In Hamburg...

I can't believe it. The first month in Herrnhut is over and we've now had two nights in Hamburg. It is so crazy how fast time goes by. I don't think we'll ever fully understand how time works. Sometimes it's too fast to keep up or too slow to function. Other times, the time seems to be at a perfect pace. Well, this last month seems to have gone by far too fast but I guess God knows best.
On Saturday, October 30th, we had a very early morning. Luckily, Silas, Sam, Man Sam, and I made homemade brownies and granola for the trip. That was a fun thing to look forward to during the long trip. Also, we were able to save some time by packing the night before but still had to wake up fairly early to start our ten-hour journey from Herrnhut to Hamburg. The morning began at 5:25am for me (slept as long as possible), breakfast at 5:30, deep cleaning of our rooms at 6, and then a normal fifteen minute walk (25 minute with the junk we all thought was important to bring) to the bus station by 7:45 to take us to the train station. Rather than spending a ton of money for the whole school to take a bus, we took the train. Maybe I should say "trainS" because we had at least six different trains throughout the little trip. But man, road trips (train trips?) are SOOO much fun! I love traveling!! At one point, I got to listen to 30 Seconds to Mars in a Burger King. Oh sweet Jared Leto. I've missed him...

Once we finally arrived in Hamburg, we had about a fifteen minute walk from the train station to the church we are staying at. I wish you could have seen all of us backpackers. After walking with our load, we are all convinced we packed far too much. Oh well, more to give. When we finally got to the church, all of us just wanted to sleep. We had dinner and then that's exactly what most of us did. By 8:30, we were out. Aww! REI! I love REI. My backpack, sleeping bag and sleeping mat. I can't even describe how amazingly great it is. That may change when I'm not completely exhausted, but for now, I'm very happy with what I have. Almost forgot, God gave me some of the coolest boots ever! The day before Mobile DTS left, MoTA students made a box for us to take stuff out of. And sure enough, the boots I had been praying for (my size, adorable, tall boots) were in the box. So thankful to the girl, whoever she was, who gave them up and I am VERY thankful for God to have put it on her heart to give up her boots. Yeah, God is AWESOME! Have I mentioned that throughout this yet?

Since we are living in a church, we can't really unpack and make it feel like home, but with this group starting to feel like family, I don't really think unpacking our stuff is the key to feeling at home. I think I'm really starting to like these kids. I might even love them at some point. Maybe. Don't want to make any promises. Sweet!

Sunday was such a great day. Since it was Halloween, our DTS leaders really felt led to have a night of worship. At 8pm, we had an hour of worship and then we also had prayer all through the night from 8pm till 8am.What a better way to celebrate Halloween then to praise God? There were 30 minute increments of prayer times throughout the whole night with at least two people praying each increment. I think we should do this every night. Prayer is so powerful. Probably because it's instant communication with God. And the night was a lot of fun. We played ridiculous games including the fruit game where you can't show your teeth and we played the faith/trust fall game where we had a person stand on a chair on the stage and then fall backwards to be caught by a group of people. At one point, the game became a human trampoline. So great! We're crazy, but safe (**Mom). I'm really diggin' this.

Yep. I'm having a wonderful time and can't wait for our speaker this week. Kawika Drummond is speaking on the Kingdom of God. I know God's going to rock my world even more. Now I have some bum deal news...here we go...dun dun duh...

So, dearly beloveds, my wonderful family and friends, I don't have internet. Now, you may be asking, "Kari! What are you talking about?!! You put a blog up!!!" Yes. That is correct. I did put a blog up after I walked 45 minutes to the nearest Starbucks to use wifi for free. I love you all dearly and would love to skype, but there's kind of a little (BIG) problem. I would love to skype, but it just isn't going to work out with time difference and strict guidelines of when we can leave the church.

Hopefully I'll be able to skype in Amsterdam, Brussels, or Paris. If not, I'm on Christmas break from December 18-28 and I know that I can skype. I also know that I said to a few people that I would skype last week or I promised that I could skype while in Hamburg. I spoke too soon. I'm really sorry (especially to Aunt Sandy, Christine, Craig, Michal Paige, Kenny, Ashley, Terassa, and Kayla). I hope you can all still love me and continue to be praying for my whole DTS. I'll be keeping you all updated as best as I can. Infact, I can still write blogs...just have to wait for internet in order to share it.

And until next time, whenever that may be, know that I've been thinking about you all a lot. I'm so thankful for you all. You guys are such incredible friends. It's amazing how many of you folks I think of throughout each day. If your reading this, know that I'm praying for you and I've been thinking about you.

And Andersen family that lives on Pleasant Hill, expect a package soon. I may have already told you, but thought you might want to know...again....

Again, I love you all so much. I wish you all could be with me to see and be a part of all the cool things God is sharing with me. Now you guys just have to live dangerously and travel EVERYWHERE!!!! I love traveling. I love traveling and learning to trust God. I love traveling and learning to trust God and sharing the gospel amongst the spiritually dark places of Europe. Almost forgot to say, I shared my testimony last Thursday night where we did a mini-outreach in Zittau, Germany. God gave me boldness and confidence to speak with authority and share my testimony. I'm also really excited for God to give me a new way in expressing my love for Him. Our experience in Zittau made us all so hungry for what God is planning for us throughout the rest of lecture phase. Pray that God will continue to reveal Himself as I continue to seek Him whole-heartedly.

Well, I better sign out. Peace!