My Traditional European Caffeine Addiction

It never fails...I come to Europe, I drink coffee non-stop. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. I'm only on my second cup for the day and it’s about 2pm or 1400 as they say here. Most days I'll only have one cup and its not so much the coffee that's the problem as it is the monstrous amounts of cream and sugar that I add to it. This has happened to me each time I've come to Europe, but the first 2 trips I was addicted to Coke not coffee. It's some good stuff!

Tonight, we have a staff meeting for camp, which will be next week. The camp is only about 45 minutes from Tallinn and I'm told it is very close to the beach. I think they actually expect us to go swimming in the Baltic, and I can assure you that is one expectation that I do not plan to meet. If I've had trouble adjusting to anything it’s been the cold. As far as I'm concerned Estonia is the Tundra, and I see no need to submerse myself in sub artic waters. The past few days have been chilly and rainy. The forecast looks better for next week, so hopefully I won't freeze to death at camp. I'm hoping that this camp will be like the one we went to in Germany with Best Friends. They give you all of your bedding which includes a down comforter and pillow, which makes me believe that I was roughing it all those years at good 'ol Camp Blue Haven. As far as I know I'll be counseling high school girls from the church in Tartu. Tartu is a city south of here and we haven't met any of the Christians from that church yet.

We leave for camp on Sunday morning and come back on Friday. I feel pretty sure that my access to the Internet will be nonexistent...so all of my faithful blog readers may have to wait in great suspense for a whole week for our return!! I'm telling you this a few days in advance so that you can mentally and emotionally prepare for the coming days without my words of wisdom.

For those of you who don't do a whole lot of traveling abroad I suggest you try it out. When traveling far from home I'm always struck by the insignificance of my own existence in comparison to this vast world that God has created. I'm also reminded that in spite of my itty-bitty-insignificant-ness God still cares about me. When I'm in some crazy country that most Americans have never heard of, where I'm completely out of my element it is easy to constantly be aware of God. God is my one thing. In a world of mass chaos where nothing really makes sense, I have one thing to hold on to. When I'm far away from my home and those that I'm closest to, I have one thing to remind me who I truly am. When nothing goes as planned and there is no positive outcome in sight, I have one thing that allows me to put one foot in front of the other. Traveling abroad and mission work reinforce this truth in my life, God is my one thing…if you haven't experienced that then I think you should.