A day or two in Paris

A little more of Germany

Marburg, Germany. Ollie and Becky took us there on Saturday after the worship conference. We walked around for a little while and ate Italian food for dinner. A beautiful ending to the conference.



Ollie is the worship leader at Calvary Chapel Siegen in Germany. His cute wife, Becky, is fun and a gracious hostess. We enjoyed them so much.



Jonathan Allen is from Grace Chapel in Franklin, Tennessee. What are the chances of that? Both guest speakers/worship leaders are from Grace Chapel on opposite ends of the country!



Duane had a blast driving the rental car. They upgraded us about 8 levels since they didn't have the car we requested. Bummer...



McDonalds always had a sign that said "McCafe". We finally found out that it was a very nice pastry and coffee shop inside the restaurant. It was as nice as Starbucks, amazingly.




After each evening service at the conference, there was a short concert. Duane gave a concert one night. Thomas and Donjella played the other night. Cool way to end the night.

The first few days in Germany

The conference in Siegen has been awesome. Duane and Jonathan Allen have done most of the teaching and worship-leading. It has been great to see people we've known from the past and meet new people. Today Ollie and Becky took us to Marburg, a little German town that has a castle and is 'very German.' The walk UP the hill to the castle was rough, but the view was awesome.





On the drive from the Frankfurt airport, Duane took me to Heidelberg to see the beautiful city. It has a castle, which I never actually saw from a distance, but we climbed the road and saw the view from it, which was breathtaking.



I was smitten the moment we drove into the city.

Another graduation!

Nici graduated from Antelope Valley College yesterday on a blustery day at Marie Kerr Park. Yay! Graduating AVC makes her bachelor's degree from Eternity Bible College official too. She is finally finished! Well, until she goes back for another degree... We're proud of her. She's worked really hard, and finished well. Nana took us out to Black Angus afterward, celebrating her graduation and my and Duane's 30th anniversary. We're headed for Europe on Monday, June 8 - our anniversary - for Duane to teach at a worship conference, then to celebrate our anniversary and visit friends.

Nici and Dr. Fisher, president of AVC



Doesn't she look pretty?



Jason and Nici with their Nana. She said, "This is why I moved to California." We're so glad she did.

Nici Graduates Eternity Bible College

She did it! Graduated with a Bachelor's of Biblical Studies. We're proud of you, Nic!


There's our girl walking down the aisle to graduate! There were 5 graduates in a special graduation ceremony. Francis Chan told the graduates that he's noticed that most people who go higher in their education tend to love less. Loving God and loving people is the most important thing. Duane was honored to be asked to come onstage and pray for Nici when she graduated. That made it a super special graduation.



Nici and Nana



The Fam



Whitney and Nici



Uncle Terry and Nici


Stay tuned! June 6 Nici will graduate Antelope Valley College.

Jason's home!

After a semester in Israel with IBEX, Jason arrived on Sunday at LAX. As the group of IBEX'ers came down the escalator, shouts of joy came from the waiting crowd. So happy! We ate at In-n-Out by the airport, then went to see Nana. She took a look at Jason and broke down crying. Sporting a full beard, Jason has an uncanny resemblance to Duane's dad when he was in his 20's.




After family and Whitney, Jason was most excited to see his guitar. We're glad they are reunited!

Quick trip to Ft. Bragg

Nici and I drove to Ft. Bragg for Calvary Chapel Ft. Bragg Women's Retreat. It was a one day retreat. You know, "Better is One Day in His courts than thousands elsewhere." The theme was "Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind." Erin Green had asked Nici to speak and give her testimony. She did an awesome job of sharing what God has done in her life and how He has taught her to renew her mind from God's Word. The retreat was held at a resort called "Little River Inn" with the coast right across the street. I think northern California is one of the most beautiful places on earth. This is Nici and Lara Gillman.


Amy Green and her friend, CiCi.




My Bridget friend and me. She is also known as Erin Green :)

IBEX students on Temple Mount

The IBEX students form a cross. I think the guy in front is their teacher Abner Chou. Jason says he is one of the smartest guys he's ever met and he loves learning from him. I think he's working on his second doctorate. Yeah, that's smart.

I got this photo off the web site IBEXsemester.com. They post photos every week of the field trips. It's kind of nice to see Jason's face since I don't get to in photos he takes.

Jason heads for Israel

I just realized I never posted this blog. Jason's been gone 3 weeks now. He sprained his ankle. He says learning Modern Hebrew is really hard. Every week they go on a field trip for their class "Land of the Bible" and he loves taking photos of where Jesus walked. Check out his blogspot: walkinginthefootprintsoftheking.blogspot.com He's taken some awesome photos. And please don't forget to pray for him.

The Storys

Our niece, Renee and her family (Jimmy Lee, Nick, Becca and Clark) visited for a couple of days at the end of the year. Just in time to help Nana move from her mobile home to a house around the corner. They had driven from Oklahoma in Jimmy's truck, so they even had a vehicle to help with the move! Jason and Nick played music together, but we couldn't convince Becca to take her violin out of its case. Maybe next time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Brock, Tricia and Corrine came for Thanksgiving. What a wonderful day. Nici's friend, Kristin, joined us too and we walked to Nana's new house after the meal. It is just a few blocks away, so it was perfect. This picture was taken in her new family room. She hasn't actually moved in yet. Tomorrow we plan to put in the shelf paper in her kitchen cupboards and pantry. It's a start!