Wonderful ones who we Love!
We have been in Switzerland for over a month and there is now a special place in our hearts for the Swiss people and land. We have been shown lovely hospitality and gorgeous mountains by our friends Lauro, Gea, Micha and Teresa. We have also met some great new friends.

We will be moving on to Italy Wednesday. We are excited and look forward to it. Here are some photos of a hike we took on 7.7.07. Hope you enjoy them. Please pray for us as we journey on!

Lots of Love,
Joseph andChristy

If people were candles

hmmm...Tonight my delightful husband set up a hot date for me, a lovely setting outside the house with a majestic view... I was watching the candle on the dinner table as the wind blew on it, and almost put it out over and over. Sometimes I, (and I'm sure someone else in the world) feel like that candle, wanting to be bright and joyous all the time, remembering how things might have been a month, a year or 20 years ago....
When the wind finally put the candle out, I thought, maybe it's ok to have a break from the intense heat sometimes. Every candle needs their wick trimmed from time to time. So, I guess we don't need to worry if we don't feel extraordinarily vibrant 24-7. There are times and seasons for everything. Some seasons are cold and snowy( can be fun with mittens, charcoal and cocoa), and some are hot... So, i guess, I'm encouraging you to really bite into whatever season you're in, that's what I'd like to do. Time is quick, humanity fades like flowers, May we learn to enjoy love in our short time on earth...
Restfully, Christy

Fresh Milk from the Cow

Swiss Cheese Delights...

You might be among those who have dreamed of sinking your teeth into some oh so tasty Swiss cheese, (no not just the kind with holes in it that we call Swiss cheese)...the vast array of fresh made morsels. Of course you might not have gone so far as to imagine what some of this cheese SMELLS like. You cant tell when you buy it at the grocery store, and were learning that it is all too true that one ought not "judge a book by its cover". Its just, some of these cheeses, though they taste mighty fine, leave the distinctive and undeniable smell of dog poo on your hands. So at the dinner table, sometimes we just have to plug our noses, and grin. Here's the beast it comes from and the old fashioned cheese factory. Is your mouth watering yet?......................We hope so! J and C

Music and Mountains

Christy sang the Sound of Music in the mountains, and we recorded it, but we cant put it on the blog. Here are some really pretty flowers from up there. We have also been playing some music and learning more piano and guitar which is great. Marriage is awesome!

Photos to go with Story Below...

Stories for Dave...

Hi from Thun, Switzerland.
My (Joseph's) friend Lauro put us in an awesome old house, that has a rich history and great people.
The other day we got to go hear a Chinese man, Brother Yun, known as "The Heavenly Man", speak. (also the name of his book). For those who havent heard of this man, he is a man who is a walking miracle. He has been severly tortured, imprisoned, and suffered immensely, simply because of his faith in Christ. He is known by his friends in China as the Heavenly Man, and he has lived to write a book and to travel and share his incredible stories and hope. He spoke about how much Christ loves us and that when we hear truth from Him, everything changes.
On a different note, we went to a castle last week, and found an area for kids. There was all this dress up stuff, so we got decked out in castle clothes, we were having a ball, and then a lady came storming up and said this was absolutely forbidden. (turns out she had left the dress up closet unlocked on accident...we were just in the right place at the right time. :)
...We got to go to the Alps, it was insanely gorgeous, Joseph got to laughing after we got off the train, and inhaled salad into his nasal passage. So about 5 mintues later, look what came out of his nose!...and then....yep, he ate it again. (We're on a budget, and he's a hungry man).
So, check out the photos above....write us a note. Give yourself a hug.
You rock!
J and C

Blessings!

Hi beautiful people!

Yesterday, Gea, our Swiss friend got us passes for Switzerland so we got to go see Europes biggest waterfall.
We found out that Josephs dog Lacy died so today were going to have a little remembrance time for her.
There have been some crazy storms here, the basement of the house we live in flooded a bit from the typhoonish weather. so we bailed a bit with buckets. The thunder and lightning was crazy, and the neighbor village had the streets flooded so they were calling it Venice. Everyone is saying this kind of weather is huge rarity here. We are joining in praying for Switzerland.
Tomorrow, we are leaving this village and going either south, or to Italy.

Life on earth is short, May we shine with joy and know the reason why we are here. Christ is truly our refuge and strength in times of trouble. We need Him and His strength...
Love to you.
Joseph and Christy

HEY!

Hi over there...
Yesterday we were at a Swiss Parade with everything your imagination can conjure up that might be specifically Swiss.
Then we went to evening church in an old club that is made to look like a cave and all painted red. A kind lady translated for us about keeping our hearts soft even though theres lots of crazy stuff happening in the world.
Today we got to help at the house were staying at, trimming trees in the sun. That was great. We have been trying to speak some German and Joseph is really good at it. Weve been learning as much as we can about history, language, people.
There are some tough problems here with neo nazis and resistance groups so that is something to send a prayer out for. Healing.
We like you guys tons. We like your notes. We remember the laughter weve shared and the hardships as well. We are glad to have you in our lives.
LOVE and ASSURANCE, Joseph and Christy

Christy's Beautiful Birthday

Hi Dear ones,
We are stoked to hear from all of you. Thanks for the Birthday wishes. We had a blast in Thun, Switzerland, from weeping to the beauty of a Bohemian style Castle Orchestra, to singing in a 1000 year old church...a lunch picnic under a cherry tree and swimming in water from the Alps, And with gorgeous old Swiss folks with delectable smiles, we are blessed! Joseph got a lovely chocolate truffle cake for me and we had a picnic in a palace park, thunder and lightning and dancing...Great joy and knowing the favor and love of Christ. We are all so special to Him and He wants to show us that daily!
LOTS of photos below of the Birthday.

We are still at the ywam base in the country and going to a few Bible classes, riding bikes and trying to organize swing dancing. We practiced for about an hour last night.
LOVE YOU!
Beauty for Ashes,
Joseph and Christy

Palace and River Flowing from the Alps...We went down a big slide into the river!

Joseph's 1st time in a Castle, Beautiful Orchestra, Lovely view during huge thunder storm.

Gnome tried to blow out the candle, but to no avail! Haha!

Palace Dancing-Baloon-Chasing, Stockhorn Peak, Stormy Alps, Ooohlahlah...

Cherry tree picnic and river in Thun

Tiny Swiss Village

Hello,
We are staying at a ywam base for the next 2 nights. Teresa, a friend from the Wave USA, has blessed us with a place to stay. We watched the sun setting over the wheat fields and mountains tonight, with the sound of cow bells in the background.

Tomorrow morning we are going to have milk from the cows that are right next door. Sweet.
Lots of Love.
Hope you are having a gorgeous day!

Joseph and Christy

Switzerland, baby!

We are in Basel, staying with Micha and his family. They served us a lovely breakfast with yummy cheese and homemade jam.
We hitched a ride with style to get here and drove through the Black Forest of Germany. It was really pretty. Tomorrow is Christys birthday! A quarter of a century! We will miss being home from friends and family to celebrate with us, but I(joseph) know you will be celebrating her in your hearts and we are happy to be in Switzerland for it. Thank you God! Be blessed, everyone. Love, Joseph and Christy

Nudist Colonies, Butterflies and Gliding...

Yesterday, we went to a lake not far from here, While having a picnic we noticed some gliders shooting up into the sky in the distance, so we hiked through the fields until we found them. Along the way we saw, deer, frogs the size of your pinkie nail, lizards, butterflies, and dragonflies.

Eventually we sat to observe the gliders taking off...a rope attached to a pully a half mile away spins really fast and you go from 0-150 km in 2 seconds. So, a fella pulled up in a jeep and asked us if we wanted to go. So we did. We had to go in separate planes so we kissed a lot before we took off.

Afterwards, on the hike back to the car, we stumbled upon a bunch of naked people in the woods.
There are photos below of the flight, but we refrained from photographing old mens bottoms.

LOVE,
Joseph and Christy

Parachute in Place, Crazy Pilots and Up we go!

Belgian family and Guitar and Instrument Museum

North Sea Day - Gorgeous and Great Swimming!

We're in Germany...

Hi, sorry its been hard to post in a while!

We were in Belgium for a few days enjoying the culinary
pleasures, and we stayed with a neat family with a 2..month old baby.
Awesome!
were staying with Christy's friend is S. Germany.
We went to the longest wedding ever, and they sang
a folk sing a long p 'Fridialala, Fridialala, Fridialalalala...'
We got to laughing and couldn't stop.

We went to a house circle and no one spoke a word of English
for about 2 hours, so we both fell asleep sitting on the couch. Whoops. :=)
After a while your imagination can fail you when trying to
understand another language.

We're having a great time!
Exploring the green hills of Germany.
Thinking of you, our family and friends every day!
LOVE, J and C

Amsterdam

Heyha...
Our last few days have been incredible-following Holy Spirit as we go...
Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrant
Canals, Hot weather, Lots of walking
Old churches, Lots of learning about history
Praying for healing in ourselves and in this nation

Favorite blessing: Going to Corrie ten Boom's house
in Haarlem (a safe refuge for many people during the WWII, the family gave their lives for the Jewish people and many were rescued).
It is wonderful to see how much beauty and hope can
be found in the midst of such hardship.

We have been seeing the transience of earthly things...
This life on earth is quickly fading and we can find
our home in the recklessly abudant love of Christ.
LOVE TO ALL,
Joseph and Christy...p.s. photos soon.

Norm's salmon!

Glory Hallelujah! brother, sister, amen.

Fabulous food of the week:

1. Raw herring with onion... (hold it by the tail baby!)
2. Cheese with poison ivy in it -
3. Tradition Dutch meat-veg-potato-one-pot-yumminess made by Karine's Mom... AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
4. NORM'S SALMON... (We helped Johnny and Karine make the salmon they were given a few months ago into some tasty dip! :)
We all enjoyed it.

Wonderful times:

-Great time with Johnny and Karine
-Johnny and Karine taking us to the medieval village of Elburg,
-Little baby Maria Elisabeth, a huge joy to be around!

-Us having a lovely time playing the biggest Djimbay in the world
-We have really enjoyed riding bikes around this river town, and Joseph picking wild flowers for Christy...

What's next? Tomorrow we go to Amsterdam for a few nights to stay with a friend of a friend, Karel. We are so blessed! We are eating salmon dip as we write! What a glorious surprise...

Joy to the World. Jesus has made a way for us to be FREE and not carry the weight of the world ourselves. He is the Hope.

Think about something you love about yourself! You rock!
Love,
the rowdy...Rauwolfs

p.s. to Grant: You're gonna make it through with flying colors!

Bicycles, Tulips and Windmills!

The photos below are
a. Us riding the free white bikes through Hoge Veluwe National Park
b. Tulips at Kuekonof Gardens
c. Old Windmills that keep the country above water

LOVE LOVE LOVE to you.
Jesus is good Medicine.

Hope you are having a gorgous day!
J and C

Joy to All!

Hi Lovely People!

Fabulous food of the week: Profferjes,
yummy puffy shaped tiny pancake sort of food.
I think we're the only people in Holland who have
ever eaten them for breakfast, but that's cool.

About 90 % of Dutch people ride bikes pretty much all the tim.
They ride bikes in spite of everything: all different clothes, skirts,
all shapes and sizes, BUT no one wears a helmet and i suppose it would be
laughable of someone did. Well in Alaska, apparently the police are supposed to offere free icecream cones to people they see wearing bike helmetas.. so we think it would be funny to implementa plan for Holland...so people who wore a helmet got rewarded with a free gift certificateto the local profferjes store.

We leave for another town today in Holland for 5 nights or so. Kampen, where we will stay with Johnny and Karine!

Anyway...lots of love!
Joseph and Christy

Jesus is Faithful!

Dear ones,

We love receiving your notes. Thank you for staying in touch!

We are here in Holland now after 16 hours of traveling on many forms of transportation, which went like this:

Car, Train, Underground, Train, Taxi, Shuttle, Ship, Walk, Train, Tram, Walk...We didn't know where we'd stay when we got to Holland, so after some praying we hopped on a train, borrowed a train worker's cell phone and called a hostel # from our Travel Book. They had room, so we decided to go to Rotterdam, and stayed in a fun room with a Dutch theme that had a Split pea soup recipe painted on one whole wall.

Now we are staying with a really kind fellow named Rob in a small country town, Bodegraven. He took us walking round the canals today. He loves Jesus, listens to Starflyer 59, the 77's, The Choir and the Prayer Chain (You'd like him DT)...

We are so grateful for our 3 weeks in England with such a lovely family. The children are gorgeous and we enjoyed catching newts with them, and reading and dancing with them. We had a great time with Richard and Rachel...great meals, superb coffee, lots of chocolate, puddings and parks and good conversation.
Christy sang the song Norm and Sonya gifted to her (using Richard's drum), and we told them about the Gathering in Alaska and how much we love the First Nations people.

Inspired by the song (Yoo Kaneist), and the friendship Holy Spirit has begun in the last few weeks, Rachel wrote us a poem, we'd like to share with you:

Travelling far and wide
with easy grace and gentle smiles,
you came to us
and opened up our home
to your far-flung horizons.
Obedient hearts follow Papa carrying songs and deep dreams from Him,
such trust an open book
for His blessing.
Your kindness came like the song of the rain
in a desert place.
Thank You Papa, for this sweet grace
of friendship.
I will hear your drum when you are long gone
and the miles will not matter
for we can all come
to meet in His presence;
we all belong
in His Gathering.

We LOVE you, Let us continue in deeper trust of Him who loves us without end....LOVE, Joseph and Christy

Holland Tomorrow!

Hello!
We are railing from here and sailing across the North Sea to the Netherlands tomorrow. Please pray for us!!!
Will write soon.
LOTS OF LOVE!
Christy

Gnome Enjoying Iona & Joseph Enjoying Train

Weeehaw!

Lots of Beauty and Fun!

Jesus is LOVELY!

Hi! On the Right is the Wondefull family we are staying with! Richard, Rachel, James, Mary and the twins - Benjamin and David! A beautiful day of petting sheep, paying frisbee and laughter!