After the first few weeks, which felt a lot like a vacation, we finally settled into the U.S. for real.
A lot of organization had to be taken care of. As with any move to another country, you first have to get to know the laws and customs. With all the cultural differences, we are glad to have roommates who grew up in this country and can help. We are very grateful for all the people who gave us assistance and helped us out especially in the early days.
We spent some time thinking about which transportation we should use here in the USA. There is hardly any public transportation in our area. All of our housemates brought one or even two cars. In the beginning we were allowed to use their cars, but soon we realized that we also needed a car of our own. So we looked around on the common auto-buying sites. We noticed that cars in good condition for a good price leave the marketplace quickly again. Sometimes the cars are already sold after less than 12 hours. Since Johann always wanted to sleep at least one night over it and seek God in the situation, many good offers passed us by. 😉 However, in this case Johann held on to wanting to make a decision out of rest. One evening we spotted a car that had just been posted at 10pm. We waited until morning and knew that this car could be the one. A good price and relatively low mileage. After the test drive - the same day - it was clear that this was to be our car. We drove to the bank to withdraw the money for it. But at all banks we ran into the problem that with a foreign account we could only withdraw $1,000 a day. To get more, we need to create an American bank account. This was not in our interest, so one person helped us and paid the money forward. We were able to experience again that the right people are in the right place at the right time.
This is our loyal companion for the next time ;-)
Two days after we bought our car, we had a flat tire. We were just about to go shopping, saw it and started laughing at first. For whatever reason... 😊 Our housemates immediately offered us a car so that we could do our shopping. When we came back, one of our housemates had already removed the broken tire without much fanfare and mounted the spare wheel. He then also took the broken tire to his place of work the next day, where he could have it patched free of charge, and then also exchanged the spare wheel for the patched tire again in the evening. That's just a little snippet of how we live together as a housing community. Everyone is super helpful and supports without big questions where need is seen.
«Love your neighbour»…
A call from the Bible that we also frequently ran into on merchandise in Switzerland. We had engaged with this statement during our time in Switzerland and we enjoyed spending time with our neighbors there. (Greetings at this point to all our neighbors who are reading along 😉) We also want to make great ties with our neighbors here in Colorado Springs. The fact that we are often out and about with Elijah, walking rounds around the block, soon led to many neighbors taking notice of us, since hardly anyone else is out walking. Elijah is a ray of sunshine and many conversations arise because people are simply drawn to small children. 😊 We also experience this again and again on the go when shopping. So we have had several very good and interesting interactions. We hope that some will soon take heart and make use of our invitation to coffee & cake. The love of God for our neighbors and also for the people in the city is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In Colorado Springs we have seen and experienced people like never before in our lives. People with obvious big problems, be it physical or spiritual. And yet we love the people here and want to pass on the love of God. We have been blessed so that we can bless other people! AMEN!
Next blogpost
In the next post we will give you an insight into the first weeks of school. After that, there will be a first feature about Johann's future mission trip. We will also share about that here in the blog.
💡 Lightbulb-Moment
(In the future, this is where we share with you a short revelation that we got.)
Did you know that in Genesis 8:8-12, the three different ages of the Holy Spirit are symbolically represented by shadow images?
Shadow images means: pictures are used to explain spiritual truths.
V. 9: the dove is being sent out ➞ does not find a resting place ➞ returns The age of the OT (Genesis to Malachi); the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times to perform a certain ministry and then left them again. In the age of the OT, the Holy Spirit did not find a resting place.
V. 11: the dove is being sent out ➞ returns with an olive leaf ➞ no more judgment Age of the Gospels (Matthew to John); the olive leaf in the dove's beak symbolizes the end of God's judgment on sin. This judgment was placed on Christ.
V. 12: the dove is being sent out ➞ does not return anymore Age of the church (Pentecost until today); the spirit comes and dwells in the believer forever. This promise was already prophesied by Joel in the OT and was fulfilled at Pentecost.
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