Leipzig. Wow, I'm almost getting tired of Leipzig blogs.

Another Leipzig blog...

Ok, I know I promised I'd write on Sunday, but we aren't allowed on the internet on Sundays and then I kinda got busy and...yeah...sorry. I'll have a slideshow up in a couple of days. I'm still waiting on the pictures from Jessie as we haven't traded ours yet. How was the outreach? Incredible.

To refresh, our team was 8 people

(left to right) Jessie, me, Irina, Nari, Joseph, Nic, Andrew (team leader), Jonathan.

It was a lot of different personalities all put together to create something that only God can create. We took the train from Siegen to Leipzig. We traveled for 9 hours, but only about 6 of those were actually on trains. Overall, the trip didn't seem that long or very tiring. That Saturday we basically became aquainted with the church and we slept. On Sunday we went to church, fellowshipped with the body and then went around the city. Because most of us were crazy Americans, we decided it would be a good idea to get some ice cream.






There are two Americans from Seattle who are missionaries in this church, Cary (Left) and Jake (right). All the guys stayed at their apartment.






They took us around the city and all, along with the pastor, Kurt.





The other guy we spent a lot of time with was Stephan, who works in the church. Jessie was staying with him and his wife. He didn't like having pictures taken of him so I always had to sneak them...





Anyway, so those are the people from the church. On Monday morning we started our ministry of handing out free coffee to people on the street. We were right next to the University so we got a lot of kids as well as adults. We did that every morning except Friday. We had a lot of good conversations with people and planted many seeds.









During the afternoons we held a kind of VBS for some kids. The first day we tried to hold it in a room but it didn't go over very well. Only two kids came. Starting on Tuesday we held it in the park. That was a lot better and more kids came. They would play football (soccer for you Yanks) with the kids and then during half time we would bring the kids up onto this hill. We sang, taught a short Bible lesson, and did a craft.
















And the park was just stinkin' cool! I wish I had THIS when I was younger!




Or this!




We had an amazing time! There are a lot of stories to tell and a lot more pictures. You can check out all my pictures on my webshots (link on the left in my links section) and a slideshow will be coming soon - as soon as I exchange pictures with Jessie. I will leave you with this picture. I am proud of it. Jonathan is left and Jessie is right.

YSIC

Stephanie

Home from Leipzig

I'm back safe and sound from Leipzig..so much to tell and NO time to do it! I'm tired tonight so I'm not going to write much. I'll give y'all an update asap, but right now I'm focusing on uploading my photos. They should be up by, oh, midnight my time. That's 6pm EST and 3pm PST. Hoffentlich.

later! I'll write more tomorrow!

Leaving for Leipzig

Well I leave tomorrow morning bright and early for Leipzig. I will be back on October 21st, late in the afternoon. I will probably post something that day or the next. Pictures will probably be up within the week. Please, please, please pray for us!! I don't exactly know why but I feel like I am going to be majorly stretched during this week. And I don't feel prepared.

Thank you
YSIC
Stephanie

16 Things it took me over 50 years to learn...

by Dave Barry, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. (This one is very important)

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

13. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to a waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

14. Your friends love you anyway.

15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

16. Thought for the day: Men are like fine wine . . . They start out as grapes; and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.




(I don't like #16 at all. I think that it is very offensive and degrading to men. It is also a MAJOR double standard. If this was said about a woman, we would never hear the end of it. I included it only because I am not the author and feel obligated to leave it for the integrety of the citation)

Leipzig

Well then. As most of you SHOULD know, I'm going to Leipzig for a week. That's October 14-21. It is the school's "outreach week" and I'm going with a team of 8 people to this city in Eastern Germany. PRAY FOR US!! A couple days ago our team leader got an e-mail from the pastor asking us to do a VBSish thing for two hours a day, for five days. The kids will be ages 7-12...and we don't have much time to plan! This will be in the afternoons. In the mornings we will be reaching out to the college students. So..please pray for us?! The team members are: Andrew (team leader), Irina, Jessie, Nic, Jonathan, Joseph, Nari, and me. I'll be letting y'all know more when I do, as well as posting pictures and such after the trip.

thanks!
YSIC
Stephanie

What is this world coming to?

Stupid people. And I don't throw that word around. BTW, my name on this board is "Steph8873" as opposed to my normal "Steph58873." When I signed up oh so many years ago I had a fun typo. Didn't notice until a couple weeks later. Does that make me stupid?