Oct 25, 2010

Life of Christ 1

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!

Oct 24, 2010

NEW! Car project update

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.

Oct 13, 2010

Car project update

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!

Sep 26, 2010

Zivilschutz

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®.

Sep 13, 2010

One down …

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!

Aug 26, 2010

Remembering Gabi

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.

Aug 8, 2010

Getting together

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.

Jul 6, 2010

I got it right … almost

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!

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!