Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: SETTLING IN, VISIT TO TRIER

Over the past week we have been in regular contact with the Welfare/Humanitarian missionary couples that we work with in their various countries. We had an hour Skype call with each one of them. This allowed us to get to know them better, put a face with a name, and better understand the challenges they face. During these calls we let them know that we would like to be a resource for them as they submit potential projects. We are currently working with couples serving in the following countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, and Cape Verde. A couple has been called for Bosnia/Croatia and will arrive later this summer. We are hoping to also get a couple to serve in Greece soon, as there are many refugee related projects in that country.

In our calling as Area Welfare Specialists we have a number of responsibilities. We have divided the work in an effort to be efficient and utilize our prior experience. Russell takes care of all the financial matters. He also works with the attorneys and couples, reviewing their contracts with local NGO’s. I (Eileen) am very grateful he is working with these two areas, as it would be a daunting task for me. I have more diversity with my responsibilities. I review each locally initiated project; making suggestions as to how the project can meet our church’s objectives of helping the poor and needy through promoting recipient self-reliance, creating locally sustainable projects, and if appropriate providing service opportunities for our church members. I do a monthly newsletter with photos and stories of the activities that are taking place in each country. I handle upcoming travel reservations, send letters to incoming and outgoing couple missionaries, and prepare summary documents for future visits of our church leaders with local governmental leaders. In addition to locally initiated projects our church has several worldwide projects which we have decided to allocate between us with Russell taking the lead on water, wheelchair and food production projects while (I) Eileen will work with the neo-natal, vision and immunization type projects. We both present potential projects in a bi-weekly project approval meeting. We have been very busy trying to assimilate ourselves in our new position and keeping (more like getting) caught up on our duties. But we are both enjoying the work we are doing and love being here.

One of the enjoyable things we have done is trying to make our little apartment seem like home. We both love flowers and Germany has an abundance of beautiful flowers. Russell has planted 18 geraniums outside on our balcony in planter boxes. Friday evening we went to one of the largest garden shops I have ever seen. We bought several other kinds of flowers and plants, which Russell has distributed, throughout our apartment. It was good therapy for him to plant and I have loved seeing the flowers growing around our apartment.

German Garden Shop

Our newly planted flowers in our apartment

In the Europe Area office of our church here in Frankfurt there are about 25 missionary couples. I know we will develop some very dear friendships with many of them by the time we leave here. There are activities going on several days each week, most of which we don’t attend due to lack of time. Yesterday (Saturday), we put aside our work and went with a large group of senior missionaries to Trier, a city in Western Germany near the Luxembourg border. The Romans conquered Trier in about 50 B.C. It is a beautiful city on the banks of the Mosel River. We saw the neighborhood were Karl Marx was born, visited the old Roman Gate called Porta Nigra, saw the Cathedral (Dom), visited the underground tunnels below the thermal baths, two museums and the Basilica of Constantine built around 300 A.D. Three of the areas we visited make up a single Unesco site.

Missionaries in Trier City Center

Cathedral (Dom) in Trier

Underground tunnels at the Roman Baths

Roman ruins at thermal baths

In addition to visiting Trier we also had the opportunity to have a very pleasant evening at the childhood home of Michael Kempener. Michael is an employee in the office where we work. The home has been owned by his family for over 100 years and is located on the banks of the Mosel River. From the front yard we viewed a castle, the quaint town, and the river with many small river-cruise ships going by. This was a perfect place to hang out in the morning as our van broke down and we had to wait a couple of hours for emergency road assistance to come help. The Kempeners were very gracious hosts and we appreciated all of their efforts to prepare dinner for such a large group. The best part of the day was the social interaction we had with many new friends.