Thomas

Well, I did finally make it back to Ohio...but it was a LONG journey.  Here is a quick overview of my "traveling trauma" but I made it out alive.  

Sat. Dec. 18
I was planning to go to bed between 9-10pm so that I could get up for my EARLY morning flight...but at 9pm, I found out my flight from Basel, Switzerland, to London was CANCELED.   STRESS!  I tried to get another flight...but that did not work...so at midnight I went bed so I could get up at 4am.


Sun. Dec. 19.  
I was up at 4 and by 5am I was at the airport with Taylor (my co-RA) as we both tried to get flights.  I got one for Dec. 20th through Brussels, Belgium and she got one from Zurich, Switzerland through JFK in New York.  Yeah we got flights!!!  That was good.


Mon. Dec. 20
-I was up at 3:30 am and to the airport with 2 other stranded travelers from BFA by 4:45am.  My flight from Basel to Brussels was uneventful.  
-I had a great time in Brussels until I went to my gate to fly to Chicago and they kept delaying my flight.  At first it was 20 min, then 40, then a hour....eventually 3 hours later they fixed the plane and we could go.
-The flight was a normal long tans-Atlantic flight.  But being 3 hours late meant I missed my flight to Toledo.  After I arrived in Chicago, I got to stand in the customs line for a hour and a half!!!  Then I got my bags and I got the LAST flight to Toledo.  I arrived at my gate around 6pm and there was no snow outside.  As I waited we got between 3-4 inches of snow.  My plane came and they loaded us!!! And we finally took off around 8:30pm.  And this is where I met THOMAS (more in a moment).  I arrived in Toledo at 10pm and my Mom and brother Steve picked me up!  I was in my parents house by midnight!


Okay...THOMAS.  He was my seat buddy and we chatted it up on the flight.  I am usually a quiet reader during flights, but it was Thomas' first time to fly and he was NERVOUS.  Thomas is in his 40s, from Georgia, and he was flying to have Christmas with his son.  So we started talking about his life and his family and he asked why I wasn't nervous, and I told him I fly a lot.  He didn't believe me, but when he found out that I live in Germany he was interested.  He asked how I got to Germany and I eventually told him my testimony and how the Lord lead me to Germany.  He thought that was cool and we started talking about God.  He knows who Jesus Christ is, but I don't know if he has a personally relationship with God.  His dad is very legalistic in his faith.  We talked about who Christ is and I challenged him to get involved in a Bible believing church and have good men around him to walk with him through life.


Thomas then told him a friend bought him the tickets for him to go see his son for Christmas because God told her too.  Then he told me he thought that God wanted him to talk to me.  The whole time I was talking to Thomas, I was praying that God would give me the right words.  Please pray with me that Thomas would have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. 

The Girls are Gone and the Dorm is Empty

Today the girls all left the dorm...there was much excitement and rejoicing as they are done with their exams and now they actually get to go home and see their families!  Whoohooo!!!  Since they didn't have anything to do last night after their rooms were cleaned and their bags were packed...we had a Disney marathon.  We got through 3 Disney movies....I went to bed before the finale since I had to get up at 3am with one of the girls who was leaving early in the morning.

The 3am wake up was as wonderful as expected.  And it dumped a lot of snow in Kandern and Basel...it almost felt like I was back in Juneau, Alaska!  Almost.  Only one of my girl's flights was canceled.  So that was awesome. 

Would you please pray for my girls.  Many of them are traveling to closed countries...where danger is a regular part of life.  One of my girls shared that, not long ago, her dad and younger sister were taking the metro in their city (in a closed country) to choir practice.  A bomb exploded on the metro.  By the had of God, they had left 10 minutes early and were already safe when the bomb went off.  They would probably have been in the area of destruction.  My girl's dad called her mom to let her know that him and his younger daughter were safe.  Please pray for God to protect my girls and their families as they share the Gospel in dangerous places where there is open resistance to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it is my turn to pack and clean my room....guess I better get to it!

Palmgarten Christms

Part of the joy of Christmas at Palmgarten is to decorate the dorm...which these girls did as they decorated themselves.

They also decorated the tree....very nice.

Here, "N" our youngest girl, is putting the star on the top of the tree with the help of Luke, the Dorm Dad.

Then on the last Sunday of the school year we have an awesome party.  We played "Four on a Couch" and every time the Staff and Sophomores beat the Seniors and Freshman!   I guess when you got it, you got it!!!

Each of the girls drew names and they bought a gift for their dorm sister.  When it is a girl's turn to give her gift, she tells why her dorm sister is amazing and then gives the gift.  It was a good time with a lot of happy smiles and hugs.

I actually think every girl was happy with her gift.  Here they are showing off their gifts...and notice the craziness!!!  I am the calm one in the front and center.  They only got crazier after this point!

Koren Dinner

On Saturday night we had the Won's over.  Samuel and Haesook are in charge of Korean Care at BFA.   They came to our dorm and made some amazing yummy Korean food.

Samuel Won has awesome chopping skills.

Look at all of these happy girls who are so excited to eat the long awaited Korean Dinner!!!!!!

Look at these Americans enjoying the Koren lettuce wrap.  It has beef, rice, and a spicy red paste...yummm. 

These two ladies, "N" and "E" showed the rest of the girls how to eat the food properly. 

Now, Dorm Dad (Luke), is going to try to eat the biggest lettuce roll he can make.

He shoves it all in...in ONE bite!  SICK!!!

And it was a big bite...but he made it.  A success!