Buried in a Fourth Soil Environment

  We temporarily live in different surroundings here in Busingen, Germany/Switzerland.  We live on a Christian college campus where just about everyone who walks on the brick sidewalks here or crosses this parcel of land is most likely a believer.  An international church is located 30 seconds from our door, where in the last 10 weeks, we have met believers from every continent accept Antarctica, and strangely enough, we have met one man who has, in fact, expedition-ed into the Antarctica.  As previously communicated through our blog, we have had the advantage of meeting and cultivating friendships with both part-time missionaries and full-time commissioned missionaries, pastors, and other Mission Corps volunteers like us. We have interacted with former students who have intentionally sojourned back here to reminiscence about their previous experiences and callings. They are now pastors, youth pastors and missionaries.  All of this has been an absorbing and unique occurrence for us.  We believe we are living in a "fourth soil" environment, one of which we may never get to bury ourselves in again.  By that, we refer to the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13 where Jesus explains the four types of soil in which a seed can fall.

     Here are the four soils:  (1) hard path where the seed never takes root, (2) rocky path where the soil was malnourished and unresourceful,  (3) thorny soil where the seed was choked to death, and finally, the fourth, (4) good soil where the seed was inspired to grow. 


We don't know where our future Mission Corps assignments will take us, but this one has provided a tremendous residence of good soil where we have grown through serving and being served. 
And, by the way, we are both delighted and inspired when God puts us in good soil!  We have fallen into "a fourth soil environment" and we are absorbing.  Don't be amazed at where you can find His good soil.

Keep Looking Up!
J:m and L:nda

International Resume: We are Out of our Element!

Temps in the the 70-80s

Resume:  an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications


"The weather looks good for the next couple of weeks," he said, "let's start painting the International church, which will be your biggest project while you are here."

Setting up scaffolding

And, paint we did.  We still paint. We have been painting for three weeks! The church is a three-story, stucco-surface building.  Preparing to paint includes the following steps: power washing, calking cracks, taping to protect window areas and piping, setting up scaffolding, tearing it down to move, reassembling it, dissembling it and moving it to another area of the building.These are steps that are repeated about every 4 to 5 days.
(Taking hot showers, applying Icy Hot, and taking Ibuprofen every night are separate steps from aforementioned  project but are a result of it!)

Taping to protect

Oh, we have painted before beginning with our first house in North Little Rock, Arkansas continuing to our condo in Scottsdale.  We have interior painting experience!  While I don't mind painting to redecorate, painting of any kind is Jim's least favorite past time. In other words, he would rather go shopping in the largest mall in America than paint.  This is not a redecorating project; it's a task that we are inept at doing!  We have never painted the exterior of a whole church! 

Power washing:  refreshing

However we are learning a lot.  For example, power washing is the easiest of the painting steps. 
We enjoy it because a cool spray of water rinses across us and cools us down even though it is filled with bits of stucco!  We have come to appreciate small benefits. We are sad when the power washing phase ends.

.

Power washing: my new hobby

When the surface is dry, it's time to paint, which would be easy if it were a wall in a living room.  But, the little porous surface of the stucco is never satisfied - it begs for more paint.  we stick with it until it sticks with it!


Hmmmm...life sometimes requires of us things that are strangely curious; calling us to an experience that both challenges and taxes
us.

We feel oddly peculiar and out of place on the third level of scaffolding.
    "Strengthen limp hands. Steady weak knees."  (Isaiah 35:3)


Our muscles are inquisitive and question our judgement.
 "Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble."  (Hebrews 12:12)

 Our feet are unsure on slick boards and slippery ladders.
 "He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber." (Psalm 121:3)

However, at the end of the day, we step back to see a small-scale conclusion of a giant-scale project, and we feel an innate perception of accomplishment, not perfection, mind you.  We are not good at this! We are out of our element, but, we have been encouraged.

Resume:  an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications

•  Painted a church in Switzerland:  not perfect but completed

Caution: resumes can be expanded without notice; depend on the Word to keep you steady.

Keep Looking Up!
  J:m and L:nda 

Warning: Only Travel With the One You Love and Who Loves You, or You Will Quit!

Jim in Venice

 Conversations in 96 degrees with 35 pounds on your back in countries where everything is uphill and you don't speak the language.  You had better love the one you are with.

AT THE TIME:

Linda in Croatia

1. "I thought you had it!  Look in your backpack again."
2. "Not that way!  This way!  We have to make that train or we'll miss the rest of our connections!"
3. "Okay!  Okay!  I heard you the first time!"
4. "I don't have any kunas.  I thought you changed Euros for them at the cambio.  Looks like we can't buy water now!"
5. "They weren't kind.  I don't think they like Americans."

AFTER: 
1. "She was SO nice!  She said she had seen pictures of Arizona!"
2. "I love you, too"
3. "He walked us toward the bus station. He said he hopes to visit beautiful America someday."
4. "You are a good compass.  Now, we'll make all our bus connections to the Adriatic today.  PTL!"
5. "Taste this!  Oh my word!"
6.  "Thank you."

We have learned after 43 years of marriage that if we had not liked the one we had been traveling with, we would have quit along the way.  We met during the Viet Nam War in a Navy hospital and married 90 days later.
We give God the glory for that intersection and for His faithful companionship along our journey. We don't tolerate each other: we love each other.  That has to explain conversations in the humid heat while running to make a train connection while carrying 35 pounds.

DURING:
We saw this commitment during one part of our intentional journey:  a visit with Nazarene church-planters, Dave and Betsy Scott, in Zagreb, Croatia.   Graduates of Eastern Nazarene College and Fuller Theological Seminary, they have intentionally committed their lives to international church planting.

They have been in Croatia for 2 1/2 years, have two beautiful children and clearly like who they are traveling with. Through sporting connections, Bible studies, and English Clubs, they are slowly making connections in a country that is 86% Catholic and only about 5% Christian.  And, most of the country is skeptical of the Protestant faith in general. An additional way of outreach is through Qanah (Hebrew word that means 'to acquire'), which is a thrift store they have established with another couple where families can sell goods and clothing with the proceeds going to help other families in the community.
They stay with the purpose of starting the first Croatian led Church of the Nazarene in order to introduce the seeking, the lost, the hurting to the best Traveling Companion in life, Jesus Christ.  They have become incarnate in their culture, and we witnessed this during the time we spent with them. If they didn't like who they were traveling with, they would have quit a long time ago.

We like who we are traveling with - each other and Jesus.  We firmly believe that Christ places the perfect steppingstones in the exact position to refresh us with new experiences and encourage us with new friendships.
We all sincerely get to know both ourselves and the people with whom we travel. When we journey with Christ, we are traveling with the One we love and Who loves us. We are getting to know Him better and He is polishing us in the process.   Quitting is not an option despite the heat, language barriers, added weight and uphill climbs.
We couldn't have chosen a better way to use our retirement. That's our story....and we are sticking to it!
  
Who's your best traveling companion? You don't have to go alone!

Keep looking up!

J:m and L:nda

Who's On Our Steppingstones?

Several weeks ago, there was a knock on our apartment door at 9:30 p.m.   Our apartment is on the second floor in the center unit of a three-unit apartment complex. Most everyone on this small college campus had already taken their short after-dinner walks and retired for the evening.  When we opened our door, a young couple in their mid 20s greeted us.  They had just arrived from the Berlin area and were checking into their apartment in the next unit for 4 nights. They had found their key and unloaded their bags.  Having arrived by train, and now without transportation, they asked us whether or not there was a small store nearby  where they could buy sandwich and breakfast foods.  There wasn't.  Everything was closed, far and near. Even the pizza restaurant near us was closed on this Tuesday evening.  We invited them in and whipped up sandwiches with pickles and chips.  After all, they were young, it was sort of late, and they had traveled a good part of the day.  They were from California - youth pastor and wife - and had been in Germany for one month with a youth group serving in the Berlin area.  We visited during their meal and loaded them up with cereal, juice and milk for breakfast. Neat couple, great story. But the story actually started three days earlier when a young missionary couple in their late-20s flew from here back to the states.  They cleaned out their refrigerator and gave us fresh bread, tasty cheeses, deli meat, and pickles.  They left us with juices and milk and cereal. We weren't showing goodness that night to those who journeyed onto our steppingstones.  We were the "middle man" in this logistics operation. 

One warm afternoon, we glanced out our window and saw several strangers surveying the campus and taking photos.  Their demeanor seemed to indicate exploration.  We walked out, introduced ourselves and asked if we could assist them.  Once all together, we met three middle-aged couples from Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. They had rented a van and were touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.  They needed a place to stay overnight.  Could the college offer them rooms without notification or reservations?  Vacant college rooms are always ready - sanitized bathrooms, warm comforters and fresh linens.  Down the hall are fully-appointed kitchens. All for small nightly fee. They had a van, the supermarkets were open and they were satisfied.  We weren't showing goodness that afternoon to those exploring our steppingstones.  We had cleaned the rooms with expectation of arrivals.

In some situations, God does the preparation and planning and expects us to apply.
In other situations, He expects us to do the preparation and planning and He supplies.


So, who's on our steppingstones?  We never know but we like surprises!

Keep looking up!
J:m and L:nda