The Calm Before the Storm

Today was a great day. At the christian school down the street we had a school festival where we set up the batting cages and a lot of the students that had been to baseball camp before had a chance to show off their skills to the rest of their soccer playing classmates. About 1/3 of the school is estimated to come from a non-christian background or have any connection with the church at all, so events like this are a great opportunity to reach out to other students and their parents that haven't been involved with baseball camp. There were some other cool things at the festival today. Someone had made a catapult using bicycle tire as the springs. Each class made their own derby cars to race down the hill of the parking lot. Those were really cool!

Earlier this week we were able to accomplish quite a bit. Monday all our baseball equipment came in on a pallet. We unpacked it and then Thursday we organized it numbered it and cleaned up the storage room that we use at the school. We did have a couple of days that allowed us to catch up on some rest, but on Thursday morning before heading to the school to organize all our equipment, Jonathan and I went to first register my address, check, then we went to apply for my residents permit. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. There are a few documents that I need to submit in order to finalize but I am well on my way to being settled in.

Last weekend at BIJ (Believe in Jesus), Friday night youth meeting, we had a night of prayer. This was an exciting time where the students could go between several different stations that provided various postures and topics for prayer. It was a great night of connecting with God! The following day Maribeth and I went with Ralf and his family to a wildlife park that was at a small German castle. We saw some bird shows wolves fed and counted 161 steps to the top of the castle to look over the Eifel region.

The week before we had several meetings preparing for the next year. We met with the school to talk about my involvement. The idea is that I would spend a couple days a week at the school in their sports and English classes. Again on friday I actually attended a couple of those classes just to get a good idea of what I might be doing in the fall. The schools here are on year around schedule, which is why they are still in school but they also have several breaks throughout the year. IN the sports class I got my butt kicked in soccer, but it was a lot of fun and all the students had a lot of fun as they were practicing for their school tournament.

Though we were able to get a lot accomplished this week we have had a good bit of down time to rest up for the next two weeks. Starting Monday we are hitting the ground running we will be at 3 different schools this week giving a little preview to baseball camp. Wednesday night our first team from America will land go to sleep and get up early to join us for the third and final school before setting up camp getting things rolling for BBC '13. I have already talked to a lot of kids that can't wait for Monday morning the 22nd to get here.

It has a been a great time so far! Maribeth and I really appreciate all your prayers and support as we continue to reach out the community of Siegburg here in the Rhineland of Germany.

Follow His call
Nick