a light in opportunity

i suppose i never expected to see a sunny day in england... one where everything glows of

a sunny orange warmness and the occasion being, simple 'ol life.

that was, however, not the only thing to be unexpected... the main man was held up due to the opposition of the embassy.

his visa was not granted and his passport was never returned to him.

this, naturally, set a bit of a halt on things.

and as this week should have been gloomy and dark just as it should have been bright and full of joy with the wedding taking place, it was neither of these... but yet mixture of the both.

with the tension in the air of not knowing for so long, the answer that he is not going to make it was actually a relief, i think, for beth and her entire family. no one wanted to hear the news, nor

believe it was true but in this unexpected result, God will, is and has been lighting the situation with opportunity.

the largest being the opportunity to grow deeper in trust with Him. that one being of course the hardest too. as for the embassy

stuff, they are starting again from scratch and doing everything they can to show it is legit... the rest if literally up to God.

though this was the news no one wanted, the time was filled with laughter, english sarcasm, sunny and rainy days and unending memories and blessings.

it was a great joy to meet beths family as well as see sams family again. and then to top that, kathy was finally introduced too and we all shared some good experiences.

among these were the following:

scaling walls and fences to get over flooded roads.

seeing the ocean for the first time with kathy.

much walking.

seeing stan laurels home town.

laughing.

more english sarcasm.

having time at an english pub.

tea time.

praying.

trusting.

so, what this let down means for me is that i get to visit england again which is actually no let down. plus, we are believing that a greater victory will become of this.

i know that my trip there was filled with opposition and it would have been easy to be sour because of the flight delay, extremely bumpy

landing, missing of the train, overnight at the airport and so on... and i am sure if the devil had his way, this trip would have been a disaster for everyone...

but..

it wasn't.

It was refreshing and a blessing for all.

(at least i hope for all.)

whats next:

tomorrow i am spending the whole day taking a test (german B1)

in order that i may extend my visa. it just isn't as easy as it all seems with the visas and marrying.

(quick explanation: in order to get a permanent residence visa, though we are married, i have to have a certificate proving that i can speak, read and understand german as well as one from an integration course. this only means that i have to take a couple tests... it isn't really hard and comparing to what some must do, i am exceedingly grateful.)

in a couple weeks is the integrations test.

and Lord willing in a few days i will receive the material to start on the english course. (i have enrolled in an internet course to learn to teach english. it has been on my heart for some

time and who knows what will come of it.)

thank You God for leading and guiding us, for

blessing us in times of uncertainty with peace and providing for all our needs. we lay this entire pickle of events at Your feet and ask that You would help us in every decision.

thank You again for blessing us that last week so much and what is yet to come. and for all those reading this, may they too be filled with peace and rest and may they see what cannot be seen, hear what You hear do as You would do.

in Jesus name, amen!

for all those who emailed me, i do still plan on writing back... thought it appropriate to first write a blog of updates. thank you all for your prayers.

blessings and much love,

israel

ich bin mir sicher ich kann Dir vertrauen!

only a few more hours yet and my flight takes off...

my arrival will be in faith as we all eagerly await to hear what the embassy decides...

my best friend sam is getting married. over the last month and weeks, i have had the privilege of joining him, his soon to be bride and others in his network of friends in praying for the appropriate paperwork to get him to his wedding in england.

his ticket bought,

family already there,

today the decision is to be made.

we are all waiting and trusting the only one who can give us the peace we really need...

God, please hear us in this plea for grace. and thank You for the strength, the hope and the peace that You continually given sam and beth during this time of trusting, believing and walking in faith. may Your name be completely praised through this!!!

You really are all we need.

in other news:

-I am enrolling in an online course to teach english. It has been something that has been stirring in my heart for the last year and the next step is to pay for it when we get back from sams wedding.

-Kathy is flying on thursday because she has to work. Please pray for her safety in arrival.

-God has been whispering to us about the future.. possibly near future and to pray about the direction of where He wants to take us. We both know that this time now is a time of transition and growing with each other and with God. A time of becoming a team. But we also know that this time is not forever... and that we should start praying about what is next as well as how we can be useful now where we are. Praise Him for His wisdom, grace and love.

-Christmas was a very good experience with the new in-laws :) and new years we spend with the youth group from our church.

-2011 is officially over, but the effects of it and all that has happened in that year will echo through our lives as God has really blessed us in the time apart as well as the time together.

This month we have been married for 6 months already and the time together has been the longest we have been literally together since we have entered the relationship together.

-One of the student loans is officially paid off! Praise God soooooo much!

Thank you all soooo much for the prayers and support through this time of repayment and in this entire life. The loans remaining are: two at about $2000 each. One at a time... little steps making big steps!

I wish you all back in the states the greatest joy this year. As 2011 was a huge year of change for us, 2012, without any clichés, will be even bigger as we trust in Him who saved us from death.

He is God, He is good, He is Jesus!

much much love and hope!

israel

(listening to: Will Reagan & United Pursuit)

well.. its mostly the same...

i really like it when people ask for prayers that really challenge us.. me..

as another friend put it... kinda like what paul said.. that in our weaknesses or hardships.. or times of not knowing, that is when it is the best. that is when we stop looking at our own ability to pull through, or what we can do for someone or something. we look to our maker. the one who shines a beacon of whispers.. and when we quiet our own thoughts and words long enough.....

we hear the soft unspoken voice of peace... peace that we don't have it all together. peace that shows we don't need to have it all together either...

may the prayers of your heart, the ones that you may be afraid to pray due to doubt that they are either worthy enough or can even be answered, may those be the ones you pray today. right now. and may we be challenged beyond what we can understand. that our hearts have to come out of the controlled places we put it... but would come more and more to life, to love wildly and to trust deeper than what our senses may want to believe.

i say all of this because i am thankful for all of you who read this and pray for kathy and i.

and i believe that a deeper... (due to a lack of words to explain the expressions of the heart, please fill in the blank...) will show us that we can and should trust Him.

so.. now to the update...

the weather is beginning to bite. my fingertips this morning at work reminded me of the pain while waiting for christoph to climb the frozen ice runoff at the north face of harney peak. always having to remove one glove and stick my hand in my coat while the other held the rope that flowed through the belay device and up to christoph as he places the next screw in the ice.

i am filled with such memories as in the moment here all i do is work and sleep. ok, maybe it is not completely true... i like eating too. :)

i am still praying and trusting God for friends here in south germany as well as more opportunities to get outside and climb things.

i have noticed a lot about germany since i have been here over the last months now... almost 3, and though i won't list them now, i am encouraged and reminded that God loves this place... even when it is super hard for me. what a blessing, when one really decides to think on it this way, to be here, to trust God yet again for such simple things. thank You God.

as for ministry or opportunities, God has been giving us more time to get more interactive with the church.. for example, saturday i get to speak about things i have lived with God. oh man.. that is an invitation for conversation! i hope and know that more is yet to come.

my job ends sometime in the next month due to cold weather and snow... (landscape gardeners don't have work in the winter months), and that is going to be neat to see what is next.

and.... i got my visa. it is good for one year and before i can lengthen it or get one without a time limit, i have to take and finish a D1-german course as well as 45 hours of an integrations course. it frustrated us at first but with open months in the winter, it should work out somehow.

i am praying about next year and what work will look like too.

the loans are being paid.. but i really have until next month and jan before the interest starts hitting hard. ugh.. Lord, please help.

so. read the first part of the blog again and i wish you all many blessings and thank you for your prayers and reading this... again and again and yet continue to...

please pray for sam who needs his visa to get married in jan. pretty neat... way to go sam and beth!

and... please pray that my mom gets a job.. one that she likes and is good for her.

much love, israel

visitors

I have the privilege of announcing that on the 15 of October, 2011 in the Frauenkirche of Memmingen, Germany, Katharina and Israel were, before the council of our friends and family (here in germany), married.

though being a male, i could have never imagined a more beautiful wedding. it was fully blessed.

what gave it the added touch was the dear ones who travelled to join us. from norway, switzerland or berlin... thank you all!

we praise God that the stress if finished and for such a payoff!

the following wednesday, my brother and his finacée came for a week to visit us.

it was really touching to have them here. i am very thankful for the family God has blessed me with. that fact that my brother would come across the world to see me... it means a lot.

with them we hit up some tourist spots.. castles, mountains, cities... and they got to know their new germany family as well as them getting to know their american family. :) God is neat how He brings the world together to praise Him.

other news....

i sent my passport and am waiting for my residence visa. PRAISE GOD.

we are officially moved in to our own place since two weeks ago.

my birthday in on monday... :)

lately my heart has been aching for God.. for india.. for time to worship Him and fellowship with others who want more of Him.

prayer points:

-for our marriage, that we get to know each other and to function as a team.

-that someday more of my family can come here.

-for financial freedom from debt. due to God's help, they are being paid off.. but it is taking some time and i desire complete freedom from it.

-that are hunger of fellowship and God would be satisfied.

-for friends to go rock/ice climbing, trekking and other weird crazy outdoor things together with.

-and for this time working, growing and listening...

-and for all those (sam, kamal, narender, niklas, josiah... etc..) who have and continually give up their own for others. for strangers. for enemies. for brothers to reach the prisoners of this world.

i think so often on the time that i had recently in rapid, building new friendships, enjoying old ones and getting to know my own heart more. i miss you all.

i pray that you understand how precious you really are, how loved and how much of a blessing you are to those around you. be richly blessed because of Jesus.

time for schluß...

much love and thank you for your prayers,

israel and kathy

beginnings

last week, we finished our farewells, see yahs and boarded our plane to far off places.

our first flight was about an hour late. ok.

our flight from chicago was late too.. at least we made it on time then.

after a morning of crummy weather there, more than likely everyone was getting out of there a little later than wanted.

our plane had some troubles and we were told we would have to water to wash up with after toilet usage.

we boarded, waited.. and over the intercom we heard a message from our captain:

ah.. ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the delay, it looks like the weather that was in chicago earlier today has moved east and is now directly on our path we need to get to toronto. we were told to go to the end of the runway and wait.. this should about 40-45 mins. sorry again for the delay. we'll getchya outta here as soon as possible.

well, things worked out that we got a new route and were on our way.

however, as we landed in toronto, we knew not of the 36 hours we would spend there battling for vouchers, rescheduled flights and so on. the first night was spend running around the airport until we finally got the help we needed and just after midnight we got into our hotel room.

the next day at our scheduled departure time, we sat with many others watching the lightening outside and listening to how our flight would now be an hour late. ok.

that hour turned into several hours and eventually 2am. when we got to that, it switched to 830 the next day and we went through yet painstaking processes to get rescheduled with 1400 other people who would not be flying out that night.

what could be bad, was an amazing adventure and opportunity to bless and be blessed.

though we only had starbucks and tim hortons to eat (sweets and coffee), we and our little group of 8, made our way to the necessary check points and back to the terminal where our flight was not another hour and a half delayed. we laid our sleeping bags, scrunched into chair with armrests, and slept what we could of about 2-3 hours.

the endless wait did indeed end and we boarded, took off and landed.. half a day shy of 2 days late in münchen.

the flight was an adventure and the time already here is nothing less than that too.

with stress, appointments and no money, God has been blessing and teaching us to trust Him in this marriage and new life together here in unterallgäu.

thank you for your prayers and i am glad to report that in less than a week, God has given me a job as a landscape gardener. we have a place to move into as well.. however we need to wait for a few things before i start working and have no money for a kitchen for the apartment.

so we are at a slight stand still and a perfect opportunity to trust and pray.

please keep praying that we would fully rely on Him through prayer, worship and patience.

greetings to all from our new home here in south germany.

i know God has much in store for the new future.

Praise is befitting to the one who set us free from hopelessness.

much love, israel

but this is no goodbye.

the time since my last entry has flown by with a speed which still seems to stand still.

It has been a couple months since then..

Kathy arrived safely..

our wedding happened with a boom of joy..

i started work again..

and now in three days we leave again for germany.

the details that are not written above are only due to the forgetfulness that time brings in it's basket of surprises.

the biggest event is of course the wedding.

a marriage...

i know i will not be able to comprehend the intensity of this relationship, and the steps we have taken until my heart truly opens and i die to myself..

as these days get shorter and shorter.. the reality of moving back to germany is seeping into my heart.

i came back to the states with friends of course, but the relationships that have been built over the last months have truly blessed me and my life.. and now leaving once again dear ones for another land takes it's wrath on my heart.

as i have written before... the curse of loving is saying goodbye. a goodbye that is worth it's anguish.

to all here in rapid city, neb. and even the other locations i have been since being back..

i will miss you. but this no goodbye.

but, until He crosses our paths again.

thank you all for the prayers, for the support, for being by our sides as we agreed to come together as a team in front of our friends and family..

thank you for your friendships, your words of truth, your kind undeserved gestures...

and thank you for your love in it's many faces and styles.

a new adventure awaits... new relationships, new opportunities for sharing His love..

a choice... of courage, of joy, of hope and of life.

and i am thankful that we are not setting sail alone.

much love, israel

this is it... this is it!

the day is finally here.

through struggle, through worry.. through hardships, God has carried us to this new season and we enter joyfully stronger than when we entered that last with expectations of growth for the next.

thank you all for the prayers, for the encouragement, for the love.

Kathy steps on a plane soon to head this way.

here health stuff has come from a bacteria she got in india and her body will continue to fight it. the process is slow but sure.

please pray for a good flight, easy transfers and smooth entry here.

we are so blessed for the grace He has shown us continually through thick and thin.

He is building us for His work more and more.

may His will be done with us.

ein Ehe um Seines Names willen.

much love, israel