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Dear Friends,
We trust you are enjoying the summer season! Isn’t it great how God blesses us with seasons of the year, each one special and unique in its own way? Summer in Germany is much like we are used to in our part of the United States. The daylight hours get longer – in fact, we are situated so far north that we are able to sit on our balcony until well after 10 p.m. and enjoy reading a book or just watching the world go by. On the University campus, the students have taken to the parks to play badminton, enjoy a picnic, listen to music, and occasionally give the appearance of studying! The school age children are thrilled to have their freedom for a couple of months. The last week of June was the official first week of “holiday” in our state of Hessen. That means that thousands of people head for vacation spots all across Europe and around the world.
Our “holiday” took place in mid-May. We headed back to the US for our first visit home since moving last fall. Each weekend was highlighted by special events that the Lord, in His mercy, brought together in a timely fashion for us! The first weekend was mother’s day and Bob’s birthday, and we celebrated with our daughter, Nicole, who just recently learned that she is going to be a mother again! During that week, we also had the opportunity to visit Carol’s dad and extended family in Mt. Lake, MN.
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| Our son John after his Graduation from UW Madison |
That same weekend, while in Wisconsin, we visited our home church in Mayville. It was such a blessing to worship again with our brothers and sisters there, whom we shared so much of our lives with.We are so grateful to God for the wonderful new pastor and excellent leaders that He has raised up in the congregation, and to see the church continuing to impact the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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| Son-in-law Eric completes training. |
Following that weekend, we took a Family Road Trip – something we have done since the earliest days of our marriage. We packed up 4 adults and a 2 year old and drove from Iowa to Florida –more than 20 hours!God was very good to us – we had no problems at all along the way. The car, the other drivers, Asher, even Bob were all well-behaved (well, Bob was well-behaved most of the time!)
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| Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Marsh! |
We made that trip for the event of the next weekend – the marriage of our son, Andrew to Rachel Edwards of Jacksonville Beach, FL.Rachel’s parents were amazing hosts to us and our family who made the trip, and the entire journey was one blessing after another. We are so grateful to God for the wonderful, godly woman that He has led to our son, and we are enriched as a family to have her.Of course, you can’t take a grandchild to Florida without visiting Disney World, and we had a wonderful day there with Asher, Nicole and Eric.(It seemed Nicole & Carol were more excited than Asher most of the time!)
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| The Family at Disney World |
On our return, we had some really exciting developments.Just after our return, we spent a day with a young exchange student from Hungary. After finding us via Facebook, she read about our efforts in Darmstadt on our blog.She was particularly intrigued by the concept of a “prayer walk.” She communicated with us via email while we were in the US, and she determined that she wanted to do a short documentary film about our work here, particularly our prayer efforts.She spent a day with us, filming, taking still photos, and interviewing us.She also attended a prayer time that we held at a Darmstadt scenic overlook.The film will be shown at an art show in Budapest after her return.We made sure we gave her information about our International Baptist Church in that city – when she saw the address, she was excited that it was close to her home.
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| Preview Service 3 |
Our third Preview Service was held on June 15, and the people of the church did a great job of serving and working to bring everything together.We have seen new people join our church family from Argentina and India in recent weeks, and we are excited to continue toward our “Public Launch,” which we are still planning for September, God willing. During these summer months, pray for maintained momentum as many will be enjoying their vacations abroad.Pray that we will continue to grow and reach new people in Darmstadt, with the Lord blessing us with a fruitful harvest!
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| Preview Service 3 |
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| Preview Service 3 |
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| Preview Service 3 |
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