On Our Own

This week we left the nest and we're flying on our own. That speaks well of the Healys. They have been wonderful trainers and friends. We can't express our gratitude enough to them for every kindness they have extended to us to make our transition to the humanitarian work as smooth as possible. Thank you again.

We have been in touch with many of the humanitarian couples this week and have had opportunity to talk with them about their work and review future projects with them. We've got clean water and sanitation projects, vision and wheelchair projects, school, refugee, gardening, pig and chicken projects... and much more on the horizon. We talked with one of the elders on the phone and thought we had a bad connection, but it was him chasing down a pig in all the muck. We got acquainted with them and shared a little about ourselves and our family, so we're connected now.

I wanted to share a picture of our apartment building. We live on the 10th floor... we're the 2nd balcony from the top and the 2nd balcony from the left.

View of the apartment building from the area office parking lot

This is the car we are driving for now

This is Daniel and his family. Daniel is our life saver, he does all of the humanitarian accounting we would have to do if he was not there. That could be a major problem.

This is Gilles Francois (standing), our area welfare manager and Elder Healy sitting at the computer 

Sister and Elder Healy, finishing their third mission with a smile

The group: Gilles Francois, Elder/Sister Lindsay and Sister and Elder Healy

Sister Lindsay at her desk.  Still a little jet lagged!

Training

There is so much to do we need 2 monitors each

We spent time with the Healys as long as we could before they left early Thursday evening. Their last night we went to dinner with them at a small restaurant and had some of their favorite foods. Believe me, we will not lose weight here. We have had some delicious food and none of it is low-cal. Lots of butter, heavy cream, and gravy on top of it all. Love it! Our precious time with our dear friends expired that night, as we said good night we knew it was all on our shoulders now. We are so grateful for the work the Healys have done and hope to build upon their great foundation. Enjoy your sweet reunion with your family and that brand new grandson.

We went with Gabbi (the oldest church employee in Europe) to register with the local authorities this week. I drove there and even found a parking place, with a little help from the Lord. We will go for our resident visa in a week or two and then we will be official in Germany for the rest of our mission.

We put in some long hours this week trying to get up to speed with the work. The couples are so full of energy and are working hard to complete projects and open new ones. There is so much great work going on in the area... so that means there is a lot of administrative work that has to cross our desks before those projects can be approved and work begun.

We had a special treat when Gilles took the Healys, us and several other couples out for lunch as a welcome for us and a farewell for the Healys. It was a special time to be together and share our feelings and experiences. For us it was an opportunity to get to know some of the office couples we will be working with even better.

Sister Lindsay picked out some great fruit from the stand in the mall

We've been grocery shopping and found our way around town with the aid of the GPS. Life is good as long as all the electronic devices are working. We gave our phone number to another couple and found that we could call them, but they could not call us. We went to the phone store and found that they had a wrong number entered in their phone for us. When you're out of your own element simple issues seem to be bigger than they really are.

We went to Heidelberg yesterday and visited the castle. It was fun to be with another couple that knew the way and walked us right up to the funicular that took us up the side of the cliff to the castle. We took the tour of the castle and returned to meet them back at the Christmas store. Rain was forecast for the day, but it didn't begin to rain until we were back at the car. It rained the rest of the night and we woke up to a blue sky Sunday. Delivered again.

Our new friends, Elder and Sister Orlowski - We went with them to Heidelberg 

 Heidelberg and the Nekar River, one of the largest tributaries that flow into the Rhine River

We're at the castle wall overlooking Heidelberg and the river below

 Me at the castle

Sister Lindsay

We have listened to the Saturday conference sessions and will listen to the live broadcast of the Sunday morning session. It starts at 6:00 PM local time here. We could stay up and listen to the final session, but we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and we can't be dozing off during the day. We'll download the final session at the office on Monday and listen to it for FHE.

It is wonderful to be engaged in such a good work with such consecrated people. We work hard, and know that it is the Lord's work that he would do it if he was here. We feel the spirit in the work everyday and take joy in our small part of His work. Great conference! We're filled and ready to get back to work tomorrow.

Love to all.