I might never write another personal email again

There's just something about opening letters during Christmastime that have a postmark from home and real, live, uniquely recognizable handwriting by people that you love when you haven't seen their faces for 4 months that makes me want to permanently convert to a snail-mail-only lifestyle.

Thanks to all who have sent me mail. :)

war stories and winter blitz

I do believe that amid the massive amounts of snow and Winter Blitz preparations, I have neglected my blog. Oops.

So for a couple weeks now I have not been able to get the image of a guitar with a bullet hole out of my head. Why? A couple weeks ago, we had a unit chaplain visit our Club Beyond office. He noticed the guitars we have on the wall in here that we use for club and casually struck up a conversation about travelling with his own guitar that he brought with him down range. Get this: He once had to run, unarmed, with his guitar strapped on his back, to catch up with a soldier and jump in a vehicle about 500 feet away while being shot at, and after safely reaching the vehicle out of range discovered a BULLET HOLE in the guitar. We asked if he'd kept it, but he said it splintered so badly it could not be fixed. He has no idea if the guitar in some way protected the bullet from him, but I just think that's an incredible story. I feel pretty proud to be a citizen of a country with men like that who are serving God and country and risking their lives (and guitars) for us. For some reason that story just struck me with the realities of war that we are far removed from. Here's a guy, standing in front of me in my office, casually describing being shot at, without being able to shoot back, as if it's just another day on the job. And it is for them at times.

Another, less violent image in my head right now is camp. I'm so excited to go to Winter Blitz camp with my high schoolers like you would not believe. We will be doing awesome things like:
-skiing/snowboarding
-basketball camp
-going to an indoor water park with a DOUBLE LOOP SLIDE
-sledding on a 6k sled run
-club every night!
-a trip to the beautiful town nearby (for security reasons I cannot disclose the exact location on the Internet)

The hope is students will have a great time enjoying God's creation and each other, make memories, and get to know Jesus. Keep us in your prayers! Pray also for the safety of students on the slopes, as anyone can get easily hurt on the snow.

I'll be spending Christmas Eve and Day with John and Mandy, my coworkers. We are going to eat food and open gifts from our family and it will be a great time! It is the first Christmas away from home for all of us, so it is encouraging for me at least not to experience that alone.

I miss all of you during this holiday season but I hope that you'll have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family, remembering that Jesus came to bring us great joy. :)

snow. and community. lots of it.

So it has been snowing on and off for about 2 weeks now. Today we got actual rain, only to be replaced tomorrow and the next by extreme snow. Not going to lie, I'm glad I got my winter tires put on yesterday (it's actually illegal to drive without them after a certain date in Germany). I really love snow and it makes this place look even more beautiful, especially when I go to the Christmas markets. However, I am really noticing the effect the lack of sunshine has on a person, especially when I check out Chattanooga's forecast on my iPhone: sunshine, all day, every day. So go soak it up Chattanoogans! You don't know what you got. :)

I've been really blessed with community lately. It's really rare to find a military base with a good singles ministry, and God has established one here in Bamberg just in time for me to be involved. There are two single soldiers from a unit that just got back from "down range" (war) heading it up and we go to Bible studies at different restaurants each Wednesday, go to lunch after chapel on Sundays, and have various events. This past weekend we took the train to the Nuremberg Christmas market (it's apparently "the famous one"). Above you can see me with two Germans who came along with us and Sarah, my friend who shopped with me as we held our mugs of gluhwein (hot spiced wine) close while also coming incredibly close to freezing to death.

Also involved in the singles group is my friend Jonathan who roomed with Steven (my friend that passed away this past May from leukemia) their freshman year at Covenant. Small world, huh? He just got stationed here, so it's been a blessing to reconnect with him and make friends with his fellow soldiers and have some people to explore the downtown area with. I just feel like God has orchestrated all this community and it's incredible to see His hand in that! He sure does take care of His own. :)