This week, Laura works at the Christian bookstore and next week, Thadd works at a bike shop.  Then we’re done with the planned practicums.

To see more photos of our trip, please visit our photos page: http://www.wereonamission.org/photos/

So what’s next?  Well, next week, we’re visiting some missionary friends of ours in Dublin to encourage them and to get away from Germany for a bit.  The week after, we start 2 weeks of practicums.  I will work the first week in a Web Design Firm and the second week in the Christian Bookstore.  Thadd will work the first week in the Christian Bookstore and the second week in a Bike Shop.  The goal of these practicums is to be forced to speak German and help our community a bit.  We’re astonished at how willing people were to help us in this.

Then after that?  Well, we’re going to start in working with TEFL and eDOT and working some days on the construction at our new office.  My parent’s are coming for Christmas (yea!) and then we’ll be full-time in both our ministries.  We’re already starting to plan trips and if all goes as planned, Laura will be headed to Ukraine in March and Thadd will be joining a TEFL team to a city in Germany that is north of here.

Please read our next newsletter that will come out soon for more details on what language school has taught us.  It truly has been a wonderful experience for us and we’re so grateful that our organization allowed us so much time to learn German - it has made a huge difference in how well we’ve adjusted to life here.

Only through His Grace…

…And Prayer.

We came to the conclusion that maybe prayer is another variable that Christians have had in their life, and I mean others offering intercessory prayers on our behalf, whether it be during our pre-natal stage, or early childhood, or even our rebellious teen years to return to God. The prayers of those around us for our every day situations and for our eternal salvation (not that the two are mutually exclusive, Phil.2:12-13) must really have an impact on us and God’s will encompasses those prayers and our lives are changed by His grace as a result. Who knows how, but thanks be to God that He does and that He uses such broken vessels to pray for His will to be done in the lives of others.

So this reminded us that part (a large part) of our ministry is to pray for those around us, in our community here, new friends, missionaries, our family, and young families, supporters, and church members back home also, as we seek God’s will for the future with hopeful anticipation of his Kingdom to expand and His glory to shine.

We then went to Subway for lunch with John and Amy who joined us at our house afterward.  We had a meeting in the afternoon with some people at our house (which went well, although it was my birthday) and then Thadd locked me up in a room for a 1/2 hour.  During which time, he made me dinner and when I came down, there were our friends including our teacher, another teacher at the school and his wife.  We had a lovely meal (very tasty - Thadd’s a good cook, but I heard he had help) and afterward, I opened up more presents!

It was such a nice time of relaxing with friends the entire day and I feel so loved and appreciated.  Thank you to everyone who really made this day special for me.  It is hard being away from “home” on your birthday, but honestly, today, this felt like home.

When: March 5 or 6 to March 16.
Where: Kharkov, Ukraine
Cost: $850 for team fees plus airfare (into Kiev or Kharkov)

If you are interested and would like more information, please email us.  This is an exciting opportunity to share Christ to Ukrainians using teaching basic computer skills.  You don’t need to be a computer science major to be a part of this!

The link to the virtual prayer page is: http://www.gemission.org/Pray/Strategic.asp

Thank you for joining us in prayer!

Once you have your pumpkin, cut off the stem on the top and bottom and take a knife and slowly rock it into the pumpkin to cut it in half (like you would cut a watermelon).  It’s hard work so find a friend to do it for you (or a husband).  Once you’ve cut it in half, dig out the seeds with a spoon. Now lay the inside of the pumpkin face down and slice each half in half.  Now you have 4 quarters of a pumpkin (yes, I was a math minor).  Cut each quarter one more time in half.  So now you have (drumroll please), 8 pieces of pumpkin!

Now, slice the pieces of pumpkin into smaller chunks until your hand is too tired to continue.  If you’re observant, you’ll notice that we did not remove the peel of the pumpkin.  That’s because you can eat it and it’s actually the best part for you. If you’ve choosen another type of pumpkin, I can’t vouch for it’s edibility so check before you try it.

Now, we’re ready to start on the soup.  You’ll need:

Onion (diced)
Butter
Pumpkin (see the above paragraphs)
Water
Vegetable Bouillon
Dry Sherry (1/2 cup)
Salt & Pepper
Half and Half (1/4 cup)
Nutmeg
Parsley
Pumpkin Seed Oil (optional)

• Saute the onion in butter until the onion is transparent.
• Add the pumpkin and cook for about 5 minutes.

• Add 1/2 cup Sherry and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Heat 20oz of water and add 2 Tbsp Vegetable Bouillon - add it to the soup (the amount of water you add will depend on how much pumpkin you have.  If it’s too thick at the end, you can add more water.  So when in doubt, start with less water).
• Let this mixture cook until the pumpkin is soft (about 10 minutes).
• Now take a handheld puree mixer and puree the soup (if you don’t have one, you can use a food processor instead - it’s just more of a pain).
• Now add 1/4 cup Half and Half (or more if you’d like it to be extra creamy)
• Now comes the experiment.  Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and parsley until it tastes just right to you.  This is a preference thing…
• Finally, add a Tbsp of Pumpkin seed oil to the soup and mix it well.

That’s about it.  This should make enough for 5 people.  Pumpkin soup is very filling so beware!

1.  To learn how to play the guitar (I guess our goal is a fitting one given the lessons we’re taking)

2. To practice our German.

So how did it go with those two goals, you might ask?

Well, the first one went pretty well, we know how to play the guitar (at least 2 chords now and Thadd found that he can read guitar music pretty well and will be finger picking soon).

The second goal, let’s see, we measure this by how long it takes the other person to switch into English - I think it was all of 30 seconds.  But she didn’t stay in English - only when we had a hard time understanding what she was saying which wasn’t often.  Generally speaking, we understood most of what she said to us and we didn’t slow down the class.  I guess that’s how we should measure success!