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!

Flowers for teachers $10.00

Space bags $30

Shipping boxes to Germany $340

Less than 24 hours until we leave for Germany… Priceless

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.

Today we hit one of the hard parts. For literally years, we’ve been saying goodbyes. One of the downsides of living in limbo is you never really know when the next time you’ll see someone is. I’ve said goodbye to my brothers and parents many times now, and while each time is difficult, I know that it really isn’t a goodbye because I’ll see them again. Even if I don’t see them again in this life, I know they’ll be there with me in the next.

That isn’t true in every case. Tonight we had to say goodbye to our dog, Aslan. She’s been with us for nine years, since she was just a few week old puppy. While she hasn’t always been the best behaved dog, she has been a fierce lover and protector of us. She’s going to live with some wonderful animal lovers here in Connecticut. But will we ever see her again? At nine years old, it’s doubtful.

That wasn’t the only goodbye of the evening though. Just across the way, the Calvary Chapel teens have put together what they’re calling a coffee house. I didn’t actually see any coffee, mostly soda, and junk food, but the idea is similar. They all hang out in a big room and take turns performing, and — in this case — trying to share the gospel in innovative ways.

Not surprisingly, Britt managed to bring together not just her church friends, but a large contingent of unchurched friends as well (which seemed to be predominately made up of male admirers). She had a great time, and refrained from being even slightly dramatic. (wink).

Note: this isn’t one of the skits. This is just a candid of her chatting with friends.

Amid the skits, contests, speeches and even a girl solving a scrambled Rubick’s cube in just over a minute, Britt sang her goodbye.

She chose a song by Barlow Girl called Here’s My Life. It’s a song that explores fairly deeply the feeling of loss that we experience when we have to sacrifice for God while reaffirming the commitment to make the sacrifice. The chorus says:

And God I’m crying out tonight
Cause I’ve given You my life
But I’m tired and I’m missing what’s behind
So once more here’s my life

If you know Brittany, you can imagine the passion she poured into the song as she sang it.

She’s wrapping up the evening with a sleep-over/friend-a-thon at Aslan’s new home, hopefully easing our dog’s transition, and giving her a chance to say a longer farewell to some of her dearest friends here.

In truth, we have it so easy compared to so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s almost silly for me to be writing about this. However, coming from our comfortable American life, giving up our beloved dog, and saying hard goodbyes is tough stuff. God keeps asking me this week, what am I unwilling to give up? I fear to even answer the question. The perversity of my human nature wants to respond “haven’t we given up enough already?” And yet I’ve a dear brother in Africa trying to balance the safety of his family against the calling God is laying on his life. My sacrifices are pretty petty, but they still hurt.

Bless you all.

Brandy rescued a baby bunny from highway 14

Isaac had his band concert

Note: he’s a fifth grader playing in the Middle School advanced band his first year playing!

And I got new glasses. I put on the shirt prior to getting my vision checked, however.

We packed yesterday (and Brandy unpacked again this morning).  We’re trying to work out exactly how much we can take on the plane with us.  I keep thinking space will be at a premium, but the problem is really weight.  Each checked bag can be 50lbs.  That sounds like a lot, but it really doesn’t take much to make a bag that heavy.

Today we’re making calls and canceling things.. internet services, supplemental medical plans, all those things we needed here in Connecticut that won’t do us an ounce of good in Germany.  It’s amazing how many tiny pieces there are to a move like this.  Thanks so much for your prayers.  We need them.

Yesterday in church, the sermon was given by a missionary to Turkey who we’ve gotten to know a little while we’ve been here. He began by talking about how his life was going down hill until he found Christ. That thought has lingered with me because it is so much easier to go down hill. Down hill we can coast, up hill is always work. Getting this far has really been an up hill battle for us. I don’t like up hill. I want to coast. One of the lessons God has been teaching me, though, is that coasting down hill is just a quick trip to the pits. My walk with the Lord, following in His will is always going to be work. It’s always going to be up hill. When I’m exhausted and I can’t go any further, He may carry me, but the journey is always climbing, because at the end of the road is the most incredible summit we can imagine. That’s the goal. This side of eternity we will never get there, but we have to keep climbing.