sebsjourneys: June 2009

Italy

Last Friday we left Germany for the 12 hour bus trip down to Camp Darby, Italy. It is my first time in Italy so I was very excited!! The first part of the week was a little hectic but it all ended up being a fun trip overall. I ended up being able to stay with the high school girls from Germany and I had two awesome girls, D and H in my tent.

I have to admit to you I'm not the hugest fan of camping. We never really did it growing up and I'm usually fine for one night of it as long as roasting marshmallows and sitting around a campfire is involved. But the thought of sleeping on the ground (I brought an air mattress at the suggestion of other people but our tent was too small for it to fit) and sharing 8 showers with 250 girls does not sound like my idea of a good time. I also seem to have no luck when I camp as a natural disaster seems to strike every time I attempt to do it. The very first night, there were horrible thunder and lightening storms and the entire camp had to move down to the gym (on the other side of base) to sleep. Nothing like being woken up at 3 am and told to grab your sleeping bag and walk in the pouring rain! Here a blurry, dark picture of 400 kids and adults crammed into the gym.

Then in the morning we had to go to church like we were (aka morning breath and whatever we had slept in the night before). Always an adventure! We did pray for no more rain the rest of the week but the girls still packed an emergency bag every night just in case. Luckily I don't think it rained the rest of the week! I made it through an entire week of camping with little complaining (after a while you just quit caring what you look or smell like) but I have to do it again next week so please pray that my attitude and my back will make it through!

We did a lot of hanging out at the beach, which was awesome. I could seriously live at the beach. Most of the days there were pretty relaxing which was nice considering the entire week's schedule was jam packed full of stuff from morning to night. We did eat a ton of pizza and gelato in every town we went to. My favorite finds of the week were quattro formaggi and pesto pizza and coconut gelato (this picture actually shows coconut and pistachio). We also did a lot of walking this week which is good after all that pizza and gelato I'm eating (except for the quarter size blister I had on the bottom of my foot all week).

Every night we would get back to camp and have dinner together and then do Club, which is a fun time where we sing, play games, and here a message about the gospel. After Club, we split off into our groups and have something called Cabin Time where we will talk about the message we heard and what is going on in their lives. My girls really opened up to me and we were able to have some great conversations about Jesus. It was such a blessing that God helped us to build a quick bond so our short time together would be meaningful. You can pray for me that I will have time to follow up with the girls through the rest of the summer.

Club and Games

We got to see some amazing places in Italy too but I'll have to post those another day :)

Germany

Ansbach

6/16/2009

On Monday I had to go do all my military in processing so I could get an ID card to get on base and have commissary/PX privileges and such. We got it all done in an hour which is amazingly fast considering the military is usually pretty slow about things.

The base that I'm staying at, Ansbach, is about 2 hours east of Heidelberg in Bavaria. I haven't been on a base in a long time and I'm having childhood flashbacks of carrying my ID card with me at all times, shopping at the cheap commissary, having weird clothing choices at the PX... But I'm not going to be complaining about guys in uniform all day long ;) Laura, I'll let you know if I see any soldiers running.

It's a nice little town. I haven't seen much of it yet but I'm sure I will. I'm working with Sean Campbell who is the Community Director here. I'm also staying with him and his wife Mary- who is preggers :) and starting to decorate her nursery! They are such a fun, easy going couple and I can tell it's going to be an awesome summer with them. I hopefully will be staying with them most of the time this summer but they do have some friends coming in town to visit so I might have to go bum someone else's guest bed.

The first few days here have been pretty relaxing. I've been helping organize the MCYM work closets- you know me- I can jump on an organizing task like nobody's business! It's been kind of fun seeing all the inside work that really goes into being a youth minister. I've volunteered with Young Life but haven't done a whole lot to help with planning- I just usually show up and get told how I can help. Ministry definitely is a calling and I just don't know where it exactly fits into my life. I haven't met any kids yet but am looking forward to meeting them on Friday when we leave for Italy.

I have to take the German driving test (yikes!) and they are looking for a car for me to borrow while I'm here. Hope they can find an automatic :) I got an international license from AAA before I left but can't find it now. Waste of $25. I don't know if I packed it somewhere else (i.e. storage unit) or if it was taken when my bags were searched in London. Oh well. I'm pretty good with directions but I've never driven in a foreign country so it makes me a little nervous about getting lost, not being able to read signs, getting towed, etc. But if I get to drive on the Autobahn it will be worth it. You know I'm going to have to go as fast as I can just to say I did it- plus I love to speed and I need to do it where it's not illegal! There are actually speed limit signs on the Autobahn in places so you have to be careful or you'll just get a ticket in the mail (see I have been studying for my German driving test).

Here is a random picture that Cindy took of me on our photoshoot day. I wasn't ready for her to take it but I do like the lighting :)

Germany

Heidelberg and the German countryside

6/16/2009

Germany

I made it

6/13/2009

So my first day in Germany was pretty uneventful (yeah!). I got through customs with no questions at all and was picked up from the airport and taken to the Army base at Mannheim. There we met up with the Anderson's, the couple I will be staying with until Tuesday. They are going to help me get squared away with all the paperwork and military id's I will need for the summer before I head over to Ansbach on Tuesday. Ansbach is a base that is closer to Nuremberg in the east part of German and I will be there most of the summer.

The Anderson's just recently moved back to Germany from Turkey and are renting this fun little house up in the mountains between Frankfurt and Heidelberg. It's been a very relaxing day just sitting on the back porch in the cool 65 degree temperature, reading, journaling and drinking tons of coffee to try and stay awake until normal bedtime (I couldn't fall asleep on the plane and have been so tired all day!). Here is the mountaintop view:

You can hear the church bells ringing from the village below. I took a little walk around their neighborhood- it was quite a work out because the hills are at like an 80 degree incline but there is a great view of the village that I'll have to go back and get a picture of.

I can already tell I was made for Germany: Autobahn with no speed limit-wowo! Leslie- that's for you because you know what a rule breaker I am :)

I've been laying down too long while typing this post and my eyes are having a hard time staying open. Jet lag is calling... Even though it doesn't get dark until later (like 10pm) here, Germany has some awesome "black out" blinds called rolladens. I don't like any light when I'm sleeping (I usually sleep with an eyemask on if I'm going to sleep in) so these are going to be awesome! The blinds are on the outside and can be adjusted to let in degrees of light but fully shut it's a total blackout. I really want these for my 3 big windows in my new apartment at home.

Okay- after rereading this post, I think I must seriously be tired to go on and on so long about window shades. It's almost 9 here and I'm done fighting the jet lag. Also in rereading, I realize that I have probably bored most of you by now. Oh well, just wanted to let you know I got to Germany ok- I promise to have more exciting blog posts and better pics in the future.

Tomorrow..... church and real German food in Heidelberg :)

Germany

Trusting an unknown future to a known God...

6/10/2009

England

Rundown of the last 48 hours

6/08/2009

Total flying time: 23 hours (5 flights)

Total time waiting in an airport: 25 hours (including 4 hours in UK interrogation room- which we will get to later)

Hours of sleep I’ve gotten: 5

Times I’ve almost cried: 10

Times I’ve cursed myself for remembering my toothbrush in my carry-on but not my toothpaste: 15

And the beauty of it all- after 48 hours I’m back in the exact same place I was when I started on Saturday- Dallas…..

For all of the craziness I’m getting ready to describe, I’ve actually felt pretty calm and at peace. Incredulous would probably be the best adjective to describe how I feel- I just can’t believe this is all happening but I'm really just trying to trust God and remember that He is in control!

So the flight over to England is good- uneventful, went by pretty quickly, got a little sleep, watched a few movies- all a good start to the trip. And then it starts to go downhill pretty fast. As I’m going through British Immigration, the woman looking over my stuff asks me lots of questions about why I’m staying so long and what exactly I’ll be doing in England for 9 weeks. Apparently no one has ever come over to the UK for that long of a time period without an ulterior motive. Even when I tell her the truth, she thinks I’m hiding things or changing my story- she must think I’m trying to work without a work visa or something but she will not listen to anything I’m telling her. I’m looking around to other people, like can you believe this? Who ever gets questioned for spending a month or two in Europe? People backpack and travel all the time where they don’t have every little detail planned out. I mention again I will be on an American military base, helping out some friends who do ministry work. I then get told to step out of line and that I will need to be taken for further questioning.

I’m led to a room to get fingerprinted and have a mug shot taken- still not really knowing the problem about what I told Immigration girl. I’m then put in an interrogation room and told someone will come talk to me soon- 3 hours later someone finally comes to talk to me. He’s cordial and nice- asks me a few more questions about MCYM and then says he’s going to go talk things over with his boss. Luckily I have been able to talk with the Pitzer’s so I could keep them informed about everything that is going on. Mr. Interrogator finally comes back about an hour later and informs me that I will be leaving on a flight back to the US in 20 minutes so I need to hurry up, get my stuff and get on that plane. I have to question him while we are walking, trying to figure out why I’m being denied entrance. He explains that the UK immigration policy changed in April 2009 (2 months ago!!) and that anyone who is doing any type of ministry work needs additional paperwork (I guess like a visa) to get permission. Jim and Shannon were just as confused as I was.

This whole day has felt very surreal- I still can’t believe all this has happened! So then I’m on my 2^nd transatlantic flight of the day. Luckily this flight was not full so I could stretch out and sleep some. I’m so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open at this point- I’m pretty sure I was snoring on the plane but I didn’t really care. I arrive at JKF around 8pm on Sunday to realize that in London, they rebooked my flight to Detroit instead of Dallas. I run around for about an hour and a half (with all my bags, mind you, because they did not book those all the way through) but I finally get all that settled with a ticket agent and am booked for the 8 am flight- to…. Atlanta (+4 hr layover, then Dallas). Why can’t anything be easy?

So I left Dallas, Saturday at 5pm and arrive back to Dallas on Monday, 5pm. What a crazy 48 hours….

Please be praying that this all gets sorted out quickly. I honestly have no idea how long that paperwork will take to get worked out or when I’ll be leaving to go back. There is a possibility that I'll be going to another base instead of England as well.

Luckily after having this for my bed tonight: