Here we are with part two of our area tour. Looking back to the west from our house, you see the old (200+ years?) church in the distance behind the trees. It is an evangelical Lutheran Church, and their community center is across the street from our house. Our house is the yellow one on the left, closest to the camera, and we have met half of the other 8 families that live along our street now in these other houses you see.

Turning back to the east, we now see the corner we showed you last time, with the bakery and the döner stand.

Across the street from that corner to the left, we have this bottle shop. It sells mostly alcohol, but soda and water too. The lady that runs it is very friendly. We usually buy a couple cokes from her every few days.

Further east down our street (Alte Meissner Landstrasse) we see the bus stop. Two bus lines come through this stop, and one continues right past our front door. Hundreds of people pass our house every day on their way downtown or back home.

At the bus stop, there is this little park. People from all over the neighborhood come to this park to relax or walk their dog. It cuts through the block to Meissner Strasse, a main street headed to the center of town.

These final two images are from the park. The first is looking south across our street towards another street, Gottfried-Keller. We will show you more of it later. The second is from the other side of the park looking east down Meissner Strasse towards downtown.

Here is a neat aerial picture of our town. Amazing to think that a city of a half million people built up around one of the most beautiful churches, has less than 2% making church a part of their lives.
(Click on the picture to get a bigger view.)

Here is a little tour of our area. For starters, the Church we went to this morning. It is about 20 blocks south of us:
Here we are walking east on our street, Alte Meissner Landstrasse, from the garage to our house. It is the yellow one up on our right.
Here is the house from across the street. We are in the middle, 53A. The one on the left is 53, and the one on the right is 53B. The family in B know english and have been very helpful in introducing us to the neighbors.

Just to the left of our house, between it and the red tree, is this walkway that leads into the block. There is a whole neighborhood inside the block that is only accessible by foot. There are four "blocks" of houses similar to ours within the block, before you reach the next street.
Proceeding down Alte Meissner to the east, you come to this bakery on the corner. We go there nearly every other day for bread, and an occasional cookie or cake.
Across the street from the bakery, is this Doner Restaurant. We eat here at least once a week, and have started trying our German out on the owners.
Hope you enjoyed this little walk down our street. Use it to PW for us and our area. I'll add some more of the neighborhood soon.

There is an old church at the end of our block, here is a shot from our upstairs window:



Sad how the forms still persist without the function.

Went to register with our new city and saw a few things:

We are not in Dresden unil tomorrow, so here are some pics to see until we post again later this week. Jet lag is still in effect. But instead of sleeping and being tired all the time, the kids are having some trouble going to sleep at night. Three days later though, the first day on the plane and arriving in Germany is kind of a blur. The other pics here are from our leaders apartment. A view from their balcony and some buildings along the skyline.
Look for more updates later this week!

Well, we are down to our last day stateside for the next three years. I was looking back at my records, and as best as I can tell, we filled out our initial form with the company on June 6^th 2005. That means it was Wednesday, June 1^st 2005 when John, Chad, and I had that fateful conversation that got this whole ball rolling. Now one year to the day of that conversation we will be leaving for Germany. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by. Hopefully the next year will go as quickly and smoothly. P that Cheryl and the kids all have a safe trip and that we learn that language as quickly and smoothly as possible.

So we went to DC for a couple of days and saw the amazing and moving WWII memorial alongside other such important cultural items as the puffy shirt from Seinfeld. Not that I don't love Sienfeld as a show, but does anyone else have any hesitations about what we consider to be important cultural heritage in this country?

Alright. I am in the process of setting up a couple of blog spots to keep everyone informed of things going on in our livesw. We are preparing to head out in a couple of weeks to Dresden. For now the plan will be to use this spot as primarily a journal of what is happening, and those who are interested can check in. Eventually it will become a more strategic spot for people to become more informed as to how to pray for us.

Jason