Merry Christmas to all ...

... and to all a good carp!

These lovely fish were swimming in our friends' tub as of yesterday. As of a few minutes ago, a lovely portion of them (along with traditional Slovak potato salad) is swimming in my stomach. Yay for friends! And carp!

And kapustnica!

Another traditional Slovak Christmas Eve dish we made and enjoyed this year. It is a sauerkraut soup with klobasa (sausage) pieces of pork or beef, dried mushrooms, and pieces of prune and apple. It is so, so good.
Also good, if not traditional Slovak Christmas food: homemade challah bread.

We'll have more stories and pictures up soon. My parents are here! So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Edison-Swift-Albrights in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Camp ... is great, actually

When I would leave for a week or two of camp, my mom knew all was well when she stopped getting mail from me. If she didn't hear from me, life was too good, busy and exciting for me to sit down, get introspective, and compose something meaningful like: "The girls in my cabin stay up all night making fart jokes. They are so imature (sic)." When the letters stopped arriving, she could rest easy knowing I'd found my place and maybe lightened up enough to make a fart joke or two.

This is all well and good, but that "don't write when all's well" impulse continued when I went to college (Sample email from my dad: "Just making sure you are alive. Sign on to IM sometime!") and right up to today, making me a terrible blogger, email correspondent, long-distance buddy, journal-keeper, daughter, etc.

So, uh, all's well! I have a bit of a cold, but I'm giving my immune system regular pep talks. I've been crazy busy but in a good way: finding my place, lightening up a bit, making fart jokes here and there (not really, but it's on my to-do list.) I've given a bunch of sermons which we haven't gotten around to posting yet--we'll keep you posted on the posting of those. These days I am unreasonably overjoyed by winter weather, cautiously optimistic about completing internship paperwork, and a little weepy with anticipation for my parents' arrival on the 24th.

A friend of a friend applied for a Horizon International internship and we exchanged a few emails before her interview. I had a hard time writing it--I kept getting stuck in meaningless generalizations I could have come up with (or at least guessed at) before I'd even come to Slovakia. So I decided to do a quick rundown, a "week-in-the-life." It just happened that it was Thanksgiving week--lots going on at church and school and really, really good times with our friends and colleagues here. Here's what I wrote:

“I’m having trouble doing justice to the experience … so I’ll try specifics! In brief, this was my week:
Monday: doctor’s appointment (I set this up, found the place and went to it by myself—an achievement), figuring out buses to get to school from the appointment, getting to school just in time (but without my keys! Doh!), teaching four classes on the topic of natural evil (how is God involved in hurricanes, famines, etc.?), meeting with my supervisor to go over what’s happening this week, begin plugging Sunday’s service into our bulletin template.
Tuesday: give a testimony of my life with Jesus to the weekly women’s Bible study I attend, more planning (for Sunday and Wednesday evening) and bulletin.
Wednesday: lead chapel worship at school, teach a class, help lead Thanksgiving Eve service at 7 pm, work on skit for stewardship Sunday.
Thursday: teach three classes, clean our house in preparation for guests for our weekend Thanksgiving celebration, shop for what we need to cook our offerings for the feast, go out for pizza with American and Slovak colleagues from school to celebrate actual Thanksgiving day.
Friday: cleaning, serious Thanksgiving cooking by my husband, getting bulletin ready to print, going to a goulash party with Slovak and American friends and guests who have begun to arrive and eating delicious venison goulash.
Saturday: Thanksgiving! Amazing feast, about 35 people gathered, skits, games, massive communal clean up and then off to the Christmas Market in old town Bratislava … and then back to the warm apartments for dramatic readings from Shakespeare and other fun times with our colleagues and guests. Somewhere in there, I print and copy the bulletins and they get folded by our friends (sweet!).
Sunday: breakfast with our overnight guests and then to church by 9 to practice for First-Sunday-in-Advent-Stewardship-Youth-O-Rama. Service includes: stewardship temple talk, short youth presentation to follow up on the conference they went to in Holland, Advent wreath explanation and lighting, a very funny and effective stewardship skit, pledge forms, offerings brought forward and prayed over… and the normal stuff (Communion, sermon, readings, etc.) Coffee hour then to the pastor’s flat for lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers and Christmas movies. First time this week my supervisor and I get to sit down and talk about the first communion class we are teaching … that day … at 3 pm. 15 people come to the class (parents and kids from 8 to 15) and it goes really, really well. Then I ate dinner, planned lessons for Monday and wrote this email to you!”

Was that a normal week? No way! But there really hasn't been a normal week. This week at church we have a baptism, recognition of first communicants and the Sunday School Christmas Program. And tonight is our first night going with our friends to the symphony! Yesterday all my regular classes we cancelled and I taught two classes of first years. At some point, we will put up and decorate our wee Christmas tree. Life is good, busy and exciting indeed.

*Toot*

Update goulash

Hi! (cough)

But really, I am so much better. Practically completely healed. Just a tiny little leftover cough and some shortness of breath--the worst part is really that I seem to have pulled a muscle on the right side of my torso, which hurts all the time but especially when I move. I feel like maybe I should start keeping that kind of thing to myself ... like I'm starting to get a reputation, here ... but, you guys, bronchitis is a really bad deal, and this muscle thing really hurts. OK, self-pity moment over. Sucking it up, moving it on!

This is my second week back at school post-illness and we've been doing some great things. I pulled "Be the Teacher" out of my old bag of tricks from teaching days in Texas: students broke up into groups and prepared lessons to present to the class. They all did an amazing job with this: we had skits, word games, graphic organizers, a rap (complete with beatboxing students) and lots of good questions sparking group discussions and insights into the text that I hadn't considered before. The question we were debating was: Given all the evil and suffering in the world, is human freedom worth it? What do you think?

Other recent highlights:

• Voting. Yay! With the help of the diplomatic pouch at the US embassy, civic responsibility has never been so easy. If I meet Craig Ferguson on the street, I will be able to look him in the eye (actually, I will probably giggle like a fangirl. But metaphorically.)
• Bus pass: checked! During orientation we bought bus passes and the purchase filled me with a great sense of accomplishment. This sense came to full fruition when our passes were checked for the first time last week on the bus on the way to school. I was ready! Here's what happens: during a time when the bus is full but not totally packed, two guys in plainclothes get on the bus. In a longish space between two stops, one guy at the front of the bus and one at the back get out handheld machines to scan the bus passes. Anyone who doesn't have a pass gets off with the guys at the next stop and gets a ticket ( Slovak crowns.) So when you're visiting, be sure you buy your ticket before you get on and validate your ticket on the bus!
• Travels: this weekend Sean and I are going to Košice where I'll be a guest preacher at an international congregation there. The weekend after that we head to Prague for some R&R! We are excited to have the opportunity to get out and see some more of Europe (we've been pretty homebound so far.) We did get a chance to go to Vienna last Friday with the Schicks which was such a treat! We ate wonderful Thai food and Viennese sweets/coffee and got a great overview of the city from our knowledgeable guides. I slept so well that night--it was a great day, fresh air, good food, good company ... (happy sigh.)

Both of my parents are now home from their travels in South Africa (and for my mom, South Africa and Malawi.) They are posting and captioning pictures ... I will give the link as soon as I get the word from them!

Siiiiiick

Hey y'all. I'm going to crawl back into bed in a bit, but thought I should check in. Super persistent (and super-no-fun) coughing sent me to the doctor on Monday, who gave me antibiotics, an expectorant, and a form to return to work in a week. I'm not sure I've ever had bronchitis before--I'm really more of a sinus infection kinda gal--but my mom gets them all the time and I have new found empathy/respect. Really, no fun.

The antibiotics seem to be working--I can tell because I am weak as a kitten and can't seem to do anything but sleep (the analogy breaks down in that I do not, as kittens do, have sudden urges to go tearing around the house or pounce on pieces of yarn.) Also, I woke up this morning still coughing, but coughing less often and more productively (ew). I can breathe a little better today, too. I may have it together enough to get some grading done.

I preached twice last week; sadly our sound recorder has malfunctioned ... especially sad since there was a completely wonderful guest choir from Washington DC visiting on Sunday. We'll post the text of both on the website, soon. I'm looking forward to healing and good things this month: preaching in Kosice the 26 and a trip to Prague over fall break. But now ... I'm looking forward to another nap. Prayers for healing are welcome! Also ... prayers for safe travels as my parents attend conferences in South Africa and Malawi.

Sermon Podcast: How much is enough?

You'd better believe I climbed those stairs up to the pulpit extra carefully for my first sermon last Sunday! I thought I heard (maybe on my January term trip) that the International Congregation didn't use the high pulpit, but Pastor David in fact does because the whole church is kind designed for it ... unless you're sitting right in the front row (neck cramp!) it probably the easiest way for pastor and congregation to see each other in that space. I am probably going to trip at some point; I am planning to do so with good humor.

The sermon is about forgiveness, which I think is a difficult topic. I welcome your feedback, in the comments or via email. Help me learn and grow! Grab our podcast or download the sermon text or audio here.

Water

It is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows, patron saint of Slovakia and a national holiday. Sean and I are listening to Morning Edition via whyy.com at almost 3pm, getting ready for school tomorrow and still recovering from a whirlwind week (teaching, sermoning, etc.) It's been raining lightly all day, a gentle, welcome tapping on our windows that makes me glad to be inside, warm and cozy. I love days like this, especially after it has been so brutally hot. Water can be comforting, joyful, renewing, and such a relief.

Water is also powerful and frightening. 6 hours after I gave a children's message on the joyful experience of using water to remember our baptism, Pastor Kristi at St. Luke's responded to terrible flooding in Park Ridge with a sermon on Noah, and God's rainbow promise to never destroy the world. Water has as much potential for destruction as it does for sustaining creation--it is absolutely essential to life and can be absolutely deadly. God uses this powerful sign to make powerful promises to humanity: you will not be destroyed, you are my children, you are forgiven.

Lots of prayer requests on my mind today!

Let us pray for the search and rescue workers in Galveston and for everyone still waiting for them.

Let us pray for everyone trying to get the basics in Houston: power, drinking water, gasoline for generators, food. May the relief efforts reach and assist them in their times of need.

Let us pray for everyone cleaning up from flood damage in Park Ridge, especially Katie and Phil as they also prepare for their wedding this week. Bless the members of St. Luke's as they remember God's rainbow promise.

Let us pray for everyone in the South and Midwest impacted by Hurricane Ike--bless relief agencies and home and business owners who will be "in it for the long haul" for recovery and rebuilding.

Let us give thanks for God's life-giving gift of water: water used for cleaning up after storms, to sustain the people who are in the midst of recovery, and to remind all of us that God loves us, forgives us, and gives us new life.

I talked to my parents last night--the basement of their condo building (the parking lot and storage area) was flooded 10 inches, and some of the items they had in storage were damaged or destroyed. They don't have power or hot water and my mom is on a big deadline for work ... they were keeping positive, but please keep them in your prayers, too.

Here's a picture of us praying at the end of the children's message, yesterday. We had so much fun sprinkling water on the congregation! You can see the kids are suppressing giggles, here. Water is a lot of fun when it isn't in hurricane form. We're going to post the text and audio of my first sermon at Bratislava International Congregation soon, but until then, check out the pictures here.

Which candidate would you rather have dinner with?

Yesterday Sean and I went to the American embassy (which is really a very pleasant place to go when your passport is already blue) and they mailed in our absentee ballot requests for us. I swear I was already filling out the forms when Sean found this Craig Ferguson clip, but I have to admit, it did inspire/exhort/shame me into actually following through that very day.



Pretty great, right? I'm very excited to get my ballot--now that we're online and a little more settled we're back to following the election news. Lately we've been reading articles to each other in the evenings, which isn't as sweet as when we used to read each other Sherlock Holmes stories before bed, but I'm enjoying it.

Tomorrow is my first time preaching at Bratislava International Church. I will also give a children's message ... =). Of course I'm nervous, but in that "this is really happening and now it's started and that's a good thing" kind of way. Today I had a wonderful meeting with Pastor David about my sermon, and right away he highlighted the areas of preaching I need to work on: using clear transitions, writing for speaking rather than reading, writing a sermon rather than an essay, fully illustrating my examples rather than assuming my congregation will have the same background information I do. I feel like I'm already learning so much on this internship ... and as of today, we've been here just one month. My parents taught me this mantra when I was quite young and I've spent most of my life repeating it (because it's true): I'm a lucky girl.

Back to improving that first draft! Keep me and the congregation in your prayers tomorrow--the topic of the sermon is forgiveness, which is a tough one, to be sure. Sean's quote (which I'm using in the sermon): "If forgiveness were easy, we wouldn't need Jesus." This is most certainly true!