Leaves from a Lutheran notebook

There is so much more I want to write about, but in these minutes before class, this is enough: on Saturday we took Audrey and Curtis to see Star Trek at the movie theater at Aupark (our most convenient mall here in Bratislava.) It was wonderful for many reasons:Audrey and Curtis were visiting us. The Palace Cinemas have assigned seats--they are clean and comfy and the most pleasant movie-going experience imaginable. Real butter for my popcorn? Yes, please. Slovak (or are they Czech?) subtitles are always cool and interesting to try to follow. The crowd loved it. This should be expected of a wonderful new Trek movie, but it was especially wonderful to experience outside of the US. What's not to love? It's a great movie. It makes me want to lose several days of my life watching all the Star Trek I can get my hands on. I will not do this anytime soon (sermon to write, project to get underway, paperwork ever-looming, worship to plan, classes to teach ...) but I hope to have a marathon at the first opportunity. Star Trek has had a fairly profound influence on me, as you can read and listen to in my most recent sermon from BIC. It's a reworking of my senior sermon from LTSP and also the sermon I submitted for my approval essay. I was a little worried about making Trek and Lord of the Rings references in an international context, but the story worked well. Spock is universal. =)

You'd better believe I climbed those stairs up to the pulpit extra carefully for my first sermon last Sunday! I thought I heard (maybe on my January term trip) that the International Congregation didn't use the high pulpit, but Pastor David in fact does because the whole church is kind designed for it ... unless you're sitting right in the front row (neck cramp!) it probably the easiest way for pastor and congregation to see each other in that space. I am probably going to trip at some point; I am planning to do so with good humor.The sermon is about forgiveness, which I think is a difficult topic. I welcome your feedback, in the comments or via email. Help me learn and grow! Grab our podcast or download the sermon text or audio here.

Yesterday Sean and I went to the American embassy (which is really a very pleasant place to go when your passport is already blue) and they mailed in our absentee ballot requests for us. I swear I was already filling out the forms when Sean found this Craig Ferguson clip, but I have to admit, it did inspire/exhort/shame me into actually following through that very day. Pretty great, right? I'm very excited to get my ballot--now that we're online and a little more settled we're back to following the election news. Lately we've been reading articles to each other in the evenings, which isn't as sweet as when we used to read each other Sherlock Holmes stories before bed, but I'm enjoying it.Tomorrow is my first time preaching at Bratislava International Church. I will also give a children's message ... =). Of course I'm nervous, but in that "this is really happening and now it's started and that's a good thing" kind of way. Today I had a wonderful meeting with Pastor David about my sermon, and right away he highlighted the areas of preaching I need to work on: using clear transitions, writing for speaking rather than reading, writing a sermon rather than an essay, fully illustrating my examples rather than assuming my congregation will have the same background information I do. I feel like I'm already learning so much on this internship ... and as of today, we've been here just one month. My parents taught me this mantra when I was quite young and I've spent most of my life repeating it (because it's true): I'm a lucky girl.Back to improving that first draft! Keep me and the congregation in your prayers tomorrow--the topic of the sermon is forgiveness, which is a tough one, to be sure. Sean's quote (which I'm using in the sermon): "If forgiveness were easy, we wouldn't need Jesus." This is most certainly true!

It's official! I was installed today as Intern Pastor at Bratislava International Congregation. During a particularly moving moment I started to tear up and couldn't help thinking, "Oh no ... I've got to sing right after this ...pull it together, Annie!" There is grace and I am grateful. You can find the audio of that portion of the service here.So, remember what I said about keeping the windows open at all costs? Not tonight! It is raining furiously ... a completely amazing storm to cap a completely amazing week. I am going to make this quick so I can hop into bed while it's still raining, thundering and lightening-ing with intent. It's just about my favorite way to fall asleep, and living up in the attic as we do gives us a front row seat to all kinds of fireworks.Check out our pictures. We've updated the Welcome to Bratislava set with more pictures of our neighborhood and apartment, and also added sets for our day at Devín castle and a craft fair at the Bratislava castle. The most recent set is one we've (tongue-in-cheek) titled Average Bratislava Weekend. It includes the first party at our apartment, the coronation festival in old town, my installation at Bratislava International Congregation, and a great batch of chocolate chip cookies, among other completely normal events. I joke, but I'm kinda serious, too ... I won't be installed every weekend, but exciting stuff seems to be happening all the time, all around us. Big city life? Flurry of activity before winter sets in? I'll keep you posted ...The first week of teaching went well, but I'm too interested in getting a good night's sleep before starting the second week to say too much more about it right now. My students seem, as promised, really bright and ready to discuss and debate the big topics--it feels good, and gives me lots of good energy, to be teaching again. OK, I missed the storm, but I'm still pretty motivated about this reasonable bedtime thing. Dobrú noc!

I was honored to preach this morning at St. Luke's, my home congregation. The texts were Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145; Romans 9:1-5; and Matthew 14:13-21. I also got to do the children's message, but I'll post more on that later! Also for a later post: a report on the wonderful party we had back at our house after church.But for now, subscribe to our podcast (via iTunes or other software) or download and listen to the sermon here. The text of the sermon (not a transcript, but close enough) is available as a pdf here and as a Word document here.It was a wonderful day spent with family and friends. Now it's 10 pm and my dad is starting to turn off all the lights around the house ... must be bedtime for Edison-Swift-Albrights. I will not argue! But first, a picture of me and Mommy, after the service:You can see more pictures from the service and the party on our flickr page.

Click here to listen to our podcast of Thursday's sermon. Below is the artwork we used as part of our reflection: a paper cutting of the loaves and fishes by Fan Pu, a Chinese Christian artist I met in Nanjing in 2002. What do you like/notice/find interesting about the picture?