The Hautle Family

We're moving!

2011-01-22T16:53:00.004+01:00

We've been using blogspot for several years now and are grateful to be able to use the blogging medium to communicate. During this process, we've also had our static Web site, www.hautle.org, sitting and collecting dust, remembering once every three to six months (to our embarrassment) to change it.

We're now proud to introduce a new version of hautle.org, integrated with Wordpress. It's a one-stop shop with new blogs and useful information about our ministry.

So we're asking you to slowly wean yourself off of this site, and head on over to www.hautle.org from now on. After all, it's a lot easier to type in, isn't it?

So yes, we're moving. Not our house or our ministry, just our blog.

Blessings!

-Brent

New wheels

2011-01-12T19:13:00.005+01:00

We are so thankful for our new vehicle! The Lord blessed us with a 2009 Opel Meriva, which fits our needs perfectly. We are also so grateful that God kept our older car running for so long.

Although it's 45 minutes away, we've continued going to Garage Alouettes ever since we puchased the Astra there in 2003. Owned by a family of believers in Christ, they have been a tremendous blessing to us, giving us a major discount on all work done. We decided we wanted to get our next vehicle through them and when we approached them about a newer vehicle they not only went out of their way to find the right one, they also didn't make any money on it. Would you please praise God for Garage Alouettes and pray that God would richly bless them?

We also want to thank so many of you who gave sacrificially for us to be able to make this purchase. You are very much appreciated!

The not-so emerald Isle

2010-12-18T12:39:00.007+01:00

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, we are 20 minutes from landing in Dublin. The bad news is the airport has closed because of the snow, so we'll be in a holding pattern for a little while as they clear the runway to land."

So began my trip to Ireland! When I left Switzerland it had been raining. I wasn't expecting a winter wonderland in Ireland. David Coffey, my student for the week, picked me up at the airport. I'm glad he did. My plan to take the bus would have gone awry since the bus service to Belfast was canceled due to the weather. We were able to get a room in a nearby hotel and thankfully made it without incident. Waking up the next morning, we looked out to see the world still in it's white blanket. We got a typical Irish breakfast – eggs, ham, sausage and porridge – and headed to our destination, the Child Evangelism Fellowship® camp center of Seaview in Kilkeel. We arrived safely after hitting the grocery store and started unpacking our gear: an iMac, a laptop, power cables, note pads, our luggage and our fresh groceries (which surprised our wives – real food, not bachelor food!).

Our training time began with a time of prayer. I had never done something like this before, and needed the Lord's guidance. Sharing how to use the tools given in Adobe® InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator is one thing. Teaching the concepts of graphic design is another. Oh sure, we did cover a lot of "how-to's" during our time, but when David took the Design Software Course I had given in January, I noticed his layout skills and natural eye for design. Not everyone has it. When I later learned that he was leaving his position as an area director for CEF in Ireland to go to the national office to become the layout person, I had the vision of coming alongside and coaching him.

We spent three and a half days looking at design topics like motion, balance, negative space. We also went through the design process … starting with creating thumbnails. As in the course in January, we covered what the printer needed: bleeds, margins, printer marks, color profiles and more. After several days at Seaview, we packed up to move to the Irish national office, but first we visited the CEF Specialized Book Ministry. They were gracious enough to take us out to lunch, and we got a chance to see their facilities.

Besides the great time with David, the biggest highlight of the trip was visiting Revival Movement, a ministry CEF teams up with to provide evangelistic literature to children around the world. Samuel Adams, who directs the work there, met us warmly and gave us a tour of the facilities. It was impressive. Using several web presses and a large-format sheet-fed press, Revival Movement prints five tons of evangelical material a day! This is not material to be sold in a Christian bookstore – it's all for handing out to people around the world so they can know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. While there, we saw several rolls of Meet the King!, the evangelistic tract I designed and my co-worker, Tim Shirey, illustrated. What a blessing! Other material for CEF was in the various stages of production as well in multiple languages, as well as the gospel of John, New Tribes Mission materials and an assortment of other items. Just like CEF relies on supporters, Revival Movement cannot operate without churches and people giving. Check them out at http://revivalmovement.org.

All work and no play isn't so nice when visiting a country for the very first time, so we had a chance to visit the Silent Valley, as well as take a tour of Belfast. It was an incredible time.

I ask that you please pray for David and his wife, Kathy, as they get settled into working at the CEF national office in Ireland. Taking the reigns of the literature ministry is not an easy task, especially with a very limited printing background.

Lord-willing, I'll be heading back to Ireland some day. Next time, with the family!

Photos, from top, going clockwise: the Silent Valley; the huge amounts of literature waiting to be shipped at Revival Movement; Brent with Kathy and David Coffey; rolls of Meet the King! which had just been printed.

All together

2010-12-04T21:21:00.005+01:00

It's a rare sight to have all the Kilchzimmer workers together at one time, so when we were able to gather together this past Monday, we commemorated it with a group photo. We included the long term volunteers as well. When you look at who is working at Kilchzimmer, you get quite a mixed group – a lot of countries are represented: Germany, Ireland, Britain, the USA, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. That diverse group shows the unity that Christ brings. We have different backgrounds, but one goal … winning children for Christ! We're proud to work in this team, and thank God for them.

Thanksgiving … and Harvest Home

2010-11-22T19:45:00.004+01:00

It felt like July was last week and last Christmas was only a month away. On Thursday, we'll be as busy as ever … doing our daily routine. Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday, but we're not in America! We celebrated Harvest Home back in October at the ingathering service at Basel Christian Fellowship. Jehovah Jirah was praised as the one who supplies all our needs. We indeed were blessed as everyone was asked to bring a main dish or a dessert, but quite a few (including us) brought both. What a feast! Imagine having a smorgasbord with choices from more than 3 dozen countries across the globe … Singapore, Scotland, Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, Romania, Nigeria, Korea … the list goes on! That's one aspect of BCF we enjoy and appreciate–the diversity of believers from many cultures. The other thing that strikes us is the diversity of occupations represented. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen … some of the top minds in their field. When I read or hear of someone mocking believers in Christ Jesus as being mindless fools, just one look around at the congregation blows their ignorance out of the water.

We trust you have a blessed Thanksgiving day. Remember to thank our heavenly Father for His mighty gifts!

Amy's first photo shoot

2010-10-29T22:25:00.005+02:00

It's been a busy week. The Multimedia department was given an assignment of creating three complete custom PowerPoint presentations in a week-and-a-half. We had to create slides from scratch, using imagery that wasn't already provided. So what did we do? We had multiple photo shoots! The presentations, all of which are promotional tools, focused on the book Meet the King!, Wondersurf.com and multimedia items. We needed a photo of a grandmother sharing Meet the King! with her granddaughter, so we used Amy and her Swiss Godmother, Liz. Tim Shirey did the photography, using just his flash and the white walls and ceiling to bounce. He also masked out the color on the entire image except for the book they're looking at. We're all very happy with the result.

You may ask "why do we do promotional materials? Aren't you focused on creating materials for children?" We're creating these so more churches can know what Child Evangelism Fellowship® can do to help them reach children in their community. It also explains the various projects in case someone would like to pray and give. We're hoping these presentations can be used in a mighty way to expand the work of CEF®!

Life of Christ 1

2010-10-25T19:09:00.004+02:00

I sometimes feel like the Energizer Bunny, things just keep on going with these Good News Club® resource packs! I'm in the middle (actually hopefully near the end) of the pack for the CEF® lesson Life of Christ 1. This lesson begins with annunciation and finishes with the Lord Jesus calling his disciples. It's been a lot of fun, but there's always room for improvement. As a lover of maps, I really enjoyed researching for the maps included in the pack. Although simple, hopefully they'll help teacher better show where events took place. These packs have taken the lion's share of my time the last few weeks, but Lord-willing, it will help boys and girls know more about our Savior!

NEW! Car project update

2010-10-24T22:19:00.003+02:00

We weren't planning on updating this so quickly, but we praise the Lord for our sending church which has pledged $3,000 toward our vehicle. We're not far from our goal! Please rejoice with us! Please also pray we can quickly raise the remaining amount.

Car project update

2010-10-13T01:23:00.003+02:00

Just wanted to keep everyone updated on our latest numbers. As of Oct. 13, we've raised nearly two-thirds of the funds needed for our car.

We're continuing to pray for the remaining $5,530 to come in, especially by the end of November, as our current vehicle will not pass inspection without major repairs.

Would you please pray with us in this project? If you would like to give, you may send your gift to:

Child Evangelism Fellowship

PO Box 348

Warrenton, MO 63383-0348

Please designate the gift "Hautle vehicle E000 4119 035"

Thank you!

Zivilschutz

2010-09-26T22:42:00.006+02:00

This past week Brent had his annual Zivilschutz duty (military replacement civil service). He's part of the cultural preservation wing (KGS), and helps to maintain cultural places and items in the Kanton (state) of Solothurn. While we were supposed to go to a tiny mountain chapel named Mieschegg, our plans changed to the village ofWelschenrohr where, incidentally, Brent's grandfather was stationed in the military during WWII. Brent waschosen to be the photographer for the week, since it's a part of his work at Kilchzimmer. Tasked with photographing the items of the church, which is undergoing renovations, he took pictures of wooden carvings, candle stands, figures, goblets, garments, flags and other items associated with the catholic church. Each item had to be photographed with an over, under and regular exposure and had to be cataloged, measured and journaled. In order to obtain the most detail, the stain-glassed windows were photographed with as many as seven different exposures. At first, I was using an older Canon 12 megapixel camera with a 24-40mm zoom. Then on Thursday, the KGS commander for the Solothurn brought me the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III (22 Megapixel) with a 28-300mm zoom lens. It was a little pricier and heavier than the Nikon D70s he uses at Kilchzimmer! He worked with several studio lights, an infrared trigger, a photo box and good ol' Styrofoam. With each photo we needed to have a ruler, color balance chart and catalog numbering sheet.

Brent's already been tapped for next year's service, doing similar work for a week and will also be taking part in a training day, which of course will help his photography skills with CEF®.

One down …

2010-09-13T14:28:00.005+02:00

For the last several months I've been busily working on the Good News Club® resource packet for the lesson Beginnings. It's been a huge undertaking, working on word strips, Bible verse visuals, tokens, worksheets, maps and other assorted materials for a Good News Club. It was certainly challenging when trying to figure out how to illustrate concepts or Bible verses like Romans 5:12. It was a fun project to work on, but this is just the beginning of a five-year cycle!Three daughters of students taking the three-monthChildren's Ministry Leadership Course helped by testing all the worksheets, and Andrea Weir was a huge help, looking for art, proofreading and doing a lot of leg work. We've already started working on The Life of Christ 1, and still have many more lessons to do! Please pray for us as we needslots of creativity, sensitivity to those doing the layout in other translations and of course, that it would all be true to the Word of God!

Remembering Gabi

2010-08-26T11:59:00.005+02:00

Yesterday morning, the Lord took our dear friend and co-worker, Gabi Bienen, home to be with Him. Gabi's life touched a lot of people. Letters from around the world continue to pour in offering condolences, attesting to the impact she had. Gabi was a worker. She made sure her job was done right. She usually sang while cleaning and was always laughing at my lame jokes during coffee break. She loved pulling practical jokes on Henry Berry, the national leader for CEF® in Ireland, sometimes filling his room with flowers or cleaning supplies or talking about "Bernhard," her imaginary boyfriend.

Yesterday, Jen was explaining to Amy that we wouldn't see Gabi anymore. She said "Gabi did something very special today … Jesus came and took her home." Amy immediately asked, "Did he hold her?" Jen, fighting back the tears replied, "All the way home."

Please pray for us at this time. It's tough. It was sudden and unexpected. She died peacefully in her sleep, at a mere 49 years old. We rejoice she is in the loving arms of the Savior, but we miss her.

Getting together

2010-08-08T21:48:00.003+02:00

We've had the wonderful opportunity to have my father and nephew Jon with us the past two weeks. We've been able to see a lot of beautiful sights and go all over the country, but the highlight of the trip was traveling to Eastern Switzerland to get together with family. We first went to dad's birthplace, the Schäfli, to have a day-long get together with his late brother, Kurt's family. While there, dad was surprised by a quick visit with a childhood friend.

The next day we celebrated my twin uncle's 75 birthday and had a get together with the other half of the family. It was great seeing cousins I hadn't seen for more than 20 years. As a special treat, we all went up to the original Hautle homestead in Eggerstanden, Appenzell for a group photo. I'm thankful to have gotten together with my extended family, and am especially grateful to have dad and Jon here.

I got it right … almost

2010-07-06T20:47:00.004+02:00

Sometimes I have to take a lot of photos for my projects. Most of the time they're terrible. Once in a while, I get it right. Today was one of those rare days when I "got one right." (For all those other days, there's Photoshop). Unfortunately, this particular shot wasn't the primary reason I took her photo – I needed one of her praying. This one happened to be done at the end of the shoot while clowning around . Very little was done to this photo post-edit, it just happened. Thank you Lord!

Bulgaria … finally!

2010-07-06T19:50:00.004+02:00

We gathered around the kitchen table. Four laptops and one video projector, all spewing out heat on an already blistering day. Pens, pencils, notepads, handouts, worksheets, whiteboards and cell phones were all arranged between us so we could barely see the tablecloth. Welcome to the design software course in Bulgaria. It was an eager group of students gathered, two from Bulgaria and two from Greece, all full of questions, not wanting to miss a thing. Terms like "bleed", "trim", "mask", "leading" and "spread" were almost daily occurrences and sometimes had to be illustrated in funny ways. No matter how often the cell phone rang or how high the temperature got, they kept at it, always wanting to learn more. Photoshop was a big hit, but even simple things like "tabs" and "style sheets" in InDesign brought about "oohs' and "aahs." That was my favorite part – hearing someone say "Oh! I wish I would have known about this sooner!" Camera basics, Adobe Bridge and Illustrator were also covered.

Saving time. Saving money … ministry money. That's what this course was about. If I can show my students how to properly set up a file so the printer can print it on time and on budget, we allow more children the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the printed word. So far this has taken me to Czech Republic, Romania, Armenia and now, Bulgaria. I've taught this course several times at Kilchzimmer. Where next? Only God knows! But I do know this: I'm ready!

Sights of Plovdiv

2010-06-19T06:27:00.003+02:00

I got a chance to tour the city of Plovdiv, one of the oldest cites in Europe. It had many, many beautiful sights, including a view of the sunset from one of the hills in the city center. The smells of Dönners and the bustle of 600,000 made it for a feast for all the senses, especially the eyes. Vast Roman ruins have been uncovered here and the city is taking measures to keep them well preserved. The ancient city wall has also been restored in many places and the homes of the "Bulgarian Renaissance" have been restored to give an idea of what they looked like in the late 1800s after Bulgaria gained independence from the Turks. Look for more photos as I have time.

Bulgaria bound

2010-06-13T22:21:00.004+02:00

Monday morning, June 14, Brent heads to Bulgaria to train the CEF® Bulgarian and Greek multimedia teams to use graphic design software. This will help both Bulgaria and Greece better create and produce materials that will evangelize children and help saved children grow in the Word.

Please pray for safe travels, problem-free equipment and wisdom and strength for Brent as he teaches between 8-10 hours a day. Pray too, for the four students who will be taking the course in English, that what is taught can be done clearly and effectively and they would have good understanding of what is taught.

Please also pray for Jen and the children as they are at home during this time.

Brent hopes to have a few updates as the week goes on, but we're not sure how often he'll be able to be online.

Thanks!

Every Day with God

2010-06-10T18:05:00.004+02:00

We're excited to be working withCEF® International Headquarters to produce a daily devotional for young readers. The project, called "Every Day with God" will be a 30-day devotional book aimed at 6-8 year olds and will include a Bible verse, application, narrative/interactive, activity and prayer. This project is especially close to Jen and my heart since Amy will start reading in the next few years. The first book centers around the books of Genesis and Exodus. If things go well with the first book, (Lord-willing) we'll be producing six books in all, to be used around the world!

We've been working on the designs, which has been a monumental task. Coming up with several different ideas on one project can take a long time, and this was no exception. The initial designs were submitted this week, but I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of all three designs. Now it's up to the children to pick which one they'd like! It's so far been tested here in Switzerland with children from three different nationalities, and has been sent to several other countries for input from children. This is such an important part of the design process, because oftentimes adults think they know what the children like, but the designs children choose are often opposite of what the adults thought they would be. If you have children between 6-8, please show them all three of these designs and let me know what they thought of them!

Balancing act

2010-06-07T22:55:00.004+02:00

Just a couple of weeks ago Jen took off the training wheels to Amy's bike and started teaching Amy how to balance herself. The first day, Jen let go for just a second or two. The following day, I went out, and Amy started going four, five, six seconds without me holding on. The next day, 10-15 seconds. Finally, we went over to the school and Amy took off, riding around in circles and shocking her daddy by how quickly she learned how to balance.

Next up … learning how to stop.

A new era

2010-06-02T08:37:00.004+02:00

After 16 years as the Regional Directors for CEF in Europe, Roy and Ruth Harrison have handed the reigns over to Gerd-Walter Buskies. The handover took place at the Conference, and it was an amazing, yet bittersweet event. Bittersweet because of how close we have gotten with Roy and Ruth during our seven years at Kilchzimmer. They've been tremendous encouragers to Jen and I over the years. Yet it was joyful as we're very excited to have Gerd-Walter leading us. His energy, wisdom and insight are gifts from God which will allow CEF to continue reaching Europe's children. Please pray for Gerd-Walter – that God would guide his steps every day.

Photo of Gerd-Walter, Ruth and Roy Harrison by Markus Malzner. Used with permission.

Conference time!

2010-05-22T21:56:00.011+02:00

On Monday, May 10, I got a chance to walk Amy to school for one last "goodbye." It was such a bittersweet time … knowing it would be more than a week before I see the family again, but at the same time knowing I'll be reconnecting with CEF® family members.

We arrived nearly four hours later at Schwäbisch Gmünd, and started our time stuffing our faces at a Chinese Buffet! Not the Jade in Harrisburg, but close. I remember smiling as I watched one

person in our party eat only fries and sweet and sour chicken. Oh, the tastes he missed! After overeating, we made our way to the conference center, Schönblick. This place is much larger

than the conference center in Rehe, where we've had the last several conferences. The main auditorium seated more than 1,000 people and had a fully stocked sound, lighting and video camera system. Needless to say it was much more advanced than anything I've ever tackled! After an hour-long training session with Uli, the main technician in Schönblick, I was off and running, operating the faders like a pro!

The conference staff got started getting everything ready: name tags, conference and prayer guides (in English, German and Russian) water bottles, contest inserts, toys for the children, mugs and pens, all going inside a special cloth bag. We had rooms to set up and equipment to load, and had a video chat with Jen and the children to let them know we arrived safely. Homesickness set in.

What kept me from blogging during the entire conference? 16-20 hour work days. My typical day at the conference was:

7:30 prayer time and staff meeting.
Getting song slides ready for the two morning sessions and evening session. (this included fixing most of the songs as we realized we created the song slides to be used on a smaller projection screen.
Putting slides together for several of the speakers.
Ran the lights and multimedia presentations for the main sessions. (Keynote was the software I used, and it ran great!)
Make announcement slides for the information desk.
Taking photos (which didn't happen much – major kudos to Andrea Weir and Markus Malzner, who stepped up to the plate in my stead).
Create door signs, print them out and put them at the correct places.
Accepted photos for a photography contest and categorized all of them. Tim Shirey and I also selected the winners for the contest, which was pretty hard to do!
Guided folks to the correct seminar room and helped set up A/V equipment.
Practice for my seminar on "Better Presentations" which I gave on Saturday morning. (I also held another seminar on the Adobe Creative Suite and how I did a few of the more difficult things in my layouts of materials.)
Had many short meetings with conference attendees to discuss anything from layout difficulties to training sessions to camera types.
and lots of tiny details which I did, but forgot about. Whew. My head hurts just looking back at the list!

So how can I sum up the conference? It was the absolute busiest conference I've worked at so far, but it was by far the best. There's nothing like getting between 350-450 people together who have one goal – evangelizing children with the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ. I'll use a few other blogs to share more specifics, but I am so thankful and grateful to have taken part in such a huge undertaking. Thank you for praying for us all during this busy time. I can't thank you enough for bringing myself and the whole family before the throne of Almighty God.

Photos courtesy of Markus Malzner and Andrea Weir.

Many irons in the fire

2010-04-10T15:24:00.004+02:00

It's been nearly a month since our last post. The snow is gone, the grass is greening and the flowers are starting to pop up. Last Saturday we went to the indoor swimming pool in the town of Liestal with Ruth, a volunteer at Kilchzimmer. We had a blast, playing in the kiddie pool, swimming in the children's pool, going down the water slide and going outside in the heated pool where there's fountains and whirlpools. Unknown to me, I somehow tore a tendon in my right forearm. It didn't start hurting until Sunday, when I thought it was just muscle pain. By Wednesday, the pain was pretty bad, so we made an appointment with the doctor. Since it's a torn tendon, I'm supposed to be off work for a week. Unfortunately, there's too many irons in the fire right now for me to leave.

One project I've had is for the new program, "Church to Children" (C2C). It seeks to help churches get more involved in the evangelism of children through distributing Meet the King books and starting a Bible correspondence course. I was given the task of designing a logo for C2C. Talk about difficult. After pages of thumbnails and several different ideas, it wasn't going anywhere. It's tough making a logo for a single language. It's another thing to make a logo that looks correct in multiple languages for different cultures. In instances like this, imagery might not work. What kind of church do you use since the architecture of churches vary greatly from country to country. I had to use the typeface "Impact" to match with the other materials in the pack, so instead I stuck with just the words, but I wanted to show movement. Here's the result in four languages. Can you guess what they are?

I'm also swamped with materials for the European Conference such as the conference guide, music slides, nametags and multimedia templates.

The Kilchzimmer Echo is another project, which has turned out to be quite a challenge as my role as designer has been expanded somewhat to editor and co-writer. These new roles are not my forte, so I would really appreciate your prayers.

The largest project by far is the Good News Club® Resource Pack. I'll write more later about this large and important project.

Thanks for praying!

Trying out her gifts

2010-03-14T22:41:00.003+01:00

Amy got a set of roller skates, a new helmet and elbow and knee pads for her birthday and she decided to try them out today. She did much better than her daddy ever did at roller skating! In just a few years we might tackle going from Olten to Solothurn togther – Brent on the bike and Amy on her skates. For now, Holderbank will do nicely!

Amy turns five!

2010-03-14T22:31:00.004+01:00

We can hardly believe our little girl turned five this past week! It feels like we were bringing her home yesterday from the hospital. Amy delayed her celebration, having her very first party at school on Friday. She was the student of the day and got a chance to choose which order the children could go to sit at their seats. The boys and girls sang several birthday songs to her, each one made a special wish for her (one boy wished her a star) and she was the center of several games. We brought in cake for all the children and Christopher had a blast too.

God has blessed us with such a beautiful and healthy little girl, and we give all glory to Him!

Hopp Schwiiz!

2010-03-03T11:21:00.003+01:00

It was a lot of fun having the Swiss CEF team at Kilchzimmer the past few days. These workers, who are all from the Swiss-German speaking region, have a burden for the children of Switzerland. We hope they were encouraged and refreshed here on the mountain and can return to their ministry fired up! As I share this, would you please lift them up in prayer. Switzerland is a tough country to have ministry in. Humanism, materialism and apathy for things of Christ work against the reaching of children. All of these workers raise their own support, and even though Switzerland is a very wealthy country, it is very difficult raise funds. There are also three other regions in Switzerland that do not have a large active ministry – the French, Italian and Romantsch-speaking regions. Please pray for people of God's choosing to join the work to serve in these needy areas. Thanks!

Photo challenges and results

2010-02-19T09:49:00.008+01:00

Sometimes we're faced with taking photos ourselves when the World Wide Web lets us down. I've joined a number of stock photo Web sites and regularly use photos that cost very little or are free. Sometimes, however, there just isn't a photo there that matches the idea I've got in my head. That's when we ask for volunteers from local families. The Künzli family has always been ready to help and since they have six children, there's always the age range I'm looking for. My project is for a Bible correspondence course starter lesson that will be distributed with Meet the King books. The design needs to have continuity between the two, but my general idea came from a fantastic flyer CEF Germany did.

I took two hundred photos of the children, but since I'm still not a very good photographer, there were problems with the files. I narrowed my selections down to two of the best. In these two photos the color temperature is different, something that I needed to fix. I also had nasty

looking shadowing on the boy's collar. I had to tone that down a bit, too. Had I used a diffuser, I could have taken care of that problem before the shoot.

In Bridge and Photoshop I did my color-correcting, masked them out and placed them in my InDesign document. Overall, not a bad product. I'm hoping and praying many children can learn of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ through the lessons!

Learning together

2010-01-30T19:35:00.007+01:00

The past two weeks have been absolutely incredible. I had eight students, all CEF® workers, from Europe, Asia and the Middle East who took part in the Design Software Course. They were a great group, full of fun and laughter. We took a trip to a large print shop where they could see how products are printed. There were also a very inquisitive group, and I got a chance to learn alongside them. We had workers from Austria, France, Ireland, Jordan and a closed country. Sam Beck, a co-worker from Kilchzimmer and Andrea Weir, a volunteer with the Multimedia Department also joined in and were wonderful students. Because of safety issues for several of the students, I had to digitize their faces in the photos. Please pray for these students who will be having a huge impact for Christ among the children around the world!

Brent helping Ojini, from Jordan. Photos by Tim Shirey.

Planning, Preparations & Prayers

2010-01-12T20:38:00.004+01:00

Whew, it's been a crazy week, and it's only going to get crazier. I'm in the middle of preparing for a new design software course, which starts on Sunday evening. The last time I taught one of these courses was two years ago. Back then, we focused entirely on the Adobe Creative Suite, CS. This time, I'll be teaching CS3, which includes InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat and includes seminars on the printing process, simple design techniques and working with a printer. My co-worker, Tim, will be teaching seminars on photography and Adobe Bridge. We'll also be visiting a print shop. Since changing software versions, there's a lot of changes and updates to the classes, handouts and exercises.

Tim and I would really appreciate your prayers for wisdom, strength, good health and endurance over the next two weeks. We still have lots of planning to do and many preparations to make. Please also pray for the eight students who, Lord-willing, will be attending. This has the potential to reach many more children with the Gospel!

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng/Majoros Attila.

December happenings

2009-12-19T16:47:00.004+01:00

It's been a wild and crazy December, and there's still several more weeks to go! We said a sad farewell to the Van Eck family, who flew back to South Africa on December 3. Brent drove them to the airport and with tears in his eyes said goodbye. The Van Ecks became good friends over the past five years and we will sorely miss them.

We got our Christmas tree that next weekend and the kids had fun decorating it. Of course mommy and daddy had to fine-tune the placement of them, but it's a nice little tree.

A few days later we hosted a Christmas Club at our house. The local CEF® worker, Trudy Heininger, came to give the gospel story. Unfortunately, no children from our village of Holderbank came, but we did have two children from our church. We discussed it, and even though the results were disappointing, we're going to try again next year. It was certainly a learning experience for us. God isn't interested in our performance. He's interested in our obedience. All we can do is to keep on trying and praying.

Brent chaired his first meeting ever the next day at the Kilchzimmer workers' meeting. It was certainly harder than he thought and wasn't sure how well he did until he was unanimously chosen to lead the next one. (He still thinks it was because no one else wanted the job!)

Jen's been very busy too, baking Christmas cookies, sending out cards, wrapping presents and preparing for our Christmas open house, which is on the 22nd. Please pray for us as we have a chance to share the true meaning of Christmas with those who come. Merry Christmas!

It's here!

2009-12-08T08:40:00.005+01:00

We praise the Lord that Brent's new computer arrived! It is such a blessing to have a machine like this after his old one died last month. Thank you to all of you who gave toward this project, and we especially want to thank the children of Schuylkill County who gave this summer!

We have a lot of new projects that have been waiting, and now we can jump right in with this new machine and create more materials that will spread the Gospel throughout Europe.

For all you techies: it's a 27" iMac with an Intel i5 processor, 8 gigs of Ram, 1TB Hard drive and a second monitor.

Presenting …

2009-12-02T11:13:00.004+01:00

At work I often listen to R.C. Sproul's podcast Renewing your Mind. The last several days I've been "renewing a presentation" for the Literature Survey class for the Children's Ministry Leadership Course (CMLC). It has been such an enjoyable project, and am very thankful to help make the class better through better visuals. I was also very glad to hear it was very easy to use and I'm now working on a second presentation for the Ministries to Children class. It's through your prayers and gifts that these projects can get done! Thank you! Here's a few samples of the slides I've done.

Parade of lights

2009-11-29T22:47:00.002+01:00

Earlier this month Amy had a chance to take part in the lantern parade in Holderbank. She made her lantern out of a large turnip (it's a different lantern in the photo) and placed a candle inside. The children gathered in three different locations and walked to the center of town, where they sang several songs to the crowd. It was a neat experience and we enjoyed the hot tea and "Nussgipfeli" at the end.

Hope for all

2009-11-04T22:42:00.003+01:00

Please pray for our church in Switzerland this week and weekend as we have an evangelistic event, Hope for all. We've been busy designing flyers and posters and have seen them in several towns in the area. Our church, the Freie evangelische Gemeinde in Balsthal (Free Evangelical Church) has been struggling lately and we have been praying God would do some great things through us. We've become more active there, running sound, maintaining the Web site and designing materials for outreaches and events. There are so few believers in the area and it is difficult for us to break through the barriers of religion, tradition and apathy, but we know through prayer, that God can do amazing things!

An interesting weekend

2009-10-08T08:40:00.003+02:00

This past weekend Brent served his time for the year in the "Zivilschutz" or civil defense. As a Swiss citizen, it's his duty to serve every year. Brent worked at the brand-new Zivilschutz training center for it's grand opening., and he helped feed the masses, grilling bratwurts and pouring drinks. The inter-state fire training center, which is on the same compound, also had it's grand opening, so it was a two-for-one deal for the visitors. There were children's activities, displays, fire-fighting and civil protection equipment, antique firetrucks and a firefighting train. Visitors could also tour the training tunnel, where vehicles are scattered about to recreate an accident inside one of the many tunnels in Switzerland. Several vehicles were simple sheet metal with gas piping throughout to simulate a vehicle fire. The building training center was also impressive, with gas fixings throughout to simulate fires in different rooms.

Overall it was a fun experience and Brent was able to get to know others from the community. (Photo of Brent courtesy of Tim Shirey)

Eight years

2009-09-25T10:50:00.002+02:00

Eight years ago today we officially came on board with CEF. I remember going into the meeting with the board of trustees and answering lots of questions, but what I remember most while we were waiting for the board's decision we were pacing the hallway of (what was then known as) the Conference Center. Jim came out of the room, extended his hand and simply said "Welcome to CEF". It was as if a ton of bricks had been lifted from our shoulders and I burst into tears in thankfulness to God!

Wanting to give

2009-09-22T19:08:00.005+02:00

Since starting Kindergarten this year, we've decided to make a daily goal chart for Amy. It includes some simple goals like waking up on time, eating breakfast (ok, some days that's not so simple) and getting dressed. Other goals are more difficult, like not talking back and making her bed. There are a total of 19 items she can get credit for each day, and she gets to stamp her chart. For every five goals she accomplishes, she gets a 5 rappen coin. (Equivalent to a nickel). If she gets all 19, she gets an extra coin for the day.

We're glad for her wanting to achieve her goals, but there's something extra special.

We told Amy in the beginning that she could save her coins and buy a treat each week, or she could put them away in her bank. We also said she could give them for the missionary offering at church.

Her eyes got big, and she loudly proclaimed her intention to give all her earnings to missions!

How humbling for us, and how grateful we are for her enthusiasm toward giving to Jesus!

"God, why us?"

2009-09-09T18:53:00.010+02:00

Most of the time, people ask that question when they want to tell God they wish something had not happened to them. When a crisis arises, we quickly ask God to calm the waters, to make things right again. Last Thursday, we found ourselves asking this question, but from the perspective of "God, what is your will for our lives and what do you want us to do?"

Our doorbell rang at 5 a.m. Jen sprang from bed as I quickly dressed. She answered it to a young woman who was acting strange, with arms folded tightly to her body.

"Sie mussen mich nach Krankenhaus nehmen. Ich habe meine Pulsader geschnitten." She repeated it over and over.

Now, at 5 a.m., we're not very awake. We would have trouble with English at that time, not to mention German. I immediately thought she was having problems with her blood pressure, since the only thing I understood was "hospital" and "pulse". I asked Jen to get her blood pressure cuff. The young woman waved me off and repeated her plea. I told her I wasn't understanding. She kept walking away as if to motion to us that she needed to go now, repeating herself. Jen ran and got the German-English dictionary. We were all getting frustrated. I was not about to leave Jen and the kids behind and get into an uncontrollable situation.

Right as a switch went off in my head that she cut herself, she stepped into a shaft of light emanating from our doorway. Blood. Lots of it on her clothing. She opened her arms to show me large lacerations on each wrist. Then it hit me: she tried to kill herself.

"JEN! Come NOW!" I cried. We told her to come in and sit down. Jen ran into the bathroom to grab her first-aid equipment.

Ten years of serving as an Emergency Medical Technician in PA led Jen to know exactly what to do. She had kept a lot of her equipment and supplies. While Jen bandaged the woman, I ran and got a pen and paper. I thought "we don't even know who this woman is, I need information!" I asked her name, saying I need to call the ambulance. She started resisting, replying in German, "We don't have enough time. You need to take me to the hospital!" Then she got lightheaded and started passing out in Jen's arms. We grabbed her and laid her down, half in our living room and half in the hallway. We grabbed pillows to raise her legs to keep the blood where it needed to be. She immediately regained consciousness and calmed down. And then something amazing happened. She stopped protesting and started trusting us, as though a switch went off in her head.

As Jen stayed with her, holding her hand, we introduced ourselves. She replied "I'm Evelyn. It's nice to meet you."

That she need to go to the hospital was never in question. Our concern was getting her there. We have to walk around our apartment building up a flight of stairs to get to our car. We couldn't do that. I told her I needed to call the ambulance, and she said "ok."

I called and immediately said in German "My German isn't so good. Do you speak English?" "Nein" was the reply. All the sudden, without stumbling, I found myself telling the operator that we needed an ambulance, as we have a woman who has slit her wrists and has lost a lot of blood. He asked if she was awake and upon my positive reply asked to talk with her. I handed the phone over to Evelyn, and she stated her name and calmly said "I slit my wrists with a bread knife."

You might be laughing when I write "bread knife". The ones in Switzerland are used for slicing loaves of bread that have a tough outer shell. The blade alone is about 9" long and has a sharp, serrated edge.

The phone conversation ended fairly quickly after that. Help was on the way.

Jen had finished bandaging her up and was holding her hand.

"Evelyn, we believe firmly in the power of prayer to the living God. May we pray for you?" She responded positively, saying she believed in God, too." "May we pray with you?" I repeated. "Yes, please." "Ummm… do you mind if we pray in English?" She left out a little laugh. "Kein Problem." No problem.

I don't remember everything I prayed, but do know I pleaded directly to the Creator of this Universe, the Creator of Evelyn, and asked Him to intervene in her life. As I continued praying, tears welled in Jen's eyes and dripped from her face. Evelyn's sweet voice piped "Why do you cry? You don't need to be sad." Jen replied: "God loves you so very much."

I tried praying again, but nothing came out. I got up, grabbed the telephone and quickly stepped outside, calling a tenacious prayer warrior. "Marty, (a co-worker at Kilchzimmer) we need your prayers right now." Explaining the situation, she immediately went to intercession. With a covering of prayer, I waited for the ambulance to arrive, pleading with God to give us direction, strength and wisdom. After a minute or so and several trips to see how Jen and Evelyn were doing, I saw the blue lights coming down the road. I motioned to the emergency personnel and told them we have a ramp. The driver misunderstood me, and drove down the block and turned up the street behind our apartment block. They accidently pulled into the parking lot of the next-door apartment (which I didn't realize) and I started looking for them. They finally found me with a response like "Oops!" After showing them the ramp, I led them in to the house where Jen had a German-English Bible open. She had just opened it up and was looking for passages in the Gospel of John to comfort her with.

The emergency personnel got to work, asking questions, checking vitals and getting an IV ready. They were excellent. We wanted to give them space to work, but they ended up recruiting us to help. They got Evelyn ready to go and the driver went out to get the ambulance. I went outside to turn on the lights when a flashlight shined in my face. The police arrived. They introduced themselves and thanked us for our help, and quickly got to work, asking both Evenlyn and us questions. They were pretty shocked when they found out it wasn't her house and we didn't even know her.

Amy's door then creaked open and she came out, rubbing her eyes. I knelt down beside her and said "Amy, we have some visitors. One person is very sick, and there are ambulance people and police here to help her. Would you like to say hello to them?" She quickly nodded her head and I led her there. Amy immediately ran to Jen where she was scooped up.

The rest happened so fast, that I don't even remember Evelyn leaving with the ambulance crew. Jen noticed quickly and ran out, Bible in hand. "This is a gift for her." "Oh, ok" was the reply and they were gone. The police thanked us again and left.

The only thing left to do then was pray. We held each other and pleaded with God, uttering things that could not be understood in any language. God understood.

Just Smashing!

2009-08-27T15:41:00.002+02:00

A few months ago a designer from the Czech Republic introduced me to Smashing Magazine, a Web site loaded with tons of incredible information for graphic and Web designers. Yesterday's article on logo design and it's connected articles is one of the best resources I have read on the subject. Kudos to Smashing! Here's the link to go directly to the article.

I have such a yearning to grow as a designer. Please pray for me as I thirst for both the Word of God, and a creativeness that can only come from the Creator Himself.

Amy the Kindergartnerin!

2009-08-10T12:38:00.002+02:00

Amy started Kindergarten today! Just before she left Daddy prayed for her and then she was off! The Kindergarten is a very warm and inviting place for the children and Amy had a blast. She was overjoyed to hear that she can do it all over again…tomorrow!

In the beginning GOD

2009-08-07T11:04:00.004+02:00

One constant theme that popped up time and again during our furlough was of the creation of the world. It all started when Jen and I were given tickets to see Sight and Sound Theater's production of In the Beginning. It was a fantastic production, though they admittedly used "artistic license" for some things not specifically mentioned in Scripture. It gave us a greater understanding of the creation of the universe. During the two weeks of camp with Child Evangelism Fellowship of Schuylkill County, the first verse the children learned was Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That word "God" is translated from "Elohim" in Hebrew, which means "Creator". "Elohim" is also the plural of "El", directly pointing to the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It's interesting how much doctrine is in the first ten words of the Bible!

That theme continued on while my father and I were hiking on Skiff mountain in the Adirondacks. When we reached the top, the view was fantastic, and there was nearly an acre of beautiful, ripe, wild blueberry bushes. As we hopped from rock to rock, stuffing our faces, our discussion turned toward creation. Our talk intermixed with so many other topics—the flood, the tower of Babel, humanism—but ultimately led back to "In the beginning God".

It takes my breath away to think the very Creator of the universe—from it's countless stars to the tiniest molecular structure—personally and genuinely loves me.

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

Catching up

2009-08-07T09:03:00.005+02:00

Yes, we have been very lax on updating our blog! We found ourselves connected to the net only a few days a week and only then for a few minutes each time for our last month of furlough. After Summer Missionary Training School, we traveled back to the Millersburg area. We visited supporters and friends and shared at our home church, David's Community Bible Church, for the Sunday School hour. We traveled to Easton, Md. to visit another supporting church, The Church on Fire. We also had another great week of camp, this time in Valley View, Pa. We even helped out one evening at a Vacation Bible School. We hosted a special Swiss dinner at Echo Valley Grace Brethren Church were Jen grew up, and shared the following morning during the Sunday School hour and gave the message during the worship service.

After all that busyness, it was time to pack up most of our stuff and head for the final stretch in New York State. We traveled to Wayne County, NY and spent a fun weekend with the Allegretti family. While there we visited Second Reformed Church in Marion and had a wonderful day with them. We also had the opportunity to see the Erie Canal and Lake Ontario. Amy and Christopher had lots of fun tossing rocks into the vastness of water.

We said our goodbyes and drove to Schroon Lake to spend the last few days with Brent's parents. What a blessing! It was the first real down time we had the entire furlough, and we appreciated the slower pace of life. Brent and Amy went almost every day down to the beach at

the lake. Jen enjoyed picking red currants from the garden as Grandpa and Christopher fed the fish or took trips in the wagon. Of course Grandma spoiled the kids, but not too much!

And then furlough was over. We flew out of Montreal to Toronto, then had an overnight flight to Zürich. The children enjoyed the flight and slept pretty well.

Thank you for all your prayers during our furlough. It was a whirlwind tour, and we are so thankful to have been able to spend time with so many of you.

Back to school!

2009-07-01T22:16:00.005+02:00

Yes, we went back to school! CEF's Summer Missionary Training School, that is, along with 51 eager summer missionaries and a host of staff. We had a wonderful time getting to know the high-school and college-age students who are fanned out across Pennsylvania this summer teaching 5-Day Clubs. Each day we explained our ministry to the students so they would be able to tell children across backyards all summer about us as missionaries and how they, too, can be missionaries. Amy and Chris were treated like royalty, the food was great and it was an honor to work alongside some great people. On Tuesday, Brent had the privilege to accompany Mark Wyland, the State Director for CEF in PA to the other training school held in Bucks County. Brent was blessed getting to know Mark and his heart for the children.

Back to childhood

2009-07-01T22:12:00.003+02:00

We had the wonderful experience of being the camp missionaries at the CEF® day camp in Rock, where Jen went to as a child. The children were excited to hear someone from their backyard is areal live missionary! We started out the missionary time on Monday with Jen running from seat to seat, checking them out as I tried getting started. She was looking for where she used to sit! Amy was able to take part in the camp, too, being on the yellow team. Besides learning about us as missionaries, the children learned about the names of God, heard the Gospel each day, played games, had devotion time and learned memory verses. They loved having Christopher around and he loved the attention. We helped in the afternoon by making snow-cones, which gave us funny-colored hands in the end. We're excited about another week of camp in Valley View from July 6-10.

Project and support update

2009-06-04T17:54:00.003+02:00

We're thankful to several supporters who have given toward our computer fund. We have nearly half the money raised, praise God! We've just started raising for our vehicle fund, and we are still seeking our first donations toward the video projector we purchased, which has been a tremendous blessing. We also need to raise at least $600 a month in new support, which has been a struggle. Please prayerfully consider how you might help us out with our ministry. To help with one of these projects, checks can be made out to Child Evangelism Fellowship and sent to CEF, PO Box 348, Warrenton MO 63383-0348. On the subject line, write the account number of the project you would like to give to. Project numbers are:

Computer fund: E000-4119-060

Vehicle fund: E000-4119-035

Video projector fund: E000-4119-080

General fund: E000-4119-000

Thank you!

What we did in May

2009-06-04T17:42:00.005+02:00

Last month was an extremely busy month visiting churches, supporters and getting together with friends and family. It's been wonderful being able to say "thank you" to so many of our supporters! Our official tally involves:

Six church meetings (plus another three services we simply attended)

Fourteen meetings with current supporters

Five individual meetings

Three meetings to help other church ministries

One Good News Club®

902 ministry miles driven

Please pray for us in June as we have one week of CEF Day Camp, nine days of CEF Christian Youth in Action training and more church and supporter visits. We'll need a vacation!

Riding high!

2009-06-04T17:32:00.007+02:00

On Memorial day we had the wonderful opportunity to take a ride in a 1919 Ford Model T! Ken Ditty, whose apartment we're staying in, let us go for a spin after the Memorial Day parade in Elizabethville. We rode through the beautiful countryside, stopped at some friends and even had an ice cream. Christopher fell asleep in the back, so the ride must have been comfortable! We managed to get it to about 30 miles per hour. Thanks Ken!

Furlough schedule for June and July

2009-05-27T21:24:00.003+02:00

I know it's about two months late, but here is our furlough schedule for June and July. We still have many supporters we are hoping to meet with, so if you support us and want to get together, contact us please!

June 1-7, Millersburg PA.
June 8-12, CEF day camp, Pine Grove, PA
June 12-20, CEF Christian Youth In Action training, Chambersburg, PA
June 21-26, Millersburg BUT not available June 23-26.
June 27-28 Easton, MD
June 29-July 5, Millersburg, PA
June 6-10, CEF day camp, Valley View, PA
June 11-15, Pine Grove, PA
July 16-19, Marion, NY
July 20-26, Schroon Lake, NY
July 27-28, fly back to Switzerland!

Happy birthday Jen!

2009-05-12T01:02:00.003+02:00

On Saturday we celebrated Jen's birthday with a game of minigolf and swimming. Amy loved the pool and Christopher finally warmed up to it. Jen's father was able to meet up with us in Hempfield, Lancaster County. We met with the missions committee of the Hempfield United Methodist Church where they treated us to dinner and birthday cake. It was a special time and we are grateful to be able to share the special day with those who pray and give to us and our ministry.

The Hautles in Hershey

2009-05-12T00:57:00.004+02:00

We arrived in Hershey a week ago, and have been enjoying getting together with so many friends and supporters. The missionary house we're staying at is absolutely wonderful, with an office space for Brent, a well-stocked kitchen, large back yard for playing and plenty of books for Amy and Chris. Thank you Hershey Free! There are bicycle routes nearby and several nice parks for the kids to play at. It's been a great place to come back to after a day on the road.

Hike to Goose Pond

2009-04-24T21:01:00.004+02:00

Chris and I had a nice, long hike with my dad, going to Goose Pond near Schroon Lake. It was a beautiful day, and once we got Chris out of the hiking pack, dad went running after him. On the way back we stopped by some waterfalls, enjoyed a nearby woodpecker and basked in the sun.

Family time

2009-04-20T22:06:00.004+02:00

It's been a whole lot of fun visiting with Brent's parents. The meals have been excellent, and the weather has been wonderful. Amy has enjoyed putting together a gingerbread house with Poppi, and Grammere makes Christopher giggle a whole lot. The men went out on a couple of short hikes already, taking in the beautiful wilderness. (Look for another posting for our hike to Goose Pond). The kids love the playground at the school just a couple of blocks away.

One highlight was going to both the morning and evening services at Mountainside Church. For the first time in years we had the privilege of being at a baptismal service. What a time of rejoicing! The preaching was wonderful and it was great to see how active the teens are in the church. We spend a few more days here until heading down to Pennsylvania. Keep in touch!

What a gift!

2009-04-18T12:15:00.003+02:00

We arrived safely and even a little early at the Zurich airport on Wednesday. Because we were early, there were only two other people in front of us at the check-in line – something that's certainly never happened to us before! We checked in without problems but couldn't make our way to the gate because we didn't know which one we needed to go to. We had to wait a little bit, eating a snack and finding a quiet location until our gate was announced. Finally, E53 flashed on the announcement board and we headed toward our destination. Amy guided us to terminal E and we took the small train, which was fun. We were ushered to the front of the security line – one bonus of having children, and then headed for our gate. That's when we saw the sign for the children's play area. We thought we were dreaming. We made our way to the playroom and entered a wonderful world. This wasn't just a small room with a few toys, this was an indoor playground with changing stations, microwaves for heating snacks and friendly staff. It had just been installed in September, and has been a major success. I wrote a quick thank you in the guest book, saying it was a "gift from God." Our hour and a half wait seemed more like 15 minutes, and both Amy and Christopher were able to get a respite from mommy or daddy saying "no!".

Almost ready

2009-04-14T22:38:00.002+02:00

The bags are nearly packed. The house is almost clean. Most of the Hautles are asleep. In a few hours, we start our long journey to the States. Amy was really laughing tonight when I told her we need to practice flying by jumping up and down and flapping our wings. Christopher just wanted to be tossed in the air. We're so excited at getting a chance to see family, friends and ministry partners again.

It's a surreal feeling. I still have a list of things to do, but I don't feel like everything is really frantic at this time. I feel like I can still get them done before Midnight. As the the psalmist says, "The Lord is my strength and my shield." I can feel Him even now, strengthening me for the journey.

Bis später,

-Brent

Talking about God

2009-03-16T20:26:00.002+01:00

For Amy's birthday, we got her a Wonder Devotional Book – Early Reader Edition. Unfortunately, it's been a bit of a fight reading it to her. That doesn't mean we don't have chances to share with her, in fact last night was pretty funny.

Jen was explaining to Amy all she can tell God when she prays. Amy answered, "Sometimes God dies for me when I'm bad."

Jen responded, "but Jesus only had to die once."

Amy quickly interjected "and then He was alive again!"

Jen continued, "and God would like you to live in Heaven with Him."

"I don't like coffee. I only like tea" was Amy's reply.

"That's okay. God has tea."

Happy birthday Amy!

2009-03-10T08:52:00.003+01:00

Amy turns 4 today! We celebrated with a small party on Sunday with her grown-up friends and had ice cream cake, games and prizes. We're thankful for our beautiful little girl and ask for your prayers that we would be Godly examples in her life.

Dumped!

2009-03-09T07:57:00.004+01:00

We got dumped on with the snow this past weekend. At home we got about 18 inches and Kilchzimmer got two feet! A foot had been cleared, and then it snowed all night long – making the parking lot a quagmire.

While we enjoy winter, it's been a long one with the first snow coming in early November. We're ready for spring!

The joy of family photos

2009-03-04T11:05:00.008+01:00

We had an exciting day getting our new family photos taken. Out of nearly 60 photos taken, you'll soon see the one that won out on our prayer card. In the meantime, here's three funny ones to show you what kind of day we had!

Kudos to Tim for his patience and ideas in getting a good picture of all of us.

FEG Balsthal online

2009-02-17T20:09:00.005+01:00

It's done! I was able to upload the new church Web site this past week and make some minor corrections today. (Still some minor problems on the Frauentreff page though). Check it out at www.feg-balsthal.ch, and have fun reading German! For those of you who see something like this and think "I could never do a site like that…" think again! It was all done with iWeb. You just need a Mac! ;)

A three-day shadow

2009-01-29T08:47:00.007+01:00

It's always exciting to pass on some of what we've learned. Laura, the daughter of Philippe and Joanne Mayhew, leaders of the work in France (and former Kilchzimmer co-workers) spent several days sitting with me and learning what a graphic designer does for a school project. She was supposed to just observe, but I let her take the reins a bit and she had a blast working in Photoshop and Illustrator. She's a quick learner and very productive, and she would like to use her talents for the Lord. Laura and Philippe came for lunch one day and we enjoyed our time together. We certainly miss the Mayhews at Kilchzimmer, but praise God for how he is working in their lives.

What's kept me from blogging…

2009-01-19T16:24:00.007+01:00

Wow, December 22 was the last time we wrote here. I sincerely apologize. We have been extremely busy with church and ministry related projects, and I wanted to give you just a glimpse of what we've been doing.

CEF has a 30-hour course called Teaching Children Effectively and I've been tasked to recreate the PowerPoint templates for the course. With this project came the realization to do a complete reworking of the entire TCE design. After working with several members of the CEF Europe Education department and several workers on the field, we came up with a new series of logos for the three levels of the course. I finished designing the PowerPoint templates and two sample (but fully usable) lessons.

We've also been busy doing a complete redesign of our church's Web site. It's not up and running yet, but we hope to have it completed by the first week in February. Look for it in a future post!

So close…

2008-12-22T19:15:00.002+01:00

A couple of evenings ago Amy was being very disobedient. She went to bed screaming and kicking and making all of us miserable. I calmed her down (it took quite a while) and then shared with her how she was making God sad by disobeying mommy and daddy. She got this big frown, and I realized I had a teachable moment, so I quietly and gently shared the Gospel with her. She said she wanted God to help her be a good girl, but when I asked if she wanted Jesus to forgive her sins, she shook her head no. I just smiled at knowing His timing, not mine will prevail. I just wanted to ask you to pray for us as we see spiritual development in her life.

-Brent

Finishing the race!

2008-11-30T20:38:00.008+01:00

Can you believe it! I ran in a 5.5 km race – the Basler Stadtlauf! (Basel city run) I have been training off and on for nearly three months. While my time wasn't a record-breaker, this is a huge event in my life. The story starts last year after my brother Jay died and Christopher was born. I was very depressed and ate my feelings away. I realized I needed to do something and in October, got an exercise bike and now bike 4-5 times a week, going anywhere from 30-50km. I completely changed my eating habits (not a diet, but a lifestyle change) and have lost 76 lbs (34 kilos)! I still have 6 more pounds to go, but Lord-willing, He'll help me finish the race!

God at work

2008-11-26T09:53:00.004+01:00

It's always exciting to hear how God is working in the hearts of children through the materials we produce. Here's how God is using the booklet Meet the King in the life of a child:

"A grandmother from Denmark told a wonderful story. Her grandchild had never heard the Gospel from her parents because they are not interested in God. The grandmother gave the girl a copy of Meet the King. Several weeks later, the grandchild told her grandmother 'I have asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my Saviour!'

The other day both of them travelled by train and sat next to a young man. Suddenly the child asked him 'Can I tell you a story?' The man was surprised but said 'yes'. The child took Meet the King from her bag and told him the story exactly word for word."

The Church that moves

2008-11-05T19:50:00.010+01:00

We had the tremendous opportunity to go to the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde (Free Evangelical Church) in St. Gallen for their very first service in their new building. This is the church we called home for three months as we attended language school five years ago. The church is also known as Stami, short for Stadt Mission. Their tagline is "The Church that Moves," and it certainly lived up to that name this weekend.Pastor Gust Ledergerber (which happens to be my grandmother's maiden name) shared how the Lord brought the church to the new location, closing door after door in order to bless the church even more than they expected. The location could not have been better. Centrally located in the middle of the city, it's across from the hospital and a highway off ramp. It's also a two-minute walk from the St. Fiden train station, one of the two rail hubs in the city.After the church bid on the property, the owner was offered an additional 10,000 Swiss Francs by a cult. He wasn't a believer, but God had been working in his life and he refused the second offer, losing the additional money he could have made.

The music was outstanding. The preaching was even better–focusing on 2 Chronicles 6 and 7. Pastor Ledergerber shared the need for the church to continue it's path of equipping the saints, reaching out into the city and winning souls for Christ. We felt like we had never been away and were warmly welcomed.

Stami has a long way to go. Please pray for the church as it seeks to share the need for the Lord Jesus Christ in a spiritually struggling city. Please also pray for the finances needed to pay off the new building.

A fine autumn day

2008-10-28T21:46:00.007+01:00

I love the autumn time, when the leaves turn their beautiful colors and the air gets a chill. September in Switzerland was very cold, rainy and dreary. There was hardly a day with sunshine. October has given us some great weather, however, and we've spent several days enjoying God's creation. A few Sundays ago after church, we stopped in Balsthal beside the main road. There's a walkway there lined with trees, and they gave such a glow! After lunch, we headed to the cross overlooking Holderbank and was surprised to see just a tiny bit of the Alps peaking over the horizon. Amy even pointed them out and gasped!

God Cares about You

2008-10-09T04:17:00.005+02:00

Most of my time this summer has been spent working on the new Bible correspondence course, God Cares about You. After several design stages I took them to ten different children for their input. There was some excellent feedback and some interesting observations. Changes to the lessons were made yet again and last week David, a volunteer from N. Ireland, helped cut down and piece all the printouts together (shown in the photo). This week I've been sending prototypes to children around Switzerland, the UK and US for more input.

This input from children is extremely important to us. Often, adults who work with kids think they know what children want, (especially CEF workers!) but can actually have many wrong ideas.

Please pray as we continue to work on these lessons to make them the best they can be! We're also asking you to pray they would be ready by the end of November so we can get them translated, printed and into the hands of children who need to hear the Gospel of Christ!

Persecution in Central Asia

2008-10-04T17:09:00.003+02:00

An ever-increasing wave of persecution is hitting CEF® workers in Central Asia. One worker in the region was recently imprisoned for 10 days and was warned the next time he is caught teaching children about Christ he would be imprisoned for 10 years.

Another couple in Tajikistan has seen their ministry all but stop due to the government forbidding more and more activities. Things that were possible just a few years ago such as Good News Clubs, Bible correspondence courses and camps have been shut down. They have also been interrogated several times by the secret police.

Please pray for the safety of our workers in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and the Lord to provide open doors for ministry.

Chris is one!

2008-09-15T16:48:00.010+02:00

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

2008-09-08T20:56:00.005+02:00

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

2008-09-04T14:03:00.007+02:00

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!

2008-09-04T13:27:00.003+02:00

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