some steps to marriage

In my last post, I wrote about some of the sight-seeing and fun things I did while in Munich at the end of May/beginning of June. One other great big event also happened! Julius and I had our civil wedding ceremony in Germany!

During the ceremony

This is one step along our path to marriage – and, like all other parts of our journey – it is more complicated because of the international aspect.

We’ve been asked by many Americans why we chose to do it this way. The shortest most pragmatic answer is that it de-complicates the immigration process considerably.

If you’d like to know more, you may read on…

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end already? ekd stipend program closing seminar

The Lutheran Church of Germany gave me an incredible gift – a stipend that made it possible for me to study in Germany this year! They, along with the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches, provide stipends for students from around the world to come study theology (and other subjects) and to gain ecumenical experience in Germany.

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hamburg for ekd kirchentag 2013

May was a crazy month! I am writing a few posts about some of the things that kept me from blogging all month long.
Deutsche Evangelische Kirchentag (DEK) 2013 – the Evangelische Kirche Deutschland (Protestant Church of Germany) holds an annual gathering in a different city in Germany each May. The Kirchentag this year was in Hamburg. As a part of my scholarship program, I get the opportunity (am required) to travel to events like this. I was excited to head north to Hamburg, and also interested to see what the gathering of over 100,000 members and partners of the EKD had to offer.

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st. martin’s day

On November 11th, Germans celebrate the 4th century saint, Martin of Tours, in a special way. Children carry homemade paper lamps from door-to-door, sing songs about St. Martin, and receive sweets in return. (It is like a mixture between Christmas caroling and Halloween!) St. Martin’s Day is celebrated widely by Protestants and Catholics in Germany.

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time is flying

The old cliche stands true – time does fly when you’re having fun. It is hard to believe that I have already had 4 weeks of classes, and that tomorrow marks my 2 month-iversary since coming to Germany. Rather than writing something profound today (because, you know, I’m regularly profound), I thought I’d just take the time to write a plain life update here.

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the countdown is on!

What am I doing between now and Germany?

Tomorrow, I drive to Louisville to fly to Atlanta to drive to Alabama to see two friends get married on Saturday (that really does amount to less travel time than if I drove straight there). I’m really excited to celebrate the matrimony of Caitlin and Garrett on one last whirlwind trip to the Deep South. Saturday night I drive back to Atlanta to sleep, then fly back to Louisville and drive back to Lexington Sunday… to have about 24 hours before I go to LEX to fly to Munich, by way of Charlotte and Frankfurt. Crazy much?

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summer report

A little update for my first post back on the blog. Since I last posted, I moved out of my house in Atlanta, said goodbye to friends and church family there, brought my things to Kentucky, got ready to go work a summer of camp, worked a summer of camp (more on that below), returned back to Kentucky, attended an end-of-summer retreat in Alabama, drove over to Georgia to visit friends there, came back to Kentucky… and am now seeing friends and family and preparing for the move to Germany. I leave in 18 days!

It was an awesome summer with PASSPORTkids! camp.

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