Three Kings Day

 January 6th is Three Kings Day (or Epiphany to some), celebrated as the day the Magi visited the baby Jesus. 

In Germany, on January 5th, families celebrate by turning the lights on their Christmas tree for the last time this season and enjoy festivities which may include one more gift which may had been held under tree for the children, great food and singing. 

A King Cake is also involved in the celebrating with the traditional penny or almond or small figurine that is celebrated when found inside a piece of the cake. (Remember, in Germany bread is substituted often for sweeter a fare and it is really good!)

January 5th this year was a Sunday and returing to Detmold from our meetings in Bielefeld we drive by a beautiful church and on that day saw a mom with three children trailing behind her each dressed in capes with crowns on their heads. One was holding a staff with a very large paper star on it. We did not see any other children along our roads and I am sad I couldn't get a photo, but I did find one on the internet. 

On Jan 5th or 6th, the children go around to homes doing what is called "Star Singing" and collecting money for charities. When finished they then "chalk the door". This tradition brings a blessing to the house.

I was surprised and pleased to see that the archive "house" had also received a blessing. 

The symbols from last year may stay for a time, I don't know, but I was pleased to see the new characters  too.

Here is what it means:

20 * C+M+B * 25 (although the archive symbols have only one asterik)

The year is split in two hence the 20 on the left and the 25 on the right. 

C+M+B is the Latin phrase: Christus mansionem benedicat ('May Christ bless this house'),

Some say the CMB is for the three wise men: Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar but apparently that is not the real meaning. (Perhaps it has become easier to remember these names than the Latin blessing...)

On January 6th all the decorations are removed from the tree and it is taken down. One other tradition I heard of is the placing of the magi into a nativity scene. 

I really appreciate this celebration even though we do not have many records to verify how many magi came, where they came from, and what their names are. The gifts they brought to this little family must have been important enough to bring them safely to Egypt for the protection of the Son of God. 

God watched over His Beloved Son. I believe He watches over each of us also. He wants all of His children to come back home to Him. He sent His Son to earth to give us all a way back. 

I am so grateful.

Guess We're Doing Okay

Returning to work on January 2nd we had to get the "wagons" back which are brought to us with the stacks of registry books for us to digitize.

Sylvia Selle is the wonderful woman who is responsible to keep us supplied by bringing us each a "wagon" of books which we return to her when we have finished the work. 

A "wagon" with two shelves filled with books.

NOTE: Sylvia is great fun and is having so much fun teasing Ed that he is her "Texas Cowboy". For some reason after he came back from getting his first haircut she decided he looked exactly like she imagines a Texas Cowboy looks except he does not have his hat on.

So early on Jan 2nd Sylvia began to bring in the books. We each got a wagon load and began work but then she came with another load to make sure we stay busy. 

I guess we are doing an okay job because she brought us each a larger cart....3 shelves of books for us to complete! 

We were both surprised, but it really does not matter because they all need to get done. We now have enough to do for the next week or so, finishing our two shelve wagons and moving on to the three shelve.

Each of the larger books on the blue wagon is 400-600 entries. It takes a little less than an hour to finish a book over 400 entries. We have been working on them this past week and had our best week yet, submitting 31,594 new images to Frankfurt for audit. 

Except for a small problem with one of the books that I sent to Frankfurt which came back to me for rework. Apparently I had included what they called an "artifact" in an image that needed to be removed.

Now, to me an artifact is a museum term, or and archeological term for very old things...

Apparently I am an artifact...or at least my finger is. (Bottom left on the image I shot below)

I should have caught this before sending it on, but it gave me a good laugh. Maybe I am getting too old to do this kind of work!!

My finger has been removed from this image, but the Lord's hand in this work will never be removed. 

In a conversation I was having with one of my sisters, she asked me if I could feel the hand of the Lord blessing me as I worked. I paused only briefly to respond that yes, I can feel Him bless me in several ways...I can work quickly with my hands, but my hands, which have been treated for arthritis for 20 years while my thumb joints slowly deteriorate, do not hurt any more than normal. I am able to do this work.

Additionally, Ed and I have decided that as long as we are in the rhythm of working the equipment, we don't feel the fatigue that sets in the minute we walk back into our apartment after a 9-11 hour day at the archive.

We are truly blessed in the work because it is His work.

Music for the Soul

 Last Sunday was testimony meeting at our ward in Bielefeld, Germany. It was a special treat for me and I think the entire congregation. It was my feeling that it had not happened this way before.

The Bishopric Counselor who was conducting anounced the time for members to come to the pulpit and share their testimonies of Jesus Christ as is normally done the first Sunday of each month. But this time he asked for each member to include their favorite hymn and to tell how it brought them closer to Christ. So many people came to the front it was wonderful. 

This special sharing from the members made me think of the importance of the hymns in my worship. Music is so important to me but the hymns are in a catagory different from other music. Singing heartfelt praises and remembrances of all He has done for us...for me personally...this is worship. 

To that end, I took this picture of my work station. While sitting there for ten or eleven hours a day, I have tried to include music at times. This day I listened to the new hymns from the Gospel Library app. 

Can you see which one of the hymns has become my new favorite? If you can, let me know in the comments below, or via email. 

"...the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." (D&C 25:12)

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

We Found Hamburgers!

As the holidays approached, our Mission President was very concerned that all the missionaries have a place to go eat for the holidays including us. We communicated that although we were grateful for the member's concern for us, we were fine and in fact we were happy to take care of the young missionaries if they did not have any invitations. 

So, on Christmas Eve Day we drove over to Bielefeld to take the two missionaries serving there to lunch as they had no appointments or invites for the day. We told them to choose any place they would like to go. They jokingly asked if that include an outing to McDonald's. We quickly responded, "Anywhere but McDonald's."

The weather was a little cloudy but nice so I took the opportunity to take a few photos along the way. We make the drive every Sunday to get to our meetings, but I usually do not have time to take a photo so today was a good day to do it. 

Here is a photo of the church we pass each week. It is at a busy intersection in a small city called Helpup so I pulled into a parking lot across the street and walked over to take some photos. I love the subtle decorations. Many German people decorate with just a single large star like the one in this photo. It is a wonderful reminder of the Light of Christ.

On the other corner of this same intersection is a building in the half timbered style although I'm not sure this is an old construction. I look forward to next spring when the window boxes on the upper windows will be filled with colorful flowers. 

We made the drive (50 min.) and picked them up at the church building about 1:00pm. 

We went inside to pick up the missionaries and I took a couple of photos of the Christmas decorations in the foyer and the chapel. It is a small building, but each week it is filled with sweet people from all walks of life who come to worship Jesus Christ.

Each week as we enter the chapel to find a seat, we make sure we have a German hymnal so we can sing along in German. We may not be able to understand the words, but we have studied enough to be able to read the lyrics and sing the melodies we are so familiar with. It is a wonderful treat. I try and sit next to one of my new German friends who is also an alto and I sing but listen to her as she sings the words correctly. It is helping me a lot with the language. It is also helpful because I know the English words so I know what is being said. 

By this time of day on Christmas Eve, many places were closed so they had to find a place that would be opened which they did. Neither of them had been to the place called Beef 'n Bun which isn't too far from their apartment or the church. 

We found free parking for the day and walked over to the restaurant.

There were only two other customers in the place. We looked at the menu and everything looked good so we were excited to be trying it out. We found a place along the decorated back wall and I had to get a photo.

Once the food came, I absolutely had to get a few more photos!

Have I been away from America so long that I thought this was the best burger I have had in years?? Well it is sooo good. In fact, one of the missionaries had a second burger right on the spot!

 (We offered and he accepted.😊)

We left the proprietor of Beef 'n Bun with the promise that we would return, which we did on New Year's Day. He told us he would be opened and true to his word, we enjoyed some of the different offerings which are just as good as the hamburger.

We have to drive through the city of Bielefeld (Bee-la-felled) to get home every Sunday so on this trip I was able to get a photo of our favorite church so far, St. Mary's Church which is largest church in the city and dates back to the 1200's. 

I took this photo from the car while waiting at a red light.  These twin towers have been my directors each week while I learned the way to our own church building. 

One day we will make a trip to go inside and see the treasures housed here. I found this description on the internet:

"'... a Gothic hall church dating back to 1293, completed 1512. Historically speaking, this building is considered to be the most precious possession of the town. It was the starting point of the Protestant Reformation in Bielefeld in 1553. 

The baroque spires were destroyed in World War II and later replaced by two unusually-shaped 'Gothic' clocktowers. The altarpiece of the Bielefeld church Neustädter Marienkirche from around 1400 is among the most prominent masterpieces of artwork of the German Middle Ages. Two of the altarpieces, The Flagellation and The Crucifixion are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York."

Even if large communities of people may be separating themselves from religious worship, places of worship seem to be the heart and soul of many comunities still. Every small village we have driven through so far has housed a church. 

I love that.

Christmas Market in Dusseldorf

Since the archive was closed, for a week plus over the holidays we asked our Mission President for permission to drive to Dusseldorf to visit a Christmas Market. His response to us was "Have fun!"

Our trip to Dusseldorf was a fun adventure for us. Out on our own making our way to a new part of the country, traveling the Autoban and navigating through an unknown city, not speaking the language and having no idea what is up ahead! (Sometimes I wonder if we are too old to be doing this...)

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard close (about 1 1/2 miles) to the old town (Altstadt) where the Christmas Markets are. 

Courtyard standard fare...loaner umbrellas, apples, water, etc.

The Rhine certainly snakes around a lot! This is a map of just a little bit of Dusseldorf. The Market is where the black dot in the middle is.

The hotel was not on the Rhine, but it was closeby so we walked up the street, across a pedestrian bridge and quickly arrived at the Rhine Promenade, a popular place for locals to hang out as well as tourists. 

Above: View from the pedestrian bridge...Rhine Tower is the tallest building/structure in Dusseldorf. It used to be a cell tower for TV and Radio. The restaurant/viewing area is very cool. We were happy to have good weather for our very quick trip up the elevator to 168 meters. The complete tower is 240.5 meters high. 

Above: The Courtyard is located at the top left center of the photo. Just below there is the pedestrian bridge we walked over to get to the Promenade.

Above: This is a great view of the Promenade and the ferris wheel where the markets start.

Above: Last of the directional views from the Rhine Tower.

Above: Dusseldorf is a fashion and arts center but I was intrigued with the construction of some of the apartment buildings along the promenade. 

Above: I wish I knew what kind of trees there are. They are all along the Rhine Promenade.

Following are some of the fun photos we took once we got into the Markets. There were actually six different sites for markets so there was a lot of traffic into the night.  

Here you go: 

Entrance to where the stalls begin

Chocolate covered fruit, a big hit for us...

Lots of people, but it's early

Lines of people to get dinner. Everyone is quite patient.

Fresh roasted chestnuts!

Churros are always a big hit at markets and carnivals the world over! But every place puts their own spin on what you get. Here it is a cardboard container with about six 4-6 inch churros covered with icing and other candy of your choice.

We did not get any churros, but I did get a photo. 

Jewelry!!

Potato twisters! We thought they were sooooo good!

The puppets are coming!!! 😀 We never did see them but I'm sure they were great. 

Above: Here you see the Christmas decor at Burgplatz. The ferris wheel and the Schlossturm Tower, all that remains of the Dusseldorf Castle that burned down for the last time in the 1800's but began in the 1200's. There is a museum inside now. 

As evening progressed we made our way along the streets to one of the other markets. This one had the largest decorated tree and was just outside a big inside mall with lots of decorations around. 

Everywhere we turned there were more and more stalls for the vendors but many were repeats of what we had already seen. 

Lots of winter wear stalls...

Food stalls galore. We had a really good crepe for dinner.

Then I saw the one and only store with nativities in it.  Lovely! 

These figures are my favorite. I love Mary's face detail and Joseph looks on so lovingly. 

Ed decided on some mushrooms too! We shared...They were very good. 

Nora looked at the mall windows and saw clothes she would love to get for her handsome grandsons.

Above: We decided it was time to begin heading back because we had walked so far and it was another 1 1/2 miles back home. Passing through another of the six Christmas Markets we saw this huge German Christmas pyramid (I did buy a small version). It was a very innovative market stall to sell mulled wine. 

On our way back along the promenade, we decided to take this picture by a beautiful, lighted, evergreen Christmas tree. What a wonderful way to end our first Christmas in Germany. We love the symbolism of the evergreen tree with lights. Each one of us has our own light to share with others and to remember why we celebrate His birth. He is the Light of the World. I hope we can all remember Him not just at Christmas time, but all year long.