Wreaths and Lamentations

This was really, really fun. Much better than those cookies ;-) .....

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Part of the Weihnachtsmarkt preparation includes making Advent Wreaths to sell at the little booth. I thought this was GREAT, and could have made wreaths all day long. The whole thing was hosted by a kind-hearted woman; who not only had collected masses of greenery from which we could choose, but she placed me directly next to the COFFEE and SWEETS.

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She also took me upstairs to her kitchen to show me how she marinates raisins in RUM in a marmelade jar to use in baking. Love.

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ha ha ha!

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I've skipped writing about the last two weeks at Church -- Sunday was Baptism Sunday and the one before was a profile of Lamentations from the Old Testament. I've fallen into a "Self-Made Game" of trying to figure out which book they are using every Sunday. Lamentations took me awhile -- it translates as "Klagelieder" (mourning/complaining songs) which went completely over my head. But, I heard "Jeremiah" and "in a cave outside Jerusalem" and there were only 5 Chapters, so I had a place to begin in looking it up at home.

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I know, I know.....I could / should just take a Bible with me into the Sanctuary.....but honestly, I kind of like the "Treasure Hunt" aspect.

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Really, at the end of the day, I am merely a child at a birthday party most of the time.

:-) :-)

This last Sunday I had a real stab of homesickness, that came out of nowhere. I think I am still grappling with who I am = what I do with my time..... the Germans have the perfect word to describe this kind of homesick feeling: Sehnsucht -- it means "longing" but they use it in a way that defines that particular sort of missing what one once had.

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Either way -- the Pastor's message on Lamentations was filled with cool perspectives on his own cultural history (it was German Volkstrauertag -- Day of Sorrow) that I would never have thought about, not being German myself. ;-) I liked that...and I liked that he said that we should never try to take shortcuts in the process of mourning anything, however big or small....and that God is always with us, no matter what is happening in our lives.

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He also said -- several Sundays ago -- that we should remember to thank God on the cold and stormy days, as well as the sunny days. :-) That's my kind of Pastor.....

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