The Arrival

We finally made it to our new home in Neuhuetten and met our new church family.

Our adventure started when we left last Friday to drive to Asperg which is about 40 minutes from Neuhuetten to stay the night and then visit the IKEA there early Saturday morning.

Some things to note: German roads are very crowded in the summer. We were stuck in traffic quite a few times on our way up there. And, german highways ( autobahn) are a lot smaller than US highways, so even though some stretches of road have no speed limit, it’s no good if a semi is trying to pass another semi and there are only two lanes.

Also, German IKEAS are very busy on Saturday mornings. It felt like we were going to an amusement park.

We got all our shopping done (we had done some online shopping before hand, so we’d only have to pick it up). We also got a used sleeper couch that we found on the local ebay section.  My cousin Philip borrowed a truck from his work and met us at IKEA to help transport everything (and lug the couch down 3 sets of stairs..sorry.

When we arrived at our new home, we were greeted by some families from the church who had prepared a typical “schwaebisch” lunch for us. Maultaschen…if you don’t know what that is, look it up. It’s great! The kids got to play on the playground and we had a lot of help moving our things in. Oh and there were flowers and balloons and they had already put our name on the mailbox and made us feel so so welcome. We were truly overwhelmed by all the help we received and how friendly the people here are. There was even dishsoap and candy and other essentials ;)

So we spent the rest of the afternoon (and the next day or two) setting up IKEA furniture. Elea even got to help put her own bed together. We bought some pizzas at the store and tried out our new oven. (once we figured out how it works….)

Our first night here was a little rough, but that’s understandable. The kids had had a really long day and were notably overtired.

Sunday morning we got to meet our new church family and again we were overwhelmed by the people who went out of their way to greet us and take an interest in us. They even sang many English songs, just for John. We said goodbye to Oma and Opa after church and had our first lunch at our new place as a family of four. We spent the afternoon with a family from church who took us on a tour around town and the church building.

It still feels so surreal that we are here now. During the church service we were introduced and the person preaching pointed out to the congregation what a great opportunity this is, having us here, to have someone with church experience come in and take a fresh look at things and being able to point things out that are going well but also things that could need improvement.

It is super humbling for us to be that kind of person for them. Our first service this morning was already such a great experience and knowing that they encourage us, giving input on things and being open to constructive criticism, takes a lot of pressure off.

We are looking forward to working and serving alongside them and developing new outreach opportunities.  Even though most ministries at the church are on summer break right now, we are already planning to plug in when things start up again in September. We are super excited to see what God has in store for us and his church here in Germany.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We will be able to stay in touch better once we get internet at our house… feels really strange being cut off from the World Wide Web.