In Need of a Superhero!!!

 "By the way, do you have the (SLAM) keys?"  Jim was in England with Jared, my friend Barca and I were standing outside our apartment door and, of course, the keys were right where they belonged in the little drawer on the OTHER SIDE of the door!  We needed a superhero!  Who should we call but the Hausmeister?!?! 

When we moved into our apartment in February, we met our Hausmeister (caretaker), Paul.  He and his family live directly below us and we have struck up a friendship, starting with a plate of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies delivered to their door not long after we moved in.  Paul is always ready to lend a hand.  Now the question was, did he have a master key that could unlock our apartment?

I knocked on the door and Paul's wife answered.  No, they didn't have a key and Paul was out walking the dog.  Soon other neighbors gather outside the Hausmeister's door and many suggestions flew around, most of which I could not understand, being that they were all in German. 

Finally, Paul and Snoopy (yes, that is the name of their tiny shih tzu looking dog) came home.  We all trooped upstairs to try the door again.  No, still locked.  But...I had left the bathroom window that opens onto the balcony open.  Only problem, our balcony is two floors (third floor in the US) up.  No problem for Paul The Burgermeister!  He ran down to the basement and returned with a step ladder.  Rearranging everything on their balcony, he climbed up the ladder.  His hands barely reached the bottom of our balcony.  Now this is a slightly over-weight (although now I think all the extra weight is muscle), middle-aged man with two teenage children and a dog named "Snoopy"!  I watch him get his footing on a bolt on one of the metal supports and then he slowly pulled himself up and disappeared.  Meanwhile, his wife, clutching Snoopy, had retreated to a back room and closed the door because she couldn't bear to watch!  "Habe es!" (Got it!) he called down and we all clapped, his wife came out of the closed room and Snoopy yipped with excitement!

So now Paul and his family have a freshly baked strawberry/blackberry cream cake and I have my key carefully put away in the new "belonging" place, my purse! 

Paul's balcony is the one with the curtains and ours is the one above it!

Fusion Choir Coming

Pray for us, as a JV Fusion Choir of 50 or so high school students is coming to do a concert with a local high school here in Leipzig!  Pray that it will open doors for relationships with the local students and that all will run smoothly as we house and feed this crew!  To read more about Fusion, click here.

Czech Fusion Choir

German Showers and American Burgers!

God provided showers for our 50 high school choir members!!!!  And let me tell you how it happened.  I was busy writing the blog asking you to pray for the showers while Jim was out looking.  I finished the blog and was quite hungry because it we after noon.  I went to the refrigerator to see what kind of treasures could be found.  Bummer...nothing but ketchup and some long expired...well, I'm not exactly sure what it was.  So, I went to my comfort food, crackers and milk.  Yes, this was one of my dad's favorite quick meals.  A cereal bowl full of crushed soda crackers with milk poured over the top.  Quite tasty! 

Just as I am trying to finish off the crackers before they get too soggy, Jim walks in.  "I got the showers!!!!"  Wooh! Hooh!  (Imagine a lot of dancing and celebrating here.)  "So, Jim, are you hungry?  I can offer you some crackers and milk."  "Well...no...that's the other thing.  The place that has the showers also has an American Diner with THE BEST BURGERS EVER!!!!!!!"  Wrong thing to say to a hungry wife who has just tried to satiate her hunger with crackers and milk.  Yes, it's true.  He sat down and enjoyed a great, big, dripping American hamburger WITHOUT his dear wife...  "But," he said, "I have scheduled the first meal for the choir at the diner, they have given us a discount and...YOU can go!"  OK, I guess I'll let that one pass since I'll get my burger in just over a week!

The showers are in Le Kickerhall that is combined with the American Diner.  The cook is from Scotland and the owner is a retired soccer player.  Of course, Jim hit it off great with them and we now have showers and dinner!!!!

So, thanks for praying and check out this menu!  You may want to come visit us in Leipzig after all!!!

Connections are good...unless...

This past week was a week of connections, and most of them I loved, but some of them...well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I LOVE the connection with "Connect".  "Connect", the name of our youth group, is a great group of kids!  After our time in the tents (see 5,000 Tents and 10,000 Blessings) I feel our relationships have really grown.  I still can't talk much German and some of them can speak a bit if English, and yet, we have really grown to love each other.

The "Connect" youth group at Ring Cafe

Our next incredible connection was with our dear friend Katka.  Katka was a high school student when we lived in Czech and she often babysat our children!  Since that time, she has gone to Bible School and has been on staff with Josiah Venture for the past 11 years in Czech and is now going cross-culturally with JV to Latvia!  We feel so privileged that she was able to spend 4 days with us doing a preparation training before her move.  It was fun to reconnect, hear new stories, share old memories and do a lot of laughing!

Check out Katka's JV profile here.

The last two connections I had this week were not nearly as fun as these first two.  The weather here is beautiful and things are so close to our apartment that we often walk.  Saturday night we went to a birthday party and, as Jim wanted to stay a bit longer (no surprise there!), Katka and I decided to walk home.  We were talking about all the things God had done to bring us to Leipzig and the last word Katka heard me say was "miracles" and all of the sudden I was laying face-down on the sidewalk!  I had stepped in a hole and had quite a "connection" with the pavement.  It was truly a miracle I was not hurt at all, as I hit my face smack-dab on the sidewalk!  Not even a bruise!!!

The next connection came today when I was riding my bike to meet a friend for lunch.  Yes, you guessed it, I hit a curb and found myself connected again with the pavement!  Thankfully, again, I was not hurt!

 

Now you know why I wear a helmet!!!

So we'll keep on making connections, but hopefully not to often with the pavement!

Prayer Requests:

• A JV "Fusion" choir of high school students is coming from Czech June 18-20 to do a concert for a local high school here.  Jim has made some great connections with the high school while setting this up.  Pray that the concert will help to open doors into relationships with the school
• Also, pray that we will be able to find a place for all 50 choir members to shower!  They will be sleeping in our church, but as it only has one shower, we must find a place close-by for them.  Jim has spent the last few weeks getting one turn-down after another.  He is out again right now trying to set something up
• We have a couple coming on a vision trip for a week starting Friday.  Pray that God will make it clear whether they should join our team or not.
•  Jared gets to come spend a good part of the summer with us starting June 22.  Pray it will be a good connection time with him.  He and Jim will spend about a week alone together on a "guy" adventure!  Very exciting!
• Pray for Emily and Alpha.  They would like to come visit us for a few weeks this summer, but he was turned down for his visa.  They have gathered more information and are resubmitting their request.  Pray that it will be granted!