Winter's HERE!

It's official!! We have had our first real snow fall. The locals are happy! I've learned over the 15 years of living here, that if it doesn't snow before Christmas the locals get pretty cranky!

Well, they are happy and not cranky, but that sure doesn't stop them from complaining :0) ; but again, that's what makes them Happy! It's all a part of the culture.

Watch and listen to the awe and joy in their voices when describing how they navigated over the roads and through the white outs the the lake effect snow created.

Now there are two new phenomons of living in snow country I had to learn -- lake effect and white outs. White outs are pretty self explanatory, but until you are in one on a sunny day with no precepition falling from the sky, you realllly don't understand it. But because of the lake effect snow -- which is light and fluffy and not wet and heavy it is carried real easy on the wind.

So now to what is "lake effect"?. Not being a meteorlogist I probably won't explain it too scientifictly but it sure can pile up high and fast. The cold and wind conditions get 'just right' over the lakes and it creates a 'snow machine' ... that is lake effect snow!

Coming originially from a part of the country that got snow because of storms, getting used to lake effect took some time. EVERY day when it is cold you wake up in the morning and have to brush (sometimes you can just blow it) off your car. It keeps the ground white from December to March and sometimes into April! But as all things you adjust!

Gotta love upstate New York!!!

CTC completed

In Switzerland ... Aug 19, 2010

Lots to catch up on....

There is soooo much to catch up on so I'm not going to try to be too organized. This will be a stream of conscience, random thoughts, etc...

I am supposed to be leavingfor home tomorrow... but there is a couple coming in for meetings, and one of the meeting participants couldn't get here before Monday .... so I'm booked to leave 11:55 am Wednesday ... arriving in Rochester 6:30pm!

Since I last updated the blog a lot has happened --
SPRING being one of the most important... the video is from a "Miss Cow" contest in one of the Swiss Valleys ... NO Kidding!

When I left Trogen April 3rd we still had snow on the ground. but now there are flowers!!

Cologne, Germany is where I visited friends, and we did some sightseeing in the city, the childhood home of Marc Schmidtke. It was fun to experience the city through his stories and history, especially what it experienced in WWII. Everything was totally bombed by the British, except the cathedral as it was the 'landmark' that let the bombers know where they were.
This is a church that was built around the bombed out section of the older church... look close you can see the old section of the building....

FROM Germany, I flew to Dubai, UAE ... this is a city that has more five star hotels than any other place in the world. The city is unbelieveable ... the 'national bird' this the crane... over one fourth of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai. the next picture is of the world's tallest building... it is still under construction. Dubai is the Altar to Materialism... what I learned while there is that Dubai is one of the emmerites of the United Arab Emmerites ... it has no more oil... consequently the Shieks decided to create a place their 'oil buddies' could spend their money... and that is what has happened. It would take me pages to explain the level of outragious ways you could spend your money in Dubai. One of them being at the ski slope built in the desert ... it was 95 degrees but inside the Mall of the Emmerits you can go sking, ice skating or snow boarding!

But as always God has his ways -- the city is also used as a place of rest and respite for the international worker of the Gospel to come out of their countries for a break. I met many families who needed a break from Pakastian, Afganistan, Morocco and many other closed countries. One thing Dubai does do, is allow some freedom of worship. It is still a muslim country but because it wants to be international it has to allow some freedom... Consequently, we were able to have sunrise service on the beach Easter Sunday. We right under the 7 star hotel on the beach...


I arrived back in Switzerland, Sunday, 19 April ... Tuesday I was on my way to Frutigen. A village in a valley between the Alp Mts. I was visiting with a family that will be leaving for Papua Indonesia in mid-July. Erwin is a helicopter pilot and they will be going to their first Helimission assignment .... And what a delightful family!!
this is where I saw the "Miss Cow" contest at the beginning of the blog... I'm learning that each of the villages has a Miss Cow contest every year!

Tomorrow I travel to Zurich (an hour by train) to stay overnight with friends. Some other friends from Holland are coming in for teaching. I am looking forward to seeing them, as it was 2001 since the last time ...

If I have a chance I'll update before I come home, but if not it has been fun... hope you've enjoyed the Blog too!!!

Lots of Love,
Margaret

Riding the Heli

March 13, 2009 ... what a day to remember!

The week itself had been a memorable one, Scott and Jennie Phillips had been here all week. They are on furlough from Papua Indonesia ... they live in the mountains with the Dao Tribe ... a once unreached people group!

BUT because God placed it on the hearts of a young couple (very young ... 19 & 22 years old when they received the call, it is now 7 years later; 2 years training, and 5 years in the bush) that it just isn't fair that there are people who have not heard the name of Jesus and it's redeeming power! Scott and Jennie, created a written language for the tribe, and have now started the translation of the Scriptures. Jennie does most of the actual Bible translation (8 to10 hour days) with local Dao helpers and Scott works with the teaching aides, creating books to teach them how to read and write their own language, training the local believers how to teach the Bible, and they both relationship with their friends in the tribe. (take the time to visit their website www.sjphillips.org -- click on the photo gallery to see them with their friends.)

When I come home I will share some of their DVD's that show the Dao hearing the Gospel story of redemption for the first time, see their first baptisms, (which in itself is a miracle as they had strong animist beliefs about evil spirits in water) and other great victories.

I shared all that to say, on 13 March Simon, Scott, Jennie and me traveled up to Samedam (near St. Moritz) to pick up the helicopter that was in for some maintenance. It was a 25 min car ride to the train station, 3 hours on the train up and through the mountains. It was 38 minutes back to the Helimission Headquarters in Trogen!!! see the pictures below!

A message from Simon Tanner

Friends and family... We just received this message from Simon, he is in Ethiopia, his email explains what is happening... I wanted to share it because it helps you understand why I am willing to sit in Switzerland at a computer to help Helimission support their staff by member care. It is so the world can be reached by the Word and Love of Jesus! Share in the excitement!! Margaret


Dear Fellow Labourers!
Greetings in the powerful name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The Lord allowed me to attend and be part of an Evangelistic Outreach with Joshua Campaign (our former Swedish pilot Karl Hargestam started this ministry 11 years ago.). The campaign was in the area “El Fatta”. Around 30’000 people attended. During the day there were 2 meetings. People danced in between, singing and praising the Lord Jesus.
For me it was just wonderful to see how Jesus IS TODAY the same as He was 2000 years ago! The blind could see, the deaf could hear, sinner got saved… Jesus did what He used to do everywhere He went – awesome! The Lord confirmed the preaching of His Word with lots of miracles.
For example: A seven year old girl was deaf from birth. During the preaching her ears opened up! Praise the Lord! She came forward with her mother to testify what Jesus did for them! (See attached photo: Karl with translator and the little girl.) She was asked if she know Jesus. She said: “A little bit only; I just arrived here yesterday.”
On Saturday morning Karl let me preach. It was a challenge for me, I must omit, but the Lord was gracious and touched lives, saved sinners, and healed the sick. And this simply by proclaiming that Jesus is Lord and by preaching the Gospel – that simple. One of the healings was that a man, who could not see on his left eye since 2 years, could see again!! (Second picture: Old man, translator and ST)
The healings were checked/tested, and other people (witnesses) were asked forward to testify about the condition before the healing. It was just awesome to see the childlike faith these people have! And the Lord honours it by healing them.

On Sunday morning, the last meeting, I saw a young lady running down from the back of the field. She ran towards the platform. Her face was beaming like a little sun. You could see that she was overwhelmed by the excitement that she got touched by Jesus, that she got healed. I then saw how she came forward to the ushers who check on those coming forward. She then came upon the platform and testified, that her right leg was so much shorter that her foot could not touch the ground. Now the right leg has the same length as the left one! She danced on the platform and was overwhelmed by joy and thankfulness! (See picture 3) –

Jesus is the same yesterday, TODAY and forever! – He is awesome!

We then found out that there are over 70% Christians in this area, and that only 14 years ago the first ones made the choice to follow Christ. And this was through an Evangelistic outreach Karl Hargestam did in 1995 with HELIMISSION!!! What an awesome testimony of what God has done through Helimission! We all were very much amazed about this. Karl did not know about it. During his years as pilot with HM he preached in many remote locations, one of them was in “Hero”, around 15 KM from “El Fatta”, where this meeting was now. There around 100 decided to give their lives to Jesus.
I just wanted to share this joy with you! – God is good – all the time!
I greet you from our new, wonderful base in Awassa!