berlin, bremen, and beyond

so i/we went to berlin for 4 days, bremen for two and hamburg another 2. we includes my brother, murray, and his wife, meg. and for the berlin part, my andreas. i met m+m at the airport in berlin on thursday for an extended weekend. they are in europe for an art fellowship in finland, and were able to visit me on the way.

so berlin. wow. it's a great city anyway, and i was excited to share it with three great people. i know my way around berlin pretty well, so we were able to get the majority of the "must see" things in.... even though i really dislike the "musts" of vacation, some people (Aaaaa) like them. M+M did ALL the museums and galleries.. and then convinced a few artists to open new ones, so they could visit them too.

the highlights were.. you got me.. was the food. i know berlin too well to be really excited by the attractions, except the huge aquarium which i had never seen before (which we unfortunately decided against paying to go up through the center of..next time, cate..) and the holocaust memorial, which i don't know how i missed before (ok, it's only been there a few years). it was also a very interesting mix of people.. ;-) but yeah, anyone going to berlin, please ask me about the where- to-eats.. although its hard to go wrong (unless you end up at the guide-book recommended pizza place). and kate- yes, we ate at QBA again. :-D

in bremen we got to go to the modern museum.. which had a very cool video installation. but more interesting to me was going for brunch with karo and ben, my best friend and her husband. they are both very creative, and have a unique style. and since karo studies at the art school, she took us over there to meet her professor and see the studios and participate in a critique.

in hamburg we spent the days going seperat ways (will it surprise anyone to hear m+m did museums and i hung out with street people?) and the evenings again with... good food! (yeah, i am easy to please.. eating out is still a big treat. the first night we took along stefan korth (at whose house i was staying) and had some lively discussion. the second night it was just us... but i ran into a friend from convoy, wiebke called liebke, who recognized me. i love those little surprises! that afternoon i had actually run into janika (from my days in kassel) at the cafe, as well.

so..here the photos of berlin..

loose change

we just had our house meeting.. and i am not very pleased with the results. they voted to overturn the no alcohol rule. basically, the vision was expanded to be a guest-friendly house as well as a half-way house, and then they decided that in order to be guest-friendly, they need to be able to serve alcohol. as you can tell by the way i write, i was against this.

the change seems to me like it could make it very difficult for me to continue my ministry in the house. and that, in turn, is causing me a bit of stress. please pray about these changes and what direction God wants to take me. there is a slight chance i could help neues land establish their half-way house that is set to open the end of the year. they are looking for house parents to run it. maybe it's time to leave the hope street?

on the long road

that was the theme of this weekend. not only because the counselling seminar i went to was in hessen (three hours train and5 hours car away). we learnt about dealing with people who come to us for long-term therepy and about what we need personally for the long haul in our calling. the information wasn't necessarily new, but it was stuff that usually isn't spoken out. the highlights were nobby's (my favorite preacher of all times) lecture saturday and the small groups.

small groups are a time where new counsellors get the chance to "spy" on experienced counsellors giving a session, with a very experienced counsellor doing supervision. this time my group was all experienced, which was cool. they voted me into the role of counselee. since the theme was long-term issues, i brought up the problems of my foot and it's effect on my ministry and psyche. it was a pretty cool session.

sunday to get home i rode wth manuel from saxony.. he is living in a bus doing the kind of convoy thing i did a few years ago. he didn't kn ow where to go next, so i suggested bremen. he is a gothic christian and will be here till thursday- when i go to meet murray and meg and andreas in berlin!

my treasure, mein schatz

so in real news, the jesus freaks finally got new space to meet in, all our own. we celebrated there this sunday. i have been put in charge of the room-style team, so i am sure i will be getting pictures of them to you once we get into it.

i have spent 4 days of the past week without crutches! in between had to use them again, my foot doesnt take too much strain well.. but it's a start.

and...the really interesting part...andreas was here this weekend. :-)
i surprised him saturday with a pirate picnic.. complete with a map to the hidden treasure and costumes. i wore a summer dress (because he likes them) and even painted my toenails (ohje, what is this guy doing to me??), had a piratey earring and my sword. he got an eye-patch, a stuffed parrot, a patch on his jeans, and his sword. and as real pirates, we needed tatoos. (the kids kind that wash off with soap). while getting dressed, he still didn't know why... but he played along.
we followed the map through town, arousing the curiosity of just about everyone, and occasionally stopped to ask a kid or a motorcycle gang member if they had seen our buried treasure. for this part i recruited the help of karo and ben.. i gave them a 30 minute warning when we left, and they drove the treasure chest (the wooden one my parents got me at the flea market) to the designated spot in the park under a statue of a bear. we snuck up on the bear, and andreas dutifully stepped protectively in front of me and slayed it with his sword...
in the treasure chest i had put three different special cheeses and three special meats, a turkisch hirse salat and fruit salad (i made both), hard rolls, bionade drink, cola, and all the necessary utensils and blankets. we spent all day in the park.. it was great!
friday night we went for mexican, saturday night for italian pizza, and sunday we grilled with ben, karo, and marty... it was a great weekend. today when i took him to the station, i met another junkie lady and have started counselling her.