Wild and Welsh: January 2006

Painting

Here we are on the same day as the tree-felling (see below), this time painting.

The Tall (Joachim) and the short (Fritz) of it!!

The family, with the kids supposedly in the rare position of helping, but really larking around.

Jan - full of concentration because he's painting HIS room.
Jenny and Joachim painting our bedroom.

Jenny doing a bow! ......Bye-bye

"Timber"

Today a bit of garden work had to be squeezed in

as we thought 2 trees were in danger of falling

on our new roof.

Here are the photos of Michael and Joachim at work!

Holy 3-King's Day

This is a picture of yesteryear! In Germany the tradition is to take down the Christmas Decorations on the 6th of January. If you're fortunate, living in Bavaria as I do, then that's a bank holiday! Determined to get it done, I stayed up till 4am today, packing away the Heirlooms of tomorrow.

Here the table is set for Christmas.

And here, this morning with all the Deco. on it!

....including the Holy FIVE Kings

Now is it too early to pull out the Easter deco.????

Teach me to touch

When we read of catastrophes, how should we act? It's a year since Tsunami now and how are we reacting? Are we reacting?
This was a year of trial for us personally as a family - in October 2004 I closed down my 15-year old practice; a week later our house burned down; in February our gorgeous Kuvasz "Kimba" was hit and killed by a train; in November I hit a wild Boar at 180Km./hr. on the Autobahn - I survived, thanks be to God, (the piggy didn't). It was a year of lawyers, of humbling, of a fight for survival the like of which I personally have never before had to face. But at the end of it all I can say that I've learned a few new tunes in the last 15 months : "I will survive", "It is well with my soul", "what a friend we have in Jesus",
"What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would play my part.
But what can I give Him? .....Give my heart.".

But still all that was NOTHING to compare with the catastrophes of the last year in Asia, or in New Orleans.
I've been in fear of losing my home in my childhood and in adult life, but never homeless.
I've been down, but never hopeless.
I've been in pain but it was healable and not a never ending agony.
I've been fraught with mourning for loved ones - but only one at a time. Never all of my family in one fell swoop.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your comfort, your healing hand, your shining hope of better times in a home you've built for me.
Teach me Lord to share with others all I have and to get out of my comfort into the real world of pain and suffering. Teach me to touch.

Harald painting with us today

Harald is there, Honey too!

07:55 and Harald is there!
07:54 - both kids were still in bed!
07:52 - Joachim's alarm sounded for the umpteenth time.
07:45 - I was still under the shower!
07:59 - Harald is there and so is Honey. Now Harald weighs in at about 150Kg - against Honey who is our 9 month old Kuvasz. Harald's favourite saying is that dog owners only have two statements

"My dog doesn't bite - he's very friendly."
"Oh.... he's never done THAT before!!!"

So Harald rolls up to help with the painting of the kid's rooms. He leads the Teenagers at our church and feels obviously obligated to show them the reality of Christ's love in that he arrives at 8:00a.m. in the school holidays to "help" them paint. Our kids can dream of painting, but they've never put the dreams into practice. As Honey is at the groundfloor level, keeping watch, Harald is now in the midst of the chaos of white plaster and orange paint. Somewhere amongst the chaos are 2 Teens - probably still with eyes shut like bats at midday. I don't think opening their eyes will make a lot of difference.........................