Trip to Erfurt

There is an American guy here in Dessau who works for the orchestra and he has been attending our church, he is a new believer and we have had a chance to get to know him a little and share God's love. Out of the blue he offered for us to use his car for 2 weeks while he is on vacation in Greece! So we thought we should take advantage of the opportunity and see some places near Dessau. On Wednesday I didn't have any classes at the language school and so we decided to go to Erfurt which is the capital of Thuringia. This is the state just to the south of where we are and has a lot of neat church history and especially in regards to Martin Luther. Erfurt is where he studied to become a monk and was ordained. There are also a lot of churches and a huge cathedral. Erfurt also has a massive garden complex/theme park for kids and so we took London and she loved it! There was a kiddie water park that she played in for a couple of hours and didn't want to leave. After that we were able to walk around the old city centre which is quite medieval and dates back over 1,000 years. Here are a few pictures from our day!

London looking unsure about something!

She called this the "yellow water"

Like Mommy like daughter!

Having fun now!

Sort of a medieval looking swing

How would you like to live on this street?

Monastery where Martin Luther studied!

I could do with this as my backyard!

Famous cathedral where Martin Luther was ordained

Royal Palace in Baroque style

Medieval "Merchants Bride" longest bridge in Europe with houses on it!

Town Square

Historic Tram

Town Hall

The end of our long day!

Church Life Update

This Sunday I was asked by the Pastor to share my testimony and how God lead us to come to Germany. It was a great chance for the church members to get to know us better and was my first speaking opportunity! Our involvement in church hear has been fairly limited as we have been getting settled and also just adjusting to the way they do things here. This week Amie and I and the Pastor and his wife are going to get together to talk more about what our roles here will be and what we feel we are called to do. We are also working on learning German and it's a slow process but we are learning a little more every week, people here think we are progressing well. We are also going to start an English speaking home group that meets once a week for anyone in the church that would like to have worship and Bible study in English. There is another home group that is all in German and is for worship and prayer only. We have been able to do some things with people in the church and have been able to encourage and pray for them. There are a lot great ministry opportunities here with people and we have also met a few people from Inlingua (Language School) and other connections that are not Christians but are interested why we are here and hopefully we can have a chance to witness to them. We are extremely thankful for your prayer support would love to receive emails from everyone back home!

Regards,

Echeverria's

Medieval Church built in the 13th century!

Day Trip to Wernigerode!

On Saturday we were invited to go to a town about 2 hours away on the train by a colleague of mine at Inlingua (Language School). She is an American and also a Christian who doesn't attend our church but lives in Dessau. So we thought it would be fun to get to know her and her boyfriend named Thomas who is a German guy. The town of Wernigerode is a medieval city that survived WW2 and also doesn't have a lot of concrete block apartments and therefore mostly untouched by the communist days. It's really nice town with a great castle overlooking in the mountains and it's a real tourist attraction mainly for Germans and is somewhat undiscovered by Americans. Here are some photo's of our day!

Amie & London in the marked square,

the fountain is from the 18th century.

The castle, some outer walls

are from the Roman times

Part of the medieval wall that still remains

London with her bratwurst

Typical medieval half timbered houses

One of the surviving town gates

The Schloss Bahn (Castle Train) takes you up to the castle,

London thought it looked like Thomas the train

Oldest church in town built in the 13th century

Here is London in the old guard tower

Amie and London in front of the museum taking a break

It sure is green here! Nice change from the desert!

Neat old house in town, entire front is made of hand carved wood

That was our day on Saturday!

Thanks for sharing with us.