This spring, Jenn earned her Master’s in Medieval German, and in the fall, she started her PhD in the same subject. I asked Jenn to write about her month studying in Germany. I’ve asked her to share her story and some of her photos:

Hello, friends!

Thank you for praying for me during my graduate journey! In the middle of my first semester in graduate school two years ago, it was made clear to me that I needed to polish up my rusty German if I was to stay in the program (understandably), and of course the best way to do it would be to go to Germany in the summer. Just one problem: I was getting married the following summer! My department understood that I couldn’t get married and then run off to Europe (husband not included), so they graciously gave me an extension.

As a result, for the past two years I’ve been working under the feeling that I was on borrowed time. I not only needed to finish my master’s well, but I also needed to show that I took my modern German seriously too. Thankfully, the department has been pleased with my performance in the other aspects of being a student, and they paid for my program abroad this summer.

Brian flew over with me for the week before my studies. We’re grateful that we could spend focused time together and I was able to introduce Brian to Germany. We both thoroughly enjoyed a relaxed visit to Freiburg im Breisgau in the Black Forest of Germany. I showed Brian my favorite places from when I was an undergraduate student for a semester. It was hard being a month away from Brian, but I’m so grateful that it was only a month and that we had a year first to get used to being married.

After saying goodbye, I took the train to Frankfurt to start the program offered by the Goethe Institute. I was in a class of seven students, with morning instruction and afternoon homework. By the evening I was too tired to do much!  Sometimes I would grow lonely, or frustrated that I was too tired to explore. But as the month continued, I grew closer to one of my classmates, a woman from Finland, and through her God provided abundantly. On the days I was feeling the most frustrated or lonely, I would get a message from her inviting me to join her on a walk, usually because she was feeling the same way. Without me looking for it, God gave me exactly what I needed, and I was blessed to help her, too.

At the end of the month of instruction, I had a rigorous certification exam, and passed! Now that I have the language certification I needed, I started teaching in the fall. I was nervous to be responsible for my own class but I’m pleased to be learning how to be a teacher.

If you would like to pray for me, please pray for my confidence to be rooted in God and not in man, and please pray for my students, who will have to be the guinea pigs! Thank you again for your prayerful support.