Oden Adventures

We spent three full days there, Tuesday through Thursday, resting at the Hotel Am Bad, which was fabulous.  The staff was wonderful, the room was huge and clean and airy, and we've decided that our bedroom at home needs to be just like it.  We had this huge bed with separate down comforters, and I'm pretty sure that I slept better there than...well, for as long as I can remember.  They had lavish (included) breakfasts, which we indulged in every morning, free wi-fi (though a bit of a complicated system of using it), and a generally quiet campus.  We would definitely recommend this place!!

We also explored the city, ate amazing German food, I even drank a beer (this is unheard of), I did work for Fuller from bed, and - most importantly - Patrick met with Dr. Jürgen Moltmann, at his home, all three afternoons in a row.  Sadly, I did not get any photos of them together, because on the last day, when I stopped by to greet him, I was too befuddled by his brilliance to have any sensible thoughts, but I did get these photos of Patrick leaving for and coming back from his first meeting on Tuesday.

Before...if you look closely, you see a slight look of apprehension in the eyes...

 After...now it's all smiles, the apprehension has been replaced with glee...:-)

Patrick undoubtedly will be blogging more about his time with Dr. Moltmann at www.dualravens.com/ravens.  So I'll leave my own thoughts here:  It was an incredible thing as a wife to experience this with Patrick.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, such a deeply encouraging experience for my oft-questioning-his-choices husband, so obvious that God was smiling upon us the whole week.  I loved welcoming Patrick back to the hotel after each session, seeing him so giddy and excited, hearing about what they discussed and how encouraged he was that he was on the right track for his dissertation (PhD students struggle to ever feel this way, I've noticed).  The whole event breathed new life, I believe, into his academic pursuits and renewed his soul for continuing on in the next year + of finishing up this degree.  We are so thankful to the Orchestrator, so encouraged, so blessed (in the least trite way possible).

As I mentioned, I also got the chance to greet this great man.  None of us are good at small talk, which endeared him even more.  As we were leaving, I thanked him for the time he gave Patrick and for his kindness to him.  He turned to me and said, "He [Patrick] has a beautiful, poetic spirit."  "Yes, he does," I said.  Even if I couldn't muster an intelligible conversation with this man, boy, did I like him.  We clearly saw things the same way :-).

And now, some of the photos we took from this adorable place...