European kitchens

Several people have told me in the past year that if you pay attention to the feelings in your dreams, it can sometimes give you a clue to what you're feeling and experiencing when you're awake, because your subconscious tries to continue processing and problem-solving when you're sleeping.

It's a pretty easy guess, then, what last night's dream was about.

I dreamed that I had ordered a custom-built house, and when it was done, Andrew and I packed up all our stuff and drove over to the house to move in. Several local friends, some of whom are German, showed up to help us unload everything into the new house.

As we walked up to the house, I realized that the kitchen wasn’t finished — it had only three walls, and the fourth wall was open to the outside; also there was no roof. So it was like an outdoor kitchen.

“They didn’t finish the kitchen!” I said, upset.

“Yes, they did. This is the European style of kitchen,” said my German friend. “All the kitchens in Europe are this way.”

“But what about when it’s winter, and it’s cold and rainy?” I asked.

“Oh, we just plug in extra heaters and use umbrellas, it’s totally fine,” he said.

Although this dream is a lot more exaggerated than real life scenarios, the feeling reminded me of the many times that I -- as someone still becoming familiar with the culture of my immediate surroundings -- am trying to understand the normal way of doing things in my new home.

In a new culture, at first glance you might think the way of doing things seems rather impractical, inefficient or straight-out strange. Yet, if you take the time to ask questions, observe how new friends do things and why, you often find that it makes good sense in your new context after all.

And then you have funny dreams about it.

-- Gina

Faculty Assembly 2012

EuNC's Faculty Assembly was hosted on the campus this past week. Last year, the announcement was made about the end of the campus residential program. During that year, EuNC's focus shifted toward its learning centers and how to move effectively into the future of a fully decentralized education model. More details were provided this year (approximately 655 pages worth!).

The goal is for each learning center to effectively function as its own campus in connection with the central administration offices and every other learning center. EuNC continues to pursue accreditation by the European Evangelical Accrediting Assocation (EEAA), and representatives were in Büsingen to observe parts of the Faculty Assembly, meet with EuNC leadership, and interview representatives of the faculty and students. Currently, EuNC is considered a candidate school, having passed the initial candidacy visit of one year ago. EuNC is in the process of preparing for the final accreditation review. Prayers are appreciated for EuNC as full accreditation for its learning centers will be a vital step in moving forward.

Along with learning these kinds of important details and receiving further training, it was a great time of being reunited with faculty from other parts of Europe. Some of these included friends from seminary like Jonathan Phillips and Gil Thibault, and former EuNC students Cezarina Cufaj and Sara Schmid Hasbajrami who are now serving as tutors and helping operate learning centers in their respective countries. I enjoyed meeting the pastor who had just completed an online directed study with me in church history. I also met the new director of the Netherlands learning center, Ineke Swart-den Boer, who is taking over for Gemmeke Hagoort.

This was the last year that Faculty Assembly would be held in Büsingen. Decentralizing means that these meetings will be hosted by different learning centers in the future. Gelnhausen, a German town in the vicinity of Frankfurt, will host next year's Faculty Assembly. Romania, the Netherlands, etc. are all potential hosts in the coming years as well.

What has become clear is not so much that something has ended (the EuNC campus and traditional program), but that God has multiplied EuNC's presence across Europe. If the little campus in a tiny rural German village has represented the proverbial "five loaves and two fish," then this decentralized model represents Christ's multiplication of resources. In other words, EuNC has gotten a lot bigger and has the opportunity to make a greater impact. I'm also reminded of the brief image of Jesus watching a destitute widow put two coins in the temple offering. She gave more than anybody else, Jesus said, because she had given all she had to God. EuNC is not the biggest school with the most educational programs, yet there is no question that leadership, faculty, and students alike are giving all they have. This isn't easy and certainly comes with a heavy price tag of one sort or another, but people here regularly give all they've got out of love for God and the desire to see the world changed as hearts are transformed. I am daily amazed and grateful to be among them.

Looking Ahead to 2012!

Writing a Christmas letter this year seems to have slipped our minds. We hope that you have kept up to date with us throughout the year anyway by reading this blog, and checking in to our Facebook group "Pottengers in Germany." S0 maybe a Christmas letter would be a little redundant.

Instead of re-capping 2011, then, we'd like to share some of what we are looking forward to in 2012. Besides, I would just like the record to show that even a semi-traditionalist history nerd like me has the ability to look forward as well as back. :-)

On January 1, Gina and I will be speaking in the 10:45 a.m. service at Colorado Springs First Church of the Nazarene. We are thrilled to share more of our journey in the past two years with our home church, and we invite those of you in the area to be a part of that service.

EuNC will be hosting its annual Faculty Assembly on Jan. 25-26. Included in that weekend of activity will be meetings of the executive committee and board of trustees. Prayers for EuNC during this time will be much appreciated, as the college continues to move forward in its new phase of decentralized education. I will participate in the Faculty Assembly, and look forward to being reunited with a couple of former students who are now helping develop and operate EuNC learning centers in Italy and Albania.

The most frequent question we've received lately is "How long will you be in Europe?" We'd like to take a moment and share the little we know in answer to that question.


We originally signed on for one year of service and, as you know, ended up serving for a second year. That second year will end at the beginning of February 2012. However, we plan to stay where we are until the end of May. Some of you are aware that I am ready to pursue a Ph.D. in History, so that I may continue following God's call to serve overseas as an educator. I have begun applying to nine different doctoral programs in the U.S. and in the U.K. I anticipate hearing something from each of them sometime in March or April. This will help Gina and I know where we will go next, and give us time to get things together before leaving Büsingen at the end of May.

Besides, we've tried moving in the winter-time three times, and it's no fun! We'd rather wait for warmer weather anyway!

That's what we know, and even that - as we've learned - is pretty much up for grabs. We are preparing for any foreseeable eventuality, knowing how suddenly things can change. More than anything, we are simply trying to keep our focus and our trust where they belong. God has led us well in the past ... we would never have imagined spending two years in Europe as missionaries. He will be faithful (and probably mischievous enough) in leading us to some wild and unimaginable future. We don't believe that a follower of Christ need ever be bored with life, that's for sure! And whenever we find ourselves less than enthused about the old routine, the truth is that even apparent ordinariness holds something of the Extraordinary within if one has the eyes to see.

So, the answer to that most-often received question is, truthfully, "We don't know the details, but we have a plan (or three) currently in operation." In the meantime, we seek the Lord's direction and trust his guidance. It's not a bad way to live at all. In fact, we highly recommend it.

Losing A Friend

Gina and I lost a friend last Thursday. His name was Ernst, and he was an older man who ran a leather workshop a few doors down from the EuNC campus and Eurasia Regional Office.

Gina phoned me Thursday morning to tell me he was gone. Neither of us could believe it as he always seemed more or less in fine health.

We received information today confirming his death, and that he had been to see the doctor that week. The doctor ordered him to immediately go to the hospital, but Ernst (stubborn and independent to the end) refused to heed the doctor's advice. Instead, he went back to his shop, locked the door, and decided to lay down awhile. When he didn't come home, his lady-friend tried to get into the shop to see if he was there. When she couldn't get in, she called the police. They broke into the shop and discovered his body. He had died from kidney failure.

Gina and I were still in the process of getting to know Ernst, but here's the little we do know. He grew up near a U.S. military base in Germany, and learned English from the soldiers he met there. His American accent, laced with a slight East Coast flavor, was flawless. He lived in Büsingen for a long time before leaving for awhile, and recently returned within the past year and opened up his leather shop where Pastor Ludwig (our local church pastor) used to keep his office. Gina engaged him in conversation at one point, and told me what a sci-fi nerd Ernst was. Within days, I also walked down and began talking to him. If there was one thing about Ernst it was his ability to hold up his end of a conversation.

He was great fun to talk to about a wide range of subjects. He gave me a CD of a number of sci-fi books I could read on the computer, and we enjoyed sharing book and film recommendations. He had some very strange ideas about politics and religion, which he seemed to mix up together with a generous dose of occult prophecy and conspiracy theory. He was quite convinced about the evils of the Catholic Church, with which he tended to lump all streams of organized religion. He could talk on and on about such things, unless you found a way to politely change the subject.

Strange ideas aside, he really was very enjoyable to talk with. Sometimes, he might be too eager to talk for a long time if we were on our way somewhere under a time-crunch. For the most part, however, it was pleasant to stop by his shop for a few minutes and talk and laugh with him. Gina and I both tried to "test the waters" and engage him in spiritual topics, but these would usually degenerate into his conspiracy theories and memorized occult prophecies. We could talk about anything else in a rational way, but religion and politics were definitely subjects to avoid. He was so kind and friendly, but filled with distrust of the Church.

Despite his oddness, he was a recognizable part of the community. Many people from Büsingen, as well as Gina and I, would stop by his shop to talk. He was very friendly with everyone, always had something good to say, and appeared to be a popular figure among the locals. He repaired Gina's winter shoes free of charge, and was going to teach me how to do simple leather projects which I was planning to give away as Christmas presents.

It's not the first time someone in my sphere of influence has died before I could directly share the Gospel and invite them to make a decision. It's not the first time that I question whether or not I did my job as a Christian. His death brings questions to our minds: Did we do enough? Were there missed opportunities? Could we have been more deliberate about sharing Christ with him? Could he see Jesus in us at all, despite his distrust of the Church?

We can only trust in God's love and mercy, and His greater knowledge of Ernst's heart and life. We had no idea time was so short.

Christmas market

I shot some video of the Christmas market in Frankfurt so you could have a taste of the atmosphere.

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.