We are STILL here!!

Castle in Heidelburg

Castle in Esslingen

Aren't these roads great!! You just come around the corner and there are more of these wonderful buildings!!!

And old mill

The Mercedes-Benz Museum!! What a contrast to the old!!

So, each morning, we head out to the airport, which is right across the street, with all of our stuff, 4 suitcases!! We get in line, and then find out that the flight is overbooked. Delta is looking for people to volunteer to give their set, for compensation, they give flight vouchers, a 5 star hotel stay, lunch and supper. So we have been doing that all week. We have to wait until the flight takes off, which is 11 am, then we get the vouchers, and head back to the hotel, have lunch, then head out for our day. On Monday, we spent the day in Stuttgart just looking at the town, the plazas, the shops and the churches. On Tuesday,we to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. That was beautiful. It was so creative, in their design and displays. On Wednesday, I had a bad cold, and was really tired. We went to the Ritter Sport candy factory. If you have not had that candy, seriously go get some!!!! It is in most grocery stores and is WONDERFUL german chocolate. Christina got us hooked on that when she came to stay with us!!! We also went to a small village that is totally medieval!! Today, I feel a lot better, so after lunch we headed to Heidelburg and looked around at the castle there.!!! This all seems so unreal to us!! We are so touched by God's grace to give us this extra time here. Enjoy a few pictures...we have taken over 700 already!!! So if I ask if you want to see some German pictures, you have been warned!!!

a review of our week at English Camp

We have a bit of time tonight, so I thought I would update you on what has been happening.

We had very limited access to the internet at camp. Over all, I taught 6 days, 2 hour classes. In the afternoon, we 3 teachers rotated our classes. So I did my two activity days, 3 times each. The three classes were very different, the high class spoke English very well, the middle class, the one I had were very hesitant to talk. They had good vocabulary, but were timid to speak. The lower class had VERY little vocabulary, were very young, all about 13 years old, and very hard to moviate!!! I really felt for that teacher. He was from Canada, was a physics/math/computer teacher. But he did struggle!

I didn’t have much of my lesson plans done before I went, I just didn’t know what the kids knew. We worked on some vocab words each day. They focused on certain areas, about food/restaurant, about emotions, about school,and about character traits. We also learned a Bible verse, I picked ones where Jesus said he was I AM....the way, the truth and the life, the vine, the good shepherd, and bread of life. Then we played a LOT of conversation games. I had them write in their journals, nice way to talk to each one of them in a comfortable way.

There were 26 kids, more boys than girls. In the morning, we had breakfast about 8, cleaned up the house(we were in the boys dorm for Black Forest Academy). Then the counselors (Craig) would lead his boys in morning devotions. So he taught them how to do that. Then the kids came to English class, then half hour of free time, lunch, clean up after lunch, Activity in English (me) then at 3 there were large group games until 6 supper, then chapel, snacks and evening devotions. Craig’s responsibilities were to be with the kids whenever they were not in English classes. So he played a lot of ultimate frisbee, watched a LOT of soccer and played american football. He was very pleased to lead one of his older boy to Christ towards the end of the week. There were two boys that came to Christ that week!!!! That was very exciting.

The Canadian team that we worked with was awesome. They accepted us very easily, we all worked well together. I was so impressed with their own walk with Christ, and the many experiences that they brought to this camp.

I want to thank you all for your prayers. The two boys who met Christ, also want to thank you as well. Your prayers also supported us, as we struggled with the cultural

differences, the language differences, and the typical energy that you have when you put 14 boys, mostly junior higher, together!!!

Then on Sunday, we started our trip home. We left from Basil, Switzerland, and took the slow train to Stuttgart. I think that whole trip took about 6 hours, we stopped in Freiburg for lunch along the way. This was one of the very interesting towns. Again, it was old, cobblestone streets and beautiful buildings, and lots of cute, art-sy shops.

On Monday we went to the airport, and found out that our plane was oversold. The compensation for volunteering out tickets was GREAT. So we stayed an extra day in Stuttgart, just walking around, looking at buildings, people and shops. If we get a chance to stay another day, we will go to the Mercedes-Benz museum, they were closed on Monday!!

Well, I will try to post again tomorrow..bye for now.

We are just finishing up with our second full day of camp. That actually sounds very impossible!! We have had 2 English lessons, both for 2 hours each...and we have had 2 English activities. The first day of classes, things were very difficult. The kids were nervous, as was THIS teacher. But today, things went much better. The campers have been divided into 4 teams, and this has been a very good thing (that was the plan all along!!) They are mixing well, talking a lot of German, but that is important too, since there is a fair amount of English, and that is very hard to think that much!! I am just in-love with our translator, and I hope that she can come to the US for a while. She is from Eastern Germany, and has a most interesting story. It rained today, so we had some major games of Pictionary, Trivia Pursuit, and Name that Tune.
Thank you for praying...the kids are openning up a lot, and they are starting to relax and have fun with the language. We do have a couple of kids who are a problem...but that is to be expected...however, we would like prayer for them, they can be such a distraction to the others.

Tomorrow, we will go to church, and the day is all different. I will not have another class until Monday.

Thank you for checking, for your interest and most of all for your prayers. Something like this could never happen with out people praying!!!

Talk to you again..

Diane and Craig

We are at Camp now

Hello to eveyone. We are now at the English Language Camp in the Black Forest. We had a wonderful time running around Germany, the towns are so pretty, and hilly. Lots of flowers, and beautiful churches. We are staying in a town close to another castle!!!

We appreciate your prayers so much. We missed our train coming to camp, but a man helped us and got us re-routed. We got to the train station, and while we have been without internet, the place got changed on where to meet. We waited about 2 hours, and finally got a hold of someone, our phones don't work here, even though I have things changed at home before we left. Anyway, the number was wrong, then we got connected...it was all a mess, we were tired it was hot and we felt abandonded. But God was there, and we just needed that time to really depend on him. What a good practice run before the camp!!! He was sooo good to meet our needs.

Missing luggage has been returned, schedules are being worked out, and the kids are coming on Thursday. Thank you again for praying, to get all these people, the randomness of getting things ready, and the un-known about the campers, is all trying, but we know that God is here, and the devotions have been very good!!!!

We will keep you updated...thank you again for your prayers

See you later.

Craig and Diane

Wednesday

Down the Romantic Road we go...We took a detour, and went to Innsbrook.It was soooo pretty. We took the tram up to the top, and did some real hiking.Neil, here is some downhill trails for you to look at, there were a few downhill bikers that were riding. It was sooo cool... had a hard time looking down, though...and Yes, Leslie, I sang the hills are alive with the sound of music!!!!!! Stayed at a Bavarian hotel!!

Tuesday

OK, we are already getting messed up....Monday was ULM....then Tuesday, we went to Augsberg. This is were Martin Luther confronted the church.. We went to a palace there on the square. The church that Martin Luther was in, is being completely re-done, the roof is leaking.We will show you pictures of that later, but this is the door that Luther posted his famous docuument, we are saved by grace!!!

Monday, July 5

We left Christina and the group on Monday, they all went to Italy, we took off for Ausberg. There is a beautiful church there with the tallest steeple in the world. We walked up to the top, all 678 stairs!!! This city is such a mix of very old, 1200 and new, an all glass bank!! Lots of people riding bikes, lots of cars, but not as many as we have seen in Italy.