Kelly's May Report

Guten Tag from a VERY humid Germany! 

It's the beginning of June, which means it's time for another update! The month of May was crammed with lots of things for me to do. May 1st we had a Northern-Germany church meeting in Bergkirchen. It was great to share in fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ here in Germany. Later that night, I also grilled with the Roehrkasses and the Frosts, another family who attends church here in Hildesheim. 

On May 3rd we had our church potluck. The weather was so nice that we grilled and ate outside. With several months of nothing but cold, windy and rainy weather, we were glad to enjoy the sun. Or as Lara Bratcher says "Joy the sun." 

I went up to Bremen over May 8th and 9th. I stayed with the Abercrombie's, a family from Little Rock, Arkansas who are know missionaries here in Germany. They arrived in August 2006 and plan to move to Chemnitz this fall, and eventually to Leipzig to plant a church. I met Karen over the Women's Retreat and she invited me to come up and stay with them. If you ever get the chance to come to Germany, I would highly recommend visiting Bremen. The city is gorgeous! They have a large park and a Rhodedendron Park, not to mention many bike paths all over the city. It was great getting to have some down-time and see another city. It was the calm before the storm... 

Because then I got sick. I had to lay in bed for a few days, but luckily I didn't have to go to the doctor. I did, however, deplete my entire supply of cold medicine that I brought with me from home. While I was laying in bed sick, I unfortunately missed out on the church's annual softball game. Also, 2 Americans, Sean and Chelsea, arrived right after I got back from Bremen. Chelsea was supposed to stay with me the entire 2.5 weeks she was here, but had to spend the first couple of days with the Bratchers until I got better. 

I made it back on my feet just in time for the bike tour around Hildesheim that we had planned for Sean and Chelsea. Kyle decided to take us on the steep-incline-hill tour. I got my work out for the entire month from that bike ride. And for those of you who don't know, Kyle trains and races bikes...so it was nothing for him. Oh, and did I mention he biked up the hill with Lara Bratcher in tote behind him? 

Sean and Chelsea came with me into Scharnhorst, the school where I teach English conversation courses. We played Bingo with the younger kids, and then played Celebrity and talked with the older kids. Overall, I think both parties benefited from the language and culture exchange.  

We also had a lock-in. It was a blast! We had around 13 or 14 people spend the night, but a bunch of the older teens came for the evening devo before heading out to meet up with some other friends. It was a great time for everyone. One of our younger kids, Ann-Kristin, who is 11, spent the night. She is the type who easily gets homesick, and doesn't go anywhere without her older brother, Jannik. Well, Jannik was sick, but Ann-Kristin still spent the night! That shows great courage on her part, something everyone noticed and congratulated her on. It was also a good time for the younger kids to see the older kids investing their time in them. Within the next few weeks, our youth group will change. Jana and Kelsey are finished with school, so the youth group will have a new set of top dogs. I think it was extremely pertinent that Lea and Amanda both spent the night, considering they are 2 of the 3 who will be on top this next year. And as for the guys, they all had a ball staying up the ENTIRE night. They played Wii for somewhere around 6 or 7 hours. Every boy's dream. And when I walked into the auditorium, they were still wide-eyed and excited that they got to play Wii all night together. (I'm pretty sure that they went home and crashed as soon as they saw their beds.) 

We also celebrated Don's 50th birthday. His birthday was back in March, but Cindy held a come-and-go party for him on the 18th. The Roehrkasse house was busy and filled to the brim, but it was great to be able to see many people who don't always get to join us in Hildesheim for worship.  

I also had the opportunity to travel to Berlin on the 21st. Sean and Chelsea are both 17 and have never travelled alone before, yet alone to a foreign country. They really wanted to visit another Germany city, however their parents weren't too keen on them going alone. So they paid for my ticket to go with them. I took them on a day-long tour around Berlin. We saw the Reichstags Building, the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Memorial, Potsdamer Platz and the Wall, Alexanderplatz (TV Tower, Friendship Fountain of the Nations, Nikolai Quarter), the Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was a full day of walking and taking public transportation. But the weather was perfect and we were up to the task of walking all day long! And on the train ride back to Hildesheim, God blessed us with a beautiful view of a gorgeous sunset! 

Then I came home to a dirty apartment. The night before, our toilets, sinks and shower got clogged. While we were in Berlin, someone came and unclogged them. But my roommates hadn't cleaned the bathrooms nor the shower since. It was 9:30pm by the time we got back from being gone since 7:30am. I had to mop and scour those bathrooms and shower clean. It was 11pm by the time I made it to bed. But I wasn't upset about it, just tired. 

I left for Heidelberg on Friday for a meeting concerning our teen camp this summer. I travelled down there to meet up with Rebecca Roehrkasse and 3 others who will also be helping out with camp. We met on Saturday morning and then Rebecca and I spent the afternoon walking around the city and touring the castle. I also highly recommend seeing Heidelberg if you come to Germany! We came back to Hildesheim on Sunday afternoon. I was excited to shower and brush my hair (I forgot my hairbrush accidentally at home, so I went without a hairbrush for 2 days). I came home to a clogged up apartment...again. Luckily, our upstairs neighbors let us use their shower and bathroom. So I showered really quickly then was off again! 

JD and Kelsey Frost had a dance performance that Sunday night, so I made it just in time for the show! They did a ballet piece which was absolutely amazing! There were 21 other groups who performed as well. I saw everything from hip-hop to tap dance!

On Monday morning, we had someone come...once again...and unclog our toilets. Apparently there was a feminine product that was causing the blockage. I don't know how they managed to miss it the first time they came to unclog it, but they found it on the second try. We don't know how it got there, but oh well. Our toilets and shower work! That is the main thing! And now I have one more thing on my list of experiences in Germany. From rats in the cellar (which our landlord had no idea about by the way until we informed him) to having clogged up toilets...what more can I learn while being here? Who knows what the month of June will bring my way!! 

I just got back from a church retreat weekend. I was in charge of the Children's Bible Hour classes on both Saturday and Sunday. Our topics were "God makes everything new" and "Heaven". I personally liked the class about Heaven. I had the kids draw pictures of what Heaven will be like and they were some of the most precious pictures ever. Some of the kids drew castles. Lara's had giraffes and penguins, and some of the others had people, flowers and clouds. It's interesting to talk to others about Heaven, especially little children. Overall the weekend was awesome. We got to swim in a pool with the little kids (all of the little ones needed constant attention, another good reminder that I'm not ready to have kids for awhile...they require so much work! Especially twins...I don't know how my mom and dad managed to do it!) and play games outside. We were going to grill and eat outside, but a thunderstorm changed those plans. We ate inside, but still had a wonderful time! 

I just back to my aparment from the weekend retreat. It's stuffy and muggy, not to mention humid. And we don't have air conditioning here. I think I'm going to go out and buy a tiny air conditioner tomorrow because the weather is turning very hot here. And it doesn't really cool down in the evenings either.  

I hope this email has found you in good healthy and pleasant weather! Thank you all for your financial and prayer support. It means so much to me that you have blessed me with this opportunity to come and work with the church in Hildesheim. I am forever grateful for your blessings to me! 

-Kelly :)

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