We were in Germany for the Germanic cluster meeting, which is for all our personnel who live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Glenn and I went to do the member care appointments.
This is the hotel where Glenn and I stayed. A nice, typical German hotel. The meeting was held in a small village near the Czech Republic-German border in an assisted living complex. The families with children stayed in the apartments in the complex but those of us without children were blessed to stay in this beautiful hotel down the street, 5 minutes on foot. Unfortunately, neither place had wifi for us to be able to check emails. In fact, no where in the village was there a place to check emails so we had to drive to a McDonald's in a nearby town about 10 minutes away. It cost us 8 euros (about $11) an hour for internet. It didn't really matter that it cost so much because there wasn't much free time in the schedule anyway!
We had a few hours one afternoon for "family time" to do some sightseeing so we went into the nearby town with another couple, Andy and Kaye, to see what there was to see. We went to Zwickau, 20 kilometers away.
Every town has a Catholic church, and this town was no exception.
We saw a skilled craftsman repairing the head to a statue! If you look at the top left part of the picture, you can see the statue on which the head normally rests. Before we left the church, we saw the man climb a ladder and replace the head. Cool!
Some of the other families drove an hour and 15 minutes to Dresden, a much larger town that boasted a Mexican restaurant. We love Mexican food, but we weren't willing to drive that far just for it. Lo and behold! In the small town of Zwickau there was a Mexican restaurant! In fact, it was the same chain as the one everyone else went to in Dresden, and we didn't have to spend all our time riding in a car!
The day was cool, the restaurant was close by, the colors were bright, the food was mediocre, and the company was great!
Oh! Another neat thing was that one of the volunteers who came to lead the worship music is from Jonesboro, Georgia! The world is getting so small!
After the meeting ended, we drove through the Czech Republic to visit with several of our families on our way home. I think we visited with seven families between Germany and Budapest. We got to spend the weekend with Melissa and Larry in Plzen and join them in all their Easter festivities.
Sunday morning we drove about 40 minutes out into the country to attend worship in a village with the Lewis family. Larry preached in the Czech language so that was a special treat for Glenn and me! The church meets in the lobby of an old, old theatre while they save money to renovate the actual theatre to get rid of the sloping floor and self-closing seats.
That afternoon 3 Czech families and 2 American families joined us for a huge meal, an Easter egg hunt, and the story of Jesus's victory over sin and death by using "Resurrection Eggs". Melissa did a great job of talking about Jesus to the children...
...and the adults listened intently to her too!
Czech's don't have the custom of hunting for eggs so this was a new experience for them, and I think they really enjoyed it.
As we headed on to Budapest, we spent a night with the Young's in Brno. Their lovely daughter Emma is into basket weaving and made me a beautiful one while we were there.
I was so impressed! Hmmm, maybe I could get into something like that. I love baskets!
Well, we are home for the next two weeks before heading to Macedonia for a team retreat where Glenn and I will be leading a couple of sessions. For the next week, I won't be doing much-other than responding to all the emails that came in while we were traveling these past two weeks. The week after that, I will be focused on preparing for the retreat. Please pray for me to be able to get a LOT of emails written this week.
Yippee! The Doyles return to Budapest from their 3 month stateside assignment in the U.S. on April 15th. We will be so glad to have them home again! We've really missed them.
Have a great week!
2 comments:
JONESBORO? That's where we live! Truly it is a small world. If you ever come to Jonesboro my sweet husband will be glad to give you a tour through Stately Oaks a 1839 house that tourists want so bad to be the Tara of Gone With the Wind. Sorry Tara never really existed, except in Margaret Mitchell's mind.
Hello Cile!
We've been in and out and about and crazy, from the busyness of volunteering to the spring break runaround. I love this post; what I wouldn't give to be able to visit Germany. And the girl weaving baskets; oh, I think that would be so neat! The lady who caretakes my father in law went home to Kenya for 3 months; she brought me back a beautiful hand-woven tote basket. I'm like you; I love baskets, and I think that would be a wonderful hobby. I also loved seeing someone do the resurrection eggs. As Adam has gotten older, they don't do them anymore (and there are no SS classes on Easter Sunday because of the Easter program). I suppose one could go through them anytime, not just on Easter; it's a story that can be retold over and over. And I love that you introduced a new custom, too, with the easter egg hunt (something ELSE that we ended up not doing this year, first time since Adam was 1!). Changes...
Well, let me go leave an official birthday greeting on the next post! I have a new computer, btw, with a webcam; so we can Skype! Just email and let me know what works for you and we'll chat.... :<) (you know, in all of your "free time"... right?)
hugs.... love you!
Pam and Adam
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