UNEXPECTED PLEASURES

We had an amazing experience yesterday (Friday 25 June) when we had lunch with Nicci Vaughan who is store manager of The Job Factory. We met Nicci through my lovely friend Rylla who decided we should be put into contact with each other, so that's how we met.

In short, The Job Factory contains a nice cafe, clothing for sale, musical instruments, all things nice (!!) and a restaurant on the top floor. They employ people who are finding it difficult to get a job and train them up. At the moment they have around 120 trainees, each having a mentor. As well as working they go to school one day a week and learn communication skills, etc.

Here is the web address, but of course it is all in German, but it you go to it, you will get a bit of an idea of what they are up to: http://www.jobfactory.ch/

We were so thrilled to meet Nicci, to hear about how God originally touched her life and has now transformed it and is using her many skills to have a real ministry to these young people through The Job Factory, which was started by a Swiss Christian man with a real vision for helping young people.

We had a tour of the whole complex, including all the offices, print works, IT and factory. Absolutely amazing.

And of course we can't help but smile as we meet yet another person in the twilight of us leaving this beautiful country. And we wonder......what is God up to?!!

SMALL GROUP

Back in April we began a small group in our home here in Schopfheim. We decided to meet weekly on a Monday night and one of the purposes for the group to start was to intercede for Schopfheim. There isn't a lively Church here and we believe God wants us to begin praying for this to happen. Friends of ours who moved to Schopfheim 2 years ago have been prayer walking actively around the village and we hope to do this also, especially when we are shopping and generally meandering around the place.

Last Monday night there were 7 of us in the group and we are praying God will lead us to more people in the area that would like to join us. As a guide we are using the 4 W's

WELCOME
WORSHIP
WORD
WITNESS

This means we can all take it in turns to lead one of these W's. A great idea and we hope to use this in the future as well.

This is an English speaking group at the moment, but we feel it needs to be a German group, though if it has English people in it, this is a great idea. Sometimes English people give a lightness to the group that otherwise might not be there. We are very excited about belonging to this group. We feel blessed and very encouraged at this time.

MY ROGER

One of the great things that has happened since we have been back in Germany in October 2009 is that Roger has had the opportunity to preach every month at Crossroads International Church in Basel. This is an English speaking interdenominational Church and has been going about 7 years. Approximately 120 - 150 people meet together each week. Currently they are looking for a new pastor and really need our prayers as they make this big decision. Here is the web address if you want to take a look. http://www.crossroadsbasel.ch Also you can access Roger's messages from this website. He will be preaching 3 times in June - 13, 20 and 27. Roger is currently thinking and praying about what he will speak on. He has some good ideas that are formulating!! Roger has given away most of his theological library to 2 young German guys who are studying for the ministry. Although this was a hard thing to do, we are both happy that Reuben and Matthias are able to benefit in this way. As theological students you never have any money!

We have been going to Crossroads regularly most weeks but have also been making an appearance at FeG Loerrach just to say hi to our many friends and keep in contact. Last Sunday we were treated to wonderful music by a very professional brass band (12 guys). The service was fantastic and we were so glad we were there. We are not sure when we will get another opportunity to visit, probably not until August.

We recently started a Small Group here in our home, but in English. We are 3 couples meeting and are very purposeful, following the 4 W's - Welcome, Worship, Word and Witness. We are so very blessed to have this time with special people before we head back to Australia. We are so encouraged each week by this group. We are also specifically praying for Schopfheim as there is not an alive, welcoming Church in this area. Both the State Protestant Church and the Catholic Church are without ministers at the moment. We also need to be specific about prayer walking when we go shopping, etc in Schopfheim.

UPDATING AT LAST

It has been a long while since I have blogged here and, with Roger's help I hope to rectify this and bring our blogging friends up to date with what has been happening in our lives since we went back to Australia for 10 weeks in August 2009.

Five days after we arrived in Melbourne we both visited our Doctors for routine check ups (we appreciated visiting our Doctors and being able to speak English after 3.5 years!!). When Roger came out of the Doctor's room, the visit was to change our lives forever. The Doctor suspected Roger had Motor Neurone Disease and gave him the name of a Neurologist to visit. We had to wait 2 weeks to get an appointment then Roger was examined by the Neurologist and he confirmed Roger was in the early stages of MND or ALS.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. (courtesy ALS Assoc. website http://www.alsa.org/als/what.cfm).

Roger has always had very good health, so this diagnosis came as a huge shock to us both and to our family and many friends. As you can imagine, it really put a dampener on our visit back to Australia, especially as time was taken up with more medical appointments and other tests. This meant that our plans to catch up with our many friends did not happen as we had expected, or was cut short (like our visit to Adelaide).

We both felt we needed to come back to Schopfheim, Germany which has now been our home for over 4 years. The photo above is from the summit of our nearest hill at 750m. We have many close friends here and we have enjoyed the ministry we have had here. We were feeling rather shattered and angry that God would cut this short, but now have come to accept that he has other plans for us and we trust him for each day and for the future.

We are in a good way at the moment and we are trying to take each day at a time, make the most of our time together, make the most of our remaining time here in Europe and we have even started dreaming about our future in Australia together and the things we might do, with however long Roger might have left on this earth. We really want to 'seize the day' and we want to continue to be faithful servants here on earth for our Heavenly Father.

OFF TO AUSTRALIA

This photo was taken at Janet and Thomas' Wedding last Saturday 25 July

Roger and I have been reminded several times by our lovely daughter Jocelyn that we have not posted on this blog for many a long month. Our apologies, especially if you keep checking and finding the same old, same old!! Not good at all. But I take a lot more interest in my other blog "Gaynors World" as it is more lighthearted, etc!! I can just rave on there, but don't feel I can do that here!!

It is a shame I don't keep this up to date as we have so many wonderful things to share with you all, especially about what we are doing here in this area of the world in which we live.

We have been here nearly 3 1/2 years and for the first time we are heading back to Australia for 10 weeks this coming Friday. We will get the ICE train from Basel to Frankfurt and then Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur, then on to Melbourne. It is all very exciting and it is taking its toll on me, especially in the emotional department. At least I was able to get a good nights sleep last night. Just wish I could sleep in a little bit, but I can't at the moment.

Whilst in Australia we want to be able to spend good quality time with our family - Tim and Amy, Jocelyn, Glenda and Tom. So, we will arrive in Melbourne, stay for 2 weeks then head up to Sydney for 2 weeks to catch up with family and friends there. Back to Melbourne for 1 week and then over to Adelaide for 2 weeks. Back to Melbourne and then to Perth on 2 October for 10 days. We will fly out from Perth back here to Schopfheim. Don't like to write about it like this as it feels like then the time has gone already!! And my goodness, it is going to go fast enough anyway!

So these past months we've continued to catch up with 'our boys' from the Church. When we come back they would have all gone to various studies and we probably won't see them for a long time.

Roger started up a 'Men Modelling' group at Centrepoint and this has been great to get guys together. They have started to build a model of the sailing ship 'The Albatross'. This group will go into recession until Roger gets back.

I had a lovely afternoon of Aussie baking with 2 Swiss friends and we all had so much fun. Katja and Etta want me to do Christmas baking now!! Could be interesting.

Katja and Etta ready to take home the spoils!!

Raisin Chews, Anzac Biscuits (Oatmeal biscuits) and Monte Carlo's

Last Thursday I catered for a Farewell afternoon tea and this was also lots of fun. I received good feedback and a good recommendation from the lady who I did the catering for. Must do more of it when we come back middle of October.

So, can't promise you will get anything else for the next little while. If only I could inspire Roger to do some posting. He has some great thoughts often which he shares with me, but I'd love him to be sharing it with you as well.

SUNDAY LUNCH WITH "THE BOYS"

We invited 4 of the young men from our German (FeG) Church for Sunday Aussie Roast yesterday. Johnny also came and joined in the fun. I had to get home after Church and put the chicken in the oven and cook all the lovely roast vegies - potato, pumpkin (at great expense found in Migro in Basel but actually from France !!), sweet potato, cauli cheese, parsnip, carrot and beans. Then I made a Butterscotch self saucing pudding with ice cream which was - YUM YUM and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Joshua had to race off early which was a shame, but we did have a great time together. Once again it made me realise how much I miss our kids and Sunday roast together. So we are going to try and do this every 6 weeks if possible. Here are a few photo's for you to enjoy.

back l - r Joshua and Peter. Matthias in wheelchair, Ruben

Admiring the scene outside our loungeroom window!!

Peter visiting the kitchen to check on things!!

EMAIL.......CONCERT........BOYD

It's amazing what can happen in 24 hours!

Yesterday morning we went to our German (FeG) Church in Loerrach. We came home, had lunch and relaxed a bit and then at around 3.00pm we opened our emails to discover an email from a Boyd Owens. I said to Rog it was probably trash, but no, it wasn't.

Boyd is a singer with the Australian group "The Ten Tenors" and they are currently touring Germany, South Africa and then the U.S.A. http://thetentenors.com/

Boyd sent us an email saying he was a Christian, had come across our Mosaic website and wondered if we were meeting Sunday 1 March. We rang his mobile number and Roger spoke to him about meeting up. He then mentioned he was with "The Ten Tenors" and would we like to go to the Concert in Loerrach. He arranged for us to pick up the tickets (which of course were free - but otherwise quite expensive!).

We had the most fabulous time and thoroughly enjoyed being entertained by "The Ten Tenors". If you ever get a chance to hear them, then grab it as they really are amazing entertainers. It was pure entertainment from the moment the concert started until it finished 2.5 hours later (with a short break).

We met up with Boyd afterwards, introduced ourselves and arranged to have lunch together today in Loerrach. What an amazing and talented young man is Boyd. He only joined the group in January and this is his first tour with them. They will be touring until June and then will return to Australia for a few Concerts before they have a break.

We ask ourselves "Why has God brought Boyd into our lives at this time?". It is such an exciting thing! He needs our prayers in what he is doing and he said he would pray for us and our ministry here. Boyd is a PK (!!) and so we will look forward to meeting him and his parents when we come back to Australia in August.

Here is Boyd Owens web address if you want to check him out.
http:// www.boydowen.com

Sorry no pictures, we didn't even get a photo of us together. That was a bit silly!!