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.