A Bit of Adventure

January and February brought some adventure our way. It wasn't exactly spontaneous, but three trips in a row came up rather quickly.

A New Citizen

First, as you may have known, we applied for Dori's US citizenship. By the estimated processing times, we were expecting to make a trip to the USA in late Spring or early Summer to complete the process. That was until we received a letter for her appointment at the end of January! We had to scramble to find a plan to get back to the States. Ultimately, we decided to send her and Erik for a week to get it done. It was a lot to travel transatlantic with a 1-year-old and a challenge to leave dad and a 3-year-old to fend for themselves for a week. Our friends and church in the Minneapolis area embraced Dori and Erik for a week. They provided rides, housing, a car, and lots of coffee dates. In the end, she was able to complete the process in one day, and Dori is now a US citizen!

Italy

I received an invitation to teach at a YWAM Base in Trentino, Italy. They had a sudden speaker cancellation and needed someone to fill in. Luckily, it was a subject I had taught before, but it would be a week after Dori and Erik returned from the States. It turns out the Italy YWAM base wasn't that far away, and they had access to a small Airbnb-type apartment that could host the whole family. So we decided to go for it! We packed up the car and enjoyed a beautiful 5-hour drive over the Alps. I taught in the mornings on the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Psalms. I was able to bring in a lot of understanding of geography and archeology, and how it relates to what happens in those books. The students and staff said they appreciated it as they were able to understand the stories in ways they had not before. In the afternoons, we all got to take in the beauty of the Dolomites and enjoy some pizza and gelato. It was also great to connect to another YWAM base and build relationships between bases. Which I did a lot of the next week...

England

After finishing teaching on Thursday, we jumped back into the car and arrived back in Germany that evening. On Friday, I dumped out my suitcase, threw my clothes in the washer, repacked, and then on Saturday, I took off for England! I returned to my old base, YWAM The Kings Lodge, for a gathering of many YWAMers working in the area of Biblical Studies. It was an amazing time hearing what the mission is doing in the areas of Biblical Studies all around Europe and beyond. We had great times of connecting, encouraging, and studying with each other.

DBS Hurlach

It took some time, but we finally got the Bible school restarted here in Germany. We started in early April with 8 students and 3 staff (plus me). The students and staff come from Germany, Switzerland, the USA, Paraguay, Moldova, and India. The students jumped right in, and I have been blessed by how engaged they have been. I taught the books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Psalms. Now we have guest speakers from all over the planet for a while. I'll be teaching for YWAM Pisa in a week, but will do it over Zoom, so no cheesy holding up the tower of Pisa picture for the next update, you're welcome. I'll finish teaching this quarter with "Paul Week" in June (ya, it's a lot of books for a week). Thanks for following along!

We have decided to ditch the website as we don't post enough to justify the costs. So this is probably the last post; we will be switching to email updates.