Radical. again.

Here's another 2 days of sun. I may have lost my camera and spent the sunset searching for it in the second one and missed the sun itself, but it's summer so the sun always comes back. This afternoon I got to spend time with a friend from YWAM (Youth With A Mission). I was reminded of what is so terrific about this group of people that have been a part of my life off and on for many years now. The excitement to take risks for God, and the complete willingness to step, even when terrified of where you'll land, marks these people. They have exactly the same education, background, fears, dreams as I do, only they are willing to step anywhere. It was just another reminder of what God has for us. I'm not allowed to just live a normal American life. That is not actually even a legitimate option. There is nothing that is too crazy to do. I could make a list of options:

- Provide clean water to the whole country of Liberia.

- Make homes for thousands of families.

- Lead the top 12 CEO's in the world to christ.

- Get PUMA to follow the example of TOMS and give away a shoe for every shoe sold.

- Lead an entire University to the Lord.

- Remove poverty from a major city.

- Invest a million dollars in missions.

It's not a matter of, "Am I qualified to do any of that? Which is small enough for me to do?" It's instead, "God, which of these should I do? If you don't tell me than I'll just do all of them!" Because God likes us, each of us is completely capable of doing something that will literally change the world.

Dream

Pray

Walk

Vorhersage (forecast)

So not talking about weather but more the up coming plans as my time here winds to a close. Today is Wednesday so I've finished 1.5 of my finals. Tomorrow is the oral part of my German final, and Friday is German culture. That's the one I'm worried about. I have a billion documents in German to read and 98% of the class speaks better German than I do. 10% fail every year... Without that credit, I'm not a full time student and I owe everyone lots of money, but no pressure. Anyways,

So I closed my bank account, de-registered from the University, closed my insurance, and told the state I'm going home. I had set all those things up in English a few months ago, but I ended them in German. That felt good. Saturday is cleaning and packing and scrubbing my room. Saturday night is my birthday party. I plan to introduce everyone to apple crisp and coke floats. I think the floats will freak people out, but nobody can say no to a good apple crisp so everyone should be fine =)

Sunday is church, and then lunch with my pastor. We'll probably cry together or something. When I get home I have to make sure everything is in top shape for handing the keys back over to the caretaker. 10:30 monday morning he'll be there to lock me out of my house. Then I need to run and get back my deposit on the department and run to the train station.

Train goes an hour to Bremen. From Bremen I fly with Ryanair to London. Hopefully they don't scam me out of all my money (click). From the airport I take a train into London and then another one south to Haywards Heath where I'll be staying at the YWAM base "Holmsted Manor" (click). It's beautiful, take a look. I'll be staying there with some friends that used to be involved with YWAM Pittsburgh. Hopefully, I make a trip up to London, but also get to catch up with folks and meet new people. It'll be weird being in a country where everyone speaks English, and should be a lot of fun.

Thursday I take the Eurostar to Paris. That's the train that goes under the English Channel. I'll stay with my cousin who is studying fashion design there in Paris. That's where I'll spend my actual birthday. Hopefully I remember some French because from all I've heard (even from my French friends here) they would rather not speak English with me =P

The next Monday (the 21st) I'll take a train through the Alps to Milan, Italy. Here is where I insert the forecast in Milan for the next week (I promise I was planning on talking about weather when I started writing this) . This isn't the week that I'll be there but I can expect something similar! I'll be staying with my friend Francesca who I met here. I'll probably stop in and visit one of her English classes at the University and enjoy all of the strong Italian accents. My Italian is non-existent except for a few words I learned last year, but hopefully with my "Learn Italian in 7 Days" book, I should learn something. Fortunately there is lot's of English, and Francesca's whole family speaks German because her Mom is German.

In the end I come back to Osnabrück for the weekend and say goodbye to all my church friends. My Swiss flatmate said she's taking at trip home and may have some good Swiss cheeses to do a cheese fondue when I get back. Kind of scares me, and kind of sounds fun.

I fly home Monday the 28th of February, and back at RIT the end of the week. I have way to much to do but it should all be delightful so I'll try not to complain.

See you all soon!

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