Christmas and New Year's

My goodness the time has totally just flown by.  It seemed like we had just celebrated Thanksgiving and then it was Christmas and then 2012 was done.  2012 had a lot of surprises and transitions for us as you all well know.  It began with a letter welcoming us to the staff of BFA and an invitation to join them as the Middle School Chaplain.  Thus beginning our new journey towards moving overseas to Kandern, Germany to BFA and partnering with the Lord. 

Since we've been here we have been able to meet some amazing students as well as wonderful families who have invested and taken care of us.  As Christmas approached Anna and I were thinking that it was going to be a very hard time for us as we would be away from our families but it turned out to be a wonderful Christmas as we started new traditions and learned about new traditions of German cultures.  One of the greatest things was the chance to see the excitement and wonder of our children as they experienced Christmas German style this year. 

New Year's Eve was filled with fun and enjoyment as we were able to go to my (Clarence's) old dorm to hang out with some of the new friends that we have made here.  Fireworks here are totally legal and in fact you just buy them at the local grocery store.  We bought some kiddo approved fireworks and Austin and Silas got to play with them and one was totally amazed, Austin, but Silas was not quite sure about them.  It was a great night with our friends and it ended with a full fireworks display across our little town provided by everyone because anyone and everyone could set of fireworks right in the middle of the street.

Another blessing for our holiday time was the special gifts that we received from our supporters and friends of our supporters.  I can say that God has really revealed himself as Jehovah Jireh to our family this year and I am thankful that you all have been a wonderful part of this journey.

Thank you all for partnering with us and as we end. We would like to share this video from our school to see and get a feel of what we (you and us) have joined the Lord in here at Black Forest Academy.  Please follow this link http://vimeo.com/56899247 to hear and see why Black Forest Academy does what it does. 

Long Awaited Before and After Photos

Here are some long awaited photos of our new home in Germany.  As we said it was a bit of an older place with a lot to fix up but Anna has done an amazing job with our place so here we are:

Before Pictures

 

Living Room

Living Room

Former Master Bedroom

Hallway/Storage Room/Bedroom (Bad Wallpaper Room)

 

Former Office

Tub Room/Laundry Room

 After Pictures with Anna's Touch

New Living Room Curtains on Right

New Master Bedroom

Boy's Room

Ugly Wallpaper Room Transformed

A little more of a homey touch

 Well we hope you can get a glimpse that our home is growing nicer and we are definitely more settled into our home now that we've been able to decorate and put up our stuff. 

Feeling Thankful

22 November 2012

Tonight we attend our THIRD Thanksgiving dinner, so I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on thankfulness this year.  Here’s a list, in no particular order.

Home.  After being unsettled for 4 months, we are sooooo thankful to be unpacked and in our own home.  Our apartment is quite old, but we’ve quickly made it feel homey and loved.  Our shipment arrived on October 17^th at lunchtime, and I had everything unpacked by dinner!  I was really ready to be all unpacked!

God’s faithfulness.  I am so thankful that He’s always faithful, even when we struggle and doubt.  Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!  Lamentations 3:22-23

 
My three boys.  I shared this at our second Thanksgiving dinner and Austin quickly piped up:  “Mommy, you only have two boys”.  Well, I was including Clarence, trying to be cute.  ;)    I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and two wonderful sons.

Clarence’s team of co-workers.  All of the staff that Clarence works with are so great and encouraging.  It’s neat to see him thriving in his position as Middle School Chaplain.  Also, several of his co-workers are single females, and it’s been fun for me to get to know them as friends as well.

Skype, email, internet, phones, etc.  Modern technologies have helped so much for staying in touch with family and friends around the world.  When we first moved into our apartment, we had no phone and internet at home for a month, so we were especially thankful when we finally got it!

 

Heat.  Yes, Germany is a Western country, but the heat in our apartment often stops working, so I remember to be thankful when it works!

 

German chocolate.  No explanation needed.  ;)

A great team of supporters.  We are thankful for every single one of our prayer warriors and financial supporters.  We could not be here serving without you. 

 

Amazing students.  The students here at Black Forest Academy are all so great; it’s a blessing to be here serving and teaching them.  Our own boys love having tons of goh-goh’s and jeh-jeh’s (big brothers and sisters) to play with!

Our stroller.  Living in a small town, I love that we can do most of our errands – including buying groceries – on foot.  However, Silas isn’t quite up to that much walking yet, so I’m thankful for our sturdy stroller with a nice big basket underneath.  I’m also thankful for the warm stroller sack made by my Aunt Nancy.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends and Happy November to our Canadian friends!  God bless!

 

We have housing!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support and encouragement through this crazy housing process!  We have found an apartment to move into this week!  It's an older apartment and definitely needs a little 'facelift'.  A bit of a fun challenge to figure out creative (aka inexpensive!) ways to personalize the place for our own.  It's a two bedroom apartment - not huge, but big enough to work for us.  We will be moving the bulk of our stuff and doing some painting on Wednesday (a German  holiday, so no school) and then doing a final move on Saturday, hopefully.  We hope to post some before and after pictures of the place to you can follow along with our progress.  :)

Still Looking for Housing

Thanks to all of you who have been praying about our housing situation.  Please keep praying as we still do not have another place to move into, and we need to be out of our current place in 2.5 weeks!  I'm getting a little anxious; definitely teaching me about trusting God.  Again.  ;)

Thanks!

A huge thanks to all of you whom have been following, praying, supporting and loving us through this whole journey to BFA.  We are totally here because of you and we'd love to share a video message from all of those whom others have prayed and supported them here as well.  Click the link below to see a special message from the new staff of BFA for 2012.

http://vimeo.com/47933997

Have a great day from the Yau's :)

We've Arrived

So after two months of sleeping in different people's homes, hotels, college dorm rooms and on the airplane, we have arrived in Germany.  However, we are not in our final destination home yet, but will be in one week, Lord willing.  Thank you to all of you who have prayed and financially supported us to get here to embark on a new ministry with the Lord.

Our boys are doing quite well and have adjusted to the time zone changes well and this morning we started German language and culture training with our fellow new colleagues.  There are some new families that are moving into the area so our boys are finding and making new friends, but it will take some adjustment.  Anna and I have been able to reconnect with old friends which was very comforting to see that there are still so many people from our time here before that are still around.  The Lord is a great God and continues to provide many servants/harvesters to the various ministry sites around the world that it continues to astound me and strengthen my faith as well.

We have done an amazing amount of the paperwork that involves moving to a new country and in record time I believe.  Within 2 days of getting here we have registered in the town we live in, we have received, insured and registered the car that we bought from some great friends whom are on home assignment this year.  It's amazing to see the Lord provide and encourage us with the wonderful people who are here to help us with settling in. 

Please continue to pray for our boys and also for us as we adjust to the new culture and surroundings and that we would remain humble.  I say humble because it can be very easy for us to say that we have been here before and we don't need to know all the basic stuff, but at the same time we are new and there has been change.  Pray that our spirits would be teachable and moldable. 

Auf Wiedersehn :)