We’re at the part of our life here in Germany where culture shock should really be rearing it’s ugly head in the form of us really disliking Germany.  The good news is that we’re really happy here!  That doesn’t mean we’re not experiencing culture shock, though.  We know that a certain amount of the extreme stress we often feel even doing relatively simple activities springs directly out of culture shock.  We hope you’ll be in prayer for us as we continue to find our way in a foreign place, even one we love.

Brandy and I are excited to have returned to language school this week.  Many of you know, we completed a four week course a few months after our arrival, only to have the school cancel our follow-on classes.  In the intervening time, I’ve been doing construction work on our new offices (a barn being converted into an office building).  This is WAY outside my gifting, but it has been a great lesson for me.  If you haven’t already, take a look at our latest newsletter for how God has been at work there.  Brandy has been investing her time getting involved in a local Bible Study, and really working to find a good routine for our family here.

Do you remember Calvin and Hobbes?  Do you remember the one where he had to take school pictures?  Can we say, Isaac is a fan?

When asked the question, “Who’s the prettiest girl in school?”,  Isaac replies “Ahh!  Come On…Brittany….Brittany is at school”  Isaac is the sweetest brother in the world.  And when asked “What do you love about Germany?”, he said “The Currywurst, the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis,  the Fussball, the Schnitzel, the Doners [Doner Kebaps are a type of Turkish sandwhich which can be almost like a lamb burrito.  Sounds weird, but they're really good.]“.  In other words Isaac is your typical 11 year old boy, he is fascinated by fast cars, Sports, and yummy food. 

Brittany says (sung to a vague Yankee Doodle tune (there’s too many syllables)),  “I’m a little bitty social faux pas!” Sometimes that’s what it’s like in a new culture.  Sorta like nothing you can do or say is socially or culturally correct or even the slightest bit acceptable.  But it’s so fun too, lot’s of fun stories are to be made!  Because BFA is located here in Kandern, most of the natives are used to having us around.   We are what keep the local grocery store in business, so they tolerate us; and we aren’t quite the usual, run-of-the-mill, evil teenagers so we try to make that a little easier for them… most of the time.  Some have even dusted off the English they learned back in school, and try to speak to us in English. (Funny thing is, their English is just as terrible as most of our German, but neither party wants to give up the chance to speak a new language, so they speak really bad English and we speak really bad German, and things get accomplished, eventually…)  However, every once in a while, after a long day in school some of us crack and it’s immediately apparent we aren’t German teenagers… we laugh too loudly walking down the street [Germans do not make loud noises in public -Ed], this earns us funny looks and side-glances, that make us laugh even harder, or we stand outside the local clothing store trying on all the hats, or… well, we’re silly third culture kids with imaginations… you get the picture, yes?  Life is good.  Sehr Gut.”

 Brittany

Faith says, “Once upon a time I was born, but when we moved to Connecticut it was much funner.  And I started school a little later and then at the middle of school I saw a bunny.  We stayed in CT for 40 weeks.  So then we went to Boston to the airport, we got on the plane, we waited a while for it to start, and then FINALLY it started.  And then once we got off the ground Mommy celebrated with chocolate, it was a little weird.  We stayed up a long time and then I went to sleep for two hours…I don’t know how though.  And then we got off the plane and we rode on a bus.  And then we waited and waited and walked until we went on the other plane.  And then we took off again and we landed and we got off the plane and the Meyers picked us up.

“Now we’ve been here for almost six months.   In Germany now, it started with the mosquitos.  And then I started looking like I had chicken pox.  And then yesterday and today, Nov 7 &8.  Well, the day before yesterday, I pulled out my 8th tooth.  And then yesterday, I got a new book that’s German and English so I can learn more German because I can already speak a little German.  Since we’re staying home a while and in the afternoon we’re working, what I want to do is play the play station with my mom.  And that makes a happily ever after.  THE END!  Bye, see you tomorrow.”

 Faith

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The two most common comments we receive on our newsletters are “I love the pictures” and “I always mean to read them, but never get around to it.” That said, this month there are a lot less words and a whole lot more pictures. I hope you’ll let us know what you think.

Can you believe this is 510lbs of luggage?  How about that this doesn’t include our carryons in the trunk of the other car? 

Our first stop was Boston’s Logan International Airport.  You can see the sign above the kid’s heads, but it’s a bit hard to read.  Frankfurt, Germany, 3671 Miles.

Faith was very excited to change some left over birthday money into Euros.

Shortly before we boarded the plane, Faith asked me, “Daddy, is this real?  Because this happens to me all the time, and then I wake up and it wasn’t real.”

This is as real as it gets.  Somewhat the worse for wear after 15 hours of travel, we arrived in Basel, Switzerland, our luggage trailing endlessly off into the horizon…

We looked a lot better the next day after a little bit of rest.

Day two in Germany, after some settling, setting up a bank account, and registering with the town, we took the kids to see the storks in Holzen, a near by village.

One of the most incredible blessings God has provided for us as we arrived here, has been the tremendous support we have received from the Greater Europe Mission staff people.  In this picture, you can see Brandy with Sara Meyer, wife of my supervisor, Jim, admiring the storks.  Because we’re such a large family, the Meyers have been driving us everywhere in two cars, which since we’re running many errands trying to work out school for the kids, navigating the German buerocracy, and get heating oil for our house (which is preventing us from having hot water) the Meyers have been a tremendous help.  Not to mention they’ve been acting as interpreters for us.  But they aren’t the only ones!  Our neighbors down the street, the Bonhams, put us up in their home for several nights, and they and the Meyers have been taking turns feeding us since we got here.

Saturday morning, GemStone Media had our first team building event, as the whole crew traveled to nearby Switzerland to view some Roman ruins.  It was a nice time, allowing the kids to get a sense of Europe’s rich cultural history, and giving us a chance to connect with our new colleagues.

For Isaac and Faith, it was another great excuse to have an ice cream.

In so many ways this is such a surreal experience.  We wake up each morning and look out at the farmer’s fields on the other side of the hill, and the mists make everything hazy and dream like.  I keep having to remind myself this isn’t a dream.  Part of our training was to prepare us for culture shock.  We’re in the tourist phase now, where everything is charming and wonderful.  But lingering our there in the distance are the language barrier, all the little cultural snags we’re just beginning to learn, like always saying hello and good bye, and not calling people you see in the distance.  Little things we don’t think about, but which can be very rude here.

Because I’ve been here on several short trips the last five years, I keep having the same problem Faith had in the airport.  I keep forgetting we’re not leaving in a few days.  This is home now.  It’s an awesome feeling.  After five years of working, it’s finally real.  I can pinch myself and not wake up.    Our God is so incredibly good.

Over the next several months, we have to balance the demands of language school, setting up our household, helping the kids get acclimated, and building working relationships with our team.  Unfortunately, it’s way too easy to make language our bottom priority, but we need to stay focused.  I hope you’ll pray along with us, that God will keep us focused.

Bless you all, and thanks for all the ways you have prayed us here!

Because it was Memorial Day, Mystic was reenacting a Memorial Day ceremony from shortly after the civil war, complete with a church service, parade and floating flowers out of the harbor. It was more solemn than I expected, but it was great reminder of what Memorial Day is all about.

She’s so pretty.

Yep. Her too.

Yeah… And her.

What scheme is Isaac plotting here? I see rope… This could be dangerous.

Isaac wrestled a whale while Faith had a snack and Britt nearly became one.

It was a very nice day.

I have to believe that God had this move to Connecticut planned all along. Each of us has learned some extremely important lessons and some fun ones along the way. We were told over and over today that Britt was a very specific answer to prayer. The teen leaders had been praying for a “spark plug” to come and light a fire in the teen club. For all of you that know Britt and know her well, that describes her to a T. I was brave enough to take up playing the djembe. It’s great fun! Faith has learned how to make new friends and learned that “when you’re stuck and can’t really get out, God tries to help you.” Isaac has found a love for soccer and his exceptional trumpet talent while here. He also learned that he loves small communities, which is a huge benefit because our community in Kandern will definitely be small. We’ve all learned very exciting things, but what I can’t wait to find out is what was all this in preparation for? Each time in scripture the 40 days/weeks/years were in preparation for something. So what awesome ministry opportunities does God have in store for us? I can’t wait to find out and share with each of you.

But the first exciting thing we would like to share with you after our 40 weeks is this morning Pastor Paul challenged the congregation of Calvary Chapel to meet our last $95/mo need. We were hugely blessed by not only the $95/mo but $135/mo in new pledges! Our God is good. We are currently at 102%! It’s still 102% of our reduced budget which is very tight, but regardless it’s another amazing blessing from the Lord. We want to thank each of you for your prayers and support of us during these last couple of years while we worked on support-raising. God was preparing us for His work. We can’t wait.

This one is of the whole gang. They had lots of fun.

Circle time with the Party leader.

Even Britt and Isaac got cute dolls.

The party ended with lots of birthday hugs.

The little girl grew and grew, becoming sillier and sillier, until one day, one of her shiny front teeth fell right out!

Wouldn’t you know it, before that one day was over her other tooth hopped right down out of her mouth, too! And then that silly little girl grinned and grinned.

Brittany: “I am a third culture kid (or TCK) because of my living in three different cultures (the culture I was born into, the one I’m moving to, and the blend of the two, which is it’s own culture). I will never ”fit in” in one culture, but I was elated to discover that Jesus is a TCK too! Because Jesus had to live in Egypt, so He really does understand what my life is like.”

Isaac: “MTI was a very very fun place and the best part was that you got to go to class with your slippers on, and it is a great place to learn to grow into your [new] culture.”

Faith: “I like MTI because we went hiking & there was a very nice man who was my teacher, he was very funny.”

One of the more frustrating events in recent weeks was the evening of Sept. 22. A couple of our supporters were gracious enough to host a get together for us that night and introduce us to some of their friends. Unfortunately, when we left for the party we found our neighborhood blockaded in by police cars. At first we didn’t think anything of it as we turned around to try to leave a different way, but was we found another police road block at the other end of our neighborhood we suddenly didn’t feel so good about our children being home alone. So we stopped to ask the police what was going on. The policeman we spoke to told us there was a gunmen loose in our neighborhood and we should go home. We took his advice. Although, I have to say after being put on hold (see below) by 911, this was not what I needed to have greater confidence in law enforcement:

Colorado Springs Police believed an armed man who had been evicted from his apartment kept them at bay for five hours Friday evening. But when members of the SWAT team stormed his apparent location, they found him gone.

God has already been at work in the situation. The party has been rescheduled, and this time it’s being hosted by the couple who were coming last time. We’ve never even met them, but we’re now invited to their home to share about our mission.

It’s been a busy season for our children as well. Isaac will have his last soccer game next Wednesday – his team has played very well, and I think it’s been a great experience for him. He is so physical, it’s a good reminder that we need to continue to give him these opportunities. Brittany just got a major role in her school play. I can’t help but grin. We’re a little nervous that it may conflict with prefield training, although the mission is now recommending we consider waiting again. It would better for the kids school situation to put off training, and unless we see a great change in our support situation, there is no reason to rush. However, I still want that box checked. We’ll see. Faith is in all day kindergarten, and really enjoying it. She learns at rocket speeds, and is really excelling. I think that our kids are really in a good place right now, and those of you who have been praying for them, please keep it up because it’s working!

Please be in prayer for us that God will really guide our support raising. As I mentioned above, it’s been very frustrating recently, and while we have lots of exciting opportunities coming up, that has been the case for months now, and the yeild has remained low. Pray that God will begin redeeming our time, and these opportunities for his glory.

This summer our kids have been just as busy, if not more so, as the school year. I always tend to think of summer as a time to relax, enjoy a good book and just veg awhile. Not this summer. Colorado’s beautiful mountains hosted some awesome camps for Isaac and Brittany. Faith and Isaac are sharpening their swimming skills at our local Aquatics Fitness Center. All three of our children are learning Okinawan karate. The World Cup generated a family favorite past time that got Isaac itching for a chance to become the next Michael Ballack (Germany’s captain and one of their stars). Isaac, Faith and I did VBS at our church for a week. And Britt is raising funds to go on a Mexico mission trip to build a house for a very needy family. This summer has been crazy, good crazy, but crazy nonetheless. We hope and pray your summer is a good crazy too.