Paris In The Spring

Earlier this month I had to opportunity to visit Paris during a series of meetings that were being held there. I had only been to Paris once before and that was only to change planes at the airport. This time I was there for four and a half days while I attended meetings in the mornings and evenings. That left the afternoons open for some sightseeing, which I don't always have much time to do.

Paris is a very interesting and impressive city and there are so many amazing things there are to see in the city. Every city seems to have a certain kind of atmosphere all its own and Paris is no different. The hotel I stayed at was only about 20 minutes walking distance from the Eifel Tower. The picture here is one that I took while I was in Paris.


From where I live here in Germany Paris is only an hour away by air so it is not too hard to get to. Next year there will be some more meetings in Paris during the month of May so if I am able to go to those meetings, and if I have some free time, I would definitely like to go and visit some more of the wonderful places in Paris. I took a lot of pictures while I was there and to end the blog here is another I took. This is of course the Arch de Triumph; it too is quite impressive when you see it in person.

Trash School

This post is actually from my old blog site that I had last year. But, because my old blog site died and went to blog heaven, I decided to "repost" this. I hope you like it and this is not something I am making up but the way things are really done here in Germany.


Before I moved to Germany I took some lessons in the German language and I studied a bit about Germany and the German people. But, when I got to Germany I found out that there were other things to learn about in order to live here and one of those things is trash. Many people have asked me about learning the German language but I don't think anyone has ever asked me if I have learned about the German trash system.

In Germany there are a number of different kinds of trash. At the bottom of this blog I have included a picture of some of the trash cans for the apartment building where I live. There are trash cans for recyclable trash (yellow containers), non-recyclable trash (metal container), and biodegradable trash (brown container); but that's not all. There is also separate trash collection for glass, which must be separated by the glass color (white, brown, or green), and there is also a separate trash bin for paper. So that is five different ways you can dispose of your trash.

But things don't stop there. Just when you think you have earned a degree in trashology you still need to master the trash calendar. The trash calender is a booklet that tells you what kind of trash is which and when it will actually be collected. This trash calendar has nine listings for the different kinds of trash to be picked up because it includes a schedule for things like appliances that you might throw away.

This may sound a little bit funny to hear about trash on a missionary blog site but it is just one of the interesting things you learn about when you live in another country. Maybe instead of just having language schools for missionaries there could be trash schools to help with the trash transition!

Energy From The Inside

Lately things have been so busy that I have not really taken the time to put anything on my blog site. Tonight as I was finishing up some other work I got thinking about what I have been doing lately, how it has been so busy, and how there are a few busy days coming up. It is 9:30 PM as I am writing this and I had a good idea for a blog post based on how things have been going for me lately.

No, I am not going to sing the blues and say it has been so hard lately. What I do want to mention briefly is connected to what this blog is titled, Energy From The Inside. If you look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:16 about his prayer for the people in the church at Ephesus it is very interesting. Paul talk about, "to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man" and I think this is something that we often miss. Too many times we look for strength, support, and help from everywhere but where we should be looking, on the inside. As Christians we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us and through the Holy Spirit we have available to us all of the strength, support, and help that we could ever need!

So many times we look at our circumstances, our feelings, or other people around us and we think we just can't go another step. I think vitamins, exercise, and vacations are all great but if we are relying on those things to help us get through life without being overwhelmed we are neglecting the real strength that God gives to us. We need to stop trying to be strong in ourselves and start focusing on who we are in Christ and what we have as new creatures in Christ. All of us need some recharging from time to time and I think the best way to do that is to plug in to the greater One on the inside of us and let Him help us and give the strength we need to live the victorious life that God intended for us to live!

Renewing My Visa

This past week I had to renew my visa again. Although this is not an extremely complicated process it can be time consuming. As a foreigner living in Germany I am required to register with the government and then to have their permission to live here. Again, this is not such a big thing but it is not something you think much about unless you are living in a country you were not born in.

The picture shown here is the government building I went to that has the offices for dealing with foreigners who need visas. This place is called the "Kreisverwaltung" but I am not exactly sure what the translation of the word would be into English. This building has offices for people like me looking for a visa as well as the German equivalent of the Department of Transportation where you can get your drivers license and license plates for your car. This is the same place that I got my German drivers license at a few years ago.

As an American getting the visa I need to live here is not too hard. What I am required to do is to show some purpose for being here and basically that I have enough money to not be a burden on the government. There is some paper work to take care of and some documents I need to provide them with (along with a fee of about $50.00) but it has all gone pretty smoothly for me. It is a bit strange thinking about the fact that you need to get permission to live somewhere and that there is even the possibility that they could actually throw you out of the country! The way I look at it is that this is just another one of the unique things that I need to do to live here and just another part of the life of a missionary.

The Autobahn

If there is one thing many Americans know about Germany it is about the autobahn. While it is true that the German Autobahn system was an influence on the US Interstate Highway system there are some differences.

Most Americans have the idea that the autobahn is a system of roads with no speed limit. This is not entirely correct because although there are sections of the autobahn that are free of speed limits most of the autobahn has a limit of 130 kilometers per hours (about 80 miles per hour) and sometimes less in areas around cities. On the parts of the autobahn that have no speed limits there is often so much traffic that you can't go much faster than the normal limit. Besides that, because of the normal traffic congestion, a long drive on the autobahn is not a very relaxing experience.

Recently I took a trip to a leadership seminar with some other people from RHEMA Germany. Our trip to the meeting took us just about 4 hours but the trip home took about 7 hours! The main difference was that on the way home there was an accident on the autobahn and traffic was backed up for miles. Some of the traffic jams get so bad that the autobahn basically becomes a big parking lot and people get out of their cars and walk around to see if they can get some idea about what is going on. In fact, we experienced one of those situations on the way to the seminar. The autobahn is a great road system for getting around Germany but you hope that when you want to go somewhere there won't be any accidents or that most other people just want to stay home!

Updates Available

Like most people I have a computer. It is something that is very useful for me and my work and it is something I can use for some fun stuff too. On my computer I have some different types of software, like a firewall program and a virus scan program, that need to be updated on a regular basis. The other day as I was checking one of my programs on the Internet I was told that an update was available and that got me thinking.

To make sure that our computers operate properly we need to constantly upgrade and update the programs in it. If we only install the programs on the computer and then forget about them we can leave ourselves open to problems or at the least we fail to take advantage of some benefits that are available for those programs. This is very similar to how it is with Christians and the Bible. God has given us the Bible to help us in our life here on earth, for our benefit and protection. If we find out what the Bible says and make the truth of the Bible a part of our life it will help us to avoid some of the problems that come our way and it will help us to develop and grow as Christians.

Too often people become Christians and then they fail to check in the Bible to update what they believe and it is to their disadvantage. We all need to do as it says in Romans 12:2 and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. But we won’t be transformed if we do not continually check what we believe against what the Bible teaches and continue to live a life based on Bible principles. There are always updates available to Christians in the Bible because we are all growing spiritually. Don’t wait too long between updates so you don’t miss out on the best things that God has for you!

Up And Running Once Again

Well, here I am blogging once again. This is my second blog site and I am hopeful that this experience will turn out better than the previous attempt. The first blog I used had some problems and an eventual hardware failure that pretty much wiped out everything that I have done before! That was not so nice and I will give this blog a shot at working out.

I have some copies of some of my past blogs and in the future I plan on reposting some of them. This blog is completely new to me so it may take some time to get everything figured out and there will probably be some changes and developments along the way. For now I will just start blogging again and posting things about my life here in Germany and some of my thoughts.