Freizeit

This past weekend we went to Schneeberg (snow mountain) for a student retreat. We call it a freizeit (free time) since there's no word in German that means the same thing.
Here's the gang right before we went home on Sunday afternoon. Everyone is all smiles since the retreat was just excellent. How so? Well, let me tell you a little bit about it.
Our speaker was John Kelsey, the campus minister at Oklahoma University. They are like-minded in philosophy and mission - David Cottle, our last intern, is a student there. And our topic was Mentoring, the art of giving back. Kels is obviously a master teacher because he just nailed why one on one discipleship is so vital, and why we should learn to both lead and follow one another biblically. Here he is speaking, with Stephan translating for him.
Here's a real life example of why it's so important. This is Vera and she's speaking about how she became a Christian. Note the diagram on the left. She's illustrating how the gospel has come down through history from Jesus, to the apostles, to individuals, to other individuals, to Thomas - a leader in our ministry and finally to her.
We also flew Tep in from Spain. She's a student worker there, but also a very gifted worship leader. So we sang and worshipped together. That's Thomas singing next to her, and I'm not sure who that is playing the hand drum.
Oh wait, it's me. That's right. I'm not very good, but I have learned to play an African hand drum. In so doing, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine to be part of a band. Fun Fun!!!
We also had small group time for us to process what we were learning while talking with one another. Here is part of my group. From the left: Caro, Conny and Janine. Not sure where Lydia was and I'm taking the photo.
And all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy - so Sat night we had a grilling party, complete with big ole brats. And I learned something truly fascinating - Thuringen men grill with their hands. No tools. They have a bowl of water and they use it to cool their hands and the brats so they can move them around. How manly is that?
But Caro tried to upset the natural order of things - that of men risking life, limb and fingers in order to provide meat for their women - by using the tongs to flip the brats. Big mistake.
We also made time in the afternoon for coffee and cake - an important German tradition. As you can see, it's one of Georgia's favorite German things.
And for those of you in student work, you know it's impossible to have a retreat without a talent show. Here's Antje playing a bush song on her digeridoo - an instrument from Australia. It was most impressive.
We ended the retreat with a prayer time - for the ministry at OU, for Kels and Tep, and for our work here in Jena. It was a fitting end to an incredible weekend.

But were there other highlights? Oh yeah...
A big one for me was how much fun the kids had. One of the greatest benefits and blessings of working with university students is all the role models and new friends the kids have. At the most impressionable times in their lives they are surrounded by cool young folk who love them and demonstrate how to walk with God. Could I ask for any more?
Some of the guys arrived a little late on Fri. night, so they had dinner in the back of the room. Jeffrey got to join them for some "man time" and a little yogurt.
Georgia made a new friend in Peter this weekend. He's one of 8 kids and obviously speaks "little girl" because he had Georgia wrapped all around his finger. You can see it in her face.
And Jeffrey joined us in one of our icebreakers, where people swapped articles of clothing with one another. Someone ended up with his light saber and he got this cool looking jacket. I have to say, he looks rather European here. Which raises an interesting question for me - I wonder how German they'll be after a few years of living in Jena, speaking German, going to school here and being influenced by our university students? Can't wait to find out!