Well it has been a while since I have posted about my Life in Denmark. Today I am on duty with nothing to do so I figured I'd update you on the goings-on of my life. Now that I have really settled into the routine here I can accurately describe to you what I do.
My only job is to connect with the kids here. Sure I have "duties" but all of them are with kids allowing me to get closer to them and share whatever I can with them. Since getting here I have gotten involved in a couple of extra things outside of my usual stuff. One of the things I have undertaken is a Bible study. There is a lady in Daugård, the closest town, that cooks dinner for us every Tuesday night. There are regularly five or six students who come with me to her house. We enjoy a nice homemade meal and then have a Bible study. Her husband is a pastor and regularly leads out. I'm really glad that the kids have some time to escape from school and talk about whatever is on their minds. None of the kids that come are Adventist, though some are "Christian". I say "Christian" because a few are members of the state church (Lutheran) but here in Denmark that doesn't mean anything. Children around the age of 14-15 are giving the option to be "confirmed" in the church. Most children choose to be confirmed whether or not they actually believe or care because there is a big party involved (a little like a Bar Mitzvah) usually involving gifts and money adding up to about 10,000 Danish Krone or $2,000. As you can imagine most kids go for the money. So back to Bible study. Having a safe place for these kids to leave campus and talk or ask questions is really important otherwise they will be sucked into the void that is Danish teenagers' spirituality.
A few student missionaries and myself have also decided to redecorate one of the common areas of the school. It's called the Pigernesdagligstue (The girls living room). If you saw it, you wouldn't want to live there, much less just sit down for a movie. It is very old, dirty, the sofas are falling apart, the walls look like a finger painting board at a preschool. Its extremely unattractive. So we have petitioned the school for some money to fix it up. A motivator behind this renovation is something called Lighthouse. This is an idea that I came up with for a place for kids to just come and talk about things. Whatever is on their minds its talking to people their age aka student missionaries. Whether it's friends, boy/girlfriends, sex, drugs, religion, school. Anything they want to talk about we are there to share any knowledge/ideas we may have to help them navigate their issues. We make sure that there are no teachers or deans there so they can honestly open up about whatever they want to say. We have tried it a few times without too much of a turn out, but we are putting it on hold right now until we can get the dagligstue looking better.
Also, my parents are coming!!! As I write they are over the Atlantic. They are coming here for Christmas and we will go to København for Christmas then down to Berlin for the week before Nytår (New Years). I'm excited to have them here and show them around all the great places in Denmark.
Merry Christmas everyone!
