Broadcasting Training Seminar

I just spent a week in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria getting training for my radio broadcasts with Memcare by radio. I almost said "further training" but this is the first training I have received, even though I have been making programs for nearly a year now. This is life on the wing on the mission field! There were fourteen participants and six instructors. We had representatives from a lot of different countries - Albania, Slovakia, Bosnia, Finland, Serbia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Denmark and Germany. Since many of the participants not only host their own programs, but produce them as well, we got technical training as well. Here he's explaining the advantages of "split tracks". This technician used baking bread as an illustration for his talk. And we got to eat the bread the next day! Yummy. I like how his mind works! We worked long days and often into the night, but we did get to go out to eat dinner. This is in a hoiligger (dont know how to spell it). These are family-owned restaurants and they serve wonderful home-cooked meals. It was intense training. We made three separate recordings. One program we had to write a script, another we had to conduct an interview and the third was our choice. We then recorded them. Finally they were listened to by the class and critiqued by the instructors. Everyone made their program in their own language. Mine had the disadvantage of being the only one everyone could understand since I did mine in English and English was the common language of the seminar. It was hard work. We learned how to be better story tellers, learned about portable recording devices, microphones and which ones to use in which situations. We even got an introduction to sound mixers and I was just relieved that I have an excellent technician/producer so I dont have to do any of that stuff. He was, in fact, one of the instructors. The end of the last evening they took time to take us into nearby Vienna. Well, nearby being relative. We walked a distance, took a bus, a train and a subway to get to the downtown area. It took about an hour and a half. We didnt have much time, but we did walk around the downtown a bit, visited a Christmas market which had a nice atmostphere with booths and lots of lights, but was a disappointment for Christmas shopping. This one was set up in a square in front of the parliament building. Vienna, which is actually called Wien which is pronounced, Veen, is a lovely city. It escaped much of the damage during WWII so the lovely old buildings endure. They have taken pains to clean up the soot from the 19th century so the wonderful architectural details are easy to see and appreciate. As we walked we enjoyed the lights and decorations which were being put up.

Only in Vienna would the Christmas street lights look like chandeliers!

I headed for the airport to return home at 3 pm on Friday and entered my own little house around midnight. It is less than a two hour flight, but you must be there early, then there is the hour and half train ride home and the waiting for luggage and trains, etc. Our trip was two hours longer because a woman tripped on the stairs when entering the airplane. For some reason when she tripped, they turned the stairs around, trapping a dozen people on the stairs. We had to wait while an ambulance came, a policeman filled out a report, the engineers examined the plane for damage from the stairs, and the folks on the stairs were finally released from their prison, but instead of letting them enter the plane, they were taken back to the terminal, a ten minute drive by bus. We then had to wait for their return. When that was finally done we had an extra half an hour delay before we could get a place in the queue to take off. What is ironic about the whole thing is that the injured woman was sitting in the seat behind me for most of that time. She bumped her knee, was examined and released on the spot. I guess Europe has to worry about litigation too.

An Almost Too Restful Vacation

We took our vacation this year after Jon finished the annual budget as has become our custom. We once again chose a quiet, out-of-the-way place to just kick back and relax. We drove down to Brittany on the northwest coast of France and expected to spend the better part of two weeks reading, working a puzzle, taking walks in the woods, that sort of thing. Instead we found it an unhealthily restful time which I will explain. We started off the vacation taking 11 1/2 hours to make an 8 hour trip getting to the cottage. We got lost more than usual on this trip, probably because we had to go around more cities than normal. Around cities the French often make arbitrary road name changes and there is a lack of proper signage around cities which leads often to wrong turns on our part. For example you come to a split in the highway. It may or may not have any road numbers on it and both signs say, "Paris". They are going in opposite directions, but they both say,"Paris" and we don't want to go to Paris. We have a split second to decide which Paris sign doesn't actually go to Paris. This is how we get lost. We always say that we cant take a trip without getting lost at least one time. I think we need to amend that number for trips through France. Interestingly once we got off the highway and onto the country roads leading to the vacation cottage, we found generally the signage was clear and complete in its information. At least for the most part. We wouldn't want to get spoiled by that. After a very long day we arrived at the cottage to find it unbelievably cold inside. We looked around for a heating system only to find that there wasn't one. There was an unvented kerosene heater which could provide some heat if you sat right next to it, a wimpy and basically worthless electric heater and a fireplace. We ran the kerosene heater for a couple of hours, but I personally didn't trust the thing spewing out poisonous gases as it combusted, so we ended up relying on the fireplace. (Later when we found the booklet for the kerosene heater we saw that the instructions told us to open up the house for ten minutes every hour to vent the gases. Yea, that was going to keep us warm!) So we lit the fire and tended it and kept it burning all day, then stacked it with wood for the night. After a couple of days it was working pretty well in that we weren't total icicycles in the morning and we could cope with the level of coolness in the house. The electric heater was just enough to warm the bathroom to make showering comfortable. As an aside, the shower was interesting. It was a shower in a regular tub, but the shower door only went halfway down the bathtub, leaving half the side and the whole end of the tub area unprotected from spray. The water pressure was excellent which meant the water hit our bodies and splashed out all over so each day we had to deal with a sopping wet floor and soaking wet floor mats. It reminded me of the hotel outside Paris which was so budgety, they didn't have a shower curtain at all and the floor flooded massively there as well. We were tired but thought it was just from our long day of traveling. We rested the first day and just tried to figure out how things worked around the cottage. Then the next day we did manage to go for a walk in a woods nearby and came across this small chateau. I was surprised that way out here in the country there was enough wealth to support someone living in grand style. The chateau appeared to be a public building now as there was an office downstairs and lots of people milling about. It wasn't for touring, but I did get this photo of the outside.

We continued to feel very fatigued which seemed unusual and after another day of resting and loafing Jon thought we should get out. I felt so tired I wasn't the least bit interested, but we did head off to a nearby town with some castle ruins in it. It was cold and rainy all day. Not exactly what we were hoping for. So we didn't enjoy our day out very much. The castle was in an area of this town which still retained its old medieval houses. It reminded me of Lavenham in England. I took a few photos as we walked back to our car.

Yes, the houses are that crooked and leaning in on each other.

After these two small forays out of the cottage, we continued to feel so, very tired. We read, but didn't find we had the energy for anything else - anything else at all. We didn't have energy enough to even start on working our puzzle. We literally sat around all day. We were fatigued, we slept too much and Jon was having a lowgrade headache all day. After a week or so Jon finally suggested that maybe we had mild carbon monoxide poisoning, so we let the fire go out. We spent the rest of the day and that night without any heat and the cottage got quite cold, but Jon's headache went away and we began to feel a bit better. We decided it was not safe to be warm and too cold to enjoy our remaining days so we headed home. It was only a 12 hour drive home, but we did swing my Mont Saint Michel, literally swung by and took a photo from the distance as we headed home. After being out of the cottage for a couple of days we were back to our old selves. We did almost come home with a cat. There was a very nice and friendly cat who came around and seemed quite hungry. I wondered at that since she looked well-fed and a bit fat. We thought maybe she belonged to some neighbors and had just wandered by. However she continued to hang around and she lapped up the milk we gave her and begged for more, so we found some cheese to give her and when we went to the grocery we bought some cat food. We contemplated bringing her home. Such a nice and very affectionate cat and deserving of a better life than she has, but we realized there was no way to get her home. She was just wild enough that she wouldn't let us pick her up and we had no cat carrier to confine her in the car. We found out just before we left that she was not well-fed and fat, but expecting kittens soon. Before leaving we fixed her a box under the house and left all the cat food in a dish. We let the owners of the cottage know about her and they said they would try to catch her and take her to a shelter when they arrive later this month.

They day before we left we enjoyed this gorgeous sunset. I haven't seen one so brilliant in color since leaving St. Croix.

While driving home we saw countless rainbows. Great big, wide ones. Ones with unbelievable intensity of colors and two sets of double rainbows. It put me in a contemplative mood and I thought how often, sitting on my deck and watching clouds skitter by or leaves rustle, would quiet my spirit and enable me to hear God's voice so clearly. It reminded me of things He has said and plans He has for my life. Those rainbows reminded me to hope.

I guess it turned out to be a good vacation after all.

Someone Else Turned 50 - Dutch Style

I didn't have just a 50th birth-day. I actually had a birthday month. It all started in early September when a package arrived from one of my sisters, Kathy. In it were five presents all wrapped up with a note on each one. The first said, "Open this one now." The second one I was to open the following Monday, three weeks before my birthday, and there was one a week up to and including my actual birthday. That was fun and the anticipation was wonderful!

A week before my birthday felt like my birthday..... but then I didn't know what was to come. I opened my next gift from Kathy and received two cards to celebrate my special day. Then another gift arrived from my other sister, Tricia, and a bouquet of flowers.

The next day came another bouquet of flowers.

And the next day more blooms arrived and another gift bag full of goodies.

I was beginning to note a pattern. (Isn't the dog cute! He was a gift from my sister, Barbara.)

More flowers and another gift bag.I was running out of vases......

and rooms to put them in. It was a nice problem to have.

Finally I did run out of vases and since I had received a beautiful fall ribbon in one of the gift bags, I asked the helper to the assistant to the birthday fairy to get some things for a fall centerpiece. It is even prettier in person. And another gift arrived as well.

Jon is a good cook and a willing one, but I decided to make my own cake - it is a fussy recipe and a bit hard to make. I began my birthday with a delicious piece of that cake for breakfast and enjoyed every morsel. I received more gifts and prepared to enjoy my day. The gift I gave myself was I didn't have to clean house that day, though it was my usual day for that activity. Didn't have to do my Dutch lesson, nor my aerobics. That was just about celebration enough for the day! A friend invited me to lunch and I met her over at the TWR offices. There were illusions to yet another present awaiting me, so I headed down to Jon's office to fetch it. As I walked down the hall towards the kitchen I could smell something wonderful and thought, "Somebody is having something good for lunch. As I walked past the door..... Surprise! Our friends and colleagues and planned a celebration of my special birthday!

They had festooned the room.

They had gathered some of their favorite recipes and hung them on the wall. We had started a blog called The Recipe Room where we share our recipes from our monthly staff lunches. Hmmmm, these look lekker!

There were hugs all around.

And bubbles for celebration.

Turns out I was one of the somebody's getting that delicous lunch.

But I did share with others. There was also a special delivery of a Sarah cookie. I couldnt wait to try it.

The folks had e-mailed my friends and family and they had sent birthday greetings to me, which they had compiled and put in my card from the staff which included their love and best wishes.

Of course, we had to have party games. I played two of them - can you guess how many roses there are? Being a genius, I guessed 50 which meant I got to take them home!

Then came the hard part. I had to guess how many 50 euro cent pieces there were on this board. Fortunately my highly developed deductive reasoning kicked in and I guessed 50 and so I got to take them home as well.

And there were more presents!

And since it is a Dutch birthday, you must have a silly song.

Here are the words to mine sung to the music of "Oh, Susanna": Oh, Dear Susan! It was nineteen hundred fifty-eight A little girl was born, With her jet black hair and big bright eyes And skin so soft and warm. (Refrain) Oh, dear Susan, you're fifty years today. Traveled everywhere, but you're from nowhere. We hope you're here to stay. Susan went to school at Taylor, Where she took French 101. Well, she may have gone unnoticed then Except for handsome Jon. Jon and Susan moved from place to place Wherever God would send. In the year two thousand five they moved Themselves to the Netherlands. Susan planned the move so carefully; Downsized from large to small. Measurements she had in hand For every floor and every wall.* Susan doesn't care for sports at all, Not basketball or track. But she does enjoy all nature. Joins the ducks with kwak, kwak, kwak. Susan loves to swim and scuba dive And fish the dep blue sea. Loves to ride a roller coast high; That's just her "cup of tea". Susan's handy with a needle And we know she likes to bake. She is good at making miniatures, Like a tiny birthday cake.*

I couldn't decide which of the desserts to try, so they made me have a piece of each!

I received more cards, e-cards and gifts from family. Ooooooh, moolah, the joy of figuring out what to spend it on. My brother gave me two gift cards - one for the first fifty years and one for the next fifty. I asked him if I had to wait another fifty years to spend the second one. Hmmm if they compounded the interest, that would be quite a sum. (I can see I have been living with a finance guy for waaaay too long.) It was an incredible day full of fun and laughter and joy.

If I had known being 50 was this much fun, I'd have done it a lot sooner!

Mind -boggling Multiplication

I am having a fishes and loaves moment, actually its been several weeks. It is in a strange area and I think that is what amazes me. I have had the Lord multiply time for me. You know those days when you have more than you can possibly do 24 hours and as you are busily about your work you look at the clock and see that while you have done a day's work, only half a day's time has passed. I have seen the Lord multiply money. On more than one occasion. Money we shouldn't have is sitting in the bank. Things like that. I remember when we moved into our first home and had lots of extra bills with all the fixing up that house needed - 20 years of old carpet and old painted, shabby paneling. We neglected our tithing for a while as the bills mounted. Each month there was just enough to pay the bills and the interest on the credit cards and that debt was slowly, slowly climbing. We decided it was time to stop neglecting the Lord and to trust Him. I remember sitting down that first month to pay the bills and wrote the tithe check first. It was several hundred dollars - about what we paid on the credit cards. I didn't know what I was going to do when I got to the end of the money before I paid that last bill. But I wrote out all the usual checks and then, when I was done, there were several hundred dollars left which I used to pay towards the credit card bill. I am naturally skeptical about such things and considered it some kind of fluke or maybe I had mis-added something along the way or more accurately mis-subtracted, but checking and rechecking showed there was enough money. I was delighted and wondered if it was going to catch up to us somehow the next month. Same thing happened next month and the month after and for several months. Though there was no increase in our income, and no decrease in our bills, somehow we had the extra several hundred each and every month to add tithe to our giving. This continued until the Lord put several large chunks of money into our hands to pay those credit card bills down so the normal payments could pay them off. We learned a very valuable lesson during that time. The power of trust and obedience in the Lord. The trap of indebtedness. The awesome love of a God who still intervenes in the affairs of His children. I am having another one of those strange multiplication times. What is strange to me is what the Lord is multiplying. It all started when we bought a printer for our computer here in Europe. Ours had kicked the bucket so we got a replacement. We found ink to be a lot more expensive here than in the US, so while I was home this summer I bought two multi-packs of ink for the printer. Saved about one hundred dollars and I thought I had purchased enough to last us until our furlough next fall. The problem began when the first cartridge needed replacement. I opened up one of my new ink cartridges and inserted it, only to have my printer tell me it was the wrong number. This ink cartridge is identical in every way to the European ink cartridge, but it does have a different number stamped into the plastic. To my dismay I have found that they have embedded in the cartridge a US and European proprietary code of some sort. I could use my more-than-seventy-dollars-worth of ink in my printer, though it is the same manufacturer and the exact same cartridge. I was stunned and could not believe it. Why, oh why, would anyone bother to do such a thing! I was in the middle of a printing job. In desperation I reinsert the old cartridge. The printer began to print again. I was ecstatic and delighted and grateful to have enough ink to finish this small job. I had more printing to do. As the days go by, it continues to work. Another color runs out and I try the US cartridge again. It doesnt work so I reinsert the old, empty cartidge and the printer prints again. Weeks go by, the third cartridge runs out - black ink this time - I am skeptical so I wonder if I have shaken the old cartidges in some way fiddling with them and that has stirred up ink, so I take the old black cartidge, shake it around vigorously and reinsert it. No go, it doesnt work. I again take the new cartidge and insert it into the machine, get the same error message, then reinsert the old cartridge and it prints again. It has printed and printed and printed. I have printed DVD labels and the every day printing that needs to be done. Weeks of printing with three empty cartridges. I have said it before that the Lord does many wonderful things in my life, but it is the small, unimportant things that amaze me the most. He says He watches over the number of the hairs on our head and that is no metaphor, nor is it hyperbole. His attention to the everyday things in life is true. I know it. I am still utterly amazed.

Mind-boggling Multiplication

Naar Buiten - The Outdoor Fair

Every year they have an outdoor fair on the grounds of my husband's office building. It is part of the pleasure and pain of having offices in a building owned by the government and leased to TWR. It is nice to have a big park out the back windows to look at and enjoy, but the space is rented for events and that limits us at times and can be noisy and distracting at work. I was scheduled to record a program but could not enter the grounds because of the fair. You must pay to attend the fair and although tickets are issued to those who work in the building so they don't have to pay an entrance fee, there were not enough for me to have one as well. These past few days they have had the annual fair here and we enjoy going to see the presentations when we have passes. On Friday we were able to borrow a pass for me and Jon and I gathered around the center ring in the middle of the island created by the moat on the grounds and watched what was happening there.



This year they had sheep herding by border collies.

The trainers had a young puppy on a leash with them and it was fun to watch how intently it was watching the proceedings. Perhaps in a year or two it will be in the ring like its mother.






It was now past lunch time so we thought we'd get a bite. This place said they had hamburgers so we ordered a couple of them. They were not hamburgers, but some kind of pressed meat product - think TV dinner salisbury steak and you get the idea.

While we were there this group of men came and blew their own horns. They looked like overgrown boy scouts and we guessed that they were a hiking group of some sort. Maybe something harkening back to old hunting groups from the presence of the horns. We have no idea, but they played a little song on their horns


Then these heralds rode up and played a little song on their horns.

The men answered back and a battle of the bugles had begun. One group played a ditty, the other tried to match it.

They did this several times, then parted ways.

I couldn't tell who won the competition.






Now it was time in the center ring for what Jon had been waiting for - the 1860's artillery demonstration.

This group paraded around the ring several times pulling their cannon and equipment, then got busy with what they were there to do.








Make a big boom!

Jon had been hearing this for a couple of days while he worked and it always startled him because he never knew when it was coming. However, now he was in his element, feeling the vibration in his chest and risking hearing loss while enjoying the noise and coveting their cannon.

Christmas is coming and he is hard to shop for. I wonder where the closets Cannons R Us is located?

Noah Has Come to Town

Well actually a man here in the Netherlands has built a 1/8th scale model of Noah's Ark. He built it himself with the aid of his sons, hmmmm sounds familiar, though he did use some power tools.














We heard about it and since we find lots of time on our hands and not much to do on weekends, we headed out to check it out.













We heard he had models of animals in it and it was set up as the man envisioned Noah's ark to be outfitted and we found that was true.










There were animals in stalls, barrels and bags of provisions and even living and sleeping quarters for Noah and family, but there was much more. There were videos playing which were giving the case for creationism, there was a coloring area for the young children and everywhere the message of evangelism, including a cross and the tomb and the importance of those two things to the world. This man has poured his life's savings, borrowed heavily, and spent decades of his life putting together this floating messenger of God. It isn't often you see that kind of zeal for the Lord in Europe.

Or anywhere for that matter.