Do you ever get the feeling that you are an idiot and you’re just doing your best to keep everyone from finding out? (That question probably carries more truth than intended) Anyways, if you are looking to practice the concealment of your stupidity then come to Germany and join me in giving an approving nod and smile as the sentences make whooshing noises while passing over my head. It is actually quite fun, I feel like classes are a poker game and I am going all in with a 2-4 offsuit and hoping that noone notices just how crappy my cards are….OK, so it is not that bad, well it is that bad, just not that cool, but as I try to understand 4th year university classes with the language capability of a kindergartener, I find myself doing quite a bit of bluffing.

Overall though it is going pretty well, I have a few friends to whom I can ask important questions and I have learned more than I would have thought possible in 4 months. However starting classes has put a whole new aspect to the German that I have learned. I find conversations in German are easier since they are made up of a series of shorter and mostly predictable exchanges. Furthermore, a conversation is more engaging than a lecture so it is easy to stay focused. However listening to a lecture style talk is frustrating and about as exhausting as a track team practice. It is frustrating since it goes on and on regardless of whether you understood the last sentence or not. It is exhausting because at this point it is not just listening, it is putting every piece of knowledge that I have assembled over the last 4 months in the front of my mind and then directing every ounce of focus that I have toward what is being said while occasionally flipping through a dictionary, and trying to remember what was said and take notes. I am looking forward to the point where I really understand what is going but as for now I am finding this once in a life time experience quite interesting.

I think that God creates situations in our lives and allows things to happen the way that they do to teach us things. Sometimes they are small and easy things, but I feel like often God speaks through hardship (or maybe we just listen better through hardship). Anyway, a while back I wrote about how it was super easy to make friends here but Christian fellowship was proving quite hard to find. Well time went on, and I began to get frustrated and angry. I was having doubts and questions and I was craving the fellowship of other Christians. I wanted someone to answer my questions and give me some support. I couldn’t find any answers, and so as I looked around finding nothing else left to lean on, I clung to the one thing still there, God. It was then that I realized why God allowed me to be in the situation I was in. He wanted me to see that He is enough. He is always enough and always with me. He is always there no matter where I go, no matter the country, surroundings, people, or culture, and he is strong and gracious and faithful in a way that no person ever can be because he is God.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord”

I know that this is a simple truth. It is one that I have learned in the past. But there are moments in life, when the truths you know come alive, take shape, and take hold of you and you understand them on a deeper level than ever before.

Since then, God has led me to an awesome Church within walking distance of my apartment. It is English speaking and has a wonderful young adult ministry. It is almost ridiculous to think that I did not find it earlier, but as I said, I don’t think I was supposed to.

As many of you know, my parents had the opportunity to come here and visit Germany and Austria. We had an absolutely wonderful and memorable time. There are more things to write about than I have time or space so I will do a top three list.

3. I think I was about 12 when I realized how cool I was. I woke up one morning, to Nirvana playing, “Smells like Teen Spirit” looked at my baggy JNCO courdouroys, Airwalk skate shoes, and No Fear T-shirt and it occurred to me. “Steven, you da s**t!” With this realization, it saw that I was no longer bound to things that made me uncool: namely, giving my mom a kiss before I went to school and things of that nature.

A couple weeks ago I realized I was uncool. I woke up turned on some folk rock, put on a colared shirt, and rode my bike to meet my parents for a picnic and it occurred to me, “Steven, you are a s**t!” Yes, I had become uncool, furthermore I noticed that I was still bound to that which made me uncool: namely, the love from my mother and things of that nature.

In all seriousness, I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother in my life. At risk of exposing my uncoolness, I would have to say that walking arm in arm with my loving mother down the streets of Germany makes the top of the list this time around. My mother has always been there for me regardless of my cool factor, attitude, or ungratefulness. Her love is strong and comforting and it was a priveledge and blessing to share part of this Germany experience with her.

2. One of the things I try hardest to learn from my dad is communication. He is a great communicator, but more than that he loves to communicate. He is the kind of person that can’t go through the checkout line at the grocery store without making a joke or starting a conversation with the cashier. Now imagine for a moment, what happens when you put a person has to communicate in a place where no one speaks their language. This person, in the absence of verbal communication, will do anything to get a reaction and satisfy this unquenchable thirst to communicate. Below is one of many examples.

It started the first day. My dad went down to the lobby to get some coffee for us all. Upon his return, he got in a particularly small elevator. Two german businessmen get in as well…the doors close…it is quiet, silent…something needs to be communicated. Unable to let such a wonderful opportunity fade into the silence, my dad, finds something that every single one of them has in common: ...being in a narrow elevator. He decides to communicate this truth. He says very slowly, “narrow….narrrrrrowwwww…” while making a small narrow space between his hands in order to reinforce the idea of narrowness. The other business men smile back as if to say, “I agree…….....narrow…...…” And that was it…mission accomplished...As if to signify the success of communication by all parties, the elevator rockets up to the 13th floor. Upon reentering our room, my dad tells me of his great feat in the elevator. We laugh.

Maybe this is a you-have-to-know-my-dad-really-well-to-get-it kind of stories, well, I suppose it definitely is, but these are my memories and I write what I want and somehow that one ranks pretty high; mostly because it reflects the character and sense of humor of one of the people who I respect most in this world.

1. 8:00 am Saturday morning: people start to line up outside the doors of more than a dozen massive tents, the largest of which holding around 10,000 people. 8:30: the doors open and just about every place is taken. 10:30: we enter the grounds feeling quite good about our decision to come so early. 10:31 it becomes relatively clear that deciding to come to a beer festival at 10:30am was way to late. So we stood in line 20 or 30 people deep in one of the many entrances of the many tents. We hadn’t been in line more than about 5 minutes when one of the security people walked out of the door, looked around, and pointed at my parents, motioning them in. Utterlly surprised they meandered to the front where the were allowed in, I tagged along and was only allowed in because the celebs vouched for me. We entered the gigantic tent with its timber columns and hanging cloth ceilings. After wandering through the madness, we quickly realize that there were not really any seats available. There were however a few reserved seats, on a raised section that rung the tent. I asked the people guarding this area whether we might be able so sit their for a while, making it clear that the celebrities would sitting with me and buying lots of food and beer. They conferred among themselves and then decided that might work for a while. They sat us down at a place reserved for 60 German Air Force fighter pilots, called the flying monsters. I don’t know whether it was originally intended that we leave when they arrived but my parents, being the friendly people they are, secured us a spot for the next couple hours by making friends with the pilot on our end of the table. It really does help to travel with such cool people, and I guess it also helps to know people that don’t look like broke students.

This was truly an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. The atmosphere was that of a fest in the truest sense of the word. The band and about half the people were dressed in traditional lederhosen and folk dresses. The colors were rich and the beers were big. Waitresses carried 12 liters of beer at a time and others carried giant platters of roasted turkeys. And there was lots of singing; they even got in a few American hits like “Take me home, Country Roads” and “Let it Be”. There aren’t a lot of things more fun than standing on the table with a big glass of beer and singing John Denver and the Beatles with the 10,000 other people. But the best part of Oktoberfest was probably the toasting. The glasses were thick and strong and could take about as much “umph” as you put into the toast often creating a small tidal wave of beer in the glass that would occasionally erupt above the brim. Overall, we had an absolutely wonderful time and caught quite a few breaks making it even more memorable.