Sorry for not blogging lately but with everything going on, there just hasn’t been time. We leave for Germany in 15 days!! (freak out moment)

So, what’s been happening with us?

We have gone through all of our things (most of which were already boxed up in the garage but we still had to do through them), packed them up, bought last minute items, and then on Thursday we packed our container (with the help of some great people - thanks to all of you that helped). Our container was then taken to Norfolk and has been put on a ship to Germany. It should arrive about the same time as us.

So we are now living out of our suitcases and currently celebrating Christmas at my sister’s place in Savannah, GA with my parents. The past few days have been delightful. We have been de-stressing from all of the shipping stuff. Today we opened presents (everyone knew that all gifts had to be suitcase packable) but we have really been enjoying some serious family time. Our hope is to be able to get a hold of some of Krista’s family (as many of you know, they are around the world) but we will see if that works out.

We’ll be back into the Charlotte area on the 27th working on finishing raising our support and most importantly saying “Good-bye” to our many friends and supporters. The next phase of our journey begins on January 9th when we board our plane.

God bless and Merry Christmas!!!

Season’s Greetings -

Highlights:
1) Need help loading our crate
2) Max and Erma’s Restaurant night results
3) Departure date
4) Goodbye party
5) Need a car?
6) Prayer Requests

We’re delighted to share some amazing things that God has been doing for us,
in us and through us.

1) Our shipping container is coming to be loaded Thursday, December 21. We
only have 2 free hours to load and then they start charging by the hour so
we need lots of strong backs and prayer for no rain. We need lots of help
here so if you can come from 12:30-4 we would really appreciate it! Please
respond if you think you can make it.

2)On Monday, December 4 a local restaurant donated 20% of the meal prices of
the people who came to support our ministry. We had over $1,528.58 in sales
which gave our ministry a check for $305.72. Although the amount was
significant, our greatest joy was to walk around and have a chance to greet
all those who made that such a special night. Thank you.

3)Hopefully you’ve all heard our departure date - JANUARY 9, 2007. We were
able to find AMAZING tickets to Zurich for about $425 each! Even though
it’s in Switzerland it’s about an hour drive from our place in Germany.
We’ll recoup for a few days at our team leader’s home and then our shipping
container should arrive around January 15. Alex’s kindergarten (2 houses
away) is currently full but they are going to try to squeeze him in - please
pray. We’ll probably start language school in February.

4) Sunday, January 7- 11:30-3pm at Lake Forest you are invited to a goodbye
party. A light lunch will be served right after church or you can “drop in”
before 3. We hope to see most of you from the NC/SC area if you are able.
We’ve sent separate e-invites or you can RSVP to this e-mail by January 1.
Children are welcome. For those of you further away, we know you are with
us in spirit!

5) Our car is for sale. 1995 Toyota Camry LE Sedan - 127K miles - $3,500

As you can imagine this is a time of delight and a bit of stress :0! Please
pray for our family, for our marriage, for our stuff and for our nerves -
especially that we can get everything boxed up before next Thursday.
Another BIG prayer request is that the Euro/Dollar conversion is at the all
time high again which will really hurt us as we will lose .25 cents on every
dollar just in conversion. Please pray for the dollar to strengthen against
the Euro, and for the last bit of our support to be provided.

Your friends,

Courtney and Krista Roes
www.RoesGarden.com

Donations to Greater Europe Mission, PO Box 1669 Monument, CO 80132-1669
Account #38200 or online at
https://www.gemission.org/supporting/givingcard.asp

It is in one month’s time that Krista, Alex and I will be boarding a plane with one-way tickets to Europe. We have been looking forward to this since we were 17 years old and God first told us that we would one day go into missions. God is good and has provided for us in ways we just really sit in awe of. We are just amazed.

So what is happening with us over the next month. First we are working on the BC & AC method. That is “Before Crate” and “After Crate”. We are expecting for our shipping container to leave the US just before Christmas. So before then, we have to go through all of our stuff making sure we really want to take it and that it will fit in our new place in Kandern, Germany. We also need to get our last minute shopping done (items that we can’t get there or are more expensive over there so we’ll take a bunch with us) and for me, it means getting all of the computers backed-up and ready to go into the container.

“After Crate” will consist of saying “good-bye”. So for Christmas we will be going to my sister’s in Georgia so that we can spend some special time with family. After Christmas, we’ll come back and enjoy our annual New Year’s Eve celebration with our friends Randy & Cheryl Henning where we always do fondue. My parents at some time will be throwing us a going away party and then on January 9th, we’ll be boarding the plane.

During this whole time, we will be meeting and talking with people as we still have to finish raising the final portions of our support.

Please continue to pray for us during this time:

• Pray that we are able to get all the things done and not forget something
• Pray that we are able to take time as a family and make sure that we do this transition well
• Pray that we are able to finish raising the rest of our support
• Pray that the Euro will stop strengthening as we have a lot of start up money that needs to be converted and the Euro going up, means less buying power for us

If you need the Max & Erma’s coupon, click on the picture of it to down load a pdf version. Remember, its only good for today for lunch, dinner or take-out at the Exit 25 Max & Erma’s.

Thanks!!!

I wish more people were this excited about baptism!!!