A visit from Ohio

Tim's brother Tom from Ohio is paying us a quick visit this weekend. He has been in 5 countries in the last 3 days(he is in Europe for only 5 days)!! Today we took him to Riquewihr and Eguisheim, two quaint and very old towns in France. Here are a collage of pictures from our trip.


Riquewihr is well-known for its macaroons. Various bakeries offer free samples including this one. Guess why Tim is hanging out here?!

One of many shops decorated for Easter

Great hotel sign! Note sleepwalker and chamber pot under the bed!


Creative way to decorate flower boxes in winter....with twigs. It looked really cool!

Back from Kiev, Ukraine

Tim just got back from Kiev, Ukraine. He was there to visit Kiev Christian Academy as part of a mid-term accreditation visit. This is a picture of the school.

The school was built by the soviets many years ago to be a boarding school for deaf children. As you can see the building is in pretty rough shape. Like many things in Kiev, you are often reminded of the great lie of the communist system.

In spite of the challenges of life in Kiev, KCA is a very good school with great students and teachers. Below is the first grade class.

I mentioned the lie of the communist system above, today Kiev has a booming economy of sorts. Brand new gleaming high rises are being built everywhere (see below). Land and real estate has skyrocketed in price. There are many challenges ahead for this country where there is much corruption. At the same time, there is openness to the gospel here with many new Christian churches.

How would you like to try using a russian typewriter?

High School Retreat - Nurnberg, Germany

Our annual High School retreat happened this past weekend in Nurnberg, Germany. We transported approximately 300 students and staff in 6 buses and were very glad to arrive at our destination after being enroute for 8 hours! We stayed at Kaiserburg(King's Castle) which is built on the old city wall. You can see part of the moat to the left of the buses.

This is part of the Kaiserburg and is the building we stayed in. It has been restored and is a now very large and beautiful youth hostel. It was built in 1494!

Inside the youth hostel....

High School Retreat cont.

Group photo(Tyler is at the very bottom right-hand corner)

Time of worship

Dinner with friends, Alyssa and Becky, Art teachers at BFA. They are recent Taylor grads(where Luke is a freshman)

Burger King - hard to find in Germany!

The highlight of the weekend....

was hanging out with BFA students(and staff, too) - the most amazing and diverse group of people in the whole world!

The highlight of the weekend cont.

The retreat is officially over! Lots of tired bodies!


Tyler and friends waiting to board the buses for the long ride back to BFA

Fun on the 6 hour bus trip!

Touring Nurnberg

One of many old stone structures

Our youth hostel is in the background behind the steeple so it was a very convenient location for walking into town and exploring.

These huge paintings were on the ceiling of a bookstore I visited. You can see the books under the painting.