Visiting Keyling

We stopped in Managua for a couple of days on the way home so that we could meet the child that I sponsor though Compassion International. I've sponsored her since my freshman year at Butler and we've written letters back and forth since then. Occasionally I would send her stickers or a photo in my letter, and once a year Compassion would send me a new picture of her. She's 11 now, and oh so beautiful.

I have her pictures hanging all over our house: by my desk, on the fridge, in the front of my Bible, but I'd never actually met her. I'd always thought it would be so cool to get to hug her in person, hear her laugh, see her smile, and meet her mom, but didn't know if my dream would ever come true.

So, rewind to last Christmas (2009).

I am sitting at the kitchen table after opening stockings and presents. My grandparents are here and so my whole family is hanging out, getting ready to play Mexican Train Dominoes (which is the tradition). Dad went outside to check something (the snow? I can't remember...) and came back in with the mail. Now, I'm sure it was not delieverd that day, but we picked it up on Christmas day. It probably was delivered a few days before, but in the busyness of getting ready for the Christmas Eve service at church, getting presents wrapped, cookies baked, etc, we had apparently forgotten to pick it up. Dad filtered through the coupons, junk mail, Christmas cards, and bills, and handed me a new letter from Keyling. "What a neat Christmas present," I thought.

I opened it up, and began to read in Spanish. She talked about her school, her studies, her family, and whatever else she could think of, and then (pretty much out of the blue) asked me "Cuando puedo verle?" which translates to "When can I see you?"

At this point, I stopped reading and checked the English translation of her letter just to be sure I had read things correctly. Sure enough, "When can I see you?" Woah.

Now, you must understand that our family has sponsored children for years (I think since before I was born!) and never has one of them asked about getting to see or meet us. Never. Until Keyling's letter on Christmas.

"When can I see you?"

Back in September, we had discussed the possibility of us going to Nicaragua for a mission trip over spring break last year. I had considered the idea that that we might be able to see her on that trip. When our participation in the trip fell through due to school and other stuff, I was certainly disappointed and didn't know when I'd ever get to meet her.

But then in November, Dad proposed the idea of going to Costa Rica as part of his sabbatical. Yes, Costa Rica is close to Nicaragua but still not the same thing, so it would be difficult to make a visit to Managua possible. So close, but yet so far.

So all those ideas had been floating around last fall (2009)....right before I received Keyling's letter. "When can I see you?" God's timing continually amazes me. Now I knew we HAD to go. We just had to make it work to visit her somehow!

So fast forward to early August 2010. We're in Managua (having worked it out to stop there on the way home) and actually will be meeting Keyling and her family!!!

I could go on and on and on about our afternoon in her neighborhood, Barrio San Francisco. But this post is already long enough, and so those stories will have to come in time.

But one quick one first...

Keyling lives with her mom and 18-year old brother. She also has an older sister who has 7 small children of her own. I'm still not sure exactly where Keyling's sister and nieces and nephews live, but we got to meet them all. Anyway, Keyling, her mom, and her brother rent one small room in a house (Read, what we would think of in America as a shack. It has dirt floors, a rusty corrugated tin roof with holes in it, and tattered tarps for doors. No bathroom inside or running water. There was one dim lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room.).

At one point, Keyling was showing me her school books and some other things in her (their) room. She proudly pulled out her "tigre" that she earned for winning a dance competition. I told her that it was very cute, and she held it out to me, saying,"Suyo!!" (meaning "yours!"). She was GIVING me her tiger! I didn't know what to say. After asking her several times if she was sure ("En serio?? Estás seguro?") (and she was very sure!), I accepted this incredible gift. Of course God knew she would do this and I had (or He had?) decided several months before to pack a lamb for her.

So here we are, both holding our new animals. :)



I am still in awe of how God works things out. For Keyling to ask me "When can I see you?" in a letter I received just months before traveling to Centroamerica, just has to be His doing. And then for her to give me her tigre, her one stuffed animal that she obviously loved so much, again, I think it must be His doing. God is so good!

Photos of the beach and the volcano

Can you believe that we have even MORE pictures?!?!?!?? Check out these of Playa Conchal, Arenal Volcano, the hot springs river in La Fortuna, Pizza John, and celebrating Dad's birthday at Pizza Hut in San José!

Click here to see the pictures :)

Pictures from CR!

Okay, normally the blogs start out "Written by so-and-so" but I don't need to for this one cause I know you can guess who is posting this...cause I'm the one who is most crazy about pictures, haha!

Anyway...I've posted about 400 pics on my Facebook and here are the links to the albums (and these links will work whether you're on facebook or not) if you are interested....

Album 1

Album 2

Enjoy! More to come later, including pics of our visit with Keyling and her family :)

A quick post to let you know that....

We just arrived in Nicaragua! We left Arenal Volcano this morning and drove back to San José before flying to Managua.

(And I (Kristen) should apologize in advance for the grammar in this email. As you will read in this blog, I've been thinking and talking in Spanish for the better part of the day. Now we're in Nicaragua, and it seems that almost no one speaks English...so again, I am thinking and talking in Spanish. It's completely fine and I'm really enjoying it, but it is most definitely affecting my ability to communicate in English! haha It's crazy when I think of a Spanish word for something BEFORE thinking of the English word. Anyway, sorry for the run-on sentences and lack of fluency and spelling mistakes that are sure to occur.)

Okay, so about the volcano: we were there for 3 full days and it rumbled occasionally, maybe 1-2 times a day. We saw a lot of smoke come out of it, which was really exciting especially the first time we saw it. It is just really crazy to see brown smoke shoot out of the top of a mountain. Anyway, we didn't see any red lava until last night. About 11 pm, we heard a rumble which sounded a lot like thunder or a jet flying overhead. But DUH!! We are at a VOLCANO!! All rumbles are most likely THE VOLCANO. (I know this sounds quite obvious, but really, it is kind of hard to keep remembering that!) Anyway, at the 11 pm rumble, I rushed to the window and finally saw a tiny bit of lava!! I shrieked, which immediately caused Mom and Dad to rush to the window too. The red color was visible for only a few seconds and there wasn't much of it, but it was definitely molten rock. Pretty cool!! (actually I guess it pretty HOT, but whatever. haha)

Anyway, the volcano continued to be quite active all night (rumbling every 30 minutes or so) but there was a cloud covering it for most of the night, so we didn't see lava again. But we had seen a little bit, and I was happy. :)

So this morning, we left Arenal and drove to San José by way of a quite curvy (think West Virginia times 10!) road. We are not much for curvy roads so we took it slow, but still got to San José by noon. We were supposed to be meeting a friend at the airport to have lunch, and miraculously found him within 5 minutes of getting there! So we dropped off our luggage and the rental car and headed to Alajuela (a town near San José) with Carlos. We met Carlos 2 weeks ago when we first arrived in Costa Rica and were staying at Portantorchas and painting the children's home. He is from San José and therefore speaks Spanish (and is learning English!) . Anyway, at first I was nervious/scared to talk to him (since he's a native speaker) in Espanol, but over the time we were at Portantorchas, he was patient and listened to my (often incorrect) Spanish and gently corrected and helped when need be. So, I am much more comfortable speaking Spanish now! Still a looong way from perfect, but a bit better I think. Hopefully, he can come to Indy sometime and meet you all, cause he is pretty awesome! So, it was great to hang out with him again and to get back in the hang of speaking Spanish (which, come to find out, I would really need in Nicaragua!).



We had lunch at Pizza Hut and during lunch, Carlos found out that Dad's birthday is this coming Saturday. He told the waiters (in Spanish, of course, which Dad can't understand at all) about his birthday and at the end of the meal, they brought him an ice cream sundae complete with a candle and singing! Anyway, lunch today was a great way to end our time in CR. I totally loved it there, and was so sad to leave.





So after lunch, we took the bus back to the aeropuerto and had to say goodbye to Carlos (but in Costa Rica, they commonly say "Hasta luego" which means "See you again later" instead of "Adios" (which means "goodbye, I may not see you again") because it implies that you will see each other again soon. So actually, we said "Hasta luego" - definitely a little better than goodbye :) ).



Then, we flew to Nicaragua! Somehow (and we still don't know how) we got put in first class which was quite surprising and kinda fun! As soon as we got on, they gave us drinks and AGAIN when we were in the air! Woah!







So now we are in Managua. Tomorrow, we are going to meet Keylin, the girl that I sponsor through Compassion International. I am so excited! We all are, really. Before we left Indy in early July, Sophie and Mandy C. helped me pick out some gifts for Keylin and I am so looking forward to giving them to her. It has always been a dream of mine to meet her, and so after she asked me in a letter last winter, "When do I get to see you?" I knew we had to come visit. :) So tomorrow is the day! I'm not sure when you are reading this, but our visit is at 1 pm (3 pm, Indy time) tomorrow (Tuesday) and we are going to her home and Compassion project school. Please pray for all of us - Keylin's family included! - that we are not nervous to meet each other, that we can communicate well, and for safety. Muchas gracias! :)

And then, after visiting Keylin, we are hanging out in Managua for one more day, and then coming home!! I can't believe it! Back in Indy for good (wellll, at least for now)...AND you know what that means??!? Chick-fil-A for me in less than 100 hours!!! hahaha (Of course there are other reasons that I will be happy to be home, but I have sure missed chicken sandwiches.)

Love and miss you all. Can't wait to see you again soon :)

Monkeys, and Iguanas, and Sloths, OH MY!

Costa Rica has 5% of the species of animals and insects in the world, even though it only has 0.25% of the world's land! And we got to see many of those species on a guided walk we took through one of the national parks here near Manuel Antonio Beach on the western coast of Costa Rica. Words can’t do justice to the experience, so here are a few of the species we saw.

"It was so ugly outside..."

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Written by Eric

One of the things I learned in Costa Rica is that tías are wonderful people. At least the tías that I met were incredible. “Tía” is the Spanish word for aunt and there were some awesome tías at the children’s home where we have been working this week. The tías serve as full-time housemothers for the group of 11 girls housed at this home on the outskirts of San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

Our task for the week was to repaint the whole outside of the home. The walls and iron work needed to scraped and painted, as well as the doors and facia. It was painted 7 years ago when the home was built by a church in Houston, TX, but the regular rains have taken their toll on the exterior. Here is what it looked like upon our arrival.



Bright orange was chosen as the main color of the walls, brick red for the doors and iron work, white for the underside of the facia and brown for the facia itself. The tías chose the colors. They are not exactly the colors I would have chosen but my role for the week was to paint, not really to question color choices! And so we painted! Four days of work by the 10 of us resulted in this:



Orange, red, brown, and white looks great together! What do you think?
On the final day as we were leaving the site, one of the tías was thanking us for the great work we had done and was moved by how beautiful it looked.

A bit teary-eyed she said to us in Spanish, “This home looked so ugly and I want the girls to have a home that feels happy and gives them hope….”

Now before you know what I said to her, you must know that what moved me so much all week as I was working was not how quickly the scraping went, not how well the painting got done, not how much it rains in Costa Rica, not the cows that would walk along the road everyday (once up the road in the morning and back again in the afternoon), not even how incredible the tías can make beans and rice taste each day, but what touched me the most were the smiles and laughter of the girls that were living in the home. These girls had all come from difficult situations but now were safe in a home where they were loved, fed, and encouraged. They giggled, they played, they loved attention, and they loved on us throughout the days we were there.

“…it looked so ugly but now it looks so beautiful! Thank you!” she said.

I said to her, “Your house could look far uglier than what you say it did when we arrived …..but what makes this home beautiful are not the coats of paint on the outside but the love that I see given and expressed inside this home. That is the most beautiful gift that could be given to these children. Thank you for everything you do for them. We love you for that and God does also.”

“Me gusta…Me gusta mucho,” (meaning "I like it, I like it so much") she said as she was hugging all of us.

No matter how the home looks on the outside, this is what makes this home beautiful….

A LIFETREE ADVENTURE – Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Written by Eric

Since I first heard about Lifetree Adventures, I was intrigued. Sponsored by the same organization, Group Workcamps Foundation, with which I work in the summers doing the Indianapolis Week of Hope and my construction camps, Lifetree Adventures is half mission trip and half vacation. They have international mission locations all around the world. Since I have done so much with Group and had heard so much about LTA, I decided that we should try it as one of our missions on my sabbatical. Costa Rica with Lifetree Adventures was our choice.

We arrived in Costa Rica this past Monday night and have been staying in San Jose at a Torch Bearers’ retreat center. Torch Bearers is an international Bible teaching school. Students who have finished high school come here for two years before college to learn the Bible and to experience mission work for the needy of San Jose.

Costa Rica is lush green, the temperatures have been cool during the day and surprisingly chilly at nighttime. This is the rainy season, so every afternoon we get a huge storm and every morning we wake up to a perfectly clear day. We are told that it is not unusual for it to be like this during their rainy season, which is May through October. Rice and beans and tortillas have been a part of most of our meals with some fruits and meats added.

We have done a variety of service since we arrived. Yesterday we served lunch to neighborhood children in the most under-resourced area of San Jose. The 3 meals a day that this church serves are the only meals many of the children of the neighborhood will get. We visited the church sponsored addiction rehab centers for men and women. At each of these the residents, while in recovery, are taught to use their abilities to serve the community. For instance, if a man comes in who needs treatment and who knows how to bake, he must use his baking ability to make baked goods to sell to the community to help support his recovery.

Our main work this week is working at a children’s home on the outside of the city. The home is for children without parents. Children stay there under the care of house parents as well as go to school in the building next door. We are painting the girls’ home Texas Longhorn orange and spending time teaching and playing with the children.

As I finish, let me close with a story that reminds me of the goodness and grace of the awesome God we serve:

At the men’s rehab center that we visited yesterday is a man who is now part of the drug/alcohol rehab program. Soon he will be turning 40 years old. Upon his being admitted to the program, he was asked when was the last time someone celebrated his birthday. He replied, “When I was 14 years old. Since then no one has cared about me.”

His story: He left home when he was 14 because he felt no support and love at home. For the next 26 years he lived on the streets of San Jose seeking to find meaning in life but drifted into heavy drug and alcohol usage. Only recently did he seek out the church rehab center and become part of the program.

With his 40th birthday approaching the residents of the center decided they needed to do something to celebrate his birthday. They made a strategic decision. What does a guy need who has not had a birthday party in 26 years? A big party. A really big party. A really big party that will make up for 26 missed birthdays.

His friends are now really motivated - motivated to make sure that he stays in the program long enough so they can all have this big bash. But more importantly, they want to make sure that he knows one thing - that he is cared about more than he can ever imagine - cared enough to make up for 26 years of feeling no love by anyone.

To me, there are few things that speak more of the good news of Jesus than a big blowout party given by a bunch of recovering addicts to show God’s love for someone who has not known love for 26 years. That is grace. That is love. That is the perfect care of our Father in heaven.

That is what God’s Kingdom needs to look like on earth!

A FLIGHT ATTENDANT, SUNGLASSES, AND OTHER THINGS – Monday, July 19, 2010

Written by Eric

1. Have you ever had a flight attendant that wore sunglasses while tending his flight?

2. Do you think that would be good or bad news?

3. Would you ask your attendant why he was wearing the glasses or would you just go along like everything was normal?

Well…These sunglasses on our flight attendant raised the curiosity of the Lohes on our Continental flight from Indy to Houston on our way to Costa Rica. Our wanting to have some fun on the flight brought out 6 pairs of sunglasses from us (Doug and Karen Thornberry have joined us for this mission). An intrigued flight attendant smiled and stopped by our seats to find out who we were.

“We are going on a mission to Costa Rica,” was our reply.

“So that is why you have sunglasses?” he asked.

“Well sure. But sunglasses are not all that we have. We have…(Kristen starts to unpack her carry on bag at this point) we have ball caps, Emergen-C, an umbrella, a bag of little green men, 20 plastic cups and….”

He continued, “And other things?”

“Sure we have 175 beanie babies but they are in our check in luggage. (Thank you Kinsey for your donation!) We have 200 bars of soap, towels, baby wipes, jump ropes, sheets, soccer balls, etc., etc. (We would have been great contestants with Monty Hall and Let’s Make a Deal!)

Prompted by the weirdness of the contents of our many bags, the flight attendant returned a bunch of times to find out all of the details of our summer. He was intrigued by all the places we have been this summer and of all that we have yet to do. (We never got his name but if you are he and you read this blog, please leave us your name on the comment section of the blog so we can let everyone know who you are.) We loved talking to him. Maybe he will go on a mission trip too someday.

And you know what I learned? Sunglasses worn on the inside of a plane reduces the brightness of the sun there too, especially at sunset! He was a very smart flight attendant. Maybe we will see him on our leg back from Houston to Indy! And…maybe by then we will know his name!

GREAT RESULTS ORCHESTRATED BY OUR GREAT GOD – Saturday, July 17, 2010

Written by Eric

“If you can’t paint like professionals, then don’t paint at all you @#^&* kids,” she said to the crew.

Girls sobbing. Built-up frustration. Phone call to me, the camp director. Thursday afternoon.

“Eric, please come out to our site. We can no longer work here because our resident (she) is not at all thankful for the painting we are doing for her. In fact, she is downright mean and swore at us.”

I headed out to the site with an ongoing debate in my mind. When we serve Jesus by helping a resident with home repairs, do we need to have thanks and praise OR do we continue despite ridicule by others because we know that ultimately we are serving Jesus, not the resident? What do you think?

I arrive. The resident was on the phone. Her husband had been sick for weeks and was now hospitalized. “A tumor in his lungs,” came the word on the other end of the phone. She was quiet for a moment and then hung up.

“Tough news, huh? We will pray for you,” I said.

Now it was time to make a decision about what to do with a group of youth who no longer wanted to work for a resident because she was swearing at them. The youth who were working on her house were doing an incredible job painting and repairing her house. She, nevertheless, demanded 4 coats of paint on her house and was constantly looking over their shoulders as this crew of first time workcampers worked their hardest in the surprising heat of a Canadian week.

As director of the camp it is my responsibility to make sure that all of our campers have a good experience serving Jesus. I do not tolerate swearing residents very well. Granted she had reasons why the stress of her husband’s illness could have triggered her anger, but she had no right swearing at youth who were there to serve.

“I am going to move you to a new site,” I told the group. The girls responded with a quiet, “Yes!” I knew I had made a good decision. The group worked hard to finish as much work as they could that Thursday afternoon and I moved them on to a different site with a great resident who loved on them all day Friday.

I went back Friday to check on the angry resident. It is never comfortable walking back into a situation where you do not know what will be the reaction. She greeted me with somewhat of a smile and said words that only could have been orchestrated by God, “You know these kids. They are angels and I can’t say how much I appreciate what they did.”

Only God can orchestrate that. I told the kids back at camp what the work they did meant to her even though she was never able to share it. Though he may never read this great praise needs to go to Ralph, the adult leader on the site. He handled things so wisely!

Please pray for this resident woman and for her husband. Can you imagine how hurting one has to be inside in order to swear at youth who have come to paint your house? Gotta be great need there!

It was an incredible week. 58 construction projects including a 60 foot wheelchair ramp and a second story deck. Wonderful worship. 1,876 cans of food donated. I learned to speak Canadian, “eh”! A boys group from Jersey wrote a song about me - Kristen taped it for you. And God was honored by 374 lives serving Him for a week.

The tourists: Carol and Greta

Well, we have attended two of the programs at the workcamp and delivered desserts to our Indiana three, but mostly we've been exploring around the area. We went to the "Lift-Off" last weekend which included a hot air balloon festival and the "Ontario's Strongest Man" contest. Those guys lifted all kinds of stuff and even pulled an eighteen wheeler down Water Street! (The trick was to see who could pull it the FASTEST!!) We spent another day at Upper Canada Village, a Conner Prairie type place where we visited a water powered saw mill, steam powered woolen factory, a grain mill, bakery, cheese factory, bootmaker, tinsmith, dressmaker, general store, tavern, printer, weaver, schoolhouse, wheelwright, blacksmith, and farm. (All 1866) Greta milked a cow with both hands, and we sung in two different church buildings (when no other guests were there.) The acoustics were great! We also took in a horse-drawn wagon ride, a horse-towed canal boat ride, and an 1866 "medicine show," The Traveling Tiltons. Since then, we've been picnicing and swimming in the St. Lawrence River a couple of times. Tomorrow we plan to venture to Ottawa (Canada's capital) and hopefully have a tour of Parliament.
Even if we hadn't done all these fun things, it was great being here because our B&B hostess, Trish, makes the BEST breakfasts in the WORLD!! We have really been pampered! If anyone needs a place to stay up here, we will give them her name!

The Fire Marshall, God, the Facility Guys, and Poutine - Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Written by Eric

It is Wednesday afternoon, the middle of workcamp week here in Cornwall, Ontario. If you go as far east on the upper border of New York, then cross over into Canada, you will find Cornwall. It was a 15 hour drive from Indy and about an a 1 1/2 hour drive west of Montreal. Cornwall is a city of 46,000 people next to the St. Lawrence River. Though things have changed a bit now, a few decades ago the city was divided by the French speaking ones on the east side of town and the English speaking ones on the west side of town.

375 campers have the afternoon off and are either at the river, water park, a nearby city (Montreal or Ottawa) or shopping. It is time for a little relaxation, food, and an afternoon away from the week-long work. As for me, as the director of the camp, I am at the school staffing the office while the rest of the staff and workcampers are away.

As far as people here....We have 16 churches in attendance. One from Canada, others from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

As far as our lodging...We are staying in a French Catholic High School. Here all high schools, whether Christian or public, are funded by the government. That is very different than in the states. This school's mission is "to teach students about Jesus Christ and about their French heritage."

As far as sleeping places for 375...By 5 pm last Friday we had everyone assigned to rooms in the school, some had air-conditioning and some did not. At 5 pm the fire department came by to "check" our rooms and told us that we had to reduce each of the rooms by 5-7 people to meet fire code. That caused us to wonder, "What will we do with 42 boys?" "Put them in the gym!" The only trouble was that the gym was not air-conditioned and 42 breathing boys make the gym even warmer. Oops, that should be HOTTER, not warmer. It was stuffy and extremely hot. What should we do?

As far as the facility guys...Rightly so the facility guys, custodians, were protecting their school from all of these students coming from all over. Only certain rooms were available. Only the front door of the school could be used for entrance and exit. No door could be left open to cool off the gym. That is how it was for one night. And then a very awesome thing happened. God moved some hearts. After walking through the gym on Sunday night with the facility people, after their experiencing the heat of a room with no doors open, God touched hearts. THEY started suggesting rooms where the boys could lodge. THEY decided that doors could be open. They have now all worked beyond their hours just to keep the facility clean for us. Today one of them rigged up a system in our non-airconditioned program auditorium for the cooler air to flow through the space. Go God!

As far as work...We have 54 sites that are painting, home repairs, and roofing whole houses. The most odd project is painting a Royal Canadian Air Force plane that is mounted in the town park. How many of you ever got to paint a jet?

As far as their currency...They have $1 coins called "loonies" because the coins contain pictures of birds, loons. They have a $2 coin with birds on them. Guess what they call them? "Two-nies." They are considering $5 dollar coins. Any guess what they will call them?

As far as food....Maybe the most unique food we have found here in Cornwall is POUTINE. Poutine is a combination of...are you ready?...french fries topped with cheese curd, covered in gravy. Delightful and of course, no calories at all!

As far as me...I am still sitting in the office waiting for dinner while the others are out. There is something beautiful about having some time to write and reflect. There is something good about having 375 high schoolers out of the school for just a little time this afternoon.

I pray your summer is continuing to be a great one for you.

Spending A Week Living in a School

Written by Eric - Friday July 9, 2010

In 1976 in Loveland, Colorado 12 inches of rain fell in 3 hours. The sudden and unexpected rains flooded Big Thompson Canyon washing out homes and killing 140 people. The call went out for youth groups to come and help with recovery and clean-up. Over 300 youth and their leaders showed up to help. Group Workcamps Foundation, now Group Cares, was formed that year as an organization to help local residents with housing needs and now has over 200 camps each summer. In the past CrossRoads has served with Group Cares in Manistee, MI (Kris Gidley's home town), Blytheville, AR and Red Lake, MN.

Today Kristen and I join with a 15 other volunteer staff from across North America for a workcamp in Cornwall, ON. Cornwall is just across the border from the northeastern tip of New York. Cornwall was the town that the British created following the American Revolution for British sympathizers. Today it is a town of 40,000 people.

We drove 12 hours yesterday through heavy rain to get to Toronto and we are headed off to Cornwall today, another 5 hours. The campers come Sunday for a week of work and worship. I will be directing the camp and Kristen will be serving as a construction supervisor. Chris Kemp is joining us here on staff for the week to also oversee construction. Ed Gill was supposed to be here too but, at the last minute, work would not allow him to join us. He is disappointed not to be here, so when you see him Sunday give him a hug to lift his spirits.

Carol and Greta drove with us and are spending the week in the area seeing the sights of Ontario and Quebec.

Oh yes, and for the record, so far on this trip others have guessed our nationality as German and Swedish. Last night the dinner server greeted us with, "And oh you must be, let me guess, Dutch." The blond hair and blue eyes confused him. We gladly told him we were from Indiana and he was most surprised.

On to Cornwall to enlarge our family to 400+ for the week! Pray for ours, Chris' and the many groups' attending our camps safe travel.

It Was Hard to Eat Again After That Two Hour Walk

Written by Eric

Last week I had the chance to visit Dachau Concentration Camp just outside of Munich, Germany. It is not one of those places that I "wanted" to visit but it was one that I "just had" to go if I was going to be in Germany. I don't want this post to be a downer but the images that still flow through my mind are vivid and difficult to deal with.

We spent about 2 hours walking around the camp which is being preserved so that we all can remember the atrocities human beings can perpetrate on one another. The displays, though very nicely done, were difficult to process, the posted pictures chronicling the years of the actions at the camp were gruesome and the air seemed stagnant and stale as people moved around the camp.

Toward the end of our walk we went to the crematorium, the "ovens" as they were described. The crematorium was outside the walled and barbed wire camp so that people that were being retained inside the camp would not know what was going on. I had always heard about the "gas chambers" at the camps however it is another thing to stand in the middle of one of them and realize how many lives had needlessly been taken in that particular room, how many lives had been affected by this senseless and depraved ideology.

If there is any good news from my time there it is that evil in its most horrific expression does not in the end win out. Dachau is now only a memorial, not an ongoing camp. God is faithful in wiping out human evil and, even though many innocent people may die in the process, goodness always is God's will and He has the power to make all things right in the end. It reminded me again of just how off base we can become so quickly and begin to value that which corrupts us. For me, it was an affirmation of why I seek to be a disciple of Jesus and why I want others to be the same. We must, we must be the ones to bring goodness and justice to a world in need so that no one ever has to be hurt by another human being.

Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A Mouthful for a Young Boy

Written by Eric

My dad, Gunther, emigrated with his family from Germany to the United States in 1928 when he was 9 years old. From the time that I was very young, whenever I asked my dad where he was born, he would say, "Wuppertal-Elberfeld." Now I was looking for some response like "Mayberry or Allentown or even Westfield." But what I got was a name of a town I could not understand especially since it was couched in a deep German accent.

When I got older my dad, though he was an invalid by that time and had difficulty speaking, would tell me some things about where he came from. I knew it was in northern Germany and that it was an industrialized area. I knew they had a special monorail in town and he also gave me a book with pictures of his town that was printed in 1920. Every time I had a social studies project in school, I would choose to do a report on this double-named town.

You can imagine my intrigue and excitement last week when, driving down the Autobahn, I saw the exit for Wuppertal. We had been able to narrow down the choices of where he lived to one street - Wulfrather Strasse. Through Google Maps I found out that it was only four blocks long. That was short enough to walk the whole way.

There is something hard to describe about the feeling I had walking in Germany on the street where my dad was born and where he lived. Though my dad died in 1969, walking down Wulfrather Strasse gave me a special connection with my dad again. It was an incredibly steep street with apartments and a local neighborhood church and cemetery. Maybe my dad was baptized in that church - how cool is that? Maybe my dad sledded down his street. That would have been fun. Maybe there were my relatives buried in the cemetary. I did not have time to explore. I did get to ride the special mono-rail called the Schwebebahn, built in the late 1800s. During that whole day I was wishing I could do the "Back to the Future" thing and see my relatives as they were when they were children.

While we only got to spend a day in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, I thought much about what it must have been like for a young 9-year-old boy to leave the only city and country that he knows, and to get on a boat with his family and ride for over a week to a new land where they spoke a different language. I do know that it was the faith in God of his family that gave them the strength to come to the States. And as much as I liked being in Wuppertal, I am grateful that they made the journey across the Atlantic because I have been blessed to grow up in the United States.

Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A mouthful for a young boy. An incredible experience for a guy celebrating the roots of his dad.

Not Sure What I Just Agreed To

With Germany advancing in her World Cup bid with her 4-1 win over England, there is soccer mania throughout Germany. Houses everywhere are flying the German flag and nearly every car has a least one, if not two (or more!), German flags flying. Some people have taken their German flag and tucked them in the front hood of their car so the whole front of their car cries out "Deutschland!"

Not wanting to be the only car not flying the black, red, and gold, I stopped into a store along the Autobahn to buy a flag for our car. Finding a flag, I took it up to the cashier.

"Zwei euros," she said rather firmly.

"Ya!" I plunked out my two euros with a smile.

She rang up the purchase and then she began a long run of German words that I could not understand. And then, thinking that I was understanding it all, she continued with more words. She concluded with a big, "YA?" She was looking for a reply. She wanted a reply to a bunch of words that I did not understand.

At that point I had two choices. I could use my meager German language knowledge and tell her that I really did not understand her OR I could just say, "Ya!" and go on. So which one would you choose?

With my biggest smile I picked up my flag and said, "YA...YA!!" and I walked away.

Walking back to the car I wondered what I had just agreed to. Perhaps...

(1) I agreed with her that, like everyone else, I was a great German Wold Cup fan OR...

(2) Maybe she was telling me just how stupid it is that I, like all these other crazy people, are spending their money on these stupid flags for a dumb sport.

All I can say is, "YA!" Go Deutschland in the World Cup" and if you see a blue car running around Westfield in a few days flying a German flag, please nod your head with me, smile, and say, ""YA!"

Finding Food in Wuppertal (Carol)

Last night we drove to Wuppertal, the town in Germany where Eric’s dad was born and lived until he came to the states at age nine. Since we were blessed to have a navigation system, we were quickly able to find the street where Gunther lived, a steep strasse with beautiful old buildings curving around the bend. After enjoying the moment, we decided to enjoy some dinner in Wuppertal. A restaurant was not so quickly found, however! We drove through downtown, down by the river and saw the Schwebebahn (we rode that today—it’s like an elevated tram that hangs under its one track which is suspended over the river; it swings sideways when it goes around curves!) We couldn’t find any of the cute restaurants that were so plentiful in other cities.

Finally, we found a spot where we thought we could walk to a café. As Eric parallel parked, we noticed two guys sitting on a nearby bench laughing at us. (I think the laughing was due more to the beer they were drinking than Eric’s parking—everyone parks on the sidewalks over here!) As we got out of the car, they came over to us and started up a conversation, all in German, of course. When Eric said, “We don’t speak much German, English” the reply was “Ohh! 4 to 1!” (The score of the recent Germany v. England world cup game) When I tried to clear up the misconception, “No, we’re not English, we’re American,” the second guy replied, “Oh, sorry for you!” (He meant sorry, the U. S. is now out of the World Cup since we lost to Ghana.) Then the first guy proceeded to tell us in very broken English all the places he’d been in the U. S.--Las Vegas, L. A., the Grand Canyon (“BIG”) and Bryce Canyon (“not so big”). The smell and their slurred speech made it pretty clear that their current bottles of beer had not been their firsts. When they asked us what we were doing here, Eric told them about his dad and said we were looking for a place to eat.

Guy #1 to Eric: Oh, no! You don’t want to eat here! We live here. Ghetto! Walk around the corner and go about ten minutes to city center.

Guy #2 to Carol: You have navigation system? Drive car to Landhaus Dreyer! Food is (puts fingers to lips and pulls them away with a smacking sound). You go there.

Guy #1 to Guy #2: They can walk! Only 10 minutes!

Guy #2 to Guy #1: No! They drive!

As the two Germans began to argue over where we should eat, I decided that wherever we ate, we weren’t leaving our car there with two drunk guys who knew we had a nav system in our rental car. By now Kristen had our map out and they were both trying to show us where to go to find a nice dinner. Guy #2 scrawled out a street name on the back of the map and I spelled out the restaurant name I thought he had said. He nodded and grinned. We hopped in our car and Eric shook their hands and thanked them for being so friendly. “No,” laughed guy #1. “Not so friendly, just drunk!”

We drove away, a bit relieved, and still hungry. In the front seat, Kristen was clicking away at the GPS which shortly responded with, “Calculating route.” “Hey!” she cried, “The place is legit!” “What place?” we asked. “Landhaus Dreyer, the restaurant those guys told us about! It actually shows up on the GPS. Let’s go there!”

Now would you go to a place recommended by two inebriated strangers who mostly spoke a language you didn’t understand in a non-tourist city where you’d never been before at 9:00 at night?

Well, you know us. As we followed the British-sounding directions we laughed to think about what sort of place this might be if we ever did find it. To our surprise, about eight minutes later, we pulled up in front of a very nice German restaurant where we were ushered to an outdoor table under trees glowing with lights and paper lanterns. It was managed by a mother and her twenty-something daughter, our waitress, who switched from German to flawless English when she met us. It turns out she was studying Anglo-Germanic linguistics and had done an “exchange” year in Minnesota (“a one-horse town with five churches!”). We had a delicious dinner with gracious hosts at a great place! God is ALWAYS watching over us!

A day in the Black Forest

It's time for....

You guessed it!

Another picture update!!

(So I'm sure you can guess who's writing this. I'll give you one hint: eldest daughter whose name starts with "K.")

Anyway....

We are in the Black Forest of southern Germany! After taking the Autobahn here, we are staying in a small town called Schiltach. It is VERY cute...







And this is our hotel!


It's run by an American woman and her German husband (who is a chef). While we have so much enjoyed being in Europe and experiencing the culture here this month, it is nice to talk to an American who understands why we would like ice in our drinks and why we keep looking for "flat" water (or my favorite term for it: water with "no gas"! hahaha). (On a side note, it is never good to hear "fizzzzzzz" when you open a new bottle of water. We have accidentally purchased at least two bottles of carbonated mineral water, and the stuff pretty much tastes like Sprite without the sugar. ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. No wonder they drink a lot of beer over here! haha) The couple has been great, and the hotel couldn't be any more wonderful.

Its superbness (if that is a word) was only matched by our day today. We went to another little town about 20 km from here called Triberg (pronounced "Tree-berg") and hiked up to a waterfall and through the woods some. Then, we had lunch at this neat place right by the lake and got to watch duck drama (the male was chasing the female and WOULD. NOT. LEAVE. HER. ALONE. AT. ALL.) while we ate Spatzle and potato soup and some traditional French thing that looked like pizza with alfredo sauce.

Then, it was about 5 pm and the Germany-England World Cup game was on. We have caught as many games as possible and as we are in Germany now, we definitely wanted to see this one! But, as our hotel was still 45 minutes away, we figured we'd miss it. Oh well.

As we were driving home, we saw the "Rodelbahn." Lisa, the woman at the hotel, had recommended it to us and we wanted to check it out. Basically, it's a rollercoaster-like thing on the hill. Sounded fun to us! So we pulled in, and guess what!?!? They had the game on there! WOOOOO!! So we ended up watching the last half of the game with 50 Germans, who were obviously thrilled with the outcome. Since the win, people have been driving around town honking, yelling, waving flags out their car windows, hanging flags out their house windows, etc. Excitement kind of like when Butler was in the final few games of the NCAA tourney, but German-style. Pretty cool. We've decided to get some flags for our rental car :)





Anyway, back to the Rodelbahn. It was WAY fun, but I'll let you see that in the pictures. I wish we could bring all of you over here to ride it...it was that fun. We all went 3 times. :)





















Okay, it's nearly midnight here and I need to sleep! I've had a cold these past few days so I'm taking lots of cold medicine and Emergen-C and trying not to miss visiting stuff over here :) But....sleep is probably necessary too, at least at some point.

Only 4 more days and we'll be back home! I can't believe it. SO going to miss Europe, but SO looking forward to seeing my Kiwi again.



And beautiful Miss Oreo.



And of course Gracie and Linus too.


Okay, off to bed!

Leaving Salzburg - Saturday, June 26

Just a quick update from Eric.

We left Salzburg. Austria this morning and have just arrived in the Black Forest in southern Germany. The train ride out of Salzburg was great, the Munich train station is one to see, and I got to drive on Germany's Autobahn today for the first time ever. Dare I tell you how fast I got to drive? Any guesses?

We will post more soon. Tomorrow looks like a day to hike in the mountains!

Prayers for a great West Virginia mission!

The Sound of Music – Wednesday, June 23

Written by Eric

My sixth grade teacher, Ingrid Bergman, (not the famous actress) was a Sound of Music fanatic. Perhaps she ingrained that love in all her students and even though that has been quite a few years ago, I still love the movie. So as Kristen was planning our route back from Romania to London, she knew that if there was anyway possible, we should stop in Salzburg, where the outside scenes for the movie were filmed and where the actual Von Trapp family lived.

The unique part of our stop here is that we are staying in the actual house of the Von Trapp family. Yes, where Captain Von Trapp and Maria and their children lived. The house was abandoned by the Von Trapps in 1927, was seized by the Nazis shortly afterwards, was bought by a Catholic group after the Nazi regime fell, and then, two years ago, was bought by a family and opened as a bed and breakfast. And we get to stay here. How cool is that! Tomorrow we are going to go on a tour to see all the places in town where the movie was filmed.

(By the way, the oldest child of the Von Trapps was not Liesel as in the movie, but an older son, Ruppert. I guess Hollywood needed a love story in the movie and Liesel and her boyfriend Ralph made a better story!)

We learned lots of interesting Sound of Music trivia while we were here. Ask us about it. I found it all quite fascinating.

Sometimes You Get Better Than You Expect

Note: We have been in Salzburg for the past 3 days and just finally got internet this morning. So, the next couple posts are about stuff that happened a few days ago. We'll catch up to now at some point! Later today we are headed to the Black Forest in southern Germany and I'm not sure if we'll have internet there or not. We'll blog if we can!

Tuesday, June 22 - Written by Eric (with picture comments by Kristen)

I always try to live by the adage: You will often get better than you expect.

Croatia was a place that was never on my personal radar screen. If you had asked me where I wanted to go on my sabbatical, it would not have been top on my list. However, by the insightful advice of a friend of Kristen’s, we chose to visit. If I knew anything about Croatia, it was because of the war that took place in the 1990s: the Serbain-Croation conflict. It was on the news regularly in those days. It was the start of the break-up of former Yugoslovia.

The past few days staying in Croatia, for me however, have been incredible. Kristen posted about the “Garden of Eden” like experience at Plitvice Lakes National Park. I don’t think I have ever been at a place that is more beautiful, peaceful, and God-breathed. It really can’t be described, just experienced. Following our day in the park, we drove to and stayed in Zadar, a city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Many of these old cities, like Zadar, are walled in, fort-like cities with narrow streets and buildings that date back to 1000 AD. Over these past days I got much more than I expected. Croatia is beautiful and the people helpful.

The view of the Adriatic Sea from our window (the Adriatic Sea is right between Italy and Croatia...the mountains in this picture are not Italy (unfortunately) but rather the Kornati Islands, which are a string of barrier islands just off the coast of Croatia) -


The sea organ in Zadar (as waves roll in, different tones sound) -


Enjoying ice cream (which is THE THING to do Zadar!) -


After leaving Zadar, we were scheduled to stay in Zagreb, a larger city in northern Croatia. We arrived later Tuesday afternoon, find our prearranged lodging, needed to take back a rental car, and get some dinner. We successfully found the address of our lodging for the night…But that is when I began to wonder about living by my adage because I was not sure we were going to get better than we expected.



The entrance to our lodging, as you can see, was adorned with full garbage cans. There was graffiti on the walls, and no sign anywhere that indicated where our lodging was. It was ironic to me that the place we were looking for was “Camera Felice”, which means “Happy Room” and we were not greeted by anything that even was close to “happy.” We opened the door and walked into a dark hallway. Coming around the corner was a shorter, older man, mostly unkempt and toothless, emerging from a dark apartment with his finger pointing up in the air. He wanted us to know something, I am sure, because the more confused I looked, the more he repeated himself, and the louder and louder he repeated the same words (in Croatian) and made the same motions.

I went upstairs to find…..nothing. I found nothing that appeared to be a “Happy Room.” I thought that maybe it was time to look for another place to stay. So back into the car we jumped and drove around town. A few moments to gather ourselves again, we decided we would make one more try to find our happy room. Kristen texted her contact there to figure out where and how to get in. No response.

Walking up and down the sidewalk trying to find someone who might know about the “Happy Room”, a woman emerged out of a window. She was on the younger side with a huge afro and big white glasses. She was talking to us. “What have we gotten ourselves into,” I thought. She invited us up to see the “Happy Room.” I still was wondering, “What have we gotten ourselves in to?”

I should always trust my old adage. I should learn to trust God more. What we ended getting ourselves into was a “Sobe.” Sobes in Croatia are rooms that individuals rent in their apartments or homes. We ended up staying in two brightly colored and modernly decorated rooms in the home of a young couple. They had all the things we needed, and more. A bed. Hot water. Clean towels. A small refrigerator. A TV for watching the World Cup. And even a gift for their guests.





We did get better than we expected. We found the “Happy Rooms”! I should learn to believe more often.

Tomorrow it is on to Salzburg, Austria. Seven hours on the train….I am surely looking forward to seeing the mountains!