Summer Fun!

While last summer was mild, rainy and we spent our time driving all around Munich picking up furniture for our apartment, this summer is warm, sunny, and full of friends and lake time! What a treat! It has had all the hallmarks of a great summer, with the final one coming right at the end--Young Life Camp! Yay! Read on for a few of the highlights:

Visit to WA:

We got to make a trip to Washington in June for the celebration of our dear friends Robin and John’s wedding. What a blast to see some of our friends and family (especially the old SPU crew)! We are learning that trips home feel like “drinking from the relational fire hose”. It can feel as though we are politicians on the trail shaking hands and kissing babies but at the end of the day, we treasure the opportunity to relationally connect with those we love, If we missed you, we hope to see you next time!

Our now regular Jai Thai date in Fremont with Luke & Sarah and the beautiful bride

International Community:

Because our apartment is just a ten minute walk from a beautiful lake, we’ve been able to host several international community gatherings through our church! We’ve provided lunch in our home and then walked over together for some “lake time”--which, turns out, is really fun! We absolutely love hosting people in our home, although we laughed when everyone wanted to bring something–we are too used to feeding hungry teenagers who just show up! So, we shared some of our favorites, Cuban sandwiches a la Paseo in Seattle and Mexican food… although we learned our friends need a taco-making tutorial. We are who we are, so we facilitated a few Young Life mixers such as speed dating (45 seconds to answer get-to-know-you questions in pairs) and “Mingle BINGO” (which involves “mingling” around to ask people if they met any of the special items on the BINGO card, i.e. has lived in four countries). It was a blast and we can’t wait to host more.

We are so grateful our apartment has room to hold large groups of people!

Hiking in Slovenia:

Meg got to cross off one of her European bucket list items--a hut-to-hut hike in Slovenia! We spent four hot and sweaty days hiking in the Julian Alps in Triglav National Park. We hiked all day and were served hot meals and slept in bunk beds at night (10 strangers in a tiny room…while we didn’t miss carrying our tent, we missed sleeping in it!). We loved seeing Ibex in their natural habitat, meeting hikers from around the world, carrying only light daypacks up rugged terrain, and getting to have a cold beverage at the end of a hot day of hiking. It reminded us a little of the Enchantments or the Wind River range in Wyoming except it just kept going!

Visa Update:

Good news! We have been verbally told they will approve our Visa–woohoo! However, the hoops aren’t yet done. We need to get Chase’s passport renewed (it expires next year) in order for us to get the final appointment. Things are in motion and we have momentum heading into the Fall.

Camp:

We’ve been busy preparing for Young Life camp later this month. This year we are in charge of all the games and activities for 120 campers! Today’s task involved working on an escape room and making a giant jigsaw puzzle! Our apartment is taken over with balloons, hula hoops, empty bottles, and more. All signs of the fun to come! This camp will take place in Austria and is designed for German students, however through God’s crazy ways we have also invited 60 Ukrainian orphans who were displaced to Salzburg when the war started (which literally doubled our camp numbers). We are praying that all these kids can experience the best week of their life and feel connected to God’s love... even if we are in a jumble of languages! (German, Ukrainian, and English) We appreciate your prayers over this special week. If you’d like to financially support the decision to invite our Ukrainian friends, please let us know!

We hope you are finding fun ways to stay cool this summer and enjoying life!

Definitely recommend enjoying ice cream by water and playing games outside