May 29, 2008 - Thursday - You
might have guessed by our lack of posts that life and
ministry have entered another busy phase. Our first mission
team of the summer season, a team of college students from
Roberts
Wesleyan College, arrived on May 22, and we have been
busy keeping them busy! Besides spending quality time with
the Oaza kids, the team has also been helping us and Oaza as
we all prepare for Grand Opening celebrations for the new
Shalom House this coming Saturday. You can read about their
work and adventures at
www.xanga.com/romaniamissiontrip.
As mentioned, Oaza is hosting a Grand Opening
celebration on Saturday for the new Shalom House. I (Scott)
have served as construction manager for this project for the
last 18 months, and this celebration means that I'm done! A
number of guests and supporters are arriving from England
for the celebration, and I'm told several leaders from the
local political and social service offices will be in
attendance as well. Pray that the events of the day will be
a good witness to the community and that celebration of
God's provision for the children will stay front and center
in all the activities.
Speaking of Oaza, on April 18 we posted on
our website an appeal for donations to offset a funding
crisis for Oaza's day-to-day needs. We praise God that many
people stepped forward with extra gifts and that Oaza has
received enough funding to continue normal operations for
the next couple of months. After that, though, it simply
depends on on-going donations. If you'd like to become a
regular donor and/or child sponsor with Oaza, send Paula an
email at
frankee85@gmail.com. Scott
Click to send us a comment
May 19, 2008 - Monday - We're
back home in Arad after a 2:00am Sunday morning arrival. We
left our friends' home in France on Friday morning with the
plan to arrive in
Munich, Germany by early afternoon.
However, our plans changed after our car battery died at a
rest stop somewhere between Stuttgart and Munich. Thanks to
my Dad's advice many years ago, we did have jumper cables
with us. A bit of universal "sign language" with a friendly
German man at the rest stop convinced him to give us a jump.
We were then able to drive to the next large town, find an
auto parts store and a salesman who spoke broken English
(all without a map of the city), buy a new battery (they
actually had our model in stock) and some wrenches, and find
an ATM (because the store didn't accept our type of credit
card). Stephen and I then made the switch in the parking
lot, and we were on our way...with more than an hour delay.
Not far down the
autobahn we ran into our
first major traffic jam of the entire trip, in a
construction zone outside of Munich (yes, even the Germans
find it necessary to clog their autobahns with construction
zones). Over an hour delay here totally wiped out our plans
to visit the
Dachau Concentration Camp outside Munich on
Friday afternoon. So we decided to find a hotel in Dachau
(the suburb) and then go to the concentration camp first
thing Saturday morning before driving on towards home. This
turned out to be a very pleasant change of plans. We spent a
relaxed evening in
Dachau (it is a rather wealthy suburb on
Munich now), including a yummy and authentically German
meal, a walking tour of the old (13th-century) town center
of Dachau, and a stop at a really good German ice-cream
shop.
The hotel we stayed at was located across the
street from the Dachau train station. This station is now a
modern hub of train travel, but 70+ years ago it was the
arrival point for Hitler-regime political prisoners assigned
to the Dachau camp. The city has a wonderful
walking path,
with explanatory plaques posted periodically, along what
used to be the rail line from this station to the actual
camp. So we decided to walk this 3-mile (my estimate) path
as a family...the same path that so many walked to their
death in the camp.
The Dachau camp has been wonderfully restored
as a museum and education center. As you might expect,
visiting such a place was not exactly fun. In many ways it
was sad and sobering...especially when standing in the former
gas chamber and in front of the coal-fired ovens used to
cremate so many thousand human bodies. But still it was good
to visit and be reminded of where the dark side of our
humanity can take us. In fact, this is why the museum
exists, so that such horrors as the holocaust might never be
repeated. (click on the photo above to view some of our
pictures of the camp)
We departed from Dachau/Munich mid-day and
headed for Austria. We drove through
Salzburg but didn't
feel we had time to stop. The hills were definitely alive
with beauty, but I personally did not hear any music (think:
Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music). We'll have to
go back sometime and pay homage to the birthplace of Mozart.
We ended up in
Vienna around dinner time, so we stopped
downtown and found a nice sidewalk cafe, Then it was back in
the car for the remaining six-hour drive to home.
We thank God for the opportunity to take a
break from ministry these last two weeks, for the safety
over the 4400 kilometers (2750 miles) of driving, for the
wonderful things we got to see and experience, and for a
couple of special people who boosted our vacation savings to
allow such a trip.
As you might expect, though, no good vacation
ever goes unpunished :-). Our first mission teams of the
summer season arrive this week, and that means ministry more
busy than "normal" (whatever that is). But we pray that God
will work and be glorified in the midst of it. Scott
Click to send us a comment
May 15, 2008 - Thursday - Due
to some technical difficulties, we've had to change our RSS
feed manager. You will need to re-subscribe to our feed in
your news reader by clicking on the RSS button above. Sorry
for the inconvenience. Scott
May 14, 2008 - Wednesday -
Following the European missionary retreat, our family has
been vacationing and staying with our colleagues
Marvin, Lisa and Amelie Klein in Kembs, France (just 10
minutes northeast of
Basel, Switzerland). We have been enjoying day trips
around France and Germany visiting quaint villages, a
castle, an amusement park, and hopefully tomorrow swimming
at a nearby water park.
Mayor’s
office in Basel, Switzerland.
A
family pic in the village of Riquewehr in France. It was a
beautiful village. In the picture we are seated next to a
wall that was built in the 13th century.
Paula
(and later Lydia) had a fun ride on Marvin’s motorcycle
across the French countryside.
The
Europa Park amusement park is unique in that each area
of the park is themed (buildings, rides, food) after a
different European country.
We
were thrilled to have Amelie join us for the day. Lydia and
Amelie (who is acting sad in this picture) are pictured
standing near a piece of the Berlin wall.
Scott
is waving to us from the first car of one of the tamer
Scandinavian coasters. There are two other favorite rides of
our family… the 73 meter (237 feet)
Silver Star roller coaster (favorite of Scott, Stephen
and Lydia) and the
EuroSat which is an indoor rollercoaster with twists and
turns in the near darkness.
Today
we drove north for about an hour to the historic city of
Strasbourg, France. The
Catholic cathedral there is breathtaking, and the
historic town center is quite beautiful as well.
The
Klein's have a Labrador dog as well, Athena. Madyson and
Athena have hit it off very well and have even become
swimming pals in a nearby canal!
Click to send us a comment
May 9, 2008 - Friday - Our
missionary retreat here in Les Houches, France is wrapping
up today. Two families have already caught their flights
home. Some of us, including Paula and me, left early this
morning to drive an hour "through" Mont Blanc (via an 11km
tunnel) to the historic town of
Aosta, Italy. It is a beautifully restored town that has
both wonderful, modern European shopping and ancient Roman
and pre-Roman ruins. We'll get some pictures posted in the
next day or so. This afternoon we hiked to the
base of one of the nearby glaciers here. I'm including a
short photo album below:
For more complete reports of our daily
retreat activities, please visit our colleague's website at
www.winckles.typepad.com. Scott.
Click to send us a comment
May 6, 2008 - Tuesday - Today
we're sitting on a deck in the beautiful
sunshine
in Les Houches, France. We are surrounded by the vastness
and beauty of the Alps, namely
Mont Blanc. We left our home in Arad early Friday
morning and set off driving across southern Hungary,
Croatia, Slovenia and into Italy. Our first extended stop of
our trip was in
Trieste, Italy, which lies on the coast of the Adriatic
Sea. We enjoyed a walk in the city and a delicious Italian
dinner along one of the canals.
More...
Saturday
morning we set off across Italy with a stop in fair
Verona. In school the last couple of years, Stephen and
Lydia have read Romeo and Juliet, so we decided this
stop would be fun. The city is so beautiful and interesting.
While
strolling through town, we visited the “House of Juliet.”
People were clamoring to get into the courtyard and take
pictures of Juliet’s balcony and to get a picture taken
touching Juliet’s statue in rather private ways (for
good-luck we’re told). The story of Romeo and Juliet
was set in Verona but the “House of Juliet” is simply a
tourist attraction…no real correlation with the story.
It is so
interesting how dogs are treated in Western Europe. Madyson
is on the trip with us, and she has been welcomed on the
streets, in restaurants, and even in the hotel where we
stayed. At the street café in Verona, they even served her
with a bowl of water. We continued on our way across I
taly
and arrived in
Chamonix, France to our missionary retreat setting. Our
route included an
11 kilometer (6.8 miles) tunnel from Italy to France
under the Alps. There is just no way to describe in words or
even in pictures the beauty we saw in each of the countries.
Total travel distance was 1550 kilometers (960 miles).
On
Sunday, we gathered with our missionary colleagues for a
time of worship in the morning and then in the afternoon we
toured a local town, Chamonix. In the evening, we all
attended the local protestant church. The church was built
in 1860 and still functions today as the only protestant
congregation in the surrounding community.
Julie Allman and
Jan Coleman led in worship and
Pastor Mark VanValin, our speaker for the retreat, gave
the sermon.
Monday
the group visited another French town,
Annecy, for a peaceful stroll around the old part of
town. In the evening, I (Paula) was a judge in a chocolate
tasting contest.
All of the missionaries brought with them chocolate made in
their own country of service…meaning we had chocolate from
Greece, Belgium, France, Hungary, Romania, Spain, USA and
others. The winners were Greece and USA (Herseys) in the
milk chocolate category and ROMANIA in the dark chocolate
category!
Today
was a down day…relaxing. Our family, including Madyson, took
a hike up the nearby mountain side to enjoy the view. We
hung out around a mountain stream for a while so
Madyson
could play in the water. It is interesting how just two days
ago we were at the Adriatic Sea and now we are at the foot
of the highest mountain in Europe. But no matter where we
go, we can see the beauty of God’s creation and enjoy His
presence in it. Paula
Click to send us a comment
