KEEPING TRACK OF ERWIN & GAIL: Coming to you from Germany

Having spent 4 days in France at the sending base there and now almost 3 days at the German sending in Eppstein, Germany, I am finally finding some time to talk to you again. First let me tell you about our time in France. We were greeted by Jean-Daniel & Racheal Koob, who are the only full time staff at the Headquarters there. There is a shortage of staff there as the outgoing sending base leader has not been replaced as of yet. The France field leader is assuming some of that responsibility and comes in 2 or 3 days a week from Strasberg Fr. He was there when we arrived, his name is Scott and if it is left up to me and my memory as to what his last name is then I’m afraid Scott will forever be known as Scott something or other. We spent the first day there walking around town and doing some shopping so we could look after ourselves to some degree. We also spent more time with Scott, Jean-Daniel & Rachel getting to understand how the French base works and how it handles any maintenance concerns. Scott decided that he would stay over one extra night to take us sightseeing the following day. So the next day he took us way up in the mountains to a 1^st world war battle ground. There we found a very large cemetery with its many crosses row on row for almost as far as the eye could see. From the cemetery we walked further up the mountain and all along the way we saw holes in the ground, craters caused by many mortar shells pounding at every possible spot on the mountain side. At the top of the mountain, along what was then (in 1913) the France/ German border, we were able to walk in the trenches, stand in the bunkers and actually experience the places where many soldiers lost their lives as a cost for the freedom we experience today. Unlike the concentration camp we visited earlier, where people died meaningless deaths, this place was not a morbid place to be. Yes, many people died there but for a cause, whether it was Allied or German soldiers, there was a cause and a willingness to die maybe even a pride in dying and that pride could be felt in the place. After walking for many miles around the mountain top we went further up another mountain, by car, where we went to a farm café, yes, a café on the farm among the cattle and sheep, where we enjoyed a splendid platter of meat pie and vegetables before returning to headquarters and sending Scott on his way home. Sunday we went with Jean -Daniel and Rachel and four of their five children to the largest evangelical church in France where Rachel sat up close behind us and translated the entire meeting and didn’t seem to bother the people around us that she was talking English all during the service. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing as Gail came down with a bad cold and is still suffering a bit while we speak. We left France early Monday morning and trying our best to avoid those high-speed raceways they call Autobahns, we turned a 3 hr. drive into an 8 hr. road trip and arrived at the base here in Germany in time for the evening meal.

Now, let me tell you about our short time at the German sending base. Gail, while still trying to dump a bad cold, did some much needed laundry and visited with some of the ladies around here. While I, for the first time since we left Gateway, found myself, “working” alongside of a young man, who is the maintenance manager here, doing some gyprocing in an apartment he was converting in the upper level of house #3. Yes, I said house # 3, that is the 3^rd house in a row of 4 houses, all part of the WEC compound here. The 1^st house, now known as house #1 is an old house built by a Jewish couple in the early 1920s, who had to abandon their dream at the beginning of WW2 to flee from the Nazis. It later became a children’s home and then WEC took over the property in the late 60’s. They built house #’s 2&3 in the mid 70’s and finished the construction here by adding house # 4 in the 90’s which now houses all the offices along with some flats on the 3^rd floor. It is an amazing complex, housing many staff members and their families. This morning we took a drive into Eppstein, where we found yet another castle on top of a hill, of course, which we climbed up to and then climbed to the top of a very high tower from where we could look over the entire area and see for miles. Having returned from that expedition, I now find myself telling you all about it. So I will post a few pictures and let you go for now. We will be leaving here and heading to Holland tomorrow morning to visit with a little boy who has his finger stuck in the dyke.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail