One of my hopes for life is to keep learning forever. This week of continuing to grow up seems like an appropriate time to celebrate that I’m learning more now than ever. Here are a few lessons, some serious and other less so, from this week. This Week, I’ve Learned: Recycling is financially profitable in…
Category: Life
Seasons
I’ve never been in Europe in autumn. I’ve spent several summers here, two weeks of winter, and one spring. But all of my autumns, my favorite season of all, have been in Washington. I’ve come back to Austria for the weekend–truly just for Saturday–to attend the going-away party for Julie Johnson, a fellow instructor from…
Loslassen
“Nevertheless I am continually with you; You have taken hold of my right hand.” Psalm 73:23 “Einfach loslassen!” We’re playing on the slackline at Family Week II, and the two girls on the sidelines squeal it with the self-confidence of those who watch. Just let go. A slackline is a tightly stretched piece of webbing,…
German Lessons
“Tock, Tock! Willst du mit mir tanzen?” I’m sitting on the floor of the Bistro at Tauernhof, watching five-year-olds ask each other to dance. This “dancing” actually means a challenge to a hopping-on-one-foot duel. One boy asks another, they hop for a while, but the challenger cannot overcome the reigning champion. He continues around the…
On Community
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;and that you,…
Stretching
“OK, so you’re ready, right?” I crane my head around to hear my belayer’s voice from where she stands a few feet away. “Yep. You’re good to go!” she replies cheerfully, tugging on the rope that connects us. I’m used to North American climbing terms. Used to calling On belay? and Belay ON obsessively until…
Yours Also Is the Night
Yours is the day, Yours also is the night. Psalm 74:16 The day has already been long. This morning, we walked up the 2000 meter mountain just behind our school, stopping only for a swim on the 30°+ C day before ascending to “the next summit.” It was a narrow strip of grass underneath a…
Austria and Analogies
Question: “Is there an analogy for that?” Answer: YES. (Always.) Greetings from Schladming! I’m writing from a picnic table outside of Tauernhof Bible School, in a valley among the Austrian Alps. Though this is a ski town, I know it better at times like these. Schladming in summer is sweetly dusty hayfields, cheery international greetings…
TeachBeyond Orientation: Quantitative and Qualitative
Quantitative Date: 2010/6/24 Local Time, 24-Hour Style: 18:57 Celsius Temperature: 27° New Missions Staff to Orient: 39 Continents Where We’ll Be Working: Three (Asia, Africa and Europe) Denominational Backgrounds: Many God to Serve: One Qualitative Greetings from Minnesota! I’m writing from my second (and last) night of TeachBeyond New Staff Orientation, which I’ve “stopped by”…
Daydreaming
Bike route from my new town, Wollbach, to BFA We’ve become so used to looking down at the earth from above. At the spiny knuckles of mountains or shrew blue oceans, we look from plane windows at places we’ll never land. The view from European flights is patchy, agricultural collages far more intricate than those…
The Way Home 