MEADE MINISTRY

A Broken Arm, Pumpkins and gifts...

2011-10-30T21:26:00.020+01:00

It has happened.....the first broken bone of the year....for all of Residence Life. S is a little bummed that he has to shower with a bag over his arm, but he feels pretty cool.

While playing ultimate frisbee intramurals on Thursday, S fractured his arm in two places. We are very glad he broke his left arm and not his right!

Lots has been going on over the last couple of weeks. We have had our first dorm birthday, visited a few more castles, carved pumpkins, met neighbors, received our first package from the states, had some late night talks with students, and dressed up for the middle school party.

M had his 13th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Some dorms have traditions regarding food, but all dorms have traditions regarding water. The high school boys dorms "creek" their dorm brothers by catching them and dragging them down to the nearest creek. You better bring a change of clothes if you step foot into one of these dorms on your birthday because they creek visitors too. The girls dorms are a bit nicer and just dump water on each other. We decided to use a hose on M.

The other day Daniel met our neighbor that lives across the street. A few minutes later Daniel showed up with these:

Our neighbor asked us to stop by later and pick up more. When we returned from our meeting a couple hours later, this was in our driveway:

Good thing we are in Residence Life so we could give some away!

With Halloween coming up this week, we decided to carve pumpkins. S and E have never carved pumpkins so this was an extra awesome experience for them. A group photo before beginning.

E decided to give her pumpkin sunglasses (she comes sunny place) which turned out really great:

Daniel had some fun with the sunglasses:

M gave his pumpkin braces (totally appropriate):

O made a "yeti" :

S did a pretty awesome job with one arm:

Of course I had to make one with fat birdies:

Daniel made one for math and one with a pretty stellar jack o lantern face:

And a group photo:

Well that is all for now. Tomorrow we are going to Basil with all of Res Life for a festival. More pictures to follow!

Hi there - it's been awhile!

2011-09-24T09:44:00.004+02:00

Hello,

I'm not sure whether to begin by apologizing or not. Frankly, you've heard it all before, and we've had much longer stretches without updating this blog. You'd rather we just update and get on with the meat. On the other hand, I am sorry for the lapse in info. Perhaps in the course of reading this post, you'll understand what we've been up to instead of blogging :0)

Since arriving, the kids (and us) have been busy, busy, BUSY. It's incredible how we pack so much into their lives. They've already had to learn to say no to a few things, and there's been a couple mornings where some of the kids go to the early Open Gym to play basketball, but one emerges an hour later saying, "I just needed to sleep."

Someone asked last time about our kids' names. For a couple different reasons, we won't be including their names on this blog. We'll refer to them by their grade and gender. Our 7th grade girl is Nigerian, and her parents are living in Nigeria right now, working with a big church in Abuja. Our 7th grade boy is American, but was born in Germany, grew up mostly in Moscow, Russia, and now his parents live in Istanbul, Turkey. Our 8th grade boy is Korean, but was born and lived almost his whole life in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our 8th grade girl is American, and lived for the past year in Linz, Austria with her parents, where they are now. We love these kids, and hope to get you acquainted with them enough that you can love them with us, and help us by praying for them.

Every Sunday night, we have what we call a Dorm Fellowship. This is mostly just a time set aside for the whole dorm to get to know each other, and hopefully have some fun. Our first fellowship, we went on a short hike up to the World Wars monument in Kandern. This sits just behind the school, just outside the city on a BIG hill, that overlooks the valley where Kandern sits. It's an incredible view, and we can see Sitzenkirch (where the Middle School is), Malsburg, Tannenkirch, Vogelbach, and the ruins of Sausenburg, where we also went a subsequent week for DF. This is a great time each week, and we guard it very carefully; Parents know not to call, kids know not to leave homework, and friends know not to plan anything.

Hiking up to the monument, we passed the train tracks - PHOTO SHOOT!

Sitting on the monument, looking over Kandern

Other side of the hill, with a view of Tannenkirch at Sunset

Hiking up to Sausenburg, 8th grade boy is impressed by the steepness

Atop the tallest tower at Sausenburg, we can see Switzerland and France, point out Lorrach, and Basel, spy the Vosges Mountains, get a good look at all the valley below us, and a great view of Hoch Blauen, right up behind us and one of the highest points in the Black Forest.

Every other week, instead of having the kids pack their lunches, we bring a hot lunch to the school for them. We've already made Lasagna and homemade pizza - who knows what culinary endeavors we'll explore next?

Enjoying the goodness of Italian cuisine

A couple weeks ago, Kandern hosted a popular annual event called Budenfest, which means Festival of Booths. I know what you're thinking, but no - it's not really all that similar to the one that the Jews have. THIS ONE means that all the clubs in the surrounding area (skiing, wrestling, ping pong, and many others) all take over the Blumenplatz (town center) with their huge booths. They serve traditional German food, and raise money for their events throughout the year. Sunday afternoon, we went with the kids, walked around a bit, and ate lunch at the wrestling booth. The kids went the safe route with Brats and Brots (Sausage and Bun), and one got a flammenweie (think pizza with a cream sauce). Victoria and I shared some schnitzel with gravy. Traditionally, most people are drinking beer - and lots of it. We thought maybe some apfelschorle (a mixture of apple juice and fizzy water) or a coke might be better for the kids :0)

8th grade boy, enjoying the atmosphere

7th grade boy, showing off his new braces (the current bane of our existence)

7th grade girl, enjoying her brat

8th grade girl . . . we don't feed them at home much.

Today, the kids are at the Middle School Overnight, a get-to-know-each-other time with all the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. They stayed the night at a Youth Hostel in Lorrach, and are having a great time, I'm sure. There are TONS of events coming up, and we need to decide what our birthday tradition is going to be before our 7th grade boy turns 13 here in a few weeks (in most of the other dorms, you are sure to get wet on your birthday). We'd like to do a day trip sometime soon, but finding a free Saturday to do it is kind of a pain.

So that's a little bit of our schedule - we keep pretty busy around here, but we will try to prioritize and keep you all up to speed. More to come later - TA TA for now!

A Week and a Day

2011-08-30T10:33:00.012+02:00

We have survived.

That seems to be what everyone has been asking us, and we have been able to answer with an emphatic yes! We love our dorm and our kids. Before they arrived, we prayed that they would all get along, especially the boys since they share a room. Well, they all really enjoy hanging out together. The boys both speak Russian, so for the first couple of days they enjoyed having a 'code' language. Also, they have all discovered the Nerf gun. They had 'Nerf Wars' with only one gun on Friday night, so when we went to France on Saturday, we purchased a few more.

Last week the kids didn't have very much homework because their first full day of classes was on Wednesday. So on Thursday night, we had a flag hanging ceremony. Daniel and I ordered flags off Amazon representing the different countries our dorm represents.

8th Grade Girl

8th Grade Boy and 7th Grade Boy

Our handy work

Every Sunday night each dorm has a dorm fellowship. Basically, we spend 2 hours each Sunday night together as a dorm doing something spiritually enriching. On Sunday, we decided to take the kids on a short hike, then have a Bible study. The hike begins at the high school and follows a trail to a lookout over Kandern. On the way, we decided to have a photo shoot :)

Once we reached the overlook, we took more pictures and talked about the life of Joesph. Daniel talked to the kids about being exactly where God wants them, just like Joesph was where God wanted him. The kiddos really enjoyed the narrative.

We really do have great kids. They are very excited about being here and getting involved at BFA. Both boys are participating in the Middle School Intermediate Band - 8th grade = French Horn, and 7th grade = Saxophone. Both girls are participating in the musical that is a combined Middle School and High School production. They are all wanting to participate in intramural sports teams. Please continue to pray for their adjustment to life in the dorm and to a new school.

A tour of the Middle School House!

2011-08-21T10:07:00.001+02:00

Hey - Here's a quick video tour of our house. Enjoy!

Finally, some pictures!

2011-08-14T23:05:00.009+02:00

So, this post will be short on in-depth details, and more on the pictures. Besides, they're worth a thousand words anyway :)

About to leave . . . with our heaps of luggage

Our plane

For two weeks we stayed in Holzen, a nearby town - this was our view each morning :)

Holzen is home to dozens of storks, which is why the BFA dorm there is called Storchenblich - rest assured, they are ugly, disgusting birds

The Auditorium - home to several boring meetings

Meetings have been our lives for the past several weeks

The Middle School in Sitzinkirch - they occasionally let us out for good behavior to see various bits of Black Forest Academy

One of the Middle School classrooms

The Library - there's, uh, still some work to do . . .

The Gym

The Elementary School in Wollbach

The Elementary School has a bilingual program, with many local German children attending

Getting the royal tour

Incredible how diverting an elementary school can be

See what I mean?

Victoria was especially impressed with the height-adjusting chalkboards

One of the classrooms

The Library - a bit more put together than at the Middle School

The Music Room

On the last day of the All-Staff Orientation, we made a trip into Basel, where the BFA Personnel Office treated us to Starbucks. I know, I'm amazed, too: I couldn't believe Victoria could go a whole three weeks without Starbucks.

The Rhine River

The courtyard of the Rathaus - the local government building

. . . with a great view of McDonalds . . .

So there you have it! I'm sorry there's not more stories and details, but those will certainly come later. We're still getting our house ready for the students' arrival Sunday evening. I'm hoping to video a tour of the house sometime Saturday night (but you really mustn't get your hopes up, as it's not quite at the top of our priority list).

For now, pray for us, and for our four students (7th Grade Boy, 7th Grade Girl, 8th Grade Girl, 8th Grade Boy) as they are, even now, making their way to Kandern and a school year away from their parents. Toodles for now!

First week in Germany

2011-08-06T22:05:00.002+02:00

Hallo!

This first week in Germany has been JAM-PACKED for Victoria and me. Each morning this week, we've gone to the school for "Survival German", taught by a pair of lovable aussies, Tim and Andrea. Tim covered basic German vocab and grammar, while Andrea walked us through the essential cultural tid-bits we'll need. Afterward, we took a field trip each morning to an integral place around town; we visited the Rathaus (Government building), Recyclinghof (Recycling center - a vital place to know in any German city), a nice local restaurant, and a haircare center (which Victoria took to a bit more than I did). We've learned quite a bit of German and have been given the tools to learn more and acclimate well to our new home.

In the afternoons, we were back with all the Residence Life staff. A few afternoons were spent learning to drive (for those who have never driven stick, or just getting used to having a SMALL amount of space to drive in), finding our way around, and studying for the driving test. We also had sessions to go over policies, schedules, and calendars - all riveting stuff.

Friday night we finally got to see our new house, though we won't be moving in until next week. It was great to finally have a space in our minds with which to begin mentally preparing. It's seemed in just about every session that our Resident Supervisor would say, "things will be like this . . . except for the middle school house, we're not really sure how that's going to work - sorry," and this happened about 5 or 6 times each meeting. Needless to say, our "dorm" is going to be unique in a number of ways.

This coming week, we're going to be having All-Staff conference each morning at the school, then each afternoon back with the ResLife staff for more orientation. In addition, Victoria and I will be having to set time aside to talk about different things. Right now, we just need a couple new beds, a fresh coat of paint in one of the rooms, perhaps and end-table or two, and another desk for a student. What we can't find within ResLife or at a second-hand store, we'll go grab at IKEA.

I'm sorry there are no pictures yet, but we've forgotten our camera at just about every turn, we've been busy out of our minds, and have very little motivation to spend our free time on the computer when we live in such a GORGEOUS place. We've been going on walks in the mornings, and absolutely falling in love with this little rural corner of Deutchland.

Things to pray for:
-Orientation: We're getting a LOT of information, and it's sort of like trying to take a sip from a firehose. Hopefully we'll be diligent in learning as much as we can for now.
-Driving: We're both quite familiar with the manual transmission, but learning a whole new set of traffic signs and laws, plus adjusting to how narrow things are will be a struggle.
-German: we won't be ministering primarily in German, but it would be nice to interact in the community, with neighbors, restaurants, doctor's offices, etc.
-Our kids. It's now just over two weeks before our students arrive. Pray for them - and their parents - as they adjust as well.

We promise we'll update again soon. We promise we'll remember to take pictures and post them. We promise to press on with strength and perseverance. Thank you for joining us in our journey, and for praying for us, however far away you might be. For now, Tschüss!

First Post from Germany

2011-07-28T21:59:00.002+02:00

Hello!

It's been a whirlwind for us the last 48 hours, but we have safely arrived in Germany! Rest assured, we will have many posts in the weeks and months to come introducing you to our home and ministry here, but we are a bit busy right now getting acclimated and trying to convince our bodies they're now 7 hours ahead. Pictures and more detailed posts will follow eventually. And yes, I know there are some needed changes to be made with the blog - we'll get to those.

For now, we don't really have a schedule until Sunday, so we'll spend the next two days settling in and finding our way around Kandern. We won't be in our house for another two weeks, so we're still sort of living out of suitcases right now - which is going to be a bit of a challenge. During orientation, all the ResLife staff stays in one dorm, about 4 km outside Kandern. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be able to put up a few pictures and tell you tales of our travels. For now, I have to figure out what I can plug in and what I can't . . .

Amazing Grace

2011-07-26T14:07:00.004+02:00

Last year, when we moved to Nebraska, one of the huge tasks looming before Victoria and I was to find a church. Knowing we'd only be here a relatively short while, it was hard for us to think of being able to get connected to a local body before leaving again. We were tempted to "church hop", or go to a church where we'd get swallowed up in the crowd, and never feel the need or pressure to plug in.

Well, hunting for a church is not easy, especially if you're doing it for the first time as a married couple. There were things that I hadn't previously considered that were now an important part of this decision because they were so dear to Victoria. We visited several churches. Some were very small, and had no one our age. Others were so huge, it would have been impossible to tell if we were first-time guests or lifetime members. One service, we literally walked in the doors at the beginning of the service and walked out them 90 minutes later without a single person saying a word to us. Then we visited Grace Reformed Church.

I think I knew the moment we walked inside that there was something special about this place. Immediately we were greeted - not by the guy with the "greeter" nametag who will be doing this each third Sunday of the month, but by someone that was close to the door and recognized a new pair of faces. As it turns out, just about everyone wanted to meet us. We ended up sitting next to Angie, our Pastor's wife (though we didn't know it at the time), who has been one of our closest friends this past year. She immediately said hello and - get this, now - gave Victoria a hug. Well, that's when I knew that Victoria was hooked!

We were invited to lunch. Victoria was invited to some Dancing with the Stars girls' night, which she attended, and felt completely welcomed. We realized in retrospect how much effort would've had to have gone into avoiding everyone at that first service (which I'm prone to do). At GRC, you'd have to sneak in 5 minutes after the service started, sit in the back, and sneak out during the closing prayer and even then, you most certainly wouldn't get away without literally running away from the people trying to get your name and ask about your interests.

Needless to say, we were smitten right away with our new church family. We weren't sure if we'd be joining a church in Nebraska, but only a few weeks after our first visit to Grace, there was an "Inquirer's Class" to prepare for membership, and we signed right up. A couple months later, we were members.

It would be impossible to fully convey what Grace Reformed Church has meant to us this year. They've been our haven and our anchor in the move to Nebraska - especially for Victoria. Last Sunday night during the service, our pastor prayed for us up front, and we were given an opportunity to tell the congregation just how much they meant to us, and I was able to with only getting mildly choked up.

So Grace Reformed Church is our church. It's our sending church, it's the church we'll be coming home to when we're back in the States, and it's the church we'll miss constantly while we're abroad. Praise God who has answered our prayers this year - and then some!

Us with most of our congregation after our commissioning

"Mourning Turns to Songs of Praise"

2011-07-23T21:39:00.003+02:00

This phrase comes from a Paul Baloche song we sang at our commendation ceremony in Wheaton several weeks ago - and it sums up quite well a lot of what we're feeling lately. The song leader pointed out this particular phrase, and wanted to express how pertinent he thought it might be to our situations.

We are SO excited to be leaving for Germany to work at BFA. Moreover, we are thrilled to be jumping into full-time ministry. If you know us well, or even have just been reading this blog for the past year, you know this is what we want for our lives - and we can truly say we can't see ourselves being happy doing anything else.

But there are sacrifices that come with it. We are leaving behind so much of our lives and while we know it's worth it, it doesn't make it any easier. Our nieces and nephew will be two years older the next time we see them in the flesh. Ava and Phoebe will most likely not even remember us. Libby will be entering 3rd grade (which hardly seems possible!). My baby sister will be starting HIGH SCHOOL the next time we come back to the states.

And what of the relationships we've built over the past year and more? When we first moved to Nebraska, we had an idea we probably wouldn't be here too long before moving overseas. Victoria, on a number of occasions, said, "I'm tempted not even to try to make friends, to get to close or attached to anyone - because I know I'm just going to have to leave them."

But we prayed for good friendships and relationships. I started attending a Men's group, and they have become some of my closest friends in Nebraska. Victoria has joined a book club, and a quilting group, which have both given her not only another addiction, but GREAT friends. She's recently said goodbye to both groups, and couldn't go through either without tears.

And then there's our church, oh, our wonderful church. Thinking about just makes me realize how it deserves a blogpost of it's own. How sad we are to be leaving at a time when we really feel like it's our home.

But there is good news: our God is SO FAITHFUL, and HE is the one that turns our mourning into songs of praise. Because of the hope we have in Christ, we can mourn, but we do not despair. My father-in-law summed it up best before we left Birmingham. He said, "y'know it really stinks that you guys are leaving. Hey, there's a house just down the street for sale, and it would thrill us to pieces if you guys moved in. But we totally believe in what you guys are doing, and we're behind you 100%". If you're tearing up now - don't worry, so did we.

Our families, our church, quilting, bookclub, men's group friends - these make up the bulk of our support base. These are the people that have prayed for us incessantly over the past few months, and will keep praying for us over the next few years. These are the people that we'll be excited to come back to, to send our newsletters to, to share our joys, to help bear our sorrows - in short, to partner with us in ministry. This is YOU.

We want to be totally frank here: it really sucks to be leaving you, but we do it with the most abundant joy because in a deep way, you are joining us as we go.

And this is the best part of how God is turning this into good - we are going to be ministering to a group of young people (TCK's) for whom this is not just a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it's a way of life! The life of a Missionary Kid, or other TCK is replete with transition. Life is filled with constant hello's and goodbye's, packing, garage sales, living out of a suitcase, and the oft-repeated, "I promise we'll keep in touch". God is giving us a glimpse of this right now, so that we can better minister to them in the years to come. Isn't God just great?

So rest assured, we are mourning the "leaving" part of this transition, but we are so excited to have already been able to see how God is turning us to songs of praise, and anticipating with baited breath how's going to work through us even more.

T - 6 Days . . . uh, what?

2011-07-21T07:43:00.005+02:00

So, we bought our plane tickets today and our departure date is drawing nigh. We will leave from Omaha on Tuesday the 26th, and arrive in Kandern on Thursday the 28th. Here's how that's going to go down:

-Tuesday: Drive from Omaha to Chicago, after having packed away most of our worldly possessions and accompanied by the rest of them, to stay with Dan and Lucy. We'll stay the night there
-Wednesday: Hang with family, soaking in the last moments both with them, and in the U.S.
-Wednesday night: Fly British Airways to London
-Thursday: Brief layover in London
-Thursday afternoon: arrive in Basel, Switzerland (technically I think the airport is located on French soil, but serves as an international zone - either way, when we step outside the airport doors, we'll be in Switzerland)
-Thursday Morning . . . wait, afternoon . . .evening? What time is it? Where am I?: Drive from Basel, Switzerland to Kandern, Germany and get settled in.

We are so ridiculously excited it's not even funny . . . well, maybe a little bit. Either way we cannot believe that one week from now we'll have left this country with no plans to return for two years. In the meantime, we're going to be busy, busy, busy!

This is our "packing room" - as you can see, there's still a lot to do. We'll post an "after" picture sometime later.

The great news is that our fare includes 3 bags apiece, plus two carry-ons. We'll probably take more than that, as $50/bag extra is way cheaper than shipping things via air freight.

We also need to see lots of people before we go. There's plenty to do, but we'd like to make seeing our friends and family a priority. If you happen to live in Omaha, please make arrangements to see us before you go. Likewise, if you'd like to wish us "Bon Voyage" (that phrase probably doesn't sound as good in German) and you live in Chicago, feel free to swing by Terminal 5 at O'Hare around 3pm next Wednesday.

You might now be thinking, "They're leaving, so they must not need any more financial support." Well, let me just correct that notion right away. We're still looking for 10-25 people who would be willing to support us $10-$25/month. Please let us know if you'd be interested. Of course, many of you have already made that commitment, and we thank you incredibly. Some of you will soon be getting a phone call to that end, and others of you are supporting us in other ways, with prayer, encouragement, and advice.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. Toodles for now!