2018 Christmas Letter

-->

It’s been a very different year for us. Dan says his denial of the aging process has been challenged (but not broken). We’re grateful to have this one behind us and are looking forward to 2019!

January: Before heading out for almost 3 months in Germany Janet was able to gain some much needed cataract surgery to clear her vision.  It was mostly successful and we were on our way.

February-April: – Back to the Eurasia Regional Office for 10 weeks of work in Germany

May 1 - When we got to the Zurich airport to return home, Dan felt tightness in his chest while heaving suitcases. He didn’t mention it until a few days later when the pressure kept increasing at home, even though it would subside every time he relaxed for a while. After a few days of this, we started out on a walk in the neighborhood; we got only 3 houses away, and Dan’s smart watch told him that his pulse was over 140! SO, we saw our Dr who ordered blood work. The lab results came back the next day (May 9); we were directed to go to an ER as soon as possible! By the 14^th, Dan underwent quadruple bypass surgery! The coronary artery blockages are hereditary; his overall health remains excellent. We’re just really grateful that he had warning signs!

June through August were full of Dan’s 3x/week cardiac physical rehab sessions, gardening, projects in the house and yard, trees and gardens. We returned to the Y several days a week for a couple of weeks….

But, Dan has had a lump on his upper right arm that has been growing over the last year, so he asked our family doctor to refer him to someone to remove it. In September, a general surgeon removed the (usually benign) fatty tumor from his upper right arm and was surprised when the lab reported it contained sarcoma cells (cancer). With the advise of a cancer specialist it took 2 more surgeries on the area to eliminate all physical evidence of the nasty critters.

October – In the meantime (you’d think I was jealous of all the attention on Dan), as I walked out the front sidewalk to get the mail, I felt my right knee *POP* painfully on the inside and I couldn’t put any weight on it, barely returning to the house. That evening, at the ER, I got X-rays and my leg was "immobilized" with a brace. The next morning, Dan went out and got me some crutches even before he made breakfast for me! The next Tuesday (same day as Dan’s #3 arm surgery), Erica spent her day off driving us around and Monica brought over 2 casseroles to last all week. The MRI showed a meniscus tear and my knee arthroscopy (3 small holes and lots of scraping inside) was on Oct. 26. It’s going to take a few months to heal but there’s progress each week!

We had planned to drive to Massachusetts to celebrate 2 granddaughters’ graduations (one with a BS in Nursing, one with an MS in social work/counseling) at the end of May, but that didn’t happen with Dan’s rehab schedule. We even missed the local granddaughter Caitlyn’s high school graduation, but we were able to watch it online while Dan was in the hospital. When we tried to reschedule a driving-to-the-East-Coast vacation for September, my knee problem surfaced!

Now, end of December, Dan is nearly finished with 30 daily, preventive, radiation treatments on his right arm and we’re SO ready for this medical stuff to be over! Hope it’s confined to 2018!

We’ve been back at the Y since early November and have stayed active at church. Looking forward to returning to the Eurasia Regional Office some time in 2019.

This certainly has not been the year we had planned by God has been faithful. In the midst of what could have been troubling physical challenges there has been a peace and as we look back and tell the story, we see his loving hand guiding in numerous ways. We pray that our friends and family also will seek and experience the same blessings.

We love hearing from you, especially at this time of year! Please let us hear what’s keeping your life busy and fulfilling! We wish you the best that God has for you in 2019!

2017 Christmas letter

Merry Christmas! We’re SO blessed to be home to spend the holidays with family again this year!  Every year, God continues to lead us to a variety of places to serve.

Home for the first 8 months of 2017, we returned to group classes at our local YMCA (sore muscles!), planted our vegetable garden, got more involved at church, and got some projects done at home. In April, we took a road trip to visit Dan’s cousins in Louisiana, to shop at Magnolia in Waco (TX), and to see Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile in Pawhuska, OK. In September, we took a 10-week volunteer assignment in our denominations Eurasia Regional Office in Büsingen, Germany.  That resulted in our being asked to join that team in a longer-term commitment on a 3-months-in-country, 3-months-at-home schedule for 2018 and maybe 2019. (See the previous post for details) Home for now, we are certainly looking forward to Christmas at home with our local family and friends.

2015 - Christmas Letter

December 2015

To all our dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We’re SO blessed to be home to spend the holidays with family again this year! Every year, God leads us to a different situation in which to serve. Early this year, we spent 3 months at the Nazarene Eurasia Regional Office and now we have just returned from 2 months in the Philippines!

In Europe, Dan assisted Brad Firestone with IT projects including a quick trip to South Africa, while Janet helped with digitizing publications to upload into the Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library. The snow was gorgeous, just like a Christmas card! We had the opportunity to visit Berlin, Germany – SO much history! We also got to spend a long weekend in Rotterdam with Erik and Petra Groeneveld, native Dutch friends who we met in 2014 in Australia!

We returned to the States in early April and thoroughly enjoyed almost 6 months at home! We joined the Y, used the local library, planted and harvested our vegetable garden, and sang in our local church choir. Dan got to ride his motorcycle, installed a “French drain” in the back yard and added some landscape edging around the house.

During that time, we became aware of needs matching our skills in the Asia-Pacific region so, in October and November; we served in Manila on the campus of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS). We renewed friendships and made some awesome new friends among the
nationals, students and missionaries there. While we were there, the WMC (Nazarene World Missions Communications) office on campus wrote an article about us! Here is the link to it: The Reinharts and their call to missions.

Home now for the holidays, we’re even (almost) enjoying the cold weather since leaving the warmth of Manila. Christmas will be special this year when we travel to Massachusetts to be with Marcy & John and family and Derick & Nola! We’ll celebrate with Erica and Monica on another day and with Darin by Skype.

Family news…

Marcy is a local police officer in Fairhaven, MA. Husband John is still with Samsonite (we still benefit from his samples!). Megan is a senior RA at University of Rhode Island, studying Human Development and Family studies with a Psych minor, and she’s applying for masters programs in social work. Morgan is a sophomore at Curry College near Boston, majoring in Nursing. Both girls work at a local seafood restaurant when they’re at home! Tucker is an 8th grader enjoying life with both sisters away at school.

Monica is still enjoying her CPA job in Belleville at a local hospital. Dylan is an 8th grader at Zion Lutheran School (he was so good as one of the leads in the school Christmas play!) and Caitlyn is a sophomore at Belleville East High School. We have enjoyed seeing her in a holiday madrigal dinner and their Christmas choral concert! Monica’s choir concert is this weekend.

Both of our 8th grade grandsons have grown A LOT this past year in both height and maturity.

Derick and Nola live in New Jersey so Derick can work on the outsides of the skyscrapers in New York City, living his dream of “Life on a Rope” as a top-level-certified rope access technician. Nola continues enjoying her work as a nanny for a local family. They both also have been enjoying opportunities to visit and grow in their relationship with Derick’s adult daughter Tessie, who lives in Pennsylvania, with her daughter Tatum. So now he is getting used to being a Grandpa…

Darin still lives in Raleigh, NC, where he has just taken a new job installing security systems in businesses, while building custom motorcycles in his off-hours.

Adam does computer work. His and fiancée Dana’s home in Washington, IL, was destroyed in a tornado in October 2013, but they were not injured, and have a new home in Peoria, IL.

Erica is enjoying her management position as purchaser at the Lutheran Senior Services facility where she still sometimes cooks. She’s moved to a cute apartment in St. Louis with her cats this year. Her boyfriend Matt is a pilot; when they have the same days off, they are active outdoors people – hiking, running, biking, camping.

God continues to provide rich experiences and wonderful people to work with in our retirement from paid careers. Along this pathway there are a couple of important things we continue to learn (or relearn):

• The special, never-ending value of family and friends like you. We are truly blessed with your ongoing friendship, prayers, and support as we follow His leading. We so appreciate being able to keep in touch electronically when we can’t be with you in person!

• God’s Retirement plan is WAY better than any we might have ever dreamed of! He is keeping us active, useful, challenged, excited and growing (see Romans 8:14-15 in The Message).

We’re headed back to the Philippines-Micronesia Field Office in Taytay (Manila), Philippines, in January for 3 months to assist with technology projects and in the finance office with the awesome teams there. And we’ll wait to see what He will do next!!

May your Christmas season be blessed and your New Year filled with joy!

Dan & Janet Reinhart 835 Autumn Rise Lane, Columbia, IL 62236 home: 618-722-5114

Reinhart47@aol.com cell: 314-484-1898 JanetM52@aol.com cell: 314-484-1906

reinhartsroad.blogspot.com

Christmas letter 2013

To all our dear Family and Friends,

It has been a couple of years since our last letter. Briefly, we have been serving in South America specifically Argentina for the last two years, living near Buenos Aries over the US winters and working from our home in St Louis in the summer.

The year 2013 began for us with firecrackers in Argentina!  Argentines really celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year with a bang! We were serving as volunteers in the Nazarene Church’s South America Regional Office using our business experience with financial and office and computer work.  It was summer then, in the southern hemisphere, and we took advantage of the compound’s pool whenever we could.

October experiences...

The second week of October, I had a unique experience!  Usually Dan does all the driving when we visit another country, mainly because I’ve never learned to drive a stick shift!  But there were guests arriving soon and there was no one else available to go to the grocery store in the next town.  So I was given a list of a few things to stock the fridge AND the keys to the only automatic vehicle and, a little nervously, I drove the few kilometers and accomplished the task.  I delivered the groceries, returned the key, and went back to work, nervous for nothing!

All the missionaries have been very friendly and very kind to us; they’re a great group of people!  Heidi Bowes invited us and 2 other volunteers, Matt and Zarah, over on Saturday to experience her favorite Swiss dish – raclette!  Having a raclette dinner is a very social occasion, a little like a fondue party!  Heidi spent a good deal of time cutting and chopping lots of foods and setting them out in bowls on the table, around a raclette maker. Some machines are electric and some use something like Sterno to heat up the ingredients you choose to put in your individual tray (like a small shovel), topping it with a slice of special raclette cheese. While the cheese melts, it’s time to choose a small baked potato and mash it on your plate. And after the cheese is melted, the tray contents are scraped off onto the potato – VERY delicious! We all tried different combination of food (pears, pickles, olives, slices of salami, mushrooms, olives, cashews) until we had no more room. Then she brought out cookies and lemon gelato for dessert! We talked and laughed and shared; what a great evening spent with friends!  Here’s a link to the history behind it – this used to be done by shepherds over a fire! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette

 

While Nancy and Brad were away for a week, some things were added to my regular office duties – cleaning an apartment for the new Regional Director. No problem - we’re here to serve!  I know they didn’t mind missing all the roadwork being done on the main street in Büsingen, just feet from our office building!

Saturday, we borrowed a car and drove further into Switzerland to experience the Alps up close. I think there are permanent indentations in the passenger seat from me clutching it (as I leaned away from the edges of the road), but we made it to Gotthard Pass, took photos of the snow, and enjoyed a lunch of spaëtzle – small, boiled-then-fried dumplings with ham and cheese – a heavenly German version of mac ‘n cheese! Here’s the recipe I’m going to try when we return to the States: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/german-spaetzle-dumplings/

These are only a few of the unique, interesting and (mostly) enjoyable benefits of being available to serve where ever God leads. Even the challenging moments are treasured memories.

Thanksgiving Season

When October arrived, we were surprised at how quickly the time seemed to pass “when we’re having fun” and enjoying our assignment! We’ve been blessed with so many rich experiences!  I think everyone should visit another country and enjoy the cultural diversity of our world and of our church’s servants.

Fall colors beginning

One Sunday, one of the ladies approached me during coffee time after church, asking if I’d help her with decorating the church for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in Germany is in early October but, since many folks in this international church are from the States, Thanksgiving here will be a season (October 6 – November 28), rather than one day or a weekend.  After discussing the things that would represent harvest and thankfulness on the altar table, Dorothea agreed to pick me up near the end of the day Monday from work and we’d go shopping!  We started at a bäckerei (a bakery), where Dorothea ordered several loaves of sunflower-shaped bread, with extra rolls, so everyone can have some.  She also recommended the Zweibel Küchen (literally, onion cake), so I got 2 slices of the delicious quiche that Dan and I each enjoyed for dinner that night.  Next on our list was a stop at a farm along the road where a farmer had presented for sale, on farm wagons, his harvest of squashes and gourds of every shape and color! We picked out some for the display, then each bought a couple to take home – every section had a designated price and there was a place to leave your euros, honor-system purchasing!

After that, she drove to a farm on the other end of Büsingen where we bought apples and pears for the display and for ourselves, again with an honor system for payment after you weighed what you wanted.  From there, we went to the church (which is right across the grassy area in front of our apartment building). I’m sure it was a sight, two gray-haired ladies carrying the side handles of a basket full of colorful fall produce!  We made plans to carry out the decorating later in the week!

Thursday was a German holiday, so Dan and I drove to Liechtenstein for the day.  Dan always “does his homework” before we go somewhere new, so we had a map and we had a GPS to get us to Vaduz, the capitol city. It’s a charming town, famous for postage stamps and for its castle, where Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein, currently lives.  Lunch was delicious at a outdoor cafe and we took lots of photos.  I think it’s impossible to take too many photos of charming stone castles and streets in Europe!

Friday after work, Dorothea and I met to begin the fall decorating in the church, promising to finish up on Sunday morning while the worship team was practicing before worship. Continuing this domestic theme (decorating and cooking, etc.), I spend most of Saturday cooking and baking to get a little ahead for the next few days – squash soup, potato soup, banana bread and cookie dough!

Sunday was quite a treat! Our European Thanksgiving worship service was great and the display was beautiful with so many pretty fruits and vegetables, bread, fall leaves, and chrysanthemums. Afterward, several of us piled into Nancy’s car to go to a nearby town, Gottmadingen, to their semi-annual fair. The Gottmadingen Nazarene Church always has a booth where they sell Thai food (they cook for 2 days ahead, just to have enough, and they always sell out!) to make money for missions. We helped them out, of course, by purchasing our lunch there and spent a couple of hours wandering all the vendors’ booths. There was a real variety of stuff – from traditional clothing to modern clothing, biergartens to cake shops, spices and music CDs. Dan bought a leather hat; he’s been looking for something European for the cold weather, especially since he didn’t even bring any baseball caps with him for this trip.

Between the people and the food, we're being blessed every day! Thanks, God, for giving us another opportunity to be useful while experiencing these benefits!

Regional meetings and Ludwigsburg palace tour

Work in the Regional Office was quite different this week! There were meetings mid-week; the Field Strategy Coordinators were in for meetings, convening for the last time with out-going Regional Director, Gustavo Crocker.  Dr. Crocker was recently elected as one of our newest Nazarene General Superintendents!

I was drafted to help with the breaks and lunch on Wednesday; it was great to meet Dr. Crocker and the other fellows who I’d only communicated with by email.  It was actually fun to be part of the “catering team” that made their schedule work efficiently.

Our off-time was busy too; three evenings this week, we had scheduled Skype sessions with 2 of the missions candidates that we’re coaching and one with our coaching leader.

Medieval Rothenburg and South Africa Sunday.

What a week this was!  Dan changed our return-trip airline tickets so that we can stay a few days longer, to be available to help with the Eurasia Region’s retreat at the end of November. We’ll be 2 more “sets of hands” available to help with all the details of the retreat with over 150 adults and over 20 teens and more than 50 children!

The previous week, we had a reprieve from the autumn weather and we got to wear sandals! But this week, it’s cooler again. The leaves on the trees are still green but we’re excited about enjoying the fall colors here this year! We’ve missed fall for the last couple of years!

Busingen Honeymoon

As soon as I viewed the quaint villages of Switzerland and Germany, I knew I would take lots of photos of windows, shutters, doors, shingles, and flower boxes!  (Dan says that he will soon add a slideshow here in the blog to show some of these.) Being from North America, I’m easily charmed by the age of things in this part of the world; almost everything is so much older than similar things in the US. (Even in the US, I remember the first time I traveled to the East Coast, as a teenager, and noticed how much older were the city buildings than in the Midwest.)  Many buildings still have rolladen (the rolling, metal, black-out shades on the outside of windows), our apartment building included. (Here’s a video from youtube.com that shows how they work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KePLmie7lE.)

All about food…

Jesus said "I AM the bread of life, Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."  As we continue to have these opportunities to work in places that enable this message to be delivered to those that have not heard it, we also benefit from a wide variety of daily bread.  Our first weeks here in at the Eurasia Regional Office, while busy getting oriented to the life and work, has also been filled with lots of food and fellowship.

Eurasia week 1 - adjusting to life in Busingen

We arrived at the Zurich airport on Monday, August 26, and were amazed at how quickly we were able to get through Customs! Brad and Nancy Firestone were waiting for us on this gray day and the 45 minutes to Büsingen passed quickly as we enjoyed the countryside on our way. It took very little time for us to unpack our things in our nice apartment. We took a look at the groceries already stocked in our kitchen(!) and made a list of additional things we’d like to have on hand.  After walking back down the main street past the Eurasia Regional Office building and about another block, we arrived where Dan will work with Brad. The back of that building is the Firestones’ apartment.  Piling into their car, we crossed the border (as we’ll do many times each week) to shop at a store called Lidl (similar to Aldi, lots of those here too!) to get additional groceries. Then, the Firestones treated us to dinner out at a German/Italian restaurant.  We rode around through several small towns – in both Germany and Switzerland; all these towns are close together but with beautiful, rolling, farmland between.

The consistency of change...

continues in our lives. We had our plans for this summer and God has once again shown that His plans are always better.  He is continuing to open doors of useful service for us.

Our plans…

It’s been fun being back in the States for May – August, although some of it wasn’t at home! (And hasn’t this summer’s weather been strange?!  It surely doesn’t feel like August here in the Midwest!). Our daughter, Erica, had enjoyed having the house to herself and she adopted 2 beautiful kittens that have already grown up! Soon after arriving home, we had physicals, eye exams, and dental appointments; so far, we’re disgustingly healthy!