Even Lilly gets cold when it snows. She loves to get under the covers!!

It Feels Like We're Kids Again

We were so fortunate the past two weeks to find bicycles for both of us for a really good deal. Bicycles here a super expensive, like 1000€ for a good one. If you aren't aware of the terribly weak dollar right now, that's a little over $1400. (We still get paid in dollars). I found a website for a place that sells used ones for 70-80€, and then you can sell them back to the guy to get some of your money back when you leave Germany. This place was such a hole in the wall, but he had some really nice used bikes. He sold us Danny's bike for 80€ and I got mine for 63€. Mine has a great basket on the back and a loud bell, so I won't run anyone over.

So on Saturday, we spent the day riding around on our bikes. We went into the Stadtmitte of Reutlingen to find the salon that where I am going to attempt to get my first haircut since we've been here. I am really nervous about getting my hair cut. But I know if I can't speak about exactly what I want, I have tons of photos of the hair cut, so we should be ok, I think.

This coming week is going to be a short one for Danny. Thursday is All Saints Day, so he doesn't have to work. He also took off for Friday, and we are going to spend the weekend in Swabia. We are going to Neuschwanstein. This is a magnificent castle; the one that Walt Disney based the Cinderella castle on. I think we'll take our bikes and ride around some of the mountains in the Swabian Alps. Anyway, that's what we're up to. We'd love to hear about what is going on back home, so feel free to email us or leave a comment.

Die Brüdergemeinde

On Sunday, we went to a church in the town of Krontal. This is about 1 hour away from where we live. I have a friend from high school who went to seminary near the area, and he told us about the place. He said that they are very missions oriented and very friendly. He was so right!! We just happened to go to the church on Missions Sunday. There were displays from all of the missionaries they support, and most of them, I think have come from the church. One of the missionaries works in Brazil and is married to a Brazilian woman. He speaks German, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French. WOW!!

When we arrived at the church, we were a little late. One thing about German churches is that they start promptly at 10 am. The church bell rings and service begins. Even though we were late, we were ushered to the second row, which was a little intimidating with the HUGE projection screen right in front of us. They began to sing some worship tunes. They actually had drums, guitars, a bass, piano (as opposed to the organ), and several singers. It was refreshing. The first song they sang was an American song, but translated into German. So I quietly sang the song with the words I knew. The next few songs were German worship tunes, so I read the words and tried to keep up. The words were so encouraging, so God focused instead of "me" focused. So I'm thinking this is good. Then, they did a presentation of several of the missionaries, and one of the missionaries to Africa gave the message for the day. I was surprised at how much I understood.

When the service ended, people kind of hung around to look at the missionary displays. There were little bistro tables set up with some juice and mineral water. People gathered around them and fellowshipped with each other. I was so happy that people didn't just leave right after service. There is a connection between these people. In the meantime, we met Jarrit Andersen. What a gift from God!! We began talking with him, and he invited us to his home for lunch. Jarrit is a 20 year old student who is the drummer for the church. So we decided to join him and his family for lunch. We met Elka and Klaus, his parents, and many other people who came to lunch there. We ended up spending the entire afternoon at their house talking about God, life, German culture, work, and everything under the sun. The love of Jesus was just so evident in these people.

They invited us to attend the evening service (Gottesdienst). Klaus, himself, had really pushed for about 2 years to have an evening service that was more contemporary and upbeat. They have this service once per month. The service was amazing. People stood up and talked about what God had done in their lives. One lady, who works in one of the orphanages that the church runs, stood up and said that 2 of the children in the orphanage had gotten saved!! This just blessed my socks off.

Afterwards, there was fellowship, food, and drinks. We met so many people, many of whom spoke very good English. It was just such a blessing to be around people with the same heart for missions and outreach, and the same heart for Christ. We haven't seen this here in Germany at all. We got numbers and email addresses from people we met, and hopefully we can build lasting friendships with many of these people while we are here. It's a beautiful thing to have uplifting people in your life. You don't realize how important it is until all of them are thousands of miles away!!

So I feel that a prayer has been answered, and my heart is full.

Add France to "Places I've Been"

This past Saturday, we woke up and decided we would drive to France for lunch. There is a cute little city about 1.5 hours away called Strassbourg that is right across the border. So we went there, and we had so much fun. There was this huge cathedral in the city that was the big tourist attraction, I guess. It was the most ornate thing I've ever seen. The churches here in Germany are beautiful, but the architecture was totally different there in France. I'll put some pictures up from that trip. Go to picasaweb.google.com/mrsehl

By the way, we are going to Greece in November, I think. I am so excited about that. I think it's amazing to see things that were here even when Jesus was walking on earth...things that have that much history. It's really cool.

Just a Thought....

Today I truly realized why, in the Book of Acts, God sent down the tongues of fire on the people, and they spoke with other tongues. In Acts 2, the Word was being brought forth, and people from all over the world were gathered together in one place. They didn't speak each others' languages, so how on earth were they going to be able to understand the Word being delivered? As soon as the tongues of fire fell, everyone was able to hear the Word spoken in their own language. I surely wish that would happen now. I want so much to be able to share the Word with people here, but HOW? I am learning the language, and I can speak and understand a lot more now that I could a month ago. But they don't teach you in language class, things related to sharing the Gospel. So I am praying that God would send down His wonderful tongues of fire, so they can hear His Word. And if He doesn't, that He Himself will speak to the hearts of the people here, and that they will develop such a hunger to know and understand who He is.

 
 
 

1 month down; 11 to go

Well, we've been here a whole month!! It doesn't seem like it's been that long. We haven't found a church yet, but we are going this Sunday to a church that one of my long time friends recommended. I think they have head phones you can wear to hear the service in English. That would be awesome. I'm at the point in my German language skills where I can understand what people are saying, but I have to physically translate it in my head into English. The hope is to one day not have to think about it at all. It can be really draining when everyone is speaking German at one time. Your brain cannot physically keep up with all of the conversations. Here in Reutlingen, we are in Schwabish country, which basically means the dialect is so difficult to understand. Even Danny has some trouble with it sometimes.

Our apartment here is really nice. We have a nice sized living room and dinning room. We have one spare bedroom, so if anyone wants to visit, there's a free room open for ya. Our kitchen is kind of interesting. It's probably smaller than my closet at home. It's basically like a cubby. Needless to say, I am constantly telling Danny to get out of the kitchen.

So, we are still trying to find our place here. The culture is all about clubbing and partying. That makes for a large mission field, but actually making friends is hard. The people Danny works with are really nice, but they don't really do anything after work. I think if we can find a church, it will be easier to make friends and find some ministry opportunities. There is a couple next door that we've met. They are from Hungary. We're getting to know them, and waiting for the door to open to talk to them more about Jesus. So pray for the door to open, and for Jesus to do His work.

We love you and miss you all so much. If anyone has a Skype account, let me know. We can talk. I am ps27gurl on Skype and AIM.

Tschüs!!

 

Pictures

Hey everyone. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures online. Just go to http://picasaweb.google.com/mrsehl and you can see what we've been up to.

We're here. We're safe. We're good.

We've been here now for three weeks. It takes a long time to get things done here, thus the reason this is my first blog since we've been here. We've had some great times here exploring different cities and meeting new people, but nothing can compare to the friendships we have at home. I have a picture of us with our best friends, Kenny and Tiffany, above the tv, and sometimes it makes me sad. We miss everyone so much. My mom and I talked yesterday through Skye. We both bought webcams before I moved. It was so nice to see hers and Johnny's faces. It's amazing how close you can feel even though you are thousands of miles apart.

We haven't found a church yet. The free churches aren't the easiest to find. It isn't like America where there's a church on every corner. It's not so popular or acceptable to be a sold out Christian here. We did pass a building last night that made me happy. I guess it was a youth building for a church. (There was no sign). But they had "Jesus Freak" posters all in the windows. I think we may try to go there if we can figure out when it meets.

Anyway, all in all, we are having a great time. We just miss everyone, so send us pictures, email us, write us, or whatever. We appreciate and love you!! Pictures will follow. Right now, Danny's dad, Bruce, is here, so we are going to go to Stuttgart and explore some things.

More to come...