Happy Easter! Thank the Lord for His unfathomable grace and mercy and love that He came to rescue us from sin and from ourselves. It’s almost too much to even try to understand, and I think if we truly could understand the magnitude of it, our lives would be radically changed!

Here are just a few of the pictures from my day:

Jana and her sweet new shoes, helping to make Easter Eggs. This is in the Ford’s kitchen (where I am staying). Thomas and Innes are in the background.

David showing off his beautiful blood blister. He’s pretty proud of it for some reason.

Daniel frying the fish for lunch. He started this fish tradition a few years ago, basing it off of the disciples/fish story in Luke.

Hanging out - Jesse & Lori

Mark, thoughtfully eating some bread.

Chillin on the couch with Jana. We were passing time as everyone finished up the traditional “writing a letter to Jesus” moment. This is a Goering family tradition.

Hmmm……what to write to Jesus……

Charlie & Innes Ford - who I am currently living with.

Their daughter, Hanna, who just as I’m writing this woke up screaming from a nightmare.

Me, putting away my plethora of candy.

Jana & I, working on her art project, which turned out great! And having a little fun posing for the camera in the meantime.

Last night I watched a Steven Seagal and then a Jet Li movie, both in German. Somehow it really doesn’t matter what the dialogue is. Imagine that.

What did you do today?

Well….I went shopping in the Netherlands.

Tabea Goering called me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go to the Netherlands tomorrow. I stopped…and thought, wait a second. “What?” I said. “Do you want to go to the Netherlands tomorrow?”

It seriously crossed my mind that she had asked me if I wanted to go to Neverland, and I got really excited somewhere deep down. Within about 0.0098372 seconds I thought about this, then decided she obviously couldn’t have asked that, so don’t laugh outloud and say “OH YEAH!”, and then I thought, what could she mean, and then I realized she meant HOLLAND. Ah hah…Dangit, I was really pumped to go to Neverneverland. A part of me died last night.

Here are some pix!

NEVERLAND!! This is what it looks like:

Tabea and I, her showing off her new ring, me, my new earrings:

Pondering life issues by the snazzy toilet seats:

I’m finally reading Donald Miller’s first book, “Blue Like Jazz.” Thank you Mo for sending it in the mail! It’s ridiculously good, that’s all I can say about it. But, it’s dangerous. It’s outside the box, it’s risky. It could probably get you kicked out of certain groups. Read it.

One of the many many things that I like so far is the story Donald heard a folksinger telling at a concert, about a group of Navy SEALS who were attempting to rescue some hostages who had been imprisoned for months. Here’s the way Donald tells it:

“The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified. When the SEALS entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages. They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans. The SEALS asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn’t. They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear. They were not of healthy mind and didn’t believe their rescuers were really Americans.

“The SEALS stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn’t possibly carry everybody out. One of the SEALS, the folksinger’s friend, got an idea. He put down his weapon, took of his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs. He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He was trying to show them he was one of them. None of the prison guards would have done this. He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes. The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them. Will you follow us? he said. The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go. The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier.

“I never liked it when the preachers said we had to follow Jesus. Sometimes they would make Him sound angry. But I liked the story the folksinger told. I liked the idea of Jesus becoming man, so that we would be able to trust Him, and I like that He healed people and loved them and cared deeply about how people were feeling….”

“The magical proposition of the gospel, once free from the clasps of fairy tale, was very adult to me, very gritty like something from Hemingway or Steinbeck, like something with copious amounts of sex and blood. Christian spirituality was not a children’s story. It wasn’t cute or neat. It was mystical and odd and clean, and it was reaching into dirty. There was wonder in it and enchantment.”

Today I am having a panic day. Those are great once in a while, make you feel *alive*. Mmm…

I love my life and the way God has made me b/c it makes me kind of unpredictable, even to myself, it makes life interesting and I think I get to do some unusual things, i.e. go to Africa, China, etc. BUT! It makes me have some serious panic days.

I don’t really have much money, so…..the questions are floating around in my head about when to go back to the USA, and then what to do after that! Ah….yes, panic. Anxiety. Good stuff.

I really do feel that God wants me here now, and I already can’t imagine leaving the people I’ve met here, but it’s definitely outside of the box, and almost everything is uncertain.

Don’t you love it.

Wednesday was such a quiet day, and I helped Innes around the house with some things that needed to be done. I just put on my Ipod and disappeared into my own little world for a few hours. I spent the evening with Mark and Jesse and Jana.

Thursday I met with Tabea and Lori to talk about this Passover fest the church is doing in partnership with Jews for Jesus on the 12th. Then Lori and I went to WalMart! I’ve been there about 8 times already. There’s definitely differences between US and DE WalMarts, most noticably you have to put 1 euro in the shopping cart before it will unlock. Gotta keep those cart-stealers on the defensive. And they have a separate shopping area for bread (German bread is AMAZING), drinks, gardening, etc etc. Thursday evening I babysat Hanna and then talked to Lea on the phone for 1 & 1/2 hours!

Friday I helped Lori put up posters for their “English Conversation” meetings on Tuesday. We went to the Uni of Dortmund and ran around taping posters up everywhere. If I felt like ifI wouldn’t have made her nervous, I probably would have sung some dangerous theme music as we were doing it, but that didn’t seem very mature at the moment. In the afternoon I had cake and coke with Tabea at a very old German cafe, and then went shopping at H & M!

Friday night I went to play billiards and Mikael and I lost pretty badly, but that’s okay. We’ve adopted each other as brother and sister and we have unconditional love and support no matter how many times we scuffed the ball, or just hit the white ball toward nothing. And then I spent 1:00-3:00 discussing and debating God, marriage, relationships, the Bible, you name it.