Drought

We walked out of our apartment on Monday to see all the cars in our little parking lot coated in a brown sheet of dust.

We haven't had a solid shower of rain here in weeks, maybe more than 2 months. Normally this region is more rainy than sunny during the spring. The winter was abnormally dry, too. Temperatures have regularly been in the high 60s and 70s, instead of the 50s where they should be. One friend told me that this has been the region's warmest spring since they started keeping records here.

Over the weekend I noticed my hair felt dirty every day; I realized it was from all the dust being kicked up in the air. When you look toward the horizon or up into the sky, you see haze. It's from the dusty atmosphere.

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2011/04/24/europe-is-facing-the-worst-drought-in-century/

According to this article, in Zurich officials had to start moving trout out of the Toess river before it becomes uninhabitable.

While I love a good spring or summer storm, I'm less enthusiastic about the more typical cold, drizzly weather that is common here. So I haven't minded all the unseasonable warmth and sunshine. But we live in an agricultural area. Farms and fields completely surround our little village. You are more likely to get creamed by a tractor while crossing the street than to be hit by a car.

It's an immediate reality to me that Europe needs rain.

It needs spiritual rain, as well. It needs the live-giving, thirst-quenching, refreshing, reviving Living Water that God wants to pour out on His children.

We pray for both kinds.

Easter to Pentecost

Nazarenes across the Eurasia Region are journeying together in a six-week devotional series called "Resurrection Power". The journey is called Easter to Pentecost, because everyone began reading the devotions on the Monday after Easter and will finish the journey on Pentecost Sunday.

Last year, I (Gina) helped to edit the devotional booklet before it was translated into more than 20 languages and printed for distribution across Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and South Asia. I was really impressed with the readings. The booklet leads the reader from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to an understanding of how the Holy Spirit can completely fill a person, empowering each of us to rise above the selfish nature that compels us to make sinful choices that hurt ourselves and others. The booklet is designed to lead believers into entire sanctification, or holiness -- that "marriage" to God in which we love Him so much that we no longer want to do things that would hurt Him, ourselves or others.

People throughout the region are excited to be joining across so many languages and cultures in a journey together of studying this incredibly hopeful message and seeking this total yielding to the Holy Spirit.

If you are interested in participating, you can download an English copy here: http://missionaleurasia.com/index.php/devotional

Wanted: Communication volunteers

For the past 14 months, my fellow volunteer, Tiki, and I (Gina) have managed to publish a monthly 6- to 10-page newsletter and weekly news articles for the Eurasia Region (www.eurasiaregion.org). We've had lots of great help from writers and ministry leaders on the region. I'm always amazed at the amount of terrific stories that the two of us can coordinate or generate every month.

We could do even more with passionate storytellers strategically placed in each field on the region. They could sniff out the stories in their area and capture great interviews and photos to contribute to the region's news. We're working to establish this network, and I hope we can get it in place and operational during my second year here.

The other area where we need help is in the area of video production. Tiki and I are writers and page designers. We don't know much about producing a compelling story for video. There are great stories all over the region just waiting to be captured on film.

In my work with Engage magazine (www.engagemagazine.com), I can ALWAYS use more writers -- people to interview, conduct research and put together the stories of what God is doing through our church.

I continue to pray that God will send more communication workers into the harvest, particularly to serve in the Eurasia Region or with Engage. If you know of someone who wants to serve God in missions through writing or storytelling in a volunteer capacity, whether it's full-time or just once a month, contact me at gpottenger at nazarene.org.

Looking Forward (Andrew)

Today, I completed teaching my section of European History. My job was to evaluate the questions students submitted from their reading of the textbook, and to spend time helping them 1) write better questions and become better readers [these questions are chosen by the instructor to appear on each exam], 2) to understand the general chronology of events and the “big picture” of European civilization as it developed through each period studied.

This came as an unexpected assignment, and there was almost no time to really prepare for it. However, I was glad to help shoulder a small share of the incredible burden Antonie has carried for the last several weeks. It was also an opportunity to work with my beloved subject, and to have that one last chance I’d wanted at being able to teach on-campus. I still hope for the opportunity to visit and teach in at least one of EuNC’s learning centers before Gina and I return to the U.S. But we’ll see how things develop.

For now, my schedule should begin to gradually become less hectic – for which I am very grateful, as much as I’ve enjoyed so many opportunities to be of service. I will keep busy, but there are no immediately pressing deadlines. I will spend the next bit of time (April and May) getting final grades turned in for three different classes, turning in some work on syllabus templates, and taking a couple of online students through Nazarene History & Polity (they took “incompletes” when I taught it originally). Once those projects are completed, June’s graduation will have passed, and the students will have left the campus. At that point, I will begin developing Church History I and II for 3 and 5 credits each as online courses. Church History I will not need a great deal of work, as I have already developed and taught the 5-credit course. I will also be able to do this at a leisurely pace, as neither class is foreseen to be offered any time soon.

With any “down time” I will stay busy by helping the remaining faculty/staff clean and organize the campus for eventual closure (this is projected to be complete by December or January); studying for the GRE and exploration of different universities both State-side and in Europe; and maybe taking on a project here or there with the Eurasia Regional Office. I have no inkling at this time that I will actually get bored at any point, but neither do I expect to be running at a frantic pace as I have been for several months. I’m looking forward to continuing to be of service, but also increased amounts of rest.

Anticipated Changes

Gina and I have experienced many changes since moving to the campus of EuNC over one year ago. We have learned to be flexible, to place our complete trust in God and his control, and to make peace with living a life of ambiguity. When the needs, conditions, or situations change, we have done our best to adapt.

Some unexpected changes concerning EuNC's Busingen campus were announced last week to the faculty and staff. You can read about them here. Once more we found ourselves adjusting to a new situation. We learned on Friday that nothing drastic or unexpected will change for Gina and I, and we are grateful. However, we are saddened at the departure of our friends whose jobs will no longer be available to them.

My work developing and teaching online for EuNC will continue through the end of December 2011. I have recently transitioned out of the campus library, and am focused entirely on course development. I am currently co-teaching European History on campus through April 15. I have just completed teaching Intro to Theology, and will begin helping a pair of students complete the online Nazarene History & Polity course in April and May. Following this, my activity will gradually decrease throughout the remainder of the year. I will develop 3-credit and 5-credit online courses for Church History II, and improve on the 3-credit and 5-credit Church History I classes. Work on these will continue throughout the remainder of the year following graduation at the end of June. Gina and I were given the option of ending our contract and returning home, or staying through the end of Gina's contract in January. We are choosing to stay, since we are able to remain in our campus apartment.

So, for the foreseeable future we do not anticipate any radical changes for us in response to the new campus situation. But we are praying with the rest of the campus community for those who will no longer be working at EuNC. We believe God is doing something great for EuNC and everyone involved, even though it is unclear what He has in mind for the immediate future of the campus. You will find if you read the newsletter (follow the link at the top) that EuNC as a whole is growing and continuing to fulfill its mission "to enable disciples of Christ to participate in the mission of God and serve local communities of faith." The news regarding EuNC's accreditation status is very positive, and we were very pleased with EEAA's report that EuNC "has put in place the necessary academic support structure for a successful operation of decentralized education."

Your prayers for EuNC, especially the campus staff as they transition into new places of employment, are very important. The leadership team, consisting of Antonie Holleman and Klaus Arnold, will continue to carry a particularly heavy burden concerning the campus. Keep them in your prayers as well.

Concerning Gina and myself, we can certainly use prayer as we continue to live in a somewhat ambiguous situation. Our biggest prayer request concerns our health and stress levels. Gina's health continues to be unpredictable, though we are grateful that she is not as sick as she was before Christmas. Cultural stress, constant changes, and heavy work-loads as well as health issues contribute to an accumulation of stress. This is perhaps our number one hindrance in being able to do our jobs, and enjoy life and good health. It takes a toll on every level for both of us as individuals and as a couple.

Pray that God will continue giving us the strength we need to do well each day; and that He will give us times of rest soon.

Portugal meeting

Two weeks ago, I (Gina) had the privilege to participate in a meeting in Portugal, near Lisbon. Our regional communication coordinator, Dennis Mohn, had met a group of young people from Spain and Portugal during the leadership conference at EuNC in January. The young people are all studying or are professionals in a variety of communication skills -- video production, website design, graphic design and mass communications.

They have felt called by God to use these skills to serve Him, and have been trying to determine what shape that might take. They invited our team to meet with them in Portugal in March to dream and brainstorm how their skills can serve God.

Dennis, Tiki (my fellow communications volunteer) and I flew out to Portugal on Thursday, spent Friday getting acquainted with these young people and then met for the whole day on Saturday to hear their dreams and vision, and to offer resources and suggestions for ways we can work together.

It was interesting to see their visions take shape. The young people from Portugal feel a strong desire to help their churches build a cohesive and unified image and message through various forms of social media, and through graphic imagery. They want to help the churches increase their professionalism in use of media.

The young people from Spain felt a calling to form a communications business through which they could make contact and build relationships with those who don't yet know God, and to assist nonprofit organizations with objectives similar to our church.

We all hope that in the coming months, as we continue to dialogue, that we can see what God is doing and how He is doing it, so we can get involved.

It was so much fun for me meet more young people who are so passionate for God and for serving Him, as well as for reaching out to people who aren't part of the "family" yet. (It was also awesome to brush up on my rudimentary Spanish, which I really miss.)

And then I remained in Lisbon for a few extra days, where Daniela, one of the young people, showed me around. :-) I'll be posting photos soon at my photo website.

Pray for God's continued anointing, direction and guidance, and for clarity as these young people move forward in their plans.

Learning German

On Monday, Andrew and I wrapped up our first German course, which lasted three or four weeks. We jump right into German II next Monday. While it came at an especially busy time for both of us, I think we really enjoyed finally getting this opportunity to learn to speak the native language spoken by most people around us.

The class was marked by a few epiphanies. For one thing, we learned that for the past year we have been mistakenly too informal with people we meet in Switzerland by greeting strangers on the sidewalk or in a shop with "Hallo," or saying goodbye with "Tchüss!" Those informal greetings and farewells are acceptable only in Germany.

Oops!

We have struggled with the ü, ä and ö sounds, for which we have no equivalent sounds in English (or Spanish). And it's easy to get mixed up in pronunciation when the "W" does sounds like "V" and "V" sounds like "F".

One thing that helps is that English has its roots, linguistically, in old Germanic dialects. So there are enough similarities in how the letters are used that it's not as difficult to adapt to the new words as I thought it would be.

We have experienced great feelings of satisfaction in suddenly being able to converse briefly with cashiers, shop owners, restaurant servers, and people on the street, as well as to practice with old and new friends who are German-speaking. We can discuss the weather, introduce ourselves, speak about how we feel or what mood we are in, offer sympathy to someone who is ill, ask someone when their birthday is, count to 20 and say the letters of the alphabet German-style.

Can't wait for German II!

Shönes Tag! (Have a beautiful day!)