Sheep Thrills

Okay, it must have been a slow news day... Last Friday was a teacher development day. We were blessed to have a staff member from our Seoul school help us develop our biblical integration skills. Sarah and her husband Stephen, have been visiting all week as Stephen was performing an internal financial audit for us. They were wonderful to have around - we sometimes forget that we are a part of a much bigger network that spans the globe. Well, just like every week, we finish our Fridays with janitorial duties. As we were working through our chores, the principle called "sheep!" from her upstairs vantage point. We ran outside and the hill across the road from our school was alive with migrating sheep. We ran around trying to find cameras to record this unique event - we were giddy with excitement.

The shepherd, his son and their dog paused the sheep just opposite the school for about 5 minutes as they prepared for the next leg of their journey. It was just a perfect place to take a picture of our school's sign with a nice woolly background (makes it look like we are out in the sticks!) It was so cool to watch the dog keep the sheep in place. At one point, a couple of strays were walking out onto the road (soon to become lambchops and fuzzy slippers) when the shepherd yelled and the dog raced off with amazing speed to bring the strays back into the fold. There is something spiritual there if you ponder it...

It is a bit harder to tell, but the picture below shows the next leg of the journey for the group - they just walked down the middle of the road! You can see the little baby sheep with their mothers toward the back of the herd and one itty-bitty little black sheep. (Sheep are so cute!) The pickup was a part of the herding team (they keep their emergency flashers going so people know that there are sheep ahead... like they couldn't tell...)
After the excitement of the sheep drive, we settled back down into finishing up our school chores (Sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, etc.). We ended our Friday evening with a big dinner out with our visiting friends. They treated us to an Argentinean steak house in the neighboring town of Lörrach. It was the first beef steak I have had since we got here - you don't want to know how much it cost! Did I mention that the € to $ exchange rate hit another record high? - it now costs us over $1.50 to purchase €1. Ouch! But God always provides.

Other than our "Sheep Thrills" last Friday, it was a normal week. Delynn was sick the first half of the week before passing it to her favorite person (uh, me) to let me carry the ball for a few days. Michael started his German class at night school. At the first meeting, we had 16 students and our teacher. Together, we represented 17 different countries! Wow, what diversity. Individuals from Viet Nam, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Algeria as well as France, Italy, England, Sweden, America (me) and Canada (my colleague Jennifer). We are looking forward to the opportunity to meet and talk with this eclectic group.

Next weekend our Bible Study (we call them "Life Groups") is having an overnight retreat. Hopefully, Delynn and I will both be healthy and ready to go! We have a great group of people in our group and look forward to diving deeper with them.

We appreciate all of you who are following our blog. Our friend Howard mentioned in his blog that we are "vacationing" in Germany for the next 18 months (he also clarified that statement). It is true that we are enjoying many new experiences, but our primary joy is giving a quality Christian-based education and community experience to our students. We are so thankful for all of you who faithfully support us in the many ways that allow us to accomplish this. We love you and miss you all.