Conference March 26-29

This past week we got to get away for a few days to attend our missions conference. This was the main building at the conference center and is only one part of a fairly large conference grounds. It was a wonderful place to stay and I think we all had a refreshing time!
The morning and evening sessions with our speaker were challenging and thought provoking as he led us through a study of being a true disciple for Christ.




Playing a game and getting to know each other!





The entertainment was great! Sing it, Sister!!



The kids seemed to have fun! Karyn and Analyssa are showing off the shirts they tie-dyed.



Around the town! Notice the street lamps. I thought they were kind of interesting.







Anyone for ice cream?

Spring Break English Camp

Jesse off to camp with a loaded van.








The cooks working hard.




Utta (the director's wife) and son Benedict.





Having fun even though it snowed!



Building snow castles for a contest.



Some of staff. Ingo, the director, is on the right.

Easter Sunday

Bethany is a long time family friend. (her brother graduated from BFA with Sharla back in 1992) We celebrated her birthday and Easter!



These gals are on staff at BFA. 2 are teachers and 2 are residence assistants. It was so much fun spending the afternoon with them.



This is the lovely hostess(my sister) and Tim, and son Tyler. By the way, most every time we looked out the window it was SNOWING!

So I got a phone call from Jesse this am. He is snowed in at the camp. They woke up to 26 cms of snow this am and spent a lot of time shoveling. Jesse wishes he had his snowshoes!?!

Jesse is leaving for English camp today. The camp is located in the Black Forest about 40 kilometers from here. Today and tomorrow they will be setting up for camp and having some orientation. About 55 campers will arrive on Saturday. The weather does not look too promising as they are forecasting snow and cold. They do have a warm center to stay in so that is good, but whenever there are kids around it is good to be able to use the great outdoors for activities and so forth.
We will post some pictures from camp when he gets back with the camera.
Jesse is excited about doing a Sunrise Service with the kids on Easter Sunday. Wouldn't a wonderful sunrise be great? Thank you for praying for Jesse, this camp and all the details.

Happy Easter!

A tree decorated for Easter in a front yard.


Water fountains decorated for Easter.

This is Hannah with her Mom and Dad and baby sister, Rachelle.



Today I got to take care of Hannah and Rachelle. Rachelle was pretty determined to sleep!




Ever 'Happy Hannah'!



Having great fun during a diaper change! I wish you could hear the giggling.




...and more fun!






Cleaning up!



Concentration!

A Baby Shower for Sharla

One of the hard things of being so far away from your kids is missing events like this! I am so thankful for friends and family who capture these moments and send them to us right away! Last night because of 'skype' we also got to see the gifts that were given for the baby at the shower. It was wonderful!



Shawna was able to travel to Seattle to be there for the shower!



In 1992 these three friends...Terra, Joy and Sharla graduated from BFA and headed off for college. Today they all live within 45 minutes (or less) of each other in Seattle area and... all three are pregnant! (Terra lived with us in the dorm during her years at BFA)



More friends from left to right...Diane(from Canada), Joy, hosted the shower, Sharla, Vivian(Ben's mom from Montana) and Shawna.

Walk through the town

We took a walk through town this afternoon. It was a beautiful day.





The church in our village.











These sheep were right at the edge of town.

Flower arranging is so unique over here. These are primroses in a simple but beautiful arrangement. This was a table center on one of the outside tables at a cafe we were at last night with our good friend Carol and new friends from PA.



This cabnet of miniatures was displayed in the entrance to the cafe. It was too dark to take pictures outside but the building that is home to this cafe was built in 1760. The inside is very old and hosts lots of antique items. It is very entertaining just to look at everything.



So are you looking for a knight in shining armor? This could be him!! He's a bit old and creaks a little but he sits tall in the entrance of the cafe we visited last night.