Greetings from the Northwest (previous email update)

I am at my parents home in Washington for the summer and am so excited to be able to update you about my crazy happenings.

In March, I returned from an outreach adventure to Nepal (sandwiched by brief periods visiting a House of Prayer in India.) My time in Asia was both wonderful and hard. This trip was my first experience in a non-Western culture, where I understood little to nothing of the language or the culture. It was eye-opening to see the way in which so much of the world's population lives, but also reassuring that people are relational and open even with tremendous barriers to communication. There are so many stories and pictures, it would be impossible to share it all in person, let alone through an email update! But if you want an overview of our time and the places we visited, check out the Outreach photo album from my blog. Generally, I experienced the chaos that is life and travel in Asia. We had some crazy bus and jeep rides between the two countries; experienced road strikes & garbage pick-up strikes (we didn't even realize there was a trash collection service-most people just burn their refuse, or simply throw it in a ditch...); we cooked homemade Tibetian Momos; painted a wall mural which included the message "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," shared "open programs" in villages; wrote our own Prayer flags which we hung in the high places of worship, and generally enjoyed spending time with our contacts and their wonderful families.

I don't think I realized quite how much I appreciate and love life in Germany (or the West) until we got back from outreach. It was such a relief to be able to set my clock to the Deutschbahn (German train system), to understand the language being spoken around me (well, at least more than Nepali or Hindi), and revel in drinking water from the tap, and having electricity all 24 hours of the day! Even though the awe wears off quickly, the reality of the challenges that much of the world face stays present in my mind. I am excited to be a part of a community that is seeking to meet the needs of the poor and needy in practical ways, as well as bringing the light of a life lived in relationship with God.

As I shared briefly in the winter, I will be going back as a full-time missionary at the Herrnhut base. I will be doing practical work at the base helping coordinate the various schools, I will meet with students in one-on-one and small group settings (in the future, I would love to staff schools and lead outreaches, but want to focus on serving in Herrnhut this fall) and I will focus on the long-term goal of opening a cafe in Herrnhut. Our vision for the cafe is that will be more than just a comfortable spot to enjoy a conversation and a good cup of coffee. We will do good through our cafe. Our cafe will be an open invitation for the local community to learn about and share in the work that God has called us to, both here and around the world. Our proceeds will go to help open other cafes in locations around the world, such as the cafe that opened this winter in Ethiopia, where prostitues were given the chance to take up a new line of work! We want the cafe to be a place where we can develop and share the creativity that God has given each of us. To have exhibitions of the photographs and stories that students have collected from around the world; open mic nights for musicians, story tellers and poets; an art and pottery studio where we can use our hands to express God's glory.

Whew!

I am loving having some time to be "home"--to work a bit; to celebrate High School graduation with my sister, Tressa; to visit friends in Colorado; and to spend some time with my entire family when we are all home in August. Life is full and sweet.

Yeah, so I'm not such a dedicated blogger...

Hello dear friends! I apologize for not being able to update you all more frequently, but Asian internet and outreach time schedules make it a bit more difficult :-)
I just returned on Tuesday night from Nepal (sandwiched between stays in India) and am now back in Germany. It has been such an awesome adventure with my team and with God. We were able to connect with great contacts in Nepal, and to experience a little of their culture, and gain some understanding about the challenges and beauties of life in Nepal. I will try to be more explicit in later updates, but I just wanted to put this up so that you know I'm alive and well.

Alive and Well in Kathmandu

Sorry that it's been over a month, but with traveling, limited internet access and power cuts, it's a little more difficult to update the blog...

Things are going really well in Nepal: my team is great, the weather is nice, and our contacts are wonderful. We are enjoying getting to know them and the culture simply by sharing in life with them. Thanks so much for your continued prayers!!

When you go to India, you've gotta be soooo flexible...

We arrived safely in Delhi last week, and had a great few days getting oriented, and were very blessed by our hosts there.
On Friday at 3 we began our bus ride to Nepal.
After 40 hours on a bus we are in Kathmandu! A change of plans, but we are safe, and happy after getting some sleep, warm showers and food in our hotel, and we have a van hired to take to our contact, back near the boarder. Hopefully it won't take more than a day... Praise the Lord for crazy adventures :-) and thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

...but only after a good long day of riding trains.

It's been snowing huge fluffy flakes all day. It makes the world soft and quiet (the squeak underfoot is most satisfying,) but tomorrow I'll be transported to a different world.

I am sick of goodbyes. Everyone's gone, or getting ready to leave, and it makes you a little lonely inside. It doesn't help that we are all functioning on too little sleep, and we're trying to figure out how to fit what we really need in our packs. I packed yesterday--it's amazing how little I really need.

In case you can't tell, I am excited for my turn to leave. This is going to be an awesome adventure, and I am excited to come back to Germany in just a few short weeks (10 weeks really isn't that long...) and hear about what all my friends have done, and have stories of my own to share. Isn't life wonderful?

happy

Yesterday I got a few things that made me happy:
1) Two (2) one kg bags of Haribo gummi bears. They are huge. Jamie thinks that you could knock someone out with one.
2) A jar of cocktail onions and a jar of olives. One of the many random quirks to being a part of the greater Eakin family, and my mothers daughter :-)
3) Plane tickets home! and back to Germany in the fall. As I told Amy (one of my dear ex-housemates) I am excited for all the living I have to do between now and when I get home, but I am eager to be home. So, I come home May 12th and fly back to Germany the 17th of September--I am just shy of Gitta's birthday in May, and Tressy's in September. Okay, I am off to update photos so that you can see a bit of Brackenheim!

Brackenheim/Stuttgart and Upcoming outreach

On Saturday I left Herrnhut for Lydia's house in Brackenheim, about 50 minutes north of Stuttgart. It was a long, but good travel day (nowhere near as long as it would be to come home...) and now I am enjoying being in a home and preparing for Christmas!
Today we wandered, briefly, through Brackenheim, looking at shops and architecture and running into friends of Lydia. We ventured through a home/kitchen store and it felt like home :-) I love kitchen stuff--it's just fun. I also realized that tool departments smell similar (I know, I'm crazy!) Having grown up making runs to the lumber yard or hardware store, there is a special place in my heart for the merchandise and it's accompanying scent (apparently.) It made me smile.
This afternoon, Jamie, Lydia and I will take the train down to the city, meet with one of the other YWAMers (at a Starbucks, no less!) and hopefully find some last minute Outreach (not Christmas) items, before we connect with another of Lydia's friends, and her sister in Ludwigsburg for dinner.

If you will remember in your prayers all of my DTS classmates and leaderships, this week, that would be great. It is hard for some to be home, and hard for others to be away from home, during this holiday season, and especially after three months away and in anticipation of another three (or more) to come.
Merry Christmas,frohe Weihnachten!