cate's date

muck invited me on a museum date for my birthday, to see the exhibit of immendorf, a famouse german artist who passed away in may. we decided to enhance the visual experience a bit by theatricizing several of the statues...




to not estrange the other guests, we spent part of the exhibit in a more normal manner...



after the museum (which was "worth seeing" but not my style) we headed over to a really nice old german restaurant. what we didn't know is that reservations are requiered and they had no two-person tables for the evening. we pulled out the charm and they said if we could order immediately and be out in an hour, we could sit at the eight man table. so we had schnitzel.

going on old

so, for everyone who forgot... yesturday was my 28th birthday.



it was a bit different from normal birthdays, since i couldn't celebrate or walk.. and started out rather low. then at three mechti showed up with a cake she and karo had baked me, and matze came in too. from then on it was open-house with people stopping by, eating cake, drinking coffee, and talking. we sat out on the steps and enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather. and the street group met at our house, too.



the highlight came late at night, as i still sat with muck and matze outside, my neihbor came out and joined us. matze and i ended up over on her steps until five in the morning. we sat there, despite the cool rain that started falling, and had a three hour conversation with her about faith, God and the world. it was really cool. the end point was she agreed to at some point try praying, and just asking God to make himself known. she wants to get back to us with the response.



my birthday wish was that hans would show up again, and this morning he did. he's not doing too well, but he came sobber.

two new

this sunday we had a double baptism.. two of my people, harry and jo.



harry



jo


the blessing.

the most special part for me was after, when harry sat down with me and presented me with a graffitti-style card he'd made. it says "oasis" in styled letters and has a Bible verse about faith, hope and love on it. he said that one of the main things that had helped him to make the decision last winter to keep comming to street group and the freaks was that he felt he could just be there, around people who do him good. he said i'm a big part of that, with the hope house where he is always welcome. i couldn't baptise him because of my foot, but he just wanted me to know i was part of the whole thing.

for my part, i said it was cool to see how far he's come. he still has a ways to go, but he made it into a more stable place in life, is in outpatient therepy and has become part of a stable group of friends. he is learning to use his creative talents for good purposes and not just vandalism, and his hunger for God is growing.

i was excited to see jo aspire to this step, but i am not sure if i would have made the decision to baptise him if it had been up to me. there are still some faith issues he needs to get sure on.. he's comming out of the buhdist arena. the main one that i find odd is he believes in the holy 9, not trinity..

Jesus Noodels

after three days, Jesus was as good as new. noodels aren't.
please don't eat left over noodles from the counter. trust me.

mango?

the other night (well..morning..) at one or so i was sitting in front of the house, chatting on jesus.de (for the second time ever..something about being home-bound) and this man walks by. he greets me, i greet him, then he comes over. don't worry mom, there was a gate between us and the house door was right there and open to offer a quick escape. he says, "blhfhjfshfshmango?" which i didn't quite catch, so i asked, "mango??" at that, he smiled and pulled out a mango from a box. he said its from his country- pakistan, and to enjoy. :-)

discussion quote

"We all think we can choose when a choice comes, but our choice is really made not at the moment, but by our life hitherto. You choose according to that which you have chosen a hundred times before. Your destiny is not that which you will do, but that which you have done. Your future is behind you, in your past."
-E.F.Benson

any thoughts?
i decided that since i am stuck on the sofa for a few weeks, i would go back to university. thanks to itunes and some free courses, i am simultaneously at MIT and berkely. this quote is from my first lecture, a refresher course in psych. how true do you rank this comment? any examples to proove or disproove it? what role does God play? ;-)