Mosaic Mercy by Amanda Knapp

More Social Get Together Fun (LST 2010)

Amanda Knapp — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:46:18 +0000

This was our last Social Get Together for the year. Craig planned lots of fun including this balloon volleyball game. We had a blast. I believe it was our team (Gumby) that won!!!!

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Social Get Togethers (LST 2010)

Amanda Knapp — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:23:46 +0000

Part of our LST project includes organizing Social Get Togethers with all of our Readers. I organized two, and Craig Rapp organized the other two. We had lots of fun. Some of the things we did included: playing Taboo, Apples to Apples, Job Guessing, Who am I?, Pictionary, and water balloon games. These were four fun-filled Thursdays. We always met on Thursdays at 7PM so everyone would not forget the special occasion. We had several readers come. And I believe two nights had over 20 participants. Here are some pictures.

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Wow, God, how did You know we needed a living room?

Amanda Knapp — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:53:16 +0000

God takes care of you no matter what! I have to keep reminding myself of that all the time. I try to do everything myself, and it just gets me into trouble sometimes. Well, living life as a missionary helps with this issue if anyone else is struggling. As a missionary I have to lean on God for everything especially our income. This might sound funny, but it is really hard to rely on God for money instead of working the normal leave your house 8-5 job. God uses people like you to help us and I am so thankful for that!

Well, anyhoo, Katy met a couple through her English class. This couple was looking for someone to buy a living room set off of them. Long story short, their daughter-in-law’s father passed away leaving behind this gorgeous furniture. No one seemed to want it. In Germany, you do not have garage sales, you pay to stick junk out by the road and people who are interested come and pick it up. Well, this furniture was too nice for that, so this couple was looking around. Katy told them that we were coming and might be interested.

Well, time passed. David and I arrived and I went with Katy to check out this mysterious furniture. When I saw it, I was shocked at how gorgeous it was. If I went to the store to pick out furniture I couldn’t have done it better. The best part was that this couple started doing English lessons with us in the Luke workbook through LST. They were so nice to sell it all to us for only 100 Euros ($ 125)!!! I don’t have pictures of the chairs because they are hidden away until we can get our own place, but here is a picture of our new sofa. There is also a picture of a few crazy monkeys hanging out in our room.

So thank you to all our friends who helped us receive this furniture – there are a lot of them. And thank you God for orchestrating it all so that we now have a living room!!!!

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My First Country Concert

Amanda Knapp — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:41:41 +0000

My first country concert was in Germany in a town called Gadenstedt. Not quite what an American thinks of when we go to a country concert in America. We met at someone’s home for the concert. It was actually a nice size area where people could sit and listen to the music or go inside to buy some drinks. This house used to be a workshop for a man who made wagon wheels. This trade was passed down through the generations until there was no need for it anymore. But the same family still lives in this house. We met the owner of the house and her sister. Craig Rapp went with us for this unique experience. He is so outgoing that he met some of the nephews related to the owner of the house. They were interested in Craig and practicing their English with him.

The night went on. Americans are not used to how long some things last in Germany. We made it to the concert at 6PM and left after 11PM. It was a long night of listening to not only country music but other genres as well. We heard some Johnny Cash songs, Elvis, Rolling Stones, and others. The band did a pretty good job. I thought you might be able to pick out there German accent in the songs, but they did pretty good covering it up. They also play in America. My friend told me that Americans know the lead singer as “Herman the German.”

Well, we enjoyed our night of music and mingling, and slept in the next day.

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Spieleabend (Game Night) June 2010 with the Rapps

Amanda Knapp — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:22:26 +0000

Every 3rd Friday of the month the church has a game night. We have a great time playing board games, croquet, eating snacks, and talking. Sometimes there are a lot of people that turn up for this event.

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The Rapps Joining the Knapps

To My Babers on his 32nd Birthday

Amanda Knapp — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:16:30 +0000

David,

Now that you are 32, such an old man, just kidding. I like saying that because I am so much younger than you! We have had a great almost 6 six years of marriage!!! I really like being married to you! You are such a sweetheart to me – and that has never changed. I am so proud of you. You have changed so much since we have been married. You are growing up to be such a big boy! No really, I have seen so much progress from where you were in life to closer to where you want to be. And it is so romantic that you want to be more and more a man of God. I have always liked that you never wanted anything to come between us. If we have had an argument, right away you want to fix everything so that we are always happy together. This is one of the many things that I really love about you! I love that you always want the best for me. And I know that you have wanted kids, and so do I, but maybe by the time you are at the end of 32 we can start our family right here in Peine, Germany. I Love You, Babe!!! You will always be my Favorite!!! I hope you enjoy your Birthday!

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A Smashing Smidgen for the Smelsers

Amanda Knapp — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:49:08 +0000

Happy Birthday, Katy!!!!

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VISAS!!!!

Amanda Knapp — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:49:22 +0000

I am so excited! David and I headed for the Foreign Affairs office here Peine. They sent us a letter recently telling us when they would be open to take us. I could not understand the whole letter so I tried Google Translate to see if it could help me. All I got was that we could come in this week and pay for our visas. So this left David and I questioning if we could only pay for it and wait longer for something else to happen until we could receive our visas. Also we did not know if we could do it by ourselves or if we needed a friend’s assistance to speak in German. Well, we had not time to wait to figure things out. Our chance was to go to the office today. So we did.

We went to the office and saw there was a small line so we waited. Then we were thankful we got there when we did because the line got longer and longer. Soon it was our turn. We went inside the small office. When I say small I mean so small David and I could barely fit in this little compartment together to even get the door closed. Then we spoke to a nice man on the other side of the glass. He took our passports and the letter we received from them in the mail. Then he said something.

David looked at me and said, “Did you catch that?”

I said, “Yeah, he wants us to wait outside so he could work on something.” I was thinking to myself did he really say that or am I guessing.

And David was like, “Wow. You understood all of that.”

I said, “Well, to be honest I am only assuming that’s what he said.” Anyway, we both understood that he wanted us to leave. We waited outside the office contemplating lunch and talking about other menial things until it hit us. Should we double check and make sure we understood him right; I mean he does have our passports. So after a while I gathered up the courage to go back to the office and double check. Sure enough, I guessed right. So we waited.

Next we knew he came out and told us to go pay for our visas in a different area and then come back. So we did. When we came back, he showed me these pictures glued onto two of my passport pages. He was telling me that this was the visa. It had my picture and lots of written information. It was very colorful. When everything was finished I could not believe my eyes. So I asked again, “Is this everything?” He assured me that we were finished until next year then we would apply again. I couldn’t believe it – my first visa ever. We have been waiting for this day since 2005 when we tried this on our internship. So the days of waiting for a visa are OVER, until next year at least!

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My White Asparagus Story

Amanda Knapp — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:40:57 +0000

When I had my first encounter with white asparagus, we were on the road. We drove by these fields that were covered with some kind of tarps. I asked my friend what was growing underneath. I found out is was albino asparagus. Well, I knew that white asparagus was a delicacy here in Germany and everyone has to try it. I thought, this is our third time to Germany. It is time to try the white asparagus. So a friend helped me buy some, and taught me how to use it. First I learned that you must peel it. This was new for me because I have never peeled green asparagus before. Then you boil it until it is soft. Well, I did not like it. I thought, maybe I over-cooked it because it seemed mushy to me. So I tried cooking it again with it’s favorite accomplice Hollandaise sauce, which is basically like lots of butter. The sauce was awesome, but I still did not like the asparagus. Well, third time’s a charm, right? So I took a bite of it from a friend’s dish at a restaurant. It was okay – definitely better at a restaurant. So from this experiment I learned that I don’t really like white asparagus no matter how many times I try it.

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Softball in Germany?

Amanda Knapp — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:27:27 +0000

Who would have thought Germans played softball? Okay, so maybe it is a game put on by German and American friends just having a good time together. There were a lot of people that showed up on that June day 2010. It seemed hot, but to my amazement later that was the nice weather. There was a game scheduled earlier, but it was too cold and rainy. Now it is July, 90 degrees F, and no air-conditioning. It almost seems that German weather is a fickle pickle like it is in mid-west America.

So many people came that day that we had to split into 4 different teams: I believe they all had descriptive names like the young team, Peine team, Hildesheim team, and the OLD team. And what do you know, I was part of the old team. We had lots of fun. They play softball a bit different. For example, we played with no strikes because softball is still new to a lot of Germans, and really we are not professionals here. If I played by the rules, I would have got struck out and never made it onto any bases.

One group of teams played with bases, while the other group used car mats. You do what you gotta do! And we had plenty of bats until Craig Rapp broke one. Just kidding, we did have plenty of bats. But Craig really did break it. Everyone wanted Craig to be on their team. He was a tall guy from Texas that could swing the ball right out of the park. And this happened to be Craig and Kyle’s first day on their German LST trip.

So some people played. Some people were supporters, cheering on the teams. We all took breaks now and then to get rehydrated and munch on some homemade sweets. But in the end, I believe we were all tired. At least Dave and I were. And to top it off we were on the losing team. Good try OLD team, maybe next time.