Christmas in Kandern

The town square and Main Street look amazing during the Christmas season.

Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum

Our trek to get our tree was an adventure......

Someone gave us directions to a christmas tree farm near Matthew's

school and the directions went something like this.... Near the elementary

school follow the footpath~ go by the cows ~ find a barn at the end of the footpath~

knock on the barn door ~ there you will find a man who speaks no english only

allamonish (who knows on the spelling sorry) which is the dialect of the area and is quite different than the German language (meanwhile our german skills are lacking to say the least).

Sooooo we get to the end of the path and there are 3 or 4 barns, maybe one is a home ???

You can see Matt going to knock on the door. Luckily a man came out of the woods when he heard some LOUD American family. Everyone here is quite and speaks only so the person nearby can hear. Unless of course you are at a 'fest' or its midnight on News Years Eve. Well I knew the word for tree in German, that with a lot of hand motions he pointed us to a wide path on a muddy hill. There seemed to be quite a strong aroma of 'cow' but thats what most of this area here smell like, so that was not a big deal until I until I realized the slippery hill we were heading up was not mud after all :)

Well, we picked a beautiful tree and the tree man was wonderfully kind and we slid down the hill without falling in it !!

The Trek to our Christmas Tree *

The Trek to our Christmas Tree **

The Trek to our Christmas Tree

Dorm Subs

Thursday night dorm subs! The kids love our Thursday nights at the dorm! Here is Andrew is getting some advise about classes and school before dinner.

Basketball Game

This weekend was the first home game for basketball. We mostly play Department of Defense Schools. The closest Base is 2 1/2 hours away and the farthest is 7 hours away. So they play 4 games on a Friday night and 4 games on Saturday girls jv boys jv ~ girls vars. and boys vars. The teams sleep right in the school, the boys on the floor in the Gym and the girls in the Student Center. We spent the whole weekend there (but we slept at home!). Our boys got right in the spirit quickly by painting their faces and Andrew sprayed his hair blue! The girls beat Heidelberg for the first time. Rob worked the clock just like he did many years ago at NHS. It was a long but fun weekend!

All of us in one photo!

One night a week in December the towns people go down to the center of town and celebrate Christmas. There is singing food and fire. It is very simple, but beautiful! People taking the time to enjoy each other and honor the Christmas Season the whole month.

Dorm Thanksgiving

On Thursday November 19, we had a Thanksgiving Dinner at the dorm we help out at. All the guys, dorm parents and all the other dorm subs joined in the celebration. We had all the traditional fixings it was delicious!! It was also Kari Eaves birthday one of the dorm subs. The guys sang to her and did not creek her on that cold night !! (more on creeking see September post)

Thanksgiving

The elementary school had a Thanksgiving celebration last week.

The day was filled with games, singing, crafts, dancing, baking,

stories and a Thanksgiving dinner. See if you can find Matthew!

Lantern Night

It is a tradition in Germany for K- 3rd grade to celebrate St. Martin by walking though the town with hand made lanterns. Jacob is attending German Kindergarten in Holzen, the next town over. We had a beautiful night for this celebration. All the children decorated lanterns that week in school. Families joined in the walk stopping every so often to sing. We ended at the park by having kinder punch, hot dogs and pretzels by a bonfire. It was a beautiful night !

St. Martin's Day (or Martinstag or Martinmas) is November 11, the feast day of Martin of Tours, who started out as a Roman soldier. He was baptized as an adult and became a monk. It is understood that he was a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that he once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying of the cold. That night he dreamed that Jesuswas wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away. Martin heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me."

Car Clinic

Last Weekend our Church here had a car clinic. Here in Germany it is a law you must have 'winter' tires on before the first snow. The car clinic was open to anyone who needed winter tires put on and to check all fluids and basic car safety. It was run by volunteers from the church for two weekends. Rob helped this past Saturday. It was a blessing to so many families!

BFA Seniors

I have had the opportunity to photograph some high school seniors here this week. We had a great time!! I enjoyed spending time with the girls they were all so much fun !

Dorm Night

Here is a Thursday night at the dorm HBR .

Mom and Dad arrived on a Thursday

for their visit, so they got to experience

dinner at the Dorm. These photos are

from a few weeks ago during Spiritual

Emphasis week. When the Canadian

Band came by for dinner.

Dad and Mom

We are so thankful that my mom and dad could come out to Germany to visit with us.

Fire Trucks

Here are some photos of the boys at a safety fair. For all those Firetruck Love'n cousins and Uncle! It must be Safety month here, because we have been seeing several

Police- Fire- &- Rescue demonstrations.

High School Fall Party

Out with the old, in with the, well old

We had purchased this fine, 1995 Mazda 626 when we first arrived in Kandern. Well, 2 months later, I realized that Heather was right and perhaps we needed a bigger vehicle. So, we have been shopping for a van that is within our price range. We have found one! We will be purchasing a new (to us) 1995 Volkswagon Sharan. While it is the same year, and has more kilometers than our Mazda, it seems to be a better vehicle considering Heathrer's folks are going to be here and we need the room.

Middle School Overnight

On Friday, September 26th, I had a chance to chaperon the middle school overnight in Loerrach. 56 young students and 9 adults spent time hicking, playing, watching movies, singing by the camp fire, eating hot dogs and praising God for good weather, friends and the beauty of his creation. Notice that sleeping was not one of the activities listed!

Do you know what Creeking is?

On Thursday night, our night to volunteer at the dorm, we were introduced to a new term, Creeking. Well, we got a chance to see it in full swing as the young men of HBR went out and captured the lead singer of the band playing, Jeff Dresser, at BFA for Spiritual Emphasis Week. They brought him back, carried him down (carefully) and lowered him into the creek. The water here in Germany is a balmy 16 degrees Celsius, otherwise known as 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So, needless to say the boys had fun making Jeff an honorary member of HBR. There were some questions to answer with the head of Residential Life the next morning, but we are not fired, yet.

Learning to drive in Germany

Do you know Heather drives a mean bumper car? Given the fact that she has had neck issues for the past few months, we decided that on our first date night we should go to the bumper cars. While this is not really the case, we did stumble across a random bumper car ride and decided to bring some levity to our night. While there were only 4 of us driving, there were many collisions and some major confusion on both Heather and my part as we didn't know how to get the cars into reverse.

Dorm Parents - Not Really

Heather, the boys and I had an opportunity to sub for Greg & Danielle Storrs, the dorm parents at

Haus Bad Riedlingen (HBR). HBR is a dorm at BFA where 24 young men live and spend a great deal of their time outside of the classroom. We will be covering for the Storrs every other Thursday night so that they can have a few hours off their amazingly busy schedule. Last night we had a chance to get to know these men a little better and hopefully lay the groundwork for some meaningful relationships. We also had an opportunity to get to know Brandon and Anna, the two RA's and work with them. We had a great time and look forward to serving there again soon.

Chapel Time

Once a week there is chapel time for faculty, students and parents during the school day. This was the first Friday of the year and our first exposure to chapel time. It was awesome to see the student led worship team and the music they played was upbeat and fun. Many of the students gathered around the stage like a concert and jumped and sang with the band, creating a very interactive time of worship. I must say the deliberate conversations about God and faith embedded in all that is done at BFA has been enlightening and refreshing. Our whole family has enjoyed and benefited from this environment greatly.

Opening Ceremonies

Today was the Opening Ceremonies for the new school year at BFA! It was an interesting and powerful experience. As the students gathered outside the auditorium, you could hear the buzz and excitement about reuniting with friends and the start of a new year. The student lead procession began with the seniors carrying in flags representing their home and passport countries. Once the ceremony began, Mary Ellen Reisser, a long time faculty member, read off all the countries our students represent and it was great to see their pride as they stood. I counted 52 countries in all, many of which I am embarrassed to say I couldn't locate on the map. Once the Opening Ceremony was complete, it was time for good-byes. This was powerful as parents and students were faced with the reality that they would not see each other again until the winter break in December.

You know you're in Germany when ...

You know you're in Germany when you are excited about receiving your garbage can! We have been here for 3 weeks and we have had one Gelber Sack day where our recyclables (plastic and some cardboard containers) have been picked up and we now have a garbage can. Things are getting real exciting. We still need to drop off the glass jars (pasta sauce, jelly, etc) we have piling up at the recycling center, but we are getting used to the seriousness of garbage here in Germany. I am beginning to think that forced recycling is a good plan and something we will bring back with us. It is amazing how little true trash you have when you separate those things that can be reused.

Rotteln Castle

We have been blessed with our host family, the Stemples. Yesterday they took us on a tour of Lorrach, Germany. We got to take a nice walk and picnic outside Rotteln Castle, as well as go school shopping in the city. The kids really enjoyed climbing the towers of the Castle, as well as playing with Ellie, Jordan, Matthew and Katie Stemple. Heather and I enjoyed the views from the top and the friendship with Sam and Jen.

Basel, Switzerland

On Friday the personnel office at BFA (aka Kristi Schliep) took the new staff on a walking tour of Basel, Switzerland. This is the city we flew into, yet really did not see much of as we had a little jet lag at the time. It was awesome as there was a jazz fest being held on the Rhine River. We got a chance to ride a boat across right before we met up with the rest of the group to return home. The city was very busy, but had many streets that are pedestrian only. That is pretty cool as we are coming to realize that most europeans walk mostly everywhere and if they are not walking, they are riding their bikes.

Tour of Residence Halls

On Thursday, the 13th, our family and some of the other new staff took a tour of the 7 residence halls available to the BFA families. We enjoyed seeing where the approximately 150 boarding students will spend a majority of their time outside the classrooms. While some of the residences are close and others are further away, they all offer the boys and girls a true home away from home. While we were on our tour, Matthew lost a tooth! As a reward, he got a popsicle from the dorm parents at the Stork Dorm. Actually we all got popsicles, thanks Matt.

BFA Sitzenkirch

Today we took a short drive out the BFA Sitzenkirch. This is where the elementary school (grades 1-5) is located. We heard about the new multilingual 1st grade that is half English speaking students and half German speaking students. This is a new venture that BFA is attempting to integrate with the community through their educational efforts. This is where Matthew will be going to school. He will be in a class of about 14 other students, mostly boys. We have gotten to know his teacher already, the Lord has sent the right woman for the job!

Visit with english camp

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Heather, Andrew and I spent the first half of the day at the Black Forest Academy (school seen in picture) in a German language and culture class. I thought I might pick up some German while I was here. Now, I doubt it. I was completely intimidated by the morning session. I am hoping the next 4 days will help a great deal.

Our family spent the afternoon and evening with the Kraines, Lori Henry, Becky Brooks and Brian Chausse, as well as 30 German teens at English Camp. We had a chance to join them in their activity time, which was American Football. We had a lot of fun interacting with these kids. It was wonderful to see teens so interested in learning the English language and about God. If you didn't hear them talking with one another, you wouldn't even know they were German.

Speedo Anyone?

We hit the public pool in Kandern yesterday. Also known as the "speedo" pool. Regulations require tight fitting swimwear from all bathers. All in all, it was a really nice swim area with 2 pools and a kiddie water area. The boys managed to have a great time in the water and going down the water slide.

Today is our first Sunday here. We went to Black Forest Christian Fellowship, where I had to stand and introduce us all. Wasn't quite ready/expecting that, but we met many very nice people. Today is the first day that has not been sunny and warm, but that has not stopped the boys from having fun outside with the Frantz & Ellis kids (our neighbors).

Kandern, the first few days.

We have landed in Kandern, Germany and are getting settled into our new home. It has been amazing to see God's hand in our lives throughout the past few months, weeks, days and even hours. We have been blessed with meeting wonderful individuals and families that have been encouraging and supportive.

The Shuman Family

Heather, Andrew, Matthew, Jacob and I will be serving as missionaries at the Black Forest Academy (BFA) in Kandern, Germany for the next year. We have felt the Lord's calling to this ministry throughout the past year and have been amazed at how every obstacle that we saw in our way was cleared. We are excited that God has clearly shown us that this is what he wants for our lives. While we did not reach 100% of our funding, we have been blessed through financial support, prayer support and encouragement from so many. Thanks to all who have been and will be supporting us over the course of our time here.