Chris is one!

Last Wednesday we celebrated Christopher's first birthday! He had lots of fun opening his gifts and playing with the wrapping paper. He did eventually enjoy the gifts themselves! Gotti was able to join us (Both Chris and Amy's Godmother) and Amy even got a couple of presents. We had a bit of cake and games, but overall we kept it low-key. After all, he didn't really know what was going on!

Church Retreat

We spent this past weekend in Adelboden on our church retreat, which was exciting, tiring, fun, wet, sweaty, tasty, laughable and wonderful all rolled into one! Our church, the Frei Evangelische Gemeinde (Free Evangelical Church) in Balsthal, started the retreat with a cookout followed by a hike to the Engstligenfall, a huge waterfall (of which we could only see half because of the low clouds.)

Saturday evening we were in charge of the game and fun time and had lots of fun with "chubby bunny", team ski races, skits and silly stuff. I think one of my ribs popped out of place laughing so hard.

We worshipped together Sunday morning and enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon throwing baseball, playing basketball, chasing Amy and playing with a squealing Christopher. Both of the kids had lots of fun, but we were certainly glad to get home to our nice cozy beds.

God provides

As has happened around the globe, food prices have gone up in Switzerland in recent months. But God has been providing for us! We've had the opportunity to pick red currants at Kilchzimmer and red and black raspberries around Holderbank. Our neighbors have some huge raspberry bushes around their yard, but they haven't been picked for several years. They told us we could pick all we want! We were able to pick several quarts of berries and Amy's had fun cleaning them, too. It may sound like small potatoes, but we estimate to have picked more than $100 worth of berries this summer. God provides!

Welcome to our blog!

After seeing the excellent examples of what others have done through blogspot.com, we decided to start our own for a couple of reasons. First, it's easy. We already have a full blown Web site, but it can be very time-consuming to update. Usually we give much more in-depth stories on our Web site, but they tend to be long. Second, it helps to keep our friends and supporters more easily involved in our lives and ministry through short updates and timely prayer requests. Third, it's fun. We enjoy sharing the joys and struggles of our home life and ministry, and thank God for such an easy way to communicate.

Enjoy our blog, and come back often!

-Brent