SPIRITUAL

It is so wonderful to work in a place where you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit every day. I am experiencing a new freedom of worship. I never tire of listening to the missionaries tell of how God has transformed the lives of so many people, in the most amazing ways. Faith is more than a 5 letter word to them!!!

MINISTRY: BIG WHOOPS!

Wednesday, it is my first day to learn Moodle, an on-line course software for interactive classes. Sue Hoxie is trying to put my feet on the ground running. After some initial muddling through Moodle, I picked up some sense of how the software worked. The afternoon was much more productive. I’m working on a Bible Training Course, which will be the first to be completed. During the learning process, I accidently deleted a WHOLE book……….Sue said I was doing real good if I messed up that bad --- so quickly. That is one mistake I won’t make again!!! It has taken me all day to recover from that one. This is one that will be converted into Italian as soon as I am done. No pressure of course!! . We have at least seven courses that will need to be done while I am here.

DANCING LEAF

I gave personal training to a missionary from Spain, at the conference last week. We got to talking about writing and I shared one of my short essays with him. “Dancing Leaf”. He asked to share it with his church in Spain. Several others asked for copies and copies to share. It was quite an encouragement for me. My story may go around the world in 90 days.

I found that all this travel is beginning to wear me down a little. I was so tired this morning, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I took off on a walking errand to help wake me up. I had to get some office supplies. Pens/Pencils/Note Pad Paper are provided by the missionaries out of their own funds. Had I known, I would have brought some of my own, but they are not too expensive, and you’re a lot less wasteful when It comes out of your OWN pocket.

As soon as I get my camera charged, I will take some pics of the team I work with and the LOVELY town I am living in. Mullheim. If you look on a map, it is near Basel, and Swiss/French border. Most of them EDOT group have other mission teams coming in this week, and are out of the office. It is just Sue and I right now.

STAIRMASTER CENTRAL

GEM Office is on the 3^rd floor, appx 50 stairs, no elevator. It’s like being forced to walk the stairmaster gangplank every morning. Actually, I usually make at least 3 or 4 round trips a day. I’ve calculated, that each round trip must be worth at least 2 slices of potato walnut bread, or ½ apple strudel. My apartment is also on the 3^rd floor no elevator. Somebody trying to tell me something?????

GENERAL

Here I am, first couple of days on the job. Yesterday was a crash course in German at the grocery store. I learned familiar words, like “ohne Fatt” without fat, and when I bought my first glass jug of milk I was tempted by the 8% fat jug, but I was “sehr gut” (very good), and got the 1.5%!! Here grocery shopping is different. You shop every couple of days and bring a few things home for dinner. Can you even imagine going to Costco and having to bring all that food up 3 flights of stairs? Much less where you would put it after you got it up there. Kitchen’s are usually small, therefore the appliances are smaller as well. Refrigerator is about 15 cubic ft. I have to change my way of thinking…..small and less is better.

Tonight I got the full walking tour of Mullheim. From the apartment, to the bank, to the town center square, park and grocery store, and back home. Sue showed me all the good restaurants, and which stores are the least expensive, and where to get the best coffee in town. What else do you need?

Tomorrow I get the “garbage training”, and washing machine instructions (it takes about 3-4 hours to wash and dry one load of clothes) and it is about the size of an apartment sized American washer. Instead of wash and wear, here in Germany it is wear, and wear, and wear, …….. and wash.

I won’t even go into the trash detail, other than to say there are 5 types of garbage, three of which are picked up on your street on alternating weeks, different days, and different times, and 2 types you have to deliver yourself at specific places, times, sorted by color of glass and plastic.

Also, have to be very conservative on water and electricity. It is very expensive here. We unplug electric things from the wall, because they draw juice even when turned off. Did you know that? No Long Hot Showers here, at least not on a regular basis.

Sue has two cats, Smudge and Oreo. It keeps me from missing my own cats, but nothing keeps me from missing my husband, grandkids or friends. Your emails are greatly read and re-read, and greatly appreciated. Thanks for keeping in touch. If you should somehow get “in the spam folder” I try and look at my spam every day and add my friends into my address book.

Will send this by email, and add to blogspot later with pics of town and team and cats. Blog is jstoneEuro@blogspot.com

Sue is continuing to teach me a little German throughout the day. She says I have good german pronunciation. I may not know what I’m saying, but I can repeat phrases pretty well. Good thing she’s a Christian, she could get me in some real trouble.

Pray for continued strength.