Shoes and Wheels

Many of you have asked us what we do on the field once we arrive at our Mission Corps assignment.
Assignments vary according to country and region.  In Ecuador, we were assigned to teach in and work at a K-12 Nazarene school in Riobamba, a town in the Andes Mountains.
Here, our assignment in Switzerland/Germany is associated with the needs of the Nazarene Bible college, which sits on about 30-35 acres. 

Work and Tool Shop

  The Bible college has four very large structures:

Welcome Center-dated between 600-700 years old

administrative offices with a state-of-the-art kitchen and small dining area; a library with dorms above, a fifteen-apartment complex, and a welcome center. There are also workshop buildings and garages. The Eurasian Regional Office is nearby.   A neighbor keeps the lawns cut, but volunteers do the trimming, shaping, pruning, gardening, planting, and hoeing.  We are the volunteers who attempt to fill those shoes!  If a tool has been made, it is in these two workshops.  Linda has discovered that hedge trimmers - not gas, electric or cordless - but manual ones, can be a source of measurable progress.  Everything on campus has been trimmed...radically trimmed!  Jim has been doing magic with a gas Weed Eater that does wonders on sprouted weeds between paving stones.

Rakes, hoes,shovels,brooms,trimmers, and lawn mower live here

We enjoy seeing the fruits of our labor, but we have a keen suspicion that the weeds and hedges have plans to return!

Variety is the spice of life and on
several days, when the weather whipped up drizzle and and cooler days, we worked inside the campus library processing books that will be sent to 20 Christian learning centers from Portugal to Kazakhstan.

 Like you, we have free days, and, like you, our commitments go with us.


Our campus International Church participated in the Global Day of Prayer on Saturday, May 25th.
Jim and  I committed,

Our Ford wheels!

along with many members of the church, to pray for the needs of the church worldwide. We knew, however, that we had plans to take a Saturday day trip up the Rhein in a car that a new friend had loaned us.  We had signed up to pray at 1:00.  One of the neatest pleasures of Europe is that all of its small quaint villages that line the back roads and highways have churches and cathedrals that are always open to the public.  We arrived in the town of Konstanz on Lake Konstanz in a thunderstorm! A parking area was an open invitation to an adjoining Evangelical Church and tolling church bells reminded us that it was 1:00.  The church was empty.  All ours.
At the end of the day, at 6pm, our International Church on campus gathered for a time of singing, praising the Lord and sharing prayer requests for the needs of the church worldwide.  It is spiritually captivating to think that prayer is the only international language and the power of prayer unites us internationally.  It's deeply fun, inspirational, and satisfying to live in our diverse space.  Shoes and wheels...my,my,my....

"...all over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing..." (Colossians 1:6)

Keep Looking Up!                 Find shoes that fit and wheels that turn!
J:m and L:nda

New Days Here

ENC bike park

DAY ONE: Traveling can be very taxing, but when one person in a small party of two does not have luggage at baggage claim at the end of the trail, traveling becomes downright vexing!   We arrived at the Zurich airport seven minutes ahead of time (according to the captain) and it took that 7 minutes at the conveyor belt to realize we had luggage shortage.
Very kind English-speakers ensured us that the huge piece would arrive and be delivered soon.  That was Thursday.  The luggage arrived Saturday evening and Jim felt like yodeling!  From the airport, our ride to the European Nazarene College (ENC) was spot on, and we rode through beautiful Switzerland with a high that outweighed jet lag.  We met the missionary couple, Lydia and Nikolaj, who will be our "bosses" for the next three months.  And we really, really like them.  They, in turn, gave a tour of the college grounds and introduced us to professors, missionaries on their way to new assignments, and college and regional staff.  Lots of names and positions dependent upon jet-lag memory.

Next, we  rolled our luggage into the space we would call home until mid-August.  Once again, it was far more than we expected.  A light-filled living room, fully-equipped, fully-stocked kitchen, one bedroom and one bath apartment on campus. God deals with details!


DAY TWO:  We met with Nikolaj and Lydia to get our assignments. They include landscaping (once again, Jim yodeled!), painting, Bible studies (Linda yodeled), conference hosting, and working with the local church and community(both yodeled).  Later, that afternoon, we went to a German supermarket to buy groceries.  It takes $1.35 to buy one Euro, and the Swiss Franc is almost 1 to 1 ratio.  However, a dollar goes further in Germany.  We bought 50 Euros of groceries, which is lots of food! We celebrated our 43rd anniversary today with a walk along the Rhein.

DAY THREE:  Landscaping, lunching, meeting lots of new faces.  These faces represent the gospel on legs. They belong to people who are going to new appointments or returning to assignments.  To us, they are the "cool people" on this planet.  They aren't the wealthy, the famous, the celebrities. They are the quiet ones making eternal differences; they are eternally successful.

DAY FOUR:  Off to International church on campus, where we meet a congregation that is just our style: the world!  People from Africa, England, Albania, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, China, Serbia, Russia, Illinois and even Mesa, Arizona.  The message reminded us that diversity is not the problem, but unity is. We felt united on this Pentecostal Sunday.

DAY FIVE:  (The request the night before: "Would you mind driving me to the Zurich airport in the morning to catch a 10 a.m. flight?")  We repeated the mantra of the little train, "I think I can..."
And, we were off.  Swiss drive on the right side and road signs are clear.  We found our way back home and we both yodeled!

This is going to be the most fabulous assignment. 
We get to garden!

Thank you for reading us.  Do you have a garden to cultivate?

Keep looking up!
J:m and L:nda

WE ARE HEARING VOICES!

We are hearing voices....and we like it! In recent days, phone calls and Face Time visits have been pleasing gifts of departure.  Nothing on earth is as pleasant as hearing prayers offered up on our behalf for our safe travels and effective ministries.  Linda's Deaf Bible study signed a prayer of blessing, Jim's Spanish Bible study blessed him in Spanish, our BSF friends have covered us with prayers from the onset of our assignment.  We have heard the voices of our family, our friends, our church and their happy words of encouragement and support.
We have been sustained by our friends.

One missionary mentor for all of us is Paul of the New Testament, a First Century church planter and a man whose sole aim and purpose was to declare the gospel and establish churches where new converts could learn and mature during their Christian journey.
What made Paul so successful?  Simply put, he was sold out.  He even said about his own life,"...I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
(Acts 20:24) Those words became the wind in Paul's sails.   In the last days of his ministry, he set sail for Rome and the winds of his words transported him to his final destination where he was arrested, jailed and finally put to death in Nero's city. Scripture records that he had been sustained by friends throughout his journeys. For example, he was always welcomed by the churches, he was a guest in Lydia's home, he stayed with friends and worked in Corinth, he had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, and he taught publicly from house to house. In Tyre, disciples and their families saw him off on his next journey and knelt and prayed with him on the beach. The brothers received him warmly in Jerusalem. In Sidon, his guard allowed his friends to provide for his needs. Christians attract each other. God never took His eye off Paul, and He ordained these supportive intersections and more to encourage Paul in his calling.

One of the most beautiful passages about Paul is with the elders in Ephesus, who understood what he was doing and why. In Acts 20:36-38, they knelt with him, prayed with him, embraced him...and here is the BEST part, ..."they accompanied him to his ship." That means they walked with him all the way!

This week through mid-August we will be serving at:
ENC  Junkerstrasse 68-70, Postfach 60, 8238 Buesingen, Germany

You have walked us all the way.  Thank you for accompanying us to our ship.

Keep looking up!
J:m and L:nda

A Little Bit of the Past and a Lot of the Future

Today the international church management of the "Eurasia Region" is located in Buesingen's old town hall   What will we be doing while we are there? In its recent history, the European Nazarene Bible College located in Buesingen, Germany drew college students from many different continents.  Now, its role has become more diversified as students prepare for their ministry at one of seventeen different learning centers located in many different countries.  The facilities at the Bible college are open for conferences and retreats.  The regional office for the Nazarene Eurasia Region is located here and serves as the center of contact and communication for all of Europe, the present Soviet Union states, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Needless to say, there are a lot of international footprints here.  And, to think, God has placed us at the intersection of this multinational traffic stream.  This is no international accident! We dare not consider ourselves as foreigners, for we are part of the mix... in the right place at the right time.                    Many of you have asked us what we will do while we are there.  Mission Corps assignments can vary from teaching English to administrative tasks to housekeeping and landscaping duties.  Our assignment will be, in general, to support the work of the existing missionaries on campus  But, specifically, (and we learned this from our last assignment) we want to build relationships that may lead to eternal transformation - for others and for us, too!   We hope to reach out into the community with Reader's Theatre to teach English and basic communication skills through the use of wholesome movies.  We hope that we can reach seekers through Bible Conversation groups.  We hope to coffee with, study with, pray with, and hike with whomever God plants in our path.  Our assignments may be constant or vary according to need. We will do whatever we are asked and/or assigned to do, "...whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." (Ecclesiastes 9:10) But that is the part of the journey and adventure that has called us to this place in our lives.   We like it, and we are eager to start this journey on May 15, 2013. Keep looking up!  Thank you for reading.  We can feel it when you do! Look for your adventure!       J:m and L:nda