Our life in Weil

Re-entry to the States

2009-06-26T03:15:00.004+02:00

We finally got back to Portland, Oregon last night at about 22.40 - almost 12 hours later than we had originally expected. It was an experience that we do not wish to repeat anytime soon. Our flight from Basel to Frankfurt was cancelled due to mechanical issues - an issue that was not discovered until we had pushed back after loading. I don't know, something about the steering not working right. Well, whatever this issue, it required that we deplane, get our bags from baggage claim and go upstairs to re-book a new route back to Portland.

Unfortunately, there was no additional flight to Frankfurt in time to catch our direct Frankfurt - Portland flight. Let me mention that this is a primo flight: 10.5 hours to get from Frankfurt all the way to PDX. Bags are checked all the way through; once through security from Basel to PDX. It is probably the fastest way back to the west coast. The best the airline could do once we missed the first leg was to route us Basel-Dusseldorf-Chicago-Portland. The new routing would get us to Portland a little after 20.00 (8pm) and the flight to Dusseldorf left in an hour. We tried booking the Thursday flight but then found out there was no Thursday flight the next Basel-Frankfurt-Portland flight would not be until Friday, so we said okay.

Off we went to get back in line to check our bags - the line was long and not moving very quickly so Delynn jumped over to the Business class line and explained our plight to the service person who nicely let us move over (saving us 30 minutes at least!) to the Business class checkin. We dumped our bags (oh yeah, one came in at 22.9kg. 100 grams - just one candy bar - from being overweight!) went through security a 2nd time and got to the gate for boarding.

The Basel-Dusseldorf-Chicago legs went fairly well. The only concern was that we didn't have any seats assigned for the Chicago-Portland leg and the Lufthansa folks couldn't access the computer system to grant us boarding passes since all stateside travel is handled for Lufthansa by United Airlines. We got into Chicago about the time we should have been landing in Portland had our connections worked previously and then we had a 4 hour layover. We went to the ticket counter and were given a voucher to get us through security but they said that the boarding pass would have to be issued by the gate agents. Not a good sign. We went through security (3rd time if you are counting) and since we are now in America, we have to remove our shoes - they don't make you remove your shoes in Switzerland, they must have better scanners.

The security line was longer than any security line I have been in at any airport. Well, there was that security screening in Israel, but that's another story... Anyway, we got through the screening and headed off to wander the terminal for a bit. We had a bite to eat (nothing worth describing here...) and walked up and down the terminal (they had Starbucks at both ends - we must be in America!). We decided to wait at our gate when we found out that the inbound flight as delayed - first an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours... Oy! In the mean time the departure gate changed twice so the whole plane's worth of passengers shuffled from one hopeful point of departure to another.

Did I mention that we didn't have assigned seats? Let me look back - Yes I did. So, here we are with a voucher promising us seats but not actually assigning them. When the London-Heathrow flight (the one leaving our gate prior) finally got off the ground, our boarding agent crew took over and immediately announced that the flight was overbooked and they needed volunteers to take a later flight or fly tomorrow morning - you know the drill. They offer some nice goodies (flights, hotel vouchers, etc.) which is great if you haven't been up for over 24 hours and really want to get to PDX because someone will be waiting for you and the roaming charges on your German cell phone from the states are SKY HIGH! Anyway, we came to realize that those volunteers were going to be making space for the 20 folks that had been confirmed but did not have assigned seats - which ment us! Gulp. The boarding agent was being swamped with everyone wanting to know about seats, so she made a rule: If I haven't called your name, I will not talk to you - we are trying to issue boarding cards as quickly as possible.

The last zone for boarding had been called (along with 12 or so of the names on the confirmed list) but our name had not been mentioned. The last call for boarding was being made when we heard her call "Smith". No answer. "Walz ,party of two". "Yo, right here!" as I sprang forward waving our coupon in the air. Whew! we were among the last people to board just as the door was about to close and prepare to push back from the jetway.

We were seated for our final leg - yes, we were going to make it. As we waited for the normal sort of departure activities, we noted that the air conditioning turned off and wasn't coming back on... The weather in Chicago was about 28 or so (82 degrees F) and let me just say that a small aluminium tube containing a 150 or so people warms up really quickly. I soon had beads of sweat running down the small of my back - it was less than comfortable. And I must also say that after being in the same clothes for over 24 hours, humping 85kg (200lbs) worth of suitcases around, and being in some stressful situations, I was starting to be a little stinky - and this was NOT helping.

The captain came on and acknowledged our pain and noted that the on-board engine that normally a) supplies air conditioning and b) helps start the engine was non-operational. Oy! Yes, they were bringing in an external tug to do the job if we would be patient for a couple of minutes. The tug came and we started getting some air flow (note that I didn't say air conditioning...) as the captain attempted to get the starboard engine started (note that I said attempted...). Apparently, this little tug couldn't get enough air flow through the engine to get the turbines to compress the fuel to actually get the engine started. Oh and by the way, finding another machine like this in all of O'Hare may be a bit problematic. Oy!

They finally found another tug (perhaps a nice rival airline loaned it to them - we never did find out) that had the puffing power to get the engine started so that we could finally push off for the flight to PDX an additional 3.3 hours late. By this time, Delynn and I were absolutely exhausted. Luckily, the 4.5 hour flight didn't offer meal service (well, you could pay for a box lunch) because we dropped right off into "airline sleep" (you know: that half-sleep, half-awake, nod-off-and-jerk-your-head-up kind of sleep) for most of the journey.

We arrived safely at 22.40. We got all of our luggage and arrived at Delynn's sister's home about 23.30. Yeah! We are thankful to have arrived.

Quick trip to Baden-Baden

2009-05-24T19:27:00.004+02:00

Delynn and I had a long weekend - not to celebrate Memorial Day, but rather to celebrate Ascension Day, which this year fell on Thursday, 21st May. Ascension was rather late this year as it is based off of the date we celebrate Easter and it is always on a Thursday. Interestingly enough, it was also Father's Day in Germany. Father's day on a Thursday you may ask, but yes, in Germany, Ascension and Father's day always fall on the same day. Unlike Mother's day, which we celebrate on the same day as in the States, Father's day changes every year.

Anyway, we had a long weekend available, but we had real trouble deciding what to do. There is so much to accomplish in the next month (yes, we fly out in one month!) that we couldn't really make a decision. I needed to be back for Sunday service as I led music worship this morning, so we didn't want to go too far. Also, next weekend, we will be travelling to Celle to visit our friends Liz and Karl, so days available to prepare, pack, sort, etc. are getting fewer and fewer.

However, we also realized that if we stayed at home in Weil am Rhein, the weekend would slip through our fingers. So, on Thursday morning, I cracked open the trusty Rick Steves book and called a few hotels to see if they had room. We finally got something on the 4th hotel - it is starting to get busy in Baden-Baden. The hotel was about 10 minutes out of town by bus, but the busses run every 10 minutes, so it was quite convenient.

We really enjoyed Baden-Baden when we went last August for our anniversary. It is a very swanky place but you can be comfortable in jeans (unless you are going to the casino where coat and tie are required). The spa there is very relaxing, the trails are soothing and the ice cream is, well creamy.

Delynn didn't know I was taking this picture, but do you see the pure joy in her smile!

On Saturday, we traveled up to the Merkur - a hill outside of town overlooking Baden-Baden and the beautiful valleys of the Schwarzwald. Baden-Baden is considered the northernmost part of the Black Forest. The rhodies were in full bloom - quite spectacular don't you think? That is Baden-Baden in the background of both pictures.

This one was taken from a tower on the top of Merkur (notice that I am holding on for dear life!)

We thank you for your prayers as we enter this final month before re-entry into the U.S. It will be another sprint and we frankly do not look forward to the leaving, especially with the additional responsibilities of closing down the school. We ask for your continued prayer support - the time goes so quickly!

Love to all.

Notes from abroad

2009-05-13T20:19:00.000+02:00

Just want to update everyone with a couple of quick notes. I apologize that we have been away from the blog a bit, but the reality is that these next six or so weeks will be really crazy as we move toward re-entry into the States. Don't be surprised if entries come a little more sporatically.

We experienced a small earthquake last week here in Weil am Rhein. The epicenter was about 20 km northish from here in the village of Kandern and measured 4.5 - not a bad quake. It occurred at 3:39 am and by the time I woke up, realized that it wasn't a dream and registered as an earthquake, it was over (say 4-5 seconds). Unfortunately, I never quite got back to sleep again so it was a long day for us.

This last weekend was our annual church retreat - aptly named the "Weekend Away". The church invited speakers from England, one of which was at last year's Weekend Away, to speak, encourage and challenge us. This was one of the best/hardest retreats that I have been to in my life. God showed up in some amazing ways - bringing significant spiritual, emotional, physical healing to many. I had the privilege of assisting in the worship music which kept me pretty busy - we did a lot of up front planning, but as the Holy Spirit moved and guided over the weekend, we flexibly moved also so that God could be praised and worshiped with a minimal of distractions. Delynn and I were stretched in some very meaningful ways and are grateful for having had the opportunity.

This coming weekend, Delynn will be a surrogate godmother for the christening. One of our staff from last year had a beautiful baby girl. She is Canadian and her husband is a wonderful, quiet German. They make a really great family, but the child's godmother-to-be is in Canada, so they asked Delynn to stand in. Another wonderful privilege of living in the expat community. Plus we get to have a BBQ after church - yum!

We know that many of you pray for us regularly. As we work through these final five weeks of school, here are our prayer needs:

That we will finish the school year well, including those tough "good-byes" that are a natural part of transition.
That we will have enough volunteers to help us close down the school. We have about 4 days (not including Sunday) after our last school day to sell/move/recycle/discard everything in the entire school.
That the library might be sold as a complete unit.
That the staff exhibit God's grace and the fruit of His Spirit during this increasingly busy time.

As someone once said: "Lots to think about (and do), nothing to worry about." God is in control and for that we are eternally joyful.

Château de Chillon and Montreux

2009-05-03T17:56:00.008+02:00

We took advantage of a sunny April Saturday to trip down to Montreux Switzerland (you can tell by the name that this is in the French-Swiss section of Switzerland as opposed to the German-Swiss or Italian-Swiss areas of Switzerland). We are increasingly aware of 1) the number of days we have left in country 2) the number of things that will need to get done and 3) the number of beautiful and intriguing places left to explore... Just south of Montreux on the bank of Lake Geneva is Château de Chillon - an incredibly well preserved 12th century fortress.
Yeah, they don't build them like they used to. I guess if you are the Count of Savoy, you can choose the best views for your place. Like most fortresses, it was used for defense and collecting taxes - lots of stuff going up and down the lake. I'm told it was a very lucrative business.

The original Château didn't have the nicely paved visitors entrance right into the front door. They usually tried to make it a little harder to gain entry. We walked around the castle for hours - they had a large number of rooms open for view. One of the most impressive however was the prison. This room is situated right at about lake level and one can see that the room is built right on the rocks of Chillon.

Lord Byron wrote an epic poem The Prisoner of Chillon after visiting the Château. As world travelers of the early 19th century were wont to do, he carved his name in the pillar to the left. At the time, they probably thought it vandelism. Today, it is covered with a plexiglass shield to preserve it.

We had a wonderful day with friends exploring the castle. Of course, we had to get a couple of snaps of ourselves to prove we were there...

By the time we were finished, we were famished. It was time to travel on to the city of Montreux but not until we took a last few pictures of the beautiful Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French). I can see why they built the Château right here...

In Montreux, the gardeners had been very busy. There is a wide promenade up hard against the lake with exquisite restaurants, lush lawns and surprising arrangements of flowers. Montreux is, in a word, swanky. It is really upscale - I doubt we could afford a room for the night, but sunshine is free and we can take all of the digital pictures we want. We did enjoy a nice meal on the terrace of a lakeside restaurant, soaking in the atmosphere and warm friendship.

Yet another blessing in the many we receive. We are so grateful to have this opportunity to live here. We do look forward to returning to the States but we know that any transition will be stressful. However, we also know that as we continue to seek and walk in God's will, we will be the better for it.

2009-04-26T14:58:00.004+02:00

This is one of those blog entries that I am not really looking forward to writing. As part of our last big trip during the Easter break, we knew that when we went to Kraków, we would be within just a few kilometers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps. The distinction was one made numerous times by our guide - the purpose of the camp was for people to die. Whether the death was "natural" - i.e. overwork on starvation rations, or through the selection process which sent 75% or more of people arriving in the camp directly to the gas chambers, the sole aim was non-survival.

We arrived through the now infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Liberates") gate. You may remember that the concentration camp in Dachau had the same motto on the gate. Something that I learned - if you look closely at the letter B in the work Arbeit, you will note that it is installed upside-down. The story is that it was a form of protest by an inmate of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz I (as differentiated from Auschwitz II - also known as the Birkenau camp) was originally a Polish military barracks before the nation collapsed in 1939 - crushed between the invasions of German and Soviet armies. The buildings here are not much different than barracks in which I have lived when I served in the military - brick construction, large rooms, insulated. Relative luxury compared to the barn-like buildings you will see at Birkenau.

Everywhere barbed wire - this is the killing zone standing before two walls of electrified wire.

This is a reconstruction of the execution wall for those prisoners that were shot outright for whatever violation of the rules was perceived. The windows on the barracks situated on either side of this courtyard were boarded over to keep the prisoners from witnessing the shootings.

Many of the barracks in Auschwitz I were used for museums - we couldn't take pictures inside of the barracks rooms, so I can only describe in words the feeling of seeing piles of suitcases - each one carefully marked with the name and address of souls lost in the hopes of being relocated. The flood of 40,000 pairs of shoes - childrens, mens, womens, wooden shoes. The shock of literally tons of human hair laid out behind glass walls. It was sometimes beyond words.

We rode the three kilometers from Auschwitz I to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) in silence. The guide emphasized the enormity of the extermination camp at Birkenau. These rail tracks were installed rather late in the life of the camp to help facilitate movement of inmates - before this, those condemned to the camps had to walk from the rail siding a kilometer or so from the front gates.

Of the nearly 300 barracks built by Auschwitz I inmates, somewhat less than 20 are still up. Most of these have been rebuilt for the memorial site but are strictly modeled after the originals. The brick stacks you see in the background are the remains of the rudementary heating systems of the original barracks and the only thing left standing.

The guides at Auschwitz-Birkenau all work for the memorial - they do not allow outside guides to take groups through the camps. The guides are well trained and must take tests periodically to prove their expertise. Here, our guide stands in front of the remains of cremetorium I which was blown up by the retreating SS guards before the arrival of Soviet forces.

This is the entrace where untold numbers walked to their death. The area immediately in front was the changing room before entering the "showers". As people disrobed, they were reminded to memorize the number above the cubbyhole into which they had hurridly stashed their clothes and belongings so that they could reclaim them after the shower. This helped keep down the panic.

All Polish children living in the vacinity of Auschwitz-Birkenau (including all from the Kraków area) are required at 14 years of age to visit the extermination camps. There were several groups there on the day we visited. This was the road from the selection platform to registration. For those selected to be fit for work, this road led to the area where they were registered, tattooed and assigned a barracks. Many lived for only a few months before being literally worked to death.

Our visit that day was a tough one, but it is one that we knew we needed to make. I wonder if we have learned the lessons of this place.

Dresden and Kraków

2009-04-19T17:30:00.004+02:00

Not a lot of words this post, mostly pictures. We just returned today from a wonderful, meaningful time in Dresden, Germany and Kraków, Poland. These are just some of the over 800 pictures Michael took (I almost filled up my 4GB SD card...)

Zwinger in Dresden

Opera in Dresden

Großer Garten in Dresden

Frauenkirche, Dresden

Dresden

Wawel Cathedral - Kraków, Poland

Main square (with Maria Church) - Kraków

There are however no smiling pictures of us from our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau - we will blog on that experience later.

We always keep learning

2009-04-07T12:43:00.007+02:00

Just a quick story before we take off on holiday tomorrow. Actually, we are on holiday already, but we seem to be using most of our time thus far catching up on chores... As you are probably aware, we will be taking the train to Dresden tomorrow, staying over the Easter weekend and then traveling to Kraków, Poland. We will be returning home in the wee hours of Sunday morning (probably between 0100-0200 depending on connections). While we are away, and this is the hardest part for Michael..., we will not have a computer, so we will be off the net for a bit. We will probably look for a couple of internet cafés along the way, but essentially, we will be out of contact.

Weather-wise, we couldn't be more pleased - it has been warm enough (in the high-teens to low-twenties) to go out for a "kugel" (ice cream) with friends, bask in the warmth of the sun and people-watch. We are really going to miss that slice of life here. We thank God for every day he gives us and the little pleasures that come our way.

One of our chores we had this week was refilling a prescription. Not a big deal you say - if you have a prescription, just go to the pharmacy, or better yet just call it in. Have them verify the prescription and voilá, Bob's your uncle. Well, welcome to Germany, as a soverign country, they have the right to do things a little differently here. Not wrong, just different - and in this case, it was rather amusing.

First, as far as we can tell, there is no such thing as a prescription refill, per se. Every prescription is a one-time fill and one has to return to the doctor to get the next one. When we first arrived with prescriptions from America, the Apotheke folks were very unsure whether or not to fill them. In the end, the owner, after finding out we were working for the school (he was a supporter of RIA) gave us permission to get the prescription filled - but he warned us sternly that future prescriptions must come from a German Physician (capitalized for emphasis). We thanked him profusely and went on our way.

So, we did find a German Physician (capitalized for emphasis). Actually, it is a physician's group that occupies the floor above our apartment, so it is most convenient. Dr. Lehmann speaks excellent english and has been a very kind doctor for both Delynn and I when we have had occasion to see him. Anyway, back to the prescription...

We went up to the office to see what steps we needed to get a new prescription. We didn't know if that would entail an office visit (in which case we would make an appointment) or what we would need to do. We walked in, talked to the nice assistant (you know, all of the office staff dress much more casually than they would in the states - for the most part, they wear jeans and blouses/shirts, but no white coats or anything even remotely resembling uniformity) and she looked us up on the computer. Since we are privately insured (i.e. we pay our own bills, thank you very much) and apparently okay people, she printed off the prescription right at the front desk, told us we needed a physician's signature, and asked us to step over to the waiting area.

OOOOkkkkaaaaaayyyy. Now what? We stepped over to the waiting area (all chairs taken, so we stood) and began a whispered converstation.

"Will they call us?"
"I don't know."

"What do you think we should do?"
"I don't know."

"Do you see a physician?"
"I don't know - wait, that one has a stethoscope..."

"What do you think we should do?"
"I don't know."

"Do you see Dr. Lehman?"
"No. Do you know any of the other doctors?"
"No."

"What do you think we should do?"
"I don't know."

"Should we go back and ask at the front desk?"
"Well, the line is kind of long..."

So, this went on for a few minutes until we saw someone leave an examination room, only to be swarmed by two or three people all holding out pieces of paper which the woman signed and gave back. We knew they weren't collecting autographs, so that must be it! By the time we made the connection, the woman (probably a doctor: she had a stethoscope) was back in another examining room and we were left still clutching our unsigned prescription. The line at the front desk had by this time dissipated, so I walked over to ask about correct procedure. The staffer said, no, we would not be called and confirmed our suspicion that we just simply need to mob the doctor whenever they come into the waiting area and get a signature. Never mind that they don't have the first clue of who we are!

I joined back up with Delynn and we found a couple of chairs together. We waited... Each time a door opened, we whispered: "Is that a doctor?" We had yet to see Dr. Lehmann, the only one we knew for sure was a physician - although we were pretty sure of stethoscope woman. Finally, after a few minutes, she reappeared out of a door in transit to another patient. An elderly lady raised up her hand holding a sheet of paper and we knew this was our chance. I jumped up out of my seat and thrust the paper in her general direction. She took it, signed it and handed it back without a word. We gave a quiet "Danke schön" and made our way back toward the entrance.

Afterwards, we had a good laugh together over our new learning experience. It really was quite amusing: our initial timidity, watching others to see the process and imitating what we saw all brought us to a successful conclusion. This is life in a different culture and we love it! Never stop learning.

We will post again sometime after we return from our Dresden-Kraków trip. Please be patient with us - we realize as our date of departure from Germany gets ever closer that we have LOTS of things to get accomplished (not just teaching and bookkeeping). Thank you for keeping up with our lives here in Germany - our friends here have asked us to keep blogging when we get back to the States so they too can keep up with our lives. We have made such good friends here, leaving them is the hardest part of returning.

Love all; serve all. Make good choices.

Alpine splendor

2009-03-29T19:11:00.005+02:00

Here are a few pictures from our last day in the Berner Oberland. We took the cog-train up from the town of Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg - a skiing area with a beautiful view to the alpine peaks Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. We were blessed with a clear day after several days of very poor vis. You can see in Delynn's eyes the wonder of it all!

Here we are in the alps - it looks like we are on the top of the world and it kind of felt that way.

Michael with the Jungfrau in the background.

This is the Eiger. Pictures just cannot do justice to the majesty of this area.

I took a video showing the three peaks - Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. I love the little halos of clouds on the peaks.

I know this is a quick entry by our normal standards but we wanted to share a little of our trip to the beautiful Swiss Alps. God bless you all.

This is how God works

2009-03-16T09:11:00.005+01:00

Before I explain just one of the ways God has worked in our lives this week, I need to let everyone know that March is CRAZY busy for us over here. It's mostly good stuff, but it is affecting my time and ability to regularly post on the blog, so sorry about that. Then, when April rolls around, Delynn and I will be going on holiday to Dresden and Kraków so that will likely cause some additional patches of non-bloggyness. Just keep checking back and eventually I'll get something posted.

Okay, so this was a great God thing. Last week, spring decided to grace us with days of sunshine and warmth. After the long, cold winter, we are more than ready. It has been a glorious few days and everyone is out walking, riding, holding hands, you know... spring-stuff. Well, some form of allergen - I know not what - also decided to make its presence known.

Last Wednesday, I was hit hard. It worked down into my bronchial passages as well as my sinuses. I was coughing, sneezing, watery eyes - the works. My voice was cracking like a middle-schooler. When we sang at our Lifegroup retreat last weekend, I had to sing down an octive. I do think it gave me a really cool (dare I say sexy?) baritone voice though... (I'm not sure what Delynn thinks...) I don't recall whether I had the same reaction last year, but then Delynn and I were so often down with a cold, any allergic reactions were probably masked.

So, I'm not doing the best, I can't sing AT ALL without sounding like a frog and I had to lead worship singing on Sunday morning. My co-leader was away for the weekend, so we didn't have a backup. During the retreat, my friend Jon came up to me and asked if there was anything he could pray for - I immediately said yes; he gently laid his hands on me and began to pray. I didn't experience a sudden healing or anything but I was grateful for his fervent prayer.

Sunday morning, I got up early to prepare to lead singing. I noticed that I was coughing less. As I showered, I started warming up my voice but it was still cracking as I went up the scales. I figured that I would just have to sing as a bass that day. As I got ready to leave, Delynn was up having her first cup of coffee and I asked her to pray for me. We held each others hands and she simply asked God to be close to me, heal me and give me strength.

As I drove to church (I had borrowed a school vehicle to transport the Weiler contingent to the retreat, so we had it Sunday morning) I continued to work the scales and warming up my voice. I was blessed to have the car because I probably would have gotten some strange looks doing my warm ups on the tram... Anyway, during that 15 minute drive to church, my voice really started improving - it was such a relief. I could hit notes higher than I had in days. I was so thankful that God was granting me the desire of my heart.

We had our pre-worship practice (which was a little rough) but the worship went really, really well. It was hardly a strain to sing praises and speak - it felt miraculous. We had been invited over to supper at a friend's home, so we spent an enjoyable afternoon with them. As the afternoon progressed however, the cough and baritone voice began to return. By the time I was ready for bed, I was back to where I had started the day - but God had seen me through. And I don't even want to tell you about this morning - hack!

Late last night, we got an email from a friend back at Vancouver Friends Church that was simply titled: Praying for you. In it, spoke of the Lord bringing us to mind in his quiet time and although, "He did not tell me what to pray for you but he knows what you need at every moment." Wow! Our friend, thousands of miles away, was led to pray for us, for me, at just the time it was needed.

Now, some may say that it is just coincidence that all of these events came together, but I say no. People of faith do not believe in a God of coincidence but in a God who actively shapes, moves, blesses and directs his people. This is the God in which I believe - He met me in my need and provided. Why don't you give God a try and see what happens...

God is good - all the time.
All the time - God is good.

Fasnacht in the Dreiländereck

2009-03-06T17:04:00.014+01:00

Okay - get ready for a monster blog. What a great couple of weeks it has been. The Fasnacht season has just concluded in both Weil am Rhein and in the Basel area. For us, that means parades, music, masks and fire (but more about the fire later). Delynn and I are currently on our Fasnacht break in the Swiss Alpine town of Lauterbrunnen. We wanted to get a few days away before we head back to school next week. Last time we were here, it was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see much of the Alps. Well, as you can see (this is a view out of our apartment rental) the view is beautiful but we still can't see the Alps. We hope to get a break in the weather over the weekend so we can bring you some pictures of the nearby peaks.

So, the week before the break went well. Despite the knowledge that RIA will be closing operations at the end of the school year, it doesn't change our desire for teaching excellence and giving our students the best education possible in the last four months of the school year. When I think back to first grade (Yes, I can still remember first grade those many decades ago) and compare what I did in reading and math to what our students are doing, it blows my mind. Here is a picture of our first grade girls during library (I think I have mentioned before that our entire 1st grade class is girls...). This set of girls represent Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Cameroon, Columbia and Kazakhstan - none of whom are native English speakers. During a recent library class, after books have been returned and new books checked out, they settled down on Hedgy for a read. Hedgy is a hedgehog pillow that the kids love to use while reading.
The thing that really impresses me is their absolute love of reading - some reading books that I didn't tackle until 3rd or 4th grade back at St. V's. They are all at different levels (and this isn't even the whole class) which is a testimony to their very talented and creative teacher, Miss Aubrey. Of course, as an Oregonian and sharing my same birthday, Aubrey just HAS to be special... Now, here are some of the girls again with one of our staff members showing off her Basler Fasnacht costume - the harlequin. Up until Fasnacht begins, each group or Clique's costumes and themes are absolutely TOP SECRET. Janelle is only able to show off the costume before Fasnacht began because it is a classic costume from years past as her Clique celebrates its 60th Fasnacht anniversary this year.
So, Fasnacht activities in our area start after Worship on Sunday the 1st of March. We invited our staff over to ours because the Weil am Rhein parade is the first of our many venues. The Weil am Rhein parade starts at the Rathausplatz and wends its way down the kilometer or so of Weil's Hauptstrasse.
Among the traditional German costumes are Waggi's (these characters represent French farm workers from the Alsace region) ...

and witches...

and clowns. I understand that part of the history of Fasnacht is scaring away winter - Well, they aren't going to scare winter away with these clowns...

Our next stop was the town of Liestal, Switzerland. Long-time readers of the blog may remember last year's Fasnacht. Delynn was ill (it was her turn) and needed to stay home so she didn't get to experience the raw heat of the fire parade, so this was her year. Here we are before the parade, standing in front of one of the fire carts that are pulled or carried down Liestal's Hauptstrasse. I recalled this one from the previous year - it is quite well constructed, including wheels made entirely of steel so that they don't melt in the extreme heat. This is the before - oh, yeah, that wood is ready to burn...

And here is the after (well, more during) picture. As the cart was pulled by our post on the Hauptstrasse, you can see how crazy hot the parade is.

In addition to the fire carts, many, many more individuals - both men and women - carry burning bundles of wood - most configured in the cone shape as seen in detail below.

These are carried by groups of folk who run, dance but mostly trudge under the great burning weight. Some only wear wet felt hats (the purists) to protect themselves from the burning load.

Here's another good picture - look at those three story flames! We would never see anything like this in North America. Can you imagine this happening on Broadway in downtown Portland?
Before I go on, if you haven't already noted it, please check the other post from earlier today that has a couple of videos from Liestal, including a hunka, hunka burning wood. After the Liestal parade, we all smelled like a big campfire. Delynn found a couple of small holes in her coat from burning embers that fell on her - and we were in the back row!!

The next stop on our Fasnacht fun was the Tuesday chaos in Basel. Tuesday is one of our favorite Basel Fasnacht days because it has the children's parade so there are thousands of children and families traipsing up and down the street of the Basel downtown, dressed up in costumes and wantonly tossing confetti. The busses and trams are all diverted to keep all of the streets for pedestrian use only.

This picture above says it all for me: Masks, Drums and Confetti.

On Tuesday, individuals or groups with as few as two people (or in this case three) can simply dress up, pick up their piccolo and drum and start marching around the streets of Basel. Notice too the costumed mannequins on the corner of the building at left.

A huge part of the Basler Fasnacht is the lanterns that each Clique creates and carries through the different parades over the 72 hour Fasnacht period starting at 4:00am Monday morning (Morgenstreich). Often the lanterns have two or more meanings. The one above for example deals with the CERN Large Hadron Super-Collider that many feared would create a black hole and suck the world into it - the more subtle meaning deals with the bankers who are the black hole, sucking the money out of all of our pockets.

As the evening deepens, Guggenmusik bands - most analogous to marching bands in the states - but with much better uniforms - march all over playing wonderfully toe-tapping music. This was a really wonderful few days. I hope that you have received just a taste of it by following this blog.

Don't forget to check out the earlier entry with a couple of more videos.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. These summarize the heart and mind of God.

Videos from Liestal

2009-03-06T12:13:00.007+01:00

We took a lot of video at the Liestal Fasnacht celebration last Sunday. These two short clips show a pipe and drum corps which gives you a taste of the traditional Basler Fasnacht sound. Only pipes and drums are permitted for any Clique that participates in the parades. This group is poking fun at rich oil shieks making wads of dough from the price of petrol. The themes for the parades are usually picked in late summer when the price of oil was spiking - it was a common theme for many of the Basler Cliques this year.

The other component of the Liestal parade is FIRE! Groups carry or pull carts of tinder-dry wood through the main street. Let me tell you, just holding up the camera to get this video was a feat. We were in a much more sheltered spot this year but it was still HOT, HOT, HOT!

I'll post some pictures later of the various parades in Weil am Rhein, Liestal and Basel.

Staff Retreat to the Swiss Alps

2009-02-21T16:50:00.008+01:00

Today is quite balmy - a huge 5° C last time I checked. This is actually pretty good considering the weather we had just last week. As I may have mentioned in another blog entry, even the Germans and Swiss are getting a little tired of this winter. The cold and snow are coming more frequently than in the last couple of years, but it is probably closer to normal patterns -I guess last year we were just really lucky. As I look back over last year's February blog entries, I see that the weather was still rather cold, but man, we didn't get this much snow. On the upside however, we have hardly been sick at all this year! Yaahoo! Here is a picture of the school about a week ago. You will note the parent parking to the left and staff parking on the right. I took even a tumble off of my bike for the first time last week on some ice - Oy! that was no fun. I'm still limping a little from where the steel bike pedal hit the knuckle of my left foot.

Okay, so where else in the world could a school take a staff retreat to the Swiss Alps without it sounding like one of those boondoggles that a bailed-out bank had to cancel after receiving BILLIONS of our taxpayer money? Well, our staff retreat probably cost less than a similar trip to the Oregon Coast. We were able to stay at a hostel where the accomodations were basic - twin beds (no sleeping together), bathroom and showers down the hall, etc. But the view - Oh, the view...
This was actually the view out of our window. Okay, I can take bathrooms down the hall for one night for a view like this. I created a panorama of our room's view below. If you click on the picture itself, you should be able to get it to open in a seperate windows with a larger image view - it is fantastic.

This is a view of the other side of the valley. Our hostel can be seen along the very left edge of the picture. It is the small tan'ish colored building almost half way up, above the red tile roofed building. Whether or not you see it, what you can see is the glory of God's creation in the Alpine region of Switzerland.

From our room, there was a really beautiful church to our left. There were several terraced levels as one approached the entrance. We took a walk over and up to the church and what do you think we found on those terraces? (Any guesses?)

For those of you that guessed graveyards, give yourself a gold star. It wasn't necessarily what I expected, but they were beautiful none the less. I don't know if we have mentioned it before, but graves and honoring those who have passed over is significant for most Europeans. Since many families live in the same town or village for generations, this shows their respect for family after they are gone.

The many markers were primarily made of wood - this is just one example. Isn't it just wonderful? The grave sites are well tended and quite beautiful.

The church also has some magnificent stained glass windows. (I know Jesus didn't look like this, but I appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship)

Since this was a staff retreat, I wanted to give you a picture of our staff. There were a couple of folks missing, but these are the souls with whom Delynn and I have had the priviledge of serving for the last 18 months. The woman in the back center, Aubrey, hails from the Pacific NW, actually from Eugene, and she has the same birthday as I do - 12 June - but obviously she was born many, many years later. She teaches are 1st and 2nd grade girls (well, the entire class of 8 students are all girls). She is a really excellent teacher and we are proud to serve with her. We could tell you great, compelling, touching stories about each of those here but we will save those for another day. What a blessing it is for us to know each one.

We took a day trip on Saturday further up into the Swiss Alps. The last picture is in the village of Lauterbrunnen. Delynn and I will be returning here in a couple of weeks during our Fastnacht break to recreate some more together in the Alps. Obviously, this day had quite a bit of cloud cover, so we are hoping for some clearer weather the first part of March. We'll see - whatever happens, we look forward to our break.

We pray God's blessing on everyone who reads this. When we see the wonder and beauty of His creation, we are continually amazed that God would make this for us. May you too see something of God today. Keep your eyes open; expect that God will cross your path in some way today - maybe big, maybe small. In all, be thankful and give Him the glory He is due.

A day in Strasbourg

2009-02-14T15:59:00.005+01:00

Well, we promised you pictures and during a recent day trip to Strasbourg, France, we (well, the Michael-half of 'we') took a lot of pictures. We met up with our friends and fellow RIA'ers, Cam and Jen to take a trip up north to Strasbourg. Strasbourg is the principal city of the Alsace region of France, home to some 3/4 million people. The city celebrated its 2000th anniversary (no, that's not a typo) in 1988. It was founded as a Roman military outpost in 12 B.C. (right about the time my old home town of Augsburg, Germany was founded). It is now home to the European parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. A fairly significant city just an hour away by train.

We were blessed to get a discount ticket on the French railway - this is essentially a day-ticket on which up to 5 people can travel in a given region or state for a single price. In our case, it cost us only 44 Chf for the four of us to travel round-trip to Strasbourg (That works out to about $9.00 per person which is an outstanding bargan). As as added bonus, there were no strikes, so we got quickly to our destination. The day was clear and cold but those are the best days to travel in winter. We caught an early train so that we could spend a full day in this beautiful city before returning back home to Weil am Rhein.

This is the main train station in Strasbourg. You can't see it very well, but the domed building in front of you actually covers the original stone train station. When you exit the old station building, this curved structure compeletely envelopes the facade and pedestrian area in front of the station. It was not until we walked out and across the square that we noticed how pleasing the architecture of the covering structure was. We knew we wanted to get to the center of the old town. In most cities of this vintage, all that means is looking for the church spire that usually signals the most important part of the oldest section of the city. In Strasbourg however, there are lots of more modern buildings reaching several stories high but that is no challenge for the Strasbourg Cathedral.

The Strasbourg Cathedral, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg, is incredible to behold. It held the record as the tallest building in the world for 250 years until the late 19th century. Even as I write these tid-bits of information, I find myself shaking my head in disbelief. It is still the 6th tallest church in the world.

As you can see, it is hard to get this baby into a single picture, the scales are not to be believed. People walking around the Cathedral square look like so tiny when contrasted with this immense Cathedral. The interior is just as soaring with airy vaults and lots of stained glass. I appreciate so much that even with the throngs of visitors, churches like this also have areas reserved specifically for prayer and not for photos.

The Romans normally established outposts on riverbanks and Strasbourg is no exception. Today, much of the old city is between two branches of the Ill river (really, that's its name -it is a tributary of the Rhein). With old sections of cities, there is always beautiful old buildings to admire.

Here we are next to the Tanner's building. Delynn still doesn't have a hat on despite the sub-freezing temperatures, but she is at least wearing ear muffs. We are dressed in our standard two-layers bottom, four-layers top configuration for winter travel.

THIS IS WHY WE LOVE FRANCE! ('nuf said)

This is called the Kammerzellhaus (Maison Kammerzell) and is one of the most ornate and well preserved medieval buildings found anywhere in the Alsace. It is situated on Cathedral square and was built about 70 years before Columbus "sailed the ocean blue". It now houses a restaurant (we didn't even look at the prices) but pictures are free!

We didn't actually eat any of those cakes in the picture we took earlier, we just drooled over them. We did however find a quaint little place that served a brilliant French onion soup (they just call it "onion soup") and Tarte Flambé. By the time we stopped for lunch, we were all really, really chilled so when we found this restaurant, we were more than ready to enjoy the inviting atmosphere and warmth we found inside.

True to french culture, we sat and ate and talked until we realized that we had been in the restaurant over one and a half hours - just for lunch! We had arrived rather late for lunch so by the time I remembered to take a picture, most of the other customers were gone. Most every table below was occupied with happy, contented french-folk during our wonderful meal.

Our whirl-wind day-trip to Strasbourg was a delight. I know we say this a lot, but we feel so blessed to be able to live here, to experience new cultures (french and german culture are certainly different...) and have the priviledge of sharing our lives and faith with new friends and our precious students. We will be forever changed by our time here. God is good.

Good news and bad news

2009-02-08T15:46:00.003+01:00

I've been struggling to get myself to start this blog entry because it carries with it some sad news. As some of you already know, Rhein International Academy will close at the end of this school year. The president of our parent organization, the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS), came to the school to meet with the staff and parents to deliver the news. The decision by NICS was not an easy one - NICS has never had to close a school before. It was a decision that broke the hearts of the board and needless to say, it broke our hearts also.

In the end, the sustainability of the school just wasn't there. Over the last five years, NICS has faithfully supported the school and covered each year's shortfall. Last year, RIA was able to finally have a year when no outside support was needed, but several of our families, some with multiple children attending RIA, were rotated back to North America or other countries and we just could not make up the shortfall.

Our focus right now is to continue to deliver the very best education possible for our students and to finish the year well. We are also working diligently within the international school community to insure that each of our students has a place to attend next year. This can be especially difficult as we support a number of special needs students. We would ask our praying friends for their support as we move forward with this tremendous task.

On a more personal note, Delynn and I have made our decision for the next chapter of our lives. We had been pursuing several ideas which included staying in the Dreiländereck region or returning to the States. When Delynn returned from her trip back to Vancouver during the Christmas break, we spent much time in discussion and prayer over where we would be in six months. I had my CV (resume) submitted to some companies in Switzerland as well as back in the U.S. We began to sense that our next home should be back in the Washington-Oregon region so that we could be close to family; to be close as Delynn's father battles cancer. To remain here, as much as we love the area, the relationships, our church, seemed a little selfish. But, as most of you know, the economic climate in the U.S. is not exactly stunning to say the least. Still, we felt a sense of peace, a peace which passes understanding.

Our answer came in the form of an offer from my previous employer, Intel. I had sent off an email to an old colleague seeing how the job environment stood. Once my former boss found that I was interested in perhaps coming back to the OS group, he and his boss went to work on a job requisition to which I could apply. The request for hiring had to get approval at the group's general manager (this is the person that reports directly to our CEO, Paul Otellini). In this environment, it was a miracle to get the approval. I was really humbled when they came back and made me an offer. It was truly and offer that I couldn't refuse and was an answer to our prayers.

We feel incredibly blessed to be moving forward with this decision. It is and will be a bitter-sweet time for us. We appreciate the prayers, responses and emails from family and friends as we work through the next several months. Thank you for your support.

Next week I promise to post some more beautiful pictures of our staff retreat. Promise.

Things we have learned

2009-01-27T12:17:00.004+01:00

I don't think I will have any pictures for this blog entry (oh, the agony of just reading words...) I know for some of our students at RIA, weaning them off of children's picture books into the world of just words is an interesting process. We start with specific age-level readers (think Clifford or some of the Magic School Bus). These have more words that the child can read and understand, still with pictures on every page but definitely a step towards the ultimate goal. The children than graduate up to chapter books. These books may have a picture on one page and text on the other. They also begin to have chapters (hence the name). Then, we go up to having pictures on every few pages until eventually the child is making the pictures completely in their own minds. That was what I really loved about reading, both as a child and even now. For Christmas, the parent group gave each staff member some really nice gifts. For me, I received a significant gift certificate to one of the bookstores in Basel that carry English books. Because English books are hideously expensive (well, they all are, but especially English books) I have refrained from purchasing many for personal consumption. A paperback book is somewhere between 15 and 20 CHF which translates to $12.00 - $17.00 - FOR A PAPERBACK! It is no wonder that the annual Anglican Church Bazaar does such a booming business selling used paperbacks for like 3 CHF each. (CHF stands for Swiss Franc - one of the only countries in western Europe to not use the Euro €). The CH is from the country designator Confoederatio Helvetica which is actually Latin for Swiss Confederation. They chose Latin because it is language neutral and therefore does not favor any of the three official languages of Switzerland - German, French and Italian.

Whoa! Tangent... I wasn't even planning to talk about books in this blog entry... What I was going to talk about were some of the unique things we have learned here over the last 18 months. Certainly, we have learned to take some risks, put our lives out into a new place to learn, serve and love. We have found great friendships, a wonderful church body and exciting opportunities to serve God while here in the Dreiländerecke. But we have also learned some less esoteric lessons like...

Europeans use a lot more deodorants than anti-perspirants. Yes, it's true. Now, I can say that in general a LOT more deodorant is used today than when I lived in Germany in the mid-1990's. It makes riding the older, non-air-conditioned trams significantly more tolerable. (Picture in your mind a full tram of people, packed together while holding the hand straps attached to the ceiling - you get the picture...) Anyway, I was intrigued that when I went to Müller (a local drug store - but you can't by drugs there...) that the men's toiletry aisle has probably 10 times more deodorants than anti-perspirants. I did some research and found that anti-perspirants, which I have been using ever since I started to stink - or at least be aware that I stank - can be a pretty nasty collection of chemistry designed to essentially plug up the pores so that you don't sweat. Now, deodorants also have alot of chemistry inside but they work in a fundamentally different way but attacking the bacteria that makes your armpit smell like... well, an armpit. Anyway, I decided to switch over to deo a few months ago and Delynn has yet to complain - I guess the real test will come in summer. This is probably way too much information but hey, you're reading this blog voluntarily.

So, when is a drug-store not a drug store? And the answer is: In Europe! So, this takes some explaining. In America, if you want to buy some asprin, or Visene, or cough syrup, you simply trundle down to the local Walgreens (or any of a hundred different drug-stores or drug-stores within a mega-store) and get your non-perscription drugs. In Europe, what we would call a drug store or chemists is a Drogerie. However, Drogerien do not carry any perscription or non-perscription drugs. You can get naturopathic remedies at a Drogerie, along with toys, DVDs, shampoo, the aforementioned deodorant, office supplies and diatetic foods but no drugs. To get drugs, you go to an Apotheke. Also, I don't know of any Apotheke that are located in larger stores like we have in the states. Most are small, family run businesses that are scattered throughout the town. All Apotheken are closed on Sundays, just like everyone else, but each Apotheke takes it in turn to have someone on call during Sunday in case of emergency. In our hometown, Weil am Rhein, the Wednesday paper publishes which Apotheke will be open on the following weekend.

On a more personal note, I have learned that I don't need so much coffee, espresso, or other forms of caffeine delivery that I was so addicted to (yes, I must admit addiction) back in the states. When I was commuting to Intel every day from Vancouver, we would normally stop by Starbucks in Jantzen Beach and I would get a triple or quad-shot espresso con panna (that's with whipped cream folks and it is Yummy with a capital Y). After I got to work, I would soon get an IM from my work-colleague to go get a cuppa. We used our stroll down to the café to discuss the upcoming day, meetings, etc. While he headed over for a Dr. Pepper, I would get in line for another double or triple shot of espresso - all before 8:00! It was insane. It seemed like I needed to 5 shots of espresso just to be human - I didn't get the shakes or headaches or anything. Cut to 18 months later, living and working in Germany. As we have said before, our lifestyle is slower. We walk, bike, tram or train most places. We carry our groceries home in a fabric bag. We read (Michael) and knit (Delynn) and play Sudoku (also Delynn) more in the evenings (CNN gets repetitious rather quickly). At church, we have become more select in our ministries and commitments even though much of our non-school related activities revolve around our church family. In general, we try to sleep more. Part of the reason that I didn't blog last Sunday was because a rather nice nap enjoyed in the sunshine took priority. Because of these changes, after a couple of cups of coffee at home as we get ready every morning is enough to get me through the entire day. Quite a stark change from the caffiene-hound of two years ago.

I know that these are rather random thoughts but they are what's on my mind this week (well, among LOTs of other things that are not blog material). I hope you have enjoyed these wanderings. May God bless you and keep you, may God make his face to shine upon you and grant you peace.

Waiting for Spring

2009-01-18T19:00:00.003+01:00

It is surprising the number of Germans and Swiss that have given voice to their yearning for spring to come. Granted, this year has been much, much colder than normal (but no comparsion to what our family in Boston, MA is experiencing), so that probably helps form people's opinions. Having said that, it is relatively balmy this week, we have finally gotten above freezing. Today, in fact, we enjoyed an entire day above freezing - Woo Hoo! Spring is coming! (Okay, I'm being a little delusional)

As Delynn and I were walking to school Friday, I decided to take a couple of pictures of Gelbe Sack pickup day. Back when we first arrived, in August 2007, I wrote a blog entry about recycling that generated quite a bit of interest. So, what happens to all of those "gold sacks" full of recycleable stuff? Every household gets a garbage calendar in January which lists local pick-up days. Well, when Gelbe Sack day comes, everyone stacks their sacks outside to await pick-up.

After taking the picture above, we came across a second stack which looked even more German - notice the nicely laid stack with the closed ends all facing the same way. It was for me the epitome of Gelbe Sack day.
Delynn has been a bit under the weather this weekend, so I have been trying to take care of her. (I think the ice cream helped...) I went to worship alone this morning, but it was well worth the trip - Geoff talked about the beginning of Christ's ministry with the invitation to "Come and see" what the Kingdom of God is all about. I also had the priviledge of assisting in the administration of communion which is alway special. We have a very busy week planned - please keep Delynn's (and my) health in your prayers as we really don't have time to have a cold (just like everyone else...) We have several additional meetings planned in addition to our normal committments.

We long for the day, which gets closer every morning, when the temperatures will be warm enough and the sun out late enough for us to sit at an outdoor café and soak in the warmth. May the light and warmth of our Lord bless you and keep you in the week ahead. Keep praying for our leaders.

So, did we mention it was cold here?

2009-01-11T16:52:00.003+01:00

This year has been an unusual one in the Dreiländerecke where we live. The average temperature for December and January swings between a low of -4° and a high of 2° C. This translates to between 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year's winter was fairly typical. I know I have mentioned before that because we are outside more - waiting for busses, waiting for trains, walking between point A and B - that we are more accutely aware of the affect of temperature on comfort. But as the Swiss say, there is no bad weather, just poorly dressed people. Then came 2009...

We have been going through a bit of a cold snap for our region. The temperature for the last several weeks has not significantly broken the freezing point and it has profound effect. This morning for example, I was getting ready to go into church - today I was leading music worship so I had to be there early. At 7:30 I checked my Yahoo! weather (we check the weather here much more frequently than we did back in Vancouver...) and it was -10° (Yikes! I need another layer.) degrees outside. That is like 14 degrees F. We have an Apotheke (pharmacy) just up the block from us which has readerboard displaying date, time and temperature that we can view from our balcony. I didn't even think about venturing out to check their temperature. So, I donned my long-johns to add another layer (4 on top, two on bottom) before going out to catch the 7:57 bus to Basel.

The pictures in this blog entry are of the Tinguely Fountain in Basel. Jean Tinguely grew up in Basel and does a lot of sculptural machines. There is an entire museum, aptly named the Tinguely Museum, devoted to his works. The Tinguely Fountain is located in front of Basel's city theater (Stadttheater) with the soaring gothic Elizabethan church in the background.

The fountain is made up of a collection of mechanical fountain pieces that spray or move water in various ways. As you can see, when we have extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures, it morphs the fountain into something new and rather alien. There was quite a crowd at the fountain today as the sun was shining brightly, adding to the beauty of crystaline water.

We have another use for our balcony - it serves as a secondary fridge during about one-third of the year. We store our drinks outside to keep them cool as our inside fridge has a fairly limited capacity. If we store them close to the windows, they normally get sufficient heat to stay in a liquid state. Unfortunately, this year, we have had to move our liters of fizzy water inside because even standing near the windows is not sufficient to keep them from becoming big icecubes of water and gas.

I hope it doesn't sound like we are complaining - for we most certainly are not. This is just an unusual year (much like it has been in Vancouver/Portland) and I wanted to comment on it. We are blessed, happy (don't we look happy?), content and thank God for every day that we live here (and I heard that it hit -20° in Frankfurt so we're glad we don't live there...).

We look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year. It will most likely include a move and we look forward to the adventure to come. In the mean time, we live each day in the surety and peace that comes from knowing Jesus.

May God grant peaceful resolutions to the wars raging in Gaza and throughout the world.

Our Christamas Holiday

2009-01-04T16:09:00.010+01:00

It has certainly been some time since we last updated the blog. It was a rather unique Christmas this year as Delynn returned to the states to be with family this Christmas after our family discovered that our dad Bill has cancer. It was sort of a last minute thing - we were able to find a well-priced flight and get her back in time before the Christmas snows closed everything down in Portland (that would be anything over 5 inches...). While that left Michael back in Germany, he was able to celebrate with friends and had lots of time to catch up on reading. Before we knew Delynn was travelling back, we had arranged for a trip to München which we decided to take to celebrate our Christmas together before Delynn flew out on the 23rd of December.

Christmas in the Dreiländereck definately has a different feel than in the states. Part of that may be that our understanding of the german language is, while decent, not so fluent that we get caught up in the ever increacing consumer mentality that seems so evident when we see all the advertising in the states.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are pictures to describe our Christmas holiday with a few words interspersed as descriptions.

This is the Weihnachtsmarkt in Basel on Barfüsserplatz. It is named "barefoot" square because the monks used to walk barefoot from the hill in the background (about where that tower is) down to the square, which is where the church is located. On this day, it is filled with last minute Christmas shoppers.

The "New" Town hall in München. München is the capital of Germany's largest state, Bayern (Bavaria). As such, München is considered Germany's second captial (after Berlin). Bavarians are fiercely proud of their state and often call themselves Bavarians instead of German. It reminds me a bit of the Texas mentality in the US...
Our hotel was just south of the Viktualienmarkt - an open air market that is open every day (except Sundays of course). Here you can by everything from Devil fish (no idea what we would call this) to Pferdefleish (um... Horsemeat). There was a quite nice outdoor soup restaurant that allowed us reasonably priced and very yummy lunches several times during our stay.
Karlstor (Carl's gate) stands at one end of the long pedestrian zone in the heart of München. The Weihnachtsmarkt was spread over several areas in München, including throughout the pedestrian zone.
Brightly lit for Christmas. Don't ask what the neon orange thing is - I think they call it art...
Here is another small Weihnachtsmarkt in a courtyard of the Residence. The Residence was the primary abode of the Wittelsbach dynasty in München for over 500 years.
It is a tradition, especially in Bayern, for stores to create elaborate window displays. Many of these are mechanized, which makes the stuffed animals move and animate. Children and adults alike clamour for a front row seat.
Creches (Krippe) are also very traditional in Germany and particularly in Bayern. This one was from the Theatinerkirche which is pictured below.

We mentioned the Residence a little earlier. Delynn and I spent one of our days exploring dozens of rooms in the former home of the Wittelsbachs. The extent of the palace was beyond description. It was overwhelming - we only got to see about 60 of the several hundred rooms that made up the palace.

The picture above is the private chapel - just in case the duke didn't want to worship with the rest of the folks.
Nice digs...
Even the Hof (garden) outside is beautiful year around.

Of course, a visit to München is not complete without a visit to the Hofbrauhaus. As we walked through, we saw a table of men dressed in Tracht (traditional garb) which made a nice picture.
We spent another day visiting the Deutschesmuseum, sort of the German equivalent of the Smithsonian, but on a much smaller scale. We had to travel to Germany to see an original Wright flyer...
Here is Delynn in front of a 1930's Junkers triplane (Just like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).
The Deutschesmuseum opened a seperate transportation museum in 2003. Michael went to visit this branch after Delynn was winging her way back to the states. An original Model T roadster as on display...
This picture is for dad. He has always loved the Mercedes 300, so I thought he would like to see a picture of one still in great shape.

Sunday in München was gray, cold and rainy - it was a very appropriate day to take time to visit the Dachau camp outside München. The first such camp ever created, it was originally designed to hold political prisoners and those who dissented from the regime, it became the model for all concentration camps to come.

The entrace door says "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work Liberates" - the camp was sold to the local population as a work camp for reforming criminals.

This is the outside wall of the cremetorium. The two metal containers let into the wall were designed for introducing the poison gas into the "showers" on the other side of the walls.

This sculptre is situated in front of the induction building where all prisoners were processed. It was an incredibly sobering experience to visit such a place. There are incredible parallels to even more contemporary events but I will not enumerate the way that it struck cords in my heart. My only conclusion is that we humans are capable of unspeakable evil which is not what God intended for our lives.

My hope and prayer for the new year is that we have the courage and boldness to counter all such hatred for other people with understanding, mercy and love.

Please stand by...

2008-12-14T10:19:00.002+01:00

The blog will be going on hiatis for a week or so. Delynn and I have both been quite ill this week with high fevers and the accompanying unpleasentness of being sick. For the last several days, just getting up to get water/juice or make a cup of tea is about all we have been good for. We are spending all of our energy to get better so that we can be strong to finish out our last week of school before the Christmas break. We are still planning to take our trip to München on Thursday and when I return, we will update everyone. Thank you in advance for your prayers for our health so that we may truly enjoy the celebration of God incarnate.

If we don't have a chance to say it before, may you have a blessed, authentic Christmas.

Thanksgiving trip to Bodensee

2008-12-07T15:47:00.009+01:00

As promised, here are our pictures from our weekend to the Bodensee (a.k.a. Lake Constance in the States). We arrived in Meersburg on the Friday after Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving day itself was a work day. The Bodensee is a huge lake (570 sq-km) situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the base of the Alps. It is a really beautiful area (not many places we have been to aren't...) that caters primarily to the warm-weather tourists. Probably 70% of the local resturants in Meersburg were closed for the season. The tourist traffic made the streets easy to walk and the majority of the people on the street actually lived there.

Due to the late fall conditions (fr-fr-fr-freeeeezzzzing cold and low hanging clouds on the lake) we never did get to see any of the Alps. I don't think we even got a clear view of Switzerland which is just the other side of the lake. Undaunted, our first task in any new town is to get a map and take a walk around. Here we are at the end of the town's pier (you can tell by the empty benches just how many other folks were out and about). We got lucky that one other young couple were out for a stroll so we could get our picture taken together.

Meersburg has TWO castles. One (pictured above), which most of us would rightly call a castle was first built in the 7th century. The second castle (seen below), which is more of a grand residence, was an 18th century Schloß for the Bishop of Konstanz. I actually took the picture of the new castle through a window in the old castle... Actually, it was a newer part of the old castle, but never mind.

The old castle had a mill just outside the front gates, it must have been fed by a stream that ran through the moat-y area, because the mill would have been flooded if an actual moat were filled with water. Anyway, the mill was all decked out with Christmas wreaths and such, so I thought Delynn would look nice in front of it.

Here is the old castle looking out over the Bodensee. The land you can see off in the distance is the pennisula of land that belongs to Germany where the city of Konstanz is found. More about Konstanz in a little bit, but it is a much larger city compared to Meersburg and interestingly enough, both places started up their Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmärkte) the weekend we visited (They must have known we were coming...)

This is the center of the old town in Meersburg. They are just setting up the Weihnachtsmarkt for the weekend. Our hotel was perfectly situated, being the big red building right on the market square. We had a great view of the market...

and we were serenaded day and night by local bands and singers. They are however, very German, meaning very polite and correct, so the music and market closed down before 22.00 (10pm) so we could sleep.

Here is an evening shot out of our hotel window looking down on the Weihnachtsmarkt in Meersburg.

Saturday was much clearer (still darn cold) so we trekked out across the lake to the city of Konstanz. I don't know much about the history of this old town gate and building but they look so, I don't know, so German! Beautiful, don't you think?

The Weihnachtsmarkt in Konstanz down one long major street in the old town -the market ran down the street onto a peer and even onto a ship moored on the dock. Delynn and I enjoyed nibbling our way down the street (there is such great food at these markets - I can't even begin to describe the smells and tastes but let's just say: Yum!)

We grabbed the ferry back to Meersburg in the afternoon so that we could get a good view of Meersburg from the lake.

It starts getting dark by 17.00 at this time of year, so the shadows of Meersburg were just perfect for a nice picture of the town.

What a beautiful sunset overlooking the Bodensee. I'm sure this place is just crushing with visitors in the summer, but it seemed like God was giving just the two of us something to dazzle our eyes and give us a time to pause and give thanks.

The next day, Sunday, we took the train back home. The trip to Meersburg by train and bus is just a little over two hours. When we arrived, the weather was again crisp and clear so we decided to walk to the Alt Stadt of Weil where our Weihnachtsmarkt was taking place. Weil, like Meersburg, holds their market just over a single weekend and it is attended by mostly local folks, which is just alright with us.
So, for you that are counting, this was our third Christmas Market in three days! We love this time of year here in Europe because it seems very authentic to us - these gatherings have been taking place for a long time to celebrate the birth of the son of God. The commercialism, which at times seems overwhelming back in the States is pushed back somewhat (plus it helps if you don't understand the language...) and the focus seems to be more on spending quality time with our family and good friends. We hope that you will be able to do the same.

Happy Thanksgiving - Christmas is coming!

2008-11-30T16:49:00.008+01:00

We have so much for which to be thankful. We enjoy a unique opportunity to experience cultures from all over the world and learn from each other. As we closed out Culture Month in November we had the opportunity to learn about the culture of Spain from two of our great mothers. One thing that really stands out in our school is the family atmosphere - each child is known and accountable. Our families are close to each other and bond across cultures. One of our strongest contingents are the Spanish speaking families from Spain and Columbia. One Spainish family comes directly from that country, another after living several years in Bejing, China. The other families represent Columbia, Switzerland and Camaroon. Wow! It amazes me every time I start thinking about how many corners of the world we are influencing at our little Christian school in this corner of Germany.

Well, we learned a huge amount about Spain and spanish culture. Did you know that Spain is the #1 exporter of olive oil to the rest of the world? Or that Tapas is a style of eating and not a type of food? We learned that and much more as our parents gave us a quiz about their people and what makes them special.

Of course, one cannot study contemporary Spanish culture without learning one of the most influential dance moves of the 1990's - the Macarena! Being as how most of our children at school were not even born when the Macarena became an international hit (mid-1990's) this was a completely new thing to them.

Here we all are trying our best to learn the Macarena - most of the kids just had a great time, but one young 5th grader REALLY liked it. He would do the Macarena while waiting in lines, when sitting in class (for which he had to be asked to refrain) but best of all, he tried putting different different songs to the Macarena - including some of the Christian choruses that we sing together in Chapel. He wanted to integrate the songs about God he has learned at school to this, his favorite new dance moves. That is totally cool!

After our Spanish Experience, the whole school bundled up in our winter coats and schlepped up to the Hauptstrasse to decorate a Christmas tree for the city of Weil am Rhein. Up and down the main street, businesses and local schools joined forces to beautify the Strasse. We partnered with the local paper, the Weiler Zeitung, to decorate a tree - the business supplies the tree and the students provide the decorations.

The students created water-resistant (they haven't been fully tested yet!) ornaments and decked the tree with them. We used colorful foil and wooden clothespins to create birds and Santas. The younger students make a paper chain of several meters to wrap around the tree. The ornaments (Baumschmuck) are being distributed to the upper students in preparation for decorating.

The students had to be lifted by staff to reach the very heightest branches of the tree. This is such a sweet picture of a very special student whose last day was this week. She moved to Zürich with her sister (also a student) and family - we are going to miss them greatly. Whenever a student leaves our school, we hold an all-school meeting to say goodbye. It is important for our students to recognize and work through the process of transitions, because they will all go through it in their lives. We work hard to help them handle this process well, including the good tears that come with separation.

The students are proudly posing for a picture in front of their newly decorated tree. The newspaper even printed an article for last week's edition with pictures of our kids. They are famous! (Well, it is a small town...)

After they finished decorating the tree, they gathered around to listen to fable told by a storyteller from Weil. The fable was recounted in German, which most of our students know well. They are so much more fluent then their teachers... They laughed and were politely attentive the whole time - we were very proud of them.

Here is our finished Christmas Tree in front of the Weiler Zeitung. Anyone walking down the street can view the hand made ornaments - made with love - and read that they came from the Kinder at Rhein International Academy.

It was such a full week, I haven't even begun to tell about what Delynn and I did over the weekend. We took the opportunity to travel to the Bodensee (a.k.a. Lake Constance) which is located on the border of Switzerland and Germany. We visited the village of Meersburg with it's 1300 year old castle overlooking the beautiful Bodensee. Here is a picture of the town as we crossed to lake on Saturday to whet your appetite.

I might have published something a bit earlier today except that we have been busy visiting Christmas Markets (Weihnachtsmarkt) - we got back today just in time to walk across town to our Weiler Weihnachtsmarkt before it got dark. We have been to three markets in three cities in less than three days - and we haven't yet been to Basel! Well, we will tell you more about them next week so I can put this blog to bed.

Delynn and I have very much appreciated the response for the request for prayer as we consider our next steps together. Thank you for your support in that way. We are also praying for our students - that God will increase our numbers at Rhein International Academy so that we can give more students a quality education and teach more students and families about the goodness of God. What a privilege to serve here.

Love to all - be a blessing to someone this week!

Snow, Culture and Football

2008-11-23T16:52:00.012+01:00

Okay, I'll get the weather report out of the way first. Brrrrrrrr!!!! We have had a cold front move into northern Europe which has dropped our high temperatures about 10°C which, for example gives us a high of 1° and a low of 0°. Like I said: Brrrrrrrr! (Forcast for Tuesday: 0 to minus 5°) Yesterday, as we waited for the bus in Basel to come back to Weil am Rhein, the wind was just right to cut through my four layers of clothing (plus the handsome hand-made wool scarf Delynn knitted for me) and chill me right to the bone. We decided it was finally time to turn on our radiators a bit. I normally don't have such issues with the cold, but I think for me it has been the rapid change from the rather mild 8-10° down to freezing. We did get a little snow overnight so as I walked to catch the train to church this morning (I leave earlier when I lead the music worship), the roads were clear, the sky was cloudy with patches of beautiful blue, a light dusting of white covered the rooftops and trees. It was a glorious walk and a wonderful preparation for worship.

Meanwhile, during November at RIA, we have been celebrating the many diverse cultures of our students and staff. Each Monday, we have held an assembly (essentially a circle of children in the atrium of the school) and students from a class have shared something special about their culture. A student from Spain showed her special dress and castenets that are a part of her family's culture in Barcelona. Two of our 1st grade Swiss students shared about different things they like about their Swiss culture.

The first above is showing off her father's Fasnacht mask and piccolo that are part of his traditional Morgenstreich costume. Morgenstreich starts at 4am to usher in the Fasnacht celebration. Here is our entry from last year's Fasnacht. The first-grader below is showing off the puzzle she uses to learn about the Swiss Kantons (or states).

As mentioned last week, we went to the Basel-Zürich football match on Sunday after church. This was our first stadium football match and we were a bit surprised to find a contingent of riot police acting as blockers between the Basel fans arriving by tram on one side of the stadium and the visiting Zürich fans arriving by train on the other. The St. Jakob Stadium has a train platform bordering one side of the arena so that fans can travel directly to the game. Pretty good thinking actually...

We were seated in the "normal" section - this is about 80% of the stadium - the place where most people sit. We had a mainly Basel supporters around us and a few sporting the blue and white of Zürich, but then again, we were in Basel. Here, the families and fans could sit together in relative harmony, each cheering for their side without acrimony. You can see Delynn below in our section of the stadium sitting next to Joél - he was an exchange student from Zürich that lived in Canada with our friends and fellow teachers Cam and Jen.

There were special fan sections at opposite ends of the stadium from which the more rabid supporters could sing their FCB (Football Club Basel) and FCZ anthems and taunt each other from a safe distance. These folks really like their football - they bring huge flags and all wear the team colors in support of their side. They hang signs and chant in unison - I don't know how much of the game they actually see, what with those big flags blocking their view. It might be hard to see, but in the picture below, the fans are waving flags and holding their FCB scarves out above their heads in support of the home team.

One thing that we found rather comical and quite polite was the process by which each of the Baseler team members were intoduced. On the Jumbo-tron screen at each end of the staduim, a player would appear, the announcer would introduce the player using his first name and the stadium would erupt crying out the player's last name. It would sound like: (announcer) Michael - (crowd) JORDAN! This went on for each player on the team which of course the Baslers' well knew. At the end of his announcements, the announcer says: Danke Schön! (Thank you!) to which the 30,000 strong croud responds in unison BITTE SCHÖN! (You're Welcome!).

Basel went up 1:0 at the 15 minute mark with a penalty kick after a foul. The fan zone at the end of the stadium lit up with cheers, songs and unfortunately highway flares. Flares are banned as they are quite dangerous, but a few always manage to smuggle them in. The flags waved, the fans sang - it was a pretty cool sight.

Frankly, it was a good thing that Basel got the goal because Zürich is rated #1 in the league for offense and Basel is rated #1 for defense. It was a very fast and aggressive game with a half dozen yellow cards given equally among the teams. From my point of view, Zürich were playing a much better game and they eventually tied it up 1:1 with a rather spectacular goal and that is how it ended. For me, this was probably the best ending we could want. Each team gets a point in the league standings and there tends to be fewer issues after a tie game. Unfortunately, as we left, Joél, still wearing his blue and white striped Zürich scarf, was hasseled by a few FCB fans. Joél, believing that discretion is the better part of valor, quickly relieved himself of his scarf and put it in his bag to defuse the situation. It seems a bit sad to me that there are so many to which sports can cause such a visceral reaction - it is just a game people! There are so many more important things in life.

I hope that this week you find those important things in life. That you experience glimpses of God's glory, love, grace and mercy. Take a risk - reach out to someone and share yourself. See what good things can happen.

Playing catch up

2008-11-15T13:17:00.008+01:00

I decided today to pull out some pictures from the last couple weeks or so (maybe a bit older but most of you won't know the difference...) The Swiss say that Basel is the second sunniest city in Switzerland. The number one spot goes to some city in the Italian part of the country. I can testify that we certainly get more days of sunshine here than when I lived in Augsburg. I remember one winter when the newspaper headline read that we had surpassed 100 days of rain - it was truly miserable. I say all that because today was another herrliche Tag (magnificent day) in the Dreiländereck. In the pictures below, you can see how blue the sky can get here - the sun doesn't stay up long, but while it is out, it just makes our hearts sing.

These two pictures are of the Basel Rathaus from the time of the Herbstmesse (Fall festival) in Basel - you know, the one with the swinging chairs of death... This was taken about 16.00 (4:00pm) and you can see how deep the shadows are already. This was when we found the fall flower display in the Rathaus's inner courtyard. We so much love just wandering around (when we have the time) exploring the nooks and crannies of our land.

I'm writing the blog on Saturday this week (I normally shoot for Sunday after church because all of the stores are closed and it is good family time). Well, tomorrow after church we have something a little different going on - we will be attending the football game between FC Basel and FC Zürich. These two teams are bitter rivals being only about an hour apart. Delynn and I haven't yet been to see a football game live, so we wanted to have the experience. The only thing is that the person who got the tickets is from Zürich and I'm not sure that we won't be in their section of the stadium. We don't have any team paraphernalia, so we should be safe. We just may need to be more circumspect when our team scores a goal...

Last month, our school celebrated pajama day. I think it is so cool that in a small school, we can do these crazy theme days: hat day, country spirit day (uh, not country-western but you know, where you are from country), T-shirt day, storybook character day, etc. Anyway, the students really love pajama day although the parents say it actually takes longer to get them ready for school on pajama day then a normal school day - go figure. You can tell by the smiles that these kids really enjoy these special days - well, most of them like having their picture taken too.

As the days get cooler, dropping into the single digits, we thought of making stew for our dinner tonight. We walked to the market this morning to get our veggies. They even had stalk celery! Twenty years ago, when I lived in Augsburg (Wow, was it really 20 years ago...) the only celery available was celery root - it is a big round, whitish root with the consistancy of parsnip but the flavor of celery. Well, we found this stalk celery for our stew and as I was prepping the veggies, we tried it and it is just wonderful - I've said it before and I will say it again, buying fresh from the farmer who grows the stuff is not to be missed. We are so blessed to be able to do that - and it is cheap. We got potatoes, carrots, onions and spinich from one lady for only €2,30 (about $3.00) - amazing. So, if you have a farmer's market, support it!

If, when you think of us, could you please lift up a prayer? Maybe right now as you finish this entry - just a quick little prayer for wisdom and patience as Delynn and I contemplate and seek God's direction for our next steps. We are confident in God's leading but we are both planners by nature, so we sometimes get a little anxious. Thank you.

Love to all our family and friends.

Always learning

2008-11-10T10:01:00.010+01:00

Sorry - no new pictures this week. It has been a bit crazy (when is it not...) but the weather has been fairly grey, so we didn't really take any pictures this week.

Well, it is good to have the election behind us. I know that about 46% of you are less than thrilled by the outcome and about 52% are pleased. Regardless of whether it went your way or not, have you prayed for our leaders this week - both the outgoing and incoming? It doesn't have to be much but every bit counts. Thanks.

One of the great things about life is that there is always something to learn and great people from which we can learn. Take our parents. My dad and mom are celebrating 50 years of marriage today! (Don't they look great!)

What a wonderful milestone and inspiration. Not to say that mom and dad are perfect - they would be the first to admit it. But they have learned, through good times and bad, to work at their marriage. They never gave up. They show that a marriage full of love, grace, forgiveness is a source of some of the greatest blessings in life. I am so proud of them. Well done Dad and Mom!
I have also learned something rather fundemental recently; something that I thought I had mastered over forty years ago. It is tying my shoes. Okay, so not the greatest revelation in life but interesting none the less. I have always tied my shoes using the "bunny ear" method. I still remember learning to tie my shoes watching the Romper Room show. I remember running into my parents bedroom and showing them! They were so loving - we could always run to them with something we discovered and they would patiently listen. If you are unfamiliar with the "bunny ears" method, the bow is made by taking two loops and tying them like a half-knot. Anyway, I have always suffered from shoelaces that come untied easily. I just thought it was the way life is - BUT I WAS WRONG! I had a colleague here at school tell me that the standard shoe knot (you know - single ear, wrap around and through) was a tighter and better knot than the old bunny ear method. So, I tried it. I did one shoe with the bunny ear and one with the standard. I went back and forth on which method was better - the knots still came untied. Then I had an epiphany - it wasn't the bunny ear verses the standard method at all: after all of these years that the reason for my loose knots was the dreaded Granny Knot! I was not tying a square knot Me! Ex-Boy Scout, Ex-shoe repairman, Ex-Army Staff Sargent, with a university Computer Science degree! I know - it is so hard to believe. By starting my bunny ears with a left-over-right tie instead of a right-over-left, I have graduated to the life of nary a loose shoe. I feel more complete in life. If my admission, as hard as it has been, helps just one other person to live a better life, then my work is done.

Another interesting thing that I have learned living here in Germany is about the german view of community service. At Rhein International Academy, we have hot lunches provided by the local meals-on-wheels organization. It is a secondary service they provide which works well for us. We get good, well rounded meals at a reasonable cost and the students LOVE anytime we have pasta. Our normal delivery guy is about 19-20 years old and he is performing his obligitory service in Germany. You see, every german national is required to serve two years after the equivalent of High School (there are three different types of high school, but I won't get into that). This service can either be in the military or in another form of service - working in a hospital, state-retirement facility, etc. They are paid (not sure how much) but it must be enough to live on. After two years of service, people are free to pursue university or other profession. I don't know how difficult this would be to implement in the U.S., but it seems to me that this type of service would be good for us as a nation. It might help us stop and think that there is a bigger good worth serving outside of ourselves. It is in many ways a secular version of a very Godly precept - to love and serve others. Something we don't always get right even as followers of Christ.

So, learn from your parents successes. Listen to your peers. Take what is good from others' examples. Look for God in others. Live well.

And now for something completely different...

2008-11-02T13:57:00.003+01:00

Just so you are fairly warned, today's blog doesn't have any pictures and probably won't have any funny stories. Today will be a bit of an editorial, my thoughts on the upcoming election. So, if that kind of stuff bores you or tends to make you really angry then I would suggest that you wait for a week or so to check out the blog. By then, I'm sure that the reading will be easier.

We are experiencing this election cycle uniquely (at least for us). Being in another country puts a much different spin on U.S. politics. In some ways, it is enjoyable - we are not bombarded with the plethora of media streams trying to sway our opinions. Using our absentee ballot, we were able to vote early and have it done with weeks before the election. It is amazing (and a bit shameful) that we are able to speak with people from a dozen different countries who know our political system sometimes better than we do ourselves. They are often interested and very passionate about what happens in the U.S. presidential election. How many Americans do you think actually realize that Canada had an election last month - and could you name the Prime Minister and from what party he comes? Believe me, Germans, Swiss, Poles, French, Canadians (and French Canadians) all know what is happening in the U.S. election in detail.

Those of us who name ourselves Christian are called to pray for our leaders. Leaders in our faith communities as well as our locally and nationally elected leaders. I hope that we are all praying for this election. Praying for personal wisdom to cast our vote for the best candidate for our country; praying for a just and fair election where everyone who is entitled to cast a vote can and those who might be tryng to abuse the system cannot; praying for corporate wisdom for our elected office-holders to make the right decisions for our country. To be frank, I find it is much easier to pray for my pastor than I do for my president. I hope to change that. This morning, after our morning worship service, the vicar invited people to gather around to pray for the upcoming U.S. election. Of the dozen or so people who came together in prayer, only 2 or 3 were actually Americans and not a single person prayed for any specific candidate but rather that God would direct, protect and provide wisdom. Wow.

I have received several emails - you know the kind, forwards of forwards of forwards from goodness knows whom. They are often from well intentioned folks. But I must state that sometimes the content of the emails is a bit frightening to me - which is exactly the point of the email. But they are also troubling in the amount of untruth they carry. And it does not matter from which side of the political spectrum they arrive. Are we to be frightened into voting against someone rather than voting for someone? I don't believe that the God we follow would have us living in fear, but rather in victory - regardless of who becomes our next president.

The purpose of this blog entry is to challenge you. Will you join me in saying that you will pray for our next president regardless of who wins on Tuesday? When the Apostle Paul admonished Christians to pray (and give thanks) for their leaders, those leaders were often the hated oppressors from Rome. How hard could that be? Next to a wisdom-filled vote for the candidate of your choice, I think that a committment to pray faithfully for whoever is our next president is God honoring and worthy of our efforts as Christ-followers.

Okay, that's it. Our God is bigger than any single election. We should start acting like it is true.

Soli Deo Gloria

Our first day off

2008-10-25T20:08:00.008+02:00

We really haven't had a "day off" since we returned from Arizona a little over two weeks ago. Now, technically, this is not true but let me explain. When we got back from Arizona, we spent the first couple of days just trying to get back on schedule (read: slept alot) before school started. For some reason, the jet lag wake 'up at 2-am and not get back to sleep for three hours' thing really came into full force during that first week back at school. We had two school functions during that same week including our harvest party on Saturday. Believe it or not, I dídn't take a single picture at the harvest party as I was doing all of the grilling that day. However, I got to wear my trusty cow apron which everyone just loves. (Thanks Matt!). I lead worship on Sunday, which is another day of work (I know, I volunteered to do it, but it's still takes time...) Anyway, we really haven't had a day when we could sleep in, get ready at our own pace and not have something scheduled for the day until today. Yeah!

We started our Saturday with a trip to the farmer's market. Look at that blue sky! Even though the town hall clock is just approaching noon, you can see how long the shadows have become - it is certainly, inexorably moving toward winter. Pumpkins and beautiful gourds of all types are for sale here.
In Baselstadt, at their Rathaus, there is a special display of fall foliage - lovely plants that brighten the shorter days.
Since we had the day to ourselves, we decided to trek on over to Basel for the first day of the Herbstmesse (Fall Festival). It was such a beautiful day - wow, we were blessed. Our first stop was Petersplatz, a square bordered by the church of St. Peter and the University that is given over to booths of handcrafts, nummy things to eat and guys hawking the greatest window cleaning gadgets of all time. And, there is a merry-go-round in the middle! The picture below doesn't do justice to the number of folks out to visit the Herbstmesse.
This is the church of St. Peter along one side of Petersplatz. Oh, one of the things we tried last year and just had to repeat (it was the first place Delynn wanted to go) was a booth that sells hot cheese fondue in a bagette. I know, it sounds crazy, but it is only available at the fall festival and it is deliriously good.

Big, big ferris wheel over there at the Münsterplatz.
Delynn says "You can never have too many scarves." I like how her coat compliments the rack.
This is that big ferris wheel at the Münsterplatz. We didn't ride it yet this year - I should say, Delynn has not ridden it yet this year. I'm just not that comfortable with those heights. Did you see the picture earlier? This ferris wheel is taller than the cathederal! No thank you.
We did however muster up our courage to ride the "Circling Swings of Death" (I'm sure that's what it's called... It probably looses something in the translation) The ride looks deceptively simple, just a few chair swings chained to a circular roof structure. The roof raises and and rotates, sending the chairs outward via centrifugal force. But the fun doesn't stop there, oh no, THEN they start tilting the roof so that we swing up and down like a ship tossed on the ocean. Just look at the stark fear on Delynn's face!
Okay, so it wasn't that bad... We had a wonderful day off today. It was just what we needed. We reminded ourselves again why we love this place, why we are here and how wonderfully blessed we are.

Oh yeah, about the only good thing that is coming out of this economic hangover the world is experiencing is the exchange rate is tilting back in our favor. The € to $ exchange rate, which reached a high of 1.60 this August (i.e. 1 € costs $1.60) has fallen back to about what it was when we first seriously considered coming overseas about two years ago. As of today the exchange rate is 1.27 which means that instead of everything being screamingly expensive, things are now just expensive - but that's okay. For example, our monthly rent increased gradually to $185.00 more per month just due to exchange rate fluxuations. It is now back down to what we were paying when we first arrived. Hey, I'm just trying to put a positive spin on things. If we can't see the goodness in all the bad, we would just have to give up.

Also, some other really positive news. We were invited by a student's parents to their home for dinner last night. This is a huge thing in Germany (well, technically they live in Switzerland, but the mom and dad are both German and the part they live in is like a little pocket of Switzerland that pokes into Germany. The town has German borders on three sides). Germans tend to be slow (by American standards) to open up and invite people into their circle of friends. We were honored and humbled to be invited to share a meal and an evening with them. As we understand it, we are the first school staff members to be invited over, even though the family has had children attending Rhein Int'l Academy for like 3 years.

We are setting our clocks back tonight, so whatever time it is where you are, we love you and miss you. Live, love, serve others. Make a difference where you are. Have a God week.

Our 2008 Fall Break

2008-10-11T19:02:00.009+02:00

Delynn and I have been back in Germany just a little over 24 hours and we slept almost half of them! For those that did not know (and sorry, I didn't mention anything in the blog two weeks ago) we had our school fall break the week of 6-10 October. The 3rd of October was also a German holiday (Unification day) so we had a little over a week off. Michael's parents are celebrating 50 years of marital bliss this year - as part of this year-long celebration, they wanted to renew their vows at church (After 50 years, it's probably a good idea to review exactly what got them into this situation...) Since we were going to have a break during early October (their actual anniversary date is 10 November) they graciously rescheduled their vow renewal and reception to fit our break. We flew out of Zürich, Switzerland for Tucson, Arizona a week ago Thursday. We stayed in Tucson for a week with the reception and renewal on Sunday. Here is a picture of the lovely couple before church.

Even though we were away for a week, international travel back and forth took up two full days (Ug!), so the trip was really short. It was such a wonderful thing however for brother David and I (and our wives) to stand witness to Dad and Mom as they renewed their wedding vows at church.

So, I was sure that I had taken my camera to church to take some pictures. However, when we walked into the church foyer, I realized that I didn't have my camera with me so I grabbed Dad's keys and ran back to the car. I searched in the car but the camera just wasn't there. I remembered setting it down just before we left, so I figured that it was sitting in the house on top of the fridge. We had arrived quite early for church and I debated running back to the house to get it but my sister-in-law Teri had brought her camera, so we could take pictures. Fast forward to after mass. We are walking through the parking lot to the cars when Eagle-eye Dave says, "Hey, what's that under the car?" We all looked and saw our camera case just behind the passenger side front wheel of Mom and Dad's CRV. We opened the case and the camera was inside, safe and operational. Thank goodness for my brother's amazing sight - if we hadn't seen it, we would have surely driven right over the camera as we left the church parking lot - plus it wouldn't have been at the house when we returned. Yeah Dave! For those of you who don't know my family, can you guess which one is Dave in the picture below? Yeah, you guessed it. He is obviously much older than I am... Okay, well, 18 months older.

We had a wonderful time at the reception - I love this picture of Delynn having a little fun before the festivities began.
Did we say that it was HOT in Tucson? If not, let me tell you - it was HOT in Arizona. Okay, it wasn't like blast furnace hot, it did however get up into the mid 90's (mid 30's C). But, as they say, it was a dry heat. Surprisingly, humidity does make a difference. With humidity in the low teens, the sweat just dries right up without making one feel too icky. Plus, every building has air conditioning...
This is Arizona hot! We were struck again at how beautiful the desert can be. It is not just sand and rocks, there is actually a lot of green and plenty of wildlife. Again, I was so impressed when we were driving through the desert to Tombstone. David was sitting in the middle seat and he kept pointing out stuff while we were driving along: "Hey, there's some coyotes on that ridge.", "Do you see the blimp?", "I think there is a fly on that cow's left horn..." Okay, so he didn't see a fly, but he would point things out that I had to really search to see. Dave must eat a lot of carrots.
So, Tombstone is pretty much a tourist trap. It is located out in the middle of the desert. If they hadn't found silver in the ground, it would not ever have come into being. The fact that it had 103 saloons in the city limits speaks volumes about its rough and tumble reputation. Why, even the Earp brothers (the Law) had to leave town at one point because they were about to be indicted for the unlawful killing of some poor schmuck. Still, it was worth the trip to the well-restored town. Don't those guys below look nefarious? Especially the one in the sunglasses...
We arrived back in Weil a. Rh. yesterday to witness the start of the fall season. We slept in quite late our first morning, which hopefully will begin to get us adjusted back to our regular schedule. As we walked through town today, I got a couple of shots of the new fall colors. We love the way God has given us all of the diverse beauty in the space of one short week.
Yeah, that's a palm tree below. We can actually grow them here. It is fast appoaching the time when they will be pruned and covered for the winter. They don't grow as tall as in Green Valley, but hey, we also have grass. After shopping we stopped by the café just up the street to sit in the beautiful sunshine and soak in the atmosphere. It is one of those things that we have not been able to replicate back in the States. Sitting at a café, watching the world go by. Ahhh. The coming week will be busy - I think we have something going on every evening and Saturday. Please pray for our school reception in Basel on Wednesday evening (11:00am PDT) as we meet and talk with prospective parents, relocation companies and company HR representatives. Also, Saturday is our Fall Party - we will be inviting families from the reception to meet with our current families to learn more about RIA.

A very grapey week

2008-09-28T15:25:00.006+02:00

September is warming up a little this week. After some days last week where we barely reached in to the 50's (12-14 degrees C) we finally got a week of warming weather. Not to say that the days don't start cool - we keep threatening to freeze - but the sun has been coming out consistantly and we are hitting the high-teens during the afternoon. I think it got up to about 19 on Sunday, which is pretty respectable for this time of year. But it has been very dry this month. Now, I know some of you are saying "Didn't Michael write something a couple weeks ago about a 'Very soggy Saturday'?" Yes, I did. But that was the only rain of significance we have had this entire month. It just happened that we decided to take a trip when the rain came. Oh well. Good thing we are from the Pacific Northwest. However, we have integrated into the German culture when it comes to umbrellas. Back in the PNW, you can generally tell a non-local because they carry umbrellas. Locals either wear a cap or have a good rain jacket with a hood. In Germany however, everyone carries an umbrella when the weather threatens rain. We now do the same for the most part. Of course, if I am riding my bike, an umbrella will not do, but generally, when walking or taking public transportation, we have our Regenschirm nearby. Most businesses provide umbrella stands - I don't remember the last time I saw an umbrella stand in the States. Darn thing would probably get stolen anyway if you left it to go shopping...

Okay, enough about weather. As I said, the sun has been shining which is perfect weather for picking grapes. As some of you may recall, the school has a small vineyard out in front of the school. It is a built up burm of ground with about a dozen rows of vines. There are several different varieties of grapes planted there and we (uh, I mean our students) get the priviledge of harvesting the grapes and making grape juice.

It is always a hit with the kids no matter how many years we do it (and frankly, we get so many new students every year that it is always a new experience for 1/3 of the school). Also, what better field trip is there than to get the young ones dressed up in grubby clothes and wellies, trudge across 20 feet of grass and be spot on your destination. The students are very proud of their accomplishments AND they get to sample the fruit of their labors - literally.

Just a second, the laundry finished and I have to iron my wrinke-free shirts...

Okay, mission accomplished. While the washing machine does a great job of washing, it spins the clothes at about 1100 RPM, wringing all the water out that it can. Unfortunately, this also tends to wrinkle even so-called "wrinkle-free" shirts. I find however that if I iron them straight out of the washer (yes, men can iron...) that it both removes the wrinkles and helps to dry the shirt out.

As I said, the boys and girls at Rhein International Academy really enjoy the grape harvesting. Or, maybe it is just that they get out of the classroom and get to do something different. Well, either way, the smiles say it all.

These girls were very productive - I think they produced more buckets of grapes than any other team. Mr. Walz is very proud.

We paired up older with younger students (they do have pruning shears you know...). We always emphasize "Safety First" but make sure that the younger students do get the opportunity to actually cut off some grape clusters.

You can see below just how close the vineyard is to the school... The green bucket is on a trailer at the bottom of the vineyard. Literally just a few meters from our front door.

Two kindergarten students are helping each other lift the enormous bucket laden with the fruit of the vine. Below you can see some of the variety that will soon become juice. Doesn't God make beautiful things! And tasty too...

The students are facinated with the grape press. With the pulp squishing out of the press several squeeze forward for a look. It takes an amazing number of grapes to make just a small quantity of juice. We plucked two bucketfuls of grapes from their vines to produce enough juice for everyone to get just a small sample. But it was all worth the effort. Now, when the students go to the store to buy juice, they KNOW from where it comes.

Here is a picture that captures just a little of the creativity and joy we see at RIA all of the time. During Art club, one of the teachers discovered during art that the heel of a shoe makes a pretty good painting stamp and the student was shown how a straw can be used to blow colors around to make pictures. In a couple of weeks, Michael will be starting up Chess club again (because the weather will make it increasingly difficult for Football (Soccer) club to meet.

It seems appropriate that at church we are spending several weeks looking at God's Creation - our place in it and our response to it. God has created beauty almost any place one looks, if one takes the time to really look. I hope you are able to take time this coming week to contemplate the simple, complex beauty of a flower or a sunrise and be blessed by it - and out of that to be a blessing to others in God's creation.

A Fairly Normal Week . . .

2008-09-21T21:29:00.005+02:00

After a year or so of Michael faithfully writing the weekly blog, Delynn is taking a turn. Here goes. . .

So after church last Sunday, we walked down to Alt Weil (old Weil) where the annual StrassenFest is held. This is a street festival where the main attraction is food. It also marks the beginning of the 'Fest' season - which means that somewere in the area will be a festival every weekend between now and the end of the year. Along with the food are a few craft stalls. The picture below is of a craftsperson making straw shoes/slippers. We remembered this person from last year. I wonder how comfortable the slippers really are - and how well they hold up. When we were at the Open Air Museum (see the previous blog post), we read about the traditional Black Forest straw weaving. Apparently, it is alive and well and the tradition continues!
The week continued as normal - going to school and working with the students. Chapel is held each Friday and the teachers take turns leading it. There are 2 chapels - one for Kindergarten through 2nd grade and one for the 3rd to 6th grades. It was Michael's turn to lead Chapel for the younger children. One of the songs was 'Jesus loves the little children' and here are the students holding up the 'Red and Yellow, Black and White' papers when the words were sung in the chorus.

After work on Friday, I stopped at the store to pick up items for Nachos. I gathered up the meat, cheese, jalepenos, chips, etc., went to the register and checked out. As I went to my wallet, I realized I only had about 1/2 the amount of money needed to pay for the groceries. Being utterly surprised, I said "Meine mann hat meine geld", meaning "My husband has my money". Now this wasn't to blame Michael - it was just a statement of shock because I didn't have enough to pay for the groceries and if I didn't have the money, Michael must (along with the shock of being able to conjour up a complete sentence in German!). Of course the next thought was, "How do I say take some items back until I can pay for them?" This sentence did not come so easily and by then several more people were in line. Well, somehow the clerk understood and I paid for the items I had money for and went home wondering where my money was. About 1/2 hour later, Michael came home and when I replayed the scene, he said, "The money is in your coat pocket." And sure enough it was because a few days before when we went to the store together, Michael gave me the change and I put it in my coat pocket but neglected to put it in my wallet. Of course, I told Michael I couldn't show my face in that store for a week or so! Thankfully, we do most of our shopping at a different store. I don't think that has ever happened to me - in any country! At least I was able to laugh at myself. And actually, I went back to that store the next day, but I made sure not to go to the same cashier.

There's a first time for everything. Have a wonderful week and be sure you have enough geld with you to buy your groceries.

A very soggy Saturday...

2008-09-13T19:16:00.005+02:00

Did I ever mention that sometimes, it rains just like in the Pacific Northwest? You know that rain... The rain that just never lets up the entire day. The rain that comes with the deep steel grey clouds (or are thay gray clouds?) - where it feels like the very clouds themselves are straining down under their damp loads to touch the earth. You know that rain. Well, we had THAT rain today.

Not that I'm complaining, just setting the backdrop for a trip we took with our friends to the Freilichtmuseum in the Schwarzwald. The Freilichtmuseum is an open air museum near the town of Gutach, deep in the agrarian country of the Black Forest. It is beautifully green land highlighted with steep valleys and thick forests. The Freilichtmuseum is a series of a dozen historic farmhomes and outbuildings (bakeries, mills, storehouses) taken from throughout the southern region of the Schwarzwald. The farmhomes are dismantled, transported and maticulously reconstructed with the original materials on the museum grounds. The only building not moved is the one pictured below (with its storehouse on the left), which inspired the idea of this open-air museum.

This farmhome was build in 1601. Yes, that is not a type-o. 407 years ago, this farmhome was built. Like most of the Südschwarzwald farmhomes, it was both house and barn. It housed families, animals and farm equipment. It serverd as a storage barn for feed and a workshop for weaving, forging and carpentry. This farmhouse was in service until about twenty years ago when it became the centerpoint for the museum.

The many valleys of the Schwarzwald gave rise to many, many different and unique communities. While quite similar in many ways (generally poor, rural farmers), the peoples developed varied styles of traditional dress (Trachten) that could identify individuals to a very specific area, sometimes with only a few miles separating the communities.

Above is the traditional Gutach Tracht. Whenever you see a young lady with the hat festooned with red pom-poms, it conjours a traditional Schwarzwald feel. Oh, yeah, when you marry, you trade in the red poms for black ones - I wonder if there is a double meaning hidden in that somewhere... You will notice subtle differences with the Furtwangen Tracht below (and the not-so-subtle differences to the 21st century Tourist Tracht). The communities of Gutach and Furtwangen are less than twenty miles apart.

In the houses that grew at lower elevations, where grain was more plentiful, thatched roofs protected the homes from the elements. The thatching is at least 20 cm (~1 foot) thick and we can personally testify that it keeps the rain out. The homes are kitted out with traditional furniture and accessories. The people of the Schwarzwald lived simple, God-fearing lives. They worked hard - a characteristic that is well known and respected even amongst the industrious German populations of other regions.

Of course, farms needed to be mostly self-sufficient. They grew their own food, sawed planks from hewn logs, ground flax for oil, backed bread 40 loaves at a time, pressed their own juice. We were amazed to find this huge pumpkin growing in the garden of one of the farmhouses (Delynn was added for scale). The Schwarzwald clock was also developed by these inventive fellows. By using wood instead of costly metal, the clocks of the Black Forest became a standard throughout Germany and Europe. Because they were inexpensive, it allowed affordable time-keeping to middle-class families for the first time ever. It seems weird to think of that today, but this was a breakthrough industry in its day.

Of the lesser known skills inherent among farmers of the Schwarzwald is the ability to craft and decorate fiberglass cows. While it may seem that this is a purely fruitless pursuit, it does augment the ticket sales (at €6 a pop) for the museum.

We really had a great time together with our colleagues despite the weather. It is the shared exploration and discovery that makes days like this special. Life is truly a journey, don't get stuck on the side-lines. Travel life, wherever you are. Live a peace with each other. Serve others with abandon, expecting nothing in return. Love all.

Peace be with you.

A late summer stroll through Weil a. Rh.

2008-09-07T19:02:00.006+02:00

Another beautiful Sunday meanders its way slowly to sunset. Weil am Rhein can be very lovely at this time of year. The grapes are not yet ready, so the paths that wind their way through the various vineyards are not yet closed for harvest. As summer winds down, we need to take advantage of fair weather to relish what God has created for us to enjoy.

We had a great worship in the morning, but we nearly always arrive back home tired. We ate a simple meal and read through Der Sonntag newspaper. This is one of the two free newpapers that get delivered in our mailbox. Did I mention that mailboxes are much more open in Germany than in the States. Not only is your official post placed there, but all sorts of ads and such (like our free newpapers) are stuffed right into the box. We, like many other folks, get tired of all the junk ads that we ignore and have to recycle, so we put a label on our mailbox that asks for no advertisements. And do you know what? The people that distribute the stuff actually respect our request and don't put ads in our mailbox. Anyway, I digress.

For some reason, reading through a newspaper (regardless of the language) always puts us in the mood for a Sunday afternoon nap, so we threw in some wash (which gives us a good 90 minutes until it is done), read a little more and dozed for a while. We awoke refreshed and the weather had turned warmer and clearer than expected. After finishing up our chores, we decided to take advantage of the fortuitous climate and stroll up to the vineyards east of town.

Our stroll took us up above the towns of Weil and Haltingen (the picture immediately below is of the town of Haltingen). There are kilometers and kilometers of roads (tractor paths mostly) that criss-cross the vineyards and apple orchards blanketing the hillside above our town. We came across these wonderful sunflowers as they were turned to catch the rays of the evening sun - they look so happy...
The vineyards are getting heavy with grapes, nearly ready for the harvest. The harvest should begin by late this month or early next. Already, some grapes are being harvested for juice - and let me tell you there is nothing that compares to fresh pressed grape (or apple) juice. We are so fortunate to live where this is all so abundantly available. Mmmmm. I apologize, but we just received a call from some friends of ours inviting us out for a kugel (italian ice cream), so enjoy the pictures below while we go for a much earned ice cream (we walked for 90 minutes!).

Okay, we are back. I had a Cherry-cream and Stracciatella (sort of italian chocolate-chip) double scoop and Delynn had a Stracciatella and Chocolate. We are very satisified...

Oh yeah, garden gnomes are quite popular in this part of the country. They are called Zwerge in German and they come in all shapes and sizes. This one seemed quite content in his garden home...

The Rathausplatz in Weil am Rhein. Next week, Weil will be celebrating with a street festival in the old city (Altstadt) - it is the start of festival season throughout the region, so we will have lots to fill up our weekends. We pray that everyone has a blessed week. Keep the faith!

So much to tell. So little time.

2008-09-01T10:36:00.008+02:00

We are a little behind this week (and it's only the third week of school!!!) - the weekend was just chock full of fun, meaningful, joyful, tough, tiring, smiling activities. It was one of those weekends when you need a day off to recover.

Last week occasioned RIA's 5th anniversary. In addition to celebrating with a school party (wait till you see the cupcakes that our friend Kelly made...) we had a classroom theme day on Friday and a family fun celebration (and grill party) on Saturday. Each class came up with a theme that the students could use for a dress-up day. While you can probably guess what the 1st and 2nd grade class chose (9 girls, no boys), some of the other classes were pretty inventive.

Kelly put together each little lion (our mascot) cupcake by hand. I think the cornflake manes were the most clever.

So, did you guess that the girls would dress up as fairy princesses? These girls jump at any chance to wear pink! Oh yeah, I think we got a unicorn in there too!

The 3rd/4th grade class decided to go on Safari! Guess which one is playing the tourist? The students really loved the monkey puppet!

The 4th/5th grade class decided on a "wear your flag" theme. This special student and her full-time assistant are both proud to wear the stars and stripes.

I was forward thinking enough to bring my special apron that nephew Matt made for me way back in middle-school. It is a cow-print design - which by the way is very popular with our Swiss families. Since I had the apron, I had the joy of doing the grilling. Now, in Germany, we don't have bohemouth gas grills that pump out 40,000 BTUs. The school has a Weber knock-off with an 18-in diameter grill. Luckily, we had plenty of wood coal; Cam and I got it stoked and burning. We grilled ears of corn, three-dozen burgers and just as many wiener wuerstchen over the course of about an hour. We danced around the grill, moving the meats from hot spots, turning the dogs and avoiding the smoke as much as possible. I only had one burger too charred to eat. We had a great (but tiring) time.

Just as we finished cleaning up, I drove Delynn and two other staff to catch a train to Solothurn. They had made arrangements to overnight in the city before the big walking marathon which was held on Sunday. Delynn will share a bit of her experiences but let me just say how proud of her I am. (Is that correct English?) She trained, she sweat more than I have ever seen her sweat in 13 years of marriage. She suffered through blisters and bruised toes but she kept up the rigourous training schedule for the event.

I was scheduled to lead Music worship at ACB Sunday morning, so I stayed in Weil a. Rh. until after the morning service before I took to the road with my friend Cam (whose wife was also walking) to Solothurn. We arrived about 90 minutes before the race closed - interesting thing. The Swiss timed the race start times so that to complete the marathon, everyone had to keep a pace of at least 6 km/hr (which is almost 4 mi/hr) - a pretty blistering pace for 42.2 km. The marathon ended at 16.00 (4pm) sharp. In fact, they had the entire finish area pretty much torn down and stowed by 16.30 because it was right in the middle of the city's old town. We really enjoyed our brief look around the town, but the walkers weren't too interested in doing any sight seeing after the race, so we will have to make a return day-trip of it.

Here are Delynn and Jennifer soon after the close of the marathon. Frankly, I think the smiles are delirium. I took the picture below right after I asked these two parents "Are you ready to go again?" - I believe they thought I was off my rocker.

Here is what Delynn has to say about the whole marathoning experience:

I didn't feel like doing much last night when I got home, so sorry I didn't send out the results sooner. I walked (and walked and walked) yesterday, but I didn't quite make it to the end. I walked 35 of the 42 kilometer marathon, which is close to 22 miles. The course was designed so the 'challenging' part was at the end - this means there were 2 big hills in the last 12-14 kilometers. I made the first one OK, came down and was doing OK and made it to 35 before I just couldn't do anymore. The organizers called someone, who drove me back to the town. In the car, the man told me there was another big hill past where I stopped. So, I'm glad I stopped when I did - the second hill was very steep both going up and coming down. All in all, I am satisfied with my results. I wish I could have finished but there was no sense causing more bodily harm to myself.

I am pretty tired today but my feet are in pretty good shape - no blisters but a few bruised toenails. For the statistically inclined: A total of 5515 people completed the marathon with distances of 6 km, 10.5 km, 21.5 km and 42 km. In the 42 kilometers category, only 38 people signed up and 31 finished for walking. There is also a category for Nordic walking which had 179 people sign up and 161 finished. So I guess even to go 35 km was more than the vast majority of the people went.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

RIA First Day of School

2008-08-24T16:26:00.002+02:00

Warning! This blog entry contains cute kid pictures that may bring a smile to your face. If you need to stay in a grumpy mood, do not read any further - it may ruin your day...

Whew! What a week! Today (Sunday) broke blue and clear; the sun bathing every tree and flower in striking glory. It wants to make one thank God for the beauty of the world around us. I hope it feels that way to you too! After Morning Worship in Basel, our friend Jon offered us a lift home as his wife was away visiting her folks near Stuttgart. Since it was such a relaxing afternoon (and the shops are all closed) we strolled over to a local café for lunch. They serve Turkish, Italian and German food for a reasonable price and it is very close to our apartment. It is kinda funny in most restaurants here that they bring the food when it is ready, not when the whole table's order is done. Jon got a salad when Delynn's plate and my pizza came. We tucked into our meals, Jon of course finishing his salad first. We then waited for Jon's main course to arrive, and waited..., and waited... It finally arrived after what had been been a miss-communication with the kitchen, so we all finished our meal together, filled with the warmth of good company and spicy Turkish kabap.

Delynn and I have finished up our first full week of school. What a wonderful experience it is to reconnect with our returning students and begin to build relationships with the new students. As I have mentioned before, a significant number of student families were relocated over the last school year and this year we find ourselves with more new students from around the globe. Several new students are coming into an english-speaking environment for the first time which adds new challenges to our teachers on how to bring the students up to grade level and teach them all they need to know.

I have to say however that we have some of the cutest kids on the planet. Now, I'm sure that every teacher feels this way - I wish that I could combine these pictures with insight into their unique personalities, to convey the memories that flood our hearts with each face, but I cannot. You will just need to take our word for it that these are some precious children. God makes each one so different from the others - and we are so glad for that. Imagine how boring life would be without the beautiful hues of personalities, the fragrance of different smiles, the resonance of a myriad voices.

Not to say that everything is peaches and cream. Everyone who teaches understands the tears that go with the job. The first week can be hard for the children - especially those that have never been in a school before. It can be trebly hard if the childs first language is not English or German (or Swiss for that matter.) Imagine walking into a new environment where you parents leave you and go away; the people are all speaking gibberish and they expect you to follow new rules that have no context (Why are we always lining up to go to the potty?). God however has been so gracious to us. We have so many students that are proficient in multiple languages (some speak three or four different languages, switching seamlessly as the need arises) that they can ease the transitions for our new students as they learn the English language - and believe me, they learn quickly!

Okay, final warning! Here they come...

Doesn't this young kindergartener look excited to start school!

Delynn gets a laugh as this young student shows off her new backpack!
This returning student is sporting the latest in 2nd grade fashion - two missing teeth!

Finally, these two 1st graders are part of our transition team - they help the Spanish and German EAL (English as an Additional Language) students understand what is going on in the classroom.

A word about EAL. It used to be called English as a Second Language (ESL) but then for many students, English is their 3rd or 4th language, so it was called English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Now I thought this was a fine name, but apparently, the teaching profession likes to change names every few years just to keep people guessing, so this year EAL came into vogue. Maybe by 2010 it will just be EL (English as a Language)... Who knows. It keeps the letterhead from getting old.

For our praying friends, thank you for your faithfulness. Please, as you think of us, keep our students in mind, those just starting, those learning English for the first time, for our message of God's love for them - and for the whole world.

Peace

2008-08-16T13:45:00.009+02:00

Delynn is out training for her marathon that comes up the end of the month. She will be joining some staff and parents from school to walk the marathon (42.2 km/26.3 mi). I am so proud of her for sticking to a training schedule that will help her succeed! Today she is scheduled to walk for 5.5 hours - the marathon has to be completed in under 7 hours, so that will be going at a good pace. Go Delynn!

One of the things we love about the Dreiländereck is the way that things are taken care of. Now, we do have graffiti, but it runs the spectrum from useless tagging to really quite well executed works of art. Most of these types are seen from the train as we wiz through the cement jungle around train yards. In Weil a. Rh. the city fills the public spaces with flowers and plants, regularly rotating them out after they have reached their peak. In Basel, they decorate not only the land but the air too. The picture below is of the main tram terminals in front of the Basel Main Rail station. It was a delightful sight after returning home from our visit in the states.

I told you last week that we were going to a Schwingenfest. Well, I have a bit more background thanks to father internet. It is traditionally Swiss with its origins back to the 13th century. It was revived as a sport about 200 years ago to raise Swiss national conciousness during a time of French occupation. What I find fasinating is that the grand prize is a bull! Really, we saw it... They parade it around during the final match so that the opponents can see what they are fighting for. Another nice gesture is that the winner doesn't gloat about his victory but rather whips the sawdust off his adversary's back as they walk out of the ring. Hmmm, there is probably a lesson in there somewhere... For those of you info-junkies about odd facts - you know who you are... here is a link to find out more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwingen

When Delynn and I returned to Germany, we arrived just a few days before our 13th anniversary. Last year, we were in the midst of transition (getting work visas, moving in, signing up with the Rathaus, drivers licenses, etc. - it makes me tired just writing it...) so we didn't take much time to celebrate our anniversary. I know, poor us. Well, this year we found out that because we had already done all the transitioning last year that we had a few days before school in-service days started. We decided to go off for a couple of days to Baden-Baden to relax and just be us two.

Baden-Baden is found in the Schwarzwald about 2.5 hours north by train from Weil a. Rh. It is near the border with France and the french influence in architecture, wide boulevards, spacious parks and gardens is readily felt. Baden-Baden is a resort town, with natural hot mineral springs that have been a destination since Roman times. They actually have to cool down the water before introducing it into the pools and springs.

There are two main bath complexes in Baden-Baden. One is Friedrichsbad - a so called Roman-Irish bath. Friedrichsbad is attended completely "textile free" except for a towel. The second, pictured above, is the Caracalla Therma which is where we spent an incredible anniversary morning relaxing at the spa. Caracalla lets one bathe in a more modest way - with a bathing suit. The different pools were at various temperatures. Most were in the upper 80's to low 90's Fahrenheit. One grotto had two pools right together, the hot pool at 95+ and the cold pool at 62. It was quite invigorating to go back and forth between them. They had a eucalyptus steam room - what a unique experience. As one enters, the steam is so thick that you can barely see across the dimly lit room, all dark tile and beautiful marble. It reminded me of a Godfather movie where the mobsters sit in steam rooms for nefarious purposes.

The hot mineral springs are piped into the "Trinkhalle" (drinking hall) where for a 30 cents one can buy a cup to enjoy the hot mineral water. Doesn't Delynn look healthier already? Actually, all things considered, it was not too bad. We have been to Bath in England, which is also a Roman mineral spring spa and the water there was nasty with a capital "N"! They advised us there to hold our noses while drinking to make it more palatable. In Baden-Baden, it was good enough that I went back for a second cup (well, I did pay 30 cents for it...)

Here we are in front of the famous Baden-Baden casino. Apparently one needs a tie and jacket to gamble there. (Michael was inappropriately dressed...)

We took a path down to the suburb of Lichtental because there is an abby there. A couple of times it rained so hard that we had to stop and huddle under our single umbrella (but it was very romantic...). Once we reached the abby, everything was pretty much closed up, but we did get a rather nice picture of an abby courtyard wall. Along the path between Baden-Baden and Lichtental are rose and dalia gardens - they must grow well in rain...

Where's Waldo? We had an incredibly good time together in Baden-Baden. We came back to Weil ready for in-service and excited about the coming year. We do ask that as you think of us that you give a prayer for more students this year. Last year saw the transfer of families that made up about 30% of our student body. We do have some new students, but overall, it has been a big change. We are thankful for each student we have, they are all very special to us - and you will start seeing pictures of them soon! School starts Monday!

Love to all

Quick update

2008-08-10T09:20:00.002+02:00

As we prepare to go to Worship this morning, I thought that I would share a few words from our last week. Delynn and I spent our anniversary in the resort town of Baden-Baden. The architecture reminded us fondly of Paris - wrought iron balconies, flowers everywhere, cafés on the street, leisurely walks in green, fountained parks. It was a perfect celebration of 13 years.

We will provide more details and pictures but it may be delayed a few days as we get back into our work routines. One reality about life here is that it takes longer to accomplish the common everyday tasks of living. We are grateful for that but it takes time to organize. Today also, we are meeting up with friends to go to a traditional Swiss festival. Apparently, the highlight of the festival is to watch burly swiss farmers throw each other around a dirt ring wearing the equivalent of a sumo get-up over their clothes. Should be interesting... Those Swiss! We will be sure to post pictures of that too.

Love to all!

We have arrived home.

2008-07-30T18:26:00.002+02:00

We finally landed at the Zürich airport at 1140 today, 30 July. This was almost four hours later than we had expected. When we first boarded the flight in Atlanta, we noted that it was unusually warm. Several mechanics, festooned with screwdrivers and flashlights, made their way to the cockpit and then left. After the clock ticked past our scheduled departure time we were told that our air-conditioning unit was konked out and that we needed to deplane into the relatively cooler airport for our wait. (Thank the Lord, it was cooler...). A part was found, the solution however did not work and a new plane was found for us. Thank goodness that we were in Atlanta - a huge Delta hub, from which a substitute could be found. The new plane had to go through security checks, pre-fight checks and the luggage had to be transloaded. We took off finally about 4 hours later than expected; the actual flight to Zürich was relatively uneventful.

Our friends were waiting for us when we finally touched down. Aubrey, a fellow teacher and her friend Stephanie (both from the Northwest) had arrived about 830 and had to wait with Diana until we finally arrived. Everything turned out well however and we finally got to our little apartment by 1500 (3pm) this afternoon.

As the clock passes 1830 locally, Delynn and I are finishing the last of our unpacking but we are pretty bushed. We will do our level best to keep going until about 8pm or so before turning in.

Love to all; thanks to everyone who made our stay back in the States so memorable. From cars loaned to beds slept in - we have a really special group of people supporting us. But...

It's good to be back home.

Kindergarten Graduation

2008-06-15T14:34:00.006+02:00

We had a very special celebration at RIA this week - Kindergarten Graduation! Ms. Hillary graduated six students that eagerly wait for the coming of 1st grade next year. These six students represent six differant countries: England, America, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Spain - and Ms. Hillary is Canadian, so that's seven. We held the graduation a little early as two of the students are leaving early, one on holiday and one moving to a new city in Switzerland (that would be the American student...) Due to the realities of expat communities living in foreign countries, about half of the kindergarten class will not be returning next year, but will be attending schools in other areas and countries.

This is a reality that has really touched our hearts. Transition; leaving; being the new kid; saying goodbye; saying hello to new families; new country, new language, new everything - that is something that makes these children unique. We have them but for a season, to love, to nurture, to share God's love, before we send them off again to a new place, a new home. Ms. Hillary is in transition also - she will be finishing up the school year just in time to have her first child. She and her husband (he's German, works in Switzerland), are so very excited to begin their family. As Ms. Hillary transitions from teaching to being a full-time mommy, we are also saying goodbye to a great Kindergarten teacher.

At Graduation, the students sang and did motions to one of their favorite songs: "Our God is a Great Big God!". Can you believe that they are all the same age?

The Kindergarten students each designed and made their graduation hats. There is such a huge amount of creativity in the class. They are giving Ms. Hillary a group hug in appreciation for her being their teacher. So sweet!
These two sisters (twins actually) are the pride of my library. They attended RIA for several years before transitioning to a German school. I think I have mentioned before the requirements on attending a German school if you are a resident. Anyway, the sisters' family still has library priviledges as their younger sister still attends RIA and they are voracious readers. They come in after school and check out books as quickly as they can read through them. I think their goal is to read every book in our library... Well, more power to them I say! Oh yeah, I don't think they even realize that I am taking this picture - they get so focused when they read that the world ceases to exist.

Indeed, we are learning here just how priceless each child is. As several of our long-time families are transitioning to other countries, we share many poignant moments as we work hard to say goodbye well. We are learning that time is much shorter than we would like to believe. We must hold on loosely, the students are a gift to teach for a time, only to send them on again - smarter, wiser, kinder, with God's truth in their heart that they are special and hopefully with fond memories of their time at Rhein International Academy.

Love all; serve all. Be generous.

P.S. This will likely be our last post of the year as Delynn and I frantically get ready to finish out the last week of school and get ready for the flight back to the States. We love you and look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Euro 2008 in Basel!

2008-06-08T18:25:00.002+02:00

It was so nice of the Swiss to host a major european football tournament to commemorate our birthdays this month. For those of you who may not follow soccer over here (or as they call it: REAL football...) this is the year of the European Masters 2008 tournament (EM 2008) which is being hosted by Switzerland and Austria. Sixteen european national teams are competing for the title. It is a bit unusual (and deeply saddening) to our British friends that England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales ALL failed to make the cut. Switzerland and Austria are both fielding teams but they are not expected to make it into the quarterfinals. We shall see.

Basel is one of the host cities for EM 2008, so Delynn and I ventured over Saturday to get a feel for the city as it prepared for opening day. Basel hosted the very first game - Switzerland vs. the Czech Republic. I read somewhere that 100,000 people were expected to come to the game. The stadium in Basel only holds 42,500, so where do you think the rest of the folks were? Yup, walking up and down the streets with their team colors on. We enjoyed being in the midst of the pre-game festivities because before the first game, everyone is still in the running and can win. The Czech and Swiss fans enjoyed pointing at each other and singing their fight songs (none of which we could understand...) There is a phrase that we heard repeatedly: Hopp Schwiiz! which is a dialect version of Hop Suisse! (Can you hear the difference?) This phrase means "Go Switzerland!" and is the direct equivalent of USA! USA! heard at so many international sporting events.

A sea of red and white. You might notice a couple of Czech fans with red, white and blue national colors.
The normally reserved Swiss get a little crazy for football... Notice the Matterhorn hat - I think it is homemade. Don't you love the umbrellas?

This is the Freiestrasse in Basel, a pedestrian street full of shops and uh, lots of people. They put up the awnings for EM 2008, but they don't keep out the rain. Even though it seems like a lot of people, this is a pretty manageable crowd (unless you get claustrophobic)...

I was never quite sure why the Schweiiz fans would be wearing Viking horned caps. Hmmm. Probably just because men like to think they are vikings. Go figure. Some adventurous person climbed up on the fountain statue and put a Swiss flag in the knight's hand.
Delynn and I were definately not wearing the right colors! Opps, what a cultural faux-pas. It is still a little cool and wet for late spring but we are enjoying every minute of the adventure of living here in our little corner of Germany. Speaking of Germany, they play tonight and are one of the favored teams to take the EM 2008 title. We will be back in the States before the champion is crowned. It is just a little over two weeks until we fly out and we have so much to do. We look forward to seeing as many as possible next month. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We are still looking to find a automobile to borrow if possible while we are back in the Portland-Vancouver area. Please let us know if you have a vehicle for use. It means a lot to us.

We pray for God's rich blessings for all during the coming week. Live generously; Love surprisingly; be a blessing to someone.

Eek! It's June!

2008-06-01T09:39:00.008+02:00

It is now officially June - as I flip over the calendar, I realize that we fly in a bit more than three weeks. Yikes! Two and a half weeks of school, an additional couple of days of teacher in-service to close things down for the summer and BAM - we will be on a plane back to PDX. Please pray for our final hectic weeks and for our good-byes. We will be saying farewell to several teachers and families that are transitioning away from RIA this summer. This is a poignant time each year - we have poured our lives into the students and they have flourished in the loving, godly environment here. To know that some will not return in the Fall is tough, but it is part of the path we choose when living and teaching overseas.

Today (Sunday) we had the opportunity to travel up to our sister church in Freiburg. Our vicar (there is something very British about that word...) invited members of ACB to travel up with him to Freiburg as he is giving the message to their congregation. It makes for a long day, but as we have mentioned before, with shops closed on Sundays, a wonderful space is created to enjoy building and watering relationships. In the busyness of our lives back in the States, I recall very few Sundays when we didn't end up going shopping at some point. Not to say that we aren't just as busy here, but somehow we manage to structure our week so that the shopping gets done in six days rather than seven.

Saturday evening we celebrated "International Night" with our school family. Nearly every family was represented. They came bringing foods from their native land, wearing traditional garb (Swedish to Scottish kilts to Indian) and enjoying their students' talents. In reality, at our school, anytime two or more families come together, the event becomes "international"... The showcase of the evening was a play written by our director, Miss Del Rio, which combined three well-known folk tales: Chicken Little, the Bremen Town Musicians and Little Red Riding Hood as they were told in other countries around the world. Michael had the privilege of playing the wolf in a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. Basically it was me in drag with a tale sticking out the back of the flannel nightgown. (Did I mention that it was really hot?) We had a grand time.

Here are the Pre-school and Kindergarten classes singing out with all of their heart!

These three sisters sang a Lebanese mother's song. The girls are Lebanese-American living in Switzerland. They are sweet!

Mr. Walz was playing the part of a Wolf in a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. I also had a gray wig to complete the disguise.

A teacher and student playing a beautiful rendition of "Faithful One"

We are very much looking forward to summer break - to coming back to the NW to catch up with family and friends. But in so many ways, Weil am Rhein has become our home and we are sure to miss it. We wish you all grace and peace in the coming week.

The best laid plans of man... Part 2

2008-05-25T21:17:00.001+02:00

We are so proud of our students! As you know, Rhein International Academy is a Christian school, but Christianity is more than just learning from the Bible, it is working the lessons of the Bible and faith out in the real world. So, when the tragedies struck Myanmar and China over the last couple of weeks, it was not terribly surprising (but very heart-warming) when our middle-school students wanted to take action. They came up with the idea of a bake sale. They researched the different groups that have a presence in the countries already. They understood especially the difficulties of getting aid to the people who needed it in Myanmar. They found that World Vision is already in country there and chose it for their proceeds. The students organized publicity, sent out requests for support (i.e. bring in the goodies) and staffed the tables. Different grades helped bake items to sell - we literally involved the entire school in the project.

One of our middle-schools students sells baked goods to her mother (No special discounts here!)

The first-grade class is pictured here with another of our middle-school students. Guess whose parents brought in the sushi? (Let me tell you, the sushi and spring rolls sold out quickly - do you see any spring rolls on the table?)

Another of our middle-school students designed and created this sign in German as we have some foot traffic that walks by the school and we didn't want to leave them out.

I can just see this student saying: "What's it going to take to get you to buy one of my delicious wares today?" (By the way, that 50 cent sign is for 50 Euro-cents - roughly $0.75 US) The students raised over € 200 and 30+ CHF which works out to about $350.00 for the earthquake and cyclone relief. It may not seem like much when there is such deep need, but therein lies the lesson: it is not the amount that counts, but the motivation of the heart. These students are learning to reach out beyond themselves to be the adults and citizens of tomorrow. What a privilege it is to be a part of shaping how they see and affect their (and our) world.

Love all, serve all. Be blessed this coming week!

The best laid plans of man...

2008-05-22T12:50:00.007+02:00

We finally have some time to catch everyone up on the blog today due to a series of quite interesting and humorous circumstances. After a fantastic church retreat last weekend, we came back renewed and challenged in several great ways. Delynn and I had a very "European" room arrangement. The retreat center we used caters more often to singles than couples and are quite spartan compared to U.S. standards. Many of the rooms are set with bunk-beds, two small study tables and chairs, armoire and sink with the toilet and shower down the hall. However, the retreat, the fellowship, the movement of God's Spirit in that place was incredible. It was definitely something we needed more than we even realized. But, it left us behind on other commitments, like the blog. Here are a couple of pictures from the retreat - such beauty can bring one to tears.

We traditionally have a talent show during retreat - except for our friend Bryn on guitar (works at one of the local pharmaceuticals in Basel) these are all teachers at RIA. Amy-Jo is signing, Allison is singing, Anne is on violin and yours truly on bongos. I didn't know I had it in me...

Anyway, back to the subject this entry. Today is a holiday in Germany -it is called Fronleichnam or perhaps better known as Corpus Christi in the states. So, federal holiday in Germany means no work, shops are closed, busses and trains on holiday schedule. Okay, good so far. We have a day off school. By the way, this is our last holiday before school ends on 18 June.

Now, in Switzerland, each Kanton or state is either Catholic or Protestant (I know, weird concept in the U.S.). Based on this, it may or may not be a holiday. The question then arises: Are the trains running on a non-holiday or holiday schedule? The city of Basel is its own Kanton (sort of a City-State) and happens to be Protestant (although historically it was Catholic), so our friends who live in Germany (holiday today) and work in Basel (no-holiday today) therefore need to report in to work. Of course, since Basel is "open today", lots of Germans take advantage of the holiday to go shopping. Now, France doesn't celebrate the holiday at all, so it is also "open" (i.e. shops, trains on regular schedule (snicker...), etc.).

Delynn and I had the brilliant idea that we would take advantage of our day off to travel to Mulhouse (roughly pronounced "M00-looze" on French), France. Why? Well, because we have never been there and it's only 30 minutes from the Basel main train station, so why not. Oh, yeah. Did I mention that the SBB (Swiss rail company) is doing construction at a train stop, so our normal train schedules are mixed up for a couple of weeks? Well, okay - there it is. This actually works in our favor today because we can take a train from Weil am Rhein directly to the Swiss Main station without making a transfer at the Basel Badisher Bahnhof (that's the German train station that physically resides in Switzerland). Confused yet?

So. Here we go. We catch the 1038 train from Weil a. Rh. to the Basel Main station. Great. We walk over to the ticket counter and queue up. Delynn holds our spot while I jaunt over to the ATM and get some CHF (Swiss Francs) cause they don't use the € in Switzerland. When our turn comes, we are informed by the nice lady behind the glass that the French Rail are on strike today. Trains may or may not be going at times which may or may not roughly match the train schedule and that said trains are subject to random stops and "pauses" so there is no telling how long a 30-minute trip to Moo-looze will take. Plus, the return trip would be totally random depending on the whims of the French Rail folk. We have dealt with French strikes before, so the best thing we could do was return to Weil and our apartment 90-minutes after we had left on our little adventure. It was not a wasted trip however as we were able to purchase our June rail pass at the station while we were there and we stepped over to the Co-op grocery for something (since stores are closed back home in Germany).

Plus, as a complete bonus, we have a great story to share with all of our family and friends. Now you can see why we love it here!

Love to all.

Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week

2008-05-12T13:46:00.007+02:00

It has been another wonderful week here in Germany in so many different ways. The weather has been exceptional. It has been in the mid-20's every day this week. Nice thing about spring here is the low humidity. We have several staff members that hail from the southern states - and they know from humid. With this weather, what we like mostly to do is bask in the warm sunny rays while enjoying (you knew it was coming...) a nice ice cream. Our Canadian friends here had a funny story about being with family on a trip somewhere. During the middle of a conversation about family or politics or Canada, someone piped up: "Did somebody mention something about an ice cream?" and off they went. So now, we have now taken to using that phrase rather often. By telling this story in our blog, I am hoping that the use of this phrase will spread far and wide - it works best of course when not talking about food (So, our family won't be able to use it much...) But, I digress.

It was Teacher and Staff Appreciation week in Germany - I don't know much about these traditions (we never had Software Engineer Appreciation week at Intel...) Our parents lavished us with a special breakfast one day and lunch on another. Our director's Bible Study group took over our cleaning duties on Friday afternoon (I was on downstairs bathrooms, so I REALLY appreciated that). They were all such a blessing to us all. Anyway, on Wednesday, the students brought flowers to their teachers and staff. Wow, what a surprise - I had never gotten flowers before. Each child has a bouquet of flowers - they walk around and present their teachers and the staff with a single flower and soon we were awash in a beautiful flora.

Here are Delynn and I, each at our desks with the beautiful results. Some of the flowers came from the childrens' own gardens, some had notes attached, but each flower was special. I think the students enjoy giving them away as much as we enjoyed receiving them. I think that I win the prize for the biggest bunch! (Please note that the hair is coming in nicely...)

May is also our Cultural Celebration Month at RIA - and boy do we have a lot of cultural to celebrate! We had our students do a take home project: to make a family flag. We then had an assembly where the students shared what their flag means. The vast majority of our families are multi-ethnic - everything from Scottish-Polish to Swiss-German. One family had 4 flags in theirs: Spain (where one child was born), America (younger sibling was born there), China (where the children grew up) and Switzerland (where they currently live). Student after student stood up and presented their diverse, yet seemless integration of cultures. It was a poignant reminder of how far we have come in shrinking this planet on which we live.
Chinese, German, American, French, Scot, Swiss, Polish, Lebanese, Indian, English, Spanish, Columbian - no matter what the nationality, God finds each precious. There is a lot we can learn from children.
Oh, yeah. We got a new chair. Weil am Rhein, the City of Chairs (die Stadt der Stühle) got its most recent edition last month. At a park near the school, the town of Löffingen erected this fine chair - complete with viewing platform! The children underneath were having a game of hide-and-seek at the park.

By the way, this entry is being written on Monday because it is Pfingstmontag (Pentecost Monday) which is a holiday in France, Switzerland and Germany (probably some other places too.) Also, we will be away at a church retreat all next weekend, so the next post will be delayed somewhat. Our church retreat is called "Food for the Journey" - pretty cool when you think about it... Love to all.

April showers bring May flowers...

2008-05-04T11:15:00.011+02:00

And May flowers bring lots of pollen. Ahhh-cheww! Good thing we have the Costco-size bottle of allergy medicine. We have just enjoyed our first May Day in Germany. While it was fairly calm down here in the south, May Day (sort of the Europeon Labor Day) brings with it the usual protests for higher wages and some rioting in the larger cities. It also marks the start of vacation season. We have some friends that could not find a hotel room in Vienna for the weekend (oh, there was that suite for €800 per night...). I think they decided to take some day trips around Weil. I conveniently came down with a cold, but I have effectively knocked it back with lots of Vitamin C (fizzy tablets of course), liters of juice and walks in the sunshine.

Our town of Weil a. Rh. had a lot of activity this weekend. The weather was in the low 20's (low-mid 70's F.) with clear skies. Weil hosted two different festivals - the first was a fitness festival in which they closed down a section of the Hauptstraße (see below) to allow vendors of various types to hawk their goods. The model shop had a course laid out for kids to race some remote controlled cars. There was a para-glider and scuba diving vendors, cardio-fitness, body care products and insurance sales (okay, so it is a loose definition of "fitness").

But they also had PowerRisers! This seems to be an up-and-coming thing in the Dreiländereck - they are short, springy pogo-stick like extensions for running. Delynn said that they remind her of something from Star Wars. I captured the guy mid-flight in picture below. Looks like great fun, but I think I will stick to a bicycle...

This old bus was on display right outside our apartment building. It can be rented out for special occasions - weddings, retirement parties, etc. I think that in the past, the Deutsche Post also ran some bus services (probably to the outlying towns) because this bus has several Post emblems and what looked like a slot on the side of the bus for posting letters. Anyway, I thought dad would like this picture, so here it is.

WARNING: for the slightly squeemish, one of the following pictures and descriptions may need to be vetted by someone of less delicate constitution.

So, in the middle of town, we are having a loosely-defined "fitness" festival while simultaneously, not 3 blocks away, Weilers are celebrating a Schlachtfest! which literally translated is a "slaughter festival" (yeah, really.) I had to ask my German friend Karin about this one. So, in the past, when someone in the village would slaughter an animal (which was a pretty rare event in those days) like a pig or a cow, they would throw a small party. While most of an animal's meat and parts can be preserved using various means (most involving salt and smoke), there are parts of the animal that must be consumed quickly. So you invite the neighbors over for the party to share in the meal. Karin said that the farmer would inflate the animal's stomach like a balloon and post it on the fence to signify the party place. Yum!

No inflated animal parts here, but in springtime, Germans, like people throughout the world, will take any excuse to set up a bandstand and tables, erect food stalls to sell Wurst, Schumpfnudlen (concoction of potato noodles, sauerkraut and bacon), and Heissemandeln (hot candied almonds) and just enjoy the sunshine together. Of course, a Schlachtfest would not be complete without bringing out the mechanical bull.
And, here it comes... An ox on a spit. Now, some people will find this rather disgusting, but I have seen one before and really it is not much different than roasting a chicken, it just takes a bigger rotisserie. I took this picture on Friday morning, just as the fest was starting up. Delynn and I both sampled the ox and it was delicious - a very tender roast beef flavor. Germans eat very little beef, so this is quite a treat. By late afternoon on Saturday, this entire ox was consumed - it was literally bones on a spit (sorry, no picture of that one - I didn't take a camera)

I hope that from our postings, we do not mislead everyone - it probably seems like all we do here is travel and have fun - right? Well, we are doing good work here too. Our students and their families are our focus. We are greatly blessed to be able to be here and do not take it for granted. We are grateful for your thoughts, your prayers and your support. Love to all.

Of Sunshine and Walznudeln

2008-04-27T19:20:00.007+02:00

We had a wonderful week of "it's-beginning-to-look-like-spring" weather. Not the April showers and gray skies spring, but the May flowers and sunshine spring. As mentioned before, when the only weather one experiences is walking from the car to work or the shop and back again, it may not feel so significant (believe me, I was one of those people for 15 years), but when walking, biking and public transport are your primary means of conveyance, you always have an eye out to the sky. So, for Delynn and I, the breaks of sunshine are a welcome change from the last winter's cold, wet grip. More rain will come, but the sun's touch feels so good on our skin.

This is a sunset in Lörrach-Stetten off of the balcony of our friends' home were we hold our weekly Life-Group. Lörrach incorporated this neighboring town of Stetten 100 years ago last week into the city itself and I hear some families from the former town of Stetten still hold a grudge. It seems like after 100 years you should just let it go. Lörrach also celebrated its Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival) this weekend. Delynn and I trammed over after church this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and grab a wurst.

Have I mentioned that I really like that stores are closed on Sundays? Sure, it can be a pain when you didn't plan and run out of toilet paper at an inconvient time, but in general it is a nice change of pace. It forces us to slow down and enjoy the day of rest. I can see perhaps a little bit of the wisdom of God's directive.

So, apparently our family invented some new innovative type of noodles in the timeless past. They come in 8mm and 20mm widths. It feels so strange, but oddly comforting, to see our name on a package or a store (Baby-Walz is a chain of, well, baby clothing with stores throughout Germany). We have one just down the street and I don't even think about it much anymore.

Something also struck me this week about stores here in Germany that is so different than in the States. My local store ran out of coffee cream in the large (500ml) jar a couple of weeks ago. I like my morning German coffee with cream. Do you know that they still do not have any new stock? It simply is not anywhere to be found in the store. This would never happen at a Winco or Safeway - am I right? Another store in the neighborhood carries the product, so we can still get the coffee cream but it seems just so odd. When a product is sold out, the store clerks rearrange the remaining near-by stock items to cover the hole and they remove the shelf tag. You would never know that they even sold the product. This can go on for weeks before the product is replaced. Now, in all fairness, we DO go to the store much more often here than we would back in the US, so maybe we just never noticed it before but this has happened to more than one item that we purchase on a fairly regular basis.

Delynn and I took a quick trip Saturday to Liestal to see what it looks like during the day. Remember the fire parade (see 16. Feb 2008 blog entry) that took place down this street? It looks so normal now... Since we have a month-card for train/tram/bus travel, we like to make opportunites to take short explorations. As one walks around various towns and villages, you often come across memorials to folks with whom you have absolutely no frame of reference, but they have a nice flower arrangement, so why not take a picture? While I don't know who Herr Herwegh is, the townsfolk of Liestal must think enough of him to pay the gardener who provides this dazzling array of spring. (A quick google shows that Georg Herwegh was a 19th century poet who had to flee to the safe-haven of Switzerland)

As the rain showers turned to sunshine this week, the pre-school could not wait to get out to play. Here you can see most of our pre-school class prepared to go out and jump in puddles! What fun! These are the smiles that fuel our love for serving here in Germay. Each child is a precious gift from God and we see them as such. They are great fun and their smiles can melt your heart.

Have a blessed week. Love to all.

What a week!

2008-04-20T17:05:00.005+02:00

I was remiss to not share about our school's Invention Convention we held a little over a week ago. The students were invited to come up with inventions or new games to share with each other. We were quite surprised by the really clever thinking of some kids. One 4th grade student (pictured below) was so excited about his invention that he brought it two days early - it is a shoulder mounted book holder. You can't quite see it, but the book rest back folds down flat AND it has a small metal bar that comes up to hold the pages open. If you knew this young man, you would understand why he would want a book holder that fits him standing up - he is a whirlwind of energy and activity, as well as a blessing to have at Rhein International Academy.

The students at RIA also hit another significant goal this last week, but more about that later... (OOOOOh! building anticipation)

One of our joys in living here is the ability to take short day trips to sweet little towns like Laufenburg, Switzerland/Germany. You see, there is this quaint town of Laufenburg that lies on both banks of the Rhein river about 30 minutes east of Basel. We had been promising to go explore it someday, so when we woke up Saturday morning to the promise of a nice day (according to the weather forecast) and no major chores to accomplish, we determined to take the train to Laufenburg to see what we could see. We rang up our friends, the Barbours, saddled up our backpacks and set our eyes for adventure.

Our first adventure was when we arrived in Laufenburg, we got off the train and strolled around the Bahnhofplatz looking for the train schedule so we would get a feel for the departure times. When travelling by public transport, it is always prudent to know when and how late trains will be running to get one home. The ticket office was closed, but they had a schedule posted outside. After about three or four minutes of just wandering around the station, my friend Cam realized that we did not have our rucksacks - THEY WERE STILL ON THE TRAIN! Well, we scurried back to the track and jumped on the train. Cam went right and I went left, running through the cars to find our packs. The train could have started back toward Basel at any second. Cam found the packs and jumped off, I looked back and saw him, so I scooted to the nearest door and departed. The train left the station for Basel 3 minutes later (we had plenty of time...)

As I said, Laufenburg sits on both banks of the Rhein river, however in about 1800, Nepoleon ruled that the Rhein river would be the border between Switzerland and Germany (Not quite sure how the French got involved...) thus the town has been separated by nationality. A solid stone bridge connects the two sides making the passage pain-free (the border/customs houses are generally unstaffed with the border gate barriers raised.) The German side boasts the very nice Heilig-Geist Kirche (Holy Ghost Church) - a red stone building that dominates the hill. The Swiss side has more of the original wall along with the tower ruins shown below.

As you can see, the day turned out perfectly. Blue skies, temperatures in the mid-teens and lots of winding streets to explore. The only odd thing we noted is that just about all commerce concluded at noon. In Weil and Basel, most shops stay open until at least 1600 (4 pm) but in Laufenburg, we found only a couple of places still doing business in the afternoon.

Here are Delynn and Michael standing in two different countries (Delynn was in Germany at the time) with a little "hands across the border" thing going on. You might notice that Michael's hat is fitting a little looser than normal. Has his head shrunk?

Uh, no. Michael got an Extreme Hair Makeover when the RIA students made their Reading Challenge goal of reading 50,000 pages. By the way, that is us at the top of the tower in Laufenburg (CH)

"I regret that I have but one head of hair to give for my school"

This is the winning team of students at RIA, along with their very short-haired librarian. We decided to leave a little bit of hair (couple of millimeters), for which I am grateful as it is still a bit cool at times. I had to wear my wool cap (which Delynn knit for me) Friday morning at work while waiting for the heat to come up. But it is all worth it! The students really outdid themselves. One 5th grader read over 9,000 pages alone!

Whew! What a week. Love to all.

Interesting information about Germans

2008-04-13T17:02:00.005+02:00

Delynn and I were watching a TV show the other evening and thought that our friends back in the States (and elsewhere around this ever-smaller globe) would be interested in this information. The program is called Galileo and is a Discovery-channel like show. Sometimes they do challenges, like having teams try to build a stove out of old junk-yard parts and see which one will fry a steak successfully. Well, one of the segments in last week's show was What Germans Eat. Now, cousin Donna will tell you that our family is obsessed about eating (and I grow to be more in agreement with her...) so this was a topic that caught my eye. There were some surprising items in the list, so here goes.

10. Pasta: the average Germans eats 7 kg (15.4 pounds) of pasta and noodles per year.

9. Chocolate: 9 kg (19.8 lbs) per year. This is 1.65 POUNDS per month! The Walz's in Germany are doing our level best to meet or beat this average.

8. Eggs: 12 kg (26.4 lbs) This surprised us a bit, but they do eat a lot of soft-boiled eggs for breakfast.

7. Fish: 15.5 kg (34.1 lbs - about 10.5 oz per week). Speaking of fish, I was able to show Delynn some whole smoked eel at the market yesterday. She wasn't too keen on it. I guess one could classify eel as fish...

6. Cheese: 22 kg (48.4 lbs) Nearly a pound per week of cheese. It must be all of the walking that keeps people slim.

5. Meat: (big jump) 60 kg (132 lbs) This still works out to a little less than 6 ounces per day. They further broke that down into types: 40 kg pork; 10 kg beef and 10 kg chicken. Given that Germany produces over 1,500 varieties of sausage, it is not terribly difficult to imagine the current pork consumption levels. Also, pork is the least expensive meat at the market. Fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts cost €10/kg. Rather than leave that as an exercise to the reader, it works out to $7.18/pound. We bought pork for schnitzel last week that was 40% of the cost of chicken. Granted it was on sale, but even regular price is closer to 50%. We can find frozen, processed and boxed chicken for €8/kg. Good thing we like wurst!

4. Potatoes: 63 kg (138.6 lbs) per year. Not a big surprise here. One of our favorite ways to consume potatoes is called Roesti - a specialty of the Alsace region of Germany, France & Switzerland. The basic Roesti is a large pancake of finely shredded potato which fills the entire bottom of the frying pan. The number of different accompaniements can fill a cookbook (and they literally do). Onions, diced pork and cheese are favorites in the region.

3. Vegetables: 84 kg (184.8 lbs) Of course, with the excellent variety of fresh veggies available at the weekly markets, it is not hard to believe this. We love buying from the farmer's that grow the food themselves. It is just beginning to be asparagus (Spargel) season. Europeons treasure white asparagus - a larger variety than its green counterpart most often found in the States. Apparently, as the asparagus grows, the farmers mound the soil higher and higher to keep it from being exposed to direct sunlight. This keeps the asparagus from turning green. Another interesting item is that vegetables in the supermarket have the country of origin listed as part of the description. So, you can tell if that tomato came from Germany or Israel.

2. Bread: 87 kg (191.4 lbs). Ummmmm bread. The bread here is so fantastic. Luckily, the bread options in the States are getting better but they still don't compare. We, for instance, have 4 different bakeries within two blocks of our apartment. Bakeries are one of the few places allowed to open on Sunday, so we can get fresh bread any day of the week. And much of the bread is whole-grained, which is much more robust than much of what we have found in the States.

And the number one item? This one surprised us a bit also - especially the amount.

1. Fruit: 122 kg (268.4 lbs) per year. This is nearly 3/4 of a pound of fruit per day. Their favorites are similar to Americans: strawberries, bananas and apples. I wonder if this counts the fruit in ice cream. Hmmm. Our friend Karin's favorite snack is dried apricots and it is not at all unusual to see Germans eat an apple for a break or while walking down the street.

I poked around the web a bit to see if I could find a similar breakdown of what Americans eat but could only find stories that we don't eat enough fruits and veggies. Actually, it looks like the folks here do a good job of following the USDA food pyramid. Interesting.

On a note totally unrelated to food, our Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Weil am Rhein, Wolfgang Dietz, was elected to a second 8 year term of office with over 99% of the vote. Herr Dietz is well liked and one of his many accomplishments in his first term was to balance the budget. Wouldn't it be nice if we in America had such lofty convictions. The main opposition party (SPD) also felt that he is such a good Oberbürgermeister that they didn't even place a candidate to compete against him. Personnally, we are also grateful to Herr Dietz because he is a huge supporter of international education and of the Rhein International Academy. He was personally involved in bringing RIA to Weil a. Rh.

We will update everyone this coming week on the number of pages the students read in our Reading Challenge (a.k.a. 'Will Mr. Walz shave his head? Challenge'). Due to the two week Easter holiday, we extended the reading period until tomorrow. We shall see... I seem to be growing more fond of my hair as the results get closer.

Love to all!

More Easter break pictures

2008-04-06T18:43:00.008+02:00

I promised some more pictures from the trip we recently took over the Easter holiday break when Delynn's sisters were here for a visit. As you will be able to tell from just about every picture, it was rather cool (some would say cold) for the first days of spring. We heard from friends back in the states that it snowed there also. Overall, the weather here has been quite mixed. I was able to sit out on the balcony and enjoy a book in the sun last week - tomorrow morning we might have some snow showers. Oh well, the tram ride into church this morning was beautiful and sunny, so we just take it as we get it.

For those of you that don't know (probably only one or two of you), the house across that lake is the one used as the back of the Von Trapp home in the Sound of Music. The lake is the one on which the boat overturned, sending all of the children and Maria into the water. A house at an entirely different location was used for the front shots.

I don't think we will go swimming just today.

Surprisingly, I have finally found something new that is less expensive here than in the States. I went to the doctors office last December when I came down with sinusitis (one of my many maladies during the last fall-winter...). The doctor's practice is in the same building in which we live, so it was very convenient. I dropped by to make an appointment and they were able to fit me in the same day. I just came home and they gave me a call about 30 minutes later to come back up a flight of stairs to see the doctor. He speaks very good English and did a quick diagnosis and prescribed an antibiotic. I went back to see the doctor again in February to get a prescription refilled. We just received the bill this week covering both doctor visits (so much for German efficiency). I guess they aren't used to people having private insurance. Anyway, the cost of both visits was €32 (about $50). That was not the co-pay, that was the full cost of TWO visits. I couldn't believe it - it seems rather surreal when I think that in the states they charge the insurance company 100's of $$ for each visit. Amazing...

Not long ago, I posted a picture of Delynn, Deanne and myself enjoying a wurst at the market in Freiburg. Here is another, more traditional picture of the sisters at the Freiburger Münster - actually, Deanne and Denise look surprisingly well considering this was their first full day in country.

While we visited the town of Oberammergau, just after parking the car, we found a local church down the road. From the outside, it looked like a normal church, nothing really special but it did have a very beautifully cared for Friedhof (cemetary). We walked through the cemetary and took some pictures (the image of the cross and Alps a couple of entries ago was taken there). As we finished with the cemetary, we were walking back to the street when we decided, rather on a whim, to go ahead and take a peek inside - to think, we almost bypassed this incredible sight! The picture below really doesn't do the church justice - our jaws literally dropped with we first glimpsed this glorious interior.

Guess where we stayed in Salzburg? The Hotel Goldene Krone (Golden Crown) is located on a pedestrian area in the "new" city (dates back to the 14th century...). Deanne and Denise had the room next to ours. There are actually two sets of windows each sister is leaning through - separated by a wide sill (about 10 inches deep). The double windows did a great job of keeping out the cold and we could use the space between the windows as an ad hoc refrigerator. Our water, juice and fruit stayed pleasently cool all day (they don't have in-room fridges). We thought ourselves quite clever.

This last picture is one I rather like of Neuschwanstein. I believe this was taken from the terrace at Hohenschwangau. It is a rather moody, mysterious image don't you think?

Thanks for reading. Blessings to all who visit and enjoy our blog. We are excited to share our life with you. Thank you for your prayers.

Did we say Wow!?

2008-03-31T06:38:00.003+02:00

Delynn pointed out that we (uh, that would be me) forgot to post one of the pictures we had chosen to share. Did I mention that between Denise, Deanne and myself, we had over 600 pictures? It took quite some time to work though them all to find a nice sampling without overwhelming everyone. In the weeks ahead, I may be pulling additional pictures to liven up the blog.

So, I mentioned in the last entry that on the SOM tour the clouds were low and thick. At one spot, we were overlooking a town on a lake but we couldn't see the lake (and we could barely see the church steeple just a few hundred meters away). Well, imagine our delight when the next day broke clear with huge patches of blue sky. It was the day we had chosen to travel up to Königsee in the Berchtesgarten region of SE Germany. Actually, Berchtesgarten is a little peninsula of Germany that pokes into Austria just south of Salzburg. It is an area of breathtaking Alps and lakes.

We got up to Königsee early for the electric-boat trip out to the St. Bartholomä monastery. Only electric-powered (or human powered) boats are allowed on the German Alpine lakes to keep them unpolluted, the monastery being accessible only by boat at the far end of the lake. We silently cut through the water until the mid-point where the boat stopped. One of the boat captains then played a trumpet so that we could hear the echoes off of the shear cliff walls.

On a more somber note, we also visited the Nazi Documentation Center in Obersalzburg. It houses a display discussing the history of the Nazi use of the Obersalzburg region (the location of Hitler's Eagles Nest) and progression of how the National Socialist party took over and consumed the German people during the 30's and 40's. Much of what the did (social help for widows and orphans, institution of vacation time and better working conditions) on the surface was seemingly for good and noble purposes, but just under the facade, where most people really could not (or would not) see, the political party's purpose was evil. I am thankful that over the last decade or so, Germans have been begun to reexamine this part of their collective history in a healthy, more open manner. Whenever I visit places like the Documentation Center, it reaffirms in me the call to look at our own country's attitudes and government institutions with a more discerning eye.

As part of the tour, a small portion of the vast underground bunker complex is open to the public. Unfortunately, the Eagle's Nest was closed for the season (too much snow...). We also didn't get a chance to visit the Salt Mines that are located in this area of Berchtesgarten. I have been on the tour before and it is also well worth the time. So much to see and so little time. We recommend a trip to Berchtesgarten and Königsee to anyone that is traveling in this part of Germany.

What can we say but Wow!

2008-03-29T18:42:00.003+01:00

We have had the most wonderful Easter holiday break. For those of you that don't know, Delynn's sisters, Deanne and Denise, flew over from Vancouver, Washington to give us a visit. They were staying for 10 days (which is not nearly long enough), so we planned to show them around the Swiss, French, German, Austrian area since it is all so close at hand. We started off slow, taking a quick trip up to Freiburg for their first full day in country. This allowed them to experience the regional train, see a little country side and see the Alt Stadt (Old Town). Oh, yeah, Delynn also wanted to show them the yarn store there... Go figure... In the center of the Alt Stadt stands the Münster (Cathedral) with its daily market on the Münsterplatz. They have probably been holding markets there for the last 500 years, so we joined in. And what does one do at the market? Eat of course! This was the girls first experience with wurst (sausage), leberkäse (can't explain), brotchen (fresh rolls), senf (mustard) and Apfelschorle (Apple juice & mineral water concoction). After explaining all the different options, we settled on various wursts for our lunch. Here we see the happy travelers - makes you kind of hungry, doesn't it?

So, our big excursion was a trip to Salzburg, just across the border in Austria. We chose it primarily, not because it is the birthplace of Morzart, oh no. Not because it has a magnificently complete fortress that has never been taken by force, oh no. (Well, they did surrender it to Nepolean without firing a shot...). Not because it has a wonderfully preserved old city with a Cathedral and churches dating back 1100 years, oh no. We went to Salzburg because it is the backdrop for the Sound of Music!

Even though it was the first days of spring, the weather took a definate winter-like turn for us but we loved it. We agreed that if it is going to precipitate, it is best to come down as snow rather than rain (we can get all the rain we want in the Northwest U.S.). We took the Sound of Music tour to see the various sites in Salzburg and in the surrounding Salzkammergut. Unfortunately, the clouds hung so low in the sky that we were unable to get a view of the Alps, but that was okay because we could ride along and sing the "I am sixteen..." and the "Do rae mi" songs without getting pulled over by the police.

It is very sad, but visiters can no longer go into the Sound of Music (SOM) gazebo. Apparently, there have been a couple of accidents recently; you know - fifty or sixty-something folks thinking they are Liesel or Rolf and that they can jump from bench to bench. So, they had to lock the doors for public safety reasons. Above is a picture of the Salzburg fortress from the Mirabelle gardens (another SOM backdrop). You can see that we had bits of snow hanging around but the city was just as magical as ever. We had the good fortune of being in Salzburg for Easter Sunday. To celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we attended worship at the Salzburg Cathedral. They were celebrating a Mass in music. It was one of Hyden's with an orchestra, choir and soloists. It was wonderful. The voices and music soared within the cathedral's high ceilings, the praises (much of it in Latin) joined all of our souls together - it was a once in a lifetime experience. One of the really magical things about Salzburg is the number of churches that all toll the time as well as call the faithful to worship. It was exceptional on the Easter weekend. The video below is of St. Sebastian's church which was taken from the window of our hotel. Imagine these bells tolling for 10 minutes! It was sooooo cool.

After Salzburg, we drove down to the "castles". The castles are called Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau and were the homes of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He was the king of Bayern in the 1870's and nearly bankrupted his kingdom by building elaborate fantasy castles. Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. We stayed the night in the nearby town of Reutte. We awoke to about 6 inches of fresh snow that had fallen overnight. I was a little stressed because I haven't driven in that much snow since living in Augsburg, but we went ahead with our plans to tour the castles and, as you can see by the pictures, we were not disappointed.

One very interesting item: at the hotel in Salzburg, we met another family visiting the area and found out they were from Beaverton, Oregon. It seemed like a very improbable occurance until we went to Reutte. There we met a family that came from Vancouver, Washington! They live in the Fisher's Landing area - what are the chances of that?

Anyway, here are the pictures.

Neuschwanstein castle in the snow...

Ludwig II lived in the castle slightly less than six months before he died under mysterious circumstances. At the time, only about 10% of the 200 rooms in the castle were complete. Within six weeks of his death, the castle was opened to the public. I think they have made back their money by now...

Plansee - on the road to Reutte. This is the kind of stuff one comes across in the Alps. You are just driving along the road between two towns and then something like this just explodes in front of you. The lake is slightly frozen but I wouldn't venture out upon it.

Hohenschwangau - this is where Ludwig grew up. Nice digs.

Oberammergau, Germany. This is the town that was spared from the Black Death in the 17th century. As a result, they have held the Passion play every 10 years since that time.

Delynn and I are preparing to return to school tomorrow. We are very excited as we race toward the finish of this school year in about 10 weeks. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support, they have sustained us and blessed us beyond what we can say. Love to all.

Here are the pictures (finally)

2008-03-14T17:52:00.002+01:00

It has been a busy week here, so I'll spare you the gory details, but the pictures finally uploaded successfully. We will work on another update soon.

See - it really did snow! You can see the staff parking lot to the right...

Our friend Jennifer coming in from the cold. This is after about a 6 minute ride. Brrrr. Someone told her it would be easy riding a bike in the snow.

Below are our pictures from the retreat at Lagenbruck.

When the fog lifted, it was a beautiful view into the valley.

Here's the group.

It is a nice group of friends.

Well, wouldn't you know.

2008-03-09T19:31:00.005+01:00

It seems like we are having some slight server problems uploading pictures, so that means you won't be able to see what we saw this week. Sheep? No, that was last week. Students dilligently studying? No, we see that every week. Snow? Yes. That's it. We had snow flurries earlier in the week. We got a few centimeters, which drives the kids crazy with excitement. The snow layered the city and surrounding area with that beautiful layer of white that makes one think that all is right with the world. I reflected to Delynn as we walked to school that if the same percipitation was coming down as rain, we would just trudge along and wish for sun. However, when it comes down as big fluffy flakes, gently floating to earth, we say: "Isn't this nice, ahhhhh" Now, I'm sure for all of our friends that are getting TONS of snow this winter, it is not quite the same reaction, but this is the first significant bit of snow we have seen since we have lived here.

Guess what else you don't get to see? Pictures from our Life Group retreat in Switzerland. Well, I will get something posted as soon as I can. We traveled up to a retreat center run by the Child Evangelism Fellowship in the hills outside of Basel. It is interesting because these "hills" might be considered mountains depending on your perspective... It was a quick overnight retreat with 13 members of our Bible study group, but it was very peaceful, restful and spiritually fulfilling. This is the same place to which the whole church will be holding a retreat in May. It will probably be very different then (i.e. no snow...). So, the weekend has gone very quickly. We had another wonderful worship this morning - the music seemed to go just right and that does so much to enhance the worship experience.

Oh, did I mention that March is reading month at the school? The students are keeping track of all the pages they read, both for school and for pleasure. The goal for our school is 50,000 pages! That averages out to over 1,000 pages for each student. And do you know what the prize is for reaching the goal? The librarian will shave off all his hair. OH WAIT! I'M THE LIBRARIAN! Rats! I should have thought this through before suggesting it at that staff meeting... Of course, the upper elementary grades are quite keen on seeing Mr. Walz sans hair, but it is a very aggressive goal, so I may get to keep my curly locks yet. I'm sure that if the kids win the challenge that lots of pictures of me losing what precious little hair I have left will be making it onto the blog.

Well, I just tried uploading again and no joy. You will just have to imagine the wintery, snowy, spirtually wonderful weekend. Hopefully, I can get the pictures posted tomorrow.

Peace be with you.

Sheep Thrills

2008-03-02T14:46:00.007+01:00

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.

When in Rome... (or an outpost thereof)

2008-02-24T16:09:00.004+01:00

It seems that some 2050 years ago, as the Romans were expanding their empire across central Europe, they stopped and built a settlement called Augusta Raurica in what is now the town of Augst, Switzerland. Augst is a sleepy little town 15 minutes by train outside of Basel Switzerland. Not much going on there, except that it was well located on a river that lay at the crossroads of several trading routes. In its day, Augusta Raurica boasted a forum, several temples, an underground well, baths and the largest Roman theater north of the Alps. Unfortunately, much of the stonework was recycled during the middle ages for new construction, but there are still significant foundations and such scattered throughout the cattle pastures.

Above are some of the excavated items on display next to the museum. In the background across the road you can begin to make out the theater ruins. Below, Delynn and Michael are at the theater. They have used the ruins as the basis for replicating a theater that is used today (in nice weather...)

The grey stones are excavations, the red stones are the new additions (this was done in the 1990's). The stage is of wood and everyone gets a good view.

Today, lazy swiss cows enjoy the sunlight in the shadow of a 2000 year old temple. When we got over to the far end of this pasture, we walked through the cow pasture to reach the temple and walk around it. They employ little 'v'-gates which allow people to pass but are too small for cows. As we walked past the cows, they were gathering as though they new it was time to start heading in for the evening milking. One even had a small swiss cowbell around her neck, but they seemed very used to having visitors walking the paths.

This picture is of the underground well. A tunnel was built to access the well which is located just behind the pillar on the right. What struck me was how incredibly dark it would have been - we are so spoiled with electricity and artificial light everywhere. Even with the lights, it was just a little eerie.

The city I lived in between 1984-1990, Augusta Vindelicorum, was founded in 15 B.C. and eventually became the city of Augsburg, Germany. Augusta Raurica, founded about 30 years earlier than Augsburg has a much better collection of ruins and foundations, probably because it did not prosper and grow as much as Augsburg did during the Middle ages and Renaissance. We didn't visit the museum - we are saving that for when our sisters come to visit over the Easter break...

The weather has also turned incredibly warm for two days now. It has reached 19 degrees (66 Fahrenheit) today which is really warm for February. Delynn and I are going to go out for a walk - the nice thing is that with everything closed, all we can do is window shop (and maybe stop off for an ice cream "kugel").

Be blessed; be a blessing to others.

Changes to posting comments

2008-02-17T21:34:00.003+01:00

Dear friends and family: due to some spams posted as comments to our blog, we reluctantly need to change the way comments are posted. If you choose to comment (and by the way, we love to read your comments...) a couple of extra steps will occur. You will need to type in a passcode that will be displayed. Additionally, your comments may not post immediately as we will need to review them prior to posting.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but these things happen, we are just sorry that there are those that wish to exploit the technology in such unproductive ways.

Fasnacht in Dreiländereck

2008-02-16T12:29:00.000+01:00

Well, well, well. It looks as though Fasnacht has consumed much of the week and I have neglected to update everyone, so this will be a big entry. This week has been a fun, intriguing time - I have never experienced anything quite like it. For anyone that would like to learn more about Fasnacht, you can follow this link to Carnival of Basel on Wikipedia. The Weil am Rhein Fasnacht started Sunday afternoon after church with a parade in our home town. Over one hundred groups, predominantly Guggenmusik (brass) bands paraded under out balcony. We didn't realize what a great vantage point we have.

Wonderfully colorful costumes (including colorful clogs) - you can just make out some confetti on the street, tons of the stuff will be distributed throughout the region before Fasnacht is over...

I really hope you can see this video: it is a parade participant spewing fire. Run it a couple of times to be sure to see the first bit.

Fire seems to be a dominant theme during Fasnacht. Before the Weil parade was finished, Michael joined some of the school staff for a trip to the Chienbäse (Fire Parade) in the town of Liestal, Switzerland. Delynn, unfortunately, was down with a fever (I think she got it from me) and could not attend. In the end, it was best for Delynn to stay home because it became a long day/night.) Below is a great picture of Aubrey, one of our fellow teacher friends (who happens to hail from the Pacific Northwest and shares my birthday). She is definitely ready for the parade!

Okay, this might be a bit hard to see, but the Liestal Fire Parade consists of groups of people (um, one could say slightly crazy people) carrying huge torches of burning pine and rolling flaming bonfire carriages through the city gate and down the main street in this old city.

The Feuerwehr (Fire Brigade) hoses down the stone gate in between carriage runs - the stones steam from the heat. This must be why everything is built of stone here...

Here is a close up of one of the bonfire carriages - believe me it is HOT, we were in the back row up against the buildings and could feel the heat, especially when they stop the carriage RIGHT IN FRONT of you!! (Makes for a nice picture...) People who arrive late pay the penalty and have to stand further forward. When the carriage stops, they turn their backs to the fire, it is so intense.

The group does an eyebrow check after the parade. No burned coats or singed hair.

After the excitement of Liestal, we hung around until Morgestraich, the official beginning of the Basler Fasnacht. At 4:00am Monday morning, all of the lights in Basel are extinguished. The only light in the city comes from the lanterns carried by the Pipe and Drum bands. There are probably 50 different bands that travel throughout the downtown area along with hundreds of thousands of others that come for the experience. I apologize that I don't have any pictures, but it is considered bad form to use a flash during Morgestraich, but I have a quick video clip.

Morgestraich goes on for hours. After being up over 22 hours, we turned our heads toward home for a good day's sleep. Delynn was sleeping soundly when I finally made it to our cozy little apartment.

Tuesday, Delynn was feeling a bit better, so we joined up with Cam and Jen to experience Fasnacht day 2. The central part of Basel nearly shuts down over the three days of Fasnacht. Trams are rerouted to avoid the center, so people walk everywhere. Below is Barfüßerplatz (literally "Barefoot Square"), one of the larger tram interchanges in Basel - a tram could not get through this throng.

A nice example of the lanterns carried in the parade. Often the lanterns depict political or social issues and are many times critical of local politicians. It is free speech at its best - unfortunately, it is usually written in the local dialect which makes it nearly impossible to read, so we guess a lot.

Harlequins are a popular theme during Fasnacht.

More of the lanterns. You can see a Russian bear gobbling up a Swiss city. There are immigration issues all over the world!

Can you see all of the confetti? It piles in drifts along the roads, but at 4am on Thursday morning, in typical Swiss efficiency, Fasnacht ends and the streets are completely cleared of confetti and any traces of Fasnacht by noon.

These three Waggis - misschevious creatures that like to throw confetti - were very tired. With their masks on, it is hard to tell, but I think they were asleep...

After the frenetic pace of Fasnacht, Delynn and I took a day (we have been on break this week) to visit the lovely town of Colmar in the Alsace region of France. The sun never quite broke through the fog, but we had such a nice relaxing time.

Doesn't it just feel peaceful?

If you have made it this far, I commend you for your perseverence. We love you and miss you all. We pray that God will be present with you during this season of Lent; that He will draw you close and give you peace.

I just can't believe it...

2008-02-03T17:10:00.000+01:00

Well, here another week has gone by and guess what? (have you guessed yet?...)... I'm still waiting... Okay - I'll tell you: Michael was sick again! Yes, again! I can't believe it. I wash my hands with soap and water, I use Purell, I disinfect the tables, keyboards, mice (uh, computer mice - the others are too hard to catch...), doorhandles and I still had a 100°+F temperature for two days. I can't remember the last time I had a fever for that long. It must be my weakened immune system from the last cold. Cousin Donna sent an encouraging comment that it will only take a couple of years to get our immune systems use to teaching. Did she say a COUPLE OF YEARS? I don't know if I can survive... Actually, it has been a particularly tough winter for our school. We have had 25-30% of the students out ill over the last two weeks. In fact, several schools in the area have had very high attrition rates this winter.

The fever finally broke late Friday afternoon and I was feeling remotely human again by Saturday morning, so Delynn and I went into Basel for a bit to visit the bookstores that carry English books. They carry English titles but it seems criminal to charge 20 Swiss Francs for a paperback novel (That is about $18.00). Even though I had a gift certificate from Christmas, I could not justify spending that much on a trade paperback. Luckily, we have some adult fiction books at the school library that we can read. I have just started getting into Agatha Christie a bit and re-discovered John Grisham (we have several titles from both authors...). As families transition to new assignments, the RIA library is often the recipient of home libraries. We also received a copy of Divine Conspiracy recently and are looking forward to diving in.

After much searching at the bookstore, I decided to spend the gift certificate on an intermediate-level German language workbook. We have a couple of beginning level workbooks but I need something a little more challenging. One of my fellow RIA'ers and I are looking into taking a German conversation course at night school (Volkshochschule). Even though we live in Germany, we really don't get all that much opportunity to speak German during the day. It is also a nice opportunity to make some contacts outside of school within the community.

Just as a side note. Something I noticed again when we were at the book store. Think about this. When you look at a shelf of books (This should be easy for librarian friends), which way do you turn your head to read the titles? Hmmm. Maybe you should get over to Barnes and Noble more often... So, most of us turn our heads to the right because the book titles are written from top to bottom along the books' spines - right? Well, guess what? In Europe, the titles of books are written from bottom to top along the spine, so you would need to tilt your head to the left. Sorry, no reason is forthcoming, just an observation. Again, perhaps this is an easy question for our librarian friends.

Hey, and while we are talking about different (not wrong, just different) things, try this one on. When you open a door to enter a store, do you push or pull? This is assuming that the door does not operate in both directions. Now, when you leave that same store, do you push or pull? I seem to remember reading that in the States that by law the doors have to push outward on exit. Am I right? I have noticed most shops here are exactly the opposite (i.e. you push to enter and pull to exit). It is all very comical because pushing on a "pull to open" door can cause one's face to get planted in the nice clean glass. I'm sure someone is laughing...

Keep praying please for the health of our students, families and staff. Our director will be heading back to the States for the annual NICS conference next week, so we could also use prayer as new teachers make decisions to come over to Germany. For us, we can't believe sometimes that we are actually here and can't believe of a better place to be.

Love all - Serve all.

Finally posting some pictures...

2008-01-27T18:40:00.000+01:00

Delynn and I are feeling a bit more normal - it was just in time for a day retreat with the church yesterday. We are glad to be feeling better. We had a talent show at school this week and a quick trip to Basel to look for a sweater for Delynn (alas, no joy). However, since it has been a few weeks since I have posted pictures, I thought it would be nice.

We will start with the RIA Talent Show

The Preschool enthusiastically present a
song to the gathered masses
(okay, mostly parents and staff...)

One of our international students writes in her native lanuage -
Can you guess from where she comes?

Three Cheers for the RIA Lions!!
One of our weekly clubs is cheerleading -
they are a bit more expressive than the chess club.

One of our students surprised us with his really excellent drumming skills. He has been playing for about 7 years (since he was three years old) and was truly gifted.
(Notice the hearing protection?)

During a quick trip to Basel, we wanted to stop again at the Münster for some quiet moments. The cathedral has a great sense of peace within.

The Basler Münster choir - the area behind the alter is wonderfully ornate.

Finally, our Day Away, a retreat aptly entitled "Food for the Journey", took place in a retreat center just across the border in Chrishona, Switzerland. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting. We sensed God's nearness in many ways. Chrishona was founded nearly two hundred years ago to teach theological principles to local craftsmen - it is now a theological school and retreat center.

For our afternoon break, we went on a walk. In Germany, a two-hour walk in the country is just the ticket on a beautiful winter's day. We took the shortcut back after just an hour... We crossed the German-Swiss border at several points.
Above is a border stone (Do you see the engraved bear?); below is the more conventional marker.

Doesn't Delynn look refreshed? Hope she has her passport...

Scoring 1,5 on the optimism scale

2008-01-20T17:43:00.000+01:00

So, now that I have your attention, I wanted to share a couple more interesting differences between our life here and in the States. First off, hanging around kids all week has brought Michael his third cold of the fall/winter season. Now, under normal circumstances, I might get a cold or two between September and April, but I have discovered that I have a deficient immune system when it comes to being with children every day. Don’t get me wrong, we love them dearly, but they are little germ factories. I disinfect the keyboards and mice every day and have a big bottle of Purel on my desk (Thanks again Mark and Jan!), but I just can’t seem to keep up. I presume that this will moderate over time as my body continues to get used to this new environment…

One of the very noticeable differences in Europe is how they write numbers. When looking at numbers, Europeans use commas where we use periods and periods where we use commas. For example: 1,234.56 (US) becomes 1.234,56 (Germany) – crazy huh? I don’t know the origins of this variance, but there it is. We see numbers all of the time, shopping, on advertisements, etc, so transposing is not that difficult – in fact we hardly notice it at all anymore. We just have to be careful when we pay our bills online that we don't mix up the commas and decimal points or our bank account might become overdrawn!

One thing we did notice recently is how we scale things differently here than in North America. Question: what is the GPA of someone who makes all A’s at university? Answer: 4.0 – right? Well, in Europe, that would be a 1,0. One of the students interning at RIA just got a 1,5 on his teaching review which is a really good grade. I don’t know if this stems from the American ideal that bigger is better or whether the origin comes from elsewhere, but it can be confusing. They have a German company that is the equivalent of America’s Consumer Reports called Test. I was looking at a couple of different products that had been tested, one had a score of 2,2 and was rated “Gut” whereas the product that rated 1,8 was rated “Sehr Gut” – it took me several moments of thought to recognize that they are using a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being good – 5 is bad.

This is not to say that the “smaller is better” rating works universally. Hotels and restaurants (anyone see “Ratatouille”?) are rated where 5 stars is better than 4 stars – makes you go hmmmm.

So, why did I title this entry: Scoring a 1,5 on the optimism scale? Because just like the glass, I always view our sink as “half-full”. Let me explain: we have a sink at our home that measures 34 x 37 x 15 cm. This works out to approximately 13 x 14 x 6 inches. I mentioned before that our dishwashers all walk on two feet, so we are constantly washing dishes (or so it seems). Why, just a bowl, spoon and two coffee cups after breakfast makes it feel like we have to do dishes again… When we went to visit our cousins in Bohlsbach I commented on how nice and big their sink was – nothing like the big Kohler we had in our old home but much bigger than the one we have (and they have a non-human dishwasher to boot!) Not that I am complaining – we truly do love that we are here, even if we are getting dishpan hands…

Pray please for our health – I have given my cold to Delynn over the last week. We have a church retreat coming next Saturday at which I will be helping with worship team, so I need to be back to 100%.

On a sadder note, my maternal grandfather, Monty McMillan, passed at the age of 95 on January 6, 2008. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, worked as a miner and a rancher and most importantly, brought my mom into this world. God speed Monty.

2008-01-13T14:23:00.000+01:00

Delynn and I returned to school this week - and it was a full week indeed. Delynn is busily working on the year end reporting along with the normal monthly items. Thankfully, we have our new secretary to help out, especially with the many necessary German telephone conversations that are required to run a school. Martina is a wonderful addtion to our RIA staff. The students jumped right back into classwork without any major hiccups. I've said this before, but I am so impressed with the vast majority of our students who actually missed school. It is wonderful to teach children who like being there - and like learning!

We enjoyed an exceptional worship today at ACB; we had a huge praise and worship group - one of the largest I have seen to date. The worship group consisted of piano, lead and accoustic guitars, bass, drums and saxophone in addition to the four vocalists. I know that back at VFFC, we would love to have that kind of accompanyment with our praise teams. However, no place is perfect. VFFC has better musical infrastructure than we have here at ACB, so we make due with a single monitor and some feedback. In the end however, it is all praise to God - and that is what really counts!

Since we are back to school, we have not really done much exciting this week outside of walking to the market almost every day. We have noticed that the days are getting longer - it is nice to be able to leave school near to 17:00 and still have some light in the sky. The weather this week was quite warm but we have turned back to more freezing temperatures starting this weekend. But the sun shines here quite more often than back in Vancouver and I find that I am rather grateful for that.

I have outlined before some of the reasons we go to the store so often: small refrigerators, little extra storage space, no mega-Costco-sized super saver quantities, fewer preservatives in general. Take bread for example. I don't know why, but the bread we buy is always sliced in odd numbers. There is either 5 or 7 or 9 slices per bag. Well, I don't know about you, but I always use two slices of bread to make a sandwich, so I always end up with this lonely piece of bread that usually ends up molding. Oh yeah and you would think that with only 9 slices of bread that we would be able to eat it before it gets moldy, but it is amazing how quickly things go over. Okay, now all bread sold in the stores has a wire closure with a date printed on it. These wire closures come in different colors and I think there may be some kind of pattern to it but I haven't taken the time to figure it out. Anyway, the date printed on the wire closure doohickey is what we call the "mold-by" date because if you have eaten the bread by that date, you have a greater than 50% chance that it will be moldy. Back in the states, the "use-by" date was always a little conservative - I had often had perfectly serviceable food even after the expiration date. Not so here - oooooh no. And even if you have an expiration date that is 10 months out, once the item is opened (applesauce for example), you better be liking applesauce until it is gone because it will mold in a week - even in the fridge. So, one of the good reasons for smaller quantities is that one doesn't get tired of said foodstuff before it is all consumed.

Another striking difference we have noticed is that while the 2008 presidential campaign season is well underway, we are not bombarded by the plethora of commercials or other forms of media of which I am sure you are already tired. We get most of our information from the web and the single CNN channel available to us on cable, so it is one of the more tolerable campaigns we have lived through. Good luck to everyone back in the states...

Where does the time go?

2008-01-06T15:58:00.000+01:00

We are just finishing up our Christmas break and what a wonderful break it has been. Delynn was able to take a quick trip home for Christopher and Lucy's wedding and we trained up to Heidelberg for an overnighter with the Barbour family. Tomorrow we get back to school and see our students - I am rather looking forward to teaching them again. During the break, we did get a little bit of snow one day. This was about as bad as it got, so no worries here. I think everything looks pretty in snow.

Heidelberg is located about 4 hours (by "slow" train) north of Weil am Rhein. It is on the northern most border of Baden-Württemberg. Since it is in the same state as Weil, the five of us happy travellers were able to ride using a special train ticket for € 27. It is a really great deal, but the restriction is that it is only good on the regional trains. We call these the "milk-run" trains because they stop in every little town with a train stop. Heidelberg was really quaint, but as you can probably tell from the photos, it was a bit nippy. We were blessed with non-rainy and beautiful blue skies on Friday but the cold wind could take one's breath away. We walked up to the castle (yes, that's right, we walked up the hill to the castle - Michael actually ran for a few meters) to have a look around. The castle is most stunning for the views that it gives of the city. We could just stand, look down on the city and sigh thinking about how blessed we are to live here right now.

The city of Heidelberg as seen from the castle.

Layering the clothing helps... somewhat...

Our hotel, the Vier Jahreszeiten, is located directly on the Neckar river next to an old city gate and just up the street from the Heiligegeistkirche. This was a view out of our hotel window... Pretty sweet!

Travelling in the winter does have its advantages. Hotel prices are lower, which is really great for those living with the currently weak dollar. Crowds at the major attractions are minimal and folks are glad for the business. For example, when we visited the Schnitzelhaus (Home to 100 different types of schnitzel) we didn't have to wait long at all to get a table - actually, being the North Americans, we were the first ones at the door when they opened because we were cold and hungry! Our hotel proprietor regaled us with stories of the famous 1980-81 icehockey team from Garmish which had several famous players (I didn't know a single one but smiled and nodded in the approprite places). The only really crowded time was on the train back Friday night - we should have known better than to return on a Friday evening when everyone is travelling for the weekend. When we first got on the train in Karlsruhe, we had to stand for 10-15 minutes before some seats opened up a couple of stops later.

Great news! We just found out that our sisters (Deanne and Denise) will be coming for a visit in the spring - yeah! They will be joining us over the Easter holidays at our home here. Looks like we will need to get planning for some trips...

Wishing everyone the very best for the new year!

Better late than never...

2008-01-05T17:27:00.000+01:00

We finally got our Christmas message to post successfully after many, many tries. Sorry that it is slightly late... Love to all!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T12:20:00.001+01:00

Happy Christmas to all our family and friends. The morning broke bright and clear this fine Christmas day with the hoarfrost covering the plants and trees. The view off of our balcony was enchanting.

After a fine breakfast of homemade biscuits, rösti potatoes and apfelmus we enjoyed a quiet morning celebrating the birth of Jesus together. Since our apartment is quite small and we don't have much room for a tree, so we have made due with what we have. Delynn had brought our Christmas stockings that mother Ruth made and the angel was a secret santa gift from a friend at RIA. The holy family wood carving is new this year - we picked it up at the Christmas market in Basel from the carver who makes them. It is a nice piece.

We had such fun opening the wonderful presents our family sent. We savored each one as we traded turns. A Pendleton blanket, a fine pen set, a fleece and turtle neck sweater, movies, Crisco and brown sugar, movies, Chili mix and espresso cups were just a few of the many nice gifts we received. Being here, we are so very thankful that God has given us such wonderful family (and not just because of the presents...)

As we opened each present, we maticulously separated the tape from the packaging, the paper from the plastic and built fine little piles for recycling - it was slightly humorous but is rather second nature by now... We then gathered our little piles and put them aside for a trip to the recycling yard on Saturday.

I must be my parents' son. Dad and Mom Walz picked up a Sodoku book for Delynn's stocking. Well, unbeknownst to them, I had also picked up a Sodoku book for Delynn. My version was in German, naturally while theirs was written in English. Sudoku itself is language neutral. When Delynn pulled them both out of her stocking, I noticed that the back cover graphic looked identical - differing only in language. Further investigation showed that indeed, the books were both created by the same publisher (in England) but with of course, the necessary language changes for the chosen target market. To our relief, the puzzles are indeed different so it was not a wasted effort but an interesting story.

We also made a short video with our Christmas Greeting to all. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful uploading to the blog - oh bother. I will try again later to see if we can keep the connection long enough to get it to you.

To all we wish a very happy Christmas, a blessed day to all! We love you and miss you.

Winter has arrived

2007-12-23T17:01:00.000+01:00

Each season has its own special beauty. Winter officially started yesterday and we woke up this morning to a frosty trip to church. Three and a half hours later as we walked back from the train, I noticed that some of the bushes that had not yet been bathed in sunlight still held on to the frost, so I took a few pictures.

Today we celebrated the Christingle service at ACB - it is a wonderful celebration of the coming of Jesus at Christmas. As part of the service, we were all invited, especially the children, to make a Christingle. It originates in the 18th century in Germany. The Christingle is:

An orange: representing the world;
with a candle inserted: Jesus, the light of the world;
four toothpicks (the four seasons) skewered with raisins or sweets (the fruits of the earth)
and a red ribbon tied around the center: Jesus's blood given for us.

As Rev. Geoff called it: "the good news in the palm of your hand." It was huge fun. There is a picture on Wikipedia.

Peace and joy to all.

Oh, get me to the church on time...

2007-12-22T09:01:00.000+01:00

We wanted our friends to know that we have had a last minute change in our holiday plans. Delynn got an unexpected blessing: a year-end bonus from PacifiCorp. So, she will be making a quick trip back to Walla Walla, Washington (yes, it is a real place) for our nephew Chris' wedding. She was not supposed to get a bonus - normally employees have to work until September to qualify. We have surmised that because she "retired" in July that they grandfathered her in. Anyway, we are not about to look a gift horse in the mouth (Hmmm - I haven't tried explaining that saying to our German or Swiss friends...). We found a round trip ticket for an excellent price (considering the price of international flights...) so after much prayer and deliberation we decided to send her. It will be a 4-day dash round-trip (no time for jet lag) but it will be good for her to attend. Unfortunately, due to the timing, Delynn will not have time to see anyone but family and go to the wedding. Bill, Ruth and the sisters are quite excited that she is able to come. I'll be holding down the fort here in Weil a. R, while she is gone. (I have already had a couple of invitations to "hang out" which will keep me occupied). Please keep Delynn in your prayers for a good trip.

Christmas traditions

2007-12-21T11:54:00.001+01:00

We just finished our last day of school before the Christmas break. The students were a bit crazy Wednesday in anticipation of Christmas. We had a nice chapel Wednesday morning to tell the Christmas story from Luke and to be grateful to the Lord for our friends and our school. Two families are moving back to the States over the Christmas break, so we said our final farewells after chapel. These are some of the tough moments we go through as a small school because we build a strong sense of community together. We will miss our students immensely. Here is this year's school picture - these are some of the best kids in the world.

We have been preparing for Christmas over the last weeks, trying to keep from accumulating too many things that will just have to stay here. In a odd sort of way, it is actually good that things are so expensive for us here; it keeps us from getting too much stuff. Trips to the Weihnachtsmarkten in Basel, Weil a. R., Lörrach and Gengenbach this year have been festive - Delynn loves the woolen goods; Michael loves the food! In the picture of the Basel Christmas Market, to the left you can just see three little cherubs atop the gold and white striped spires - the one closest is holding a wurst up like a prized offering. They make me smile every time I see them... We decided against getting a tree this year and instead have decorated our apartment with just a few items; Delynn made sure to pack our Christmas stockings which now hang on our wall waiting for the Weihnachtsman to fill with goodies. Did you know that in Germany, they still trim the Christmas trees with candles? We were talking to a German friend at Life group (that's what we call our Bible study groups at ACB) about how dangerous that must be and she said that it never really occurred to her that it might not be safe - her family has done it all of her life and they still do! The tree at school has electric "candles" on it along with student crafted ornaments.

Basel Weihnachtsmarkt - note sausage wielding cherub to left

Here's a better shot of the Wurstengel.

Delynn's thinking: "I could make that..."

We have been busy little social butterflies over the last week, attending several parties for Christmas - our Life group, RIA and Praise group all celebrated the Advent season. We also had a wonderful Carol service last Sunday evening. The service was held in the Pauluskirche up the street from where we normally worship. It is a great stone church with a rather large chandelier in the dome. The choir sat up in the balcony where the organ is situated. The entire service was filled with Advent readings interleaved with the choir and congregants singing familiar carols. With over five-hundred voices reverently and joyously reverberating within the confines of the Pauluskirche, it gave me goosebumps.

Speaking of geese... For Christmas day, we toyed with the idea of having a Mexican Fiesta thanks to a generous care package from the Taylor clan in Vancouver - they even sent festive cups and plates and a pair of maracas to party with! In the end however, we decided that the Fiesta will best be enjoyed with fellow staff members sometime soon and opted instead to try our hand at cooking goose. Well, it's not quite as big as the one from a Christmas Carol (you know: Scrooge and Tiny Tim...), in fact, it is not even a whole bird but just a goose breast (our oven is not that big...) We will let you know how it turns out.

Christmas tree in the courtyard of the Baseler Rathaus

The ribbon festooned Puppenhausmuseum (dollhouse museum)

Delynn and I would like to wish all of our friends and family a very blessed Christmas, or as we say in Germany: Wir wünschen euch ein sehr gesegnete Weihnachten.

So much different; so much the same

2007-12-09T17:44:00.000+01:00

Sunday evening is upon us - a weekend packed with days full of activities is coming to a close. Wow, we have so much to share but will need to parcel it out so that the postings are not too long.

We (Germany, Switzerland and various other EU countries) celebrated Sankt Nikolas day was last Thursday. He comes to deliver small presents into childrens shoes: traditionally chocolate (big suprise there...) oranges and nuts. He goes from house to house in towns and villages, reading from a list the good and bad things each child has done. All of the students at RIA left their shoes outside their classrooms (including the teachers and staff) and found a nice gift in the morning! When one pre-schooler found a chocolate Euro coin in his shoe, he proudly stated that he would put the coin in his piggy bank! At Bible study Thursday night, our hosts had small St. Nikolas chocolates for everyone - and it is so impolite to refuse...

The staff and student's at RIA have been preparing for the last month and a half for our Christmas play: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! which we presented to families and friends on Friday evening. Our students did a super job! From the smallest preschool child to our middle school actors, it came off really well. The parents loved it! The play tells the story of a family of unruly children that barge in to take over the roles of a traditional Christmas program but the power of the story of Jesus' birth changes the children and those who see it. Michael played a small part as the Church's pastor, Rev. Hopkins, and was the backstage technician (sound, lights, props, curtains, etc.). Delynn take care of the money end of things and helped serve the hospitality (lots of goodies for the families). The teachers were also surprised by our parent/teacher organization that presented Christmas presents to each staff member. Delynn and I were given gift cards for our favorite Italian restaurant, book stores that have english books, shopping at stores with names you have never heard and a Swiss iTunes card (we can't use iTunes cards from the states because they can only be legally used in the U.S.). Well, by the time we got everything cleaned up and packed off to school, it was way late and Delynn and I had a train to catch Saturday morning to visit our cousins in Bohlsbach.

Aren't they precious! (This is the pre-school, not the staff...)

The Rev. Hopkins outlines the many problems with the pageant to Grace (our good friend Anne)

BTW: like my haircut? Delynn did it...

Here are some pictures from our trip to visit Theo and Elisabeth on Saturday. The two-hour train trip from Weil a. R. to Offenburg on Saturday morning was uneventful (the train back at 9pm was much more boisterous!) We got to enjoy the best schnitzel in the world!! I tell you, my cousin Elisabeth makes the most wonderful schnitzel. I remembered it from our last visit and she showed us her special techniques - the way her family has made it as far back as memory goes. We savored the schnitzel and german potato salad (They just call it potato salad here...) before heading off to the woods - and what beautiful woods they are...

We all four merrily hiked up to the Ritterhof Christbaumhof (a farm that grows and sells Christmas trees) - I think that between Theo and Elisabeth, they must have known over half of the people there! We enjoyed a small smackeral with some of their friends from Bohlsbach who were also there; the farm had Alpenhorns playing, hearty lentil soup, several different types of liverwurst and brats and the local high school selling hand-made items. Delynn and I purchased a small straw star to hang on our front door. As the sun began to set and the tempeatures dropped, we scurried back down to the car and drove to a neighboring town for their quite famous Christmas market (Weinachtsmarkt).

The town of Gengenbach has many original 14th and 15th century town square buildings intact. Theo mentioned that it is often used as a backdrop for period movies. The Weinachtsmarkt was alive with booths, activities and of course food! We walked and ate our way around the market. These pictures give a little feel for our adventuresome day! These pictures would not be possible without Delynn, who dutifully stood and allowed me to use her head as a tripod to steady the camera for long exposures (some as long a 1 second! - that is why the people are so blurry).

Beautiful Fachwerkhäuser (Half-timbered house)

A city tower highlights the festive scene
Delynn, Theo and Elisabeth - what great family!

We want to return to Gengenbach in the spring when we can enjoy the city in daylight! It is so beautiful.

We thought that this Christmas, things would go a little slower since we are staying here in our new home and not returning to the States, but we are so, so wrong. Our schedules here are just as jam-packed full of great celebrations of Jesus' birth as they were last year. We hope we will have the time to think... We also hope that you will greatly enjoy this celebration of the Advent season and that the reality of Jesus coming to earth will fill your Christmas with joy.

Getting into the season of Christ!

2007-12-01T12:25:00.000+01:00

This morning, as Delynn and I were getting ready for our day, you will never guess what we heard... A brass band in the Rathausplatz playing Christmas songs. With the windows shut, it was slightly muted, so despite it being 3 degrees (Yup, it's warming up this week!) outside, we opened our windows to let the beautiful strains of music flood into our little home. We heard everything from "Winter Wonderland" and "Joy to the World!" to "Go tell it on the Mountain" and "Gloria, In Excelsis Deo!". It felt rather surreal. This is certainly one of the advantages of living downtown. That really got us going for the morning. We listened to the band play on as we cleaned our apartment and as they finished up for the day, we pulled up iTunes to strike up "Christmas In Velvet". Those of you from Delynn's side will recognize that as one of Derric's many albums. It made us feel close to family as we heard sister Debbie singing - ahhh. All we need is a fireplace and some snow.

The skies have turned a bit cloudy, grey and rainy. This is when the reality of living without a car sets in... Not that we miss the payments, insurance, gas. By the way, at the current exchange rate, gas is about $8.50 a gallon. No, that is not a typo: $8.50/gal - so no whining about that $3.50 gas back in the States, okay? I think this is why there are not many SUVs here - could you imagine filling up one of those monsters? You would need a second mortgage...

The weather being as it is, I haven't had a lot of pictures to share lately. Here is one I took in late October of the Basel Rathaus - we are thinking of using it for a picture to hang on our walls. Our apartment is still pretty bare of accents. We want to do a few things to make this apartment "ours", so maybe some pictures would help... Don't ask me, I'm just a guy...

We are starting to feel a little more connected here - today, when I went to the farmers' market to pick up fresh fruits and veggies, the daughter who works a stall with her mom recognized me and asked if we were from America. She remembered that Delynn had been there the week before and I thanked them for being so nice to her because Delynn is still learning German. We were also recognized at the pharmacy (the owner is familiar with our school). Unfortunately, prescriptions from the States are not the same as here in Germany, so we had some hiccups getting them filled - no worries, just another case of "it's not the same here". We will probably need to see a german physician for the next time, it just makes things less complicated.

We greatly appreciate your ongoing prayers for us, they are very important and keep us connected. We still need a school secretary and that is our biggest concern. It is hardest on Delynn who has to pick up the majority of the tasks. Please keep this in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. We love and miss you all. Happy December!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

2007-11-23T07:31:00.000+01:00

I presume by now that the turkey has been consumed, the stuffing has been stuffed and the cranberry sauce is now just a condiment on the leftover turkey sandwiches. The thoughts of football games and naps, and of course post-Thanksgiving shopping looms large as the stores open at midnight (or so I have read...)

The difference in day-to-day life here is most striking on a traditional North American holiday. Now, our Canadian friends celebrated Thanksgiving back in early October. Here in Germany, both days are just workdays, so life proceeds as normal - sort of. At RIA, we are conducting teacher development days both Thursday and Friday. And, as I have said before, these are not just days for the teaching staff to play hooky. We are working on our curriculum guides for the specific subjects we teach - these guides help in two ways: They allow us to objectively map the scope and skills of what each class will learn over a year, thus bringing consistency and we can look for synergy between different subjects. Curriculum guides are also a step in preparation for our accreditation process. I will be writing guides for the computer classes for each of the 10 grades that I teach (Pre-school to 8th grade).

Unfortunately, I have come down with a pretty good head-cold. I am thankful that it is nothing worse than a cold (we have had a couple of teachers out with strep this year). It is also a blessing that I didn't miss any classes, but I will be staying home today to rest and recuperate (I am tired of blowing my nose - even if it is 4-ply tissue!).

Delynn and I will likely celebrate our turkey dinner this weekend - it will be a simple affair but we will have a small bit of turkey (Sorry Luke!) as it is tradition. Maybe next year, we will go with a more authentic Thanksgiving goose just for fun (I haven't mentioned that to Delynn yet...)

Let us all take some time over this holiday to be thankful to God for the many blessings we each enjoy in our lives, regardless of where we are physically, we can be united spiritually in a gift of thanks. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Leaving comments

2007-11-19T11:18:00.000+01:00

After a couple of emails from friends and family, I finally figured out that it is really painful to leave comments on our blog. I dug into it just a bit and now, everyone should be able to leave comments. If you don't have a login, you can select "anonymous" when posting a comment. If you do an anonymous comment, we would appreciate if you leave your name in the text of the comment somewhere so that we know who you are :-)

We had a great worship yesterday - it was such a privilege to be singing in a praise team again. The music reminded me a lot of Vancouver First Friends Worship songs. We sang "I Stand in Awe of You" which is a quite new song to ACB and the congregation loved it. The team leader, Karin, has invited me to sing again on Dec 2nd and to serve as a backup singer when other singers are out of town.

Hope that the change allows you to post - please let us know if there are more issues.
Love to all!

Fall has arrived in a big way

2007-11-17T18:02:00.000+01:00

First, I need to sincerely apologize to anyone that endured physical, psychological or social pain due to the picture of Roquefort cheese that I posted last week. It was not our intent to harm any of our friends or relatives by displaying the picture. However, we had some more last night and it was sure yummy...

Delynn is snuggled over on the couch doing her German homework (wearing headphones and practicing her German listening and speaking skills with a CD). Did I mention before that Delynn and most of the other teachers are taking weekly German lessons? It is so good of our German instructor, Herr Hermann, to stay late on Mondays to teach the teachers. Since our apartment is so small, we use headphones as much as possible to avoid bothering each other.

Well, the weather here has turned in a decidedly fall-like direction. We have even had a few flakes in the air in the last week, but nothing that sticks to the ground. Our high one day last week may have hit 0 (that's in Centigrade). Psychologically, it feels colder whenever the temperature hits a negative value (it was -2 this morning) because we are so used to Fahrenheit temperatures where -2 is REALLY cold. However, when one walks everywhere, -2 Celsius is still pretty darned cold. It is so different without an automobile - last Sunday morning we bundled up with multiple layers (I like 4 layers personally) to get to the bus, transfer over to the tram and then make the short walk to church. Once inside, it is a bit like unpacking to get all the layers off and stowed away so they don't get in the way during worship, then packing it all back on as we make the return trip to Weil a. R. The Swiss have a saying: "There is no cold weather, just poorly dressed people." We'll see how poorly dressed we are when winter does get here... We also find that we do not keep our apartment nearly as warm here as we did in Vancouver. In our apartment, we have radiators rather than thermostatically controlled forced air for heat, so we have to conciously turn them on/off and adjust them. As such, we don't turn them on as much but choose rather to wear more layers, sweaters, etc. even when at home.

I am quite looking forward to chuch tomorrow. I have the privilege of joining one of the praise teams to lead singing during worship. We had a great practice Wednesday and I know most of the songs - there are a couple of new ones but it will be great to help lead worship songs again.

I took my fizzy vitamin C this morning to help fortify my immune system against the weather. Oh, yeah - another thing we find interesting is all of the fizzy tablets. You know: a tablet that you drop into water, like Alka-Seltzer. Well, almost all over-the-counter vitamins and minerals are sold in these tablets. We can even find aspirin in fizzy tabs. Fortunately, the vitamin C (with Zinc) has a palatable taste which goes down well.

Found out something else new this week: for those of you in the States that support your public TV or Radio stations, I applaud you. Here in Germany (as I think with most of Europe), we get to pay a TV & Radio tax. If you own a TV or a radio or both, you pay a monthly tax to help fund the standard TV channels. The tax applies to EACH television and radio you own (if I am reading the form correctly...) even if you only use it to watch DVDs. The thing is, these channels (some national, some local) still have advertisements, so it's not like we are paying to keep the programs commercial free. And, it's not like we watch a lot of German TV... I probably watch more than most because it does help with my listening comprehension. And, I am starting to enjoy the odd football game now and then. Luckily, before we filled out the form to pay 17 €/month in taxes, we talked to our landlords and found out it is covered already in the "associated costs" we pay with our rent.

Oh, we have to tell you about the wonderful tarts we bought the other day at the Lörrach Farmers Market. We were just walking down the aisles when we came across a pretty looking Apricot tart. They are sold in quarters (just enough for two) so we also picked up an apple tart for Sunday. In talking with the stall keep, we found out that she bakes them herself at home and brings them (along with all of the fresh fruits and vegitables) to sell at the market. Seems like I am talking about food alot but that's what my family does :-)

By the way, just look at this pumpkin! It is so striking that I had to take a picture of it before Delynn cooked it up for storing. It will make a wonderful pumpkin-something-or-other I'm sure.

Here are a couple pictures from our school's "Crazy Hair Day" - some of the kids did a great job don't you think? I have been thinking about RIA and what makes is so different and one thing that hits me is that here, no student can get lost. We know every child; recognize how special God has made them are and can motivate, encourage and love them as individuals, not just as a class. That is really cool.

Our students: this is not the way they look every day...

The Coen sisters really got into the spirit of the day.