18.10.2004

Hey friends! My future wife got prettier again this week. Freezing rain is no fun.. and the zipper on my only jacket is busted- won´t zip. only 2 months left.... i learned this week that it´s very important to listen to the still, small whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Monday, as i was riding my bike to go shopping, i got the feeling that i should put air in my tires, as they were looking a little low. i shrugged it off, and that evening i forgot about it. tuesday afternoon, i hit a curb. The telltale SSSSSssss... from behind me put me instantly in a wonderful mood. luckily we didnt have an appointment. walking bikes home from where we were took an hour. we only had one bike repair kit in the apartment, and it only had one patch in it. it took a half hour just to wrestle the tire off the rim... i thought i wasnt doing it right, but we just dont have the right tools in the apartment. it took 2 guys and three screwdrivers to finally claim victory over the stupid thing. and we all know how dirty bike tires are.. mine especially. i took off my white (no longer white) dress shirt, and went back for round 2. upon closer inspection of the hole, there were actually two holes, next to each other, where i hit the curb. shame. we dug around and found one single extra patch under a bed. a miracle? anyway, we patched the two holes and waited a half hour, and then filled up the tube a little to see if it was airtight. it was, good. we then got to work wrestling the tube back in the tire. my rubber tire was made for a German bike, according to the bike shop guy, and the metal rim came with the bike, which is made in america. since in America we measure in Inches, and here they use Centimeters, the rim was just barely too big for the tire. We wrestled for another 15 minutes, and i cut my hand. Just when we were about to get it, i heard a small ´ssssss....´ from inside the tire. i had poked it with my screwdriver. you should´ve seen me, i was shouting for joy! we didnt have any more patches, and all the stores close early, so we gave up for the night. the next day, we walked the 1/2 hour to the city, bought a bike repair kit, and walked back. we patched the hole, (now three patches on an otherwise new tube) and rammed the tire back into the rim. Can you believe the same thing happened? i was trying to pry the tire back into the rim with a screwdriver, ´SSSSsss..`. i love that sound. we took it out again and patched it again. it says on the patches we have to wait at least 45 minutes before patches, so there wasnt much to do except study. finally, with four patches on the tire, we stuck it once more on the rim. the hole where the nozzle for the pump is didnt fit exactly, so we kind of had to coax it into place with a screwdriver. guess what? `Ssssss,,,`. we poked another hole. to make a long story short, we finally got it fixed. i´m thinking of opening a bicycle shop when i get home. Last Saturday we had a street display in Hameln. i dont know if the name means anything, but there is a story about a Pied Piper from Hameln. he plays his pipe to rid the town of rats, and they all follow him and are led out of the city. then the piper comes back to pick up his pay (where we get the phrase ´pay the piper´) and the town doesnt pay him, so he plays his pipe again and all the children of the town get up and follow him, and he leads them out of the city. bye, kids. anyway, this town is beautiful, and they have a man who walks around the city and plays his pipe, so tourists can take pictures. turns out he´s an American! he´s a cool guy, and he´s always in newspaper articles all over the world. Last night we were invited by a friend to a Baptist Church service. they were having a ´missionary day´ where the members report all the missions that the congregation has led during the year. the congegration was big, about 500 people, and as we were talking with a few of them afterward, all except one or two of them are russian-born! The Baptist church isn´t so big here, but apparently it is in Russia, and as the Russians immigrate to Germany, they have a church here, too. the service was all in German, except for a few special musical numbers. i love the Russian language, and it was wonderful to hear about their efforts to bring the knowledge of Christ in the war-stricken lands of the former Soviet Union. they were all wonderful people, and my companion and i were pleasantly surprised. too often, when we are invited to visit a church and people find out that we are missionaries, they ask us to leave. i find it a shame, but these people were all very nice and polite to us. i have a fever. i still feel fine, but my temperature is over 100, and i dont feel quite right. so far, so good though. tomorrow is a meeting in Hannover again- i love that city! hm.. it looks like its going to rain again. bring it on! i know how important this work is, and i plan on redoubling my efforts on the ´home stretch´. i just wish i could see some fruits.. it still feels like all we do in Minden is plant seeds. maybe that´ll change. have a good week, and i wish you Alles Gute!