The Kingdom of God (is near)

I have a question for you. What comes to mind when you see or hear that phrase, "The Kingdom of God"? There are lots of amazing possibilities, right? Still, if you're like me, you sometimes struggle with what God's Kingdom looks like tangibly, in your corner of the world, in your own heart. The answer, however, when we look to Jesus, IS conceivable. It looks like this: the living God, coming into intimate contact with normal people, and completely transforming their lives. Freeing them from the power of the Kingdom of darkness, and transferring them into the Kingdom of Light. Woah. Sounds like the plot of an epic movie.

"Let me ask you another question. Will you stop for a minute and read through the following sentence a few times with me?

'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.' 

I know you probably have tons to do today, and I don't want to keep you from that any longer than necessary, but will you indulge me and read through it just one more time? Great. Now that you've really let it sink in... does it change any of your plans for today?"

That exchange above is similar to how I've sensed God speaking to me lately. ALL authority, in Heaven AND on Earth, belongs to Jesus. The same Jesus who battled (and is even now battling) the powers of darkness. This is a powerful God. A God we can trust.  

And now to our plans for today: 

"Go THEREFORE and make disciples of all nations..." Because all authority belongs to Jesus, and because He is with us at all times, and until the end of the age, He sends us into the world to live out and share this message of God's Kingdom: The captives are freed! The blind see! 

Amen!   

God, please give us eyes to see this. Help us realize that your Kingdom is NEAR. Is HERE. NOW. And give us the courage to live like it. 

About time for me to show my face around these parts again, huh?

Hello!

I just had 2 of the coolest hours of my life. Let me tell you about them:

Our street outreach today was UNBELIEVABLE. About an hour into it a young guy approached us to ask for advice about buying a birthday gift. A bit later as we explained that when people are interested, we invite them to one of our church services. He said: "I honestly wouldn't come. I grew up in the protestant church, but I've decided on my own beliefs about God."

He was really nice, and very open to talking with us.

Tobi, a young very gifted German evangelist who will be joining us hopefully regularly for these outreaches and I had an hour long conversation with this young man ("young man", he's my age) about the church, Jesus, God the Father, the world, Christians, evil and suffering, and his family (specifically his Grandfather who knew the Bible in and out and was the most wise, beautiful person he has ever known). Throughout the course of the conversation we both shared our faith stories with him, and Tobi shared like 3 of the most brilliantly concise and compelling versions of the gospel with him that I've ever heard. It ended with this:

T: "Have you ever read the New Testament?"

YG (young guy): "No, I haven't."

T: "If you had a copy would you be interested in reading it?"

YG: "Well, yeah, maybe."

T: "Because I have a copy with me..."

He promised us he would read it sometime, and we encouraged him that it really is worth it to get to know Jesus because he's so stinking cool. This was by far the most relaxed, respectful (from both sides), beautiful human interactions about God and religion that I've ever been a part of.

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That was the first hour and 45 minutes. There's still 15 minutes to report on.

After we were finished I went to a Turkish place to get some dinner on my way home (see left) :). I only had 5 euro in my pocket, and I told the owner I could only afford 6 grape leaves instead of 8 because I also wanted salad. :)

Smiling he said:

"Well, all that would cost you 6 Euro, but you could sing a song to make up for the other 1 Euro." (For real... I'm not making this up.)

K: "As it turns out, I'm a singer! I'd love to sing you a song. Do you have a request?"

Owner: "Oh, I don't know. Anything."

K: "OK, when is your birthday?"

Owner: "January."

K: "Well, it's a little late, but..."

And I sang Happy Birthday in English. They loved it, and said that I have a beautiful voice (not trying to praise myself here, but this fits with the rest of the story.)

He made me the most beautiful plate of food I've ever seen. Even threw in that awesome piece of bread. :)

As I was paying I said:

"Isn't God good? He gives us such wonderful food, and beautiful music to enjoy."

Owner: "Indeed. Will you sing to me every time you come back? Say, twice a week?" (He's a good business man.)

I promised him at least one time each week, Thursdays after a regular appointment (our street outreach.)

Isn't it wonderful to be human, to have money to buy food, and to know God?

Concert tomorrow

Tomorrow evening, Friday Feb. 11, I have the privilege of singing in a Valentine's Day concert that is co-sponsored by our church, KölnProjekt. (www.koelnprojekt.de) A German Tenor (who is a wonderful singer and musician) and I will sing duets and arias/songs from musicals and operetta, in both German and English. We've even rented a fog machine for our "Phantom of the Opera" scene. :) Jason, the pastor of KölnProjekt, will read a few poems, and since the evening is about love, he'll talk a bit about the love of God, in the context of some of the song texts.

My favorite text of the night is from the duet "All I ask of you", from Phantom of the Opera. Yes, it is cheesy in parts :), but the overall effect, and the focus on freedom from darkness is beautiful. And the dialogue, well, I've been reading and thinking a lot lately about "practicing the presence of God", and this dialogue reflects that kind of relationship:

No more talk of darkness, forget your wide eyed fears. I'm here, nothing can harm you, my words will warm and calm you.

Let me be your freedom, let daylight dry your tears, I'm here, with you, beside you, to guard you and to guide you.

Say you'll love me every waking moment, turn my head with talk of summertime. Say you need me with you now and always. Promise me that all you say is true, that's all I ask of you.

Let me be your shelter, let me be your light. You're safe, no one will find you, your fears are far behind you.

All I want is freedom, a world with no more night, and you always beside me, to hold me and to hide me.

Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Let me lead you from your solitude. Say you want me with you here beside you, anywhere you go let me go too. Christine, that's all I ask of you.

Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Say the word and and I will follow you. Share each day with me, each night each morning.

Say you love me!

You know I do!

Love me, that's all I ask of you.

:) Awwww. :)

Valentine's Day isn't as big in Germany as in the US, but it's popular enough that over 130 people have told us they're coming to the concert. That's waaaay more than we have seats for, and each day we learn about more people who want to come! This is wonderful, of course, but the room where we're holding the concert really isn't big enough for such a crowd. I'm looking forward to seeing how we pull it off. :) Thanks for your prayers!

SNOW!

It bears repeating: SNOW!!!!!!

I woke up this morning after my two Thanksgiving feasts, to see that it had snowed! I love snow! Love it, love it, loooooovvve it!!!!! It's really early in the year for snow in this part of Germany, but I'm not complaining. The mailman in this picture might have, though:

Thanksgiving!!!!

Thank you, dear American friends, who are helping to keep the Thanksgiving tradition alive in Germany.

I finally spent some time in the kitchen, preparing a few dishes for the TWO Thanksgiving feasts that I was invited to.

Yes. I, Kristi Vrooman, spent hours in the kitchen cooking. No, this is not a mistake. The most surprising part is that I ENJOYED it! AND, I didn't burn anything and it all tasted really, really good! I'm as surprised as you are, believe me.

1) Cranberry sauce (yes, from scratch, and yes, I know it's easy, but it's a start)

2) Stuffing (I bought three gigantic loaves of bread at the local bakery and toasted them all. I learned later in the day that you can buy bread already toasted. Zwieback, it's called. Oops.)

Here's my proof - smiling faces and a food fight:

What a day we had! And now, off to bed.

It seemed like a good idea...

So, last week Maren and I went crazy at the supermarket, and bought many bags of cereal. All different kinds, just to try them out. I LOVE cereal.

We were at the Bio (organic) store, and I saw one bag that looked really good, and is apparently extremely healthy. Especially for me, as a replacement for Honey Smacks. :)

This one is called "Dinkelpops". Dinkelpops!!! Hilarious!

Anyway, I was SO excited for this experience. But after I pulled the milk out of the fridge and tried pouring the milk onto my Dinkelpops, it was immediately obvious that the milk had gone bad! And I don't mean just a little bad, as in it smelled questionable. We're talking huge clumps of spoiled milk. Gross! I quickly stopped pouring, and tried to salvage the remaining not-ruined-by-clumpy-milk Dinklepops by digging them out and putting them in another bowl. I could have poured them back into the bag, but I was SO intent upon eating this little treat, that the thought entered my mind to just mix yogurt and water to make a milk-like substance to eat with my precious Dinklepops. I know what you're thinking: BAD IDEA. It was horrible!

I just hope that this little experiment hasn't ruined Dinkelpops for me forever. :(

Know what this is?

It's another post from me, only one week after my last one! I think congratulations are in order.

It's about time for a ridiculous story. I'd like to share a bit about my trip to the Bürgeramt (Citizens' Center) to apply for my VISA.

I was well prepared by all the foreigners I knew here, that the initial VISA application process could take a very, very long time, and be stressful as well. With all of that in mind, I marched to the office with a book, and duplicate copies of the six necessary application documents in hand. I found the office door that was meant for applicants whose last names begin with T-W, saw that there was no line, and gently knocked at the door. A friendly-looking gentleman waved me in and offered me a seat. He simply asked for my application, my passport and a copy of my passport, a letter of employment from my boss, my reason for wanting to live in Germany, and then congratulated me on my German.

(It's always dangerous when people do that, for two reasons:

One: though they may not know it, I'm usually waiting for the conversation to reach a certain point where my vocabulary is exhausted - this has rarely failed to happen - after which I just start making up words and get funny looks from people. It's awesome.

Two: I speak well enough, especially at the beginning of an encounter with a new person, that they speak at a quick tempo AND mumble, as though they completely expect me to be able to understand every word. The worst part is that most of the time, I pretend like I DO understand, even if I don't. Ridiculous. I know. Sometimes I even laugh when they laugh. Pathetic. I did this tonight, as a matter of fact!, attempting to hide the fact that I couldn't understand the mumbling. ALSO, I don't want to waste the compliment they've just given me... I like to keep the farce going. This has led to some entertaining conversations, as you might imagine. Lest you judge too harshly, I don't ALWAYS pretend. I try to guage my conversation partner's patience level, and let that be my guide. Sometimes it's just not worth it to ask someone every two minutes to speak more slowly.)

Anyway, he and I talked for a bit, and he seemed pleased to find out that I'm an opera singer (BIG difference between Europeans and most Americans - Europeans don't look at me like I have four heads when I tell them what I went to school for. It's wonderful!). He asked me to explain my position working with the church, how I'm paid, and then told me to wait outside. Five minutes later he came out with a receipt, and VERY QUICKLY said something about going to the cashier to pay the application fee. That's all I heard: "Kasse" and "bezahlen." "That's all then?" I asked. He mumbled something incomprehensible and smiled at me. Guess what I did? That's right. I smiled back, and pretended like I understood him. (Amazing, aren't I?)

I went downstairs to the cashier, paid the 20 Euro, and was swiftly on my way home.

IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY HERE:

Not twenty yards away from the building, I called Leslie, my culture/language director, to tell her how EASY the whole process had been! She promptly ended my rejoicing by asking me what kind of temporary VISA they had given me. When I said they didn't give me one, I just had a receipt from the cashier, she asked me what they had stamped in my passport. One small problem... I didn't have my passport! The man never gave it back to me! "Kristi," Leslie said, "you were supposed to GO BACK TO HIS OFFICE after having paid the cashier to get your passport and your temporary VISA!" She was laughing pretty hard. :)

So that's what all his mumbling was about!

I dashed back to the building, ran back up to his office hoping he wouldn't notice how much time had elapsed since I had left for the cashier, and I exchanged the cashier's receipt for my passport and shiny official-looking temporary VISA. Then, as Leslie had reminded me to do, I wished him a happy holiday. He wished me the same.

Ah... the fun of living in a foreign culture and language.