Wednesday 21 Sept - And The Search Goes On

We continue to enjoy the blessing of beautiful days here in Darmstadt.  We have heard some horror stories of people coming to this area and not seeing the sun at all from September to May - they seem to be greatly exagerated!

Yesterday we visited several apartments in our efforts to locate housing.  The first was a second floor apartment in a house in a quiet, wooded neighborhood.  The owner family lives on the first floor, and rents the upper level.  It was very large by German standards, with a huge terrace on the west end, a very large room that we thought would be used for the living room, and three rooms to be used as bedroom/office/dining area.  The kitchen is, like many here, one where the renter brings their own counters, cupboards, cabinets, appliances, etc.  The guest- and full- bathroom were...um...interesting.  One had bright red tile with bright green fixtures.  The other was a comparatively calmer blue tile.

"The Red WC"

"The Blue Bath"

The kichen

The Living Room

The apartment also had an attic area, accessible by a pull down ladder in the hall - which was actually three additional rooms - they were rough, but had lots of possibilities.  The apartment is in the same suburb (Eberstadt) as the first place we saw, which is probably still tops on our list.

That is a Latte!

"Meine liebling!"

We had some time between appointments, so we went back to that first apartment, parked on the street, and took a walk from there into the center of Eberstadt.  It was a delightful walk along narrow German streets, with quaint shops, bakeries, coffee stands and restaurants along the way.  We stopped and had some lunch, and continued our walk.  We have really come to like the area, but have a lot more apartments to see - from sububs to right downtown Darmstadt.

"Talk about yer fixer-upper!"

The final visits of the day were at highrise apartments near the city center that were under renovation - which would be fine, except the renter was expected to finish the work.  There were three differnt places available - all in the same condition. Now, we don't mind work - but to do thousands of dollars of work, when you don't own the place, and pay $1400/month for the priviledge???  I don't think so!
We are preparing for our first meeting tomorrow night of people who have indicated an interest in our church plant.  There will be four couples there, with one additional couple out of town. 

Please pray for this meeting.  We will have some time to talk about the vision for a new International Church in Darmstadt, answer some questions as we are able, and spend time in prayer for the city, the church and each other.  We will let you know how it goes!