Snow

Okay, I know, talk about a lack of originality. But it seems the best title for this particular entry. You see, snow has descended on this land in which I live. In a rather serious way really. There is snow pretty much everywhere.
It's a different kind of snow than I'm generally used to. Growing up in Northern California we would get these massive heavy flakes that would fall fast and build up in big puffy waves. It was a dense sort of snow, great for building snowmen and sledding down the hill behind our house. Dad and I made a snowman that was more than 6 feet tall once. He stood in the parking lot by the church for weeks, propped up on an old wooden shovel handle as his heavy body slowly began to slump and shrivel. It was also excessively cold there, so we had years when the snowfall was short, but the frost would grow inches in the background, causing a white Christmas regardless of actual precipitation.
In Oregon the snow was always wet. We didn't get a lot of it, and it usually just froze over making the roads impassable. We'd have school cancellations on account of an inch of snow covered in sheets of icy treachery.
Can't say there was any snow to speak of in Hong Kong. Apologies to my friend Derek who commented on his facebook page the other day that it was bitterly cold in Hong Kong. Even when the temperature got as low as 4 degrees Celsius (about 40 Fahrenheit) it wasn't exactly bone chilling. Main problem there was that it never got warm in our house, so we were as cold indoors as out.
Alaska...there's another story all together. The snow was also generally pretty heavy in my way of looking at it. The flakes were often quite large, and fell quick fast and in a hurry like. Contrary to Oregonian precedents, two feet of snow weren't enough to get schools to even have a delay.
Here in Czech, the snow is really dry. I know that sounds strange, but it's of a totally different quality than snow I've experienced in other places. Now I'm not like an Eskimo with 40+ words for snow, but this is definitely snow of a different caliber. The flakes tend to be smaller, and swirl about in the slightest of breezes. It can really pile up, but it isn't really the sort of snow that's ideal for making snowmen. In fact, you can kick this snow. I know, I know, that sounds really bizarre, but it's true. Just kick and scatter it. Walking in it is more like walking in sand. It sticks to you and pulls your feet down. It's the strangest stuff.
After a few days of constant foot traffic it turns into the muckiest slush you can imagine. It does begin to get wet then, and turns brown and muddy, almost like a snowy paste. So while it makes the trees and rooftops all peaceful and romantic looking, the paths which I must tread are just plain nasty.
This past weekend I had to go into Prague for a CA meeting and to do some mid-year reflections. The Mid-years are really one of my absolutely favorite parts about being a CA. They're a time when I can really sit down and get to know the people in my team, and try to encourage them as they process what they've experienced thus far and what their future plans are going to be. Anyhow, it was snowing when I arrived in Prague on Friday night, and it proceeded to snow the whole time I was there. I'd seen a skiff of snow over the city a couple of times in winters past, but nothing in comparison to this. I'm always amazed by how the entire landscape changes in it's wintry coat of white fluff. I took great delight in my chances to run around taking photos of the grand structures of this magnificent city in their winter finery.






I'll end now with a little something to warm you all up on these bleak January days...

Christmas Stateside

I have to say it was truly a blessing to be able to be home for the holidays this year. It had been a long time since I was able to celebrate with my parents, and it was definitely time. I really enjoy hearing Czechs talk about their Christmas traditions, and then telling them about mine. It is one of the times when I really get to talk about what is meaningful to me during the holiday. I must admit that there are a lot of times when I don't exactly feel like a missionary. When I worked with orphans it was all so obvious. I was helping the fatherless. I was giving them love, and caring for their most basic needs. But here? In Europe? What am I really doing?
If there was someone out there calculating how useful a ministry is, they would no doubt look for numbers and statistics of conversions, or even of clearly spiritual conversations. And in truth, were someone to do that with my ministry, they would come out with ridiculously low numbers. We won't talk about how ridiculous, but in so much as evident results are concerned it would be negligible. And yet I don't feel like my time here is wasted. Quite the contrary in fact. The way I do ministry it's doubtless never going to have dramatic results, but I honestly hope that the people I come into contact with are able to feel that I really do care about them. If nothing else, I hope they're able to see that my heart belongs to Jesus, and that through His love I come to love them. I'm sure I'd fail to pass mission board questions about how I intend to dramatically effect the people I come into contact with. I've never been the type to force issues, or make people talk about things they aren't comfortable with, but I try to offer them a friendly smile and an open heart. A place they can turn to. I'm not sure if it works, but I do believe it is worthwhile, and that God has had me in this place for the past three years in order to be that friend to my students. I don't know how this will look in the future. I won't hold my breath for future letters telling me the impact I had on their lives, and how I turned their hearts to Jesus, but I do want to continue praying for them, even after I return to the states. I do want to continue to love them, and I know that God is able to speak to the needs of their hearts and to bring me to mind if they ever want to talk about these things.
(sigh)
I guess recently I've just been thinking a lot about my purpose here, and how effective what I'm doing truly is, and when I took this moment to write, it all sorta came out. I'm the last person to write a book on how to reach the nations, but my heart is true in desiring to reach out to be people God puts in my life.
That being said, I love having the chance at Christmas to tell them how my favorite thing about Christmas is being with family and thinking together about how amazing it is that God sent His son at Christmas. I also tell them of our traditions on Christmas Eve (they're always really excited that my family celebrates on the 24th like they do here) and how I love the time we spend singing Christmas Carols and reading the Christmas story. They all quietly accept the things that I say, and only freak out when I tell them that we generally eat Pizza for Christmas dinner on paper plates. I tell you, it's the quickest way to get at the presents, and when you have a crew of excited kids bouncing off the walls, easy cleanup is a MUST!


This year at Christmas we had quite a few craft projects that we did as well. It's interesting to see how Julie's creativity has increased since she became a mother. We had some laughs over her childhood art and craft attempts, but this year she was the one who had us doing things like making these colorful snowflake decorations. We gave the yellow snowflake to David...
We also decorated about a bazillion sugar cookies. It brings back recollections of my Grandmother and her classic cookies. We followed her recipe and while they were really good, they'll never quite compare to her fabulous treats. She just always had a way of making things turn out better. Sort of like when she would come to visit in my childhood, and despite spending endless time cleaning the house prior to her arrival, she'd always manage to somehow make it look better in a matter of minutes after entering the house. Magical.



And now, for a small competition and an attempt people to actually comment on my blog, I'll ask which of the little sugar cookie men is the best...
Being the poser that I am no post would be truly complete without a portrait. Here I am with our lovely Christmas tree, made marvelous because my mother is a decorating genius. Despite the fact that every year she ceases to be completely happy with the chosen tree, she always manages to turn it into a work of art. So here I sit, along with before and after shots of the presents underneath.


The whole time I was home was really a blur. There were games with the kids, conversations with sisters, shopping trips, and endless treat making. We even managed to have a lefse day, which made me really excited. I hadn't had lefse since Christmas in 2005! That's a long time ago. Although I learned that Cheryl got a lefse griddle this year, so if I do Christmas in Alaska again we can do things differently ;) It was all pretty magnificent. For those not aware of the wonder that is lefse, it's a Norwegian treat that everyone should have an opportunity to experience. They're kind of like tortillas, but they're made with potatoes, and you butter and sugar them and then roll them up into a sweet melty delicacy. Upon returning to Czech I happened to mention to Karina that we'd had lefse and she turned a little green with envy seeing as how she's also of the lefse eating tradition. Basically, once it becomes a part of your life you never want to let it go...


Some other highlights of the trip:
Getting to finally meet Peaches, the fabulous one dollar horse that has finally made Julie's lifelong dream come true.

Seeing David for the first time in 2 and a half years. There were some complications with his pass at first, but in the end it worked out so we were able to pick him up on the 30th and spend as much of New Year's Eve with him as possible. He always has an agenda, so it wasn't exactly all family all the time, but it was still nice to see him again, all safe and sound. As you can see, I seemingly shrink every time I'm around my nephews. You know, there was a time when they were all little babies in my arms. Crazy what a few years can do!

And now I'll end this post with a little sisterly love. It's rather blurry, which is unfortunate, but it's definitely a large part of what this holiday was all about :)

Julie is married!!!

First task on the list for this year's Christmas break: make it to Julie's wedding.
That might not sound very difficult. I mean, I bought the tickets, I packed my bags, I took the train to the airport the night before my flight and "slept" there, so you'd think that it would follow quite easily that once I was through security I'd have no trouble getting to the wedding. Of course, if you really think this way then you've probably never flown anywhere. Especially not internationally.
After saying goodbye to Mark in the security line I hurried to my gate and looked at my boarding passes. Now I've always known that the departure time and boarding time are not exactly the same, but generally I'd expect when you order tickets they'll offer you flights that you can actually make. This time, however, as I looked at my tickets I realized that my arrival time was ten minutes after I was supposed to begin boarding my next flight. Having never flown into the Warsaw airport I had no idea if I would be able to make such a tight schedule, and when our flight was delayed by ten or twenty minutes my worries escalated. Fortunately, there were at least ten or twelve other people on my current flight booked on the same flight to Chicago, and it was the same airline, Polish Air LOT. All the same, I was nervous, and spent the whole flight reminding myself that God is in control and I am not and there was nothing I could do in the meantime. To make matters worse, we were on one of those little planes that they land far from the gates and then you have to take a bus to get to the terminal, so even though we were first off the plane we had to wait for everyone else to get off anyway.
You should have seen the group of us running through the Warsaw airport. We pushed it for sure, rushing through passport control and through security to get to our gate, only to discover our next flight had been delayed so we were in good order.
The good things about this fact:
1.)We got on the plane
2.)Our luggage also had a chance to make it on the plane.
The not so great things about this:
1.) Our plane left about an hour after it was scheduled to leave.
2.)The two hours I was supposed to have between landing and boarding in Chicago were reduced to about an hour.
Now an hour might be enough time in general between flights, but this was an international flight. That means that, after arrival we had to reclaim our bags, go through customs, recheck our bags, go on a train to a totally different terminal (mine was the farthest possible from my starting point) go through security once again, race from the front of the terminal through the underground passage and then to the far end of the terminal. Needless to say I was a bit out of breath. Especially since my luggage didn't arrive until the 3rd little burst or bags which had about a five minute delay in between. All the same, I did make it to my flight on time. It too, had been briefly delayed. Sadly it wasn't delayed quite long enough for my bags to show up in Portland when I did arrive at last. (sigh)
It was great to be greeted by Janet, Ryder, Tyler and Jack at the baggage claim from which I did not claim any baggage. After filing my claim and giving them the address of the hotel I was going to be staying at we continued out of the airport and off to Taco Bell, my joyous return to stateside dining ;)
My first night back in the US was spent at a lovely Salem hotel, no doubt the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, celebrating Julie's last night as a single woman. It was nothing crazy, but it was great fun to be with her and Jessie and a few of her other close friends. Jessie went home for the night, seeing as she has motherly duties to attend to, and the rest of us talked until around 2 AM. So crazy to think that little Julie, who I have had the privilege to know since she was 14 and sometimes the annoyance of knowing from the age of 6 (ha ha ha) is now a married woman. What an amazing thing. I've seen her grow up from the little six year old who bit me into a truly amazing woman who I am blessed to call my friend and little sister.
I woke up around 6 and went down to see if my bag had, indeed, arrived. Sadly it wasn't there. After a call to United, they assured me it would be there by 11 (which was consequently when we needed to check out of the hotel.) We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel, and then people started getting ready for the day. My bag did show up around 9, so I was able to have a dress to wear to the wedding after all. Jessie came back to join us and then we headed over for Julie's hair appointment. Then it was off to Jefferson, with a stop at Dutch Brothers on the way where I got a most scrumptious candy cane mocha.
The wedding was a truly lovely affair. I was there for all the hug support that Julie needed, as well as checking on little details, like placement of corsages and boutonnières, making sure that the mix of music I made for the event was ready to be played, adjusting the blanket and petals for Citlati and Dylan's wagon, and telling people to head on inside so we could get things started. It all turned out fabulously.
The wedding was lovely, and the reception was a lot of fun. Janet and the boys were there as well so we sat together and just enjoyed the festivities. I helped with some of the clean up, then we headed back to McMinville where I crashed out by 9.
Here are a few pics to commemorate the occasion.




I give you the happy couple: Chad and Julie Granum!

2010...

So I rather made a mess of December. Only three posts. Truly tragic. (sigh) I'll do my best to see to it that January makes up for it. Well, at least a bit. It's snowing here in Cheb as I write this. Big fluffy flakes are lazily drifting from a white/gray sky. Snow sky is always such an interesting color. It's like you can just see all those flakes holding the clouds together until they can gently be shaken out. We have quite a bit of snow on the ground here already. It makes the trek to school softer, prettier, and more treacherous. Still haven't fallen here, although I did fall on my hike up to Kelly's place this weekend. It's lovely out in a sense, but I can't say that the thought of going out in it and walking all the way to my Czech class is overly appealing at the moment. Ah well. This is getting me nowhere. So I've decided to do this post in several sections. I think I'll start off this one with some pictures that I should have posted before Christmas. So maybe this will be quite short, and then I'll do more for the next post. It just makes sense to type them in different sections even if I try to get a few done today. So here are some pictures from my little advent concert in the church in Hazlov.




I'm going to attempt to add a video now. I had a lot of trouble the last time I did this, it took forever, but I'm going to give it a go, and if it doesn't work then this little bit of the note will disappear.

Okay, it's trying to upload it now, so I hope it will all work out. It's not overly exciting, just a bit of my singing. For the mother and all. I don't think I showed it to her when I was at home, so this one's for her.
Now I've just got a couple shots from our last day of class before break. We had a little Christmas party with our daily students, and in my section they had to create a Christmas card. None of them ended up really looking like Christmas cards, but they all seemed to have a good time, which is what matters ultimately :)




I think the mobile was my favorite one. They've definitely got some creativity.
And so I finished up the school year and headed off on my way. I figure it's best to leave things in Cheb in one section, and then move on to my time at home in a separate accounting. Well, I've a feeling that the video didn't work, but I just can't spend my entire day waiting for it to go through. So I'll publish as is for the moment, and maybe try again some other time. There honestly must be a better way to make it work, because I know other people publish videos all the time, but I seem rather hopeless at it. Ah well.

Exhausted...

I AM SOOOO ready for a break. I'm utterly exhausted. Just everything is worn out. I'm tired, I'm emotionally drained, and I'm just so ready to be home for a while where there are no expectations on me. Or if there are, they're ones I've been able to understand my entire life. It will, indeed, be a relief.
Well, I guess there are the wedding expectations, but I'm looking forward to that if I can just figure out how to make my computer properly make a music CD again. It's been a long day.
My heart is also heavy right now, thinking of the Nolan family who lost their daughter, Katie, on Mount Hood this past week. I can't even begin to imagine the sorrow they're experiencing right now. And to have such a tragedy strike at Christmas time just makes the pain all the more intense. It has the ability to make the once joyous holiday season a time of sorrow for years to come. It was a comfort to read the words of her father and to see that, as difficult as it is for them, they're able to rejoice that Katie is in Heaven now, praising her Father there. Imagine celebrating Christmas with Jesus! As I've been thinking so much of her, lost in the snow this past week, the image of her there with Jesus celebrating His birthday gave me a sense of comfort.
I didn't know Katie at all in recent years, but I always had great times with her in the past when we visited their family. I best remember a time when they were living in Klamath Falls and we went to visit them. I can't remember the exact reason that she and I didn't go on a drive with the family, but I remember what a great time we had watching the old Parent Trap movies. They had 1, 2, and 3, and we watched them all, or at least most of them all. We ate chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The type that are rolled in powdered sugar and then get all cracky on top. I'm not sure why this memory is so vivid in my mind, but it has played over and over since Mom first sent me the news that she was missing.
As I read the CNN reports I was very impressed to see all that she has done in the probably close to 20 years since I last saw her. She too traveled the world, and ministered to people in need. Her target was prostitutes, a little different than babies, but it really showed that her heart was totally sold out to Jesus. It's always so hard to understand why God calls home people who are seeking to serve Him and are still so young with so much ahead. But I know His ways are better than ours, His thoughts so much higher.
All I can say is that my heart is really going out to her family right now. May God wrap His arms around them and allow them to see how much He loves Katie and rejoices in her presence with Him in Heaven.
It's late and I really need to sleep. My trip will begin tomorrow afternoon as I head to the airport to stay the night. My flight isn't until 9:40 AM, but there are no trains that leave early enough for me to just go in the morning, so Mark and I get to enjoy Prague airport all night together. It will be nice not to be alone this time at least. And then, 19 or so hours later, I'll be in Portland. What a wonder.

Sorry no photos

Just in case anyone was hoping for something more interesting, I'm typing from school today so I don't have access to my pictures. Anyhow, trying to keep ahead of the game here, so I thought I'd send out a little update before I'm off on my big trip home for Christmas.
This week I'm busy trying to wrap up presents and decide what all to take with me on said holiday. It's hard to decide if it's best to try shipping gifts, or just sending them from the US where it might be a bit cheaper. So difficult. I was hoping to get a hair cut in before the big wedding on Sunday, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen either. Still, I've got a few days to pull it all together. Fortunately my classes are mostly just Christmas activities this week, so it's not so stressful. I'm never sure how it will go with my Early Birds class tomorrow, if anyone even shows up, but at least the others should all be fairly straightforward. For example, my FCE class gets to take a test on Wednesday. That's enough to put anyone in the Christmas spirit.
I had a great opportunity to perform in a little Advent concert yesterday. After hearing me sing at the end of the year party, my bosses husband asked if I would sing at the Advent service at a little church he bought and renovated over the past couple of years. It's unfortunate that I don't have the pictures today, but I'll be sure to put some up soon. They're pretty dark, but the place was really lovely. During Communism it was used as bike storage, but now it looks quite nice. Small, quaint, and incredibly picturesque with great acoustics. Karina was my accomplished guitarist and we did two songs. It was pretty incredible to be able to see your breath whilst singing, but we somehow managed to stay warm long enough to make it through our "set." Good thing it was only 2 songs. I sang "Hallelujah," made famous by it's appearance on Shrek, but definitely best covered by Jeff Buckley,and "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Karina filled in some harmony and it was all very pleasant, even if she did also accidentally play the second song a whole note higher than we had practiced it. The first "rejoice" was a bit of a stretch, but I kept telling myself she knew where we'd practiced so it must be the right key. I went with it, and managed to pull it off. When she told me of the little mistake I was definitely glad I hadn't known before hand or I might have been more nervous. All in all, it was a lot of fun.
After we were on a group of special needs adults from a home did a little performance. Tonda, my boss's husband, helps out there and has made friends with them, so he asked them to come as well. They did a little dance to "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" in English, a woman played the recorder, another did a recitation, and then they sang together with a CD. The songs they sang were traditional Czech Christmas songs, so sometimes Mark sang along for me. Great fun.
Two of my students came along as well. There wasn't really any spiritual message or anything, but it was still nice to have them there in the church.
I fly out Saturday morning, so I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to write again, but if not Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year too! Don't know if I can manage 5 posts for December, but I'll give it a go :)

Magic Number 5

Gentle Readers,
I see that I have given you cause to doubt my predictability. I've been lax in my dedication to my literary pursuits, and have allowed far to much time to lapse betwixt postings. I do apologize for this most heinous of blunders, and promise it has not been my intention to do you any injustice. It seems that, in my attempts to get everything done, I've managed to let certain things slide. Unfortunately, my blog has been one of the things that has escaped my attention, and fallen into a state of disarray. I'll do my best to make up for it, at least in part, at this juncture. It seems, however, that I seem incapable of making more than 5 entries a month this school year. My dear sister Julie has pointed out to my mother the likelihood that a particular young gentleman has kept me a wee bit distracted, and she is, no doubt, correct in her assumptions. Add to that weekend work retreats, attempts to further the bonds of teamhood, and the ever growing need to purchase Christmas gifts before my scheduled departure from the Czech Republic on the 19th of this very month, and you'll begin to glimpse the magnitude of my distraction. But now, without further ado, I submit to you post one of the month of December 2009.
I have, indeed, been rather busy over the past couple weeks since my last post. As pictures are generally the best way to convey the passage of time and events, I hope to entertain you now with a photo journal of what has gone down.
Several weeks ago, I believe before my last posting even, Mark and I went to check out the cemetery here in Cheb. We spent a long time going through the normal part of the cemetery. It's very well kept, and we were fascinated by the memorials people had created around the urns of their loved ones. During the communist era large concrete structures with little window openings were constructed with windows in front for the urns to be displayed. People can also put in pictures, flowers, or other mementos of the departed. It was sad and curious to see a bit of the life histories represented there.
We then wandered into an unkempt section beyond the regulated section of the cemetery. Here was once a lovely German cemetery, but it is now in total disarray. While this is partly due to the fact that no one has cared for it since the Germans were forced to leave the area at the end of the second world war, it is evident that most of the destruction was man made. As we wandered about the scattered tombstones we could envision young, bitter men, drunk on a mixture of alcohol and resentment, pushing over the markers lovingly placed to remember those who are no more. Most of the stones left standing were those of small children. It seemed as though they'd actually been replaced, and had no doubt been a part of the earlier carnage, but someone with some heart saw just how tragic it was to desecrate the graves of the innocents. It was rather like visiting some old museum that has suffered years of neglect. Somber and curious.

The next entry in this journalistic review is of the lovely cheesecake Karina made in honor of my birthday. The darling maiden slaved for hours in my kitchen (her flat is without a stove) and produced a true masterpiece.

Next we scurry along to the ESI Thanksgiving retreat. This year it was held after real Thanksgiving, which was rather unusual. It was also over Monday and Tuesday instead of Thursday and Friday as usual. It was great to have some more time to spend with Laura, and also to see all the teachers from other parts of Central Europe. One of the highlights was the Bananagrams competition that Laura set up. During her time traveling and visiting teachers she observed the passion for this lovely word game present in the two cities farthest removed in our group. She decided Hope and Deanna Sarospatak (Probably spelled wrong because I have NO expertise in Hungarian save for the word "fogadunk") should take on the Cheb team of Karina and Kathryn from Cheb. It was a seven game challenge, and I'm happy to report that West Bo came through after a game for game competition and won in round 7! Go team!

While the dates may have changed, one thing remains the same: my inability to sleep well on hard beds. True to form, I slept little, and was awake before it was truly sane. And so, in true Sarah fashion, the last day of the retreat, after a whopping five hours of sleep, I went out for an early morning walk and came across these visual gems:




Okay, so I did have to actually pose for a couple of them. It's amazing what a timer can do :) Sadly there was no incredible sunrise on the last morning. I'd seen several lovely ones the mornings before, but it was pretty overcast on Tuesday so I didn't get any shots of glorious pink and orange over the little lake.
Now flash forward to this weekend, and I'll tell you a tale of a devil, an angel and St. Mikolas. Now the past couple of years I've had the chance to observe this holiday from a distance, and to learn a bit about it, but this year was the first time I really got to see it in live action up close and personal.
Mark had hired a professional trio to come and visit his nieces and nephews at his parents' house. Sadly one of his nieces had a birthday party and wasn't able to be there, but watching the almost three year old twins was really the highlight anyway. They all arrived a bit before four and the twins were having a lovely time attacking Mark's bean bag chair. Then at four there was a knock on the door. The boys were very nervous, but excited as well. As the Devil came to them they started to crying and were truly terrified. The story claims that bad little children will be carried away in the devil's bag back to Hell. The devils carry a bag with fake legs hanging out of it to demonstrate this point. So the tears fell, but they didn't run away. They were very brave and when the devil asked for their pacifies they reluctantly handed them over, agreeing that they would now be okay without them. It was quite a moment. They weren't quite steady enough to say a poem or sing a song, but their lovely big sister Nathalie was happy to oblige, and they were rewarded with massive bags of candy which profoundly delighted them, and wiped away all memory of the horrifying devil.



After they were gone we all headed out to the Marianske Lazne Christmas Market. Mark and I had been their earlier in the day, but it was a lot busier and more interesting at night. There were lots of beautiful lights, the scent of mulled wine and fresh sausages in the air, and the sound of children singing Christmas songs. Truly a lovely experience. It was really cold, so Mark's family didn't stay very long, but he and I stuck around and watched an interesting fire show.



We were then more than happy to catch the bus back to his house where it was warm once again. St. Mikolas had also visited us, leaving me with some candy and a lovely new scarf. Quite a day.
So now we're mostly up to the moment. I'm currently trying to finish up my Christmas shopping, get laundry done, and figure out what to take with me for my two week hiatus in America. We'll see if I manage to hit magic number 5 this month or not...