create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide
Ok, so I found one for Europe and I was pretty amazed to see that I have seen quite a bit of Europe. I love traveling so much and I hope to continue to do more!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Countries I've Visited in Europe
create your personalized map of europe
or check out our Barcelona travel guide
Ok, so I found one for Europe and I was pretty amazed to see that I have seen quite a bit of Europe. I love traveling so much and I hope to continue to do more!
States I Have Visited
create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide
I found this website where you can click on all the States you have been to and it creates a map for you. It was interesting. I had a hard time remembering all the places I have been to on Chorale tour. I think I might have missed a couple that we drove through, but does it really count if you only drove through that State and didn't really stop there or stay there for a period of time? I would really like to do this for Europe. I think that would be fun.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Out With The Old And In With The New
Last week, the building across the street was torn down. This is not unusual for Chemnitz or even for all of Saxony perhaps. There are many abandoned buildings like this one which have set empty for years. Many of them are empty apartment buildings. After the wall fell the population in Chemnitz dropped about 100,000 due to people moving away to other areas of Germany for jobs and better opportunities.To me, it's kind of sad that so many of these old buildings are being torn down, but at the same time it provides a new beginning to the city. Now where there have been old, empty, falling down buildings there will be open space for grass to grow, or even new buildings that are used and lived in. The old buildings sometimes make the atmosphere of the city dark and depressing. I hope this change will make Chemnitz a brighter, more hopeful city!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Sad News
We found out tonight that a man who worked at the Turkish Imbiss around the corner from our house was found murdered yesterday. We noticed today that the Imbiss was closed and thought that was strange since it was in the middle of the day. He had been working at another Imbiss across town and that is where he was found stabbed to death. He was only 28 years old and Clint and I thought he was such a nice guy. He was always smiling and friendly to us when we went there. To read the article in the Freie Presse online in German click here. Please keep this family in your prayers.
Interesting facts
I got this idea from Courtney.
Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List five interesting facts, four births and three deaths in your journal, including the year. (I changed it a little bit from what Courtney did.)
April 19
Interesting Facts:
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord – British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists' firearms. Captain John Parker orders his band of minutemen to not fire unless fired upon. Random shots rang out among the British soldiers. The minutemen promptly fired back. This was the "shot heard round the world." The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts, thus beginning the American Revolutionary War.
1943 - World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1993 - The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die. *This happened on my 13th birthday*
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. *I remember this day too well.*
1999 - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
Births:
1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
1922 - Erich Hartmann, German pilot (d. 1993)
1949 - Paloma Picasso, French/Spanish jewelry designer, fashion designer and businesswoman; daughter of artist Pablo Picasso
1979 - Kate Hudson, American actress
Death:
1882 - Charles Darwin, English biologist (b. 1809)
1906 - Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
1967 - Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List five interesting facts, four births and three deaths in your journal, including the year. (I changed it a little bit from what Courtney did.)
April 19
Interesting Facts:
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord – British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists' firearms. Captain John Parker orders his band of minutemen to not fire unless fired upon. Random shots rang out among the British soldiers. The minutemen promptly fired back. This was the "shot heard round the world." The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts, thus beginning the American Revolutionary War.
1943 - World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1993 - The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die. *This happened on my 13th birthday*
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. *I remember this day too well.*
1999 - The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
Births:
1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
1922 - Erich Hartmann, German pilot (d. 1993)
1949 - Paloma Picasso, French/Spanish jewelry designer, fashion designer and businesswoman; daughter of artist Pablo Picasso
1979 - Kate Hudson, American actress
Death:
1882 - Charles Darwin, English biologist (b. 1809)
1906 - Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
1967 - Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
New Year and January
On New Year's Eve we had the annual party at the church building. We had lots of good food, games and of course fireworks. That of course is Clint's favorite part about New Year's Eve in Germany. The next day Larry, Clint, Kris and Snickers played with more fireworks.
We hosted a Game Party at the church building also in January. We invited all of the people who have ever been involved with the Let's Start Talking program and had an English evening full of fun and games. We played Pictionary as a big group and then some other board games in smaller groups.
In January we also finally had some winter weather. The snow didn't stay very long, but it sure was beautiful while it lasted. :)
Festivities
There are many Christmas traditions that we have learned since living in Chemnitz. They are all so wonderful and so I want to share them with you all. We have been able to share all of these traditions with the missionaries here. So it was the Sullivans, Cantrells, Karen and us! This year even Courtney's parents, the Wegers, were able to join in on the fun. On Christmas Eve there is always a drive through the mountain villages to look at the pretty lights and of course sing Christmas carols! This year was interesting since it was really foggy and it was hard to actually see all the lights and decorations. We still had fun despite the foggy weather.
After the drive through the mountains it is also the tradition to have a meal of cheese fondue! I honestly had never had fondue before coming to Chemnitz and I must say that I was really missing out because it is so yummy! After fondue we had a gift exchange.
On Christmas morning Clint and I opened all of our presents together. I think it is fun to start new traditions for our own family and I have enjoyed spending Christmas morning with Clint very much!
For Christmas Dinner we joined the Sullivans and Karen. I made sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole and Clint made cole slaw. Pam made turkey and ham and a couple of other side items and it was all quite delicious!
One of the fun things we did after Christmas was go on a walk in the forest near Wasserschloss in Chemnitz.
Catching up On December's Activities
Seeing as though it is the middle of February and I never finished updating about December, I thought I would try to do a short overview (#1) of some of the activities that happened in December. One of the fun things that we did in December was go to Dresden. We were invited by the Carrolls to go to the Christmas Market in the afternoon and then to come to their house for coffee and to sing some Christmas carols. We had a nice relaxing afternoon with the Dresdeners. The pictures that I posted were one of Clint playing with Olivia and Chris and the other is of the Martins, Clint and Ed in the Dresden Medieval Market.
The next picture is of the Christmas Market in Annaberg. This is a town on the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) and it was a mining town. They have a traditional Miner's Parade every year at Christmas time. It was a fun day getting to see another village nearby and seeing a bit of history.
The last two pictures are from a movie night that we hosted at our apartment. The "young adult's" group came over and we enjoyed a fun night of watching a Christmas movie (Home Alone).
The next picture is of the Christmas Market in Annaberg. This is a town on the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) and it was a mining town. They have a traditional Miner's Parade every year at Christmas time. It was a fun day getting to see another village nearby and seeing a bit of history.
The last two pictures are from a movie night that we hosted at our apartment. The "young adult's" group came over and we enjoyed a fun night of watching a Christmas movie (Home Alone).
Friday, February 02, 2007
Article About Bulgaria
It was recently brought to our attention that there is a short article about us in the Christian Chronicle. Click on the link to read it.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Fun with German
At the Christmas coffee time at the church this funny poem was read. It is a mixture of German and English. I thought some people might get a kick out of it. Those of you who know some German will really enjoy it.
Merry Christmas!
Ein englisches Weihnachtsgedicht
Welche Sprache sprechen die Engel? Englisch natürlich, ist doch klar! Und das ist gar nicht so schwer zu verstehen...
When the snow falls wunderbar,
and the children happy are,
when the Glatteis on the street,
and we all a Glühwein need,
then you know, es ist soweit:
she is here, the Weihnachtszeit.
Every Parkhaus ist besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
all to Kaufhof, Mediamarkt,
kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
shopping hirnverbrannte things,
and the Christmasglocke rings.
Merry Christmas, merry Christ-
mas, hear the music,
see the lights, frohe Weihnacht,
frohe Weihnacht,
merry Christmas allerseits...
Mother in the kitchen bakes
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks,
Daddy in the Nebenraum
schmücks a Riesen-
Weihnachtsbaum,
he is hanging auf the balls,
then he from the Leiter falls...
Finally the Kinderlein
to the Zimmer kommen rein,
and es sings the family
schauerlich: "Oh, Christmastree!"
And the jeder in the house
is packing die Geschenke aus.
Merry Christmas, merry Christ-
mas, hear the music,
see the lights, frohe Weihnacht,
frohe Weihnacht,
merry Christmas allerseits...
Mama finds unter the Tanne
eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne,
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
all around is Harmonie,
Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachts-
gans. And so comes die
Feuerwehr with tatü, tata daher,
and they bring a long, long
Schlauch and a long, long
Leiter auch. And they schrei:
"Wasser marsch!"
Christmasbaum is now im...
Merry Christmas, merry Christ-
mas, hear the music,
see the lights, frohe Weihnacht,
frohe Weihnacht,
merry Christmas allerseits...
Weihnachts Kaffeetrinken
Every year in December we have a Christmas coffee time at the church. I know I have written about how coffee is a big thing here in Germany. It's also part of the Christmas tradition of the church here. It's a nice time that we all come together with pretty Christmas decorations and yummy cake and cookies and drink coffee and enjoy the fellowship together.
Another part of the tradition is to sing Christmas songs and other songs out of the church songbook. Also there are a few people who will read poems or read funny stories.
This year the small group that I sing with sang two Christmas songs as well. We have been meeting together on a more regular basis (every Monday night) and practicing for our upcoming Lieder Abend (song evening) on March 4th.
Another part of the tradition is to sing Christmas songs and other songs out of the church songbook. Also there are a few people who will read poems or read funny stories.
This year the small group that I sing with sang two Christmas songs as well. We have been meeting together on a more regular basis (every Monday night) and practicing for our upcoming Lieder Abend (song evening) on March 4th.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Twister Fun
One Saturday in December Allison and Grady Maass invited us over to their apartment for a fun evening of games and fellowship. Earlier that afternoon was the Saxony fellowship singing at the church building in Dresden.
After the singing was over Ed, Courtney, Clint and I headed over to Allison and Grady's apartment. We decided to order Indian food and split among all of us and it sure was tasty. Not only did we have Indian food but Allison had prepared all kinds of tasty Christmas cookies and treats.
After stuffing ourselves us girls decided to play Twister. This is one of those games that I really haven't played since I was young, but Allison really enjoys playing it. In fact the only other time I remember playing it in the recent past was at Allison's birthday year before last at my old apartment. We had a good time then and Allison asked me specifically if I could bring it again.
Even though Allison is pregnant and she said it was getting more and more ridiculous to try to get her body to move in those ways, I think she had a good time... we all did. Here is the most appropriate picture I could find of us playing.
The guys played poker while we were playing Twister. I'm sure they just enjoyed laughing at us rather than playing along. :)
The evening was a lot of fun and we ended up all playing a little poker just for fun and drinking some yummy egg nog that Allison had made.
Thanks Allison and Grady for having us over!!
After the singing was over Ed, Courtney, Clint and I headed over to Allison and Grady's apartment. We decided to order Indian food and split among all of us and it sure was tasty. Not only did we have Indian food but Allison had prepared all kinds of tasty Christmas cookies and treats.
After stuffing ourselves us girls decided to play Twister. This is one of those games that I really haven't played since I was young, but Allison really enjoys playing it. In fact the only other time I remember playing it in the recent past was at Allison's birthday year before last at my old apartment. We had a good time then and Allison asked me specifically if I could bring it again.
Even though Allison is pregnant and she said it was getting more and more ridiculous to try to get her body to move in those ways, I think she had a good time... we all did. Here is the most appropriate picture I could find of us playing.
The guys played poker while we were playing Twister. I'm sure they just enjoyed laughing at us rather than playing along. :)
The evening was a lot of fun and we ended up all playing a little poker just for fun and drinking some yummy egg nog that Allison had made.
Thanks Allison and Grady for having us over!!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Chemnitz Christmas Market
So I know this is way overdue, but I wanted to blog about everything that happened in December and the holidays. Hopefully I can catch up fairly quickly.
First of all, one of the wonderful things about Christmas in Germany are the Christmas Markets. It's such a wonderful tradition that I wish existed in the States as well. I think I really missed out when I was growing up.
The market is full of wonderful smells of great food. Some of my favorites are gebrannte mandeln (roasted almonds), hot chocolate, and crepes. Those are only a couple of things offered to eat. There is of course also the norm: bratwurst, kaese spaetzle (special kind of noodles with cheese) and all kinds of other things.
Clint and I enjoyed going around and doing a little bit of shopping, eating some wonderful food and just enjoying the atmosphere of the market with the constant sound of Christmas music playing throughout. I keep telling family and friends that they should visit Germany in December but I think most people don't want to come "when it's cold". Well, you really are missing out and the cold is really not that bad. This year actually was a very mild Christmas.
Anyway, I am just letting you know that it is a nice time to see Germany. I have always loved this time every year.
First of all, one of the wonderful things about Christmas in Germany are the Christmas Markets. It's such a wonderful tradition that I wish existed in the States as well. I think I really missed out when I was growing up.
The market is full of wonderful smells of great food. Some of my favorites are gebrannte mandeln (roasted almonds), hot chocolate, and crepes. Those are only a couple of things offered to eat. There is of course also the norm: bratwurst, kaese spaetzle (special kind of noodles with cheese) and all kinds of other things.
Clint and I enjoyed going around and doing a little bit of shopping, eating some wonderful food and just enjoying the atmosphere of the market with the constant sound of Christmas music playing throughout. I keep telling family and friends that they should visit Germany in December but I think most people don't want to come "when it's cold". Well, you really are missing out and the cold is really not that bad. This year actually was a very mild Christmas.
Anyway, I am just letting you know that it is a nice time to see Germany. I have always loved this time every year.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Jeepers Creepers
Last week we had a pretty bad wind storm here in Germany. Most of Europe actually had some of this storm which was supposedly the worst storm in 17 years in Europe. Thankfully, here in Chemnitz there wasn't much damage besides branches that had fallen from trees and some fences that were blown down. It was some pretty crazy wind though. In fact, I thought that I was in Oklahoma during tornado season.
The night of the storm I had a really hard time sleeping. The wind was blowing so loudly outside that I was tossing and turning. I was drifting in and out of sleep all night. At one point I was turning over to try to get comfortable and all the sudden I heard Clint say, "Ha, that is funny to hear." I thought to myself... "what in the world is he talking about... why is the wind funny to hear?" Before I could ask him what he was talking about, he sat up, leaning on his elbows and said, "You got the jeepers to the creepers and the creepers to the jeepers." Ok, now I was completely lost as to what he was talking about. Then I asked, "Are you awake?" He laid back down and said yes, but now I know that he was far from awake. I laughed to myself and couldn't wait until he was awake so I could tell him. At some point during the night the wind woke us both up at the same time and I told him what he said... he had a good laugh out of that.
I think this was the first time I have ever heard him talk in his sleep. I enjoyed it, it kept me entertained. Now if he could just remember what he was dreaming about... :)
The night of the storm I had a really hard time sleeping. The wind was blowing so loudly outside that I was tossing and turning. I was drifting in and out of sleep all night. At one point I was turning over to try to get comfortable and all the sudden I heard Clint say, "Ha, that is funny to hear." I thought to myself... "what in the world is he talking about... why is the wind funny to hear?" Before I could ask him what he was talking about, he sat up, leaning on his elbows and said, "You got the jeepers to the creepers and the creepers to the jeepers." Ok, now I was completely lost as to what he was talking about. Then I asked, "Are you awake?" He laid back down and said yes, but now I know that he was far from awake. I laughed to myself and couldn't wait until he was awake so I could tell him. At some point during the night the wind woke us both up at the same time and I told him what he said... he had a good laugh out of that.
I think this was the first time I have ever heard him talk in his sleep. I enjoyed it, it kept me entertained. Now if he could just remember what he was dreaming about... :)
Friday, January 05, 2007
Bulgaria Report
On Tuesday, November 28th we began our trip to Sofia, Bulgaria at 6:00 a.m. Larry Sullivan, Guido Moehler, Ed and Courtney Cantrell and Clint and I were part of the group that went. Thankfully this year Courtney and I were able to go because Eastern European Missions paid for a truck to take about 4,000 Bulgarian Bibles as well as the clothes to Sofia. Therefore, Larry had an empty van and was able to take more people.
The first day, we drove the entire day, going through the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and finally stopping in Szeged, Hungary at around 5-6 p.m. for the night. Once we got settled in our hotel rooms for the night we made our way back out to walk through the city and find somewhere to eat. We found a pretty good Chinese restaurant in which I believe we ended up each eating for an equivalent of 2 euros per person or something really crazy like that. (That is approximately $2.60 according to the awful exchange rate at the moment.)
The next morning (29th) we left by 7:00 a.m. to eat breakfast and be on our way. Again, it was a long trip that lasted most of the day. We continued our drive through Hungary, crossed into Serbia and finally into Bulgaria. I think we made it there by around 6:00 p.m. We had rented two apartments for the week and we found the place and got our things settled in our rooms. That evening we had been invited by Tom and Sheryl Black, the missionaries there, to their house for dinner. It was nice getting a home cooked meal which tasted wonderful and getting to know them.
On Thursday the 30th there was not much work that we could really do because every year there is always a lot of paper work that has to be done in order to allow all the clothes into the country and for us to give them away to people. The Blacks and other members of their congregation were trying to take care of all the paper work on that. So we basically had a free day to relax and see the city. We got up and had breakfast together and then headed out into the city.
One of the first things that I noticed and that was hard to believe about Sofia, is the number of casinos, expensive cars, the brand new shopping mall and the people walking around in very nice clothes who are obviously well off. The thing that is so strange about all those things is that just down the street or even across the street from any one of those things you can see buildings where people live that are falling down, people looking for food in the dumpster and people who are obviously not well off. It is amazing and hard to understand how such a contrast can coexist in one city.
Some of the other things that we saw that day were some really old churches from as early as the 4th century. There were also some very beautiful cathedrals there as well. Just click on the picture above to see other photos of Sofia and the entire trip. One thing that we did visit was a flea market. A lot of people who sell things here make hand made items such as lace and tablecloths. There were also hand painted or carved things that were special to Bulgaria. It was hard to walk through there seeing the desperation in their faces that they wanted you to buy something from them. I'm sure some of them make their living at selling what they can make. We did buy a few special things there. It would have been hard not to. After lunch we had all decided that we would split up for a while. Ed, Courtney, Clint and I wanted to walk around some more to see the city and we decided to meet up with Larry and Guido later. After more walking and my knee began to ache we met up with Larry and Guido at the Mall of Sofia. For the evening we decided to go see a movie. We watched Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie and we really enjoyed it. After the movie we went back to the apartments and tried to get some rest for the next day (we were still unsure of what would be going on at that point).
On Friday, December 1st we met again to have breakfast but Larry had gone to meet with the Blacks and other church members to work out the rest of the paper work. To make a long story short (oh wait, it's too late for that) the rest of us ended up going to see another movie because there was still nothing we could do to help. (We saw Deja Vu which is also very good and interesting) That evening there was a Bible study at the Black's house so we all met there to get the news that the customs would not allow us to give away the shoes. We were allowed to give away the clothes, but none of the shoes. That day Larry had to dig out all the shoes and they boxed them up separately and put them back into the van for us to take out of the country when we left.
On Saturday, December 2nd we got up, had breakfast and headed over to the Black's house. Right by their house there is a club that they rented the room to distribute the clothes in. It is much bigger than the room where they meet for church. We got all the chairs organized and labeled for the clothes when they came. We waited for a while for the truck to come deliver the clothes and then (as you can see in the picture above) the men threw all the bags of clothes in the room while the rest of us opened the bags and put them in their labeled places. We had them separated as far as men's/women's and shirts/skirts/coats, etc. We had approximately an hour to an hour and a half to organize all the clothes and eat lunch before the first group of people came at 1:00 p.m. Thankfully we got it done, but it was sure tight. I was in charge of watching the women's coats and making sure that everyone only took one. We had to make a limit to the people who came in first so that the people at the end of the day would also have the chance to get a coat too. From 1:00 to 6:00 we let in a group of 20-25 people for 30 minutes each and then they would leave and another group would come. At 6:00 p.m. we opened the doors and let anyone come in and take as many clothes as they wanted or could carry.
This experience had its really good points and hard points. One of the best things about it was seeing the smiles on the faces of the people who appreciated all that had been done to bring the clothes for them. They were truly joyful that God had once again blessed them with so much! I think one of the hard points was just seeing how much these people had and how happy they were. I know I have more than enough things and yet sometimes I am still not satisfied. I think this experience was good for me to see how God really does provide our needs when we trust in Him!
After the last group came in we cleaned up the rest of the clothes. We still had about 20 bags of clothes left, but the woman who owned the club said that we could leave them there and she would give them to the kids who come to the club. We were so thankful for that, it was an answer to another prayer! After cleaning up the Blacks took us to a Bulgarian restaurant and we ate some wonderful food! Needless to say, that night we were absolutely exhausted and tried to get some more rest for the next day's journey.
On Sunday, December 3rd we went to church and were able to see all of the people who had come the day before. Many of them had big smiles on their faces as they greeted us and continued to tell us thank you! Larry preached in English and one of the members translated into Bulgarian. At the end of the church service they presented us all with presents and thanked us for the work that we did. We had a short period of time to talk with a few people and then we were off again on our way home. Just a couple of hours down the road we arrived at the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. As we left Bulgaria we had to show them the paperwork for the shoes that we had to take out of the country and that part didn't take very long. They approved it and let us go through. Then we got to the Serbian border and had to wait for about 5 hours while Larry tried to get them to allow us to take the shoes through. Basically, no one wanted our shoes but no one knew what the laws were about taking used shoes through the border. We finally had a nice man give us the approval we needed and we basically would have to make sure to present our papers once again at the border as we left Serbia. We finally left and drove to Novi Sad, Serbia and found the hotel we had booked for the night. Who would have thought that our hotel would have been so nice in Serbia. We told Guido that he did a good job booking our hotel and he said it was the only one he could find on the internet. :)
On Monday, December 4th, we drove more and made it to the Serbian/Hungarian border. Once again it was no problem for Serbia to allow us to leave with the shoes but as we got to the Hungarian border they didn't know what to do with us. We were actually hoping to get rid of the shoes, but no one wanted them in the other countries. Finally, we were allowed to go through and we ended up leaving the shoes in Hungary. We hope that some people who need them were able to get some. After that it was smooth sailing back through Slovakia, the Czech Republic and back to Germany.
As we crossed the border into Germany it was obvious that it was December because all the houses were lit up with the special Christmas decorations from the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). It was so beautiful and so good to be back in Germany!
The first day, we drove the entire day, going through the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and finally stopping in Szeged, Hungary at around 5-6 p.m. for the night. Once we got settled in our hotel rooms for the night we made our way back out to walk through the city and find somewhere to eat. We found a pretty good Chinese restaurant in which I believe we ended up each eating for an equivalent of 2 euros per person or something really crazy like that. (That is approximately $2.60 according to the awful exchange rate at the moment.)
The next morning (29th) we left by 7:00 a.m. to eat breakfast and be on our way. Again, it was a long trip that lasted most of the day. We continued our drive through Hungary, crossed into Serbia and finally into Bulgaria. I think we made it there by around 6:00 p.m. We had rented two apartments for the week and we found the place and got our things settled in our rooms. That evening we had been invited by Tom and Sheryl Black, the missionaries there, to their house for dinner. It was nice getting a home cooked meal which tasted wonderful and getting to know them.
On Thursday the 30th there was not much work that we could really do because every year there is always a lot of paper work that has to be done in order to allow all the clothes into the country and for us to give them away to people. The Blacks and other members of their congregation were trying to take care of all the paper work on that. So we basically had a free day to relax and see the city. We got up and had breakfast together and then headed out into the city.
One of the first things that I noticed and that was hard to believe about Sofia, is the number of casinos, expensive cars, the brand new shopping mall and the people walking around in very nice clothes who are obviously well off. The thing that is so strange about all those things is that just down the street or even across the street from any one of those things you can see buildings where people live that are falling down, people looking for food in the dumpster and people who are obviously not well off. It is amazing and hard to understand how such a contrast can coexist in one city.
Some of the other things that we saw that day were some really old churches from as early as the 4th century. There were also some very beautiful cathedrals there as well. Just click on the picture above to see other photos of Sofia and the entire trip. One thing that we did visit was a flea market. A lot of people who sell things here make hand made items such as lace and tablecloths. There were also hand painted or carved things that were special to Bulgaria. It was hard to walk through there seeing the desperation in their faces that they wanted you to buy something from them. I'm sure some of them make their living at selling what they can make. We did buy a few special things there. It would have been hard not to. After lunch we had all decided that we would split up for a while. Ed, Courtney, Clint and I wanted to walk around some more to see the city and we decided to meet up with Larry and Guido later. After more walking and my knee began to ache we met up with Larry and Guido at the Mall of Sofia. For the evening we decided to go see a movie. We watched Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie and we really enjoyed it. After the movie we went back to the apartments and tried to get some rest for the next day (we were still unsure of what would be going on at that point).
On Friday, December 1st we met again to have breakfast but Larry had gone to meet with the Blacks and other church members to work out the rest of the paper work. To make a long story short (oh wait, it's too late for that) the rest of us ended up going to see another movie because there was still nothing we could do to help. (We saw Deja Vu which is also very good and interesting) That evening there was a Bible study at the Black's house so we all met there to get the news that the customs would not allow us to give away the shoes. We were allowed to give away the clothes, but none of the shoes. That day Larry had to dig out all the shoes and they boxed them up separately and put them back into the van for us to take out of the country when we left.
On Saturday, December 2nd we got up, had breakfast and headed over to the Black's house. Right by their house there is a club that they rented the room to distribute the clothes in. It is much bigger than the room where they meet for church. We got all the chairs organized and labeled for the clothes when they came. We waited for a while for the truck to come deliver the clothes and then (as you can see in the picture above) the men threw all the bags of clothes in the room while the rest of us opened the bags and put them in their labeled places. We had them separated as far as men's/women's and shirts/skirts/coats, etc. We had approximately an hour to an hour and a half to organize all the clothes and eat lunch before the first group of people came at 1:00 p.m. Thankfully we got it done, but it was sure tight. I was in charge of watching the women's coats and making sure that everyone only took one. We had to make a limit to the people who came in first so that the people at the end of the day would also have the chance to get a coat too. From 1:00 to 6:00 we let in a group of 20-25 people for 30 minutes each and then they would leave and another group would come. At 6:00 p.m. we opened the doors and let anyone come in and take as many clothes as they wanted or could carry.
This experience had its really good points and hard points. One of the best things about it was seeing the smiles on the faces of the people who appreciated all that had been done to bring the clothes for them. They were truly joyful that God had once again blessed them with so much! I think one of the hard points was just seeing how much these people had and how happy they were. I know I have more than enough things and yet sometimes I am still not satisfied. I think this experience was good for me to see how God really does provide our needs when we trust in Him!
After the last group came in we cleaned up the rest of the clothes. We still had about 20 bags of clothes left, but the woman who owned the club said that we could leave them there and she would give them to the kids who come to the club. We were so thankful for that, it was an answer to another prayer! After cleaning up the Blacks took us to a Bulgarian restaurant and we ate some wonderful food! Needless to say, that night we were absolutely exhausted and tried to get some more rest for the next day's journey.
On Sunday, December 3rd we went to church and were able to see all of the people who had come the day before. Many of them had big smiles on their faces as they greeted us and continued to tell us thank you! Larry preached in English and one of the members translated into Bulgarian. At the end of the church service they presented us all with presents and thanked us for the work that we did. We had a short period of time to talk with a few people and then we were off again on our way home. Just a couple of hours down the road we arrived at the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. As we left Bulgaria we had to show them the paperwork for the shoes that we had to take out of the country and that part didn't take very long. They approved it and let us go through. Then we got to the Serbian border and had to wait for about 5 hours while Larry tried to get them to allow us to take the shoes through. Basically, no one wanted our shoes but no one knew what the laws were about taking used shoes through the border. We finally had a nice man give us the approval we needed and we basically would have to make sure to present our papers once again at the border as we left Serbia. We finally left and drove to Novi Sad, Serbia and found the hotel we had booked for the night. Who would have thought that our hotel would have been so nice in Serbia. We told Guido that he did a good job booking our hotel and he said it was the only one he could find on the internet. :)
On Monday, December 4th, we drove more and made it to the Serbian/Hungarian border. Once again it was no problem for Serbia to allow us to leave with the shoes but as we got to the Hungarian border they didn't know what to do with us. We were actually hoping to get rid of the shoes, but no one wanted them in the other countries. Finally, we were allowed to go through and we ended up leaving the shoes in Hungary. We hope that some people who need them were able to get some. After that it was smooth sailing back through Slovakia, the Czech Republic and back to Germany.
As we crossed the border into Germany it was obvious that it was December because all the houses were lit up with the special Christmas decorations from the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). It was so beautiful and so good to be back in Germany!
Erich's studio
We were invited to our friend's art studio also at the end of November. He is one of Pam's students and he has been invited to teach an art course at Oxford this summer. So in order to practice teaching in English, he invited all of the Americans to his studio. There we learned how to create our own Christmas cards. I have to admit it was quite fun even though I have never considered myself artistic in any way. First we had to draw a sketch of what we wanted our cards to look like. Then we took a piece of wood, a piece of carbon paper and our sketch and simply traced over our drawing in order to trace it onto the piece of wood. Then we had to carve out our sketch in the wood. Afterwards we chose what color paint we wanted to use, painted it onto the wood and pressed the wood onto a piece of paper. It was very interesting and we all had a good time. It was fun seeing how everyone's turned out.
Thanksgiving in Dresden
Wow, I am so behind on my blog! I am just now blogging about Thanksgiving. This year all the Americans in the Saxony area got together for Thanksgiving in the church building in Dresden. We had people from Leipzig, Oelsnitz, Dresden and Chemnitz there! It was really good and the food was wonderful as always. I made sweet potato casserole which I must say turned out very good. Clint made cole slaw and it was very tasty as well. Clint also made his now famous peanut butter cream pie and it did not last long because everyone loves it! This year I was sad that we forgot to take a group photo so I thought I would post this cute picture of Clint holding Alex Carroll. His parents are Randy and Bri and are missionaries in Dresden. He was very cuddly that day. I also got to hold him and he was so tired that he fell asleep not too long afterwards.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Ice Skating
Back in November my friend Jacqueline invited Clint and me to go ice skating at an outdoor rink in Chemnitz. We had a really good time and then afterwards went to her house and ate dinner with her family. We played the game "Sorry" which in German is called "Mensch ärger Dich nicht." We had such a fun evening!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Wish List Update
Hello everyone! We just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has sent us packages and Christmas presents over the last few weeks. We are so grateful for the love you have shown us. I also wanted to point out that I made an update to our Wish List. I really should have added this when I first wrote it, but I just thought about it. Honestly, this is the most important thing to us right now and it truly could sum up everything we want/need for the next 2 years. Well, enough of the rambling, I will paste the update below.
Wish List
If you really want to help us out and want to know what we really need, then you can send money to our supporting congregation. We are still trying to raise funds (always) and this would be our #1 wish from anyone who wants to support the work we are doing in Germany. You can send a check made out to South Yukon Church of Christ. Please indicate on the check or envelope our names. For example, you can write Everhart Missions on the check in the memo.
Please send money to:
South Yukon Church of Christ
11700 NW 10th
Yukon, OK 73099
Wish List
If you really want to help us out and want to know what we really need, then you can send money to our supporting congregation. We are still trying to raise funds (always) and this would be our #1 wish from anyone who wants to support the work we are doing in Germany. You can send a check made out to South Yukon Church of Christ. Please indicate on the check or envelope our names. For example, you can write Everhart Missions on the check in the memo.
Please send money to:
South Yukon Church of Christ
11700 NW 10th
Yukon, OK 73099
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas!
Clint and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hopefully I will update soon and let you all know what we have been up to for the past month and let you know how we celebrated Christmas. We love you!!
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