Skip to main content

Going to Church in Bitburg

Image
By
I was really happy when the only flight to Frankfurt-Hahn airport from Kerry Airport left on a Friday and returned on a Monday, because that meant we could visit our old ward in Bitburg!  As much as the first three years of my life there with a living hell (I won't even deign to type the name of the person who tortured me so), I still believe that Bitburg ward was the best ward I have ever lived in, and it was all because of the people.

There's something really wonderful about a military ward; same with the military schools.  Everyone understands that you don't have much time together, so no one wastes time getting to know each other.  You just dive in and form friendships as quickly as you can, because either you will be leaving within a couple of years, or your friends will be leaving even sooner.  Maybe that's the reason our dearest friends have come from that ward.

We walked in and it felt like nothing had changed.  In fact, the only things that have changed are the lights in the chapel, and the bathrooms (thank goodness!). The people still seemed just as friendly and accepting as when we were there, and no joke, I could imagine so many of my friends serving in their old callings and appearing just around the corner.  I wish I had a time machine and could go back to that happy time, and I wouldn't mind having my kids small again.  And in a stroke of luck, it was ward conference, so the talks and lessons were really terrific.  Visiting the ward and the building just made me homesick for living there again.

Ethan texted me and asked if the pews were the same as they used to be: "the thin brown pads with the yellow netting underneath."  Yep, Cheese, nothing has changed <3







Comments

  1. Sarah MoranMarch 5, 2017 at 4:27 PM

    Thinking of the wonderful times we had in Bitburg Ward always makes me smile. I'm glad you got to go back!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

By
It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...
3 comments
Read more

SURPRISE!!

By
When the pizza guy came to the door last night, here's what John saw: It took a few seconds for John to process who the pizza delivery man was, but when he did, he was incredibly happy (and couldn't stop saying "heeeeyyyyy....".  It was Jared Moran, John's best friend. And me, I just knelt down, right then and there, and began repenting of all the lies that I have told over the last four months, hiding this most amazing surprise :-)  I told Sarah the other day that I was glad to see the light at the end of the falsehood tunnel, because if I kept this up much longer, I was destined to end up in liars' hell... Jared ran the Air Force marathon with John last year.  It was his first marathon, and from what he told us, his last.  However, he called in June and said he was coming again, but I was supposed to keep it a surprise from John.  I'm not sure what changed his mind, but we sure are glad he did.  John hates runnings marathons alone, and ther...
4 comments
Read more

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

By
In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...
3 comments
Read more