The Lord Gives and Takes Away

This morning I checked my email and was shocked to read one of the subjects: "Death of Christopher Grouse." At first I didn't really comprehend what it said, then I opened the email realizing the weight of what I just read. It was stated just so matter of factly. I remember when I first met Chris, last year, at prayer up in tower chapel. He was so on fire for Jesus, worshiping and praying with all his heart. I later found out that he had been recently saved. What a blessing his life was, albeit short. He was always so concerned with people, I remember the first time I talked to him I was taken aback by how genuinely he spoke, he was truly interested in getting to know me, and he treated everyone this way, with such genuine interest.

While it is so shocking that this young man died, I know that God will turn this around for his glory. All I can do is trust that God had a reason for his death, just as he had a reason for his life. While I don't understand God's timing, I will trust that God is faithful, and that he welcomed Chris home with open arms. I just rejoice that Chris knew the Lord, even for such a short time and that he will now live forever glorified with Christ in heaven.

It is amazing how tragedies put life into such perspective. It is so easy to go through life, going through the motions, forgetting that we are only given a short time to walk on this earth. We must take advantage of every opportunity given to us, taking nothing for granted. We must look at the blessings before us, and realize God's faithfulness in our lives, no matter what we are going through. When we look at our blessings, however, we must also accept the fact that sometimes God takes away. He allows us to go through the rough spots so as to refine us for the future, to truly give us the opportunity to trust him. For if we cannot praise God while we are on earth, why would we want to praise him for eternity? God will receive all glory in the end, of that I am assured, it is just our choice whether we want to follow him now, or wait till we have no option.

We must have a sense of urgency. The Bible calls us to live a life worthy of how we were called, being ready to give an answer to the hope that is within us. Are we ready to give an answer? Are we truly living a life that is bringing glory to God in all that we do, think, and say? Are we being a witness to God's faithfulness in our lives, burdened for the lost, longing to see all turn to him?

Let us see Chris's life as an example to us all. Don't be ashamed of the gospel, reach out to those around you, be genuinely concerned about the welfare of others. Know that the Lord gives, but he also takes away, and we can trust that he is faithful to the end.

No matter where God calls you, he calls you to be faithful. Here am I, on the other side of the world as most of you reading this blog, yet we are called to the same purpose, united by the blood of Christ. I pray that I might truly be a witness in this place, just like at home and never forget the God who gave me this opportunity to study here in Denmark.

One Month Down, Crazy!

This past week has been interesting, to say the least. I've been here a month now, and I am finally feeling accustomed to everything. The shocking thing is that I only have three more months, and I feel like I have so much I want to do in such a short time! I realized something today though. I am here to experience Denmark, and its culture. So it is okay if I do not see absolutely everything that I want to, because that is really quite unrealistic. I simply need to take advantage of every opportunity given, without killing myself.

On that note, I did finally get sick. Booooo. Well, I guess I had the stomach flu right before my short study tour. But a few days ago I woke up with a cold. Achy body, sore muscles, super tired, unmotivated, stuffy nose, scratchy throat. The works. Then I had to go to my practicum like that. Thankfully we didn't go out in the forest, so I only had to be there for four hours, instead of seven. Since then I have been getting around nine to ten hours of sleep every night, trying to make up for the lack of sleep I have been getting the past four weeks or so.

It has finally been warming up some though, which is wonderful! I think it got up to 37 today? So warm! It is exciting. With this heat wave that we are experiencing all the Danes are getting out and about, and so are some protesters, which is always fun. It is still so bizarre to be living in the biggest city in the country. Stuff happens here so often, it is mind-boggling.


I also got to experience something quite unDanish on the bus last week. On Valentines Day, of all days, a man decided he wanted my phone number, so he asked me right as the bus was pulling up to my stop. I declined, making a half hazard excuse, and got off the bus. To my chagrin, he followed me off the bus all the way to my class. To get rid of him I gave him my number (I know, foolish, but it happened, oh well). That night he called me, texted me...poor guy I ignored it. My family took me out to get Chinese food, I wasn't going to answer some desperate guy who I didn't even know. Cruel, I know. The next few nights he kept up this pattern. He did finally stop though. I'm just hoping and praying that I never run into him on the bus again.

Yesterday was Fastelavn. A holiday that is seven weeks before Easter Sunday. This used to be related to Easter and Lent but now the Danes just use it as an excuse to get off school and work for a week. This is also like a Danish Halloween, because all the kids get dressed up in costumes and get candy. I went with my family to an event where they "beat a cat in a barrel." Well, that is what they used to do anyway. It was to ward off evil spirits or something. Now they just beat a barrel with a cat painted on. Like a pinata, it is filled with candy! What I went to was a little different though, instead of just beating the barrel, they had people on horses beating the barrel. I never did get what the significance of the horses were, we only went to this one, because my host sister is obsessed with horses.


I have decided that I appreciate American school systems, with structure, clear expectations, study guides...all of that. I had a quiz in Developmental Disorders Friday, and then I was supposed to have a paper due in Special Needs tomorrow. Both were kind of disasters. I'm not sure how I will survive the coming assignments in these classes. It is definitely a learning experience, in more than one way!

My Danish Language class visited Christiania this last Wednesday. That was interesting. It is a part of the city that is inhabited by about 800 people who never paid for the property. They live there in a semi free state with their own rules, with very socialistic ideals. The Danish government is making them finally pay for the land this coming April though. It will be interesting to see that situation play out while I'm here.


I also finally was able to go to Connect this last week. It is a young adults lifegroup through FIBC, the church that I'm attending while here. It is a small group, but I'm excited to continue meeting with them. It is also exciting, because from what I hear, we are going to be talking about similar things as what is going on back at home at Ignite. We will be reading the book Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World, by Rebecca Pippert. It is about evangelism as part of your life, instead of a Christian duty to check off your list for the week. Definitely something that I need to work on, and am excited to do that while here.

Yay updates! Its amazing how easy it is to write all of this without a thought or distraction, but when it comes to writing a six page paper it takes me hours on end to write nothing...but that paper was pushed back. So its okay. Ha!

Some Pictures!

So, I realized that while I have done pretty well at updating my blog with some lovely words and paragraphs every so often, I have been kind of lacking in the photography arena. So here are some of pictures from my first three weeks in Denmark!

My lovely house on Amager, where I live with my host family. Tom, Anette, Fredrick, and Idda Hansen. Oh and their cat, Max.

Copenhagen, before all the rivers and lakes froze. Every street here is so beautiful and unique. Colors, bricks, cobblestones. Oh and there is quite the population of swans that hang out in the city.

I quickly discovered the store Tiger. It is one of the cheaper convenience stores in Copenhagen (although certainly not cheap). They have quite the selection of mustache merchandise, amongst other wonderful trinkets.

The Danes really like their bicycles. Whatever the weather.

My family showed me around some of the smaller cities on Amager, I found some bicycles there as well.

Oh, and they have bicycles in Elsinore as well. Also, it amazes me how many plants are alive. Everywhere I have gone in Denmark there are these little plants hanging on for dear life in frigid temperatures.

Pigeons! Another one of Copenhagen's finest residents.

This last weekend, we went on a study tour to Odense, Egmont, and Vejle. This is my whole core class at the Egmont Højskole. Hurray for Child Diversity and Development with an emphasis in special needs!

The Højskole was beautiful!

In Vejle, we had an hour or so to get some lunch, and a few of us found this cafe called Sandwich 'n Coffee. It had the best sandwiches any of us ever had. It was seriously delicious!

Looking out over Odense.

In Odense, we visited the Museum of Modern Art. They had a floor dedicated to sensory exploration. One of the rooms was covered in sweaters, with light fixtures and these lighted tubes. It was so great! The rest of the museum was pretty neat too.

Odense is where Hans Christian Anderson was born, so of course while we were there we ate at a restaurant called The Ugly Duckling.

Overall, these past three weeks have been an amazing adventure! I am so excited for the next months ahead.

Look Up

A few days ago my host dad gave me this advice: "When walking through Copenhagen, look up." He went on to tell me that it is so easy to miss out on so much of the city by just watching your feet or looking at the shops at eye level. I have been thinking about this phrase a lot.

Look up.

So often we go through life keeping our eyes right in front of us. We forget to look around and see the beauty that is within our reach. We become negative, cynical, egocentric. When our whole world consists of what is at our feet we miss out on all the blessings God has for us. While the cobblestones are beautiful, the shops intriguing, the people fascinating, the most beautiful architecture is up above the grunge of the street. It is easy to become content with what we see and forget to look up.

These past few days everyone at DIS split off around Denmark and Northern Germany to go on our short study tours. My group went to Western Denmark to explore different schools that work with children and adults with special needs. It was such a cool and unique experience! Each place we visited was so unique and inspiring. Our first night we stayed at a højskole, where the students and teachers all lived together at the school. We ate dinner with them and then were able to hang out with everyone in the evening. There was one beautiful girl, I think her name was Lark, she definitely understood this concept of looking up. Even though she was confined to a wheelchair for her whole life, she was so positive. She told us how blessed she was to have the opportunities that she had. She loved her life, and kept telling us how good off she was, and how much worse her life could be.

By our worlds standards, she had every right to be depressed, or at least to complain some, but I did not hear one negative word out of her mouth that whole evening. Wow, that sure puts my life in perspective. It is so easy to complain about the littlest things, but to what end does our complaining bring us? Throughout our whole trip I kept encountering this, positive people looking up, regardless of their situations.

So, my words to you. Look up! See the positive things in life, how blessed you are, the potential God has given you to do great things with your life! Step out of your comfort zone, trust God to lead you, stretch yourself to look beyond yourself. Be thankful for the path that is under your feet, but don't be afraid to look up once in awhile.

Just A Little Less Magic

Sensory overload. This is how I would describe the past two weeks. I keep thinking I've gotten over the magic of everything, but then some little thing throws me for a loop and I remember I haven't even been here a whole two weeks yet! At the same time though, I can't believe I have only been here 12 days. I feel like I've been here for so much longer!

Some updates...

My classes all seem super interesting! But they are all going to be quite challenging. Participation is a lot more mandatory in these classes than I'm used to, which is unfortunate considering that I tend to let other people talk in class, unless I really feel the need to say something. I think I've done okay so far, but we will see! I don't think I'm going to be able to get away with my typical, "I've made my one, two second comment, my work for the day is complete," routine.

I visited that Bible study I mentioned in my last post on Tuesday, and it seems like a really great group of girls! It also turns out that I'm going to be helping lead it, which is exciting! It was never my intention to help lead a Bible study while abroad, but God obviously had other plans for me, and here I am, leading it with two other girls. It will be a topical study addressing issues we might face as Christian young women abroad, it should be good! Although again, challenging, considering I've never really attended a topical study, let alone led one! Most of the Bible studies I have been a part of have been going though specific books, so this should be interesting! I will definitely need God's grace to be an effective leader. (But of course that is always true!)

On Wednesday my human trafficking course showed a film called Lilya 4-Ever. So depressing. I could talk a lot about this one...It just breaks my heart. That is all for now, I'm sure I will post a longer update about this class sometime in the future.

Thursday I visited my Practicum site for the first time!! It was so fun! Quite a long day though. I left my house around 7:30, got lost trying to find my bus, finally got on the right bus around 8, got to the site around 8:40 (10 minutes late), found my classroom, met the Pedagogue in charge, helped get the kids ready to go, we got on a bus around 9 heading towards the forest. Once we arrived the kids all got on their big heavy snowsuits (they had an extra one for me to borrow too!), then we went on a walk through the forest for about two hours, got back to the site, ate lunch, had free time, then eventually left around 3:30. We arrived back in the city at 4, then I didn't get home till 5. The kids were so sweet though! There were 20 2-6 year olds. They all spoke wonderful Danish that I didn't understand, and they loved talking to me even though I only could respond with nods and smiles. It was great! I'm so excited to go back. :)

Other than all these lovely things. We had record breaking lows the last few days, so its been a bit chilly. I tried my first Carlberg beer, it actually wasn't awful. I miss my dear friends back home lots and lots. That's probably the hardest thing about living with a host family, I don't have as many opportunities to meet people, so I can get a wee bit lonely. But at the same time it isn't all too bad, and I'm sure that it will get better. But I keep saying that...so who knows! Our short study tour is already next week, it has come up so quickly! My family eats candy all the time. It is both terrible and wonderful at the same time, I will probably gain 50 pounds while I'm here.

Above all though, God is good, all the time. I truly am learning to trust him, I don't know if I will ever truly learn this concept, but I am grateful that I am learning it now instead of years down the road! And I keep talking about this...so it must be important or something! :)