earthsedge

Bonjour!

Well, actually it’s “hello” now…we’re back in the United States after a wonderful six months in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Last time we sent out a newsletter, it was, well…it was a long time ago! We had just returned from Amsterdam after our visa problems and we had decided to take a break from YWAM to focus on some courses we needed to finish. Here’s an update about how that went, and our latest mission project….

Switzerland

The reason why we went to Switzerland was so that Chris could finish two final courses for his BA in Intercultural Studies. The courses were great, and we enjoyed the new experience of living in a French-speaking region. Switzerland is a stunningly beautiful country and the people are wonderful. It’s also a very expensive country, but fortunately the chocolate is cheap! Aidan has really thrived over the last six months. We lived in a rural part of the country outside of Geneva, and Aidan loved his daily encounters with tractors and cows. He is talking up a storm these days and can even say a few words in French. It was a very busy, rewarding six months. With these two courses behind him, Chris is hoping to write his final thesis sometime in the next four months and then he will be done with his degree. Becka has one final ESL (English as a Second Language) practicum and she will be done with hers. It’s been a long, rewarding journey, and it’s a relief for both of us to have the end in sight! Neither one of us really planned things to work out this way, but as we reflect on all our experiences over the past five years, it’s amazing to see how God has brought things together.

As some of you may remember, earlier in the year we had decided to step away from our responsibilities with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) while we focused on finishing our studies. We also felt strongly to discontinue our support base since we would be focusing exclusively on studying.

However, there have been a few people who have graciously continued to support us through this season by financial gifts and loans, and we are extremely grateful to you for this unexpected kindness! We have also appreciated the emails, prayers, and even visits of our friends and family. It’s been amazing for us to feel so connected to you, even as we are worlds apart.

Amsterdam

So what’s next, for the nomadic Warners? Well, we’ve decided to give Amsterdam another go. We are planning to return in January. Our main reason for returning is to reconnect with our team at YWAM Amsterdam (the Intercultural Resource Center) and resume one of the projects that we’ve been planning for some time. We’ll be helping to facilitate a six-month intercultural training program called Foundations in Intercultural Studies (FIS). It’s a program that we were closely involved with planning when we were in Amsterdam previously, and something that we believe can make a significant impact in the city and beyond.

Of course, we have mixed feelings about returning to Amsterdam. We are looking forward to working with ICRC again, catching up with friends, dusting off our Dutch, and eating more stroopwaffles than should be legally allowed! On the other hand, there are some significant challenges waiting for us. The difficult housing situation hasn’t changed, and another uncertain visa process is looming. We’ve accepted that these challenges make it difficult to plan on how long we will be able to stay once our tourist visa expires. Even though we are craving some more stability and a longer-term commitment, we are trusting that our Father will still be with us-even if we can’t see over the next hill. We are still passionate about seeing the nations come to know the love of Christ.

Autumn to Winter

Would you consider praying for us as we prepare to return to Amsterdam? The next few months will be a very busy time as Chris is writing his thesis and we are working toward raising the necessary support to live in Amsterdam. We need to raise at least 3000 USD per month, which admittedly seems like a daunting figure. (To be honest, support raising has never been our strong point.) We’ve been able to live on far less than this in the past, but this is the minimum requirement for a residency visa. We would also appreciate your prayers that some suitable housing would open up before we arrive, and for a smooth transition as we prepare and travel from Illinois to California in the next few months.

If you’re interested, you can continue to follow our journey at our website, www.earthsedge.org. It’s kind of been dormant amidst the busyness of the summer, but we’ll be posting more regularly in the coming months. We try and post some videos or pictures of Aidan every so often-you will be surprised at how much he has changed! You can also find more information about the Foundations in Intercultural Studies course that we will be running, and all of our financial support information is available there as well.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months! If we haven’t heard from you in a while, please drop us a line and let us know how your summer went!

Love,

Chris, Becka, and Aidan

…again. We are packing up and saying goodbye to Switzerland. We fly out on Friday. It’s been a fantastic six months. My courses were great, although I am relieved to have them behind me. I have to write a thesis sometime over the next six months, and then I have officially jumped through one of life’s hoops (my BA). I still laugh to myself when I think about the last 8 years of my life…that all of these different experiences added up to a degree. It was so much more than that, but hey, I’ll take the piece of paper. I didn’t even know I wanted it until about a year ago. But maybe God knew all along-or he just has a gracious sense of humor.

As usual, we’re hoping to spend some time in both IL and CA. Our plan is to be back in Amsterdam in January…but a lot has to happen between then and now. Mostly support raising, which gives me heartburn just thinking about it. Newsletters, updates, and explanations about our next project will be coming your way soon. And maybe more blog posts!

For my last birthday, I decided to get a flip video camera. I don’t aspire to be much of a movie maker, but we wanted something for family videos (something better than our ancient digital camera) and maybe for the occasional touristy thing.  I didn’t really want to drop a lot on a high camcorder, and even if I did, the issue for us is portability. So when I heard about an insanely good deal on the flip at amazon (I think I got it for about $60), I went for it. I did some research before, and most of the reviews were overwhelming positive. My verdict? It’s been perfect for us. It’s small, incredibly easy to use, and the quality is fine for us. I’m not sure I would have paid full price for it, but for $60, it’s amazing (I’ve noticed Amazon has runs the same special from time to time). Sometimes I’ll just carry it around in my pocket and video Aidan throughout the day, and I know we’ll enjoy these videos later down the road.

Of course, what I don’t like is managing all these videos. My project this weekend is to sort through the all the files that have accumulated on our computer, and then upload the keepers to flickr. I’ll probably delete everything but the best of the best, and save the editing for another day. Here’s a few that I just looked at:

Aidan gets a “new tractor.” Almost as good as the first one!

I like this next one because it catches a few things that Aidan does. Like randomly saying “pop” (even though he understands the question and knows what he should say-he does this a lot, and sometimes he cracks himself up), hearing the car outside and immediately saying “car”-he hears the traffic outside our window and he can tell by the noise whether it is a car, tractor, motorcycle, or bus. But I especially like the “bye bye” at the end:

Dancing:

This has been an eventful week for us. Chris finished his communications course and Aidan turned 18 months old. As a part of graduation for Chris’ school, we went with his classmates and staff to Lausanne by boat. Aidan loved eating in the nice dinning compartment and watching the water from the bow of the boat. It was also a special time for Chris and his classmates, as they thanked their staff and spent a little time together before everyone goes their separate ways.

We now have next week off, to relax a little and for Chris to get ready for the next course: a three month science and humanities school. After that, Chris just has to write a thesis and he’s finished with his degree. We’ll be writing more about what’s next sometime soon.

I am doing well. Last week was pretty busy for me. I helped to edit 9 research papers for the students in Chris’ class. It was a lot of late nights but so worth it to see people able to turn in high quality papers. It was also a good experience for me. I wouldn’t consider myself as a grammar guru, but after coaching the ESL students in that area, I have at least improved in my ability to spot grammar mistakes and help others write more polished papers.

And finally, it’s time for a little Aidan update! We are constantly amazed at how much he is changing and growing. Many of our co-workers have commented on how he’s changed, becoming more expressive and more talkative with the people here. And, of course, everyone knows how much he loves tractors; they are always willing to start up a conversation with him about his “great love”!

In addition to loving motorized vehicles of any size, Aidan is turning into a little fish. We have a real difficult time keeping him away from water. He loves splashing in pools or fountains but he’s even content to play with the sink faucet. On hot days, he can spend hours playing with buckets of water, splashing, spilling, drinking (nasty!), and wading in the water.

Aidan is also doing incredibly well with speaking. Many children his age have a vocabulary of 20 words or so; we’ve lost count, but it’s at least over a hundred. A few weeks ago, he began putting short sentences together. Some of the sentences that you might hear if you hang around him are:“Want a more, Maaa!” (“Ma” is his way of saying please); “I want cheese;” “Where’s Daddy?”; “Where’s tractor?”; and, “Go car!” (translation, “I want to go somewhere in a car.”). He’s still working on his pronunciation though. Instead of “boat” he says, “butt”; he prefers, “cracky” to “cracker” and sometimes likes to call his Daddy, “Da-dees.”

And finally, it should be said that Aidan got to ride on a tractor yesterday! He’s waited his whole life for this special event. He was very serious about it, sitting very carefully on Chris’ lap, but he did loosen up enough to play with the steering wheel and honk the horn. Here’s a few pictures from the last month.

The big moment:

Playing on the slide in Lausanne. Aidan loves to climb up and down.

On the boat, wearing his new John Deere vest from grandma:

Swinging:

Aidan’s routine is to wake up and lie on his back saying, “tractor” over and over again.

Eating cherries:

Lining up his tractors. Not quite as orderly as Edith and Emma!

Little hiker:

I took this pic during one of the (brief) moments Aidan was sitting still today. I think it captures his personality pretty well!