One week!!

Well, I have been in Germany for a little over a week now!!  This week has been exciting, fun, hard, stressful and adventurous!  I'll try to sum it up as much as I can in this post...

St. Petri Dom, my favorite building in Bremen!

Major events of this week:

1. Attacked by a drunk guy on a tram!
  On Thursday morning, at about 1:30 am I was riding the tram home(after being lost on the trams, and stuck at a tram station for 43 minutes...) when a drunk man came and sat across from me.  He started trying to talk to me, and I ignored him as much as I could.  He got mad at me for having my feet on the chair and grabbed my leg and pulled it down.  A nice man sitting behind him stood up to stop him, and got him to kind of settle down.  But as soon as the nice man sat back down, the drunk man started getting mad at me again.  So the nice man stood back up and told the drunk man to change seats, and he did.  But within two minutes, the drunk man stood back up and started yelling at both me and the nice man.  He did not settle down until the nice man called the police.  The police came, and pulled our tram over.  Four police officers entered the tram, and took the drunk man off of it.  They asked me if I wanted to press charges, and I said no.  So they left, and I went home.  This event was pretty scary, especially since I had never experienced anything like this and it was 1:30 am.  I also felt helpless, because I had no cell phone to call for help, and if that nice man was not on the tram sitting so close to us, I do not know what would have happened.  The next day I bought a cell phone, and now I feel much more safe!


2. Orientation and German class

 This week I had orientation and took a German class!  The German class was four hours a day for 4 days!  I learned a lot of the basics, including how to count from 1 to 100.  I will continue learning German in a class for the rest of the semester.

Exploring the oldest part of the city!

3. Getting to know the city
 I spent a lot of time this week exploring Bremen.  Its a really beautiful city with huge, very old buildings!  I got to go inside some of them.  Some parts of Bremen have small roads with tiny shops surrounding them.  There is also a beautiful river that I walked around twice.


4. Finding a great church!

Going bowling with new friends from church!

 Last Sunday I attended the International Baptist Church of Bremen.  It was great!  I got to know a lot of people from all over the world, and even went bowling with a few of them!  I also found out about a Christian college group and weekly Bible studies!  I am excited to continue attending this church and getting to know its members!

Imitating the Seven Lazy Men statue
for a game at orientation!

5.  Getting to know the other international students, their cultures and their religions
 This week I have gotten to know many great people from all over the  world and from many different religions!  It has been great learning about their cultures and religions!  I have had a lot of fun hanging out with them and am excited to continue building the new friendships I have made!

The Weser River

What I am looking forward to in the next week:
1. Starting school! Having a regular schedule for the first time in three months will be great!
2. Starting the Adopt a Student program! I will be "adopting" a German family, and sharing my culture with them as well as learning about theirs!
3. Spending time with my new friends as well as making new ones!!







Praises:
1. Praise God for the nice man on the German tram!  The police asked him to leave the tram at a stop that wasn't his, so that they could talk to him.  This left him having to wait 30 minutes for the next tram.
2. Praise God that what happened on the trams was not as bad as it could have been!
3. Praise God for the new friendships I have made!
4. Praise God for the weather warming up!
5. Praise God that I have found a great church and am making friends there!!
6. Praise God that I have found other friends who do not want to drink!

Prayer requests:

At IKEA with friends!

1.  Pray for me as I learn how to be safe in Bremen.  What happened on the trams has made me more aware of dangers.  I am searching for more ways to be safe. Please also pray that nothing like that happens again!
2. Pray for me as I continue to build relationships, that they will be able to be strong friendships that last a lifetime!
3. Pray for me as I do things like start school and apply for a residents permit.  Applying for a residents permit takes a lot of paperwork, some of which I'm not sure I have right.

A Tale of Trams

Me! Not on a tram...

Today I attempted to ride the trams on my own for the first time!  I left my house, and walked to the nearby tram station.  Within a few minutes, the tram came!  And I got on.  I sat next to a guy who didn't seem overly excited to have me sitting there...and I wondered if maybe its not culturally acceptable to sit next to strangers on the tram.  I continued to sit there anyways.  I didn't really have a set place I was going, I was just looking for a store.  Two stops later I saw one! I got off the tram and bought the items I needed, and went to get on a tram going the opposite direction.  After a few minutes, a tram came!  And I didn't get on fast enough...a few minutes later, another tram came!  And it broke down 20 feet from the tram stop...a few minutes later it was working again, and I got on!  About three stops later, I realized that the tram was going the wrong direction.  So I rode it for one more stop, and got off.  I was now in City Center, but I wanted to be home.  I had six minutes until the next tram(one going the right direction this time) so I walked around City Center.  All was not lost, because I found a tram stop that I was meeting someone at the next day!  After three minutes of wondering around,  I worked my way back to the tram stop.  This is not easy as you may think, because at this particular part of town it is scary to cross the street.  There are trams going two different directions coming from three different directions.  And then there are also cars driving.  But I crossed the street, carefully, and got to the tram stop two minutes early!  When it came, I got on the tram!  And eventually got back to the stop that is near my house, and got off the tram!  All in all this was a fun little adventure, and now I feel more experienced in European tram riding!

This is it!!!!

Well, this is the day!!  Less then 5 hours from now I will wake up, pack up, get in the car, get to the airport and go!!  My flight leaves today (March 1) at 8 am!!

At this point, I'm not sure how to feel.  I've said all my goodbyes and gotten over the nervousness.  I'm excited, but it hasn't quite hit yet that I'm actually going to Germany.  Right now I'm just looking forward to traveling all day tomorrow.  International travel is probably my favorite thing in the world!  This will be my fourth international trip in five years, so I feel prepared for this one to be more on my own.  Special thanks to everyone who has lead the past international trips I have gone on, each of you played a part in helping me prepare for this trip :).

What God has taught me so far:
In the past three weeks I have spent a lot of time praying and reading Gods word.  God has shown me a couple verses that have become my life verses for this trip.  These verses are:

Mark 10:29-30
 “'Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life."

1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

About two days ago I was feeling really sad about leaving my family.  I am very close to my parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.  I had run into Mark 10:29-30 several times in the weeks before that and God reminded me of these verses as I felt sad.  He reminded me that I am going to Germany for Him and for the Gospel.  He reminded me that even though I am leaving my family, friends and home, and even though I am worried about finding friends in Germany, He would help me find friends, even family, there.  He also reminded me that things may not always be easy, I could deal with persecution and spiritual warfare.

As I thought more about Germany, I thought about my role in Gods plan in Germany.  I thought and prayed about how He would use me.  At this time, God reminded me of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.  He reminded me that, like Paul, in order to truly reach people in Germany, I would have to become like them.  I mulled over what this would mean.  How do I reach people if they want to party, and I don't?  What is German culture like?  What about the international student's cultures?  How do I reach people who have come from all over the world to this one place?  How do I breach the language barrier?  Though I have ideas for the answers to these questions, I definitely don't have all the answers.  I believe this will be a process that God will lead me through.  And I believe and pray that I will grow greatly through learning how to become "German" or become whatever the culture is of the person I am talking to.

It is late now, so I will go to bed.  In my next post I will talk about how I have already started to see these verses become real in this trip.

One last thing before I go to bed:
Prayer requests:
-Pray for safety as we travel all day tomorrow.  We will be traveling from 8 am to 3 am PST.
-Pray for my ears.  I usually have a lot of ear pain while flying, I am praying to not have any this time around.
-Pray for me as I adjust to Germany and begin building relationships.

Praises:
-Praise God for a safe, fast, and pain free flight from Arcata to San Francisco!
-Praise God for a great family to stay the night with in the Bay Area!
-Praise God for my friends and family who were supportive, and caring, and loving in my last couple of weeks with them!