March of the ants

Dorli had told me stories about the amazing ants in Sri Lanka. She had lived in the district center for a year in 2009.

At that time, she had had some German chocolate in her apartment and a horde of ants found their way up to the fourth floor or wherever her apartment was and invaded the package of chocolate. She cleaned all of the ants from the chocolate, sealed it into a ziplock baggie and hung it from a clothesline in her bedroom.

The next day she came home to find that the ants had formed a line that crawled across the floor, up the wall, along the clothesline, ATE through the ziplock baggie and were swarming inside, devouring the chocolate. She said they had also gotten all through her zipped luggage and she had had to take everything out and then leave the empty suitcase open in the sun on the ground outside until all the ants wandered out.

With all the warnings about the incredible ants of Sri Lanka, I was not prepared for this to happen to me in Nepal. When Dorli and I went to the mountainous area in Nepal, after the training was done, we left our big suitcases at the hotel where we’d stayed that week for the training, and took only our backpacks with us. The people at the hotel left our suitcases sitting in the reception area, which was open to the outside.

When we returned from the mountains and opened our suitcases, they were full of very tiny red ants.
The interesting thing was where the ants congregated in my suitcase. I had a package of sugar candy — open — tucked among my clothes. There were only 2-3 ants on that. There were, however, hundreds of ants milling around in the laptop I’d brought from the office. They were all over the keyboard and down inside among the keys. I guess they were eating all the crumbs and bits of dead skin that had fallen below the keyboard. No matter how many ants I swiped off the top of the computer, more continued to emerge and crawl around the keyboard and screen for the next 4-5 days. Just when I’d think they were all gone, more popped out.

The other thing they got into was a Ziplock baggie of Wet Wipes. There were hundreds of ants inside the Ziplock bag. They somehow smelled the wet, soapy wipes, ate through the plastic and were eating the wipes. I threw the whole package away. In doing that, I removed most of the ants from my suitcase and found very few after that. I was glad they weren’t all through every item in my suitcase. They had congregated on the computer and in the Ziplock baggie.

Dorli had a bigger infestation because she had had food in her suitcase and they had gotten into most of that so she had to throw most of it away.

In spite of all the warnings about ants in Sri Lanka, I did not have a problem with them in the district center there in Colombo.

Racing the clock

For 4 to 5 days in Bangladesh, Dorli and I were in the rural, southwest part of the country to conduct the three-day storytelling training. It had taken 11 hours to drive to that part of the country in what should have been a six-hour drive, due to the various religious festivals going on in the country. The leadership  decided that they would fly Dorli and I back on a small regional airplane for a 45-minute flight to avoid the long drive back. The van that had taken us south would return with our luggage, arriving in Dhaka at 3 a.m., where we would already be peacefully asleep in our beds.

The morning of our last day in the south, we got up and had breakfast, packed up our things and climbed into the van. Our first order of the day was to drive to some development projects and meet with the people involved so Dorli could report on them to the organization she works with in Germany which funds these projects.

While she was visiting seed projects, self-help groups and child development centers projects, I was at a Nazarene training center interviewing Nazarene pastors and leaders about their ministries.

The plan was that Dorli and Milton -- the communications and NYI coordinator who hosted us -- would return from the projects at 3 p.m. and we would regroup in the van to drive to the nearest airport to catch our flight. Our flight was at 6:15 p.m. It was supposed to be a 90-minute drive to the airport. Leaving at 3 p.m. would mean we would get to the airport at 4:30 and thus be there almost two hours before our domestic flight.

At 3:15, Milton and Dorli still were not back and so I continued my interviews in the training room.

At 3:30 they came around the corner at a run, rushed into the training center shouting, “We have to go! Now! Now!” I quickly packed my backpack and we both took a fast pit stop in the bathroom. By 3:45 were in the van and flying down the roads.

Based on the promise of a 90-minute drive, we should have been at the airport at 5:15, with still an hour before the flight. It seemed to be cutting it close, but we thought that should still be fine for a small airport and a domestic flight.

However, it was soon 5:30, then it was 5:45. We kept glancing at our watches.

At 5:45, the van driver swung off the highway and into a gas station. Milton yelled in Bengali, “No! No! We don’t have time! Keep going!” They yelled back and forth a bit and the van driver pulled through and back onto the highway.

About 5:50 p.m, Dorli and I started to ask where we were and why we hadn’t arrived yet. We began to despair of catching our flight.

At 5:55 we finally drove through the gateway to the airport. We breathed a sigh of relief. However, we weren’t in the clear yet. The road from the gateway to the actual airport stretched ahead of us for kilometers, and it was filled with pedestrians, wagons, people leading cows, bicycles, motorcycles and other cars. We crept along, weaving through all the foot and vehicle traffic.

At 6:05, we pulled up in front of the airport. Thankfully we were leaving our big suitcases in the van, so we could run unhindered with just our backpacks. As we passed inside the doors and made a run for the ticket counter, the security people stopped us and indicated we had to put our backpacks on an x-ray machine situated right by the front door. We threw everything on the conveyor belt and then snatched it up on the other side.

With Milton at our side we ran to the ticket counter and shoved our passports at the agent. He said, “you need to check those backpacks.” Milton told him in Bengali, “Nope, They’re not doing that.” We were all in such a frantic hustle I guess the agent decided it wasn’t worth bickering about so they let us take the backpacks. They thrust our tickets at us and we crossed the room to some glass double doors leading into the gate area.

There was another security check, so we gave quick hugs and goodbyes to Milton, thinking we wouldn’t see him again, and then tossed our backpacks on the second X-ray machine belt. On the other side, they insisted we go into a curtained booth for a pat down by a woman.

Dorli went in first and popped back out very quickly. She said the woman had only run the wand along one of her arms and then stopped and sent her back out. I took my turn in the curtained booth. The woman didn’t even wand me, she just stamped my ticket to say she had done it and ushered me back out.

At this point, only three minutes had passed since we had entered the airport. It was 6:08.  I was a bit relieved to still see people entering the gate area behind us. We rushed out of the doors leading to the tarmac.

At this small airport, you would walk down a long sidewalk to the airport runway where your plane would sit waiting, and you’d climb some stairs attached to the small plane to get up inside. Dorli and I ran down the sidewalk to the airplane sitting on the tarmac just outside a chain link fence.

As we approached the plane, Dorli looked at her ticket and said, “Well, our ticket says NovoAir, but this plane is labeled United Airlines. I’m sure it’s fine, let’s just get on.”

There was a man standing beside the stairs on the plane. He looked at Dorli’s ticket and said, “You’re at the wrong plane. Your plane is down there.” He pointed to another plane further down the tarmac.

The stress and hilarity of the situation finally got to us. Dorli and I burst out laughing. Now we had the problem of trying to jog on the runway while laughing hysterically. I can’t imagine what we looked like to the man standing at the second plane: Two white women, shrieking with laughter at a full-out sprint down the runway in the darkness.

The plane was still waiting not only for us, but some more passengers coming behind us. The man took our tickets, we climbed up the stairs, and walked down the aisle while gasping for breath and still laughing. We flopped into our seats — which were one behind the other — and laughed until we were crying. We were making quite a scene but the Bangladeshis just ignored us. I looked at my watch — it was 6:10. The flight was supposed to take off at 6:15.

The cabin crew were still getting the plane ready to go and more people were climbing on the plane. About two minutes after we had settled into our seats, we looked up to see Milton standing in the aisle with his backpack, grinning and waving at us. We gasped in surprise. He then found his seat. Steve, another storytelling trainee who had been with us in the van, was right behind him. Dorli figured out that after they’d waved us into security, they must have gone back to the counter and asked if there were any seats left. There must have been at least 2 seats left so they’d bought two tickets and gone through security in even less time than we did.

We were so happy that Milton and Steve would also be able to go back to Dhaka the easy way with us and not have to ride all night on dangerous roads in the van with the driver.

The plane took off at 6:17.

I was utterly in bewilderment that we had arrived at the airport 10 minutes before a flight, gone through security twice, checked in at a ticket counter, run down the runway and still managed to get on our flight in a total of 5 minutes. Only in Bangladesh and only in a small airport.

I was never so relieved to make a flight.

Caught between two festivals

When I walked out of the airport, lugging my suitcase and backpack into the hot, humid and hazy morning of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, there were cows everywhere.

We had inadvertently planned our training right smack in the middle of two massive holidays for both Muslims and Hindus. It was the Muslim festival of Eid, in which every family must sacrifice either a cow or a goat to atone for their sins throughout the year. The ritual slaughter is followed by a big feast when they eat the meat. It's a lot like Christmas for Christians, in that they will travel across the country to be with their families and all the businesses close.

At the same time, due to the lunar calendar, it was also the Hindu festival of Lights, or Diwali.

According to Wikipedia: "Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.^[11] These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome.^[12] Firecrackers are burst because it is believed that it drives away evil spirits.^[13][14][15] During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends."

I didn't see any firecrackers or lamps or candles but there were strings of lights draped over some streets.

All of this festivity meant that the wide, two-lane roads crisscrossing the city were packed with traffic: cars, charter buses with people crowded inside and also on top, rickshaws, dump trucks, bicyclists, tuk tuks (three-wheeled taxis that are smaller than a small car), motorcycles and mopeds. There is no adequate way to describe a Dhaka traffic jam, except to say that it's everyone honking at once and zero respect for lanes, with every vehicle crammed into every tiny space between every other vehicle, constant and dangerous cutting in lines, etc.

We got caught in a couple of these traffic jams. In one of them, we were coming back after having been on the road already for from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., because we had gone out of Dhaka to the countryside to see some development projects related to helping poor women start their own businesses, as well as compost their cow feces and plant sustainable crops. When we reached the city it was dark. We couldn't turn down several streets we needed to be on because there was a massive cow market there and they had closed the roads. The cow market was so that the Muslims could buy cows for their ritual slaughter. Also, the roads were full of people leaving the city to go to their families in the country.

Unable to turn left or right, we remained trapped in the stream of cars inching forward moment by moment, or often simply sitting at a standstill, with bicyclists and motorcycles weaving through. The road had a median in the center, and at every opening in the median, traffic police had blockaded it so that no one could make a u-turn into the opposite lanes. So we were stuck for about an hour. Finally, our driver pushed his way through one of the blockades and we pulled into the crazy sea of cars going in the opposite direction, in an attempt to get back to where we had first started and try to go another way.

I was so thankful that during what became a two-hour jam, I did not have to go to the bathroom. We finally made it back to the district center about 8:30 where we had dinner and collapsed into bed at 9:30.

On another day, we were driving to the south of the country where the training would be held. At one point we were sitting for 90 minutes to 2 hours to get on a ferry. We passed about an hour of that time attempting to gnaw through sticks of sugar cane, which were hard as rocks. The locals chewed right through it, but Dorli and I struggled and struggled to get to the sweet, sticky, drippy pulp. After about an hour of fighting with it, we finally got there, and along the way provided a lot of amusement to each other and our co-travelers.

A month-long adventure

Gina, here. It’s been a long time since I wrote anything and that’s because I’ve been traveling for a month. As I sift through the journal entries and the photos and the memories, I feel overwhelmed about trying to capture my experiences in words and pictures. It isn’t adequate or possible to express the richness of what I saw, smelled, heard, tasted and felt for the past four weeks.

I will post a general overview post to quickly summarize what I did where and when. Then I’m going to just blog some specific stories, conversations or impressions from my trips — things that stick out in my mind, things that will probably stay with me.

So, here’s a quick rundown on what I’ve been doing for the past month.

October 11-19/Bangladesh
We (co-trainer Dorli and I) flew from Zurich to Bangladesh where we spent several days on the front and back ends of a week visiting compassionate ministry projects, such as small enterprise projects (impoverished people starting up small businesses), and development projects (composting, tree planting, crop planting). For three days in the middle we went to the southwest part of the country and held a storytelling training with a group of about 27 people who represent various ministries, including JF, compassionate ministries, child development, pastors and churches, SANBC training and education, etc.

October 19-27/Nepal
We flew from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. There are Nazarene district offices in both cities. In Nepal we rested for one day, then flew to the eastern plains to spend three days conducting the storytelling training all over again to another group of about 25 people, again representing various areas of ministry. We again visited various compassionate ministry projects. Then we flew back to Kathmandu and spent the last day sightseeing in the city with the district superintendent.

October 27-31/Sri Lanka
This was our shortest and most pressed part of the trip. We arrived late on Sunday night (about 1 a.m.) and had to start the training in the district center in the capital city of Colombo at 8:30 the next morning. We spent the whole three days inside the training center with a group of about 25 trainees, again representing numerous ministries and areas of the church. My co-trainer, Dorli, left on Tuesday night, and I wrapped up the training alone on Wednesday.

I had part of Thursday when the training was over to go into Colombo with a staff person who took me shopping and to see a few sights, and then that evening I flew on overnight flights back to Zurich, arriving in mid morning on November 1.

I was home for less than 4 days and then I took off again for Lebanon with our new video volunteer Zarah.

November 5-11/Lebanon
We spent 5 days in the city of Beirut visiting three Nazarene churches, as well as the Nazarene school which serves kindergarten through grade 9. We interviewed numerous Syrian refugees, Nazarene leaders and children and were able to get enough material for probably 4 videos and 4-6 written stories. We worked almost the whole time, but had a few blocks of time to just rest. One night when all the shooting was over, a local leader took us sightseeing in the city and trying Lebanese foods. Although I was ready to go home when the trip was done, it was a bit hard to leave.

So, that is the basic overview. I’ll start posting some stories of specific experiences and links to pictures soon.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who was praying for us on these trips. You were a partner with me in the ministry I was doing. God was really present with us. We were protected, we did not get sick, and although I had a lot of migraines, I was able to continue functioning and doing my work. We accomplished A LOT and we also enjoyed the fellowship with our Nazarene brothers and sisters in many places. I was very impressed by the character, passion, professionalism and general love and grace of the many people that we met and spent time with. I will miss everyone I met and hope that I can see them again this side of heaven in the near future.

Unanticipated Answers to Prayer

Gina has returned from a month of traveling to different locations on the Eurasia region, offering storytelling training, initiating development of new communications teams, and gathering more stories about what God is doing through Nazarenes in these different locations. As she processes all she experienced, I'm sure she will include a number of stories here as well as in "Where Worlds Meet" and "Engage" magazine.

While you're waiting for those exciting stories to be published, I (Andrew) wanted to share with everyone - but especially those of you who have prayed for and supported us financially - how God is granting your prayers and multiplying your giving.

We were absolutely amazed by the extraordinary generosity of Nazarene churches and individuals throughout our travels in the U.S. this past spring and summer. We visited many small, struggling congregations who nevertheless believed in what God was doing and desired to support our part in that work. We know that sacrifices were made, and we are humbled by your belief and support in how we are involved in what God is doing on the Eurasia region. We knew then and we are seeing now how God took what was freely, generously given and is multiplying it in a way we couldn't have anticipated. I am very excited to share that with you here.

We shared with many of you that our goal was to raise enough financial support for the purchase of a vehicle. The car we used for the first couple of years failed its inspection and could not be repaired or replaced. We have since shared the use of an office car with anywhere from 2-5 other people. It hasn't always been easy, but everyone has been able to get where they needed to go (and even to enjoy a day-trip or two when desired). Another goal we had was to be able to raise financial support to enable either or both of us to travel throughout the region in order to expand our ministry opportunities.

After returning to Germany, we learned that we had raised less than half of our projected goal. We decided not to purchase a car for the time being, and dedicated the funds raised to health-related expenses and ministry-related travel on the region. We continued sharing the office vehicle, and while it has sometimes not been easy it has generally worked out well for everyone.

Recently, however, we learned of a used car for sale at a very reasonable price. We followed up on that lead, met the owner, asked a lot of questions, and test-drove the car. We also worked with the regional office, seeking approval to purchase the car with ministry funds, and navigating legal procedures, and so on. It is a slower, more complicated process than in the U.S. - due in part to that strange little fact of living in a German exclave across the Swiss border. Yet, the car is purchased and we hope to drive it home later this week after which we will immediately set to work getting it registered and insured.

At the same time, we have still managed to afford ministry-related travel through the region. I spent the weekend in July teaching EuNC students in Razgrad, Bulgaria. Gina and I spent a few weeks in Manchester, England where Gina continued her work and I met with my NTC professors and made great progress on a research project. Gina, as you know, spent time in South Asia and the Middle East as described above. We have also been able to begin German classes, which is helping us deepen relationships with our friends in the Büsingen/Schaffhausen community. Through that German class, we met a young man, Neuton, an immigrant from Portugal, who needs a lot of encouragement and friendly people around him at this stage in his life.

We believe that God has wonderfully provided in order to ensure that our ministry continues and expands in other parts of the Eurasia region, that our daily needs are met, and even that we are now recovering some independence through re-gaining the use of our own vehicle. On top of that, this car will benefit any missionary individuals or families who come after us.

Through your continuing prayers and generous financial giving, we have seen God exceed our desires and expectations in granting twice as much "bang" with less than half the "buck." We give Him all the praise for continuing to meet our needs, and we want to extend a special "thank-you" to all of you who offer us prayer and financial support. We are greatly encouraged by how we have seen God at work in this way, and we very much wanted to share that encouragement with you as well.

September so far

It's been a rather quiet but interesting month since we returned from Manchester, U.K. It has also been cool, drizzly and definitely not summer anymore. :-(

A few days after we returned to Busingen, Andrew began feeling under the weather. It finally coalesced last week into a bad chest cold. He's been VERY fatigued, coughing a lot, not sleeping well and having a very runny nose. It's costing him time on the big paper he's working on which is due on Oct. 1, but he tries to keep plugging away, even sitting up in bed.

The day after we returned we also started up our German language learning again. The two classes per week have been very helpful in getting us over a grammar hump we had been stuck on since our last German classes in 2011. As someone who needs to be learning to be happy, I have been particularly energized by advancing in small steps in my German knowledge and speaking ability.

I had the chance to practice it on Sunday, when I met a young Swiss woman in Appenzell for coffee. A mutual friend in the U.S. connected us over email and we made a date to meet for the first time in the city of St. Gallen yesterday. I've heard that whatever language you start a friendship in is the language you will both stick with. Most of our German friends speak English with us. So I hoped to start out this new relationship in German. I managed to speak for about 2 hours in German, with my new friend filling in a lot of blanks and patiently responding in both German and English.

I've realized that while I can say most of what I want to say (with poor grammar) and read and write pretty well, I have trouble understanding what people say to me in German. My comprehension is very poor. This makes having a conversation fully in German almost impossible. My new friend took the tactic of saying sentences in German first and then translating them for me in English, so I could get used to hearing German but still understand what she was saying or asking. She has also offered to be my email penpal so I can practice writing with the words and grammar that I know, and she will respond with corrections. I'm pretty excited about this! It also gave me the confidence to try and speak more German with my German-speaking friends. I believe most of them will be just as patient with me.

I hope to improve my hearing comprehension by listening to some German learning CDs that I found in a closet here in my office.

In other news, we have been watching the flooding in Colorado closely through the news. We were still surprised when we got word on Friday that Andrew's parents' home flooded on Thursday night. Their ground-floor apartment is on the side of a hill, and apparently the torrential rains came gushing down the hill and directly into Andrew's sister's bedroom window. The family spent all night trying to divert the water with the help of five firefighters, and then trying to move furniture and dry out the room.

Since then we have learned that the damage to personal belongings was minimal, with the worst simply being the carpet. The landlord has brought over industrial fans and shop-vacs and shampooed the carpet to treat the dirt and smell. We hope they won't have flooding again, as 500-year rains continue to hit Colorado Springs.

We have been battling an invasion of wasps in our flat -- we think we have counted 36 so far. They seem to be coming in through the vent over our stove. We duct-taped every crevice but they continue coming in. I bought a wasp trap at a garden store to put outside and distract them from the buildling but it doesn't work. I then made my own wasp trap with a Fanta bottle and a little leftover soda and immediately caught one in our flat. We continue to use shoes. We called our apartment manager to look at the problem but they seem uncertain of what to do.

This week we are welcoming another new volunteer. A young woman named Zarah is joining our communications team for a year. She has expertise in video production and filming, as well as graphic design. We're excited to get acquainted with her and to work together in the next year.

August

We had only been back from our home assignment for one month when it was time to hit the road again. We took a 4-day vacation in London, and then traveled by train two hours north to Manchester, where Nazarene Theological College is located. Andrew is studying with them on several research projects, in order to demonstrate his ability to work in the British academic system. When he completes his second research project this October, it is our hope that he will then be accepted into NTC's PhD program next year.

So we went to NTC for two weeks so that Andrew could utilize resources in their library, as well as meet with academic advisors for direction on his research project. He says it was an incredibly productive and focused time and helped him hone his direction quite a lot. He also really enjoyed being in an academic environment once again, with all the opportunities to discuss his passions and interests with people who share them.

While he was hard at work on his paper, I took my Engage and Eurasia Region work with me, so I continued my jobs from the NTC campus.

We really enjoyed the opportunity to "live" in yet another culture for a short while. We really like the neighborhood and area around the college, as well as the people we met who live and work there.

We returned home to Büsingen on August 25, and the next day we hit the ground with German classes, which we are taking for two hours per week for six weeks. Our first week went really well and we feel good about our instructor and the one-on-one teaching style. We have only one other young man in our group, from Portugal, and I (Gina) got the chance to talk to him for a while after the first class. He has an evangelical background but hasn't been to church since he moved to Switzerland. He shared about the struggle it has been to make friends and build a life here as an immigrant from an economically crushed country. He is studying German with hope that it will give him more relational opportunities with the Swiss. He has a graphic design background from Portugal, but here the only job he could get was washing windows. I hope we will be able to get to know him more in the coming days.

We would appreciate any prayers for Andrew as he completes this research project, and also for our ability to learn and absorb German so that we can become more fluent. This will increase our sense of being "at home" here and like we belong, as well as to improve our relationships with German-speaking people.

What changed

A few people asked us during our time in the United States if there was anything there that surprised us after being gone for 3 years.

Here's the short list of what we were no longer accustomed to, or what had changed without us, while we have been gone.

1. The vehicles suddenly seem like tanks.

After living on a continent of Smart Cars and driving a car that felt like an oversized woman's shoe, American SUVs and pick-up trucks (which are everywhere in Colorado and Hawaii) felt like spaceships next to us. Seriously, I was scared to be on the road for a while until I got used to them again.

2. Air conditioning from the Arctic.

I've always been a hot blooded person who seems to always be too warm, and who hates being hot, preferring fall and winter over summer. Part of being me is that I've always preferred air conditioning, cranking it down to 65 at night so I could sleep comfortably and not get too hot in bed, and cranking it high in the car to overpower the heat from the sunlight shining through the windows.

Now that I've lived three years without air conditioning in Europe, back in the US my body couldn't tolerate it anymore. Everytime I got in the car with anyone, or walked into a restaurant, movie theater or any public business, I needed a jacket and jeans because it was FREEZING. I got soooo tired of being cold. It was weird because I always preferred those temperatures.

3. Tattoos on every skin surface.

People in Europe have tattoos, too, but in America it seems like many people cover their entire bodies with them now. I guess I hadn't really noticed that before.

4. Ubiquitous iPads and Smartphones.

I was already in Germany before I ever laid eyes on an iPad. Maybe they hadn't come out until after we'd left, but the first one I saw was brought over by an American during a visit to Busingen. I only saw a handful of iPads after that. Then we got to America and they were EVERYWHERE. No matter where we went -- airports, coffee shops, restaurants, church services, people's homes -- all around us were people messing around with iPads. Children were using them, too. I couldn't get used to it.

The same with Smart phones. Of course the iPhone came out several years before we left America but it must have taken the past 3 years for every single American to get one. I don't think in the whole three months we were in America that I met any person who didn't have one.

This was an entirely new development in the three years we've been gone.

All in all, things at home didn't seem to have changed too much without us, but this is the short list of how we had changed or things we hadn't seen until this trip home.

We're back!

Last Monday, Andrew and I said goodbye to his family, and on Tuesday we said goodbye to mine when my parents dropped us off at the Denver airport for our flight back to Switzerland that afternoon. It was really hard to say goodbye after so much wonderful time together over the past few months. I think it was even harder because this time we don't know when we'll come home next, and know it might be as long as two years.

We had several strokes of luck during our return. It started when our carefully pre-weighed luggage turned out to be 1.5 pounds overweight on the airport's scale. At home, with a luggage scale they had weighed in at 48 pounds each. The airline employee was very kind to waive the $200 fee per suitcase -- although we would have just taken something out and left it with my parents rather than take the fee. So we kept everything and saved $400.

We had found a beat up carry-on suitcase in my parents closet at home that turned out to be one we had left there on a past trip. We filled it with all the stuff we hadn't been able to fit with our other luggage, including some of our winter clothes and foods like cake mixes, frosting, and canned green chiles. Andrew used that as a carryon. It was rather fat, though, so when we got to the gate, he showed it to the gate attendant and she offered to check it for free all the way to our destination. So we managed to check another bag without paying the additional bag fee of $125.

When we landed in Chicago, something was wrong at the gate we were assigned to, so we sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. Then we got a new gate but it took another 15 minutes to move to that gate and get off the plane. That meant we had 15 minutes to get all the way across O'Hare airport to the offsite international terminal, which included passing through security again. We ran with all our carryon luggage, but were resigned to missing our flight.

As we hoofed it around the corner and could see our gate in the distance, we heard a last boarding call over the loudspeakers and someone calling our names. We yelled to the gate attendants that we were coming and they urged us on. We were the very last ones to board the plane, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. On the plane we were in the very middle of the middle section, but the plane narrowed toward the back and the middle section narrowed to just three seats instead of four. That put Andrew on the aisle and made it easy for me to get out to stretch my legs or go to the bathroom. There were also bottles of water at every seat.

The flight to Copenhagen was good, and at that airport we had to go to a desk to get new boarding passes for the next flight to Zurich -- a reason for which we won't be flying Scandinavian Airlines again because they don't give boarding passes in advance and you have to risk missing every flight by standing in a long, slow line to pick up your next boarding pass. But this time we made it without having to run.

We landed in Zurich in the afternoon of Wednesday feeling tired but a sense of home as we entered the now familiar Zurich airport. Three of our four suitcases didn't make it and we weren't surprised because of the close connection in Chicago. We got them safe and sound two days later.

We've been home a week now and although it took some adjustment, it was quick and we're back in the groove of things. We are anxious to see all our friends here soon and to enjoy Europe in the summer. The first thing we did on our first beautiful, sunny Saturday was to go hiking in the Alps.

Here's what we saw.

It's good to be back. :-)

Continuing the adventure...

I should have kept track of all the breaded chicken strips (with honey mustard dipping sauce), American pancakes (with sugar free syrup) and ice cream (or frozen custard) sundaes I ate, as well as  the gallons of Starbucks I drank in the past 3 and a half months. We could probably have measured our home assignment travels in fast food restaurant receipts and empty travel coffee cups.

I choose to measure our whirlwind tour by the warm and friendly faces we saw, the animated and welcoming conversations we had, and by the way God moved and spoke each time we shared with a different group of folks who were eager to know what God and Nazarenes are doing on the other side of the globe and how the believers here are playing a part in those changed lives and transformed communities.

We saw sun-drenched beaches and misty, lush green mountains. We drove through red-streaked mesas and expansive painted deserts. We wound along the edges of a deep, black canyon. We sat out a tornado in a friend's underground bunker. We were upstaged by loudly mating frogs, and helped to save a church service from a disoriented bat. We survived frigid Midwestern America air conditioning (BRRR!). We answered a lot of questions about the Autobahn and listened to the stories of many other fellow travelers to Germany and Switzerland. Andrew was finally ordained.

It's kind of surreal to be on this side of home assignment. Growing up, we had a parade of missionaries through our church and home who were doing this very thing. Now we're doing it. Now we have gotten to experience in a unique way the beautiful connections throughout the Body of Christ, the way our Church cares for missionaries and pours itself into God's mission. It's super cool.

Just five days away from our return to Germany, I sit in yet another airport (Columbus) following a week of General Assembly and several days visiting my grandpa and other relatives in Ohio. I realize that while I have had a WONDERFUL time back home in America -- in Colorado and Hawaii and Oklahoma and Indiana and now Ohio -- I am ready to return to "Germitzerland."

I have a few days left (sniffle) to eat my favorite American foods (see first paragraph). We have a few last doctor's appointments to make (three for Andrew, one for me). We have a movie to see for Andrew's birthday (Superman) on Friday (June 28) night, and then a picnic with both sides of our family in Colorado Springs on Saturday morning to celebrate his birthday again. Saturday night we join my parents in marking their retirement at a banquet being thrown by our home church, Springs First Church of the Nazarene. Sunday, we will be there to witness Dad leading his final worship service of local church ministry. Monday, we pack and say goodbye to everyone (sniffle). Tuesday we board a last series of planes bound for Zurich.

It's been good. We feel refreshed, renewed and re-energized for two more years of giving our passions and skills and experience to ministry in the Eurasia Region.

Incidentally, our regional director, Dr. Gustavo Crocker, was voted yesterday into the position of 41st general superintendent in our global denomination. We go back to big and exciting changes and yet more transition that we get to be a part of.

Following God -- no matter where you are or what you are called to -- is always an adventure.

One big blessing

According to Der Spiegel Online, this past winter in Germany was the darkest winter in 40 years.

They wrote in February:

Winter in Germany is typically a grim affair, dark and steeped in the kind of chilly damp that goes straight to the bones -- and, unhappily, to the psyche. But many residents feel that this winter has been particularly hard to bear. 

Meteorologists say that's because it has been the darkest winter in more than four decades. Less than an average of 100 hours of sunshine have been recorded so far over the course of the meteorological winter, which runs from December through February, said National Meteorological Service (DWD) spokesman Gerhard Lux on Monday. The winter average is an already measly 160 hours of sun. 

That makes it the gloomiest winter in at least 43 years. The winter of 1970, with an average of just 104 hours of sunshine, was the bleakest since records began in 1951. But if the sun fails to show itself much more this year, the winter of 2012-2013, will "probably reach a new all-time low," Lux told news agency AFP. 
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-weathers-darkest-winter-in-43-years-a-885608.html

We certainly felt it this winter. I am subject to seasonal depression when I don't get enough sunlight, so I was particularly miserable. Even Andrew was feeling it, as were numerous locals who complained as much as we did about the lack of sunlight. I even had to order a sunlight simulator to put on my desk at work to try to trick my body into thinking it was getting sunlight.

That meant we desperately needed the shift in March to Colorado, where the sun shines every day, at least part of the day, and then the month in Hawaii where again it was sunny and even warm most days (although I was cold there a significant part of the time).

I am hearing from friends in Buesingen that it is STILL cold and rainy and dreary. I just saw a forecast for our area there which includes snow AGAIN this evening, and highs only in the 50s.

I feel so blessed that while I LOVE Germany and Switzerland so much, God allowed us to leave during the last few months of that kind of weather so that we could climb out of the emotional murkiness we were experiencing. We are looking forward to beautiful weather, brilliant sunshine and all the rainbow of colors from blooming flowers and trees when we get back in July. At least, our fingers are crossed. In the meantime, I am praying for the emotional health of my friends in Buesingen who are still suffering from winter weather at the end of May.

Here's another article about Germany's snow in May, with the headline "Just Kill Us Now": http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/winter-weather-plagues-germany-as-spring-begins-a-890166.html

"No, this year, Germany has not only been treated to the darkest winter on record, sending wretched residents to the brink of despair. To top it off, the official beginning of spring has also been marked with record snowfall -- though of course not always where winter sports enthusiasts could make any use of it."

This American Life

Andrew and I have been home in Colorado Springs now for about two months. We are learning firsthand what "deputation" or "furlough" is like for missionaries.

To put it shortly: Traveling, speaking, chatting, doctor appointments, and working on our work wherever we can find a wifi signal.

We spent the first three weeks working on our work here in the Springs, interspersed with family time on both sides of our family. We also had an ordination interview. I went to the dentist for a cleaning.

Then we spent the majority of April traveling around the Hawaii Pacific District -- all four main islands -- speaking in seven churches, sometimes multiple times in one day. We had a blast getting to see the everyday-life side of Hawaii instead of the tourist side of things. We spent time in people's homes, or out seeing their favorite parts of their islands, again interspersed with the work we still had to get done on Andrew's class he's teaching in July, and for me on Eurasia Region communications and Engage.

We returned to Colorado Springs on May 7 and hit the ground running with multiple doctor's appointments. Andrew and I both have plantar fasciitis that we had to have looked at. I returned to the dentist for two fillings to be replaced and found out that I needed to see a periodontist for a severe recession on a front tooth. So then I went to the periodontist to find out I needed to have gum surgery on all four front lower teeth.

I started to develop constant back pain from all the travel and changing beds every few nights, so I needed to go to a chiropractor and that includes a number of follow-up visits. And I hadn't had a vision checkup in 3 years and knew that my prescription had changed, so I went to the eye doctor twice to get fitted for contacts and new glasses. In the process they broke my existing pair of glasses, so they had to order me a new backup pair.

There are a few more doctor's appointments we both have, including a dental cleaning for Andrew. It feels like all we do is try to find a coffee shop with reliable internet so we can get work done in between numerous doctor's appointments. I counted that I had 12 different doctor's appointments in May alone. Andrew has had three.

The gum surgery on Monday went very well and I'm recovering with hardly any pain, which is a welcome surprise, as I was told by the doctor and several friends that it is very painful. I am told I will be able to continue public speaking with no problem.

We had a very good time speaking at Lakewood Church in Denver, Eastborough in Colorado Springs and Lamar in southeast Colorado this month. This weekend we will be heading to Cortez church. Soon we will also share with Paonia and Monte Vista, in Colorado, and Mustang church in Oklahoma.

On June 4, one of my best friends, Julia, will be visiting me for a few days from Oregon, and Andrew will be ordained on June 7 at our state's district assembly.

In the middle of all this, my dad, Gene Grate, announced his retirement after 37 years of pastoral ministry, 19 of those years as lead pastor of Springs First Church of the Nazarene. We are so proud of all the ways God has used and blessed him and my mom, Ronoyce, over the years. We are also excited that we will be here for my dad's last day as pastor on June 30, so we can celebrate with them.

It is also full of meaningful symbolism that my dad will be recognized in retirement at the district assembly just as Andrew is ordained, making us feel like there is a "passing of the torch" of ministry from father-in-law to son-in-law.

We are also proud and excited that Andrew's dad has recovered so well from a serious heart attack in December and that he started a new job since we've been home, in his field of kitchen cabinet installation and carpentry. Andrew's mom also started back to school last month, studying for a bachelor's and master's degree in counseling.

There have been lots of big developments since we've been home, and we feel incredibly blessed to be present to share in the excitement with our families.

At the same time, we are starting to miss aspects of our life in Buesingen, and increasingly missing our friends there. We expect that as we continue to soak up all that we love about home throughout our last two months in the States, we will continue to transition mentally and emotionally to being ready to return to our other home in Germany/Switzerland, or as we affectionately call it "Germitzerland."

We are so thankful for all the prayers for us as we travel and speak. We are continually affirmed and assured that God is speaking through us, and we are getting to meet a large number of young people who are sensing some kind of ministry call from God, to carry on God's mission through the next generation.

Back to America

Andrew and I have been in the States now for about 3 weeks. We came back in mid-March to participate in a face-to-face ordination interview in Colorado Springs. Andrew was a candidate to be ordained as an elder in the church. He was unanimously recommended, and so now we wait to hear whether the general superintendent will also agree to it.

Our first speaking date wasn't until April 7, at our home church of Colorado Springs First, but we spent the past three weeks working every day. It's been challenging to focus and concentrate in so many different environments. We've gone from my parents' kitchen table to their basement to my dad's upstairs office to Starbucks to Panera Bread to other local coffee shops. It's tough when you don't have an office anymore to find a place that is conducive to the work we do every day.

A big answer to prayer is that I have about 4 weeks of articles just about ready to go for Engage. That will make things a lot easier on me when we leave this Friday for our first full district speaking tour in Hawaii. We don't know what kind of time or Internet access we will have for the next month, so we've been scrambling to get as much done as we can in March.

It is also another answer to your prayers and ours that our presentation in two services this past Sunday went so well. Both Andrew and I can easily get choked up when we share what God is doing in our lives and in the Eurasia Region. This may possibly be the first time I have presented in a church service when I was able to maintain emotional control. :-) It made things much smoother! And the experience gave us a lot more confidence as we get ready to do a whirlwind of speaking in the next 10 weeks.

It's been such a blessing for both of us to have our evenings free and to be able to spend so much time with both sets of parents, as well as Andrew's sister my brother and his baby, Scarlett. We really needed and have valued this transition-to-the-States time in which we've been able to stay put in our home town, attend our home church and be with our families a great deal. We're looking forward, after our Hawaii tour, to being based in Colorado Springs again in May as we travel to visit with various churches across the state of Colorado.

We continue to value your prayers for us that God would strengthen us for all the travel, and speak powerfully through us at each opportunity.

Where we're speaking

Here are the times and places where we're speaking in the next three months. If you are nearby any of these and want to come hear what God is doing in Eurasia, pop in and say hi!

April 7: Colorado Springs First Church, Colorado Springs, AM worship
April 13-14: Windward Church of the Nazarene, Oahu, Hawaii,
April 17: Wahiawa Community Church of the Nazarene, Oahu, PM
April 19-21: Hilo Church of the Nazarene, Big Island, Hawaii
April 21: Paradise Park Church of the Nazarene, Big Island, 10:45 AM
April 28: Living Waters Church, Oahu, AM; Honolulu First Church, Oahu PM
May 1-5: Kahului Church of the Nazarene, Maui, AM
May 12: Lakewood Church of the Nazarene, Denver, CO, AM
May 19: Eastborough Church of the Nazarene, Colorado Springs, AM; Lamar Church of the Nazarene, Lamar PM
May 26: Cortez Church of the Nazarene, Cortez, CO, AM
June 2: Mustang Church of the Nazarene, Mustang, Oklahoma, AM
June 9: Paonia Church of the Nazarene, Paonia, CO, AM
June 16: Monte Vista Church of the Nazarene, Monte Vista, CO, AM
June 19-24: Working at General Assembly, Indianapolis, IN
June 30: We fly back to Germany

We would really appreciate your prayers as we prepare our presentations, travel to each location and while we are presenting what we believe God wants us to share about what He is doing around the world. We want these times together to encourage and inspire the churches, to ignite mission passion both globally and locally, and to also encourage us in our ministry.

A Valley of Dry Bones

Recently I was listening to the Daily Audio Bible on my iPod and I'm a little bit behind, so it was still in Ezekiel. However, sometimes even if you're off-schedule in your Bible reading, the timing of what you read can still be perfect.

That day's reading was the story about Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones.

37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lordsays to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares theLord.’”

For reasons that we can't really fathom, the year 2012 felt like a year in which we were nothing but dry bones in a dry, scorched desert valley. It was a tough year personally and in our ministry. Some days we depended a lot on the prayers of our friends and loved ones to put one foot in front of the other,. So we sort of ended out 2012 with a feeling of "good riddance," but I for one have been looking at 2013 with a lot of trepidation. Sort of a "What else is going to happen THIS year?" feeling.

This passage in Ezekiel gave me a lot of hope that as cut off as I have felt from the things and people that normally give me a sense of vibrancy and motivation and life, God can still restore me from His own Spirit and resources. That is my prayer, that 2013 will be the year in which God breathes new life into these dry bones and makes them live again -- not just live, but thrive.

This is a good opportunity to say to all of those who have been supporting us in numerous ways, but particularly in prayer throughout 2012: THANK YOU.  There were days when I knew someone must be praying for me, and other days when I simply hoped someone was. The care packages brightened our days, and the contact with friends over Facebook, email or Skype was a lifeline. We look forward to increased partnership and relationship with our friends and supporters in 2013.

I know it's February now, but we wish you a 2013 filled with a renewed spirit and life.

We're coming home!

I (Gina) just signed a contract to go from being a "volunteer" to becoming a "specialized assignment missionary" starting on Feb. 1. This is a really exciting confirmation of God's call on our lives, and what we are doing in both regional missions and global missions.

While most of my job responsibilities and everything that goes with that will all stay the same, one new thing that comes with this designation is that we are required to return to the States for 2-3 months and do a speaking tour in churches.

We were already planning a fundraising trip home and so have partially scheduled a speaking tour. We have lots of dates still open, however. If you would like us to come and speak to your church, group, Sunday school class, home school group, classroom, youth group, children's church or anything else, here are some of the dates we still have available:

March 22-April 10
May 8-18
May 20-May 31
June 11-14

We will mostly be in Hawaii, Colorado, Oklahoma and possibly W. Virginia North. If you have an opening on one of the dates above, and we can get to you, we would love to come and share what God is doing in Eurasia and around the world!

Here is where we are planning to be in May and June at this point:

March 18: Fly into Colorado
April 12- May 5: Hawaii District
May 19: Eastborough Church of the Nazarene, Colorado Springs
June 2: Tentatively scheduled in Oklahoma
June 6-8: Colorado District Convention (attending, not speaking)
June 9: Paonia Church of the Nazarene, Colorado
June 16: Monte Vista Church of the Nazarene, Colorado
June 19-24: General Assembly (attending, participating, not speaking)
June 24-27: Indian Lake, Ohio
June 30: Flying back to Germany

We would really love to schedule about 15 to 20 more speaking opportunities, if possible.

We also would appreciate prayer that God would lead us to the places He wants us to share about what He is doing and our testimony of His work in our lives.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Christmas in Croatia

A lot of people know how we spent our Christmas and new year's this year, but I thought I would write about it anyway.

Since we are going on home assignment to speak in U.S. churches April through June this year, we couldn't justify the extra expense of flying home for Christmas, too. However, we didn't want to just sit home alone in our tiny village for the holidays, either. We checked around about our options, and we're so grateful that another missionary family, Dave and Betsy Scott, in Zagreb, Croatia, invited us to spend Christmas at their home. We timed our trip so that we would overlap with them for a few days before Christmas and over New Year's Day. In between, including over Christmas Day, the Scotts spent in Hungary with some friends of theirs and we watched their apartment for them as well as did a little touring around the country.

Thus, Christmas was filled with mixed emotions for us. We were excited to see a new part of Europe and experience a new culture for a few days, eat new foods and see some picturesque scenery. We were also excited to get to know our new friends better and enjoying a lot of social time with them and their two fun children.

At the same time, we were sad about not being with our families on Christmas for the first time ever. This was compounded by the fact that the day we left for Croatia, Andrew's dad, Loren, had a mild heart attack and was hospitalized in Colorado. Over a few days of excellent medical care, it was discovered that he needed a quadruple bypass. He had surgery on Christmas Eve. All of Andrew's extended family happened to be in town for the holidays, so they all spent most of time at the hospital, and his family ended up having a very abnormal Christmas with most of their planned activities being cancelled.

It was a special gift on Christmas Day to be able to Skype with Andrew's dad and see that he was sitting up, talking and exceeding expectations on his healing process. He went home a few days later.

We have GREATLY appreciated everyone's prayers and support for Loren and our family and for us during that difficult and sometimes scary time.

Several funny things also happened to us on Christmas Day. Nothing about our holiday was going to be normal, and I wanted just one thing to be the same as at home. Andrew's family has a tradition of making pigs in a blanket on Christmas morning for breakfast. This is when you put small sausages and cheese inside rolled up canned crescent roll dough and bake it. I was determined to make this at Dave and Betsy's on Christmas morning.

The day before, we rode the tram to the grocery store. I couldn't find canned crescent roll dough, but I did find strudel pastry dough. I figured that would work just fine. I picked up a package of the cheaper dough that was in a blandly printed wrapper.

So, I was very surprised on Christmas morning when I rolled out the dough to find out it was NOT strudel dough, but instead it was sheets of paper-thin phylo dough, which is used in layers to make baklava. I was dismayed but determined to go ahead with the pigs in a blanket anyway. I managed to roll up the dough around the cheese and sausages, and hold it together by moistening the dough with water from the sink. They were the weirdest pigs in a blanket ever.

After breakfast, we decided to watch one of Dave and Betsy's movies. We settled in our pajamas onto their couch to watch on their TV. About halfway through the movie, we heard a key in the front door lock. Then we began to hear the locks clicking. We froze, wondering if it was actually another apartment we were hearing, and then realized it was ours. We thought something horrible must have happened and that Dave and Betsy and their kids had driven back early on Christmas morning because of some crisis.

I stood up to pause the movie as I continued to hear locks clicking. Then I turned around ... and screamed. A strange woman standing in the doorway to the living room also squealed in surprise. Then she threw her hands up and in very apologetic tones began to babble something in Croatian. We explained that we only spoke English. She didn't speak English. We all laughed but were all very startled and disturbed. The woman finally said "Merry Christmas" several times, backed out of the apartment and locked the door behind her.

Andrew and I looked at each other and said, "Weirdest. Christmas. Ever."

Later we learned from Dave and Betsy that this was probably their landlord who knew they were gone but didn't know they had houseguests while they were out of town. She must have heard the TV on and had come inside to turn it off and check things. Well, we all got the surprise of our lives.

New year's eve was very fun! Our friends were back and they made a fun dinner, then we settled in to watch the movies Thor and The Avengers. At midnight we had to stop because the city had erupted into so many loud and flashing fireworks that it sounded like a war was going on. We couldn't hear the movie. The cacophany of bangs, pops and explosions went on for a good 15 minutes at least. Then it was over.

We flew back home the next day. We are so grateful to new friends for opening their home to us and making it possible for us to travel a little bit to distract ourselves from the fact that we weren't at home with our families. It will definitely be a Christmas we will remember for a long time.