Christmas markets 2011

What is Christmas like in Germany (and Switzerland and surrounding areas)?

Starting the first week of Advent and continuing through Christmas Eve, big cities and small villages all host a Christmas market every weekend, usually on the main square or a main street in their old town areas (historic downtown areas). Vendors set up booths which they decorate with Christmas lights and decorations of Santa Claus and so forth. They sell hand-made crafts and food or drinks. The items sold are generally wood-carved items (toys, decorations, kitchen utensils), jewelry, colorful paper lanterns, nativity scenes of all shapes and sizes, bees wax candles that are sculpted into complex figures or designs, handmade soaps, knitted scarves, mittens and gloves, hats and sweaters, and so on.

Lots of people bundle up and then gather on the squares to sip traditional hot drinks:

• a warm, spiced wine called gluhwein (it means “glow wine”)
• a hot punch for children
• spiced cider
• hot chocolate and various espresso drinks.

They serve the drinks in specially designed ceramic mugs that they rent to the user; you can return the mug to be washed and reused and get your deposit back, or you can keep the mug as a souvenir.

The mugs are different from town to town.

The foods are

• warm crepes with Nutella spread or other kinds of fillings or spreads,
• hot waffles with warm berries and whipped cream,
• dampfnudeln — a potato dumpling that is puffed up and looks like a dinner roll, served with a warm vanilla sauce, warm berries and cream
• potato pancakes — shredded potatoes mixed with onions and garlic and probably held together with egg, then deep fried and served with cold apple sauce
• various kinds of bratwurst and sausages and mashed potatoes, French fries or baked potatoes
• schneeballen (literally means snow balls) -- these are balls of pie dough rolled up and then deep fried, and rolled in all kinds of different toppings; the original was rolled in powdered sugar. Now they also have them rolled in chocolate sauce, or caramel sauce, or filled with coconut cream, apple cinnamon and sugar, etc. They are crunchy and kind of dry. :-)
• iced gingerbread cookies
• various kinds of hard candies, gummies and licorice

As people mill around the colorful, lighted booths, often there are musical groups that perform Christmas music, and there may be lighted carousels for children to ride on, and other seasonal forms of entertainment.

This year, during a trip to Frankfurt to make a video testimony, Laine and I explored two Christmas markets in Heidelberg and Frankfurt. Because Andrew and I don't have Christmas decorations in our apartment (they're all in a box in Kansas City) and I didn't bring Christmas music with us either, the markets helped me to feel like it really is Christmastime now. :-)

Ahh, technology

When you have an office job, sometimes it's difficult to think of interesting things to tell people about it. And when you work with people across numerous timezones, in dozens of languages and through all kinds of technology, you sometimes forget that this is unusual.

In my job as a reporter for Nazarene Global Mission, I get to interview and collaborate with people in every region. This requires serious creativity in crossing the above list of boundaries.

Recently, I interviewed Giovanni and Alissa Monterroso, missionaries in Guatemala. To make the call free, we did it over Skype. I was in Germany and they were in Central America, so we had 5 to 6 hours' time difference to deal with. Part of the interview focused on a pastor they work with, and he only speaks Spanish. Giovanni offered to bring Francisco into the conversation via telephone, and to interpret my questions and Francisco's answers.

While I sat at my desk in Germany, in Guatemala, Giovanni made a phone call to Francisco. He was across the room from their computer, so Alissa sat near the microphone and passed my questions and Giovanni's answers back and forth.

It went like this:

Me: How long has Francisco been a pastor?
Alissa to Giovanni: She wants to know how long he's been a pastor.
Giovanni, in Spanish to Francisco, asks my question. A pause. Giovanni repeats Francisco's Spanish reply to Alissa.
Alissa to me: He says he's been pastoring 12 years.

And so it went. This may have been the weirdest interview situation I've experienced in my 12 years of reporting.

Another time, a few years ago, I needed to interview a Spanish-speaking missionary in Mexico. I didn't have anyone lined up to help me interpret. I took three years of Spanish in high school -- not enough to conduct an in depth interview, but enough so that I know how to pronounce the words even if I don't know what they mean.

I called the missionary over the phone. We both sat at our computers while we talked on the phone. We both had Google.com/translate open on our computers. I would type my English questions into the website and hit translate. The Spanish words came up. I blankly repeated them over the phone. I know the translation wasn't exact, but it was enough to get my meaning across. The missionary heard my question in Spanish. He typed his Spanish response into Google.com/translate, which spit out his answers in English. He was able to read them back to me, although I believe he also didn't know exactly what he was saying. Again, it was a very close translation. I typed his answers into my Word document as he read them.

We went back and forth like this for an hour until the interview was complete.

Ahhh, technology.

So, I may have a desk job, but sometimes I sit back and realize what I'm doing is pretty crazy and lots of fun.

English class in full swing

The English class that I teach on Thursday nights is in full swing, since we restarted in September after a summer break. All the participants are divided up into four different classes based on their proficiency level, and spend an hour in various classrooms listening, discussing and working on English grammar (which they seem to unanimously hate -- not that I blame them).

I'm enjoying being a full-time teacher now, although I also find it challenging since I don't have formal training in this area. I'm learning what helps my group of 6 to 8 students most and what is less helpful -- they prefer talking and discussing so they can practice pronunciation and be forced to remember words they've learned before. They also like it when, after they have read a section of text out loud, I read it to them again myself so they can hear how the words are normally pronounced by a native speaker.

The thing I enjoy the most, however, is the people I am getting to know better, bit by bit, each week. The class is allowing me to develop relationships with wonderful people in our village as well as nearby villages. It also allows me to learn about some of the struggles and challenges they face, so I know how to pray for them.

Many tourists who visit Busingen and the Rhine valley believe it is an idyllic "paradise" because it is picturesque and politically stable, offering a peaceful lifestyle accompanied by the easy accessibility to many desirable material things.

But just like anywhere, people here grapple with serious health challenges, ill family members, financial setbacks, struggles to find steady work, loss of loved ones, and unrealized dreams. Tonight, in our class, we discussed dreams and goals for the future, and what can prevent one from fulfilling a dream. Several people described dreams that they have, as well as the unavoidable life obstacles that mean their dream will never be realized.

I am grateful for the time we spend together each week, and that I can serve them in some small way as they work hard to improve their English skills, but also that I can think of them and pray for them in more specific ways.

Pray with me for this service that our church offers, and that God can use it to encourage and draw many local people closer to Him.