RIP to our car

In mid November we received the news that the office car which we normally drive had been deemed too old to be fixed. When it went for its bi-annual inspection, rust was found in the frame, and the estimate to repair it was 2000 euros. However, the repair shop felt it was too old to put that much money into.

Suddenly, we find ourselves without consistent transportation.

We live in a village with a small convenience store about the size of a 7-11. There is no doctor or pharmacy here, no movie theater, and no normal-sized grocery store, no coffee shops, no household supply stores, no fast food. The two restaurants which are here are way too expensive to eat at except on a special occasion.

What do you do when you just need a pencil sharpener, a quick bite to eat, or want to go see a movie or pick up a prescription and you don't have a car?

One might ride the bus, but the bus doesn't go to the neighboring town where many of these everyday errands are located. We could ride a bicycle there, but our bikes don't have lights on them and thus we could only legally ride there during the few hours of winter light we have here. Additionally, you can't stock up on a groceries for a week when riding a bike.

One good thing: The office has another car which many people share, and we've worked out an agreement to use it on Friday afternoons and Saturdays. Sometimes businesses are closed at those times, though, which means we may not be able to make it to doctor appointments or other businesses if it's a holiday or they take the afternoon off.

Our director and the personnel coordinator have said that it's just not possible to live and work here without having reliable transportation when you need it. So we've been encouraged to raise funds to purchase a car. The estimated cost to purchase a quality used vehicle, along with money to pay for winter and summer tires, taxes and an inspection will total roughly 12,000 to 15,000.

It's possible that a reliable used car will not only bless us, but be a blessing to missionaries who come after us.

We will be going on home assignment April - June next year and hope to raise all the funds required for the car during that time. But we don't have to wait until then. We can accept gifts toward this need right now.

Those who feel God leading them to help us with transportation can make a tax deductible (in the U.S.) donation in one of two ways:

1. Through check.

To give by check, make it out to "General Treasurer, Church of the Nazarene" and write "Andrew and Gina Pottenger/Mission Corps" in the memo line. Then send it to:

     General Treasurer
     Church of the Nazarene
     PO Box 843116
     Kansas City, MO 64184-3116

2. Or by credit card through our Ministry Fund site.

To give securely through your credit card, visit http://web.nazarene.org/site/TR/Events/MissionCorps?pxfid=2740&fr_id=1090&pg=fund

These funds do not come to us personally but to the accounting office of the Eurasia Region, which manages our fund in compliance with all relevant policies and procedures.

We also welcome prayers that God will provide this need in His own perfect timing, or else come up with another solution that will enable us to not only make it to practical locations such as a doctor's appointment or grocery store, but to simply get a change of scenery on occasion from our small and sometimes isolating village setting. :-)

Thanks again for all your care and support!

Blessings,

Andrew and Gina

Christmas, new and old

I am sitting at my office desk with the sun glaring painfully in my eyes and heating up my clothes and desk. But I'm not going to lower the window blinds. This is the first time I have seen direct sunlight in about 4 to 5 weeks. I'll admit the constantly leaden skies did nothing for my mood -- I'm a person who really needs regular sunshine. Maybe I do photosynthesis, like a plant. Anyway, I was thrilled when the fog burned off this morning to a cobalt bowl of a sky and piercing white sunlight stabbed through my window.

We've been enjoying the Christmas season a bit more in our normal tradition this year than in the first two years we were here. We hadn't had room for any Christmas decorations or Christmas music in our four suitcases when we arrived February 2010. So that year and last year, we had no seasonal decorations in our apartment, nor any Christmas music to listen to.

This year, my mom sent us a few inexpensive and small decorations that really livened up our apartment. My dad visited us for two weeks to tour Germany and Switzerland's Christmas markets, and he brought Christmas music with him. And then it began snowing and has been snowing off and on for about two weeks. It's so cold that it is still blanketing the ground and rooftops, and I love that. I baked cookies and listened to Christmas music, like I would normally do about now. It has been so lovely.

We were also exposed to a German Christmas tradition for the first time this year. I'd heard that different cultures celebrated Christmas or facets of the Christmas season on different dates than Dec. 25. Well, here they have something called St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 5-6. On the night of Dec. 5, children put out their shoes by the window; good children receive oranges or citrus fruits, nuts and chocolate in their shoes the next morning, courtesy of St. Nicholas (Santa Claus). Bad children receive a whip from St. Nicholas's sidekick, a devilish-looking beast called the Krampus. (People also receive gifts on Dec. 25, but these come from Christkindl, or "Christ child.")

We didn't put out shoes, or receive a whip. But we did get to visit the home of our Swiss friends on Dec. 7, and they spread out on their table candles as well as the traditional goodies of clementines, chocolates, nuts, dried figs and dates, as well as a homemade loaf of bread made in the shape of Knecht Ruprecht, another character associated with this holiday. Translated as "servant Rupert," this helper aids St. Nicholas on St. Nicholas Day.

We enjoyed spending time with our friends Thomas and Cornelia, eating homemade soup and bread, then snacking on the fruits and nuts, while slicing pieces off of poor Rupert and eating them with butter and jam or honey.

On the actual St. Nicholas Day, our English class ended with a table spread with the loaves of bread shaped like Rupert and the nuts and goodies, as well. Until then, I had no idea about this tradition. I really like it: Christmas goodies that are actually health foods. Ha ha!

While we miss home and the traditions we grew up with to celebrate Christmas there, it sure is fun to encounter and enjoy new Christmas traditions with our new friends here!

Care packages

I think any missionary would say that care packages from home are some of the high points of living overseas. They come at unexpected times, from unexpected sources, and that's some of the fun.

My friends at the NMI office where I worked for 3 years before we moved abroad surprised us with a fantastic package on Halloween. It was filled with fun candy, fun objects (handmade bookmarks, a coffee mug, a hand-crafted scarf, etc.) and some of our favorite things that we can't get here, including canned pumpkin, Starbucks coffee, cream cheese frosting, chocolate chips and American brown sugar for baking.

Let the fall baking (and eating) commence!

Thanks, NMI friends!!!

Other awesome care packages have had fireplace-scented incense, peanut butter cream Oreos, white chocolate chips, Progresso seasoned bread crumbs and more cake frosting, to name a few things.

You all are the best. :-)

Prayer request

PRAYER: Please pray for a miraculous healing for Martha Wielk, the infant niece of Eurasia Region NYI Coordinator, Sabine Wielk, whom we work and hang out with here in Busingen.

Martha was born prematurely in August and is fighting for her life against an aggressive bacterial infection in her intestines. She is currently hospitalized in Frankfurt. Doctors are treat
ing Martha with antibiotics prior to surgery on Tuesday (today). It is hoped this plan will save her life.

Please pray that the antibiotics will work and that God would miraculously touch and heal the diseased tissue. Pray also that God would guide the doctors during Tuesday surgery.

Pray for peace for Martha’s parents and for Sabine and the family.

Not alone

I should have noticed right away: I am closer to God than I have ever been; I shouldn't have been so surprised, then, that things seem to get exponentially harder.

Everybody has bad days or weeks. That includes missionaries.

People do things we don't comprehend. Sometimes it's cultural. Like when other drivers force you off the road to yell at you in words you don't understand. And then it happens again. And again. You don't know what you are doing wrong and so you can't fix it. Other times its just a simple misunderstanding that still cuts deep. Maybe it's the worry and strain of wondering where provision for needs will come from, and when. It might be feelings of failure, self-doubt.

The days seem especially difficult when you feel disconnected from your support system back home. You want to call someone up and just vent or pour out your heart of disappointment, frustration and hurt. But no one there is going to be awake for hours or they're all out about their daily business. In the interim, you feel guilty for contacting a friend or loved one just to complain. So you hold it in.

Whatever the cause, the end result is you just feel... isolated. Cut off. Alone.

It's this aloneness that drives us ever deeper into the arms of Jesus. I realize my temptation is to run to my friends or my family first. God wants me to run to Him. I am discovering the joy in recognizing that God is my rescuer, my protector, my defender. It has become a deep comfort to know that Jesus stands ready and waiting to hear my prayers, my heartache, my fear. That when the many other people who love me are out of reach, He loves me more than anyone.

As servants living far away from home and support, we depend on expressions of love and prayers from those in our home country. Yet, we can also experience the profound abundance of God's love and care when no one else is near.

Summer and Fall

It has been a month since Gina posted an update, and even longer since I have written so that I thought I would take a few moments to bring everyone up to speed on life and work in Büsingen from my end.

The last three months have been pretty busy. Around the end of May, I picked up three large projects - each of which needs to be completed before Sept. 1st. I am making great progress on each one, and anticipate that I will meet the deadline coming up in about three weeks.

First, I received an offer to teach Church History II online beginning at the end of August. This will involve four students from the Netherlands (all of whom I've worked with before, and look forward to doing so again) and one from Denmark. I had developed a large portion of the course already, but after taking the Introduction to Online Learning class my mind was filled with new ideas regarding how I could improve delivery of the material and harness the available technology for a more visual, less text-based experience. So I spent most of the summer re-building Church History II from scratch. The material is mostly complete, and students already have everything they need to begin.

Also, I began my studies with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK this summer, enrolling in a single M.A.-level course that begins my preparation for admittance into the University of Manchester as a PhD student next year. The same September 1 deadline will complete the first half of the course. My third project involves writing a section of material for Nazarene Missions International (NMI) in Kansas City, and, yes, is also due on or before September 1! Despite a new school, new professor, and a switch from the American to British education systems (which is indeed pretty different), I am doing very well.

Working on each of these projects simultaneously has been quite the challenge, but everything is going well by this time and I anticipate meeting every deadline. Continue to keep me in prayer that God will provide wisdom, strength, and motivation to keep working hard each day until these things are done.

Throughout the fall, I will be teaching the Church History II class. Gina and I are both hoping to return to our long-neglected German language study as well. I will be preaching at our local church on Oct. 28. I did not end up mentoring the young man who visited our church earlier in the summer as they decided to attend elsewhere. There was also no time to pick up the Latin study as I'd hoped, and now (obviously) German is more of a priority anyway. I also have that major paper to write for my class with NTC, which will be completed before Dec. 1.

So, it will be good to be busy throughout the remainder of the year. I'm enjoying each project, and am excited about continuing to serve the Nazarene church in Europe through these various ways.

- Andrew

Wrapping up in India

Well, the days since Wednesday have been a real blur. We arrived in Aurangabad, said to be the fastest growing city in Asia, around noon on Wednesday. We met with a pastor and his family for lunch and to hear their amazing story of heartache and sorrow and how God turned this into new joy and a new church. We also met with a group of women and children who meet in their home for prayer and worship on a regular basis.

That evening we joined a youth group at another Nazarene church, who had invited Dolphy to come and present information with them about the Nazarene Youth International in the rest of the country as well as the rest of the Eurasia Region. Their hunger to be part of something bigger than themselves, to join in with their peers across the region, inspired a bunch of ideas that Dolphy and I will talk about in greater depth this Sunday.

Thursday, a young man from the church was kind enough to take Dolphy and I on a worldwind tour of the Ellora Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves), a cluster of 34 caves with Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples cut out of the rock between the 5th and the 10th centuries. The ancient sculptures and architecture was absolutely amazing.

After this, we enjoyed a drive through the dry, sandy plains, surrounded by high mesas and lots of Moghul ruins to get back to the city.

In the city there is a large monument that was built in the 17th century, intended to be a copy of the Taj Mahal, which is in the north of India in a city called Agra. However, the funds were too limited and eventually they built the monument with less quality materials and made it a little smaller. However, this is as close as I may ever get to the Taj Mahal, so I really wanted to see it. I loved it. :-) It was beautiful and impressive.

We rushed back to our hotel around 5:30 to meet a young woman who had volunteered to share her testimony for publication. All I can say right now is that after 2 hours of listening to her, I was shocked, emotional and in awe of what God can do in making someone a brand new creation, transforming them utterly and renewing and reconciling broken relationships. I can't wait to get this story written up to share.

Every day of this past week, when I've gotten back to my room (around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m.), I've then worked online with our intern communications team back in Germany to assist them in putting together their first edition of our regional monthly newsletter, Where Worlds Meet. I felt badly that they only got started working with us a couple of days before I left for India, and I hadn't had much time at all to get them oriented and trained. They've done a great job managing on their own, and so I just spent a few hours each evening in the room editing the stories and advising them on the newsletter. That generally kept me up even later every day.

Friday, we flew out of Aurangabad to the farthest east side of the country to Kolkata (Calcutta) which is Dolphy's home town. Her family helped me get settled in a hotel about 5 minutes from their home last night. I was so relieved to be able to sleep from 11 p.m. to about 9:30 a.m. today, however I didn't sleep well at all. I woke up about once an hour until maybe 6 a.m. and after that I began waking up every 15-30 minutes. Finally about 8 a.m. I gave up and got up. I've been relaxing in my room and got some breakfast.

I'm really looking forward to my first full day off since I arrived. Dolphy and her mom will be meeting me about 11:30 a.m. and we'll first stop at the Missionaries of Charity, where Mother Teresa gave her life in ministry to the poor of India, which spawned branches in 133 countries.


After that, we're going to New Market, a famous, historic marketplace with over 2,000 vendors selling everything from jewelry and saris to home decor, vegetables and foods and even raw meats. It is said to be an amazing experience, where you bargain with sellers and just take it all in. It was first established by the British in the 1800s.

If there's time later, we'll go to see the Ganges River and a few other sites in the city.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to worshipping with Dolphy's family in their church and just resting. Then, Monday, I will be flying from Kolkata to Mumbai (Bombay) where I will catch my connecting flight at 1 a.m. local time Tuesday to Zurich. I am thankful that it's a direct, 8-hour flight, as the first flights we were looking at booking would have had me doing anywhere from a 9- to 18-hour layover in  one of several Middle East countries. At this point I am too tired to consider something exhausting like that.

I expect to arrive in Zurich at 6 a.m. local time where Andrew will pick me up (man, I have missed him!!!!). I plan to go home and sleep for the rest of the day!

Thank you so much for all your prayers. I realize God has done even more through this trip than I ever expected. I thought I would simply be offering some training and gathering lots of stories. Not that these are in any way insignificant objectives. However, I did not realize how encouraging and inspiring our visit would be to young Nazarenes in these corners of India where they at times struggle with feelings of isolation and disconnection with the greater Church of the Nazarene. Dolphy tells me that these amazing young leaders are feeling really boosted, empowered and inspired for their ministry. I really loved hearing their testimonies for how their eyes were opened to all the ways that God can use their stories and the stories of Nazarenes in India to touch the lives of Nazarenes all the way across the world in the United States, or in Europe, or in Australia or Asia or Africa.

Meeting with and talking with these young people has gotten my creative juices going and I'll be going home with more ideas that I hope to develop in consultation with colleagues both in Europe, in India and in the U.S.

The communications leader for the South Asia Field, which includes Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, has been communicating with Dolphy and ever since we met in Turkey last October, has been talking about conducting a similar training there to establish their own field communication team. They are consulting about setting a deadline to establish this by November. I am excited to see how India may be an inspiration and model for other fields to follow their example and establish field and district level communications teams.

Thank you for your all your prayers for this trip and for me and Dolphy. I think it is impossible at this point to anticipate all that God has done and will do through our time together and your prayers.