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®.

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!

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.

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.

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!

Sights of Plovdiv

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

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

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!