Not Quite Perfect...

The student missionaries were in charge of vespers last Friday night.  The speaker, Ashok, spoke about how perfection is not a requirement for being a Christian.  I was talking with one of the other deans the other night and he said something I really liked, "This is not an Adventist school, this is a mission school. There are so many kids here that need our help. An only Adventist school doesn't require any witnessing, but that is all we do."  This quote has helped me when I'm not sure what my purpose at the school is. My purpose is just that I am here. I am here to help, listen, talk, and witness.

For vespers I made a video. It is an interview with all the other student missionaries here at Vejlefjord.  Hope you like it :)

A Busy Week...

Ahhh, I'm back. Last week was busy, but amazing. I was assigned to accompany the 10th grade class on their study tour to Berlin. Yes, assigned, what a bummer :)

While there we had a fantastic time seeing the German Parliament building, a film park, the Jewish monument, and we went up in the iconic Berlin TV tower, which was a disappointment. Our tour guide Christian said that he has never had the privilege of going inside the parliament room. The film park staff showed us around some sets of German movies, we got to see a casting show and how different video effects work.  That evening we went to the Blue Man Group. I have one thing to say, "Go!" That was one of the most fun shows I have ever been to.  If any of you have the opportunity to go, please do. Overall the trip was a great success. We had an opportunity to bond with some of the kids and see an amazing city with great history. (We also found the American Embassy.)  

But the best part of the trip came Friday morning after the kids left...I know that sounds bad. But when Ashok and I, both being car fanatics, found out that the Frankfurt Auto Show would be going on just a few hours away, we couldn't pass it up. We bought our train tickets in advance, sent the kids on the long bus ride back to school and took a train ride to Frankfurt. Of course being on a student missionary budget we took the cheap tickets. This means that the 4 hour train ride from Berlin to Frankfurt took 8 hours and 3 transfers.  But we got there. Saturday we decided to look up the closest Adventist church and see if we could score a potluck. We found one right in downtown Frankfurt and met two extremely nice English speaking people. They told us all about the car show, and how the population of Frankfurt increases by over 1 million people during the week of the show.  They also made it very clear to get there early if wanted to see the big hits like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, etc.  So the next morning we were up by 7 and standing in line by 8.  This show was amazing. I'm used to the Seattle car show, with barely 1.5 one-story buildings with cars....this particular expo had 12 buildings, all of them two stories. One of those buildings was specifically dedicated to Audi.  They built the building from scratch just for this show.  I took a bunch of pictures, but if you would like to see them please look at my facebook album.

I'm very glad I had the opportunity to see this amazing car show, it was a great early birthday present.  And thank you to all who sent birthday wishes my way while I'm over here.

See you soon :)

A successful week

Well this week with the 10th graders of vejlefjord has been awesome! Every day was packed with fun things to keep everyone busy. As student missionaries our only job was to stay at the back of the group and kick the stragglers...figuratively of course :)

We went to the film studios of Babelsburg, where the film "Inglorious Bastards" had a few scenes. We saw the Blue Man Group. And we at ate a quite nice restaurant where I got to try wienerschnitzel for the first time... And simultaneously received this and next years helping of salt x_x

This morning We said goodbye to a bus-load of good kids, now for the next big adventure. Fellow missionary, Ashok and I are just about to head to the station to catch our train from Berlin to Frankfurt.

See you soon :D

I Haven't Taken Manhattan, But I'm About to Take Berlin!

Tomorrow, well actually today, in less than 8 hours I will headed to Berlin.  I will going with the 10th grade class.  We are in Berlin for 5 days, and then the class heads home. However, I will be staying. A fellow missionary, Ashok, and I will be going to Frankfurt for the weekend. Now it could just be for no reason, just an extra weekend off campus, but no.  We are going to spend a day at the Frankfurt Auto Show!!!!

I have nothing to say after that. Nothing beats that.

Talk to you soon :)

Story Time...

As winter approaches here in the land of the Danes rain is becoming a daily occurrence.  I don't mind, however, it makes for some slippery roads.  About a week ago I took a bus full of kids and went to a church in Århus, an hour north of the school.  One of the girls told me about a tradition they have here at the school.  When a guy gets a girlfriend, he gets thrown in the fjord.  Of course his phone and valuables are removed from his person before this event occurs, but still, the fjord is cold.  So I was told to drive down to the fjord when we got back to school.  As an unknowing, newly Danish driver, I didn't think about the massive rain storm early that morning.  To get to the fjord from the school it is only a matter of driving down a fairly steep hill.  It wasn't until after driving down this "fairly steep hill" that I realized this old Toyota minivan may not have the willpower to return to the school.  So after one of my passengers was soaked we headed back to the van to go back to school.  "Oh, this ground is really sloppy." I said. "That's alright, we can make it."
*Spin, spin, spin...rev, rev, rev.
"Ok maybe you guys need to get out and push."
Well that didn't work. We tried in vain to get our old Toyota RWD van out of the mud.
So we decided that we would wait until morning (hopefully it wouldn't rain that night) so that the ground would be a little drier.  Well, later that night I was informed that the forecast for that night was more rain...lots of it.  I could imagine going down the next morning and seeing the bus floating in the fjord.  So I figured we should probably get the bus up, now.  I went up to the boys dorm and got about 10 guys to go down and get the bus out.  And one of the girls who was in the van earlier had already called her dad. So he came, and drove, and we all pushed.  It was much easier with 10 guys.

Lesson learned. Never drive down to the fjord after rain.

1 måned

Its hard to believe that one month has passed already.  This year is definitely going to go by quickly.  I had some spare time when I was on duty this morning so I did a little counting. Out of 64 guys in the boys dorms, I know 60. I may not know them personally, but I can call them by name. I think that is quite an accomplishment with names like Ulloriaq and Szabolcs.

English Class

No, not for me. For kids who are struggling with English.  I have been really impressed with the amount of English spoken here, but there are those who struggle with learning it. Whether it's because they don't like it, have something like dyslexia, or various other reasons. But the school gave us an opportunity to help them if we wanted.  So this week I started helping kids with English. Every week I will have 9 kids at different times and we will explore English together and hopefully help their confidence with speaking English.  Even though they think they aren't good at English, I just remind them that anything they will be better than my Danish.  I'm really excited about the opportunity to be creative with these kids.  I take them out of class during the regular English class, and we get to do whatever we want! Play games, watch tv/movies, play sports, seriously anything.  The other kids in these classes are jealous of the ones who get to spend an hour with us each week because we are more fun than their regular class :)