Good Ole' Marty

This weekend was Protestant Women of the Chapel's Annual Training Conference. For those of you who don't know, this past year I served as the President of PWOC in Baumholder. I basically headed up the women's ministry for the chapel. It has been good, bad and ugly! Overall I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to intentionally serve the Lord and to serve the women of this community. Now that my time as Pres is drawing to a close I am thankful too.

When I was asked to serve in this role Hadleigh wasn't a gleam in our eye, let alone a thought in my brain. Now that she is here I am anxious to be able to focus on her and devote my time to being a mom. I cannot even believe I am saying this, but it is true.

This weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to teach a seminar at the conference. The topic was "Community Matters" and I basically taught a biblical overview of why it is important to care about "outreach" and what local PWOC's can do to make a difference in their respective communities. Women from all over Europe gather at this conference every year to be trained. My class was at 0830 and I didn't think I would have maore than 15 ladies...but 30 showed up, including the lady who was in charge of organizing all the seminars and also a Chaplain (that was a little intimidating). The Lord was gracious and we had a great time exploring the scriptures and coming to an understanding of why the Lord has called us to care for the women he has entrusted to us in ministry.

The conference was in a little town called Willingen which Dave equates to being Germany's version of Gatlinberg, TN. Willingen is also near Assinghausen which Dave HAD to drive through to get a picture of. According to Dave, if we ever get a dog, he will be named Assinghausen. On the way home we stopped at a city called Marburg, which I think has now become one of our favorite German cities. Marburg is a famous university town. It is famous for the Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales and also for Martin Luther. It was here that the Marburg Colloquy took place. Luther, of the German reformers and Ulrich Zwingli of the Swiss Reformers met to debate 15 points. They came to cuffs over the Lord's Supper (you can read the article for more info) and parted ways.

The city is on a hill, a steep hill, with the castle at the top. Apparently legend has it that Jacob Grimm said there were more stairs in the alleys of Marburg than in the houses. We walked the streets until we reached the castle and then back down.

You can't tell from our clothes, but spring has almost arrived in Germany. Friday it was 22 degrees (not sure what that is for you Americans, but it is warm for us), and Saturday it was about 16. In the morning it was cold and rainy, so we put on warm clothes but by the afternoon it was nice and warm. It is so nice to see the sun and to have warm weather. We are REALLY hoping that it sticks. In any case we never would have stopped in Marburg were it not for Martin Luther, so we are thankful that he had his counsel there so that it would become a famous reformers sight. Thank you Marty!