Sometimes life stinks

Okay... so this house that we were promised (in a handshake agreement until the contract could be mailed to us) was rented to someone else. It's really frustrating, but sometimes life just stinks.

One of the things I've learned is that although I can't control the way people treat us, I can control my response to them. As is the case with most of us, our first reaction was a desire to go help this man rearrange his priorities (if you know what I mean)... but we have instead chosen to see it as God protecting us from having a landlord with a serious lack of character. And for that, we're thankful!

So the house search goes on...

America, here I come!

Tomorrow morning I take the 15 hour long trip from Bonn to Dallas. I'm excited to get to see many of you. You can check out my travel schedule at:


http://www. perrinministries. org/pm-xp/html/modules/agendax/index. php?op=cal

or

http://www. myspace. com/jeperrin

See ya!!!
Jon

Finally!!!

Exciting news... we found a house! We found a house that is a lot bigger than our current apt, and cheaper as well. It's only about 10km (a little over 6 miles) from the kids' school. The local train takes only 15 minutes to get to Basel (with its international airport and further train connections) and runs every 30 minutes.

We're really excited about it! It has a bedroom or each of the kids and we have a big bedroom. And although our bedroom is unfinished, we get to finish it out however we want to (within reason) at the owner's expense. It's set in the quaint German village of Wintersweiler (Efringen-Kirchen).

Hard Drive Funeral

After a valiant fight, my laptop hard drive gave up the ghost. It finally succumbed to a worn ball bearing. Fortunately, my supergeek friend rescued not only my data, but my laptop and my pride as well. Moral: Backup, backup, backup!!! (or to quote a cheesy Christian saying, "Jesus saves, so should you!")

Anyway, I'm going to give my old hard drive a proper funeral with a big hammer and a pair of pliers!

Youth Ministry blogs...

Be sure to check out our new blogs... their purpose is to assist those that work with youth. (duhh!!!) We have received a number of questions over the years. In these blogs we'll share the answers we gave.

Having worked with youth for over 20 years, and having served in a teaching/coaching and mentoring capacity for youth workers for the past ten years, we have learned that for every person that asks a question, there are twenty more that would like to have the same question answered.

These blogs are an attempt to share what we've learned through successes, observations and many mistakes. We hope they will be a blessing to you!

Youth Ministry Q & A (English)

Jugenddienst Q & A (Deutsch)

Residence visa

On Monday I got confirmation that our German permanent residence visas have been approved. Instead of having them put in our passports, we've opted to try for the EU permanent residence visas... just in case we may someday want to relocate to another EU country. It would totally streamline the process.

We take the test (on German culture, politics, business, etc) right after I get back from the USA. In order to get an EU visa, we have to prove that we are acclimated to the local culture. And even if we don't pass the test, we will still get our permanent German visas. We'll keep you posted...

Coming to the USA!

Coming soon to a city near you!

Jon will be doing a month-long trip to Texas and Indiana from May 22 - June 16. If you're anywhere near those two states, he'd love to see you. Robin and the kids will be in Germany preparing for the move to southern Germany while he is in the US raising money for it!

Check out our website calendar to see where and when we'll be near you... http://www.perrinministries.org/pm-xp/html/modules/agendax/index.php?op=cal. Or check out Jon's band myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/jeperrin.