Today right after church it began snowing!  I have obviously been to the know before in my life.  But I’ve only been in the snow a few times where it’s been currently snowing for more than a few minutes… So i got really excited about it.  I ran outside immediately and caught a snowflake on my tongue.  Then i went inside and waited and waited and waited until there was enough snow on the ground to make a decent snow angle.  I convinced Signe and my roomate Jenna to go with me outside into the snow so we made snow angels and then walked down the street to the dock on the river.  It was a very fun time! =)

snow angel!

Signe, Jenna, and I

catching snowflakes on my tongue while walking

the rhine

I miss you!

Busingen!

So… also…. last night the yak I met previously…ESCAPED FROM HIS YARD!  and he came onto our front lawn… then he was an attacked this huge christmas tree we had out in the yard, and then he came back in front of the building, and he had the whole string of christmas lights strung all around him!!  It was hilarious!  This is a picture but it’s really dark!

the yak on our front lawn

Alright, now I’m going to go watch the superbowl… at 11pm.  Something I’ve never done before.  It’s an all-nighter party!  and i found people here who are going to watch with me!  I’m so happy.  =)

Today we had the first chapel session here at EuNC.  I had heard that they were just starting a 4 wk chapel series themed off of Henry Nouwin’s book “With Burning Hearts”, and this first chapel service was about mourning.  I had heard this and thought it was pretty odd seeing as how there were 9 of us new students here just starting this semester, and it seemed like an odd way to kick off the year.  But I went expected regular point-loma style first week back chapel service (except, obviously on an extremely small scale… there’s something like 29 students at this school).

We went in and sat down, and we sang some older style hymns and a couple more contemporary songs which were all more sullen.  The music was a bit different from point loma’s incredibly well-funded worship services: we had a keyboard, a bass, drums, and 2 singers… not as loud as i would normally expect, and not as “full” of a feeling from the whole room.  but i couldnt control myself.  God was just there… speaking in the soft music, in the small chapel, and into my jetlagged body.  i couldnt help myself from having tears flowing from my eyes… then we would get to a point where I thought I had it under control… and then they would come again.  It wasnt like weeping.  just silent tears streaming steadily down my face as i stood before what felt like only God.  This lady name Michelle from the school came up and told a story about a friend that she’d had to leave behind in order to follow the path God was calling her on to Europe… and this friend hadn’t understood why she would leave him.  The story was incredible… but in essence, she was talking about mourning over people you’ve had to leave behind.

Later in the morning, I sat on my window sill with my legs out on the roof… just looking over the land, and I began to pray and journal.  It has been pretty obvious to me that God clearly wanted me to come here.  He opened this door, closed all the other doors, and removed everything that was standing in my way.  I knew it was intentionally following him here, and that he wanted me here for some reason, I just hadn’t known what.  As I was praying the tears began again and i knew.  At least one of the reasons i’m here is to be broken again.  But there’s some things i know this time going into this period of being broken… and while it already hurts.. i’m so excited in a deep joy kind of way for what God is going to do to me this semester.  This is an except from my journal:

             Father,

            How do I know you are real, and you are here?  Because even in pain, evein in numbness, ever in Joy, and everywhere in between, I feel you.  I feel you.  When I grieve, and when I can’t help but shout for joy — I feel you bursting and churning within me.  Even in the midst of mourning I see you — perhaps thats actually when I see you most.  You know my journey, but now, I feel my griveing is different.  I feel like in my mourning I am continually walking along the road with you.  That I’m entering into the conversation with you.  And while some may call it a comforting to have you there, I don’t think you are always there as a strong shoulder to cry on — I feel you mourning with me.  I feel my broken heart being weaved together with your broken heart.  Maybe thats why you break us… so that you can make us whole with you.  I prayed for this.  I asked you to break me… and I knew what that meant… and i know that it can be a costly prayer.  But I’ve gotten comfortable and numb, and I just desperately want to be near to you.  So break me.  swing away.  I just want my heart woven with yours again.  I want to KNOW you intimately again.  I want to be your lover, and your servant, and I want you to be my partner, and my King.  I can feel you breaking me, and all together in the midst of it I already feel your overwhelming Love.  I can’t stop thinking about that song “Oh How He loves”.  Oh my gosh.  I  just can’t contain myself when i think of all the ways and oh how you love us. 

After journaling I still can’t stop thinking about all this.  I am here to be broken.  I am here to be taken away from home, away from the people and places I love.  I am here to be taken out of my comfort and complacency.  and I think i must be crazy, because it makes me want to cry and dance all at once.  I don’t understand God.  but I’m learning to love Him again.

When I fell.

On monday the entire school (plus all the faculty from all the different EuNC learning centers all across Europe who were here for a conference) went to the Alps for a play day in the snow.  A few people snowboarded/skied, but the rest of us got “lift tickets” for sledding — or tobagganing to be precise.  Now, I had never seen a tobaggan in real life, so I was pretty excited!  Also… I’ve never got sledding like this before.  It’s pretty intense.  you go on this ski lift up the mountain, and then when you get out you pick up a tobaggan from the little storehouse there, and then you ride down this tobaggan track which is more than a mile long all the way down the mountain!  It was absolutely incredible!  As the day went on and the snow turned more to ice, the track got more and more slick… the faster I went, and the harder I fell…. and the more often I fell!  There’s some pretty good crashing videos that we got out of the day from brady’s camera (which semi-broke when he was filming, and then he crashed while filming, and i crashed into him hard, and then this other guy came and flew over top of us!  intense.).  All in all it was a great day and I came out with some great new friends (along with lots of bruises and sore muscles).

alp mountain #1

alp mt #2

me and the yak. I touched his horn... he got angry...

walking over the hills on way to the forest

sliding along the icy pathway

we found this lookout thing. not sure what it's used for.

Today I met the rest of the students at Church.  There is an international nazarene church which is actually in my dorm building and the service is in English.  Most of the students attend this service.  After the service every week there is also a coffee time down in the “fellowship hall” which is in the basement of my dorm building.  (It seems every building here is a multipurpose building!  My dorm goes like this:  Basement level = computer lab, movie/tv room, laundry room and the fellowship hall. Ground level = the chapel/church, and the library.  the 2nd story = first floor of girls dorm (complete with 6 rooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, and dining room/living room), and the 3rd story is my floor and is the same as the 2nd story.)  Anyway… so at coffee time I met a lot of people from the college and from the church and we all hung out, and then we ended up all eating lunch together down there.  It was fun and good to get to know some more people.  (By the way Kaitlyn, if you read this, I met the people who know you… and they love you, as do I 😉 ).

THEN — this afternoon we walked along the nice walking path into Schaufhaussen and the whole walk is along the rhine.  It’s beautiful! And there are swans…

We got to Shaufhaussen, and wandered around seeing old buildings, a few fountains, and a church that was built in 500something AD.  It was pretty neat, but had been redone inside so the interior actually looked really new, which took something away from it…

The Rhine River on the way to Shaufhaussen organ. massive. this is approx. 30 times my height

 THEN the moment I’d been waiting for came…. we went to the castle!  We had to walk up a good number of stairs to get up to the castle, because it’s built on a hill, (just like all the stories!) and as I got closer to the top, I got so excited I couldn’t stand it and I sprinted up the rest of the stairs.  so much for not looking like a star-struck tourist.  I was too enthralled to care, though.  We got there just as it was supposed to close, but we still got in, and apparently they didn’t close it on time, because they didnt kick us out.  Inside, on the level you entered on, it was just this massive, open stone room.  It was super dark, but there were sky-light type deal here and there (which means huge holes in the ceiling… but made purposely with like stone columns going through the thick ceiling to the daylight.).  Then we got to climb this winding staircase up to the upper area which opened into an outside courtyard type deal.  There was, from there, a door which continued up into the tower, but that door was locked to the public, so we didnt get to see into the tower or any of the chambers or anything.  It was still flippin awesome, though.  The view from the open courtyard on the roof was pretty incredible, also.  There was also what looked like it must’ve been lower levels of chambers or dungeons or something which are below the level you enter on, but there was no public access into those areas either.  Here are some pics.

The main part of the castle from the entrance side.

the sign w/ the name of the castle and stuff about it in German

 

the slits they used to shoot arrows out of at approaching enemies

 

the top of the tower

 

the view from the castle. that wall and tower are an extension of the castle. thats the rhine river.

me in the courtyard

So, I just withing the last few days have gotten my internet connection all set up, so before this point I’ve just been using a very sketchy wifi connection to check emails and such, and it took about 10 minutes for any page to load.  And the school here has a computer lab (read: a room with 5 computers in it.  =))  but those computers also have issues, i soon learned, and they didn’t have the slot for the memory card for my pictures.  So i’ve been saving these things to tell you all about my first week, and I will now post them in separate posts with the actual day they happened listed above, not to be confused with the day they were published on here.  =)

January 24, 2009

I arrived today.  My body is confused as to whether it should feel tired or anxious to run, or what.  It’s nine hours later here than at home.  I got to the airport, got my luggage, walked out and was met by a familiar face — brady.  (Brady went to Malawi and South Africa with me in 2007.)  Brady had come with a man named Jakob to pick me up.  As we drove the 40 minutes from Zurich to Busingen, we talked and caught up and Brady hand-delevired a letter to me from stephanie (they had met in olivet a few days before!).  The letter was a nice little piece of home after a long flight thinking about how far away from home I really was… I even squealed a little bit when he gave it to me. 

As we drove we passed the rhine river… a lot… (I think we kept weaving over it again and again…), and then as we were getting into the “town” that is close to the school called Schaufhaussen, and then even in the dark… i saw up on this hill a huge stone tower… and then this massive wall that encircled the tower…. and I thought it might be… but i wasnt sure…. so I asked: “What is that up on the hill!?”  Jakob (our driver, and this amazing guy who works at the school with his wife) said casually, “Oh thats an old old castle up there…”  I freaked.  I live 2 miles from a castle.  I’m determined to see it in the next few days… I’ll walk there soon!  Seriously… a castle…. oh my goodness.  this is a different land. No wonder all our fairy tales come frmo Europe!

When i got to the school (which is in a very small village called Büsingen and sits right on the rhine river), I walked into my dorm and met my roomate and met her mom (who i realized I had met in April in Seattle at a 30 hr famine I had spoken at… small little nazarene world).  I walked into my room and it’s HUGE!  Then i noticed it… we have a HUGE window!  i proceeded to open the window, realize there was no screen, and that it leads onto the roof, and so I climbed out onto the roof, and it’s an incredible thing.  So cool… you can see the stars and see this church thats almost a thousand years old all lit up on a hill nearby. 

After unpacking everything, our room looks kind of empty because it’s huge, with tons of storage, and we coudln’t bring very much because we flew here, but it’s good.  We also have a good kitchen, and my roomate and I get a bathroom to share (with regular tub, shower, sink and toilet).  It’s a really nice set-up here. We have church tomorrow so I guess I’ll meet some more people there…  I met about 8 students tonight and they seemed really cool.  I think i’m going to like it here.

Also, I arrived after dark tonight, so I’m excited to see this place in the daylight tomorrow!

my room -- theres a whole wall of closets unseen here... plus 2 bookcases.

This is the start of my blogging excursion, and is non-coincedentally the start of my Europe excursion.  This is mainly a blog about everything.  I’ll be writing about my travels and the people I’m meeting abroad, but I’ll also be talking about what God is speaking to me about, cool things I’ve read, and things I’ve been thinking about.  Like most time I share my world with people, it most likely will be a messy blur of people places, thoughts, events, emotions, and encounters.  but for any/all who want to follow along and see what God is bringing forth in my life, feel free to check in once in a while.  I’ll be trying to update this as often as possible.  So check back.

A quick anecdote which has a point:

At Thanksgiving, I was sitting at the table with my family, and i was lucky enough to have some youngin’s at the table for dinner this year.  Near the end of the meal, a four year old named Toby tried getting my attention. “Joanna.  Joanna.  EXCUSE ME… JoANNA…”  He said as politely as possible while still be heard.  “Yeah Toby, what’s up” I said.  He then got a concerned, and earnest look on his face.  “Joanna, I was just wondering…. why does so much have to change so fast?”

This was not the only good question Toby asked that night, but it is one that stuck with me.  I’m not sure why things have to change so much so fast… but I know that it does happen that way.  Life goes by quickly, and it seems that my life is a series of comings and goings like the waves on the beach. I love being home, but God keeps opening doors for me asking for me to leave for periods of time, and everywhere he’s taken me so far has been yet another place where I’ve fallen in love, and another set of people whom i learn to love as well. These places and people are all a part of my story. This blog is a way that I’m going to try to seize each moment before it passes, and to keep a record of how these moments are being spent, and how they’re changing. This blog is called the Story of Jo… but really it’s my story, which consequently is a story about all of you.  I hope you guys enjoy the story — reading it, and being part of it.

just some people I love in my story. =) Miss you guys