For to Us a Child is Born

Stained glass window in Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany



"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shined.

You have multiplied the nation;

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,

as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden,

and the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful, Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."

Isaiah 9:2-7

Lutherstadt

In the year 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church in the town of Wittenberg. This was one of the pivotal points in the Protestant Reformation. Yesterday, two of its biggest supporters got to visit those doors.


Actually, those doors in the photos aren't the actual doors. The actual doors burnt down in a fire a long time ago. And actually, many scholars a skeptical as to whether Luther actually nailed the Theses to the door. But this is definitely were his body lies:

Across town was the church Luther preached from. This painting was inside. Although Luther would probably have a problem with the image of Jesus being present, I think it illustrates well what the Reformation was all about: reorienting the church upon the gospel. In this illustration's case, Luther is pointing his people towards Christ and Him crucified in his preaching (and one of those women on the front row is suppose to be Luther's wife).

Many more cool things could be pointed out from this trip (and captured in about another gigabyte of photos). We'll conclude by showing y'all the most incredible bratwurst I've ever had:

Guten Tag!

Hello from Germany!
Brandon finished Michaelmas term on Friday, and then we turned right around and flew to Germany today. (When I say today, I mean at 1 a.m. we took a 3 hr bus ride to an airport to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight to Berlin.) We are being hosted by the Fenwicks, friends who once led in my youth group in Monroeville who are now serving as missionaries. We arrived very tired, but all day Wayne and Caryn have been showing us around Oh yeah- and treating us to hot drinks and cookies. Which is really great since it was about 20 degrees today. We will be hitting the hay soon, but here are a few pictures from our first day:

Germany's Parliament- Reichstad

Our wonderful hosts!

In front of the Brandenburg Gate

Marmalade Making

Marmalade is a traditional English preserve made with Seville oranges, a special type from Spain. They're more bitter than the oranges we're used to, but they are fantastic for jam because they contain more pectin and enable a good "set". When a lady who works with the Newcomers' Club offered an invitation to make marmalade in her beautiful home, I jumped at the chance. Luckily so did another good friend from the club, and Leah and I set off one Tuesday morning in the freezing cold to Jenny's house.

We arrived to find the table already laid out with everything to begin the process:
-Seville oranges (previously frozen and now thawed and squishy)
-lemons
-cutting boards and knives
-a pan in which to put the "pips" (seeds) and pith
-a container for the peel
-juicers

We cut the oranges and lemons in half and juiced them.

Once finished, we removed all the pith from the orange and lemon peels and put it in a pan to place on the range. We also cut up the peels into smaller slices before placing them in a "magi-mix" (aka food processor) to chop.

We boiled the pith mix to bring out all the pectin in the juices. It took about 15 minutes.

Having already cut up the orange and lemon peels and microwaving them on high for about 10 minutes, Jenny transferred the mixture to a large pot that could be placed on the range. 

The now-boiled pith mix was then put in a strainer over the big pot and she demonstrated how you roughly stir the mix to release all that great pectin into the boiled peel mix. Leah did a good job with this- I was far too gentle about it and Jenny relinquished me from the duty of stirring. 

Then Jenny added 4 lbs. of warmed sugar (it had been in the oven on about 50 degrees C) into the mix. (Can I add right here that I didn't realize how much sugar that was until I saw it with my eyes? Good gracious. But the thing is, you can't cut back on the sugar or else the marmalade won't set as it should. So don't even try to be healthy about it.)

Then we left the peel & sugar mix to boil on the range for a good while- about 40-45 minutes. 

So while that was boiling away, we did some cleanup. May I add it might be more reasonable to do the dishes when this is your view from the kitchen window? Certain groups actually come and tour Jenny's garden during the year, and there's no question why. 

Every now and again, after about half an hour of boiling, Jenny would test the mixture by placing a small amount on a cooled plate and placing it in the fridge for a few minutes. If the mixture "ran" when she tilted the plate sideways, it was not ready yet. She warned us not to be impatient about this, because if you take the mix off too early, it won't set properly in the jars - we tested it 3-4 times before the dollop stayed in place. (Another thing to note is the color - it should darken a lot as it boils until it's a deep orange in the middle.) After that she took the mix off the stove and began pouring it into pre-heated jars. And because everything was already hot, the jars sealed themselves. 

After lids were matched up and placed tightly on each filled jar, Leah and I decorated the jars using Christmas wrapping paper and rubber bands. Here we are with the finished project! We each got to take home one of the jars. The rest were sold at the Christmas fair to help raise money for the Newcomers' Club.

We had such a great morning and were so grateful to Jenny for welcoming us into our home for this project. I suppose it was a bit like letting your kids help you wash the car- more for their benefit than yours- though she said we really did help speed up the process :) 

Thanks Jenny for the lesson, coffee and conversation!

Welcome December!

I can't believe it's December 1st. On the 14th, we'll have been here for 3 months! Time has flown by. Michaelmas term will end next Friday, and then...we'll have only 12 days until we fly back to good ol' Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate Christmas with our families. It wasn't in the original plan to come home for the holidays, but we're so glad we get to see our families and friends (and hold our sweet niece!)

There are also some other less important but wonderfully American things we're really looking forward to:

-Chicken biscuits at Chik-fil-A

-Sleeping in a queen-sized bed

-Driving-on the right side of the road. (That's both literal and metaphorical.)

You can't have it all; we knew by coming home we'd have to compromise . One of the things I was afraid to miss was snow- it actually doesn't snow here that often. But yesterday morning, Brandon pulled back the curtains and much to our surprise, it had snowed some during the night! It wasn't much- more like a really heavy frost- but it was enough to dust everything with a pretty white coating. Even if we won't have a white Christmas (which is pretty much assured since we'll be in Alabama), it was nice to have a little now.

Banbury Road

The Bodleian library

The lawn of Trinity College

And despite skipping out on the experience of an Oxford Christmas, we seem to have our fair share of opportunities to celebrate now. Last night, we attended a traditional carol service in the Sheldonian Theatre, which featured a brass band and Christmas hymns. Also, one of Brandon's lecturers gave a short talk.

The Sheldonian Theatre

Broad Street at night

I'm so grateful that we can, in a way, have it all- the old English traditions + our American ones!