Matthews Family Herald

Time to start writing/typing "2010" on every document. How many times will you accidently write "2009"? I will try not to do it at all. :)

Thanks to God, we are finally moved in to our new place in Neckargemund.

Our household goods are set to arrive on Monday and Wednesday and our "move out" inspection of the on-post quarters is set for Tuesday. I have a court-martial case to record on Thursday and Friday and so you can see we have a very busy schedule set for next week.

Last week at our third home fellowship, our son Jacob heard the Lord and asked to be water baptised/immersed. (This photo is not of him.) He had already decided to follow Jesus with all of his heart and life a few years before but now felt the Lord leading him that this was then the time to be immersed in obedience to the Lord and by the example, in so doing, of our Lord Himself. (Say that sentence three times without slipping.) So, our family gathered in the bathroom and Jacob was baptised in our bathtub. (German bathtubs are just as long and twice as deep as those we are accustomed to back in America. Did you know that being immersed did not begin with John the Baptist but was a custom of the Israelites/Jews long before then?) It meant so much to me to be able to immerse him as his physical father and I suddenly felt more connected than before with centuries of leadership before me. I felt hope in continuing to secure in my family the things of the Lord for those coming after us. This was affirming on so many levels.

It's so wonderful living in Neckargemund. If that weren't enough, we have the most amazing landlords, Herr and Frau Heise. ("Herr" is the equivalent of "Mr." but perhaps means more than that. The bible in German uses "Herr" for the same word we translate as "Lord.") They are more like grandparents, really, and have made this move so much easier and pleasant. We moved in on New Year's Eve and so this was reason enough to celebrate. But here in Germany, it's legal to shoot fireworks from your home. This was surprising because Germany has given us the impression, thus far, that the society as a whole tends to be more careful and to "err" (if one could really call it "err") on the side of caution. But I will say that it had rained for a good part of the day prior to the New Year's Eve celebrations here.

The point is/was that we live up on a hill-top neighborhood and so people began shooting fireworks at about 10:20 (2230 in German time. Germans use the 24-hour clock just like the US military.) These shootings were just random and "here and there," if you will. But just moments before the New Year turned over, the citizens began shooting them off in droves. We could see bursts rocketing from homes, lighting up things below us, on either side, and all around us for miles in a panorama of explosions of sound and color. This went on for over an hour and so it was likely the most spectacular fireworks show we had ever seen and certainly the most beautiful. The best part was just being upstairs, the whole family huddled into Micah's room and watching the show together by the window sills and enjoying the children's fascination with the whole thing.

Today, we go with the intent to complete the cleaning of the home, perhaps get the new tires I need to have our family van pass the German inspection, shop for groceries, and hopefully get the bills paid before Monday.

I have found an awesome tool, Google Translator! Yeah! Through the use of this, I have located and joined in to website forums made for other home fellowshipers in Germany. I found this chiefly through the website of an author, Wolfgang Simson, who wrote "Houses that Change the World." He is a German who lives, I believe, in Stuttgart but travels the world. The afore-mentioned book was the first house church book I ever read, back in 2004. Little did I know then that I'd be in Germany some day. :) How I long for fellowship here...

There's so much more to share...perhaps later when we are more settled in. Planning to get more pictures up soon as well. Heather and I are really enjoying the comments left here by readers and we will do our best to reply back anytime anyone leaves a comment on one of our posts or asks a question.

With that, I'm going to close. Here's an appropriate picture of Jacob putting all of his trains down to bed for the night.

Take care,

James

Hi everyone,

It is the Sabbath - and as a new "resolution", and productive way to use our work-free day, I am endeavoring to be more social, and to stay in touch with friends and family.

So what have we been up to over here in Germany?

Well, first of all I am glad to report that no one is sick right now!!!!! (imagine making herbal teas, and remedies and administering morning and night for 6 children for over a week-plus waking several times during the night! You can imagine why I am soooo happy to announce this!)

We are enjoying having James home a lot for the holidays- Yesterday- he led us in pt and has been helping home school our kids this past week( for which I am most appreciative!) He's put together a Yahoo Group to help in fostering and facilitating home fellowships in our area. He's also studying a German/English parallel bible in an effort to learn the language in the context of our faith. The home church fellowship website is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/heidelberghomechurchnetwork

(Here's Dad and I playing a Dreidel game with the kids using jelly beans. The other photo is of Dad's German/English parallel bible. The Luther Version in German and ESV version in English.)

Rachel is in AZ still enjoying her holidays; please keep her in prayer. She is greatly loved and missed here. She has an amazing talent for taking photographs. While she was here for our celebrations, she took this uniquely angled photograph.

(Each window sill was adorned with tea light candles.)

I recently got a couple of herbal books that I am enjoying, and a large shipment of herbs from Shoshanna's bulk herb store( I am sipping a cup of stress-free tea right now, made of Ginko, St. John's wort,Gotu Kola, Raspberry, Ginseng, and sweetened with Stevia.) I can't wait to experiment making creams and such, out of my own herbs. I enjoy learning all I can and try to implement change into our family for our optimal health and well-being. Well that 's what is new in my own little world.

(Enjoying a "cuppa" in this first picture. The second picture is of the the seasonal set mentioned, in its entirety. The third is of another other set I bought second hand and that was made in

Bavaria, Southern Germany. Those Almond Sugar Cookies were made by the children.)

Micah has been perfecting his magician skills. He checks out every book he can, and got a large magic show for Hannukah with over 100 tricks. He has a gig set up already at the library. He also has put in a lot of comm. service hours at the library and getting some good training. It helps motivate him at home for his schooling and chores as well. He and Jacob also got a large art set for Hannukah , and has been impressing us with there paintings.

(Winter and Summer so well captured here in Micah's two acrylic paintings. Could these be the same tree even?)

Hannah's sweetness and beauty continue to bless our presence. She is improving in her math and reading skills, and really enjoyed the book Heidi, that we just finished(Our country for the month that we are studying is Switzerland.) She is also highly enjoying the Little House books. She shows a lot of interest in flowers and herbs ( I hope I have a little apprentice to share my hobby with) and she always wants to have a cup of tea with me.

Jacob has probably been the most stir crazy lately since he is the most athletic and has a hard time keeping his body still. He is growing so fast, it seems his bones are outgrowing his skin- getting tall and lanky. I hope to find archery or fencing lessons for him soon when we get settled into our new home (which we get to start moving into in a few days!)

(Jacob the acrobat. His other beloved move is to spin.)

Nathan is enjoying building Lego sets (Hannukah) and his skills and attention span are quite impressive. he has been getting in trouble a lot lately however for saying things like shut-up, butt, and other kinda crude things. He doesn't care for the taste of soap too much.

(Nathan, Eden, and Hannah playing with Eden's new tea set. The next shot is Nathan playing with his Legos.)

Eden has hit a growth of development in speech-and blows us away every day with her new word usage and understanding. She is always very funny and sweet.. She was much more interested in the boys wooden swords than the doll she got for Hannukah.

(Here, Eden is finger painting with shaving cream, colored with food coloring. The other picture is of Eden in a new dress she received from the Army's Angel Tree gifts.)

They are all my greatest joy every day! (And my greatest frustration)

-Heather

Good Sunday morning to all,

We are so excited to finally have our family van here. I was able to pick it up Friday and it's been a huge blessing to be able to use.

Heather will be taking her driving test here on Monday and then we'll both be able to cruise those Germany autobahns...

Rachel leaves in a day or few and we are going to miss her. She'll pick up our lil blue Yaris after the Bachert family brings her from the Tucson Airport to Sierra Vista. She'll spend a few days there and then head to see her almost fiance and his family for a couple of weeks.

We are enjoying the third day of Hanakkuh and the kids are excited about what tonight's gifts might be. I'm making latkes and Heather is making a big roast and it's all part of our holiday feast we'll be eating tonight. We played the dreidel game a night or two ago with jelly beans and Jacob was the winner. We'll play "hide the geld" pretty soon and that's always fun for the kids and the adults. Kinda like finding Easter eggs but with chocolate, golden foil covered coins. We tie in how Jesus as the Messiah ties into this celebration in many, many ways but a couple of them are that: Hannukah is called "the festival of lights" and that Jesus is "the light of the world." Also, the lead candle which lights the others and is centered and placed higher than the other candles is called the "shamash." We also teach that this candle represents a hidden mystery in Jewish custom pointing to Jesus.

Micah is enjoying volunteer work at the library but has been unable to go lately since he's not feeling so well. Various family members haven't felt so well as we traverse through the cold season.

I've already helped record or transcribe a few records of trial and I've got more to come this week.

We should be moving into our off-post rent home here in a couple of weeks and we can't wait to get our big family into a home with a little more room.

Oh, it started snowing today and the kids were so thrilled over it. I was too, watching them and remembering how excited I was when the first snowflakes began to fall each year, as a child.

We love you all and keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

-The Matthews in Germany

Hi family and friends,

Here's some rapid fire updates for you:

-Micah landed a volunteer slot at the on-post library here in Germany. He started yesterday and he really loves it.

-We've found a homeschool group consisting of other military families here in Heidelberg.

-Rachel is due to head back to Arizona and spend a few weeks with her almost fiance and we are going to miss her. She's scheduled to return to Germany in early January.

-Our family van is already "in-country" and we should be able to pick it up this week or the next.

-We should be moving into our home off-post in early January.

-Our missionary friends in Kenya just gave birth to their newest baby girl:

www.purechristianity.blogs.com

-Hannakuh starts this Friday.

-Our friends in Arizona who are in the early stages of building an intentional community in Missouri have launched their website:

http://thisismyfamilysblog.blogspot.com/

-Please keep my Uncle Terry in prayer for some significant medical concerns and we are asking for God's healing.

-We held our first home fellowship last Saturday night and it went really well. I made my homemade Sabbath bread and we enjoyed sparkling grape juice for the opening ceramony and then some excellent, Southern style iced tea to go along with our meal of chicken egg noogle soup. After dinner, we listened to and sang praise songs with accompaniment guitar playing provided by our daughter, Rachel. We read from Proverbs and then went into a discussion of all that was going in life. Among the things discussed, I recall one topic was: what would be the effect of an apology from white persons on behalf of the wrongs committed against those of African descent in our country by previous generations of white folk. One of us had a dream where we were apologizing on behalf of our ancestors for what had occurred in the past. Those apolgized to we extremely moved and received such healing. Only later did we realize that MLK day is coming up. Would an apology help things? I think it would.

Hello. In light of the current, special time of year, I sent this explanation to a Germany friend here of what Thanksgiving means to us. Thought it might help to share about what perspective we'll be celebrating it from here in our home:

"This weekend is an important Holy day, of sorts for us although not commanded in the Bible. It's a time when we remember, as you probably know, when those followers of God wanted freedom to worship and to live with less corruption around them and so they took their families to Holland. After a time, Holland wasn't the right place either and so they set sail for what is now America. My family and I know that not everyone who came to America back then came for the right reasons and some of them wanted to take advantage of the natives and exploit them. All of that aside, I still believe there were those people who sincerely came because they wanted to start a new life and serve God honestly and if their were natives, those good people did not want to take advantage of the natives but to share with them. So, after arriving, those first pilgrims had a terrible winter and suffered. However, some of the natives came to their aid and shared food and resources. The next spring, the natives also taught these settlers how to farm and there was a big crop. So, those seekers after God and after a pure life (they called themselves "Puritans") were both grateful to the natives who helped them and to God for helping them by way of the natives. so, in a spirit of mutual friendship and in thanksgiving to God, they help a great feast and offered thanks to God. So, that was our first Thanksgiving celebration in America. Unfortunately, the holidays as they are now called instead of "Holy Days" are stripped of their actual meaning and so most people joke around about "Turkey Day" since we eat a lot of Turkey and then get sleepy. :) But in truth, it is a celebration offering thanks to God for delievering our ancestors and also a thanks to God today for caring for us and blessing us no matter what hardship we have come through."

Today, I noticed that our family was getting sloppy and undisciplined and I started wondering how I could address the situation. Okay, "a lotta bit" sloppy and undisciplined over the week because we are pretty laid back, overall and so for me to say something means it's gotten pretty bad. Anyway...

As we all talked about it together, my wife and I tag teamed the discussion, so to speak, and began talking to our kids about how we wanted them to develop their life habits, their approach to challenges, and to developing self discipline. Heather and I ended up coming up with "The Temple Technique."

There are four basic level to the temple and we compared them in this manner: Let's say someone realized cleaning up a city park was needed. So, they decided to plan, organize and execute a clean up and renovating project. Level 4 would be those who choose not even to enter the outer courts and so they walk pass by the project and don't get involved. They might gossip about it or whatever but they are not interested in helping. Level 3 would be the "outer courts" and these are the people who are interested enough to volunteer to help. They do whatever that one thing is that they agreed to volunteer for and that's it. Level 2 guys are the "inner court" folks who not only do the work they volunteered for but they also come in and maybe either help set up and/or help tear down. They might even help recruit other volunteers. Now, the Level 1 guys are the ones who enter into the "holy of holies." They dream up the plan, organize it all, get everyone motivated, and then make it happen.

I challenged my kids to try and be "holy of holies" dwellers while admitting that I have spent much of my life in the outer courts and I've also delved into the inner courts quite a bit. Once in awhile I have dwelt in the holy of holies but I think I could do a lot more of this in the future. What about you?