‘Nuff said. Any questions?

Ok, I know most of you are reading this are from America and there you are questioning how come gas prices are going way over the $3/gallon mark especially as everyone is starting their summer vacations. Well, I just wanted to share with you what the gas prices here are like.

Above is pictured one of the cheaper gas stations that is in our area (and on a good gas price day since it fluctuates daily, sometimes it seems hourly). At first glance you might think we have it great here in Germany with gas prices (and compared to some places in the world, it is good). However let me explain the prices to those of you in the states.

The first price (the really cheap one) is for Erdgas, which is pretty much only used in certain farm vehicles. The second price there is for diesel (yes, diesel is cheaper than gas in Germany). The bottom three prices are for gas and equate to the levels of “Regular, Plus and Premium” found in the states. So the price of regular gas looks pretty good at 1.349 but you have to remember that that is Euros per liter. So to get that to Dollars per Gallon, we have to multiply the 1.349 by 3.7854118 (the amount of liters in a gallon) and then multiply the result by 1.35 (the current rate of Dollars to Euros) which means gas currently goes for $6.89/gallon for the cheap gas.

That is one of the reasons cars are smaller here and why bicycles and walking are favored in town transportation (and why we bought a diesel)

Are you an RSS freak like me? (RSS - Real Simple Syndication) I look at a ton of different websites and I don’t have to go through my favorites to get to them. I use RSS to read them. I use a RSS Aggrigator to read them all (see my post about using these from a while back to learn more)

One of my recent adds is a new feed from Greater Europe Mission that gives daily prayer requests from all around Europe. To view the daily feed, check it out here or if you just want to get the feed, use http://www.gemission.org/praying/RSSFeed.asp.

Another great thing is to sign up for eDOT’s monthly newsletter - eDOT Connect! It’s delivered monthly to your email box and keeps you up-to-date on what is happening with our ministry eDOT. Click here to sign up or go here to view some past issues of eDOT Connect!

Alex and I had a wonderful time today hiking up the hill behind us to a gazebo and taking a few photos. It was truly beautiful. Above is a panorama view of the city of Kandern (where we live). There’s about 4000 people who live in this town with about another 4000 living in the villages around it. Click on the photo to go to much larger version and I’ve labeled it with where we live and some other places of interest. You can see some of the other photos in the Photo Album

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