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