Friday, June 2nd

Friday morning we had our first school visit. We went to an evangelical school and sang a few songs during their morning devotional.  

We got to split up into groups and talk to some students. Sometimes they are a little nervous to speak English to native speakers but they do a really good job. We handed out invitations to  the Kinderfest that was happening on Saturday. We had a great time meeting lots of students!

 

We are lunch at the school cafeteria. German school food is so good. Everything looks and tastes like it is made fresh. 

That afternoon, unfortunately, Clint and I had a funeral to attend. A dear friend of ours passed away a few days before we got here. We have been so heartbroken over it. We are thankful we were able to be here to attend the funeral and to hug everyone. We are also so thankful that our campaign group volunteered to watch the kids for us so we could attend. 

 

It was definitely a difficult afternoon to get through. 

 

We were thankful for some time with wonderful friends afterwards. This definitely helped lift our spirits. We were able to join Larry and Pam Sullivan to have coffee with our friends Janine and her mom Kerstin. It was a really good time. 

 

 

  

That evening we had an English Bible Study at the church building. It is always so great to go and sing lots of songs together. That's my favorite part, of course! One of our campaigners, Preston, taught a really good lesson on Jesus as King. He did a great job. 

While we were gone our group sent us pictures and messages about how well the babysitting was going. Ha ha! They are crazy, but we love them! 

 

  

On the way back to the hostel that night the group had to stop at a playground for a minute. 

It was a long, long day. I think that night was the first official night I slept all through the night. I sure was ready for it. I'm so thankful we have our Lord and savior and I'm thankful we have our Christian Brothers and Sisters to help us through this life. 

Thursday, June 1st

In the morning we met at the church building and had lots of music practice, preparing for the school visits we would be singing for. It went well and we accomplished a lot that day. Later that evening, we got to celebrate Clint's 40th birthday! We had invited friends to come celebrate and used this opportunity to hopefully see some of our old contacts and get back in contact, or allow them to connect once again with the church. The other nice thing is that the church is now in a new building since November and we want to let people become familiar with the new location. This was not only a lot of fun to celebrate, but great to see lots of people. 

 

Our friends Sophia and Klara were there

Heidi thought Klara was so cute  

Clint and Mark manned the grill   

Janet brought chocolate and candles

  

Kim and Janet talking

Refusing to look at the camera, except Hope. :) These are some of our campaigners, Abigail, Hope and Preston 

Everyone enjoying visiting  

The Birthday Boy  

Kim and Kathrin

 

Joseph, Larry and Clint

Our friend Janine 

 

Clint got a Karl Marx Stadt mug. That is what the name of the city changed to during the GDR. 

Wednesday, May 31st

We took a train to Chemnitz in the morning. We arrived in Chemnitz around 12:30, greeted by many friends (part of our campaign group, the Sullivans and Sven). We headed to the youth hostel in the middle of the city, where we would be staying. After getting checked in we went to get some food for lunch. That evening, we headed to the church and stopped by a grocery store on the way to buy some sandwich stuff to eat before the EFG (English for Germany) party. EFG is a program where students come from the States to help and teach English using the Bible. There are two students here from OSU doing this for a few weeks. The party that night was a Fiesta theme. They played games and had fun, fellowship and food. 
 

 Playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey 

 

Taco Piñata   

Drawing a story on their "sombreros"

We had lots of fun getting to meet new visitors and friends as well as friends we haven't seen in a while! We were definitely ready for bed that night!

Germany Campaign 2017! Travel Days

Our Journey to Germany

This year will be a test. Is a longer journey to Germany worth paying a lot less? We hope it will be worth it. We were able to get a much better price flying out of LAX, even with adding a flight to LAX and getting a hotel room for one night. We began our journey from Will Rogers Airport at about 3:30 pm. 

 

 

One of our campaigners, Abigail, left with us from OKC. 

 

 

After a short stopover in Dallas (we stayed on our plane) we flew on to LAX. We arrived about 6:30 pm PST. From there we got a shuttle and made it to our hotel for the night. 

 

After a night's rest, breakfast at the hotel and hanging out in our room until about noon, we headed back to the airport. Later, another campaigner, Ginna, flew in from Kentucky and met us there. 

Watching a movie at the airport 

 

Ginna made it!

 

Later in the afternoon, our campaigner, Hope, met us at the airport. She drove in from the San Diego area. 

 

 

That evening (Monday, May 29th) we were off to Dublin! By the time we made it to Dublin, it was Tuesday afternoon (Dublin time) and somewhere around 8 am Central time. It was a 10 hour flight. Thankfully the kids slept and everything went smoothly. 

We had a few hour layover in Dublin before flying to Berlin. We arrived in Berlin about 9:30 pm (Germany time). Unfortunately it would have been very difficult to catch the last  train that could get us to Chemnitz that night so we spent the night at a hotel and took a train the next morning, Wednesday, May 31st. 

After all that...

For a trip that took us from Sunday, May 28th to Wednesday, May 31st to get to our end destination.... not sure if it's worth it to save the money.... ha ha. We might not want to do it that way again. 

Sunday, June 21st

This was our final day of the official campaign. :(

It is always amazing how quickly the time flies by! 

The kids were excited to give Daddy their Father's Day card. 

In the morning before we headed to the center for lunch and worship, we had one last campaign devotional and meeting to talk about what we gained from the trip and how we were affected. It is always worthwhile to reflect on all we had experienced and to talk about how God blessed us through it. We also shared encouraging words with each other and how others in the group had blessed us as well. This is always such a meaningful time together as a close knit group. 

Made it to the center and Clint put his leg up and had some frozen peas on it. :)

Singing and worship time

After worship we sang a few songs to end our time in Leipzig

Mason and Heidi walking together to get ice cream. So cute. :)

Hanging out for a bit before heading back to the hostel for the night. 

Group hug!

We found a little trampoline!

Overall, our time in Leipzig was very blessed. We met lots of nice people and enjoyed getting to know them. We felt blessed to also get to work with the church and grow closer to our brothers and sisters there.