The four men I met

So Saturday I left Kandern at 4am and took a 3 hour train ride to Frankfurt Airport.. stood in 3 hours of extended security lines, took a 6 hour plane ride to Newark, New Jersey, waited 4 hours and then took a 6 hour flight to Portland. And along the way I met 4 men that I want to tell you about. :-) are you intrigued????

#1 Seth. I met Seth in line as we were in the 3rd security line in Frankfurt. We chatted the whole time and it was really great to meet him. He has a girlfriend that he was driving 3 hours to see after we landed in Newark.

After we got through security.. it is kind of strange to go through security measures like that with a man you just met... Anyway.. we made it through and sat in the waiting area... once you enter the waiting area you cannot leave.. no bathroom trips.. you had better make sure that you don't need to go before entering the waiting area. Anyway we are sitting there and chatting when guy #2 enters the scene

#2 I did not get his name.. cause I really did not want to encourage this.. but it is a good story... He is a friendly sort and starts the banter of "are we there yet?" "Suzie is in my space",... yeah well all know that scenario. So I told him we are not there yet.. etc... Then they start announcing pre boarding and he starts mumbling.. getting louder and louder.. "military first, military first..." I asked if he was military.. Yes. he is. Then he asks me if I am 21 years old. I tell him no... I am 31.. he threw a fit.. literally... I asked if he wanted to see my license.. he said no. Then he asked me how old I thought he was.. I paniced.. he looked anywhere from 25 to 45.. yikes.... so I guess mid to late 30s... yeah.. he was not happy.. he is 26... he whipped out his license to prove it and then sulked for a while. Then he says..."well I was going to flirt with you but now I won't."

Whew.. what a relief for me. :-) In between swearing and telling me that I was fired.. he thought he was being funny... yeah.. glad that one did not last too long.

The flight was uneventful. Seth handed me his business card so we could keep in touch. Nice guy.

#3 So we landed in Newark and had to go through customs. I walked up to the customs guy.. he asked me what I do.. I told him I am a missionary.. he very seriously asked me what a missionary does. He gets missions groups going to build houses in 3rd world countries and missionaries going to preach on the street corners and he could not fathom how they are all the same. So I got to tell him that we are all movitivated by our relationship with the Lord and we want to share that love with others by whatever method. He thanked me profusely and wished me a good day.

#4 I was about to board the flight to Portland when the gate attendant informed me that my window seat had been changed to a middle seat and he did not know why but enjoy the flight.. I was irritated... maybe due to my lack of sleep.. but yeah.. bad attitude. So I get on.. cramped in between two people. The man on my right, Mike is #4. We spent the last two hours talking about how God wants to have a personal relationship with him. I shared the gospel. he knows God is pursuing him. I was so tired and I kept asking God to give clarity of thought and words. towards the end of the conversation Mike told me that he has never heard so much clear conviction and sharing about Jesus. Praise the Lord! I was pumped.. no longer exhausted. God is amazing. I challenged Mike to talk to God on his 1 hour drive to Salem that night. He kept saying. "this is a big decision.. I know I need to make this decision." I shared with him how God moved me to that seat and that now I knew why.

So yep. the 4 men I met on my trip. and as a bonus...

#5 I was in the Denver airport on Monday afternoon and I went to Taco Bell to order some lunch... been awhile since I had taco bell... but I walked up to the counter and the man said, "good Morning sunshine" We talked for a while and he just kept telling me how nice I was and friendly and cheery (I know that was the Lord. I was TIRED) and he gave me a free drink and told me he needs more people like me to come through the line. That was nice. And no.. he was not trying to pick me up. :-)

How is that for a different type of post from me?

So, I was in Nottingham this past week for a conference. This conference had about 1200 people...of every language you could look for in Western Europe and some others too. I loved walking through the groups of people and hearing Lithuanian, then German, then Greek, then French, then Dutch, then Spanish, then Portuguese, then British.. :-) and a bit of Northern Irish.

I salsa'd, disco'd, had a newcastle...well more than one.. you can't get that in Germany, I took a lot of notes-I think I type faster now than ever before, got told by a Greek that there must be something really wrong with me-because apparently I am very attractive so there is no reason that i am still single other than something being wrong with me...good grief! -What about God having perfect timing??? I walked up and down"THE DOWNS" multiple times-that is a really large area of grass that separates one side of the University of Nottingham from the other side, listened to a variety of speakers, got little sleep, met lots of new people-some fun, some frustrating, got better acquainted with some people I met earlier this year, ate a LOT of jacket potatoes, met with the Lord... It was eventful.

a day to sightsee

So yesterday I had the pleasure of taking a day to sightsee. Grace, who has been on STINT in Rome this past year, was up to visit me this weekend. She and Brad and I went on a train ride on Saturday so she could see Freiburg and Titisee and we could all see Schluchsee. Here are some photos of the day. :-)
this is what happens when you hand a man a camera... he takes photos when you are not expecting it! and Brad has the longer arm so we could all get a self portrait with the beautiful Schluchsee behind us. and here we have Titisee... I have posted photos of this place from the winter... it is amazing in the summer too! I went in the water up to my ankles and it was actually warm water! Beautiful!!!

The rest of the Italy story

Well, here it is about 2 weeks since I returned from Italia and I have not finished the story.. so sorry!
And I keep trying to post photos with this.. but alas.. no such luck. Sorry...

So.. we arrived in Verona on Saturday and went for a tour of the city with Rick Steves on Sunday. We saw it all...
the whale bone that will only fall if someone walks under it who has never lied. It is still up there in case you were all wondering.
We saw the house of Juliet... only we all know that she is not a real person. but apparently all the tourists find it very fascinating...
And we saw the Arena.. it is pretty much fully intact and they have broadway productions and various musicians come and play there during the summer.

Tuesday Louisa and i went to Lake Garda to go swimming... 2 hours after leaving the hotel we arrived. The Lady told us that the last bus to get back to our train station would depart at 1520. No problem. We had 3 hours to lay in the sun and swim too! Only thing is... I went to put on my suit and realized I had left it at the hotel. bleh. I still enjoyed the sun. And when it was time to leave... we waited for the bus...and the bus drive told us that his bus did not go to the train station... after much discussion and the help of a nice man.. Felice... we discovered that the bus actually went all the way back to Verona.. cheaper and faster than the train would have been. That was nice. So we got back to the hotel, changed and went to meet Kristin in Verona... where we had dinner in the Piazza Bra and listened to Eric Clapton playing live in the Arena... it was amazing!

Wednesday we all three went up to Gardaland... Italy's number 1 amusement park. it was loads of fun on water rides and roller coasters. Good day

Then it was back to pack up... Kristin went back to Portland the next morning... and Louisa and I went back to Rome... had an adventure getting to our hotel and another great person to help s get back into the city from our hotel. We got to meet up with the remaining STINTers in Rome. That was really great since I began this year getting to know them.

And then it was back to Kandern... Ah... .Kandern... so lovely, so refreshing... Yes. I skipped many stories... you'll just have to ask me about the hotel mix ups, our last dinner. Italy winning the final game of the World Cup. The cab driver who spoke German. The guys we met at the Verona train station. The smells of the train to Rome. The adventure in finding our Rome Hotel... yeah... it was an adventuresome week.

When God directs.

So, I am not sharing the rest of the Italy story in this post cause I have something really cool to share.

Last night some family friends from oh so long ago... came through town. I love the Anderson family. They we coming through Kandern on their way back up to where Jon lives as he is in the AirForce. There are three more kids in the family.

Julie and I were really good friends when we were younger and I love that God keeps bringing her into my life.



They arrived last night and we went to dinner at the local Greek restaurant and then had ice cream at the local Eis Caffe and then I took them for a mini tour of Kandern. Really.. the whole family are refreshing people. Each in a different way.

This morning we all went running and I have been trying to figure out a path that people keep telling me about... it is supposed to end up in the next town over after you go through the forrest and I have yet to figure it out.. many attempts... :-)

Anyway... as we were jogging along, Klarice the mother, asks me some questions and then she wanted to pray for our families.. so we are praying .. she is praying. I was marveling at the faith of this woman! She prays over any and everything. taking it straight to God and she immediately thanks God for the answers!

So she says amen and we come up to a fork in the road. I sugggsted that we could take the path to the left or we could return from whcnce we came. She said, "let's take the other path" so we started up the other path and up in front we saw a dog sitting next to something on the ground.

When we got closer we saw that there was a woman, obviously having fallen from her bike and obviously in a LOT of pain. She asked in German if we had a cell phone and in my German I told her that I did not and asked what happened. She explained a bit and where the pain was. Then Jon, came up with his cell phone so I dialed the woman's husband and she spoke to him about coming to get her.

I asked if we should stay with her and she assured me that it was okay for us to go on... Now Klarice and Julie are both nurses.. but I did not know how to tell the woman that in German.

We headed on and about half way back, John comes running up with his cell phone hands it to me and tells me that the man wants to know where to find his wife. Apparently he had gone out looking but could not find her. And he was, understandably concerned. I did not remember which "weg" she had been on so I convinced him that I would run back to her and then call him again. He seemed reluctant but agreed

So Jon and I take off running a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile back down to where the woman was and everything went well from there.

When Jon and I were climbing back up the hills we came up to a table where Klarice and Dave and Julie were praying for us and the woman.

How amazing is the Lord? He directed our paths to this woman who needed help and had no other way of getting help. And I got to tell the husband that G0d directed us to her.

Please pray with me that she would heal quickly... she could not put any pressure on her left leg without falling down.