Great Moment at Bible Study

So many of you have said you enjoy reading my (Nate's) "Word of the Day" or "Phrase of the Day" that I post semi-daily on Facebook. Most of the time, this is just a new word that I learn and a way to have additional touches with the word. Part of this is because they say you have to have contact with a word at least 6 times before it comes into your vocabulary (the same is true in a native language as well), and I want to maximize the amount of contact I have with a new word or phrase.

But often times, there is a second reason that I post these words, and that is because there is a great story attached to them. Sometimes I am the star of that story, bravely carrying my new word into unexplored territory. More often, I am simply the "Dick Van Dyke" of the story, tripping over the same ottoman again and again.

Yesterday was one of those days. We were talking in small group about someone writing a card, and then someone else, in response to saying what would be in the card, said, "oh yeah, then you know schleim schleim" (it sounds like slime but with an "sh" on the front). Bethany and I both looked at each other and gave a collective "what?"

"sich einschleimen" is a verb that means to kiss up to someone or suck up. It has the same negative connotation that our phrases do in English. So in the context of the conversation, they meant "yeah and then you just fill in the card with things that butter them up."

First of all, can I tell you how much I love this word?! It is onomatopoeia (words that sound like what they are) at it's best! "Der Schleim" is actually slime or phlegm (another great word). This is just a fun word to say.

Second of all, it illustrates a point that I think is important. A while ago, I was using a language tool we have that is a series of question cards for starting a conversation. The question was: "If you could learn any language over night, what would it be?" The challenge with that question is that language learning is tied to relationships and memories. I can't disconnect my knowledge of the word "einschleimen" with the memory of last night, and I would say my language learning is richer because of those memories.

We will continue to have "wait what?!" moments for a long time, but this one was far more fun than embarrassing.

Nate's Second Sermon

He's at it again! Nate preached his second sermon in German this past Sunday! This time, he co-preached with a university student from our church, so Johannes spoke for the first 20 minutes and Nate closed out the sermon for the second 20 minutes.

Having his first sermon out of the way already, the second time around was a a little bit less pressure. Plus, there was less content to prepare and only half the time to speak. However, co-preaching also meant meeting with Johannes and coordinating how their messages would fit together and provide a well-rounded picture of the 2 Corinthians text. Johannes hadn't preached before, so Nate also spent some time helping him prepare and giving him feedback and tips on how to preach effectively. It was a unique challenge, but one that brought another opportunity for growth for Nate.

I was thankful to have heard most of his sermon, because Ellie was quiet enough to sit at the back of the sanctuary with me for awhile. (Sometimes her joyful shrieking relegates me to the "baby room".)  Nate's message was about discerning the will of God and his three main points were:

• God is faithful
• God gives us the holy spirit
• God gives us community

Here are some more photos of Nate in action!

Nate's First Sermon

Nate reached an exciting milestone this past Sunday: he preached his first sermon in German! It was an exciting accomplishment and a testimony to how God has been working and equipping us for ministry here in Austria. I was extremely proud of Nate, watching him in front of our congregation preaching the word. Speaking for 30 minutes in German after only having arrived here a year and a half ago is something to be very proud of and Nate's hard work and dedication in language learning has paid off. As I watched him, I could really envision how God is going to use him here to impact many people, and it excites me to think of our future in ministry.

For this month update, Nate put together a brief video talking about his experience preaching, including some clips from his sermon. Take a look and enjoy!

Du oder Sie?

The title of this post would literally be translated into English "You or you?" That's because, like many other languages, German has both formal and informal speech. (Having learned Spanish in high school, this was familiar to me when we started German language learning.) There is a form of "you" that you use with kids, friends and family and a form of you that brings along with it more respect and that you use with those older than you, people you don't know, etc.

Sounds simple, right? There are only two categories, so it must not be complex. But it's actually not simple. When to use Du (informal) or Sie (formal) can be challenging to figure out and the last thing you ever want to do as an "outsider" is to use the wrong form and offend someone. It's something we need to be careful about.

For example, a 30-year-old could be referred to by a bartender with the formal "Sie" out of respect, but be offended because it makes them feel old. Or a recent college graduate could be referred to with the informal "du" and feel like someone isn't taking them seriously or treating them like an adult.

I recently read an article in a German language magazine about when and how to use formal and informal language, and the crux of the article was this: it's not easy! Language and culture are always changing, so the "rules" of etiquette 5 years ago could be different now and with each generation, perceptions of formal and informal language morph and change.

The article laid out 10 general rules for use, as follows:

1) Friends and family: always informal

2)  Strangers who are adults: always formal

3) Children and youth: informal

4) Students talking to students (no matter the age) and those in a sports club together: informal

5) Speaking to employees at the bank, doctor's office, or in an official office: formal

6) Speaking to police:  always formal!

7) The older person in the relationship always offers the informal language and then the younger person can speak informally back.

8) The person in the relationship with the higher status offers the informal language first, regardless of age (i.e. a doctor to a patient, professor/teacher to student, etc.).

9) At the workplace, no one should be spoken to informally by someone to whom they would speak formally.

10) If you're unsure, always wait until the other person speaks informally to you, before speaking informally to them.

This last one is most important to us! As foreigners, we need to be especially careful when communicating in ways that could be considered offensive. Because we are not readily accepted, we want to hold ourselves to a high standard and always go out of our way to show respect and courtesy. We want to impress, rather than confirm a negative stereotype.

Thinking about this reminds me of the idea of being "above reproach" as Christians. Just as we want to be careful with our German language use, shouldn't we be even more aware of how we use every word and live our lives, setting an example for others? We should give no one reason to accuse us and we should not put the name of Christ to shame (I Peter 3:14 - 16). May we live lives above reproach, always setting an example, showing respect and demonstrating love. By this, they will see Christ in us!

Photo credit: Yoel from morguefile.com 

Reformation Church History, or the Deep End of the Pool

Spring time requires a spring / summer illustration, so here we have it. I jumped into the deep end of the pool, and it was really refreshing and reminded me that I can swim...at least enough to not drown.

Two weekends ago, I took part in a class at the EVAK (Evengelikale Akadamie), which is an small evangelical bible school here in Vienna. I was graciously allowed to audit a block course on church history taught by the pastor of our church. More precisely, it was Church History III, which started with the reformation and Martin Luther in the early 1500s, went through the counter reformation and ended in the 1700s with the Pietistic movement.

As a block course, it took place over a single weekend. This made it more of a sprint than a slow hour-long jog for three months. It started at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon and we finished that night at 9:30 pm. The next morning we started right in at 9:00 am and with a few breaks made it all the way to 4:00 pm that afternoon. If you are keeping track at home that is 12 hours (including meal and stretch breaks) of church history in just over 24 hours. It was the definition of the deep end of the pool, but it was really good. There were only 4 people in the class, which meant it was the perfect size for discussions and exploring concepts together.

No matter what language the class takes place in, the problem with history is that it is often boring. It is easy to have a big list of dates and people and just go through that list. The great thing about this class was we weren't just concerned with the dates and actions of the individuals, but also the main ideas that characterized their lives. In the section on Martin Luther, his view of justification was a huge topic of discussion for us. We looked at how he came to this view and how it has impacted generations of Christians.

This leads into another very fascinating part of the course for me. We saw over and over how major emphases of a specific reformer or pastor have stayed within the church for the last 500 years. We saw that we are not just an isolated island, but we stand in a great tradition of faith. This course was a great blessing to me, as well as a huge challenge. I am looking forward to more challenges like this along the way.

Photo credit: pedrojperez from morguefile.com

6 Ways Speaking German Has Messed With My English

One thing that is fascinating about crossing cultures is the mixing that happens. This whole process involves taking on a 2nd filter through which we view the world and there are plenty of times where it is easy to get confused...

1. Sentences: German sentences can keep going and going, and it really isn't that big of a deal how long the sentence is, as long as the thought remains the same. This is very freeing, actually. So even though English sentences need to be shorter and get to the point, I find myself constantly needing to go back and cut down my last sentence when I am writing in English. My German long-sentence-tendencies are crossing over.

2. Things that Aren't Really "Things": Certain events, objects or experiences we have here can be translated, but they just don't carry the same sort of emotional connection. The biggest example of this is Strassenbahn (street car / tram). Both translations don't really capture the essence of the object in my mind. Street cars are only in San Francisco and trams are usually at the airport between terminals. What we have here is different and the German word fits it the best. So we usually just use the German word for it, even when we speak English. It makes for some mixed sentences.

3. Word Order / Words : This one is tricky because it is so subtle. German sentences like to have the time before the place in a sentence. So every now and then a sentence like, "I went yesterday to the store"or "I need at four o'clock to call my mom" comes out of your mouth.

4. Forgetting Both Languages: My favorite moment is when I am talking about something and I can't think of the word in German, so I try to think of the word in English and I can't remember that either.

5. Figures of Speech: I have learned that I like to use figures of speech or metaphors a lot in my speaking and writing. This is great until you translate a figure of speech literally into German and your friend looks at you oddly. The other side of it is now I try to go the other direction and talk about a "donkey's bridge" in English and non-German speakers look at me oddly, as well.

6. When the German word IS the English word: today I was reading an article in German about reintroducing the "Wisent" into a certain part of Germany. So I looked up the English translation... which is wisent. That is the name of the "European buffalo." This also goes back to number 2 above.

I know there are way more than six here. Perhaps at the end of the day I am wrong and German hasn't "messed up" my English. I do think that it has made my life richer to learn another language. Sometimes when I am in a group speaking German it just hits me out of the blue - I am speaking and understanding another language! This truly is a blessing from God.

Share your stories of how speaking a second language below, we can't wait to hear them!

B1 Test (AKA Saturday Morning Adventures)

Today we took the B1 German competency exam at our language school. Here is the explanation of the levels. It went pretty well, and we felt good coming out of it, even though it was a formal test. We won't know how we did for another 10 days or so. Here are some thoughts from today and an explanation of why we decided to take this formal exam.

The first reason we took this test was because we needed it for our visas. I think we have between two and three years to get to this level of German to meet the visa requirement, but we figured that it would be good to get it out of the way while the grammar nuts and bolts were firmly fixed in our heads. This leads into our second reason for taking the test. We wanted to get a bench mark for how far we have progressed in the language. Language learning is something in life that is hard to pin down. Often times you grow and grow and don't really notice the growth that has happened. There aren't that many times that we have something like this to take the pulse of our progress and so we jumped at the opportunity.

Last fall, I wrote about speaking like a child and preparing for our A1 exam. That feels like so long ago and it is amazing to see how we have grown in the last nine months. Like any student studying a subject, the further we go into German, the more we realize how much we have yet to learn. 

Ultimately, language and culture are tools that we use to effectively communicate the gospel cross-culturally. We really love German and Austria, but we are not here just to learn the language and culture. We are here because we have a loving and good God that wants to have a relationship with Austrians in German*. And we believe wholeheartedly that the time we are investing now in language learning will bear fruit in the future as we seek to be a witness to Christ's message and to encourage Austrian believers to do the same.









*I am still blow away at the language diversity on this planet. The fact that communion with God is had through so many different languages and variety of cultures completely astounds me.

Milestones

When we started this language learning process, I was unsure about the middle stages. To be fair, I still am pretty unsure. I had a sense of the beginning...I knew what it was to start. It is easy to envision learning (or relearning, as was my case after a few years of high school German) basic verbs and nouns. I could envision learning basic sentences about dogs jumping and people running or cooking. But I have been amazed and encouraged at the other milestones we have encountered along the way. Here is a brief recap, in no particular order, of those spots along the way.

I clearly remember my first conversation when I felt like I spoke mostly German for an evening. I was at a restaurant with a few guys and celebrating Reformation Day. I remember the conversation was about language learning, and I was so amazed as I walked home that day, thinking that I actually had a conversation in German! The interesting thing about that memory is that later, I got together with the guy I talked with that night and his memory of the evening was the opposite of mine. He remembers that we spoke mostly English that night! I think it reminds me that this process is just that - a process. 

Today, I went into a climbing store because I wanted to look around. I mean come on, it's a climbing store and I like climbing. So I wandered around for a little while and finally someone looked at me and asked me if needed help. I asked a few questions and laughed with the guy behind the counter (most climbers are laid back and willing to chat about stuff). Later on in the afternoon, I was talking to a fellow language learner and I realized that I hadn't done something earlier. I hadn't rehearsed. One stage of language learning involves a lot of mental rehearsal before a social interaction, especially with a stranger. To be honest, it is emotionally draining. You think through exactly what you are looking to get out of the conversation and then what you expect them to say, or what questions you expect them to ask. So the fact that I went to the climbing store without mentally rehearsing anything, had a comfortable conversation and had no stress was an important milestone.
I would definitely not say that I am through the woods regarding language learning. I still have a long way to go, but it is great to look back and see times that were once difficult are not so hard today. It is great to see growth. 




Photo credit: Seemann from morguefile.com

Church Announcement (Hear us speak German!)

At the end of every church service at our church here, there is a time where people get up and share prayer requests, praises or thoughts on what God is teaching them. So on the 14th of July, we got up in front of the church and shared our exciting news about being pregnant. It was the first time for both of us speaking German in front of such a large group (probably about 75 people), so we were a bit nervous and our German wasn't perfect. But it was a great accomplishment and it was fun to share the news with our church community.

Here is the video of our announcement, with English subtitles. Enjoy!

Explaining Language Learning

I came across a guy named Mickey Mangan, and I thought his story was worth sharing with all of you. After completing 7 years of high school level Spanish, he was dissatisfied with his complete lack of Spanish speaking ability, so he did a semester abroad in Chile. He was blown away, not only by what he learned in that time, but also by the relationships that he formed. He wanted to try this again, so he moved to Germany for a year to learn German. The video below explains the project that he worked on while he was there. 

 
This is what it looks like to learn a language in one year. from Mickey Mangan on Vimeo.

This video really resonated with me for a number of reasons. First of all, it reminded me how organic the language learning process is. I can't snap my fingers and learn German. It is a daily process of learning small pieces of information that come together to learn how to speak in this language. No one single construction or set of vocabulary cards will mean that I am there. Each part comes slowly and subtly. 

But there are also these moments of clarity and focus. Usually, it is after an especially good conversation. I walk away and think, "WOW, I just got through that experience and understood what was happening" or  "They asked a question, and I knew the answer!!!"

The most important think that I resonated with in this video was his consistent failures and willingness to keep trying. If you watch him talking to people, there are these moments of silence. He is searching his brain for a word or phrase. Some of these moments are really funny when he tries to put concepts together and hope that it makes the correct word. The subtitles help to show that he is often incorrect. These moments are some of the most humbling in the language learning process. It is the time when you are staring at someone and they are staring at you and you are trying to say something incredibly simple, but the words just aren't there. 

But, amazingly enough, people are patient with him, just as they are patient with us. And he grows! You can see it even in the short intro how he moves from simple, child-like sentences to more complicated thoughts. This is the reminder that is helpful for me in the minutiae. Growth is coming. It may not be at the pace that I would want or would try to expect of myself, but it is coming. 

The Aim of Language Learning

I just came across an excellent post on "A Life Overseas", a blog written by missionaries around the world. The blog does a great job of tackling the tough questions surrounding missions, and it's writers are wonderfully and brutally honest.

In this particular post, the author wrestles with the reality that she has been in country for over 10 years and is still working on the language. To an outsider, this may seem like a long time. But in reality, this is a common story. It can take a lifetime to reach fluency and when there are other factors slowing things down, like stress, family, and multiple languages to learn, the journey is long.

When the language learning journey is extended, it can be difficult to deal with our own and others' expectations. Personally, as I enter German language learning, I am hoping to feel pretty fluent in a couple of years. But this may not happen, and I need to be prepared for that. Afterall, the aim of language learning, the blog writer says, is not just language fluency. "The point, the aim, is not fluency. The aim is to honor God, to be used by him, to become more like Jesus, to love well." 

I love what she says about the questions we should be asking ourselves:

"How does God want to change me and use me while I learn this language? How does God want to accomplish his purposes through me while I learn this language? How can I love people while I learn this language?"

I would encourage you to read the rest of the article here. It really paints a realistic portrait of the language learning journey, it's challenges, and how God uses it to mold and shape those of us who are on it.


What is the journey that God has you on, challenging you to be humble and dependent on Him?


Photo credit: ardelfin from morguefile.com

Getting Acquainted with Failure

Language learning has been a great experience for us so far. We are having a lot of fun, and it is amazing how quickly we are progressing. It is encouraging to look over the last two months and see how much we have grown in our language skills. I still remember what it felt like to have an entire conversation in German for the first time. I didn't understand everything, but I was able to express my ideas and understand the gist of what the other person was saying. Cool! But here is the thing. Even in the face of all this learning, we have also become close friends with failure.

We fail all the time. We make mistakes in class, when we are doing our home work, when we write anything or speak to anyone. We can't get away from it no matter how much we try. If we were to completely form all of our sentences and check them against every grammar table and dictionary, we would never say a word. One phrase has really stuck with me from our language training in Colorado: "You have to destroy the language on your way to mastering it."

Failure has become a close friend as we continue to live with the language barrier...but pressing into our failure also brings about humility. In our language class, there are lawyers, architects, and micriobiologists - all highly educated, highly competent people. And in class, you find us all speaking at a kindergarten level about zoo animals and going to the super market. We are being humbled. We know that we need to make 1,000,000 language mistakes on our way to mastering German, and so we have decided to start now and get as many as we can out of the way! We want to make accepting failure a step towards success, and this is the perfect testing ground to work out that idea.

Photo credit: lyns from morguefile.com

Worshipping in German

We had a great morning at our new church today! After arriving to the service late last week and having to leave early (not a good combination...), we made sure to get to church early today so we would have time to meet some new people and chat. We survived quite a few German conversations and met the pastor for the first time. We saw some familiar faces after the service and connected with people we knew. It felt comforting to be there and see ourselves progressing in terms of feeling "at home" in this new community.

One of the highlights for me was getting to sing some new songs in German - familiar melodies that we sing in English but with new words! Singing a song I'm already familiar with in this new language really helps me to understand the meaning and connect with the message I am singing. One of those songs today was "You are the Lord, the Famous One" by Chris Tomlin. Just to give you a taste of what the song sounds like in German, and to show you our church, I took a quick video. Enjoy!

Speaking Like a Child

Last Friday marked the end of our first level of German classes. Here they call it the A1 level (here is an explanation of the language levels we plan to go through). We were really happy to hit this milestone. It is amazing how much you absorb in the beginning. It feels like you learn so much each day. Every night we go to bed very tired.  

I am sure I sound like my nephew. The last time we visited, he was learning how to use the phrase "of course." He said that phrase every few moments as he learned when how it fit into normal speech. From directly translated English expressions to odd word combinations, I am walking a child-like path of language learning.

We talked a lot in our training about a loss of competency. It is not as though I am mentally back on the same plane as a little child, but in terms of words, expressions, and nuances of meaning, I am on the level of a first or second grader.

I have felt this most acutely in our language classes. It is our teacher's job to take us into new territory. I feel often that we wander back and forth across the imaginary line of my personal competency in German. This "fish out of water" experience is a source of stress for living here. Even when I was in college, I rarely felt as though I needed to intensely concentrate on the class to track along with the professor. Some of this is my slightly ADD personality, but also we rarely covered ideas that we hadn't read about the night before. Even when the ideas were new, there was a familiar framework to work through and a common language in which things could be explained. It is an interesting paradox; our brains are designed to absorb language, but it also is such an emotionally resource-intensive experience.

It is a humbling feeling to be on the end of competency. Our whole class is feeling it in one way or another. We have many professionals and educated people in our class, and we are talking about the simplest things and forming the simplest sentences imaginable. It is a huge test of humility and one I hope I am able to meet head on. It gives me so much respect for the foreigners I have encountered in my own country and those that have earned degrees in a second language.

Question: When have you felt a loss of competency in your life? Birth of a child? New job? Moving to a new area?

Photo credit farmer64 from morguefile.com

Little Victories

Language learning is about making LOTS of mistakes...and along the way, while you make them, you also have little victories that keep you going. Since our language learning journey began in Vienna last Monday, that has been my focus. Every time I have a language learning victory, I try to remember it, recount it and celebrate it! And that way, I don't focus so much on the times when I didn't succeed.

Here are a few little victories from last week...

• We were standing at the bus stop, and a young woman approached us with a question. She asked us the fastest way to get to the U2 ubahn (subway) station. Not only did we understand what she was saying, but I successfully told here where to catch the bus and where it would take her.
• I took my watch to a jeweler, because it needs a new battery (looking up the word for "watch battery" beforehand). I was able to tell the clerk what I needed and ask how much it would cost. I also understood when they told me that the watch repair man would be in on Monday and they would call me when it was ready.Yay!
• Last Tuesday night, we went out for drinks with a few people from our language class and our teacher. I thought if we spoke German the whole time, I would never survive. But we enjoyed the experience, communicated successfully, and our heads didn't hurt at the end!
• So far, our relationship with our landlord has been in English. A few days ago, I needed to email him because we have a package at the post office from Amazon.com (he needs to get the package slip out of the mailbox and get it to us so we can pick up the box). This time, I emailed him in German. In his German response, he said "It pleases me that your language knowledge is good enough that you can write me in German. Thank you!" Hopefully our relationship will be in German from here on out!

These are just a few of the stories I can share. There have been many more, and I am convinced it is because people are praying for us and our ability to learn German. God is working!

When I think of these "little victories", a song by the same name by Matt Nathanson keeps popping into my head. In it, he says "I'll learn to get by on the little victories". I hope I do!


Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

Adventures at Goethe

My German flash card collection is just beginning...

We are now 2 weeks into our German class at the Goethe Institut of Chicago...and I'm loving it! Learning a foreign language can be very intimidating, and we were both a bit nervous about getting started. However, we've been pleasantly surprised by our progress in the class and the fun we are having as we begin this new adventure.

Our class is small, made up of only 7 students and an enthusiastic teacher. What has made it so effective, I believe, is the teacher's enthusiasm and willingness to answer questions, going at our pace. There is no stupid question in her book, and she's very patient. Plus, she's fun and quite funny! Having a safe environment for learning makes a world of difference, and I hope that our language school experience in Austria is at least somewhat similar to what we're experiencing here.

I took 5 years of Spanish in middle school/high school and then tested out of it in college. So it has been 11 years since I studied a foreign language! In those 11 years, I forgot how much I enjoyed and excelled in the foreign language classroom. But this German class has reignited my excitement and built my confidence. I'm so thankful we have the chance to take our first class here in the States, in a familiar city, so we can ease into German before entering a completely foreign culture.

Lord willing, this is the beginning of a lifetime of learning. May we have many fruitful years of learning and speaking German in our future!

Favorite German Phrase of the Week
Du bist seltsam.  You are strange/weird.

A Prayer Suitcase

The class with Bethany and me. And of course, they have
their prayer suitcases packed and ready to go.

On Sunday, Bethany and I taught the children's church at Covenant Church of Easton, which is the church that she grew up in. It was fun to remind the kids that we were once exactly in their shoes and that God has exciting things for their lives. We had a great time with these kids.


When we asked the boys and girls if they knew what language the people in Austria spoke, one little boy's hand shot up. He said he knew what language they spoke and that it was German. We were pretty impressed at this little guy! Some adults aren't 100% sure about the answer to that question. He also said that he knew how to speak German, which was equally impressive and would right now put him ahead of us! So we proceeded to ask him in front of the class how you say 'Good morning' in German...and his reply made all of the adults in the room crack up laughing. To say 'good morning' in German, he merely said, 'Good morning' in English but with a German/Swedish-Chef accent. It was a pretty spectacular moment.


At the end of our time with the kids, Bethany did a craft project that was really great. We knew that the children wouldn't be able to come visit us anytime soon to see the ministry that God is doing in Austria. So because they couldn't pack their real suitcases, Bethany had them pack a prayer suitcase instead for the times when they would pray for us. They put in it everything that they would need to pray for us: an Austrian flag, our picture cut out from our prayer card, a few prayer requests written out to remember, our theme verse, and then any decorations that the kids wanted to add.  Some added a flag pole for the flag or drawings of mountains.


The more I thought about this, the more I was intrigued by this concept. Somehow we think that spending time in prayer and how to prepare for prayer, because it is a spiritual activity, is totally different than other activities and requires few tools or time or preparation. But are we wrong in our thinking?


If I want to go rock climbing, I have a mental list of things I need to pack: my shoes, my harness, rope, and other pieces of gear. Nothing is worse than getting to a climb and realizing I forgot something that will make the day either miserable or unsafe. Have you ever tried to spend an entire day outside without a water bottle? You get thirsty pretty quick.


So when it comes to prayer, I am beginning to think about what I would need to pack to spend more time in prayer. Like many other parts of my life, planning and preparation are a growth area for me. Like any relationship, this is something that both grows organically and requires you to be intentional. 


So here is the question: 
What do you put in your prayer suitcase?
How do you organize and prepare for your times of prayer?