1st day in Germany

Tuesday, July 19,2011

I had forgotten what Germany smells like. As I sit on my sister-in-law’s terrace, on our first day back in Deutchland and watch and listen to Karin play cards with her family, all the smells come rushing back to me. I can not explain what they all are, I can only say that I know them intimately and rejoice in “knowing” the country once again. Every place that I have ever been has its own distinctive smell and feel. Germany tends to be my favorite.

Two languages are continually intermingled and competing for attention as we struggle to figure out what each other say. The Germans are winning though. Their English is better than our German but we are all having fun regardless. Especially Karin, as she thoroughly enjoys talking, laughing and remembering with her siblings. Church bells ring three times, bringing back even more.

The sights are obviously everywhere. Especially the architecture. The town we are staying in is a small village of 1600 people with homes that are as old as 400 years but clean and sophisticated . It is an interesting mix of history and modern technology. Everything is solid and well built. No Wal-Mart or Lowes here to sell cheap, crappy products. Germans would never put up with it. The small church that my brother -in-law pastors, sits in the center of town with its large outer rock wall that was used to protect the inhabitants from invaders. Its bell tower sits in the center of the yard, surrounded by the grave yard, commanding a view of the town below.( I had often wondered, when I first came to Germany, why they would put the graveyard so close to the church. After all, the Church is to be a place of life not death. I then learned that they place the graves there, so that as the Pastor teaches and shepherds his flock, he is reminded of where every one of his people are eventually destined, revealing to him his sense of responsibility.) The church, originally Catholic, was built in 1517. It converted to being a Lutherin church during the reformation which is demonstrated by the large painting of Luther placed above the Pastors head as he preaches.

The tastes still remain to be experienced.

Flying to Deutchland

07.18.11

6:30 pm East Coast over the Atlantic Ocean

7 bags, 9 carry ons, 5 kids, 7 Passports, 7 boarding passes, 325 fellow passengers, no crying babies, yet, 1 bumpy airplane, and 38,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean at 609 MPH.

Our adventure began a little over a year ago when we decided it was time for a visit back to Karin’s Fatherland. Our first attempt to get off the ground was shot down by a ruptured appendix and soon to follow hospital stay. God felt that we were not ready yet for the adventure that was ahead of us. A little more preparation was in order. A year later and our second attempt seems to be a success.

This morning before our flight, we spent some time reading the Bible and praying together. For the past month or so, I have been praying about God giving a vision to our family for this trip. During this morning prayer, I believe He gave me a foundation for that vision.

        It came from Colossians 3:12-18

Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness and longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; Even as Christ has forgiven you, you must also do. But above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

I encouraged the kids to make this our calling not only to those outside of our family circle, which is the easy part, but even more so, to each other. “HAH! THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT A BRAT MY BROTHER IS? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF SNOT MY SISTER IS?” In reality this passage is an impossibility. It can not be done… without Christ. But with Him… I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I told the kids to read this passage often and ask God to do these things in them daily. To encourage each other to do it in His strength.

As we were talking about these verses, God also showed me something else I had not put too much thought into before. “and be thankful”. Had I thanked God for all He had done to allow us to go on this trip? Did I know all that He had done? At that point, we looked over the past year and made some awesome discoveries.

From start to finish, even though most of the time we did not see what He was doing, God provided the finances for everything.

·         Karin’s father paid for all seven tickets with money left over to spend.

·         After 3 years of School, Karin graduated from the nursing program at Virginia Western, passed her state board exam and now is officially a Nurse. She attained a position right away with the Raleigh Court Rehabilitation Center. When we return from Europe, she will most likely begin work with the Lewis Gale Medical Center, where she had attained a Scholarship to attend Virginia Western.

·         This new job for Karin, though not fun, led to a lot of overtime that provided us with a lot of money that we did not expect.

·         My business, Paint By Design, started to prosper without my pushing it to do so. I attained a large contract to paint the exterior of seven condominium buildings in Forest, VA. This job alone will provide a major portion of our living expenses while we are overseas.

This in its self, caused other problems to arise. As of two months ago I had no one to run this job while we were gone. I also did not have a descent crew to rely on. But God is faithful.

·         Jamie Hemeon came to work for me and turned out to be a wonderful manager that I am able to trust not only with the Condos but pretty much everything involved with running the business. He is heavily involved in Calvary Chapel of Lynchburg and in 2 years, he and his family plan on going to South America as missionaries.

·         God faithfully provided a crew of 5 men that all have good character and ethics. They all either attend Calvary Chapel of Lynchburg or are graduates of Liberty University.

·         Wisdom was given on how best to communicate with Jamie. Using Skype, phone cards and cell phones, I think we have figured out how to run it all.

·         I was overwhelmed with so many issues on how to actually run the business while we were overseas. But I believe God has been and will continue to be faithful in giving me the wisdom to deal with the different issues that come up.

The things that God provided through these jobs, has truly been amazing.

·         Both cars were having problems that were not cheap. Both have been repaired.

·         Tim’s school tuition is already paid.

·         Karin and I plan on going to Israel with our church in February. We have been able to meet all the scheduled payments and believe that we will have the money to finish paying that off.

·         We were able to pay for Emily, Elisabeth and Timothy to go to the teen retreat from our church this summer. We believe they had a great time.

·         Our mortgage for the 2 months we are gone is paid for.

·         All of our personal bills for the 2 months are paid for.

·         My business is caught up with all of its bills. I believe that by the time we get back from Europe, the business will be out of debt.

·         Emily received a summer job as a babysitter that has provided her with spending money.

·         God provided for us to donate money to my best friend, Frank Gonzalez and his wife Suzie, who are starting a Calvary Chapel in Athens, Greece.

·         God has given us the wisdom we needed in transferring money to Germany and how to deal with it while we are there.

·         I was able to pay for the airline tickets to attend my brother’s wedding in Texas 2 weeks ago. Very big blessing for me to be able to go.

As you can imagine, the trip in its self provided all kinds of logistical nightmares. But again, God is faithful.

·         Karin’s father provided us with a vehicle that will be available to us a good portion of the time.

·         A family that we do not even know, from Karin’s brother’s church, will be lending us their VW Bus for 1 month.

·         We needed someone to watch over our home and take care of our 2 dogs and 3 cats while we were gone. Done! Roger from church is staying at our home and taking care of everything while we are gone.

·         From what we believe so far, the dogs have not eaten Roger or the cats.

·         We have several families as a back-up, to take care of everything if Roger has to leave for some reason.

·         We all worked together as one to pack and get the house ready. (One of the greatest of miracles!)

·         God gave us wisdom in packing our bags. They all fit in the car. We thought we might have to leave a kid or two behind, but it all worked out in the end.

·         There was no extra charge for overweight suitcases

·         We left on time to church that morning with a clean home. Then from there, the drive to New York.

·         There was very little stress in the whole affair

·         We had a smooth, safe and uneventful drive to New York’s JFK Airport.

·         Parking our car in New York would have been very expensive. The best price I found was $13 a day. That would have been over $650! We found a friend of a friend that is allowing us to park our vehicle at their home, in Brooklyn, the whole time we are gone. In the process of this, we not only found a place for our car but we also made a great, new friend. A complete stranger to us, John volunteered not only to take our car for us but to also drop us off and pick us up from the airport. He was a real blessing. He even took us out to get a Brooklyn style pizza for lunch.

·         We have been provided with a non-conflicting schedule to visit family and friends.

·         Timothy was given a traveling buddy for the entire flight. An 8 year old boy named Evan, was flying to Berlin to spend the summer with his Aunt and Uncle. Tim and him got along great and were able to keep each other entertained.

·         5 days before our flight, Annalina’s knee began to hurt her severally. We took her to the hospital were the doctor’s believed they might have to operate to take out an unseen small piece of glass. Flashbacks to a year ago with Ellie’s health problems, made us think, “Oh no, not again!” But after further evaluation, they found nothing and treated her with anti-inflammatory drugs. She is fine now and running around like nothing happened. Everybody is healthy and we all made the trip.

Through all of this, God has prepared our hearts. I feel a sense that we are all excited about what God is going to do. Not only with those around us but especially within our own hearts.

We really appreciate your prayers especially after seeing what all God has done to make this happen. We are especially thankful for our church family back home that will continue to pray for us for the whole trip. Please see “Will work for Prayer” for our continued prayer needs.