How To Partner With Us

We love serving at Black Forest Academy with students from all over the world. In order to keep costs low for missionary families, we raise our own salaries. We currently need about $300 per month to raise due to recent giving changes that our partners have needed to make. We would welcome your partnership with us as we further God's kingdom in the classroom. 

We truly view this process as a partnership. We didn't suddenly start serving God by moving overseas. He has called each of his children to serve in the communities around them. We are each a vital part of the work of furthering the kingdom through our prayers, gifts and service. We warmly invite you to be partners with us in the work of MK education.

If you have never partnered with us or are already partnering, the chart below gives an overview of how to be a part of our team. (Can you tell I'm a teacher? I LOVE graphic organizers!) :)

There are three basic ways to partner with us: pray, give and go. All are so very important!

Pray: Join our weekly prayer exchange! Pick a day of the week to pray for us, and we will pray for you on the same day! Send us an email to let us know which day, your most current requests, and watch how God works through prayer.  

Keep up with our blog & newsletter updates. Pray through the names of God for MKs (missionary kids) & for us. You can join the RSS feed in the sidebar or become a follower of this blog. You will get updates as soon as they're posted!

Give: Join our financial partnership team by giving regularly. We welcome monthly, quarterly or annual gifts of any amount. 

New Partners

You may give by check, electronic fund transfer (EFT) or credit card. To give securely online via any of these methods, go to wycliffe.me/isaacandsuzanne. 

To give by mail, send checks to Wycliffe Bible Translators / PO Box 628200 / Orlando, FL 32862-8200. Please make checks payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators with a separate note indicating "for the ministry of Isaac & Suzanne Micheals #238613." 

Are you a farmer or rancher? STEER, Inc. exists to help this special group give. This organization will give you a calf to raise, and the amount raised at auction will go to the ministry of your choice. 

Current Partners

If you are already on our team, consider giving us a 20% raise or inviting a friend or your church to partner with us. Coordinate giving as a small group or Sunday school class.

Check with your employer to see if they offer a gift-matching program. If they do, you could double your pledge amount without stretching your budget! Forward this blog post to a friend or publish it on your Facebook page.

Go: Join us in serving with Wycliffe or at Black Forest Academy to further God's Word and his kingdom! 

We can't wait to see how our Father will provide for us! We would love for you to be part of his provision.

*We work closely with Wycliffe to set an appropriate budget for our personal & ministry needs. The exact amount we are raising may fluctuate, however. Several factors are involved in this process. Some lovely folks have indicated they will be joining our team but do not yet know an exact amount. At times, partners must change their giving priorities. We do try to portray the most accurate & current figure possible. 

Thank you for your prayers...

Our school community covets your prayers in this season of goodbyes.

Ask that we would remain faithful as He has been to us.

Ask that we would leave and stay well and not fear the goodbyes.

Ask that we would trust God for the future - as staff, students and parents.

Thank you for kneeling with us.

Whole Person Integration

We had the lovely opportunity recently to host an alumnus over our spring break who has become a teacher, a colleague in a different country. I (Suzanne) just love it when that happens... it is also a pretty strange feeling initially. 

"How do you do biblical integration?" he asked from the couch across our living room. "I remember discussing 'what is the purpose of music' in piano class."

Oh yeah... I used to ask that question. What did they do - respond in essay form? I think so. Do I tell him I am pretty sure I still have his paper on that topic from five years ago?

We shared various ideas and methods we have used from how we may approach the subject at large to minute ways of managing our class. "Informal integration is certainly the easiest," one of us says, "but the tricky part is making it assessable. Do we know the student has learned it?" This is made especially difficult when we are trying to assess character or attitude change - the internal changes that are necessary before an external difference can be seen.

It's an ongoing conversation in the educational circles in which we find ourselves, and in concentric collegial places as well. I personally know believing colleagues here in Germany, in the UK and Australia who are wrestling with what it means to be and teach as whole, integrated people. We are still asking and answering questions like, "Why does [insert subject here] matter? What is influence and how do I wield it well? Why am I here? How does sin play into the history and structure of my subject? How has it been redeemed? What is still in need of redemption? What does it mean to love God with my whole mind in academics?"

One of my greatest integrated joys while studying piano performance in graduate school. I became silent and smiled wide as I listened to believing colleagues discuss the Son of God and the sons of J. S. Bach in the same conversation.

When have you most clearly seen or experienced the connection between who God has made you to be (identity) and your chosen subject area? 

End of Break, Beginning of Year

Sitting on the couch, sipping husband-made tea and watching German Netflix's "Mörder Mit Aussicht"... a lovely way to spend a Christmas break afternoon... until I saw how long it had been since updating our blog! So here's to a new start to our weblog. Prost!

We've had lots of great memory-building time with family this holiday season. Isaac's uncle Bill, aunt Mari and cousin Jeremy left to return to Michigan and Virginia in the early hours of the new year, but not before we'd hit Uncle Bill's bucket-list items. We also added a few to his list he didn't know he was missing.

1. Day-trip to the Alps... where at least 3 family members return violently ill... check.
2. Christmas markets in 3 countries: Alsace, France; Titisee, Germany; Basel, Switzerland.
3. Gift shopping in Kandern
4. The Hobbit in Kandern theater
5. Snowy day train trip to Titisee
6. Whirlwind tour of Freiburg
7. German breakfast at Mishlers
8. Brats & schnitzel
9. Laughing our heads off at silly YouTube videos
10. Lots and lots of grocery stores! (Uncle Bill is a retired grocer)

We are thankful for our time with family. Thanks again, Bill, Mari & Jeremy for your visit. It was fun. :)

Gettysburg and Friends

We have had a full week already in Pennsylvania/Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia area. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family. Thank you to our dear hosts and friends who met up with us. It was so good to see you.

The pictures below are of the non-people highlights of the holiday weekend: (clockwise from left) fireworks display in Lititz, PA; discharging weapons at the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg (PA); reenacting of one portion of the battle; Isaac enjoying his borrowed wool threads as he joined the Michigan 3rd regiment for day 2 of the battle this past Saturday. Happy late 4th!

The Stories We Tell

The stories we tell each other matter. In a recent edition of the journal Books and Culture, Wheaton professor Alan Jacobs lamented the tendency of some to praise the value of story as truth, without clarifying that what is being narrated is more important than the narrative itself. So, what kinds of stories do we tell? Are we constantly harping on the negatives in our lives? Do our stories revolve only around us? Do they seem to go nowhere? I believe that as Christians, it is important that we tell each other about what God is doing in our lives, so those stories serve can refresh us, and help us continue on our journey of faith. Western Christianity seems to tend toward the individualistic. While this is good to a point, we need each other much more than we usually believe we do. Each person's story is part of how God is building His kingdom here and now.

As Suzanne and I have traveled from Texas to Michigan, we have heard about the ways that God has worked in the lives of our friends and have shared how He has changed us this year. Sometimes these stories involved pain, other times great pleasure. Often they were a mixture of both, a reminder of the ways that the Holy Spirit uses the hard times to mold and shape and bring forth beauty. Like most good stories, they do not follow a simple path of struggle to liberation, but include doubt and faith interwoven in a tapestry that we believe God will fully redeem when He comes again to redeem creation, and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. We have been encouraged that so many of our friends continue to walk with the Lord, even when they are not perfect. The whole point of the gospel is that we need a savior. We must be continually reminded of this.

Our stories keep us traveling. They let us know that we are not alone in our striving. They show us that in spite of what we are feeling now, hard times will not last forever. They encourage us to be aware of the ways that God is working in our lives when we may find it difficult to acknowledge it. So keep telling your stories to one another. They matter.  

          

The Piano Story: Grandma's Secret Music

This Roland digital piano was a mainstay for me through graduate school at Wichita State University. It had fantastic touch and sampling sounds, and was a delight to the students that came to me as well with its assortment of instruments and pop rhythms. While it was never an adequate replacement for an acoustic, it was a convenient alternative that didn't keep my grandmother, also my roommate, awake until 2:00 a.m., which was often when I put in valuable practice hours."Oh, I'm awake anyway," she would wave me off as I apologized for the noise. 

Pics taken recently to aid in selling the piano before we return to Germany.

Quite unintentionally, the piano became a window for me to glimpse her inner world. A few months after the instrument arrived in her home, I began to notice small things that were different than I had left them: the volume would be higher, a score had been moved or the bench was tucked in. Sometimes it was left on, and once I thought I heard it being closed as I opened the door. 

"Grandma, are you playing my piano?" I asked her one day. 

"Yes. I play sometimes," her eyes twinkling. 

"Would you play for me?" 

Looking down, she replied, "We'll see." 

Eleven years later, I have still never heard her play. She asked my mom and dad to come pick it up a few years ago while we were still in Germany. "I can't play it anymore," she explained sadly, "my arthritis hurts me too bad." 

Grandma this March. She takes fantastic pictures, doesn't she?

Visiting her this semester, I asked if she remembered what songs she liked to play. "Oh yes!" And she began to hum and play her fingers in the air, swaying from side to side in her chair. Even in the absence of a piano, she's still playing.

Bible Study Fellowship

I have been so blessed by these women (and others not pictured) in my BSF group this year. There really is nothing like studying God's Word in a group on a regular basis to knit your hearts together. God has used these women to encourage and challenge me to more fully trust him. He just knew I needed them this year. So thankful.

Isaac Talking "Shop"

The following is a short video that we put together as an introduction for BFA students interested in an AP history for 2013-2014 school year. A good part of it is details about how the class will operate, but there are a few hidden gem moments as well. The filming & editing was done entirely on our school-purchased iPad minis. Enjoy!
AP Histories Intro from Suzanne Micheals on Vimeo.

Names

Name  

noun\ˈnām\

1  a : a word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing

b : a word or symbol used in logic to designate an entity

2 : a descriptive often disparaging epithet <called him names>

3 a : REPUTATION <gave the town a bad name>

b : an illustrious record : fame <made a name for himself in golf>

c : a person or thing with a reputation

"The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

the righteous run to it and are safe."

~Proverbs 18:10

We have learned so many names this year. I have gotten to know new Wycliffe friends, ladies from Bible Study Fellowship and our church, and women in a local book club and German club. Isaac has learned the names of professors, classmates and key figures in the field of Reformation history. We have grown to know our church family members, popular locales in Denton and the talk show hosts on NPR. 

Catching up with Downton Abbey has presented name-learning opportunities [Isaac: "Who is that again?" / Me: *eye roll*]. Dear friends and family have had and named babies (my sister's is still on the way!), and we have continued dreaming our list of potential names for our future children [Isaac: "What about Hieronymus?" / Me: *blank stare* / Isaac: "Polycarp?"]. 

In the midst of this name-learning, I have also been a student of some other names...

Jehovah-shalom ~ the God of Peace

Jehovah-mekkadishkem ~ the Lord who Sanctifies Me

Elohim ~ the Creator God

El Shaddai ~ the All-Sufficient One

Jehovah ~ the Self-Existent One & our Covenant God

Adonai ~ the Lord and Master

Jehovah-rapha ~ the Lord Who Heals

El Roi ~ the God Who Sees

At first I set out to study them for the sake of knowledge. Surely a missionary should be able to rattle off the names of God, right? In the process, however, each of these names has become so sweet and so precious to me this year as he has shown me who he is. 

He is not as I think he is. He is as he is. I so easily forget that. 

It is through these names that he is restoring me and making me whole. Through these names he is a breeze to my dankness and a candle to my darkness that longs for light. As the author of Proverbs had so well learned, his name is most certainly safe and strong. 

I am so thankful to El Elyon, the Sovereign Most High, for Camden, Abigail, Lainey, Lydia, Angie, Sarah, Leslee, Heidemarie, Renate, Britta, Christiane, Janet, Sandra, Beverley, Laura and so many more whose names I have learned for the first time this year. Over the course of the next few months we will be privileged to learn even more names. In July we will return to Germany to learn new names of staff and students whose names have been learned while we were away. How good to know that there is one name that will always remain the same. Praise to that name!

"Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; 

your name and renown are the desire of our hearts."

~Isaiah 26:8

No snow...but everything else

Growing up in both Michigan and Papua New Guinea provided two different visions of what the Christmas season should look like. In the former, the holidays included the fairly typical mixture of trees, presents, carols, church programs, family gatherings and if my memory serves me correctly, snow. Exactly how often we actually had a white Christmas and how often I imagine having one are two different things. I could play the historian and look up the records, but that is beside the point. What I remember is the comfort, joy and warmth of the season. Christmas in PNG was somewhat different. As the only two seasons there are wet and dry, the temperature stayed about the same year round, and so Christmas did not "feel" different than any other time. There was also a noticeable lack of economic buildup to the event, with the Christmas sale at the store my dad managed the only mild exception. There was a Christmas concert at school, and other events of that nature, but the general pathos of the place was not the same. Not that I minded playing tennis outside with Fred DeYoung one Christmas day, or being able to walk around outside in a tee shirt during that time of year. There were many positives, it was just not the same.

Having spent the past several years enjoying Christmas in Germany, with its Christmas markets, festive decorations, and yes, even snow, Suzanne and I were in for a different experience this year. This year, were were able to spend time with our whole families, and though we lacked snow at both places, we had everything else. The two weeks leading up to, and including Christmas, were spent in Orlando, where my family was all together for the first time since our wedding. Actually, since a few new little ones joined the crowd, it was the first time that the family, as it now stands, was under one roof. Much fun ensued, and I don't have the space to fill in all the details, but if you know my family, you can imagine what 17 people, including 7 children in a three bedroom house was like. Good times. While enjoying the balmy Florida weather, we found out that the Mortons were actually experiencing a white Christmas in Denison, Tx, but when we returned on the 27th, most of the snow was already gone. We spent the next week with Suzanne's family where we were able to travel to Wichita, Ks to spend time with her extended family, and return to Texas for the college bowl season, and even some cold weather golf. (Carts with plastic coverings and heaters provided a new golfing experience-thanks Papa Morton)

This Christmas was again different than the ones Suzanne and I have spent together. It was full of family, fun, and rest. We hope and pray that your holiday season was equally blessed. School began for me on Monday, and I will try to post again when the semester is underway.  

       

A Grateful Chorus, well, Medley

This world is not my home / I'm just a passing through  

Grandpa M with his Sinatra hat. Ain't he cute?

In the past three weeks, Isaac's studies have intensified. So has my social calendar. I have visited my 82-year-old grandmother in Wichita, stayed with my 94-year-old grandfather and his sweet wife in Albuquerque, had coffee with my best friend from elementary school, gone to the memorial service of a family friend who loved Jesus and been at the hospital for the birth of a dear friend's firstborn. My heart is full. 

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

My mom & her mother watching the wonders of donut-making. Love. It.

This past summer we found boxes of my old pictures and journals at my grandmother's house. Most of them are still sitting in those boxes, despite the fact that multiple visitors have commented about the empty frames hung on our apartment walls. "We just needed something on the wall." A stack of weathered journals beside our bed calls nightly.

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door

 I "ran into" a former BFA student on facebook today, and we swapped small-world posts and comments. Barbie on her timeline brought back memories of one of my favorite single-girl blog entries: The Jewish Nation and Me: Seder Barbie. Five years ago, in my second year of overseas assignment, I was addressing issues similar to those I find myself wrestling with in this season, while He remains the same.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

Judi, my childhood best friend. We once pretended she was deaf
just so we could pull one over on our waiter. When he asked what we
were having, she signed to me, & I acted like I knew what she wanted.
She'd told me earlier. It was awesome.

Home. Isaac and I have been talking this week about the definition of home. Our conversation becomes a list of ingredients for a favorite stew: each location or house in which we have lived savored and, any of which left out, would alter the recipe.

We agreed that both the home in which our parents live and our current location as a couple come closest to being called home. It's a bittersweet admission. 

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ~ Hebrews 11:8-10

Happy Thanksgiving. May we live obediently, lovingly in this land while we gratefully look forward to the next city. 

Thankful Today for...

Clockwise from top left: Feeding finches at Omaha Zoo, Musing at a Missouri Civil War battlefield,
Silly time at Sonic with Caden & Hannah, Goodies at Gatorland in Orlando

Taking Risks

Our friend Kristi in Thailand is pioneering a program called Embark, training young leaders to impact their world cross-culturally. In following her work with Youth For Christ, my thinking has been challenged in the areas of risk-taking and cultural perseverance.

Living and working together for a couple months in Chiang Mai, she and her trainees go through a serious time of being known, and thus, have serious potential for personal and communal growth. Renting motorbikes and trying new language skills are built into the schedule in order for the participants to be faced with doing hard things and to learn endurance in the face of fear. It puts me in mind of one of my worst fears...

Kristi & I in Germany (she's NOT my worst fear)

In Wichita, I was a volunteer youth leader with Young Life for several years. YL assigned me to an area high school, and my role was to show up and get to know students. Lunch periods, volleyball games ~ I just showed up and started talking to kids. It still amazes me that some of them actually talked back. They let me in, but it usually took a few awkward attempts at conversation over a few weeks. It took perseverance, and I was willing to endure because I wanted them to know Jesus.

Then at one of our weekly leader meetings, our area director asked a game-changing question: "Are you loving students so that they will come to Jesus? If so, then you're in the wrong place."

"Wait a minute ~ isn't that what I signed up for?" I wondered, my jaw beginning to set.

"Or are you loving them because Jesus loves them? If you love people with an agenda, then there will come a time when you will give up on them. If you love them because Jesus loves them, then it is by his power that you will love them."

And I melted. Why do I love my neighbor? Is it because of what he or she could do for me? Is it because they make me feel good or in control? Is it because I want to be the one to change their life? Do my motivations keep me from making risks in personal relationships for the purpose of honoring my friend and neighbor, or do I seek to honor myself in relationships?

I have many fears that keep me from loving well: fear of being known, fear of rejection, fear of being hurt. One of my worst fears, however, is that I will rely on my own power, seek the best seat for myself and will fail to endure.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  ~Colossians 1:10-14

Thanks be to the one whose glorious might it is that gives us all power to endure as we get to know people better and for the first time.

For more on Kristi's work in Thailand, check out the Embark website yourself and send a young person you know to it as well. She's praying for eight young leaders from four different countries for the training session that begins in February 2013. The blog post that inspired this one is below.

My Cup of Tea: Keep On Keeping On: Perseverance Cultural Intelligence is defined as our level of interest, drive and motivation to adapt cross-culturally (fro...

Where My Students Are

Each year at Black Forest Academy a group of seventeen and eighteen year old students graduate and leave Germany, most of them of them for good. Though I don't teach many seniors, I do from time to time try to fill those I do teach in on what life will be like after high school. After all, I once went through the process of leaving the land I grew up in to attend college in my "home" country. I should have something pertinent to say on the matter. The longer I am away from that time however, the more I wonder if my experience has any bearing on the reality BFA students will actually face when they leave. A quick glance at pictures circa 1996 is enough to remind me of how far removed I actually am from high school graduation. At that time a fax machine seemed like the most inventive machine human beings would ever create, and the idea of email vexed me: "So, when you are typing can the other people see you typing?", "How does the letter get over there". Okay, I have now officially veered into old man mode: "when I was your age..."The point is, even though every missionary kid's transition is different, the passage of years made me wonder if mine was anywhere close to what my students would experience.  Nothing is more annoying than a pedantic teacher.

The process of temporarily leaving BFA for this year has now given me fresh insight into all of this. Here I am, attending a new school, learning how to drive in a new country, learning to throw all trash into one bin. Jokes. Suzanne and I are recycling here, so calm down. But the transition has not necessarily been an easy one. I spend most of my day in a small apartment working on graduate studies. I am having to write papers and turn in assignments and follow deadlines. I am trying to adjust to being in a completely secular school after being an an academic environment that is consciously and intentionally Christian. But I am by no means complaining! It's simply a fact that the transition from Europe to America, teacher to student and Christian to secular is one that involves a fair amount of reorientation. Which is where my students come in.

Even though my situation is in many ways different than theirs, I think many of our feelings are the same. The desire to fit in and not make mistakes is balanced with a consciousness of my unique identity that I very much want to share with people. I am trying to figure out what it means to be a Christian in an environment where many people are indifferent or even hostile to the faith. And I am both missing my friends and the places I once knew and enjoying the friends and family I have here. I thought that my study of history would be what would improve my teaching the most when I return to Black Forest Academy. It may turn out to be something else.        

Slow Pitch

Isaac, me and my mom ~ Texas vs. Tampa Bay

Baseball's in our blood. I grew up playing softball and going to Ranger games. Isaac fell asleep as a kid in Papua New Guinea listening to taped Tiger games sent by his uncle (awww...). He lived a year of middle school in Duncanville, TX, and we think it's possible that we were at Arlington Stadium as kids enjoying a mutual game. We both played second base growing up and have each had a dream to visit every ballpark in the US (I guess we better hurry up and make it to Yankee Stadium!).

College World Series game this summer with Chris & Rachel
Look how well they keep their grounds!

Now if Isaac were to write a baseball post next week the difference in our understanding and approach to the sport would be quite clear. He will rant and rave about the injustice of the manager's choice of pitcher based on his current ERA, while I will comment on a funny-looking wind-up or how well they have kept their grounds. However, we would both agree it's fun. So much fun, in fact, that my wedding present to him was to be a Tigers fan ~ complete with track jacket for him and hoodie for me (look for pic next week). :)

Enjoying our favorite sport with people we love is one of the ways we are purposefully slowing down this year. Go Tigers! (and Rangers!) ;)

Isaac & Ernie Harwell at Tigers Stadium

God's Side

My first soccer team: the Tuffies

'Are you for us or for our enemies? 

'Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.' 

Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, 'What message does my Lord have for his servant?'"  

~Joshua 5:13b-15

By the age of 12, I had already been involved in at least eight organized athletic activities: soccer, golf, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, ballet, horseback riding, tae kwon do and baton twirling (yes, I'm counting that ~ my instructor said I did a mean "figure-8"). Often these activities were sponsored by Christian organizations, and I can remember wondering about coaches who prayed: "Dear Lord, help us to win. Deliver us from the visiting team."

"Does God want us to win or them?" I remember asking myself. Both sides seemed likely candidates. They looked a lot like us, though sometimes I liked their uniforms (and haircuts for that matter) better than ours (I appeal to Exhibit B below). If God had sent his angel to tell me, "Neither," it would have made a lot of sense to me.

Is God for or against this hair?

But Joshua's game was for keeps ~ God's people versus the Amalekites, heathens to the core, sons of Ham, accursed son of Noah. God had promised his people the land. He would very soon give commands to kill every man, woman and child. The walls of Jericho fall within a few verses of these, and yet, this heavenly warrior who gives himself the military title "commander" does not take a side between Israel and Canaan. Shouldn't God's commander be for God's people?

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 

~ 2 Peter 3:9

 God had a people, but did he really have a side?

How often do I allow myself to compete with those around me rather than helping them reach their goals? Or perhaps more to the point, am I decidedly and obediently on God's side?

Making a Home

Refrigerator magnets, book shelves, lamps: the elements that go into making a house. What is needed for a home involves something more, though. Sure, it includes all those items that we come to rely on in our daily comings and goings, the ones listed above and so many more, objects we keep for practicality or sentiment, things we don’t think much about until we move somewhere and feel their absence. But a home needs symbol, meaning, memory. Spaces that in and of themselves hold nothing of significance unless viewed through the lens of a personal history shared by the few who have inhabited the place for some length of time.

If it’s the intangibles that people long for when they think of home-that chair in the corner where you read after a long day at work, that kitchen where you taught your children how to cook-then it’s a house Suzanne and I currently reside in, not a home, an apartment, actually and one in a development named Shady Place, where our first day here involved a visit by the police to check up on a former resident. “No, we have not seen that man and no he has not been back since we arrived.” Can’t say the place lacks a panache of sorts.

A temporary home is a strange concept because home implies stability. How can Suzanne and I begin to create something that requires time, only to leave it before the calendar turns over to the next school year? I don’t know the answer to that, and I know I should probably draw the spiritual lesson about our eternal home being our only real one, but while that’s true even here on earth we need still something to rely on, and Suzanne and I had just moved into our apartment in Germany that was only in the early stages of becoming “ours.”

But the project here has begun:  We have been visiting local stores, obtaining public library cards, and filling and organizing our one bedroom place with enough familiarity and comfort to begin building this into a temporary home. Curtains went up today, windows and sills were washed, and a Goodwill run is in the offing. Most evenings have involved a walk around the neighborhood to get a feel for the lay of the land and see what is within walking distance. I mentioned to Suzanne that we have had enough experience moving into and out of various dwellings that surely we qualify for a television slot on the Home and Garden network. Perhaps they don’t have our new number here; the phone has been strangely silent.

Yesterday, we arrived back home to our apartment after a weekend at the Morton’s, a little over an hour’s drive away from us. It felt different walking into a place that was now furnished with our stuff and had a history, if only a week’s worth. It’s a start.   

Bright Links

These past two weeks of Wycliffe Equip have been eye-opening and inspiring. I have learned more about bibleless people around the world {did you know there are around 2000 language groups without a verse of Scripture?}; 

I have been introduced to great new technology {sent my first video emails this week}; 

and have stumbled upon some just plain interesting finds {soooo addicted to Prezi!}.

Hope you find something helpful for you, too.

Inspiring

• Colossians in a year: Isaac and I have been trying to memorize the book of Colossians together, & then I found this lovely little post. Author & blogger, Ann Voskamp, also offers free downloads of her DIY memorization booklet.
• Adopt a Language: Pray for a specific language group that has not yet heard or read the good news in their heart language, and be a part of history-making. 

Saving 

• Money-Saving mom: Sign up for her RSS feed, & you'll get daily coupons & freebies from around the web. Be informed about deals at your local grocery store by checking out her regional store deals.
• Swagbucks: One of Money-Saving Mom's go-to's for earning gift cards. I've just made it my default search engine and am earning 15-20 points a week. At this rate, I'll have a $10 gift card in 2 months. Every little bit helps, right?
• Mvelopes: As we move from a cash-based envelope system to a plastic one, the free basic account on this site has been handy for keeping track of our spending while still knowing how much we have left ~ A product of Crown Ministries. Mint.com is another free alternative.

Communicating

• Eyejot: Quick & easy video email through the convenience of your webcam. Makes it easy to send a more meaningful birthday wish than a facebook post.
• Prezi: a fresh, non-linear presentation format that will soon have you addicted, too! Great for school projects, class lectures or just for fun. 

Signposts

           Suzanne and I have now completed our first week of training with Wycliffe. If you are wondering why we are going through a two-week training program when we are already members and have been teaching in Germany for several years, let me give you a quick review. Since Suzanne and I were members of different missions when we got married, we decided to join Wycliffe together and Suzanne then had to go through orientation. Being married meant that I would join her in that endeavor.

            Preliminaries being out of the way, what have we been up to in this orientation? Well, many things, but one that stood out was a session on missionary kids. Have you ever been in a room where a speaker or presenter is giving a report on a group of people to which you belong? I was not the only MK in the room, but I did feel pressure to speak on behalf of MKs, and something I have always resisted is being put in a box. I suppose that’s a characteristic of a missionary kid. J Anyway it got me into a little bit of self-conscious navel gazing but it also made me think about many of my friends and family who are in the same strange boat as I am. No two MK experiences are quite alike, even with siblings growing up in the same place. As such, I have tried not to judge or make assumptions about how and why an MK acts the way he or she does. Now that I am a teacher at BFA, I am in a position to work with these kids, and I have to figure out how best to do that. I must confess that I often feel at a loss.

My small group guys ~ a weekly dining/discussion event.

            I do believe that I learned something this past week in part from a Facebook post written by a BFA student who I led in a small group for the past three years. He wrote me a very kind note thanking me for being his group leader and stating that he was going to miss me this upcoming year as I will be in the states. It touched me because, quite frankly I had felt so inadequate as a group leader and usually bemoaned my inabilities to Suzanne, who being the encouraging and loving wife that she is, and wise as well I might add, kept encouraging me. It’s interesting when you want to feel bad about yourself but someone you love refuses to let you. She kept urging me to take the long view and to just be faithful in doing what I could, but I confess to dwelling on darker feelings. Then I got this message, and it made me realize that even though I did not have all the answers and the life changing Bible studies, what can often matter is just showing up and caring. It’s true that even though I felt that I was not a great small group leader I care deeply about the young men in my group and pray for them especially now heading into their senior year.

Fun signs from our travels. Who knew Larry had collectables?

So take heart if there are situations in your life about which you are discouraged. Sometimes we seem to struggle on for a while without seeing the results of that effort, and quite frankly, most of the time we never do. But every once and a while we get a glimpse; a signpost on the road telling us we are walking the right way.