Swing Dancing.

So I am not sure I told you this, but when I took Tia to the circus a couple weeks ago we sat next to an American pastor and his two daughters. It was great to be able to converse so easily together and while chatting he mentioned that him and his wife give swing dance classes every now and again. It is not everyday a girl gets to dance and especially not swing dance, so a group of people from the church decided it would be fun! Unfortunately I was a little late because I had to work in the office to finish up things for Sunday, but I was not going to let that deter me. Stephen was not really feeling the whole swing dancing thing, so I took Leonie as my partner and we were entertaining if nothing else. Some people from our group were more talented than others, but we all had fun and learned a couple of steps. Here is Andrea and Janos practicing the free turn. Andrea is a good salsa dancer so she picked it up fast and Janos is good at break dancing which you can also see!

I am not sure what the crowd thought of Janos's break dancing but our group loved it!

Here is Steffi and Alex. Steffi used to be a "Rockdancer" which combines swing dance with acrobatics. I had not heard of this before but it is very entertaining and challenging. Alex is a pure athlete so he picked it up fast as well and decided when he retires from baseball he will become a professional dancer....watch out Dancing with the Stars!

Here is one of the new interns, Tony! He is a sweet guy that tries hard.

I am not going to brag, but Leonie and I were pretty much amazing at all things dance! Can you see the shocked and amazed face of the man behind us? We incorporated all our prior skills with swing to do moves people have never seen!

I will say kicks were involved, but no one was injured!

It was a fun night of fellowship and dancing. Let me know if you want to hire Leonie and me to teach dance lessons sometime!

Another Win and Another American....or three!

Sorry it has been a while, but we are still kicking over here. The past couple weeks have been really busy, but we are praising God for the safe arrival of three new additions to our intern staff: Heather, Matt, and Tony. I am excited to have a new roommate that is great at softball and all things girly. Sometimes you just need to talk about painting your toenails and leave the baseball squeeze play conversation to the boys!

We had a game on Saturday that went well. We played Freiburg again and ended up winning 25-9, which makes our record 3-2. It is nice to have a winning record. Here is a picture of Heather before the game.

To keep our girly side we picked flowers for our hair before the game. The red flower in my hair is filled with poppyseeds and they grow wild all over the fields.

Here is Heather, Claudine and me before the game. It was a pleasant surprise to have sunshine after weeks of rain and clouds.

Just wanted to keep you semi-updated. We have had many events that I will post on soon so check back if you get a chance. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.

Busy Weekend!

I just wanted to update you on how the weekend went with all the activities. Friday marked the return of two of our great friends (Leonie and Sophie) that left last July for Paraguay to teach for almost a year. It was such a blessing to see both of their smiling faces at their welcome home party. Last year I spent a good amount of time with them talking about the gospel and building friendships. It was sad to see them leave last summer, but what a joy it was to see them again. It was so encouraging to hear that they both are eager to get involved with the church again. Praise God that He has held them while they were away. Please be in prayer that they both will come to saving faith. This is a picture at their party. Sorry I didn't get a good picture with them, but I will try to take one soon so you can see them both.

On Saturday the softball team had a double-header 2 hours away from Neuenburg. The boys are used to playing two games, but I will tell you us wimpy girls are not. It was a long day of softball, but we had a good time. We did not end up winning either of the games but we played okay the first game...the second game was not as successful. We have a game on Saturday that we should win, I will tell you how it goes. On a positive note we did get new batting helmets that are aerodynamic....with the level we play aerodynamics is REALLY important!! hahah!!

Andrea's Uncle and Grandmother came to game. It was nice to meet them.

The field was very interesting. It was slanted downhill towards right field and as you can see had some beautiful flowers in the outfield!

The best part of the trip was seeing this beautiful view that was on the opposite side of the street. Kathy, a fellow outfielder, and I wanted to turn and look at the view the whole game because it was so breathtaking.

On Sunday I had my first tennis match which ended up being a lot of fun even if it was not super successful. It started at 9 a.m and the girls team had 3 courts to play 6 singles and 3 doubles matches. Needless to say it was a long day. I played in the 4th slot for singles and ended up winning pretty easily (6-0, 6-1). Unfortunately I was the only person to win my singles match, so the doubles were just for fun. Here I am serving.

This was my doubles partner, Bettina. She was really nice even though I kept hitting it into the net.

Here I am in action. I am going to have to practice doubles a little more, I was really rusty.

So there you have the update. It was a busy weekend but I know the Lord is working here in Neuenburg. I am excited to see what He has in store in the future. Please pray for opportunities to share the Gospel and that girls hearts would be softened to accept it.

Picture of the Day.

On my google desktop there is the option of having the National Geographic "Picture of the Day" gadget added to your homepage. I love getting a beautiful or sometimes interesting picture from somewhere around the world each day. A couple weeks ago this picture from southern Germany was chosen and this sums up the weather lately. I also will put the description given by the photographer underneath.

"This is a photo of some new growing fields in a southern part of Germany, near the park called Schoenbuch. I took this picture a few minutes before a storm came on in full power." -picture of the day photographer

We Actually Won!!!

Just wanted to give you a quick update on how softball is going. As you know we lost our first game, but it was not a regular season game.....so it does not really matter! However, this past Sunday our game counted and WE WON! We started off a little rocky after a rain delay and cold temperatures but ended up winning 22-11. We were hitting like crazy. I got 3 walks and had 2 hits into the outfield. Enjoy the pictures, Stephen was the photographer for the afternoon.

Hitting what Stephen calls "a bomb." (whatever that means!)

I am on first base.

Victory dance!

Germany has a CIRCUS!

My closest friends can attest to my love of the circus. I am not sure why I love the circus, but I really do. To most people the clowns tend to be creepy the smells are less than appealing and the thought of men in spandex is appalling. Although the above mentioned are not on my top 20 favorite's list, I still like the circus. There is something a little mysterious about the performers with their strange costumes, interesting makeup, and nomad existence. I can still remember the tiger cup we ended up with after my first circus experience.

I did not know what to expect from a German circus and to top it off the Kaiser family circus. Needless to say I went into it with low expectations, but must admit I was pretty impressed. I took one of the little girls from our church TIA KELLEY with me. Here we are in the tent.

We had to take some pictures while we waited for the circus to start. Tia liked this clown and she thought I looked just like the high-wire performer...can't you see the resemblance (hahah!). I am thinking about wearing a feather headdress sometime to work.

The show began with horses running around and doing tricks like walking in circles and stepping up on the outside of the ring. It was entertaining and the old man that was directing them was cute in his red and gold suit.

I began to get a little suspicious

when the act that followed was a 12 year old girl named "Anita Kaiser" that basically hula-hooped for 15 minutes with a grand finale of 30 hoops going once around her body and falling to the ground. It was a valiant effort, but I could have done the same thing if I was wearing a feather headdress. The rest of the show proceeded to whittle away at the mystery of the circus and leave me with a feeling of "I will clap for you 12 year old Anita Kaiser!"

The show was helped by the performance of camels, elephants, llamas, and ostriches which ran around and sat on things. Here are a couple more pictures from the day's performances. During intermission you could visit the animals outside and we got an up-close and personal view.

This performance was the best one of the day. He kept going higher and higher and would do handstands each time. I even heard a couple gasps from the audience! Can you imagine if they saw Cirque du Soleil.

I like the way this picture turned out. No flash was allowed during the performances.

Tia got a little close to the longhorn!

It was a first for me to see humpback camels.

Trying to get the horse to show his teeth!

I think Tia almost got run over by the elephant. They were taking him inside for kids to pay for rides. He was looking a little droopy and sad. Well hope you liked the circus. It was an interesting experience!