I'm in Berlin right now (for those of you who haven't seen my facebook status...which says the exact same thing-I can't diversify). Right now I'm enjoying the company of some fellow students and the atmosphere of a german pub by going on the internet lol. So I totally was just asked (AUF DEUTSCH) if I wanted a small coke or a large coke and I totally just answered in German (perfunctorily!)...and impressed everyone (including myself) by the German I didn't know I had. I know it's not a big deal...but I'm happy. I'm having a good time here. I really enjoyed seeing the berlin wall yesterday and Checkpoint Charlie. Today we saw that movie with Tom Cruise about the Hitler assassination attempt. Cool and meaningful to be in Berlin when I saw it. And cool to be with Germans--my bible school friend Phil and his friend Lucas. The best part is meeting Germans (like Phil's other friends) and speaking and hanging out with them. I actually just really like meeting people, even those in the hostels with us (not the sketchy Frenchies down the hallway who like to party). I'm excited to go down to southern Germany (the Nurnburg---I can't spell anything---area) on Tuesday.

I'm going traveling for the next month. I'll try to update. Here's a preview. My itinerary will include: Berlin, Ansbach, Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Lyon, Paris, Cardiff, and Swansea. Please pray for me as I travel. Wish I was back home though with you all (sincerely). Peace.

I welcomed St. Patrick's Day by ripping off my dark jacket covering (having counted down from 11:59 the previous night) to reveal my full green attire. Then ran from room to room bearing my good tidings. Then I (exaggerating a bit) ran around the green English hills while a Canadian looked on. I felt bad for one guy from Texas because it was his birthday, and I thought he was joking. Needless to say, enthusiasm for his birthday was deferred. Last night, my worship team put on a kind of sending service for all the students for prayer and encouragement as we all go back to our mission fields. (many are not continuing after spring break in a few days). We sang a song written by St. Patrick, sort of, and to introduce it I said: "Tomorrow is my favorite day of the year. We celebrate probably the world's most famous missionary. Does anyone know who he is?" No response. That's kind of how this day's been for me. True examples. They blow me away:
[British Dan trudges in for breakfast]
John: Happy St. Patrick's Day!
British Dan: I'm British

or

[German Phil walks in wearing all black. He asks--]
German Phil: Why are you pinching me. Ouch.

I pinched SO MANY people today. It was really sad. They didn't have corned beef for dinner either. Nor cabbage. So I finished reading the Old Testament (!) finally (in a tree) and then followed a creak as far as I could go reading a book on Gerard Manly Hopkins.
Came across this poem that is supposed to be as if he had written it:

I have no use for poems. They keep my heart
more occupied with pleated rhyme than God
(forgive me). Jesuits denounce the part
of life that most enthralls. And so, the rod
swings heavier than the pen. The sword wins.
A stroke of the blade, ten fall. No loss
is great compared to this: my self begins
again, alone, with God. Herod could toss
children on clattered cobblestones that night
for Jesus' sake, for his salvation. Why,
then, won't I burn this childish verse, a light
sacrifice indeed? Something young must die.

As poems catch fire, my heart assumes a flame
for God. Now no one will recall my name.

I resonated especially with it because I've given up writing poems for Lent...so I can have spiritual and life experiences to enjoy without fitting them into images and music. So that was really encouraging. I guess it was a good day. I have about 2 hours to get to Ireland (the republic of) though. Not sure about that.

...on every St. Patrick's card I write
May your corned beef never be lean
And may all your St. Patrick's be green!

It's certainly overdue to talk a bit about my crazy experiences in Morely during my 10-Day Outreach.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. Stressfull, yes. Very changelling--I feel like I've learned so much (frequently through mistakes). But very fun. So much laughter and good times getting to know the people on my team better. A time I really had to depend on God for strength. Some highlights:
-My host family was THE BOMB. Heather and Neale (and Damorice the hamster, who was really part of their family). There was always lots of food (crisps, fruit, toast--they were the kind of people who always have really good english jams in their fridge). They had tons of books (but they acknowledged in typical english irony that they merely had "one or two"). In addition to making my way through Ezekiel (which I love) I spent my nights reading Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas...and a really good collection of T.S.Eliot poetry (Ash Wednesday etc. is my favorite). They were really nice and chill...and, Heather being a minister, were able to offer good practical suggestions for us.
-Bible Exhibitions in primary schools. We spent most of our mornings putting on exhibition where we told the story of the Bible while acting out some of the key characters. I was asked after the first day to be the narrator for the whole thing after just playing Abraham the day before. That was great. Challenging and new, but I loved teaching the kids and talking about Jesus. My favorite part was telling the story of the tower of babel where I'd ask the kids what languages they new. (British children take foreign languages in school). And then I'd act out how it went down: Pourquoi tu ne peut pas me comprendre. On construit un grand tour?! Where do we put the bricks? Donde esta la puerta? I think I enjoyed doing this more than the kids, but one mustn't always judge comedy based on audience reaction.
-We ran kid's clubs as an after school program in a school, where we presented the gospel over the course of a week. That was really great. I spent most of the time entertaining the kids while they were queuing up to have a go on the bouncing castle. We had a nice family service to close the week, and I taught the kids about the apostle Thomas and what it means to believe in Jesus.
-We went to the morely town hall and were introduced to the governor (wearing full garb--gold necklace and robes). He was very, very proud. but we took great pictures with him, and pretending we were judges and jury in the courthouse. the worst part was when i was asked to thank him formerly on behalf of my outreach team. As Mark Twain would say, we shall draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.
-Pensioners lunch. We had great fun (and lots of awkward silences) meeting elderly yorkshire people at the coffee mornings and the luncheon we held. Nice to talk to people about God and the relationship he wants with us, and the needs we have that only he can meet and be received warmly and talk about deeper issues with adults.
-YZup. A youth group. We did have a powerful time of testimony sharing and a cool video, but my role for the evening was teaching them how to line dance. In my spontaneous texas accent that I didn't know I had (and was actually really hard to stop using) It's so fun to fulfill every stereotype.
-SAS. Another youth group evening. We discussed what it means to love God with all our mind. Part of the discussion included a guy from morely talking about his experiences on stage. There is a wrong way to take what i'm going to now say, but it's surprising how well certain techniques of method acting actually apply to those of following Jesus. I should write a book.
-The Food. Yorkshire pudding....so beautiful. Moist and succulent even...and somehow toasty. And custard. loads of it. but i've already described it all. Some very nice Earl Grey tea also. I went to Nandos again. Which is a well-brilliant Portuguese chicken restaurant. spicy and tender chicken...filling my tummy and giving me heartburn. life is good.
-Two worship services we lead. One centered on the Hope we have in Christ. The other on Christ's sacrificial Love (it being Lent). I shared a bit of my walk with God in the latter service. And we introduced the song Sing to Jesus which my church played hecka last year. (i try to use the word hecka as much as i can to keep some of my northern californian spirit).
Maybe I'll think of more things to talk about later....that's all for now.

Highlights and Lowlights:
-Last night I won a talent show. First place in Capernwray's Got Talent for reading two of my poems. "The winner is....Ginger Jack" (as my fellow students seem so bent on calling me). For some reason the talent had to revolve around the letter D. So the first poem I shared was based on 1 Samuel 16. And the second was a sort of love poem I wrote for someone here at Capernwray...although all I did was hint that the letter D might be a clue indicating the woman who inspired the poem. It was kind of fun last night being mysterious and romantic etc. as all the women (and men) at Bible school were trying to figure out who I wrote about. I suppose I enjoyed the intrigue and the attention. But, of course, it's very superficial of me. I appreciated more the the couple of people who commented on the poetry itself.
-The rest of the talent show was absolutely BRILLIANT. Very entertaining. I would almost pay money to see some of these acts. Blew me away.
-We had a really nice day of prayer on Thursday. And I needed it. So many good things came out of the day: First, my two roommates and I prayed with each other for a good while, and if nothing else (it wasn't nothing else) it was a time of significant bonding. Later a couple of missionary kids led a muslim prayer seminar. They set up a room kinda like a mosque and we prayed for all sorts of related issues (most importantly salvation the spread of the gospel) shoeless on the floor. I also went to a prayer meeting for North America. I was the only one who went...and it was led by a couple of friends who didn't do research...so we just debated about the stimulus package (which I don't even know anything about) and talked about the decline of fish in eastern canada before praying.. My funny but potentially blasphemous contribution to the prayer: "God, if the fish die, please help the Canadians to be fishers of men." I'm hoping Jesus appreciated my attempt at humor. (not humour). Probably the best part of the day was having one of the staff pray for me as a leader of my 10-day outreach team. I had been feeling very insecure and stressed (to some degree still) and was having trouble just trusting God when faced with new challenges I can't face relying solely on my own effort and resources. But Ian, he's the dean of students, was really reaffirming, and God really strengthened me as I prayed that day.
-I went on a really nice walk last night. It was really dark and I stepped in a lot of smelly and wet things, but it was great and I was in good company. We started out going to the barn to see some more baby lambs. That was a little scary, because all the grown-up sheep started waking up all around us and baaahing creepily. We then went all around the hills, commenting on the trees and dodging cars. (I say dodging cars because although there were like two, they are scary and I still haven't gotten used to which side of the road they're coming from).
-This weekend I'm going to just chill. Catch up on some outreach stuff, and read more George Eliot. and the Bible. I need to get through Jeremiah which I find tedious, especially coming out of post-chapter 30 Isaiah. I always think that and then God speaks to me. I don't know why I think that would be so incongruous when I'm reading his word.

It was another good week. I had another Mexican meal at the home of an English lady who had never had a burrito before. Her dining room table was older than the United States (the colonial period exempt, of course). And I managed to spill coke all over myself AND realize several seconds after everyone else! My outreach team is going strong. I've somehow managed to be organized, for now. I'm excited for the upcoming ministry, which is really great. Thanks for your prayers.
I had the best Valentine's Day. (I realize that's not saying a lot.) But it was one of the best nights I've had at Capernwray. We had a little party in the lounge, with my old roommate from Tennessee playing music. And people reading poems. I shared three. Two sonnets and a very sad poem. It went really nicely. They especially liked my sonnet about my first true love (a Chipotle pork burrito) but I learned that if you start off with a really funny poem, no one will remember what you say next, however profound (in my eyes, of course...that is to say life experiences are always true). It was just all super chill, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
It is also worth noting that I had a great time this morning going to a local church to sing some hymns for the small congregation. "Take My Life and Let It Be" and "And Can It Be"...which I've been singing since the swingsets of pre-school: "....that thAAA my God should STY for me!" My favorite verse was always the fourth (four year-olds can understand being emprisoned and quickening rays...I always got chills with the line ' I woke, the dungeon flamed with light ' ).
This next week should be interesting: lectures on Church history.

Said my soul
Let’s steal away
When we’ve the golden margin of a day
Where sun outshines the shades of gray
And showers flock and field in full display.
The mind too sober to assay
Can’t count the gilt nor can outweigh
For sun has taken toll.

I’ve known trees
Too breathless and with a book
Far less facile for feigning flight
From this sodden earth.
And if the sun were English
Then it would make the wind its friend.
Both win what they would win
And blow where they deserve.
Somewhere sighing of the breeze
Had forced its flowing and the trees
Till sky had lost its worth.

But deep inside
Where windows were
And heaters on my feet were sure
I feel the peeling of the clouds
The flowing of the sky
The smiling of the sun
The smart articulate candor of the birds.
If only souls could steal upon the heart.
The sun’s cold wind would will I choose
A book so fine as it imbues
I keep my pride.

The book of the day is George Eliot's Middlemarch. Someone recently informed me that a movie was being made about it, with Kate Winslet. Brilliant. Perhaps she'll be Kate Thiel by then. But I guess she doesn't have a degree in piano performance. (For those who are confused, I want to marry a piano performance major. I just have yet to find her.)
This week was a fun week. It definitely went out with a bang Friday night. The lectures this week were on World Religions (and "Christian Dynamics": more on that later). It was great to learn more about Buddhism (in its true form, not the Japanese Buddhism I'm somewhat familiar with: I tell a great Zen parable if you ever want to hear it) and learn about Hinduism for the first time. We also learned about Islam and Mormonism. But the religion that hits the top of my charts is Neo-Paganism: "a celebration of imagination, intuition, experimentation, and experience" hmm...hm..hm.. Sign me up! Where can I put my name? It is interesting that I spent most of my week in a tree (which contain souls and the possibility to see fairy folk) and went to the barn to see the newborn lambs (which, of course, corresponds to the contemporary pagan holiday of Imbolc). The lecturer was very good at remaining objective and respectful (sometimes this meant not laughing) Although I could see from my second row seat the hints of irony in her eyes. For the Christian Dynamics lectures, it was a crazy missionary couple (Italian American) who lectured on Jonah. It was actually really inspiring and thought-provoking. I've observed that everyone in my parents' ministry circles loves the book of Jonah, and until now I hadn't really understood why. Kinda like Brahms, or good cheese. Refined taste. Friday night was BRITISH NIGHT. We had a pub quiz kinda thing about British history (Lancaster and York etc.), geography, music, TV (Wallace and Grommit), even food. Then I had a really good conversation with a friend who gave me advice on leading my outreach team, and then I crashed the birthday party of someone I don't know that well (we do now, I guess) and I got to play hackie-sack hecka. And then I finished off the evening by starring in a spontaneous musical in the main hallway. People watched (and listened) this time. It's either that or listen to Rodgers and Hammerstein all day.
My light bulb/aha/click...click/oh, i see/hmm moment of this week: in the Jonah lectures, he was talking about the Church and Jesus' promise that the gates of hell wouldn't prevail against it. The key word, we were taught, is GATES. as opposed to "forces" of hell etc. This is really encouraging to think about as I prepare to go to Morley to spread the Word.