Kenya was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that I’m so glad I got to do and take Alex with me.  The people there are great and the scenery is spectacular.  The pictures I’ve uploaded are my favorites from my personal collection.  When I get a few moments to go through my brother-in-law’s and father-in-law’s pictures, I may upload some of those as well.

Check out the photos of Kenya in my two photo sets in the Photo Album!

The first set was a family hike into the woods by where we live.  Its a narrow trail that Krista found that’s a lot of fun to explore.  Then there’s Alex’s first scooter ride with me.  And finally, a couple of pictures of when we were with the LFC India Team on their layover in Munich for Oktoberfest.  All of these and more can be found in the Photo Album.

Every year, the kids in our village do a Lantern Parade.  This parade is a re-enactment of the search for Saint Martin.  The story (as I am trying to understand the German) goes that there was this soldier who was going through a town on a cold night in the 4th century.  A beggar approaches him and asks for some money.  The soldier, having no money, immediately cuts off half his cloak and gives it to the beggar to keep warm.  Before the beggar can say “Thank you”, the soldier is gone.  The soldier is rewarded by seeing Jesus Christ in the half cloak and realizing that he was now called to be in service to Jesus Christ.  That soldier was Saint Martin.  He spent the rest of his life in service to God and obviously was sainted by the Catholic church.

We start the whole event by meeting in the church and hearing about the story of Saint Martin.  Then we split into groups and walk the streets of our town stopping at street corners and in front of houses where people are shut-ins (they are usually older people who can’t make it out of their house easily) and sing songs.  Sometimes the people are able to make it to the window or family members will open up the windows so that they can hear the singing.  Alex likes this event as he makes his own lantern for the parade, learns songs (in German) about Saint Martin and at the end of the parade, there’s a big party with kinderpunch (kid’s punch – adult punch has alcohol in Germany) and pretzels at the Grundschule (elementary school).  For us, its a chance to hang out with Germans and to interact with them in something that means a lot to them.

Most Germans in our area view anyone that is not Catholic or Lutheran to be a part of a cult.  Therefore, we have to be open to getting involved in their activities to be able to have the “right” to speak to them about a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We’re doing baby steps (like this Lantern Parade) in getting involved as we continue to increase our language abilities (our German is OK for every day life but not up to speed to have in depth conversations about different life subjects like politics, religion, science, etc. and Germans love to have in depth conversations just not about personal things).  We’re very excited about the future relationships that will come.

There’s more pictures from the parade in the photo album.  Be sure to check them out!

Be sure to check out Alex’s pictures with his new glasses in the Photo Album. Also, be sure to check out other photos there too.

Now our time this summer back in the States was a whirlwind, then I came home to Germany only to immediately run off to Hungary, then worked with a team here in Germany and then ran off to Ukraine. Some would say I’ve been a bit on the go. I also haven’t been alone. As in me, by myself, alone. Now this may come as a shock to some people, but I’m a borderline introvert. This means that I need my alone time or I tend to go a little crazy. My wonderful wife recognized this this past week and then proceeded to book me a two-night stay at a little hotel in the Black Forest. It was a wonderful two days of solitude where I got to go do some hiking (catch my photos in the Photo Album), play around with Photoshop and spend some time in God’s Word.

One of the amazing things about hiking in Der Schwarzwald (the Black Forest) is that you never know what you are going to come across. As I was hiking, all of the sudden I see this small chapel near the trail (see the photo above). It’s a very small chapel and as I approached I saw a sign with a man’s picture on it. It was a picture of Willibald Strohmeyer. The title above his picture was “SS-Terror and Priest’s death in Muenstertal” (my translation).

As I continued reading, I came to find out that this man was a priest in the area during World War II. He led an order of nuns (yes, they had a priest leading them) that took care of the homeless and needy. When the Nazis came to power, he was too popular by the people to touch. But near the end of the war, when the French were invading this area of Germany, Willibald Strohmeyer encouraged the locals to not resist and to put out white flags in hopes of not provoking the French to destroy this region. On Sunday, April 22, 1945, a group of SS Troopers arrested him during a church service. He was driven into the hills, robbed and brutally murdered. His body wasn’t found until May 5th. The chapel that I had found was to make sure that he was remembered not only for his death but more for how he chose to live his life.

Ironically, the sermon he gave just three hours before his death was on John 16:16-26:

16″In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25″Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

- John 16:16-26 (NIV – emphasis mine)

It’s amazing what you can find when you are not on a tourist’s path but deep into life’s journeys.

Last week on my way back from Hungary, a group of us got to spend a good portion of the day running around Vienna (Wien), Austria. It was a beautiful day and was just perfect for seeing the sites. I took a bunch of pictures so be sure to them out in the Photo Album.

Greater Europe Mission has an annual conference every year for all of its missionaries. One distinctive of Greater Europe Mission is that we are all pretty much on one continent (we do go into North Africa and in some of Asia as well – that’s the “Greater” part). At this conference, I got the privilege of having a team of technical people come and work on missionary laptops. You see, even though we are all on one continent, it is extremely difficult to support the over 300 missionaries that we have out in the field. With everyone coming together to one place, it gives us the opportunity to help them in ways we can’t always do that through out the year. We have been doing it for several years now and the missionaries came with their laptops (and other equipment) in hand ready to be helped.

The team (most of whom are shown above with our GEM IT Director, Kirk in the middle) did a wonderful job not only fixing laptops but spending time with the missionaries helping them understand how they can do preventive maintenance and use the computers. They worked long hours (sometimes leaving at 2 or 3 AM in the morning only to return at 6 or 7 AM) but they had servant hearts. We also had one lady with them that gave one on one software training helping missionaries use their computers to their fullest.

On a personal note, these men really spoke to me as in early June, our original team told me that they couldn’t make it this year. I sent out a panicked email and within a week these men responded with “We’re coming – now where are we going and what are we doing?” They were willing to be servants of our Lord and it was appreciated.

Check out their blog of the trip at http://thehungaryproject.blogspot.com/ and photos from their trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehungaryproject/

On my way home from some travels, I had a layover in Vienna for about 5 hours. Having not really seen Vienna (but flying through their airport all the time), I decided to take the quick 16 minute train ride into downtown Vienna (also known as Wien). I didn’t spend much time and it was a Sunday afternoon so nothing was really open. The only thing I knew to do was visit their Dom (another name for really old church). So I made my way over to it and took a few pictures with my small camera (not my good one, sorry.) I also went through the park and watched everyone relax in the sun before heading back to the airport to catch my flight home.

Check out the Photos in the Photo Album.

Gina, my sister, gave Alex a camera before we left the states. It’s a digital camera made for young people so it has two eye pieces and is rubber coated. Its really nice and Alex picks it up every once in a while and does a series of pictures (most of which we can’t figure out what they are). Anyways, Alex brought it in to me today and told me it was time to let the world see his photos and for me to post them up on the website. Well, I didn’t post all of them (especially the ones of me where all you see is my stomach – without a shirt – yuck!) but I did make an album of some of the better ones that I thought were cute.

Check the Photos out in the Photo Album.