Another Chapter

Let's see, where did I leave off? I was writing about my German class at the University of Minnesota.
I had a good instructor who was a young German woman. She liked to present issues in class that dealt with German culture, and for whatever reason I started to understand the language more than I had in high school. One day she brought up the "problem" of the Turkish "guest worker" in Germany. Turkey?! My ears pricked up. I had never heard of the German Turkish connection before. I felt goosebumps! Was this only a coincidence? I started to pay more attention in class, and I became quite good at German! I had no idea where this might lead.
There was an ROTC student in several of my German classes who was dating a ravishing red-head named Marie. I became friends with them both, since we saw each other in and out of class. Going to the University was like going to a job. I commuted (in my NEW CAR!), so campus life was practically non-existent for me. I did link up with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, a student campus organization. My dad had been a member of IV in college too. As a family we made the trip out to Bear Trap Ranch in Colorado for family camp several summers. I LOVED Bear Trap. Being involved with IV might just be a ticket back to the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
It was through IV that my friend Marie and her soon-to-be-husband found the Lord.
I found several very close friends through IV, friendships that remain even to now. But there was also heartbreak in store for me.
I applied to be on staff at Bear Trap during the next summer and was accepted. What a close-knit group of college students we became! I fell in love over the summer and was jilted by fall. That was the first heartbreak.
On the rebound at the U I started to notice one guy who always witnessed to everyone he met. He set up tables and distributed Christian literature whenever he didn't have class. We became friends, then more than friends. We had the same desire to be light for Christ.
But we were pretty different from each other too. Opposites attract, you know. After a growing relationship that lasted through my graduation I was destined for more heartbreak.
I was finished with my studies, a certified and licensed teacher. I applied to schools for a year of teaching experience as I prepared to leave for the mission field.
My relationship was going a direction different from my calling. We were not yoked and pulling together toward the same end, other than wanting people to know God. Was I going to abandon my strong sense of fulfilling my intention to be a missionary?
The pain of ending this relationship was almost more than I could bear. I think I could get through it only with a hope of changed circumstances that might bring us back together one day. How else could it end? But that never happened. The scar remains in my heart, but God has healed the wound. Life does go on.
I got a full-time job, teaching second grade that fall. I was accepted to two different mission boards. My pastor advised me to go with the Evangelical Free Church of America, and with my German skills a perfect fit was found: the EFCA had had a German field for years. But it gets better!
The EFCA was actively pursuing the guest worker population in Germany. They were forming a team of missionaries targeting just this people group!
Because I had no seminary (yet) I was slated to go as an "apprentice in missions" AIM. I had my assignment, and I thought it was perfect!
I finished the school year, said good-bye to all my students and fellow teachers, packed up and left in June of 1986.
I flew to Munich, was picked up by my new co-worker and roommate, Lynn, and drove to Ingolstadt.
Ingolstadt is a fairly large Bavarian city situated on the Danube River. It's also on a major Autobahn that connects Munich with Nuremburg. It is the home of the car manufacturer, Audi. At that time every Audi was made in Ingolstadt. (Perhaps still!)
Ingolstadt is also the birthplace of the Illuminati, and the location where Gustavus Adolphus met his defeat. Being Swedish, this was interesting to me.
Really it is a quaint walled city, but more modern than other German cities.
The EFCA was slated to plant a church in this town. Three young German couples who lived there were the seed of this church plant.
My team was made up of a pastor and his wife, my roommate, who was a "Helferin," (Like a church secretary/jack of all trades) and me---the apprentice.
Lynn was a veteran. She'd been on the field for 10 years. Incidentally, she is the daughter of one of my dad's best friends from childhood! So I had known her in a way my whole life. Lynn was lots of fun. She was the best co-worker I could ever have wished for, as she was loved by all the Germans, she had a great sense of humor and she was VERY patient with me! She even taught me to drive stick shift (yes, I drove on the Autobahn, and even more fun; the little German roads around the countryside) which was no task for the faint-heart.
At first I commuted to Munich, to the University there for a language course during that summer. When I began to think in German I knew I'd reached a milestone, but I NEVER was good at the language. I could be understood and understand, but I do not have command. Children were patient with me, as were other foreigners, so I felt more acceptance among them, and these were the people I eventually worked with most. My heart was healing and falling in love again, with a country this time.