Questions

1. What were your favorite childhood games and activities?

Waterfall, a game I played with my cousins that involved a jump rope and falling down stairs. We seriously played this for hours on end. Swinging and pretending to fly like Peter Pan. And jumping out of swings. Going to museums and the zoo for fieldtrips.

2. What qualities of your best friends do you admire most about them?

• Loyalty

• Patience

• Courage

• Honesty

• Creativity

• LOVE

3. What do you believe are your greatest gifts and what qualities do you admire most about yourself?

I’ll be honest – this is hard because I tend not to think about my gifts or qualities or strengths. I think more about my weaknesses and flaws and failures. I would rather my friends and the people who know me best answer this…

When I put my mind to introspection, I think sympathy and empathy toward people around me are gifts I have that are very important in my life. Others might be desire and enjoyment for learning. I don’t think I can say I admire these things about myself, but I appreciate them.

4. What is the meaning of YOUR life? What makes your life meaningful?

It’s as simple and awesome as this: “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.” [God to Abram, Genesis 12:2, the Bible.] I think this is a way to summarize everything that matters and is beautiful. It’s a summary of the Bible and what Christian faith and life is to be. It’s the definition of grace, the ultimate gift.

I do not take or receive and not give back; that’s selfishness. I body of water like a pond or lake that does not have an outlet becomes stagnant and festers. That is being blessed simply to be blessed. There is no greater meaning in it.

In the verse before, 12:1, God tells Abram to leave is country and his people and everything he knows. It’s a call to sacrifice, to lay down rights, to trust there is something better. And being blesses to be a blessing to others means to continually surrender those things we know and love, believing that bettering them will better the world. And it’s faith that God has more and better blessings to give. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Summary: I am blessed, therefore I bless.

5. Related to question #4, what makes your life YOUR life? (In other words, what defines your life, and makes your life distinct from other people's lives?)

I share so much in common with different people wherever I am – at college, I’m a Knox student; or in South Africa/Germany I’m an American, or specifically a Coloradoan; or I’m a YWAMer; or I’m a home school/charter school/P.S.1 student; or I’m a [want-to-be] Greek scholar. And wherever I go I carry all the things I am, all the people I love, and I bring unique qualities and interests and perspectives to every group. In some way the things that make my life my own are the things I have in common with people who are somewhere else.

6. Related to questions 4 and 5, but on a deeper level, list three things that are true of you, but of NO ONE else in the entire world (to your knowledge).

1. The set of amazing friends and family that only I have. Like Erin and Mark and Kevin and Rachel and Sarah and Janet and Gabe and too many to name. I carry you with me everywhere I am.

2. The set of songs I love and have shaped my life.

3. My sense of humor and my personality and quirks.

I’m not sure I went any deeper… Sorry.

7. List three or more thing that are true of you AND everyone else in the entire world (to your knowledge).

1. I have known heartache and break and healing; wounds and healing and scars that remain and remind.

2. I have a longer for something which nothing seems to satisfy.

3. I experience love.

8. What observations do you have about your responses to questions 4 and 5?

I am myself and I am special, yet I am connected to people by similarities between my life and other people’s lives.

9. Are there any books, songs, movies, events, or other things that have changed/influenced your life and/or your perspective on life?

Heck yes there are.

Books: A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken, and I Kissed Dating Goodbye – I read these books at a time where things in my life somewhat paralleled the books, and it helped me get through. The Bible, especially Leviticus and Philippians. C.S. Lewis…

Songs: Songs by Brooke Fraser, especially Love Is Waiting, Deciphering Me, and The Thief, and Hosanna; Whatever You’re Doing by Sanctus Real… anything by Jimmy Eat World… there are so many others.

Movies/TV: Stranger Than Fiction; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Doctor Who; Bleach; I could go on and on…

Events: 1. Being home schooled with my sister for nine years helped make us closer than we would have been had we gone to public schools. My sister is one of the most important people in my life. 2. Going to a non-traditional high school, where I had to give many long presentations, where I learned math inductively, where I spent three weeks in Honduras… set my life on a course of being an empowered, compassionate and contributing individual who is informed and aware, happy and healthy, and gave me a passion for life-long learning. 3. Making the biggest mistake of my life, which God redeemed to become the greatest blessing of my life. I thought I was acting in love but in truth I acted in selfishness, and I lost a friendship that meant the world to me and fought more than a year of heartbreak. But the suffering produced greater endurance, and stronger character, and deeper hope. 4. DTS/3 months in South Africa/working in Germany.

10. What are some of your favorite memories?

Ones of my friends. =]

We had an eight-year-old boy on the South Africa team. Him holding my had while we walked around or carrying him, playing in the ocean, like I had a little brother, was wonderful.

Reading books out loud with friends.

Sharing my heart… listening to friends pour out their hearts… praying together… crying together…

11. List three or more things you want to do before you die.

• Sky dive.

• Be an embodiment of Jesus’ love to everyone I meet.

• Read War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, & Sense and Sensibility. And Ulysses. And Plato’s Republic. In Greek.

• Share love and life with one special woman.

• Write and publish a book.

12. Did you find these questions...

a) enjoyable

b) reason to smack Erin upside the head for sending me so many e-mails and/or making me think so much

c) both of the above

d) All of the above and deeper appreciation and love for Erin. =]

What are your answers to these questions?

Be blessed and be a blessing. Grace and peace [grapes and peas],

Chris

More Stuff to Read & See

So I have this other blog... I might move all my updates and news and posts there and stop using Blogger... I don't know yet. Check it out anyway, I'm putting smaller, random posts there (photos, links, stuff).

http://chriswolf.tumblr.com/

<3

Some Prayer Needs

Prayer Points:

• I just found out that my Uncle had a stroke. My dad's family is already dealing with the loss of my grandmother recently. Please pray for a complete and miraculously fast recovery. I hate that I can't be there. Please remember and lift up my family, and thank you.

• The students who returned from outreach last week are getting ready to go home or onto the next start this Friday. They are going to talk about what this looks like this week. Lift them up that, among other things, they would be prepared to go home, to share with family and friends about the last six months, and to ask people at home about their last six months also. But most of all that these students would desire and act to continue the good work that God has been working in them when they get home.

• The students still in lecture phase are leaving for a week on Friday for what they call "mini outreach". Lift them up that they would have a fruitful week away, that God will prepare them for the two month outreach through this, that the teams would have unity and bond together well.

• For lots of good work to do while everyone is gone, or lots of time to pray and praise the Lord and get to know the other staff better.

That's it for now, check back for more posts.
Danke!
Chris

Prints of Photos

I was thinking today that I would like to offer prints of my photos. The cost for prints would go toward my expenses. There is a lot I have to decide and work out. Part of that work is pricing, and I'm not sure how I want to work that out. I could do a set price per size of print... I think rather what I will do is give the price for the print and any other costs like mailing, and donations beyond the costs would be accepted. The service I choose to makes prints will determine the price. I will find a way to show a catalog of photos online so you can look through them and see if there is anything you like. I may use Flickr but I will check out my options.

I have also been looking into the cost to print photobooks. The base cost just to print books would be a little high. I am willing to create and print photobooks of my pictures from South Africa or from Hawaii for anyone interested. And for the books, I would again accept donations on top of the cost to print and mail the book.

Are you interested in getting prints or a book? I will need to hear feedback if anyone is interested in prints of my photos. Please let me know via comments on this blog or by email. I love to hear from you, whatever it is! =]

Thoughts?

Working to be a blessing,
Chris

Oh, How He Loves Us

"He is jealous for me.
Loves like a hurricane, and I am a tree,
bending beneath the WEIGHT
of His wind and MERCY."
Lyrics from How He Loves, by John Mark McMillan.

It's amazing to think... that God of the universe is so jealous for us... that He would die for us...

That His love is devastating (in a good way)... as powerful as storms that have destroyed the southern US and Caribbean islands... He wants that love to blow us away...

What I Do & Where

This more or less explains my job description and what I do. Also, I like flow charts, so I couldn't resist. Enjoy.

Click the picture to see it bigger.

Source: http://xkcd.com/627/

And some pictures I found from Flickr of the Castle the base is housed in and where I work.


Picture one source and picture two source.

Sabbath

I want to confess I haven't been faithful in keeping one of the Ten Commandments, specifically. I have not honored the Sabbath by keeping it set apart. The past six months or so, every day of the week has looked the same: busy, full of work, not refreshing or life giving, not focused on God... And He wanted to address that.

• • •

The reason for taking a Sabbath, for stopping and resting, seems strange. In Exodus, the reason God gives seems to be that His people are supposed to set apart a day for rest because He rested after creating everything. (Why God rested is another blog all together.) "Six days the LORD made... and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [set apart]" (20:11). Since we are created in God's likeness, it makes sense that we should imitate Him.

But when the Commandments are repeated in Deuteronomy the reason changes. Moses told the Israelites to rest and remember they were slaves in Egypt and God brought them out of slavery. They must rest because they can't go on living under slavery any longer. (Deut. 5:15.)

I think this second reason is key. People are naturally creative and it's easy for me to get caught up creating, doing, working. Sometimes I don't stop going, going, going, doing doing doing. It's like I'm a slave to work. I forget to rest. Eventually I end up hiding from God instead of walking and talking with Him (see Genesis 3:8...). I neglect to set aside a day to stop and rest and hang out.

• • •

Even today, when I know I will go back to work tomorrow morning, I freely offer people that I can fix their problems while I've promised to sit back and be still. Some people got back to the Castle and found they couldn't log in to the network. I said I could fix it ASAP, and immediately thought, "Oh dear, I'm actually not working today... oops."

• • •

My remembered last night I needed to take days of rest again, and set today aside. And early this morning, my mind was on Sabbath and I decided I would write something about taking Sabbaths for my next update.

I went to church this morning were a number of folks from YWAM Herrnhut are part of, and while I was worshiping, God reminded me of Psalm 46:10 – "Be still, and know that I AM God." I rolled this around in my head, contemplating that I can be set at rest in His presence, and know the I AM WHO I AM. That I find peace and stillness. And then the sermon was on Sabbath.

I laughed. All I could do was laugh when I realized God had set me up, that the Holy Spirit set my mind on taking a Sabbath knowing that I would go to the service about the Sabbath. I felt a peace rush over me that made me know God has me on His heart when He says "Be still."

The whole verse is

Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

When I stop to rest, when I am still before God, when I remember the Sabbath day to set it aside, I am also glorifying God, exalting Him for the world to see His love. By focusing on Him for a day each week.

• • •

I have more thoughts on this, but I've written plenty already. I am refreshed after a good day of rest, and I pray a day of exalting God. I am ready for this coming week. I will have plenty of network and computer problems to take care of the next few days. The teams that returned from outreach yesterday and today are doing well and happy to be back.

Please pray that the will have a joyous and productive time debriefing and processing the last three months they have been on outreach; for the DTS students presently doing their lecture phase and staff (like me!) to welcome them back and listen well to their stories; help for me fixing IT issues; and most of all for God to be Lord of everything we do.

Soli Deo gloria.

In His love,

Chris

Address and Work

So, in case anyone has mail for me, my address in Germany is

Chris Wolf
Untere Dorfstr. 56
02747 Herrnhut
GERMANY

I'm trying to write letters home to a bunch of people... If you think of it, even a note saying "Hallo!" would be appreciated.

• • •

I've been working a little with some maintenance guys fixing up rooms in a building next to the Castle, getting it ready for ~40 students coming back from outreach this weekend. Mostly I've been painting. When I haven't been working on that, I've been working with the IT guys in the Castle. One of the guys left for an outreach today and will be gone for one and a half months, so I'm stepping in to help with the work while he's gone. But I think I will be trained to run IT stuff for the long-term. The second primary IT guy is moving back to CO in April. So to answer the long unanswered question of what I'll be doing until staffing DTS, I'll be doing IT stuff. I think God has put me in a position I'll work well in and really enjoy.

• • •

Things have been good so far. There is either worship, staff meeting, or Bible study that the staff meet for every morning, and that time before working for the day has been invaluable. It will take some time for me to get back into the hang of participating in community worshiping/study/prayer, but I am ready for it. Tomorrow will make a week that I've been in Herrnhut. Not much else to say, so if there is soon I'll let y'all know.


Prayer Requests

• My best friend is in Basic training with the Army. Please pray for him; he's in the Army.

• There are a lot of people coming back from outreach this weekend, the students who are here now are being displaced and going to stay in town. The accommodations for the new students are still in the works. And the Castle is going to be hectic during lunch and some other times of the day. Please pray for the students coming back that they would feel welcomed back, have time to talk and share stories, encourage and pray for us who have been here, and that everything might go smoothly.

• I am applying for a two year visa next week. There shouldn't be any problems getting it, but it is a tad bit important for me to stay and work in Germany.

That's all I can think of now. More to come later.

χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη,

Chris

Training to become SysAdmin

Hey,

I promised to let you know what I'll be doing immediately here in Germany. It looks like I will most likely help the two IT guys maintain the network and servers at the Castle (the base is in a castle and is referred to as "the Castle" which is awesome), and help with computer related problems students or staff have. I'm excited to help out with tech stuff. I may also be doing some maintenance work or helping in the kitchen, but probably I will mostly be in IT. I have a lot to learn, and it's a big learning curve, but I find system administration fascinating and I am looking forward to working with these guys.

Everyone I've met, all the staff and students have been warm and friendly. I think I will have some good friendship developed very quickly. Yesterday a guy I live with took me around town and shared dinner with me, and tonight a staff couple invited me to dinner with them. This atmosphere of community is exactly where I think I will thrive.

I still need to get my mailing address... I'm meeting with someone for staff intake tomorrow, so I should know then and I will pass it on in my next update.

I would love to Skype with folks, so feel free to find me: topherwolf. I'll be on late morning/early afternoon (your time) when I'm not engaged or sleeping, and same with weekends.

Hope this finds you well. May you be blessed and be a blessing!

Chris