Friday

Today, Jim Bloker, Eurasia evangelism specialist, and I drove the three and a half hours to Brussels. We drove through some pretty miserable weather – cold, wet, dreary. But once we arrived, the smiling faces of Pastor Matthias Tepper, his wife Michelle, and their children, Lillian (3) and twins Elijah and Isaac (4 months) made us feel right at home. For dinner, we each enjoyed a huge cone of pommes frites, in true Belgian fashion. I learned that Belgians not only speak French but Flemish as well. Flemish is a sort of simplifed German. That may not be the most accurate way to describe it (and I hope I haven’t offended any Flemish speakers!).

After our pommes, Jim, Pastor Matthias, and I settled in and had a long talk about what we hoped to accomplish and how we could help. He also filled me in on the state of things in the All Lutheran Church of Brussels. I am excited to work with the people up here – they are so full of spirit and seem like a lot of fun!

We were staying at the Hotel Vignette, a lovely place just outside the city. I was pretty excited to have a television, even if just to watch in the evening, because I don’t have one in Germany. Even still – the hotel had the Discovery Channel!

Saturday

The day of hard work. We got up, enjoyed a good Belgian breakfast (no waffles…yet!) and headed off to the store owned by the ALCB. There, we met with Matthias again and helped solidify the plans we had made the day before. I was there to help Matthias learn about how to market and communicate new programs with the people within his church. I did this for my own church, Resurrection Lutheran in Cary, NC, a few summers ago. So in this meeting, I drew up some logos, brainstormed some ideas, and basically outlined how the process would go. I may be coming back to help flesh out these ideas some more in the future.

After that, we went into the city center of Brussels to see the sights and have some good Belgian waffles! You can get nearly any topping you desire on one of these waffles and, let me tell you, they are DELICIOUS. I chose chocolate sauce for mine, Jim had powdered sugar, and Matthias opted for caramel and whipped cream. I almost got bananas as well.

People have asked how the waffles are different from American waffles – they are thicker, less crunchy, and have a different taste. Not as sweet, and not as filling, but not terribly fluffy. It’s hard to describe, but they were good!

That night, Michelle made us dinner at the Tepper household. I am amazed that she can handle cooking for guests with twin four-month-old boys! Jim and I made ourselves useful by playing with the babies. They are adorable.

Then, after a long day, I watched some Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs and went to sleep.

Sunday

Normally, a Sunday recap would start with church in the morning. But since the ALCB is using another church building, they have their service in the afternoon. We went back over to the Tepper’s for a Sunday pizza lunch, then went to the church. The service as very different from any I have ever attended but was good nonetheless! Afterward, Jim led a question and answer session and many folks were excited to hear about the different aspects of being a missionary.

The church members were very glad to see us and gave Jim and I each a little box of chocolates to take home! They are so pretty I don’t want to eat them, but I’m sure they are absolutely delicious!

Well, I will have photos posted on Flickr soon (which you can access from the sidebar on the right), including pictures of the famous waffles!

Katie

But I digress.

Tomorrow, I am going to Brussels! I am driving over for the weekend with Jim Bloker, evangelism specialist for Eurasia. He and his beautiful wife, Mabelle, live in Prague. He’s picking me up along the way so we can both head over there. It’s a specialist convention – communications and evangelism!

That might seem like a joke, but that’s actually our goal for the weekend. We want to help the Lutheran church in Brussels with their current evangelism plan and hopefully integrate more outreach/mission activities. The Belgian church is doing great already, we’re just here to lend a helping hand!

I have never been to Belgium before but, as we know, I’ve got some pretty good French skills. They’ll be put to use for sure! Let’s hope I can remember all the useful stuff we’ll need. We’re starting to dig into the meaty stuff in my German class – modal verbs and all that.

Based on the research from these weekend trips and meetings with the folks in Belgium, I will potentially be heading over there for a longer period of time (a week or two) to implement the plan we created. I will be sad to leave Frankfurt but it will be awesome to be on the campus working with the college students (potential part of the project).

I will endeavor to update you faithful readers as things progress.

In other news, I recently celebrated my twenty-third birthday! Only one more year and I will turn twenty-four on the twenty fourth of February! As a present to myself, I took a trip to Wales the weekend before with Sarah to visit her hometown. Her birthday was the 16th so it was sort of a joint celebration. It was great to be back in the UK. I even got my hair cut there because I’m to scared to go to a German hairdresser!

Then, on the actual day, Brent, Jennie, and Sophia took me to lunch which was really sweet of them (the other kids were in school). The kids also made me a whole batch of chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles! I was really surprised and very touched.

In the evening, a small group of my best friends here in Frankfurt went out for a really nice dinner. Because of everyone’s work schedules, we don’t often get together in the middle of the week so it was a great evening!

L to R: Laurel, Me, Ashley, Nick (blocked by Sarah's head), Sarah

Thank you to everyone who sent me cards! It was a huge surprise to look in the mailbox and see so many envelopes for me! It really made my day. I have them all propped up around my room so I can look at them whenever I feel homesick. Thanks as well to everyone who called or wrote on my facebook wall – it really means a lot to me!

So it’s off to Brussels tomorrow – au revior, mes amis! A bientot!

Katie

This morning at church, someone asked me how long I had been in Frankfurt. I realized that February 1 was my six-monthiversary with this fair city! I can’t believe I’ve lived here for half a year already. When I think back on everything I have seen and done in the past six months – it blows my mind!

Six months ago: I couldn’t speak a lick of German, now I’m in the level two class and am eligible for a diploma upon completing the course.

Six months ago: I didn’t know the Smith family, Sarah, Ashley, or any of my new friends here in Germany.

Six months ago: I was convinced I would never let myself get homesick or upset, and would stay strong throughout my time abroad. Now I know that it’s ok to wish we were home every now and then.

But most importantly, six months ago: I WAS COMPLAINING IT WAS TOO HOT! I made Sarah promise me that if I complain about the heat this summer, she should reference this giant downpour of snow to make me thankful for the sunshine.

I cannot imagine what the next six months will bring, or even the next year! I am still so excited about every new experience and every new person I meet along the way. This is a time in my life that I will never forget!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you all told someone you love them today.

<3, Katie

This past weekend, my friend Ashley had some college buddies visit from England. We wanted to show them a good time while in Germany so he planned a three days of fun activities, which I was more than happy to join in on.

On Thursday, we went to cheer on the Frankfurt Lions ice hockey team. I am a huuuuge Carolina Hurricanes fan and my family goes to games whenever we can. The Lions play in the Eissporthalle (exactly what it sounds like, Ice Sport Hall) in Frankfurt.

The atmosphere was a mix between an American hockey arena, with the packed stands and the announcer trying to rev up the crowd, and a football match complete with hooligans. We actually didn’t have seats, we were in the standing room section so we definitely saw some hooligans. At the beginning of the match, everyone suddenly lit sparklers! Like the ones from the 4th of July, only bigger and INSIDE! Can you say fire hazard?

But the building didn’t burn down and the Lions brought home a victory, 2-1, over Mannheim.

Packed with hockey hooligans!

Friday night, we went to our favorite karaoke place, Waxy’s in Frankfurt. It’s such a good time listening to the mix of Germans, Irish, Polish, American, and any other nationality belting out their favorite songs.

Saturday, we headed up to the Felberg, a peak in the Taunus mountain range near Oberursel. We had gotten about five inches of snow the night before (while we were karaoking) and it was blizzarding down as we took the bus up the winding road. When we arrived at the top, we stepped out of the bus into about two feet of snow!

We had some fun little plastic sleds to go down the hills on, but we were far outclassed by the Germans and their true wooden sleds. Some of them have steering, we saw one with shocks, a light, AND a siren! It was awesome.

As evening fell and we retired to the cafe, we realized that the bus might not make it up the hill after dark due to the threat of black ice and since more snow had fallen. We ran out to the bus stop to see when the next arrival was. As we were waiting, the sun went down and it was bitterly cold. We huddled together in the little bus stop shelter and everyone’s toes started getting numb. My jeans froze! Jen’s cardigan was wet and it froze into a one solid sheet! My “winter expedition” socks from REI weren’t cutting it anymore.

Eventually, we realized the bus was not coming and we were stranded. We were debating walking back down the mountain (several kilometers) or sledding (haha, not a chance). Finally, I called Brent and Jennie and begged them to drive up and save us in their minivan. Luckily, they were home and Brent came and saved us! We had planned to go to an authentic German brauhaus that evening but our debacle with the bus left everyone frosty and tired from sledding, so we went back home.

I have uploaded photos of our snowy adventure to Flickr, you can view them by clicking on the sidebar to the right.

All in all, it was a good few days entertaining the guests in Frankfurt! If anyone wants to visit, we’ll be sure to show you an equally good time! Maybe we’ll not miss the bus, though…

Katie

Of course I say massive loosely, I know there are those of you who have more snow than we do. When you have to walk everywhere and trains are shut down because of it, six inches seems massive.

Anyways, this morning I trekked down to Brent and Jennie’s house to watch the kids while Brent went off on a field trip with his brother and sister-in-law and Jennie went to a meeting at church. I had to wake up before the sun rose to get layered up for the journey down the hill.

It was beautiful in that dangerous, going to freeze your face off kind of way. There were no footprints in the snow so I had the honor of plowing through first. I’m very glad I purchased some waterproof boots before my trip to Kyrgyzstan (we were spending time on the farm then). I don’t think my new Converse sneakers would make it through the snowy drifts.

The path I normally take down to the grocery store and the Smith’s house is blocked off. I’m pretty sure the signs say “Don’t walk this way unless you’re totally crazy!” or something similar. I don’t know of any other way to get there, so I guess I’m totally crazy and walk down the snow covered path.

I took a bunch of photos on my way down, but of course, didn’t bring my camera cable. I will add them in when I get back home tonight.

But to tide you over, here’s me and Katelyn, we risked the cold to take a pic out the front door.

I think we're blocking all the snow, but you get the idea.

It’s supposed to continue snowing all weekend and again next week – the Civil Protection service has recommended that each household has at least four days of supplies, a battery powered radio, and alternative cooking fuel. Guess I should go to the store soon!

Katie

I hope you all had fulfilling and relaxing holiday seasons. I was able to fly home and be with my family and friends for two weeks! It was a great trip, filled with hugs, laughter, and trying to get my mom to stop at every Taco Bell we saw.

When I returned to Germany on Jan. 5th, I was greeted by three inches of snow, negative degrees Celsius, and a very big and heavy box from the Middle School Youth Group at my home church, Resurrection Lutheran in Cary, NC.

I love getting mail. Probably because in this age of email and webcams, we can instantly communicate. But seeing someone’s handwriting and having a physical letter or card just makes my day. While I was home, it reminded me even more that I’m far away from those I love. And while it’s not a New Years Resolution per se, it is my new resolution that I will try to always let those around me know how much I appreciate and love them. I feel that I’ve never done anything I regret, but not telling those I love how much I love them and those who help me how much I appreciate it would be my closest thing.

But enough waxing lyrical, on to the huge box of presents and Katie’s Christmas Number Three!

Sidebar: Christmas Number One was with my immediate family, then Number Two was the next day with my extended family in Georgia.

I made sure to take photos so you could experience the anticipation with me as I opened the box.

Here it is, firmly wrapped in tape. Those middle schoolers know how to secure a box!

Unopened - what could be inside??

When I finally got the tape open, I found some really cute cards from the kids wishing me Merry Christmas.

Yay! Cards!

They make me oh so happy.

Then I realized I had hit the MOTHERLOAD! Check it out! Four jars of peanut butter! Nine boxes of mac’n'cheese! Nutter Butters! Travel sized lotions and chapstick (Germany has like, one brand of chapstick and it’s not flavored.)! A giant bag of M&Ms which I’m eating as I write this! People magazine!

Entire box of goodies

Oh thank you, thank you Middle School Youth Group! You have made coming back to Germany a little bit easier. And I will be eating your peanut butter on toast for a while to come.

Katie

Since in two days, I will be heading back to North Carolina for the holidays, I thought I would post about the way Christmas is celebrated here in Germany.

1. Christmas Markets – These “Christkindl” (Christ Child) markets start springing up at the end of November and wrap up before actual Christmas on the 25th. They feature booths with gluwein (warmed, spiced red wine.), pastrys, sausages, crepes, cheese,

Me and the Strasbourg, France Christmas Market

doughnuts, and that’s just the food! There are also handicrafts and vendors selling everything from leather goods to jewelery to nativity sets from Mexico to kids artwork….It’s a very festive atmosphere. The largest of Germany’s Christkindl markets is in Nuremburg and is about 375 years old. The Oberursel market was just as good though! And the Frankfurt one had rides!

2. St. Nicholas Day – An interesting thing that was pointed out to me at church this past week: children in Germany get presents from St. Nicholas on December 6th and Christkindl (Christ Child) on the 25th. How’s that for Santa stealing Jesus’s day?! Anyway, St. Nicholas Day is on the 6th. Children put their shoes out (not sure where, by the fireplace or door maybe?) and in the morning they are filled with all sorts of goodies. Sadly, I keep about four pairs of shoes by my door and they were all empty in the morning . Maybe I’ve not been a good girl this year! But all my neighbor’s shoes were empty too so I don’t feel to bad.

3. Advent Calendars and Wreaths – Even among non-religious folks, Advent calendars are HUGE in Germany. Most kids have these big cardboard boxes with numbered doors on them. Each day they open the corresponding the door and get a treat. For some kids, it’s a candy or little toy. For the ones whose parents go all out, it’s a doll or movie tickets or iTunes giftcards. You can purchase them pre-made (the cardboard ones) or some parents have wooden ones they fill every year. I considered getting myself a Disney princesses one I saw in Frankfurt but decided not to .

Advent wreaths are also popular here. They are similar to American Advent wreaths with four candles set in them. Most are the table-top version. These wreaths used to have four big candles and nineteen smaller candles. They were used to help children count down to Christmas Day. Here’s a poem I found about Advent wreaths:

Advent, Advent …ein Lichtlein brennt
erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.

Translation:

Advent, Advent, one candle burning
first one, then two, then three, then four
then the Christ Child stands before the door.

A giant Tannenbaum at the Strasbourg Market

4. Christmas Trees – Who hasn’t heard “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree?” And who knows the original German? Maybe you’ve got the title, O Tannenbaum, but the rest? I’ll post it for you. Tannenbaums are just as popular in Germany. Technically, a Tannenbaum is a fir tree, but many families now use spruce trees. “Gezierterbaum” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Also, traditionally the tree wasn’t put up until Christmas Eve. Dad would entertain the kids in another room and Mom would decorate the tree in the family room. Kids come in to open presents (also done on

One of the many trees at the Oberursel Christmas Market

Christmas Eve) and wow! A tree! Many Germans still use real candles instead of electric lights too. Make sure you keep that thing hydrated! The Tannenbaum is traditionally taken down on New Years Day or January 6th, Three King’s Day, and the kids can eat all the sweets that decorated it.

Now everybody sing along!

(click here for some musical accompaniment, complete with dancing snowmen)

So there’s a taste of what Germany is like around Christmas time. I cannot believe I have been in Germany for five months already! I am ready to see my family and have a little break to enjoy some of my favorite American traditions for a bit. I hope you all are having a great Advent season and are preparing for a lovely Christmas!

The first snow we got was just a light dusting - I hear there will be more!

Froehliche Weinachten!

Katie

I apologize for the lack of updates! But you are not as neglected as you may think. Upon my return from Berlin, I wrote the entire previous post about the youth gathering and my time in Wittenberg.

The post, however, was saved to my “drafts” folder and not published to the blog! I didn’t realize until now. My apologies!

So please do scroll down and read the last post and perhaps you will feel more updated about what’s been going on.

Now then, let me tell you about my time in Strasbourg!

It’s a short, two hour train ride across the Rhine and into France. I was attending La Conference Pastorale General which was held just outside Strasbourg in the village of Heiligenstein. Sounds a bit German? The Alsace region of France has German roots as well. Many people here understand French and German.

Alsace is known for producing excellent wine – some of which I was lucky enough to sample. Heiligenstein is nearly completely surrounded by vineyards. At the moment, they are bare but I can only imagine the scenery in the summertime! The Black Forest and Germany are also visible once you climb into the mountains a bit. This is the view from the house where we had lunch.

See the Black Forest and Germany waaaay in the distance?

The conference was made up of eight pastors from across the Lutheran Synod of France. I studied French in high school but for anyone who’s counting that was four and half years ago. And now I’ve got a good deal of German rolling around in my brain.

I stayed with a member of the church in Strasbourg, a lovely lady named Maryse who doesn’t understand any English. With my broken French, I could explain everything from what I do to where I live to why my little brother has a big beard in the photo I have of my family (hockey playoffs).

During the conference, the pastors discussed a wide variety of topics. I was treated to a lecture on the theology of Calvin and a discussion about how to distribute communion during the spread of H1N1 flu.

I understood most of what was being talked about, but most of the pastors, native French speakers, talked to quickly for me to keep up! I attended the conference as a representative of LCMS World Mission to listen to the latest news from around the synod, to take photos, and to meet our partners face-to-face. Sometimes it can be hard to communicate via email and I always find it easier when you can put a face to the email address.

And as you all know, yesterday was Thanksgiving! Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone. I went down to Brent and Jennie’s house to help Jennie cook our MASSIVE five pound turkey-chicken cross breed that we found. Turkey isn’t popular in Germany, let alone giant Butterballs. I contributed some traditional German Schwarz-Weiß cookies (black and white checkerboard cookies) and the famous Kuekes orange fluff (orange jello and cool whip with mandarin oranges). We also used Mom’s secret turkey-in-a-bag technique to cook our bird and it turned out delicious. Jennie modified it by turning the turkey upside down -  the Russian way to cook a big bird that she learned while living in Moscow.

I was able to talk with my whole family via Skype webcam which was great. I’ve talked with Mom and Dad before and this time Matthew and Karl were there so it was a whole family gathering. Sophie and Katelyn said hello to my family too. They thought it was really cool that we could watch them ripping up bread to make stuffing, still wearing their pajamas, while we were getting ready to go down for dinner.

Germany doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving (obviously) so they’ve been decorated for Christmas for a while. But now that Thanksgiving is over, I am psychologically ready to join in as well . This coming Sunday, the 1st in Advent, we will be hanging the greens at church.

I helped out by joining in the annual wreath making that we did last Sunday. Katelyn and I tag-teamed on our wreath.

Members of Trinity used this giant pile of greens to make wreaths

Our finished wreath will decorate the church for Advent.

This has been a mightily-long post, but I feel you faithful readers deserve it after such a long gap between my updates. I apologize for not being more frequent with them, but sometimes not much is happening around here other than rain and video editing. I will be returning to NC for Christmas and New Years, so I look forward to having some good American food and fun while I’m there!

Tomorrow I will be going to Strasbourg (again!) with some friends to visit the Christmas Market there. I hope to pick up some Christmas presents – who wants a real Black Forest cuckoo clock?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Katie

It was similar to the VA Beach Youth Gathering I used to attend every year with the senior high youth group from RLC, so I was really excited! Only this time, I was with a much smaller group (only four of us!) and I was the “responsible adult.”

Alice, Anna, and Alice - the small but mighty Frankfurt group!

We took the Inter-City Express (ICE) train and it only took about four hours to reach the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Once we got there, we made a beeline for….DUNKIN’ DONUTS! There are no Dunkins in Frankfurt so we all got a donut to celebrate being in Berlin.

After leaving our luggage in a locker at the train station, we set out to explore a bit before having to check in at the hostel. We saw Brandenburg Tor (Gate), the famous Berlin landmark that used to sit right at the division between East and West Berlin.

This was my first time in Berlin, I have always wanted to visit since studying about WWII and the following events like the Berlin Wall. They are about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall next month, so there are lots of informational signs up in different places about the Wall’s history.

We also visited the Holocaust memorial. I think it is a perfect memorial for the Holocaust victims. It is made up of 2,711 concrete blocks of varying heights. They’re laid out in an open space right down the street from the Reichstag (Parliament building) and Brandenburg Tor. When you walk into the memorial, you start to lose your sense of space and start thinking you see people walking by, but there’s no one there. The blocks in the middle are over 4m tall!

The edge of the Holocaust Memorial

Beneath the memorial is a museum about the Holocaust that the girls and I walked through. It was very moving, but, as most things about the Holocaust, a little depressing. I’m glad we did it before the gathering and not during when we want to have fun with everyone else.

We retrieved our luggage and found our way to the bus to go to the Berlin Youth Hostel, where all the participants in the gathering were staying. On the bus on the way there, we met another group from Bonn, Germany. They were a small group as well and we struck up a friendship immediately.

Throughout the conference, we had worship services and talks from various speakers. We had workshop time and youth leader time, all taking place at the American Church in Berlin. We ate our meals at the hostel, with quite good food prepared by the hostel kitchen.

On Friday, we had a free afternoon to explore Berlin. We joined up with the Bonn group and some others to take a free walking tour of Berlin. It lasted about 3.5 hours and, needless to say, my feet were very tired by the end! But we saw all the historical landmarks of Berlin like bits of the wall that were still standing, Checkpoint Charlie (next to which now stands “Snackpoint Charlie”), and this very famous hotel where Michael Jackson once hung his baby over a railing.

See the hotel sign on the right? Two balconies up is where the craziness took place...

On Saturday afternoon, all the groups were mixed up for a giant, Berlin-wide scavenger hunt! It was just like the Amazing Race! We had to sing the American national anthem in front of the American Embassy, take a photo with guards at Checkpoint Charlie, get people waiting in the Reichstag line to do the chicken dance with us, get ten people on a seesaw…it was so much fun!

We wrapped up the conference on Sunday morning and we got on the train for the girls to go back to Frankfurt and me to stop in Wittenberg.

In Wittenberg, the city of Martin Luther himself, I met up with David and Lois Mahsman, fellow missionaries with World Mission. David was being installed as the managing director of the International Lutheran Society of Wittenberg. Lois still lives in St. Louis but she will join Dave in Germany soon. Also, when he completes his work in Wittenberg, they will be moving to Oberursel!

David was installed during a special service at the Castle Church. This isn’t the place where Luther preached, but he is buried there. It was so cool and cool in another sense – freezing cold! These old churches don’t have central heating (not exactly popular in the 1500s) so you get used to wearing your jacket inside.

I spent Monday with Lois while Dave did some work and then I headed back to Oberursel on Tuesday morning. It was a great weekend!

My next trip will be to Strasbourg, France for a pastors conference!

Katie

I am sure you are all itching for a Kyrgyzstan update. A lot happens in ten days and I couldn’t possibly write down everything that happened – it would take days! But I will give you the highlights.

I arrived at Manas International Airport at 1:30am after departing Frankfurt at noon and stopping to change planes in Istanbul. Flying with Turkish Airlines was a great experience – except I couldn’t figure out how to change the audio of my movie to English. So is “The Proposal” any good? In Turkish it was ok.

Once I landed, I had to fill out a form and buy my visa to get into the country. This and passport control went without a hitch and I have a big, full page Kyrgyz visa in my passport!

I collected my suitcase and found Tamara, who works in the World Mission office in Bishkek, easily (the big KATIE KUEKES sign helped). By then it was about 2:30am and we decided to wait for Bob and Sue Pfeil, retired missionaries who served in Kyrgyzstan, who were landing at 3:15am from London. After they landed, it took them the same amount of time with visas and everything, so we had to wait for Jon Muhly, a missionary who lives in Russia, to land at 5:30am.

We finally got to the Philemon House at about 6:30am and we decided to sleep (yay!).

First impressions of Bishkek: it was dark, but the roads are full of potholes and our driver, Yury, had to drive very creatively to avoid the worst of them. Both Russian and Kyrgyz are written in Cyrillic script (“Russian” letters) so I had no idea what anything was. My first Russian word I learned: stop. It looks like “CTON” on the sign.

On Saturday night, we had the big celebration for the 10th Anniversary of the Mobile Medical Van. This was held at a very nice hotel and was attended by everyone who’s worked on the van or helped out with it. When we arrived, I set up my cameras and started taking photos and video. There was so much food laid out on the tables that I thought dinner was already served. I was surprised when the waiters started bringing out more food and serving it! In Central Asia, this sort of feast is common on special occasions like weddings and celebrations and when honored guests come to your house.

You have your “salads” first. Some of these are actual salads like potato salad and other leafy things. The rest is bread, layered appetizers with tomato and eggplant, more bread, rolled meat and cheese, and delicious fried dough (tastes like doughnuts without the sugar, but you dip them in jam!)

Next is a meat dish – at the celebration we had cow tongue layered with something else (I didn’t know this until I had eaten it), at someone’s house we had beef with a bone inside – and then a rice or noodle dish. After ALL that, you still have a lovely cup of broth to drink and then a soup course and then dessert!

I attended three of these feasts in the ten days I was in Kyrgyzstan – I think I came back a few pounds heavier!

The celebration also featured performances by the kids who live at a local orphanage – Svetly Put. These kids also make cool handicrafts in the local tradition to sell. Half of the purchase price goes into a special bank account for the child who made it, half goes into buying more materials. I purchased a pair of slippers and some other things (that are presents for people so I can’t say what they are). At the celebration, the kids did all sorts of dances and sang songs – they were great!

On Sunday, I attended the dedication of Concordia Lutheran Church in Bishkek. This was a great event as well. To see all the members of the church celebrating the completion of their new building, it really makes you thankful for the little things that make a church work. And of course afterward there were lots of hugs and FOOD! This time we had plov – a Central Asian rice dish with meat mixed in. It’s delicious!

For the rest of the week, I went to visit home churches – ones that take place in people’s living rooms – and saw some amazing things. I saw four women get confirmed and take their first communion. I saw a month-old baby and her mother get baptized and I saw their mother-in-law’s joy over the event. And everywhere, we were welcomed with open arms and full cups of tea, even though we couldn’t speak the same language!

I also had a chance to go up into the mountains and saw some breathtaking views. I wish I could go out west to Lake Issykul because many of the people I met told me how beautiful it is. I will have to go back!

I have posted many photos on flickr, you can get to them using the sidebar to the right or by going back to my website (www.KatieInEurasia.com) and clicking on photos.

My September/October newsletter also highlights this trip as well! Go to my website and you can download a copy as well as my August newsletter.

Spaseeba and dosvedanya (Thank you and goodbye in Russian)!

Katie