Just thought I would share something that is becoming more popular in Germany. The photo below is a thumbprint scanner at our local grocery store. You simply put your thumb in this scanner and your grocery total is automatically taken out of your bank account.
For all those Christian “conspiracy theorists”…could this be the beginning of the MARK OF THE BEAST? :)
Last weekend I taught a Saturday Youth Leader Workshop and then spoke in a youth service on Sunday morning in Zurich, Switzerland. I had a blast! It was great getting to know the leaders and the students.
Since we were so close to Lake Zurich, we decided to eat our pizza 
I'm attaching a bunch of pictures we took so you can get a better idea of what it was like.
PS. We decided it was time to go when one swan started hissing at us when we wouldn't give it anymore pizza crust :)
Emma was having a birthday party the other day. I had spent a long time decorating a birthday cake that I made for her. So, Jon knew how important this cake was. (There aren't decorated cakes here like there are in the States in the grocery stores)
So, I was taking care of getting the girls' swimsuits on for the pool party while Jon was in charge of getting everything out of the van. He had the cake in one hand and a basket of goodies in another hand while he was trying to close the trunk. Well, the cake wobbled and to save the cake, Jon sacrificed his finger in the hatchback door.
The nail immediately turned reddish purple and we think it actually broke the tip of the finger. So, after a weekend of pain, Jon decided to go to the Dr. where the nail was lanced and drained to relieve the pressure.
I just had to include the photo of the bandage that the Dr. put on his finger. It gave me a good laugh!
So if you look at a street view of downtown Kandern, Germany and see me carrying 5 pizzas, you can be certain that they weren't all for me!
I just found out yesterday that my 3rd grade daughter's teacher was kidnapped and held at gunpoint in the Philippines a couple of years ago. She was teaching in an American school and some armed gunmen came and took her and a couple of her colleagues and held them for days.
While this mild-mannered, soft spoken, non-pretentious women was held at gunpoint, she sang songs about Jesus! It reminds me of Paul and Silas in prison! Well, the locals took up a collection of money and paid off the gunmen to release them. This is not exactly the best option as it encourages more kidnappings.
We lost a dear (young) friend a few weeks ago. He took such risks for the gospel's sake, smuggling bibles into communist countries, teaching locals how to pastor, sharing the love of Jesus wherever he went. He never even considered the difficulties of where he and his family had to live (which has been all over the world) in order to follow God's plan. His focus was only on obedience to do whatever God asked....wherever that led him.
It makes me consider all that we do and how important our friendships are. It also reminds me that everything we have here is for just a short time. So, live "on purpose" every day taking every opportunity to share the love of Jesus with whoever will listen!
This is what life is really about. That's living on the front lines!
To all of the members of Grace Outreach Center (our former church), you know that fruitcake is one of Pastor Brook's mortal enemies, the bane of his existence. So Robin and I enjoyed this in his honor.
As most of our friends and those that are on our email update list know, we just moved last weekend. It was an interesting experience. Since we only moved 3 km (2 mi) away, we decided to do it ourselves rather than pay someone else. We haven't yet decided if that was a wise idea or not :)
Our new place is over 500 sq. ft (50 qm) bigger than our last house, with another full bathroom (important as our oldest becomes a teen in a few weeks) and is closer to the main campus of the school. We'll miss the quiet country life, but already we've realized the joys of walking just a few minutes to get to the town square, the grocery store, the toy store and various bakeries.
We are still in the process of unpacking and setting everything up the way we want it. But it's already starting to feel like home. The only problem is that the kids are out on spring break, so we don't really have all the time we'd like to setup the new house.
Pictures coming soon (when we've unpacked some of the boxes)....
Jon and I were walking through the paths along the farmland near our house. We haven’t seen the sun since November it seems. The winters are dreary, dark and wet. During the better part of winter, when we wake up it’s dark and by about 4:00 in the afternoon it’s dark again. So, I was so happy because it was the first day that actually seemed like Spring. The sun was out…the snow was melting and we were the only ones on this path out in a deserted field. So, I began to sing very loud and twirl like Maria on The Sound of Music. Then I started singing a song that I used to sing as a little girl that reminded me of Germany. It goes, “I love to go a wandering along the mountain track and as I go I love to sing, my knapsack on my back”. Then I broke out very loudly with…Valderi-valdera…only to see a man directly in front of me on a ladder in a tree. I assume that he was doing some last minute tree pruning in his field. I’m sure that he was thinking how odd “those Americans” are. Wie peinlich! (how embarrassing)
Jon and I went to France this morning to go shopping. (It’s just 25 mins away) There are some things that you can get in France that you can’t find in Germany like canned soft drinks, real orange juice, Frubes yogurt, Pepperidge farms cookies (sadly not Milanos), Neutrogena face soap, Maybelline mascara. I saw some French Bread and thought it would be a shame if I didn’t buy some “French” Bread while I was in France. I should have found some “French” Fries, too.
We really need to learn some French. Every time we go there, we end up doing “charades” just to communicate. Of course we know Merci, entree, sorti, toilettes but I thought it was interesting that they actually say “Viola” when they hand you whatever you just purchased. I always thought is was used for a magic trick or something. But, it’s just like “here ya go”!
I just read a blog from another missionary about what she missed from the States. Someone sent her some Coffee Mate powdered creamer and some cooking spray. I can relate with this so well. The things that you think you can’t live without…cooking spray, coffee creamer, peanut butter, mac-n-cheese. Well, Jon & I got a package in the mail the other day that had liquid gold! It was a box filled with different flavors of “liquid” coffee creamer. Nah, nah, nah-nah, nah... I got liquid creamer! You may not realize how amazing this is, it is impossible to get here unless you can have access to a base somewhere. How fun!
