The Weekend

Hey guys!

Well, the week went well, I had some great readings with folks! With my reader who is a non-believer we talked about the scattering of seeds, how some seeds fall on good soil, some on rocky soil, thorny and by the path. It was interesting to read this story with her because she was giving me classic "this is a church question, so ill give you a church answer". For example, one of my questions was, "who do you think would be considered good soil? What kind of person would that be?" and her response, "Well, you would be good soil because you believe." "Okay... and what kind of soil do you think you are?" "I dont know...."

So, I take another approach. "Okay, later in the story in verse ... it says "honest heart", what does it mean to have an honest heart?" and then the discussion took off! Thats what Im shooting for! I love those discussions! Sometimes I feel like the material can be to "churchy" for people, but if you can talk about the matter at hand and take it out of a religious context I think you can open a whole other avenue to reach people! Its just a matter of finding that avenue over and over again lol.

Anyways... we had a guest in from Pepperdine this weekend, Ruban. He is in Heildelburg on Pepperdines study abroad and met Larry and Pam at the World Missions Workshop last fall and wanted to come visit them. Friday night Pam came over (larry was out of town) and Sussanne came along with Roy and Tiffany and we all had chicken pot pie for supper. Sussanne had never had a chicken pot pie so i told her id make her one since it was an american thing :). She liked it! After that Tiff Sussanne and I watched a scary movie and Ruben, Roy and Pam played a board game.

Saturday morning was Ladies Breakfast at church, we had a great turn out, 17 people! We stayed until around 11:30, it was great to fellowship with everyone! After that, Roy and I took Ruben around downtown and showed him uncle Karl (the giant Karl Marx head downtown) and some of the other sites (which are pretty limited!). We came back and had afternoon coffee with everyone and then a mexican supper.

Sunday we had church, with a really good lesson from Alex about tolerance and how it is a fine line of being tolerant and being unreasonable and uncaring. After church Pam made a delicious pork roast for lunch and Ruban had lunch with us then caught his train back to Hieldelburg. At 3 we had coffee at sport Alex's house and supper. We played some games and had a great time!

And here we are back to Sunday night!

I just got off skype with my dad, everyone is doing well! Please keep my sister and brother in law in your prayers, my brother in law, Chris, was just accepted into officers training so he will be going off to the first leg of training anytime. They sold their house right before Christmas and found a rent house from one of the church members at Central in moore that is letting them rent until he finds out more plans. He will have to do some time abroad to become an officer, and my sister and nephew plan on being with him, so they are just waiting to hear where they are going. Anyways, please pray for them as they are going through all of the transitions!

Our first of 2 LST ads ran saturday. No luck as of yet. Hopefully we will get some responses!!!! I am going back to all the travel agencies i passed out fliers to a few weeks ago and ask if they have any other questions. Please continue to prayer that we can gain some more contacts!!!!

Be good and do good!

Sarah B

Quote: You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if its a little thing, do something for others- something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. ~ Albert Schweitzer

New Years!

Hello again!

This week is going to be busy, which I love! Today is/was my slow day, which is why I am taking the opportunity to update on here.

German is back in the swing of things, so my mornings are now dominated by German lessons once again. It is nice to be in a routine though, so I like that! We have some new people in our class, all english speakers so thats nice! We handed out some LST fliers last week and we have an ad running in the paper this weekend and next weekend, so please be praying that we get some responses from that!

Tomorrow I am reading with Ceili, and then Sophia is coming over and we are going to make an apple pie. She had some of the pie I made for German class and liked it, so I sent her the recipe, but I forgot all the ingredients are in US measurements! So we are going to tackle an apple pie before Bible class tomorrow! Wednesday I have a reader and team meeting. Thursday I have a reader in the afternoon and then I am leading ladies Bible class thursday night. This chapter in the book is replacing a doubting attitude with a faithful attitude. I should probably read that pretty soon... I guess Ill be doing that after this! Friday Sussanne and Tiffany are coming over and we are having a girls night and scary movie! Sussanne has never had a pot pie, so im making chicken pot pie for her and we'll all watch a creepy movie together, fun times! Saturday is ladies breakfast at church, im looking forward to that! It has been a while since we have had one! Sunday Karen and I have been invited to Alex's house for supper with his family so we will go spend an evening with him and his family.

So there is a run down of the week. Above are some of the pictures from New Years here that I have been promising!

Oh, on a side note, please keep my uncle Charlie in your prayers (www.unclecharlie.com), he is a children's minister and has recently announced that he will retire from full time children's ministry and focus specifically on not for profit and underprivileged children's groups and camps. This is a huge step of faith for him and his ministry so please keep him and all those that have supported him over the years in your prayers as he makes this transition.

Be good and do good!

Sarah B

Quote: “Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” Albert Einstein

Its Not Wrong, Its Just Different

I have had to tell myself that numerous times when trying something new. Or in most cases, something old in a new way. Who likes change? My point exactly. I would consider myself a pretty adventures person, but new things I still approach with caution not knowing what to expect much less what to compare it to that i could know!

Larrys sermon sunday morning was about when God says no. He used many examples but the one that stuck out the most to me was David wanting to build the temple. God told him no, it was not his plan for David, but rather for his son Solomon. That has really been on my heart lately. When does God say "no" and when does he say "try harder"? Thats a tough question to answer. I have always had it in my mind, i'm not sure why, but God can give a "no" but we can always change his mind.... but that really isnt the case. We cant change the answer we can just readjust ourselves to the answer. Food for thought.

We went to Leipzig for worship last night. ACU is doing a trial study abroad for the next 3 years in Leipzig, anyways the sponsors from ACU (the students aren't here yet) came to worship last night. I had forgotten how nice it was to sing true songs of worship. We have english bible study every 2 weeks, and that is good and all, but they are all "devo" songs. There are some good ones in there. But to sing the classic hymns everyone once in a while is just good for the soul. Larry said they are going to set up an english bible study in leipzig too and they are hoping some of the students will start attending.

German class started back up today. It wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be haha. I enjoy my classmates and teacher so that makes it worth it. It was nice to see everyone again :).

Be good and do good!

Sarah B

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." Aristotle

Is it Now? Or Never?

The snow has come.... to stay. Its alright though, im dealing with it :). I went and got some "hot-pants" today. What are "hot-pants" you may be thinking.... ski pants! Tiffany was telling me about some she got, and said they were really hot, so from hence forth, ski pants shall be known as hot-pants!

This has been an interesting week to say the least. The movie night went well, we had a good group! Including some people who usually don't come to church activities so it was great to get them involved with others. This time we watched the movie UP, which is great if you haven't seen it. Even if you aren't one that usually watches cartoons, its worth it!

We have ladies bible class tonight, Tiffany is leading the discussion and this chapter is Doubt. I have the next one and it is Faith. The chapter came at a good time, ive been having a hard time being here lately. Not being here so much, as feeling guilty for being here. Sometimes i just feel like it is a waste of money because it is so expensive to live here, especially since the conversation is at $1.50 US for $1 Euro.

We are launching another LST campaign in hopes to get some more readers. Right now, i currently am reading with 5 people, My two "mom" aged ladies (the ones who could be my mom), and one older gentleman who could be my grandpa! I also have 1 personal study with Ceili going on right now, and Sussanne and I are starting one soon as soon as we figure out what to study lol. Marion, one of the young adults at the church has also asked me about doing study, so hopefully we can get something started soon too.

German class starts back up on Monday. I'm looking forward to being able to speak to people... that'd be nice. All to often I see people and want to talk to them, and would if I could, but i just look back down or give them a smile and keep going. Thats pretty frustrating.

I am going to talk to one of the ladies at church about some volunteering I can do around town. Maybe there is a soup kitchen or something I can do to volunteer. I feel like I need to be doing more, but I haven't a clue what.

Well, thats all for the update. I still haven't uploaded New Years pictures yet... sometime soon....

Be good and do good!

Sarah B

Quote: Sometimes questions are more important than answers. Nancy Willard