Picture of the Month

Here is the picture from Josh's story!

A crazy guy with fish in his hands.

One night after a party, we were all hanging around in front of the church building. A man, that has been know to walk through the streets of Hildesheim shouting random comments at anyone, approached us. His attire was casual at best, leaning towards scandalous. His shorts took the meaning to an extreme. As he came closer to us the contents of his hands became visible. He held a dead fish in each hand. As he walked he seemed to have no particular destination, he was just walking, with dead fish, and that is what his only intentions were. We made eye contact. His destination became certain. He would not look away from me, as I could not look away either. Ready for his predictable remarks he is known for, I waited. "Hey! I saw you on the Television, You killed 7 people !" he shouted in his native tounge, German. I did not understand a word he said, responding as if I had a clue by nodding my head and smiling. After I agreed with his rediculous accusations, he transferred one fish to the other hand extending his invitation to shake mine. A man that murdered 7 people. I codially returned the courtesy and shook the fish ridden hand of this man. The experience was transcendent. I wonder what Jesus would have done.

Luckily ,one of our own, Benjamin Bratcher was there to document this occurance with a photograph seen above. If you look carefully you can see the fish in his left hand and with his right hand, the handshake.

Halt! Polizei!

Did you know that it is illegal for two people to ride on one bike in Germany? Well, Josh and Benjamin (the Bratcher's eldest son) found that out the hard way last week. Josh was hitching a ride on the back of Benjamin's bike when a Police van swerved in front of them, lights flashing an all. The Policeman held out a sign that said "Halt! Polizei!" and pulled them over. He let them off, but its a 20 Euro fine per person if you get caught trying to hitch a ride on a bike.

Speaking of Benjamin, praise God because he was baptized on July 11, 2007 by Kyle, his father. And it just so happened to be on Kyle's birthday. What a wonderful birthday present!

The weather here in Germany most certainly isn't Summertime weather. It has been cold, overcast and rainy for several weeks now. But everything is green and we are staying warm and dry despite the weather.

Thank you for your prayers for Ariel's foot! She went to the doctor and found out that her foot is not broken. She has just been walking on it a lot which caused her foot to be overworked and overstressed. She took care of it and is now able to go running and her foot doesn't bother her anymore!

I will be moving into the WG (apartment) near the end of August. Thank you so much once again for your prayers concerning my living arrangments. Please pray that I will be a positive influence on the girls whom I will be living with.

Also, please continue to pray for my language skills. I am learning more and more each day and I can now carry on simple conversations with Germans! I did make one blunder last night. I was telling Maribel, a girl in the youth group, that I wanted a piece of cake. Well, I actually said I wanted a piece of the kitchen. The word for cake is "kuchen" and the work for kitchen is "Kuche"...so as you can see it would be very easy to get them mixed up. Oh well. You live, you learn, you laugh.

Thanks for all your support and your prayers!
-Kelly :)

Oops!

Oops...the order in which I uploaded the pictures wasn't the order in which they appeared. Julia and Ariel are in the top photo, and Lara and I are in the bottom photo. Thanks!

Photos, a Prayer Request and a Praise

The first photo is of Lara and Kelly. Lara is the daughter of Kyle and Susan Bratcher. She is 3 years old and is the cutest little kid ever! The second photo is of Julia and Ariel. Julia, the youngest daughter of Don and Cindy Roehrkasse, took Ariel and I out to lunch at a traditional German Pancake house in the center of Hildesheim. The pancakes were the best breakfast food ever! They are like thick crepes, only they resemble American pancakes from the toppings you can put on them: banana, chocolate, whipped cream, berries, etc.

Ariel and Josh are in the home stretch of language school. They are finished this Friday. Meanwhile, I will be in language school until the end of September.

One prayer request is for Ariel's foot. She seems to have injured it a few weeks ago and hasn't recovered fully. Please prayer that her foot heals quickly.

One praise is the girls from the Wohnungmeinschaft (apartment) have asked me to come live with them! Thank you to all of you who have been praying about this. God is good!

Blessings!

-Kelly :)

LOSER TEA

Here's your chance to OFFICIALLY be jealous of the three of us here in Germany... we can drink "loser tee".

Wie gehts?

This photo was taken one Saturday afternoon when our Teen Group took a bike tour of Hildesheim. Pictured: JD, Kelly, Ariel, Josh, Benjamin, Kelsey and Claudio.

We are now in our third week here in Hildesheim and enjoying every minute of it! If you would like to be added to Kelly's monthly update, please send an email to: kelly.luallin@student.oc.edu.

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for us!