Ramblings and Prayer Request

I usually only blog to report about some special event that has happened in my life. However, this blog will be different. If you are not so interested in my everyday life, you may skip the next two paragraphs. But please make sure you read the last one. Thank you!

So my main concern at this very moment is my shower. I recently made the unforgivable mistake not to refill the water in my heating tank (or whatever you call that in English) in the bathroom in a timely manner. So just before my vacation, it looked like the apparatus had given up the spirit, so no more hot water and heating. While the landlord was on his way to my place, I did manage to refill the water properly, but there was still this error message on the display! But he seems to have the "magic touch", because after he pressed just one button, everything started working again!

However, now as I have returned from Germany, I noticed that I can only take contrast showers somehow! It's only hot for several minutes, and then cold for at least 30 seconds; then starting over the cycle again! Well, I know it's healthy to take contrast showers, but I would like to choose at least! And also the water pressure went down remarkably. So I need to contact my landlord again. I guess I will have a bill to pay soon. Just hope it won't be that expensive...

And here comes an urgent prayer request: I just found out that this coming Saturday afternoon, there will be a demonstration for freedom and democracy in Brussels (http://www.europeansunited.eu/). An SDA colleague from Luxembourg now suggested that we all go there to distribute the Great Controversy in different languages. What an amazing opportunity! So we have a few more days left now to mobilize people and get as much literature as we can. Please pray for us! More to follow later...

Germany - from West to East

At the time of this writing, I'm sitting in the ICE train heading back to Brussels, after spending more than two weeks in Germany. I'm thankful that I could do this journey, in spite of Covid. Of course I had to undergo testing again as well as a five day quarantine after arrival, but I could spend this time of confinement working from my parents place. 

As far as the encounter with my loved ones went, it was almost like pre-Covid times, as most of my family members are vaccinated by now; and thus, especially my mother and my aunt are not so concerned  about my dad and grandmother anymore. So we gathered without masks, hugging each other like in the past. Of course this was much better than Christmas, when we were sitting there with our masks on, not even sharing a meal together. 

I also spent a few days in our holiday apartment in the Black Forest, which was nice and peaceful. At the beginning of last week, I travelled on to spend some days with dear friends in Thuringia, Eastern Germany. We had a very blessed time together, although it was a little more rainy than we had wished for.  

As I'm writing this blog, I can see the Wartburg Castle near Eisenach from the train. This brings back nice memories when I was able to visit this place about five years ago. Yesterday, we went to a beautiful nature resort with a lake, and while the children were throwing little stones into the water, Alberto shared with us an illustration about these stones making circles in the water, which become bigger and bigger. I was just contemplating that the work of Martin Luther also made a big impact until this very present time. I think this man had no clue back then what far reaching influence he would have in the world. But in a similar way, we may not be aware what kind of impact our words and actions can make within our sphere of influence. May the Lord help us to continuously make circles that become bigger and bigger!

                                             Some impressions of the Black Forest