment is the collection of ancient manuscripts that we went there to see! One of the treats of living in Europe is their insistence on good coffee. And, the café inside the museum served one of the best cups of coffee I've had since I've been here.

After the Chester Beatty Library, we went to Christ Church Cathedral, one of two Anglican cathedrals in Dublin. (They're actually located about two blocks from each other, too.) Christ Church is the cathedral where the Bishop of Dublin sits; St. Patrick's Cathedral at one time sat outside the city walls and is the seat of the Archbishop of Ireland. During "business hours", a tour of the cathedral will set you back€6.50. However, Roland had read online that both Wednesday and Thursday evening the cathedral was offering Evensong, an Anglican evening service featuring a couple readings of the Word, some prayer, and song. Evensong at Christ Church was one of the highlights of the trip. The chamber choir came from the Irish Royal Academy of Church Music, which sits at the Cathedral.

When the service ended, we took a walk through the Temple Bar area of Dublin, the historic - and expensive - pub district. We crossed the river to an area where the attendant at the hostel told us we could find cheaper shopping and dining. The sun was setting and the light on the streets and over the river was incredible. That was, I think the moment that I became really attracted to the city. The pub we chose featured the "James Joyce Lounge" (Dublin was the home of this famous Irish writer). We arrived just in time for the Champions League soccer match between Manchester United and Roma. (Ironically, while the Irish were not afraid to express their dislike for the Irish, they were all rooting for Man U.) At this pub we met Alan, an extremely intoxicated local. When he wasn't about to get into a fight with someone he knew, he ambushed me into a discussion of politics. I tried my best to dodge it, but he insisted on explaining why he though Bill Clinton was the best president the U.S. ever had. During half time, a group of almost 30 Americans - they were pretty easy to spot - from upstate New York arrived, making another stop on their "pub crawl". Most were middle aged and clearly enjoying their trip. While we Americans are easy to spot, and you can usually hear us before you see us, Roland observed that Americans (especially while traveling, I will add) are generally pretty friendly and make an honest effort to converse with the people they meet.

[It had been a while since I'd been in a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road; or, the correct side, as Roland would contend (they drive on the wrong side of the road in South Africa, too).]

[Christ Church Cathedral]

Sunset in Dublin:

[Under the clock in the background is the Latin, "Tempus Fugit" - "Time Flies"]

[The River Liffey]

Well, that was Wednesday . . . more to follow!

The Living One

2008-04-07T12:22:00.000-05:00

"(Jesus said) ... I died, and behold I am alive forevermore..." Revelation 1.18

Altkönig V (07.04.2008)

2008-04-07T11:48:00.001-05:00

"Thwack!" As soon as I stepped out onto my stoop, Mathias, my friend and neighbor who lives over my apartment, caught me square on top of the head with a snowball. It's snowing again. Yesterday and again today. Any sign of spring we've had so far this year was a tease.

"Where are you going?" he called down from the balcony as I headed out into the falling snow. "Altkönig," I said as I stuck my ear buds into my ears.

"You're crazy," Mathias insisted.

"Stimmt." ("certainly") I said.

Today I hiked Altkönig in a snowstorm. Which was cool because hardly anyone was out - until I neared the trailhead upon return, I had only seen one person - on top. Where two days earlier were beautiful shades of green from the moss and the pines was now covered in a pristine layer of snow. On the way up I listened to Bach's "Mass in B Minor" (what's been called one of humanity's crowning artistic achievements - and part of my friend Roland's attempt to culture me). Hiking uphill in 3-7 inches of snow, it took a little longer to make it up (and was a great calf workout). It was great because some parts of the trail hadn't yet been walked through. Once on top, a low ceiling and near white-out conditions meant no view. But it was kinda cool.

By the time I got back to the bottom, the temp had climbed up above freezing, so the snow was dropping from the trees and had turned to slush on the trails - but it was still fun. Better than an afternoon indoors - well, depending on what you're doing, I guess.

Peace to you.

Altkönig IV

2008-04-05T16:33:00.000-05:00

Cold. Wet. Chance of rain. Perfect day for a hike? I thought so. I went to the grocery store around noon and thought it'd be the perfect time to take a quick trip back up Altkönig - the "Berg" that sits up above Oberursel (it's about a 15-17 km round trip; 500 meter elevation gain). The weather was just bad enough to keep people off the trails. I only saw a scattering of bikers and walkers on the trail up Altkönig. As I was about to "summit", an Englishman happily told me there was no one else there. And I wouldn't see another person until I had already begun to head home. On top, I soaked in the view - a panoramic view of the Taunus forest; and it was just clear enough to see Krönberg - the next village over. I enjoyed an apple and half a liter of green tea that I had brewed just before I left. After about 100 minutes it was still warm and tasted great - even if it tasted a bit like my water bottle. As I headed down it finally started to rain. The temperature started to drop and it rained pretty good most of the way down - but a little precip never hurt anyone (with a good rain coat).

Freiheit

2008-04-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

Denn ihr seid zur Freiheit berufen worden, Brüder. Nur gebraucht nicht die Freiheit als Anlaß für das Fleicsch, sondern dient einander durch die Liebe! Galater 5.13 (Elberfelder Übersetzung)

[For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5.13 (ESV)]

Frankfurt (03.04.2008)

2008-04-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

On this partly cloudy, moderate day - with a few intermittent showers - I spent the afternoon in Frankfurt with our new Brazilian exchange student, Hilberto. Hilberto speaks no English and I speak no Portuguese, so we get by in German. Hope you enjoy the photos; in this series, you'll see Frankfurt, the Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (the cathedral), Römerplatz, and the Paulskirche.

Peace to you.

Geburtstag

2008-04-02T04:32:00.000-05:00

My birthday - yesterday, 32 - continued this year's theme of "better than I deserve." I was treated to a great day. It began with Frühstück (breakfast) with The South Africans. Then Roland and I booked a flight and accommodations for a trip to Dublin next week. Then, my birthday being April Fool's Day, I was treated to an impressive practical joke in the form of a very official-looking letter from the administration notifying me of a 400 Euro ($600) utility bill. That evening was a joint birthday party with Frau da Silva, wife of one of our professors, who happens to share the same birthday. She hosted and took care of the food. I just had to help cook for a few hours the day before (by "cook" I mean fry some meat and try not to burn anything) and buy some beer. It was a great party with around 25 friends and neighbors from the Hochschule!

(From left to right: Martin, Thomas, Naemi, Benjamin, me, and Mathias.)

(Party at the da Silva's!)

(Roland and me.)

(Dr. and Frau da Silva)

Ort der Stille

2008-03-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

Ort der Stille. Literally, "Place of Tranquility". Tucked away in Frankfurt's downtown lies this unique little place. Adjacent to the Liebfrauenkirche sits a Franciscan convent - and between them, amid the "sensory overload" that is Frankfurt, is the small courtyard called the "Place of Tranquility". If you can get over the shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is a nice place to sit and simply breathe, pray, or reflect. It's amazing, once you turn the corner from the cobblestone sidewalk - a mere block from the Hauptwache, one of the busiest train stations in Frankfurt - how the sounds of the city melt away.

(My friend, Thomas, from South Africa. If any of my friends from St. Louis are reading this, he will be studying at the Sem in 2008/09!)

Peace to you.

"Starbucked"

2008-03-26T16:22:00.000-05:00

I'm really not that cynical. Really. But, as I sat drinking a humongous cup of coffee at one of the nine Starbucks in Frankfurt – this one across the street from the Frankfurter Paulskirche (where the document creating a unified Germany was signed at the beginning of the 20th century), I started thinking about commercialism. To my credit (or discredit), I’ve visited four of the Starbucks in Frankfurt, one in Nürnberg, a store in Qatar, and at Kuwait City International Airport (KCIA) – not to mention several back home (in the store at Wydown and Hanley in St. Louis, a couple of the baristas who worked in the evening knew me by first name). What I’m trying to articulate is that Starbucks is everywhere (for a treatment on this phenomenon, as well as a great introduction to the history, economics, and social implications of the coffee trade, I recommend reading “Starbucked” by Taylor Clark). We often look for "genuine" experiences when we travel, but so much of America has beaten us abroad (except for the sign in German telling people not to set their drinks on the antique fountain in the corner, it looks like any Starbucks back home - though, occasionally, that's what I'm looking for). It’s not just Starbucks: at the Hauptwache train station in downtown Frankfurt, there’s a McDonalds in the underground station, one across the street and at least one less than three blocks away (further research shows - according to the "McFinder" - there also nine McDonalds restaurants in Frankfurt). And, take one look around at any train station in Germany or a quick glance around your train car and you’ll see numerous sets of the easily identifiable white ear buds attached to an iPod – myself included (I'm a huge Mac fan). Though, of the three – Apple, Starbucks, and McDonalds – “Mickey-D’s” causes me more consternation (is it because fast food’s ironclad relationship to obesity is that much worse than paying way too much for a cup of coffee?). Why does it seem that the worst – and obviously most commercial – aspects of American culture are exported? (And I’ve taken enough economics classes to understand that demand has a lot to do with it.) Such great American verbs as to "google" (man kann etwas googeln) and to "chat" (ich habe mit habe mit eine Freundin gechattet) have also crept into the German language. I’m not even sure if I’ve come to any discernable conclusion, but am I alone here? Though, I think I can, as Donald Miller realized in his book "Blue Like Jazz" - "I am the problem".

Bad Nauheim (Good Friday)

2008-03-22T05:02:00.000-05:00

After attending church at my usual congregation, St. John's (Sankt Johannes Gemeinde) in Oberursel, a couple of us hopped the train to Bad Nauheim to hear Roland sing in a Passion Oratorio based on Mark's Gospel. Bad Nauheim is just north of Frankfurt. As the name implies, Bad Nauheim is known for its hot springs. And, as we've learned, any town in Germany with the name "Bad" is fairly well to do - those who can afford it being drawn to the luxurious baths. The church - Dankeskirche (literally, "Thanks Church") was built just over 100 years ago from a dark stone and features a steeple climbing 70 meters into what was for us a beautiful blue sky.

Peace to you.

Oppenheim (Maundy Thursday)

2008-03-20T11:18:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting at my desk on a cold, wet afternoon, indulging my latest obsession - green tea - and I realize now that I have to run to the store before it closes. Tomorrow is Good Friday, or "Karfreitag." And, as I've learned (the hard way of course), Germans shut everything down for holidays - even church holidays . . . Being on break, this morning Thomas, Matthias, Ryan and I hopped the train to the small town of Oppenheim. Oppenheim sits on a hill between Mainz and Worms on the south bank of the Rhein River. Their Katharinenkirche is known as a prime example of late-Gothic German architecture. On our way up the hill Matthias noted a sign indicating that Martin Luther spent the night here on his way to and from the Diet of Worms in 1521. We also observed their strange fascination with frogs - brass and concrete sculptures of the amphibian on nearly ever corner - though we still don't know the story behind that. But perhaps the most interesting feature in Oppenheim is the "bone house" - a cellar underneath a small chapel just off to the side of Katharinenkirche. The cellar houses the bones - visible through an iron door - of 20,000 people collected between the years 1400 and 1750. Interesting.

Perhaps Spring must wait...

2008-03-04T07:03:00.001-06:00

I awoke this morning startled by the brightness of the world outside my door. It reminded me of being a kid and knowing the forecast the night before called for snow, and when you awoke, you could tell by the light coming in through the shades that there was snow on the ground reflecting the pale morning light. Though, being completely unaware of the forecast, this morning was a pleasant surprise.

It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.

(Robert Frost, from "War Thoughts at Home")

Peace to you.

Ishmael Beah

2008-03-04T05:12:00.000-06:00

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book reading by Ishmael Beah in Frankfurt. Ishmael's book is called, "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier." [Reflection to follow.]

Kleinostheim

2008-03-01T06:35:00.001-06:00

I looked for Kleinostheim on my map of Germany - couldn't find it. But I spent just over two hours there this morning. I can tell you it's somewhere between Hanau and Wurzburg, but nowhere near Amberg (my intended destination). I left Oberursel at 6:30 this morning, intending to take the train to Amberg to visit my sister-in-law, Michelle. It's about a five-hour trip, one-way. Before I even got out of Oberursel, I had that sinking feeling you get when you fear you may have left the coffee pot on. (For good reason; more than once I've left the coffee pot on all day, only to return home to the smell of burning coffee - including the last time I saw Michelle.) My trip was downhill from there. I tried to suppress images of my apartment building burning down and decided I'd try to call my friends (and authorize a break-in) when I got to the train station in Frankfurt. Of course, then the phone there wouldn't accept coins; "no problem," I thought, "I'll call when I get to Wurzburg, since I have a 35-minute wait for the train to Nürnberg." When I got into Frankfurt Südbahnhof shortly after 7:00, a freak thunderstorm blew through Frankfurt (apparently it hit England pretty hard yesterday). When I boarded my train, we were informed that a tree had blown down over the tracks, but that it didn't sound like it would be a problem. Well, apparently it was. By the time we stopped in Kleinostheim at 8:19, they realized we weren't going to make it to Wurzburg that way. Let me rephrase that - after sitting in Kleinostheim for two hours, they realized they weren't going to make it that way and turned the train around. This drove four strangely costumed German girls to hysterics, as they weren't going to make it to München that afternoon. (One girl was wearing a bathrobe and had strange eye makeup; another was wearing a homemade cheerleading outfit and platform shoes with a pink wig; the others were also strangely attired, with unnaturally colored hair, but not quite as unusual as the other two.) The attitudes of the rest of my fellow passengers ranged from apathy to anger. As the conductor worked his way through the train, he instructed us that the train was going back to Frankfurt, but that we couldn't sit on the train while he turned it around. There was a Japanese couple in my car who apparently didn't speak German. But they did speak enough English that I was able to (clumsily) translate for them. The conductor didn't speak English, but asked if I could help them off the train. I was reasonably sure I was able to tell them what was going on, so I stepped off the train and waited for them. They had a lot of luggage and were able to gather all their belongings just in time to see the doors close before they could climb off the train. As the train pulled away from the platform while the Japanese couple now trapped inside unsuccessfully pressed the button to open the door, I could only whisper to myself that I hoped the train didn't have far to go to turn around. Thankfully, less than five minutes later the train was back and my new Japanese friends were still there. When we got back to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, I was able to direct them to the travel office - where I learned that I couldn't get a refund, but the next train to Amberg was leaving in ten minutes. I quickly did the math and decided that 15 hours on trains (with about 10 connections for the day) was not worth the 45 minutes I'd get to see Michelle (five hours after we were supposed to meet) (and, I was still worried about my coffee pot). Yet even then, as I took the S-Bahn back to Oberursel, I thought, what else am I going to do today? But by then it was too late. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I might make it back in time to prevent my building from becoming a raging inferno. Almost exactly six hours after I left, I was back in my apartment. The coffee pot was, in fact, safely unplugged. And, in case you were wondering, "Kleinostheim" means, appropriately enough, "Little East Place."

Frühling is Coming!

2008-02-29T08:42:00.000-06:00

Peace to you.

Frankfurt am Main

2008-02-16T16:06:00.000-06:00

Dreikönigskirche (10.02.2008)

2008-02-10T16:51:00.000-06:00

This morning, Thomas and I accompanied Roland to the Dreikönigskirche ("Epiphany" - literally, "three kings"), a large Protestant church on the banks of the Main River. Apparently, the guy who was the organist in this church from the 50s to the 80s was a world-renown Bach scholar . . . and this ginormous organ was a gift by the city of Frankfurt to the church. And, incredibly, this famous organist, by the end of his tenure, was almost completely blind, so he played all Bach's works from memory! Roland said the combination of the history behind the instrument and the sheer size and quality was like "being handed the keys to a Ferrari." The hymns selected for this morning were a treat - as well as the Bach pieces Roland played as a prelude and postlude. After church, Thomas and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and walked along the Main and crossed on a footbridge to the main part of downtown Frankfurt.

Bundesliga Aktion (08.02.2008)

2008-02-10T14:09:00.000-06:00

Friday evening, after we had taken Roland's uncle to the airport, Roland, Helmut and I met our friends Thomas, Mathias and Andreas at the Stadion for my first-ever Bundesliga Fußball match! It's funny, it was Andreas' idea (Eintracht Frankfurt is his favorite team), but he was the only German in the group, as the rest of my friends are South African. Our seats were in the sixth row on one of the corners, opposite the fenced-in area where they keep all the hooligans. I've not been to a major college football game (I don't count the Gophers in the Metrodome), but that's what I might try to compare it to. The "hooligans" had drums, crazy huge flags and sang through the whole game. We were treated to a 2-1 victory. And, after the game, the beer drinking and singing spilled outside the stadium and lasted the whole way back to the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt, where we changed trains back to Oberursel.

Mainz II (08.02.2008)

2008-02-10T13:59:00.000-06:00

Friday afternoon, I tagged along with my friends Helmut and Roland and Roland's uncle. We caught the train to the nearby city of Mainz, just west of Frankfurt. The sun was shining (a rare occurrence in Winter) and we wanted to check out Sankt Stephanskirche, renown for the bright blue stained glass windows, designed by the French artist, Chagal. The windows lived up to billing. And, afterward, we enjoyed a Cappuccino on the plaza outside the cathedral, then walked to the Rhein with the sun setting behind us, silhouetting the cathedral.

Fulda (26.01.2008)

2008-02-10T13:37:00.000-06:00

One Saturday, with nothing planned at the Hochschule, I set my alarm and boarded the train for Fulda. A bit off the beaten path, Fulda is known for a couple things: it's beautifully preserved Baroque Quarter in the old part of the city, and also being the final resting place of Saint Boniface, "Apostle to the Germans." As often happens to me on my travels, upon arrival in Fulda, within a couple blocks of the train station, I stumbled upon something interesting. Suddenly hearing a marching band behind me, I turned around and followed them to a political rally. All the big political parties in Germany were represented. And what rally is complete without cheerleaders and a German brass band? But the highlight for me were the Bratwurst mit Brötchen for one Euro! (I ate two.) Overall, however, the highlight for me was nearing the edge of the Baroque Quarter and seeing Sankt Marien Kirche for the first time. It was a beautiful day, and in the sunshine under a bright blue sky, St. Mary's was impressive. There is a cobblestone plaza in front of the church that is probably 300 meters in diameter. Across the street was the church where Boniface is buried (unfortunately, closed to tourists in January). After taking a nice long look inside St. Mary's, I sat outside on the plaza and enjoyed an apple and some water and just soaked it all in . . .

I spent nearly five hours on the train that day, too, but it didn't feel like it. I had picked up "The Kite Runner" by Khalid Housseni the previous afternoon and couldn't put it down. If you haven't read it, it is probably one of the three best novels I have ever read. It is intensely emotional. And Housseni has an incredibly vivd way of setting the scene - yet with such an efficiency that you can hardly tell he's using adjectives (if that makes any sense). I almost missed three train stops because of this book - including my own when I came home, and that was after I had finished the book. I finished it barely 24 hours after I began. Read it! I'd love to talk to you about it.

Peace to you.

Studienfahrt, Heidelberg (23.01.08)

2008-02-10T13:32:00.000-06:00

January 23rd, the students and faculty of the Lutherische Theologisch Hochschule took a field trip ("Studienfahrt" auf Deutsch)! We took the train to Heidelberg where we met the faculty of the theological department at Heidelberg University, one of Germany's oldest. After lunch, we took a walking tour through the city, followed by a tour of the famous castle, perched on the hill above Heidelberg.

sinner

2008-01-19T12:52:00.000-06:00

Das ist gewisslich wahr und ein Wort, des Glaubens wert, dass Christus Jesus in die Welt gekommen ist, die Sünder selig zu machen, unter denen ich der erste bin. 1. Tim. 1,15 (Luther Bibel, 1984)

[The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Tim. 1.15 (ESV)]

Marburg (19.01.2008)

2008-01-19T12:24:00.000-06:00

Today's trip began the way most of them do: with a wet, muddy slog down the hill to the platform at Glöcknerwiese. Any effort spent cleaning my shoes is usually undone by the time I get to the bottom. It was misting. I almost called off the trip to Marburg because I knew it would be overcast and probably rain most of the day. I'm glad I didn't.

Marburg is an important Reformation site. I don't feel like retelling the story myself, so here's Wikipedia's version (http://wikipedia.org):

"The Marburg Colloquy was a meeting which attempted to solve a dispute between Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli over the Lord's Supper. It took place between October 1 and October 4, 1529. The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended at the behest of Philipp I of Hessen. Philipp's primary motivation for this conference was political; he wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important constituent. After the Diet of Speyer had confirmed the edict of Worms, the need was felt to reconcile the diverging views in particular of Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli to have a unified Protestant theology. . . . Although the two prominent reformers, Luther and Zwingli, found a consensus on fourteen points, they kept differing on the last one on the Eucharist: Luther maintained that by Sacramental Union, the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord's Supper were united to the true body and blood of Christ for all communicants to eat and drink; whereas, Zwingli considered bread and wine only symbols of the body and blood of Christ. On this issue they parted without having reached an agreement."

Meatloaf said "two out of three ain't bad." But, when we're talking about the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 14 out of 15 ain't good enough. Luther is famous for getting so (and rightly so) adamant that he carved the word "est" (Latin for "is") into a table. "This is my body . . . This is my blood. . . ."

Here are some of my photos from Marbug:

(The room in Marburg Castle where Luther and Zwingli actually went at it.)

I thought this was a good one to end with . . .
Peace to you.

Bremen

2008-01-19T10:58:00.001-06:00

Worms

2007-12-03T15:54:00.000-06:00

Today I had the pleasure of taking a road trip to Worms with one of my professors, Dr. Klän, a classmate, Thomas, and two guests - vicars visiting from South Africa. Highlights were St. Peter's Cathedral, the Luther monument, and the Jewish quarter on the edge of the Altstadt by the city wall.

Roughly: "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me, Amen." (above)

L-R: John Hus (seated), Martin Luther (standing, with "die Bibel"), Philip Melanchthon (above)

Limburg & Königstein

2007-12-03T15:44:00.000-06:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I got to spend some time with my sister-in-law, Michelle, and her friend, Kim. We took a nice drive through the Taunus up to a town called Limburg. Limburg is well-known for its remarkably well-preserved Altstadt with twisting, cobblestone Medieval streets and its beautiful Cathedral. An added bonus was that their Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) had just opened. On the way back to Oberursel, we took in the view from the top of the tower in the castle ruins high above the village of Königstein.

Erntedankfest

2007-11-27T15:06:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving Day is possibly my favorite holiday. The focus is on three of my favorite things: family, friends, and food. Over the last ten years, I think I've spent two or three Thanksgivings at home in Minnesota. What I've learned is that when you travel and live away from family, the definition of "family" expands. Friends become as close as family. My friend Lee and I had a stretch of four of five Thanksgiving days spent together in three different states and one foreign country. (More than one of those involved a Thanksgiving morning trip to the Super Walmart.) This year I have to thank my friends the Ottos, Andreas and Andrea, for hosting a feast for us Americans (both of us), and a few German and South African friends of mine here at the Hochschule who have studied in the U.S. Andrea put together quite a spread of food! (And, some good German bier, of course!)

Peace to you. Thank you for your friendship.

Altkönig II

2007-11-18T14:37:00.000-06:00

The remnants of Autumn still linger at the Hochschule. (I spent all afternoon Friday raking.) But when you get higher up into the hills overlooking Oberursel, several inches of snow remain from last week. Today, Andreas, a classmate, and I took a quick hike up to the top of Altkönig. It was brisk at lower elevations, but downright cold on top. As we got within 50-75 meters of the hilltop, we walked out of the trees into a "Winter Wunderland." I hope all is well. Peace to you.

Today's Box Score
Total Distance: approx. 15km
Elevation Gain: approx. 510 meters
Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Glasses of Glühwein upon Return: 2

Falkenstein und Königstein

2007-11-17T16:05:00.000-06:00

It was another beautiful, brisk day to hike in the Taunus forest. The temperature hovered just above freezing. The snow and ice that remained in the trees rained down around me for the six or eight kilometers I hiked west from Oberursel. The cool air and grey skies presented little traffic on the trails for a Saturday. I love the contrast between the red pine needles covering the trail and the snow . . . .

Castle Ruins at Falkenstein, a village just to the west of Oberursel; this castle was occupied from the 13th through the 18th centuries, when it was rubbled by the French . . . .

Castle ruins at Königstein, just to the west of Falkenstein; they were working on the castle ruins today, so, sadly, I wasn't allowed to wander inside . . . .

Sign of a good day . . . .

I've been saying that my best friend in Deutschland has been my dictionary, but I think, as my German gets better and I spend more time on the trails, that my Vasque Sundowners are taking a shot at the title . . . .

Peace to you.

Hünerberg (15.11.2007)

2007-11-15T14:29:00.000-06:00

Two weeks ago, the other American, Ryan, and I were having wine with the Rector here at the Hochschule. He had pulled out a "Wanderkarte" (trail map) of the Hochtaunus forest and was showing us some of the points of interest in this area. This area has some remarkable Roman and Celtic ruins. One particular site is a Celtic ringwall on top of a hill called, Hünerberg. "Hünerberg," he said, "I forget what the word is in English . . ." "Hünerberg," I asked, "you mean like a chicken?"

Well, after consulting the dictionary, turns out a "Hüner" is not a chicken, but a giant. In my defense, the German word for "chicken" is "Huhn." The difference in pronounciation is slight. So it was not, in fact, "Chicken Mountain," but "Giant Mountain." Not that it's huge. It's not. It has something to do with a legend involving large people.

This afternoon, under a grey sky and intermittent snow flurries, I bundled up and headed out the door for Hünerberg. I plotted a circular route of about 7 kilometers. The elevation of the Hochschule is about 285 meters. The elevation of Hünerberg is 375 meters. [Altkönig (see my DD.MM blog) is 798 meters.] It was a beautiful hike; the air was brisk and brush bore the remnants of Tuesday night's snowfall.

Hünerberg is essentially a rock-crusted hill set apart from Altkönig on the southern slope off the Taunus toward Frankfurt. I approached in the shade on the east side of the hill. It was not yet 4:00, but the sun was rapidly making its way toward the horizon. The shadows in the snow and the rays of sunlight on the trees made for unique surroundings. Just that minor change in elevation - less than 100 meters - from the Hochschule left the air cool enough that the ground was still covered with a light dusting of snow. The narrow trail testified to slight traffic the previous two days. As I approached, a lone mountain biker was silhouetted on the hilltop; but by the time I got to the top, I had Hünerberg to myself. My reward for pulling myself away from my MacBook this afternoon was a spectacular 270-degree panorama of the Taunus and the village of Königstein (west of Oberursel). Through the bare trees on Altkönig, a blanket of snow was visible. To the west, Kronberg was recognizeable by the castle that dominates the village. To the southwest I could see the sprawl of Frankfurt. With the sun rapidly setting, I reluctantly turned and headed back toward the trail. (But not after taking quite a few pictures. I was so captured by the scenery that I was afraid I might tumble down the hillside for chasing the sunset through the viewfinder on my camera.)

Not wanting to take the same way back that I'd come, I cut back east toward Oberursel. Less than 3km later, after trekking through a pine forest that kept me on the lookout for gingerbread houses, I arrived at the Hohemark train station. Two stops later, I disembarked for the familiar shortcut up the trail through the woods back to the Hochschule.

Peace to you, Jake

Today's Box Score
Photos: 115
Attractive German Women Who Spoke Perfect English: 1
Chicken Sightings: 0
Giant Sightings: 0

For to the snow he says, "Fall on the earth." Job 37.6

2007-11-13T14:04:00.000-06:00

There are various assertions as to the number of words for "snow" used by Eskimos. I've heard estimates in the dozens, even over a hundred. There's only one word for snow in German: Schnee. Later tonight, we'll toast our first snowfall with a nice, warm glass of Glühwein. Peace to you, Jake

Cell Phones & Bibles: A Reflection on a Sweet Podcast

2007-11-12T10:35:00.000-06:00

I listened to one of Leonard Sweet’s “Napkin Scribbles” on my iPod this afternoon as I took the U-bahn to Starbucks. His podcast was called, “Cell Phones & Bibles” (from 10.14.07). As I listened, I recalled an awakening I had one afternoon in “Lutheran Mind” in Spring, 2006. (Not that I had been sleeping in class.) We had a guest lecturer, Dr. Timothy Saleska, that day. Dr. Saleska introduced his topic and then asked us to pull out our Bibles. I suddenly realized, and I wasn’t alone, that I didn’t have my Bible. Even worse, I realized that more often than not, I didn’t carry a Bible. I vowed a change.

Sweet recounts a pastoral conference he spoke at recently. He observed at the beginning of his presentation the majority of pastors fumbling around with cell phones, turning them off and putting them away – himself included. But then, a moment later, when he asked them to pull out their Bibles, there was silence. Now, he asks: what if we treated our Bibles the same way we treat our cell phones? Here’s a list he found online:

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we turned-back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

“Hmmm,” he says, “wouldn’t it make you wonder?” He concluded that, “We need to be as in touch and as . . . almost a new body part . . . as our cell phones are, our Bibles need to be.”

You can find Sweet’s “Napkin Scribbles” at www.leonardsweet.com.

Peace to you, Jake

A Breach in the Sky, Oberursel

2007-11-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Our weather here blows in from the Northwest to the Southeast. From the stoop outside my door, if I look left, I can watch the clouds roll down from the Taunus toward Frankfurt. This afternoon, as I was walking toward the laundry, I could see the sliver disc of the sun behind the steel-grey sky, and thought it looked as though it might possibly break through. As I walked back outside from the laundry room, the wet driveway was bathed in sunlight for the first time all day, perhaps the last two days. As I reached the top of my stoop, the clouds appeared to be racing to plug the breach in the sky. I quickly grabbed my camera. Here are the results.

Then it began to rain . . . .

Bad Homburg

2007-11-10T06:49:00.000-06:00

This past Thursday, Ryan (the other American exchange student) and I hopped the train to the other side of the valley to Bad Homburg and the Auslanderamt (the place where foreigners go to register). When we finished, we took a walk through the town. Bad Homburg is a little bit bigger than Oberursel and has, per capita, the highest concentration of millionaires in Germany. They still benefit, apparently, from the spas and baths frequented by the Kaiser over 100 years ago. We poked our heads into two churches, Sankt Marien (Saint Mary's), a Catholic church, and the Evangelische Erlöserkirche (Evangelical Church of the Redeemer).

Sankt Marien. I loved the way the shadows played on the wall of this side chapel. It was incredibly peaceful.

Evangelische Erlöserkirche. Regrettably, I didn't get any good shots of the outside, as it was raining. But the inside of this church was absolutely stunning. Millions of tiny tiles formed mosaic on every vertical surface and the ceiling in this Basilica-style house of worship. The light on the golden tiles was transfixing. It would likely be difficult to concentrate on the worship service here - it was almost sensory overload. Thanks, Kaiser!

das Limes

2007-11-04T12:10:00.000-06:00

The Limit. The northernmost reaches of the Holy Roman Empire extended just a few kilometers north of us, here in the Taunus Region. This afternoon, Helmut and I decided to go for a hike along "das Limes." This wasn't very German of us, however, as our spontaneity could have been better planned. We missed the train to Bad Homburg by 2 or 3 minutes, causing a delay of more than 20 minutes at the Oberursel Bahnhof as we waited for the next train. [After about 15 minutes, we observed that Bad Homburg is perhaps only 5 kilometers west of Oberursel - so we could have walked the distance in about the same time.] From Bad Homburg, we took a bus up into the hills to a Roman fortification at Saalburg. Here, we missed the last allowed entrance into the fort by ten minutes. This possibly worked out to our advantage, as much of our hike was spent in near darkness as the daylight quickly faded. I had forgotten that last week we moved our clocks back one hour, giving us less light at the end of the day. But it was a nice, quiet walk through the woods. Das Limes is more of an earthen berm than a wall with a ditch on the "bad guy" side. We spent most of the afternoon (arguably where we belonged) on the barbarian side of the wall. We covered the approximately eight kilometers (mostly uphill) in just under two hours. Upon arrival at the bus stop on the end of our route, we observed that we had missed a bus by not more than five minutes. But again, this worked out to our advantage, as it afforded us the oportunity to enjoy a nice, cold Pilsner ("Pils," auf Deutsch) at the Gasthaus on the corner before the next bus came.

Reformationstag

2007-10-31T10:25:00.000-05:00

This work is perched above the door to the administrative building here on campus in Oberursel, Germany.

Sole gratia, sole fide, sole scriptura.

Trage Christus in die Welt

2007-10-30T17:02:00.000-05:00

This small Catholic church was right off the main square, or Hauptmarkt, in Trier. They had a small courtyard outside the door of the church between the church and the square. As you exited "out into the world," this sign was above the door. Translation: "Carry Christ into the world." The sign reminded me of the, "You are now entering the mission field," sign at my home church in Texas. I know it can almost sound cliche, but that sign always served as a reminder to me. I like how my friend David used to phrase it at the end of a worship service at the CRAVE in St. Louis: "The service is ended, but let your worship continue. Go in peace." Trage Christus in die Welt.

Trier

2007-10-29T17:34:00.000-05:00

Trier has the distinction of being the oldest city in Germany, having been continuously settled for more than 2000 years. (Not to be confused with New Trier, Minnesota.)

The Trier Cathedral.

The Constantine Basilica. A spectacular Roman building from the 4th century. Currently an Evangelical Church.

This piece was situated just in front of the pulpit in the Basilica. I was fascinated by it; I must have taken more than 40 photos. It's a space dedicated to silent prayer, with stools situated around it and a place to buy candles. The text is from Matthew 28.20b: "Jesu spricht: Und siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt Ende." [Jesus said, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (ESV)."]

Porta Nigra. "The best preserved Roman structure in Germany." And Napoleon wanted to tear it down.

Bromo

2007-10-29T17:27:00.001-05:00

I had the pleasure this weekend of reconnecting with an old friend.

I was constantly reminded how deficient I've been in keeping up with many of my friends, but also, how good it is to see them again. We spent the weekend reminiscing and catching up. I hadn't seen Bromo since February of 2000, at Fort Benning, Georgia. He's been living in Germany since 2001. This was the first time I've met his wife, Michaela (they were married in September, 2006).

I've kept up with Bromo through the regular updates in the "Don Letters" - compiled by St. John's University Alumni Chaplain, Father Don Talafous. I've been in Germany for nearly two months, but just last week looked him up. We had discussed getting together this weekend, before he heads back to Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Friday afternoon he called me up and asked if I could come down this weekend - this evening, perhaps? "I can be out the door in an hour," I said.

der Fuchstanz

2007-10-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

The Fox Dance. I was sitting in my room after classes this afternoon, when "cabin fever" got the best of me. I threw a couple Nalgene bottles, some chocolate, and my rain jacket into my backpack and headed out the door. Just up the street from the Hochschule, the street ends and the Taunus forest begins. I walked down the hill, hopped the U-bahn to a trailhead a couple stops up, and walked into the woods. I decided to try a slight variation on the route I had taken two weeks ago. Before I entered the woods, I saw a display that read "7 C" (not quite 45 degrees Farenheit). It was a bit brisk, but not bad; refreshing, really. Being mid-afternoon on a Wednesday, I had the trails mostly to myself. The trees were beautiful. I love the contrast of Autumn colors against dark green pines. And, I don't mind the overcast Autumn skies at all. As I gained elevation, the temperature slowly dropped.

Now, I had heard about the Fuchstanz, but the name didn't register when I saw it on the signpost. Two hours and about 7-8 km later, the forest opened on a crossroads between several trails and revealed a spot two other Americans, independently, had told me about. Though neither could tell me exactly how to get there, they each had told me about their affinity for hiking in the woods above Oberursel and about this restaurant that can only be reached by trail. (Apparently, the proprieters are allowed to take autos back there for logistical reasons, but the rest of us must go "zum Fuß.") The place is called "Fuchstanz," or "Fox Dance," auf Englisch. It's really two restaurants situated across the trail from eachother. One called, "Fuchstanz," and one called, "zum Fuchstanz." I chose the shorter moniker.

Sure enough, inside were several stuffed fox and fox pelts. Inside I also found my first cup of Glühwein this Autumn. Glühwein is a great cold weather drink. I think it's also called "hot mulled wine," in English. Red wine based, with fruit juice and spices, served hot. It really hits the spot on a cold day. The restaurant was empty except for the proprieters, two old German men, and an old (presumably) German dog. After my cup of Glühwein, I headed back out into the brisk air. I was ready to head back down hill, with a warm belly and a smile. It was significantly colder on top of the hill. [There's an elevation gain of 250-300 meters (close to 900 feet).] The air was cold enough to make your chin numb and your pee steam. (Sorry for that imagery, but the guys from northern climates know what I'm talking about.) With that, enjoy the photos! Good stuff.

Paris and Back in 26 Hours

2007-10-21T14:04:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning my alarm went of at 3:30 am. Breakfast at 4:00. Then nine of us - six South Africans, two Americans and one German - piled into a rented van and drove seven hours to Paris to watch South Africa versus England in the Rugby World Cup championship match. After a quick walking tour of the city - the Notre Dame Cathedral, a walk through the Louvre (we didn't go inside), the Arc d'Triumph - we finished at the Eifel Tower and hung out in the public viewing area. In a small enclave in front of the large screen, about 50 or so South African fans reveled ina sea of 20,000 drunken Englishmen. But, if I learned anything about rugby football, its fans are fun-loving and, for the most part, civil. Not civil in the sense that includes sober, though. I've never seen so much beer consumed or wasted (sprayed in the air and doused on each other). But, after the match, every English fan we encountered greeted us with "congratulations, well played." I can't imagine American football fans treating rivals with such civility. Following the match, we retuned to the van. Apparenly it went smoothely; I slept the whole way. We arrived home 26 hours after we departed. Paris was beautiful. Interesting. But, dirtier than I expected, and many of the cathedrals we visited were sadly run down. At any rate, Paris is still a beautiful city. One might spend a year there and still not experience everything properly.

Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche

2007-10-19T10:56:00.000-05:00

My Book of Concord auf Deutsch arrived today from amazon.de.

Mainz (12.10.2007)

2007-10-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

A quick day trip to the town of Mainz, southwest of Frankfurt on the Rhine. Pictured above is the Cathedral of Mainz. Construction began in 975 AD (without a "1" in front). St. Boniface passed through these parts in the 8th century (below) (artist's representation).

Eine Wanderung (A Hike)

2007-10-12T12:13:00.001-05:00

Taunus. My new backyard.

Tübingen (02.10.2007)

2007-10-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

Monday, 02 October, I had the chance to visit Tübingen, one of the oldest Universities in Germany, with Martin and Roland (Roland on the left, Martin on the right). My friend, Martin (an exchange student at the Seminary in St. Louis last year), will be studying there beginning this Fall.

Smart Car

2007-10-01T09:42:00.000-05:00

Here's one of my favorite shots from the International Auto Show (IAA) in Frankfurt last weekend. They don't make them like this back home. This car - Smart Car - would fit in the back of my truck!

You see these bad boys all over Europe. Much better fuel economy than my truck, I'm sure!

Greetings from Deutschland!

2007-09-30T11:01:00.000-05:00

After much delay, I wish all readers a warm greeting from Oberursel! Friday I finished my four-week German language course at the Goethe-Institut in Frankfurt, Germany. (I would recommend the G-I to anyone working or studying in Germany. If you'd like, I can tell you more about their teaching methods, cost - it's rather expensive, I'm afraid - etc.) (I can't believe I've been here a month!) I have two weeks before classes start here at the seminary. My friend, Martin, arrived Friday from South Africa; tomorrow, we may drive to Tubingen, where he'll study for three semesters. (Martin was an exchange student in St. Louis last year.) My focus has been on learning the language the past four weeks, so I haven't traveled at all. We did, however, visit the International Auto Show in Frankfurt last weekend, which was quite a spectacle! (I may get to visit a friend in Italy next week.) I am happy to confirm that the bier is as good as I remembered (why can't American domestic beer taste like this?) The German women won the World Cup this afternoon. Several of my friends here are students from a sister church body in South Africa. Therefore, as rugby is the most beloved sport in South Africa, we've watched several matches. Tonight, the American squad faces the Sprinboks . . . we're going to get crushed, I'm afraid. If you've never watched the New Zealand team, the All Blacks, do their "Hakka" routine before a match, you must check it out on youtube!

I've truly enjoyed worshipping in German. My theological vocabulary is coming along nicely, so I can understand the liturgy fairly well. It can be extremely difficult to follow sermons in German. (I do listen to the Concordia Seminary chapel sermons on iTunes. Check the link at right.) The hymns are beautiful - my friend, Roland, is the church's incredibly talented organist. Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, so we worshipped here last night. So, today, we visited the 17th century Catholic church in the historic part of downtown Oberursel.

I pray this post finds you well. God bless!

Army Chaplaincy

2007-08-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Just an FYI . . .

On 16 August I learned that I have been accepted to the Army's Chaplain Candidate Program. What that means . . . the door is open for me to return to the military as a chaplain. I've been serving in the Army Reserves the past two years; this ensures that I can finish school without risk of deployment. Essentially I will get discharged and recommissioned on the same day. There are opportunities for me to train during school. When I finish the Sem, I can either return to the Reserves as a chaplain immediately - while serving as a parish pastor. Or, I can serve at least two years as a parish pastor, then return to active duty.

I am thankful to God for this opportunity to serve his children in the military. I am excited to see where this opportunity leads!

Peace to you,
Jake

P.S. Please keep my brother, Steve, in your prayers. He arrived in Baghdad roughly one week ago . . . .

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2007-08-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

(Wasn't that a great movie?)

I just returned last night from a fantastic trip to Georgia for my friend Joe's wedding. Joe and I have been friends since we met as young lieutenants in the Army, nearly eight years ago. We were roommates in North Carolina and Missouri. Joe is still one of the most intelligent and funny people I know. We always joked about writing memoirs of our misadventures entitled, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." As such, I was enlisted to tape the letters H-E-L-P on the bottom of Joe's shoes prior to the ceremony. It was a request from the groom that, as an usher, I had to fulfill. No one else would touch it. Joe's incredible wife Lisa, upon seeing his shoes after the ceremony, laughed and remarked, "I would have been disappointed if you didn't try something like that!"

The weekend was also a great opportunity to spend some time with one of my best friends from the Seminary, Ted, and his wife, Sarah. It was a bit disorienting at first to see one of my friends from the Seminary outside that context. Ted and I have sweated through Greek translations, research projects and a stint as intramural co-captains over the last two years . . . but we've only known each other in that context. It was fun. Ted is doing his internship in Apharetta, Georgia, the next Atlanta suburb over from Roswell, where Lisa grew up and her parents still live. Ted and Sarah were gracious enough to pick me up from the MARTA (train) station and let me borrow a car the whole weekend. I was continually overwhelmed by hospitality this weekend: both from Ted and Sarah and from Lisa's family.

The whole wedding event was fabulous. The groom's dinner had a fiesta theme, complete with pinata (though, not filled with airplane-sized liquor bottles, per Joe's specifications). The ceremony was in a cool little chapel at the family's home church. (The pastor who performed the ceremony happened to be an Air Force Chaplain.) The reception was in an old home that had been turned into a banquet hall. The slide show, music, dinner . . . everything was really nicely done. But, the best part were the people. I only knew Joe and Lisa, Joe's sister, and the best man (Joe's friend, Matt) before the wedding. By Sunday brunch, I felt like I had known most of Lisa's family and friends for years; and, I had finally met Joe's parents! All great people.

Speaking of great people . . . I really enjoy traveling by plane, as you meet the most incredible people. On the way down, on the leg from St. Louis to Atlanta, I met a restauranteur, named Miles, living in Dallas who had graduated from Southern University and was on his way to his ninth annual fantasy football draft in Atlanta. We talked football, basketball, baseball, life and business the whole flight.

The flight home was the most unique. Sarah dropped me off at the train station at about noon. I arrived at the airport and was checked in at about 1:30 for a 3:50 flight. I figured I would ask if I could fly standby on an earlier flight, which happened to be boarding at 1:35. I got on, but was informed that my baggage would follow on my original flight. No worries, I thought, I'd rather have a three-hour layover in St. Louis than Atlanta - because I knew I could eat at Chili's (it's always Tuesday night at Chili's). On that flight, I was seated next to an Army staff sergeant, in uniform, returning to Fort Bliss, Texas, from a four-day pass at home in Tennessee. He will be deployed to Iraq in the next week. We had a great conversation about the military and chaplaincy (conversations invariably turn to religion when you let people know that you're a seminary student).

Well, I arrived in St. Louis at about 3:00, waiting on a 6:00 flight. So, off to dinner at Chili's. After talking baseball with a businessman from Texas for about 20 minutes while we ate, a woman from California, in St. Louis on business, sat down next to me. Her flight didn't leave until 7:00. We spent the next nearly-two hours in great conversation about business, school, travel, family (we even talked birth-order effect, as she's an eldest child, also), life. Great conversation. Her grandfather is a retired pastor. Sadly, 5:30 came and I had to head to my gate . . . .

I had a friend in undergrad who used to have a T-shirt with a caricature of Einstein, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, on the front. The caption read:

"Sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it feels like an hour. Talk to a beautiful woman for an hour and it feels like a minute. That's relativity."

The next conversation was equally as dynamic. I sat next to George (my granfather's name). George happens to work in finance in St. Louis, but is also a "pastor-in-training." We had a great conversation about life, faith, and infant baptism. It was challenging, uplifting, encouraging and fun. George is getting ready to travel to Haiti this winter on a mission trip, so I was able to share some insights on travel to harsher environments. It was a great flight.

This whole trip was put into perspective when I went to pick up my suitcase. When it didn't come out on the baggage carousel, I went to the lost-luggage counter. I told them where I had checked my bag (Atlanta) and where I had come from (St. Louis). To which they replied, "How did you make your flight in St. Louis? We just got a message that you should have missed your flight in St. Louis."

Huh?

Turns out, my original flight from Atlanta to St. Louis - the flight on which my bag followed - left Atlanta 1.5 hours late! Had I taken that flight, I would have arrived late to St. Louis, not had dinner at Chili's . . . not had any of the three above conversations.

Coffee, Canoes and Cycles

2007-08-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

Every time I come home to southern Minnesota I pray that I might someday get called back to this area. I absolutely love it. I love the people, the fields, the small towns . . . .

Tuesday I went canoeing again, this time with my uncle, Dale, on the Zumbro River. We paddled seven miles (+) from Zumbro Falls to the village of Hammond. It was a beautiful drive through farmland under overcast skies. I keep the window down perpetually - I don't think I've had to use the A/C since I got back. The water was moving pretty good as it rained fairly hard Monday night. The water is always muddy, so it's hard to tell if it was higher from runoff. The water is so silty that you couldn't see the bottom even if it was less than one foot deep. The Zumbro twists through the limestone and sandstone valleys of southeast Minnesota, eventually running into the Mississippi south of Wabasha (of "Grumpy Old Men" fame). We saw a couple bald eagles - one immature, one, well, mature. Shortly before we pulled out at Hammond, the sun broke through. We had parked my uncle's pickup outside the Hammond bar and dropped in for a cold one before going back for my truck. (Aside: my observation has been that bottled beer is generally preferred to tap beer among my friends and relatives - and the locals I've observed - back home in Minnesota and Wisconsin, by and large. I find this surprising, since I prefer draft beer, and, you can get a Bud tap for $1.75 . . . at least a dollar cheaper than most large cities I've visited. Enough about beer.)

Wednesday evening I met some college buddies (George, Zach, Tupy, Brothen and Brothen's girlfriend, Allison) for dinner at TGI Fridays near the Mall of America. I love those guys and don't see nearly enough of them.

Thursday, around noon, I pointed my motorcycle southwest to go visit a high school friend, Finny, near Albert Lea. First, I had to bust out the electrical tape and slap a bandaid fix on my left turn signals. (I still have not repaired the damage from my Memorial Day wipeout.) There was some trepidation as I gently turned my bike from the gravel onto the pavement for the first time since my accident. After two and a half hours through the fields and county roads of southern Minnesota, I had regained most of my confidence - and a keener eye for debris on the roadway. It was a beautiful ride. Well worth the time to go and visit a friend. This afternoon, we ate a late lunch at Perkins before I meandered my way back to Red Wing. I didn't have a map, but knew I just needed to keep moving East and North and eventually, I'd hit highway 52 at or near Rochester. Less than 30 miles after I left Glenville, my speedometer/odometer conked out, so I spent the rest of the ride trying to gauge my speed by the feel of the bike and the few cars I encountered. Three hours later, I was back home.

It's Friday night and I'm not at CRAVE. But, I find myself, ironically, in a coffee house. Tonight, I'm drinking a half-caf brewed coffee at Caribou Coffee in Red Wing; after this, I'm going to go visit my friend, Ole. I've composed the last few posts here. It's a beautiful chain coffee house in a renovated train depot. The depot used to house a train-themed Hardee's restaurant. I don't think there's a kid from Red Wing in their 20s or 30s now who didn't have a train-themed birthday party here (picture kids in birthday hats singing, "chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, Har-dees! Har-dees!"). It was an institution! But now they have good coffee and free wireless. Progress?

Bald Eagles, Tubers, and Gastro-Intestinal Distress

2007-08-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

Sleep-deprived and hastily packed, I pointed my truck north on Friday afternoon. First stop, U-haul return. Second stop, the License Center (to "register" my canoe ("register" in this sense means cough up 24 bucks for the privilege to use my canoe on Minnesota's waters for three years). Third stop, JB's in Oakdale. Fourth stop, Jon's Dad in Stillwater. (JB's dad provided world-class logistical support for this expedition.) We spent the first night at their place up near the Crow Wing chain of lakes.

Saturday morning, our expedition began. We put in on the 3rd Crow Wing Lake (the third of eight, counting south-to-north). We planned to paddle to Nimrod (nearly 35 miles) the first day, then down to Motley (another 40 miles) the next. The first 5-7 miles was a beautiful paddle through wild rice and reeds in a narrow corridor between the Crow Wing lakes. By the time we were south of the 1st Crow Wing Lake, the river opened up a little. Except for cabins on the lakes and about three fishermen, we had the waterways to ourselves. That changed when we got south of the intersection between the Shell and Crow Wing Rivers. That's where we found our first tubers. Tubers - almost like potatoes except not buried underground, inedible, drunk, and floating on tire innertubes.

Dinner Saturday night consisted of Mac-and-Cheese, steaks, and a few cans of Grain Belt Premium Lager ("Premo" for we Minnesotans). The stars were spectacular. The bugs were not-so-bad. And, the air was cool. I slept out under the stars and watched as the last few pieces of pine were devoured by flame and the tubers camping nearby stumbled home from the bar in Nimbrod. Then, I'm not sure if it was the steaks, beer, or the river water (I used a micro-filter with chlorine drops for most of our water supply on Saturday), but I awoke about 0430 with the worst case of (gastro-intestinal distress) I've ever suffered. I alternately wanted to weep and vomit. (Sorry.)

I will say, except for the tuber-traffic, it was a stellar paddle all-around. The weather was gorgeous. We saw numerous bald eagles and scores of waterfowl - even several loons on the third Crow Wing. The water was clear. The forests were lush and green. If you find yourself planning a trip on the Crow Wing River, plan a week-day trip during Summer, or in the Spring, when it's too cold to float half-naked down the river and the water levels are a little higher.

We cut our Sunday plans a bit shorter. We settled for a 15-mile paddle down to a county park west (?) of Staples. Sunday's paddle made any inconvenience on Saturday worthwhile (this is the day that the Lord has made!). The river opened up . . . the bottom was mostly flat and sandy. We saw one other canoe and two peaceful tubers. The sky was mostly overcast. Sore backs and shoulders loosened up. It was a bit bittersweet when we pulled up to the dock . . . . JB's dad arrived less than an hour later.

Canoeing rocks . . . .

The Way I Roll

2007-08-13T13:10:00.001-05:00

What trip would be complete without a major mechanical failure? Once again, I narrowly avoided a more serious disaster. I picked up my U-haul trailer Wednesday afternoon . . . went to my buddy Dave's parents' house in southern IL to pick up my canoe - approximately an hour away . . . stopped to pick up a set of tires in Granite City, IL . . . and returned to the Sem just before midnight. The next morning, loaded up the trailer . . . finished my Exegetical paper . . . and hit the road about 1:30 in the afternoon. As I was pulling out of the Sem I noticed a slight wobble in the right trailer tire. As I got out onto the highway, the wobble continued. So, I took the next exit and pulled into a residential area off Clayton Road - approximately 1.5 miles from the Sem. As I walked around the trailer to investigate, I noticed that I was short roughly five lug nuts and one stud. Apparently the 32-point inspection at U-haul failed to recognize merely hand-tightened lug nuts. I had now lost five lug nuts and one of the studs had sheared-off. Dave said he noticed a noise when I left his parents' the night before. I didn't notice any vibration or anything. So, I spent the next 3.5 hours on a side street - in 98 degree weather - waiting for the roadside assistance dude to show, realize he didn't have the right parts, leave, and return to replace the hub. Fortunately I didn't have to unload and load a new trailer. Thank God (!) I didn't lose the wheel on 64/40! (I had visions of my canoe and unmentionables strewn across the highway as unconcerned St. Louisans and Illinoisians flattened boxes of Luther's Works and talked on their cell phones.) So, my prediction was wrong: I made it to my Mom's at 2:45 in the morning and left around noon to head up to JBs for an expedition Lewis and Clark would be proud of . . . .

En Fuego

2007-08-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night was designated "burn stuff I don't need" night. I collect all my old receipts with signatures, stuff with phone numbers etc. . . . Then I burn it all . . . about every year or so.

So Tuesday night, I was sitting outside my building enjoying a beer . . . watching the fire . . . when I noticed two guys run around the corner of Loeber Hall, pointing. Then one guy pulls out a cell phone. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it sounded frantic.

"I should say something," I thought.

So I stood up - beer in hand - and waved.

The first guy says, "Hey, it's outside."

They smelled smoke from in front of the Chapel and walked over to see what was going on. Smoke was billowing up from Mezger. There's a huge flood light on the corner of the building, so it made the smoke look pretty impressive. That, and the burning candle in my window right above the fire, and it looked like Mezger was about to go up in smoke.

I complimented them on their vigilance and returned to tending the fire . . . .

Packing is not fun. "Good-byes" aren't either. But, "hellos" are pretty cool.

2007-08-07T13:33:00.000-05:00

David Corson asked me on Saturday, "Have you finished packing yet?" My reply: "Ask me if I've started." I was so overwhelmed last night. It seemed like a pretty daunting task. I didn't get to bed until nearly 1 am. Things looked better this morning.

I've also found it hard to get too excited about going to Germany while I still have outstanding homework at the Sem. I've been stuck on about an 85-90 percent solution on an exegetical paper on Matthew 11.2-15. This has been a passage that's intrigued me for nigh on a year (can I say "nigh on"?). What's up with JtB's doubting? Is the kingdom "suffering violence" or "advancing violently" (check out a couple different English translations - contrast ESV and NIV)?

I'm supposed to pick up my U-Haul tomorrow afternoon. Then, I'll pick up my canoe tomorrow night. "Wheel's up" is tentatively around 0930 Thursday.

Well, at the request of some friends, I've decided to rededicate myself to a blog. I will do my best to keep you all up to date with my travels and misadventures!

Next on the docket: A canoe trip with college buddy Jon Brothen on the Crow Wing River in northern Minnesota. (That's assuming I make it to Minnesota in time. I'll probably roll into my Mom's at about 1 in the morning, then head up to JB's at noon the next day, canoe precariously lashed into the back of my truck.)

As I wrap up this post, I'd like to close by sharing the opening line from Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." (Don't buy it.)

"All endings are also beginnings . . . we just don't know it at the time."

See you soon.

Germany

2007-05-20T09:38:00.000-05:00

Every week I get some more resolution on my plans to study at Oberursel in the Fall. I'm taking classes here at the Seminary this summer; they will finish 03 August. I will fly to Germany on 29 August. I've enrolled in a "superintensive" four-week German course at the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt from 03 - 28 September. Classes begin at Oberursel on 16 October. (Helmut and Martin Paul, two seminary exchange students from South Africa, by way of Germany, will return to Germany in October.) I'll have breaks for Christmas and between semesters (roughly February). Classes finish at Oberursel on 11 July, 2008. Then I'll return to the United States for vicarage (I'll find out where in April 2008), then return to St. Louis for my final year of seminary (2009-10). Wow. That sounds far off . . . .

2005-12-29T02:13:00.000-06:00

Fishing on Lake Holcombe

Welcome!

2005-12-29T01:55:00.000-06:00

Blogging is a new experience for me. At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to give it a shot with the intent of keeping my friends and family updated. As this is the age of maximum convenience, I figure it means less work for me!

Pax

Jake