Turkey in Czech Republic

Can I just start this blog off by saying... We are so thankful for each and everyone of you in our lives!!! We are truly blessed with such amazing friends and family! We thank the Lord for blessing us so much! We thank you all for supporting us and praying for us!
Any who...as the holiday season approached, Carsten and I began to miss our families more and more. We were dreading the holidays, in fact. Yet once again, God has completely sustained us and blessed us beyond expression! We traveled to the Czech Republic for Thanksgiving week. Why Czech Republic you might ask? Well, my brother, Zach has continued his calling to serve the Lord through the band Dizmas by touring throughout Eastern Europe. The band goes to the high schools in Eastern Europe to teach the kids english and play concerts for them. Then at the end of each week the band has a huge concert where all the kids are invited. The Gospel of the Lord is presented by my brother to the crowd during the concert. Such a great ministry!
So Carsten and I decided we would like to be apart of this tour, called the Exit Tour, in Czech Republic for thanksgiving week. It was such a blessing to be a part of this ministry! Carsten was able to jump right in with helping set up the stage equipment and sound equipment. He loved being able to help his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! We were able to be a part of the English classes where we participated in funny games and interesting discussions with the students.

Then on Thanksgiving day we joined the Josiah Venture group of missionaries for a wonderful celebration. The day started off with a bunch of us trying to drive the vans up the icy hill to the resort. The guys ended up backing down the hill after a failed attempt to over come the ice. The men, boys, and a few women played a good game of football in the icy snow covered field. After only a few injuries and   numbness from the cold, we all headed up to the resort for a hot thanksgiving meal. YUMMY!! The rest of the day was filled with meaningful conversations, card games, cat naps, and a talent show. It was such a great day! Before we fell alseep that night, Carsten and I both thankfully admitted that we had not thought about missing home one time the entire day. God had surrounded us with such great brothers and sisters in Christ as company for the day that we felt like we were home.
The next few days we continued on the tour. Friday night was the big Dizmas concert. This was definitely an interesting concert. The venue that the local churches found for the concert was a night club. The place was covered with sin and evilness. There was no better place for the gospel to be preached. After all, Jesus Christ preached and spoke with prostitutes, liars, thiefs, and murders. He is our example and we should follow! The team covered the building with prayer and the set up began. The concert was amazing! The presence of the Lord was clearly there working in the hearts of those kids. Zach shared the gospel with the crowd! Bibles were handed out for free. The kids took bibles and lined up to get the band's autographs. The seeds were planted, the tools were given, now... Lord move and grow your people! It was such a sweet and overwhelming experience!
We had such a great time in the Czech Republic! It was a blessing to spend time with my brother and his girlfriend, Kara. We stayed with a wonderful brother-in-Christ, David, and his family. They were so hospitable! We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season!!!
I would like to post pictures for all of you to see, but for some reason this blog site is not letting me. If you have facebook, I have posted pictures on there so go take a look.

Thank you, once again, for following us on this journey! The Lord is truly our everything and he has sustained us through this adventure! We are so thankful for each and everyone of you! We miss you all very much!
Before I close this, I wanted to mention a few things to look forward to and a few things you can all pray for. In less than two weeks, mama zegan will be joining us. Shortly after, Zach will join us. And shortly after that, papa zegan will join us. We are so looking forward to their visit, but we will be missing josh and kate! We will miss the Stahrs and Posts as well! We will make sure to share our adventures with you all! Then in January, Carsten and I will make a quick trip to Indiana for cousin Rick's big wedding! We are excited to see family and celebrate with Rick and Rachel!
Things to pray for:
-Carsten's job; He has a lot on his plate and he works long hours. Pray for the Lord's wisdom and strength as he continues to serve the Lord in the air force.
-I have been sick for a few days now with the flu. Im slowly getting better, but I need to make myself take it easy so I do not relapse again.
We appreciate your prayer and support! God bless you all during this holiday season! Keep your hearts and eyes focused on the true reason for this season, the Blessed birth of our Savior!
God Bless you!

India is in England!!

Hello loved ones! It has been way too long since I have written a blog, so I think its about time I do so. We are pretty much settled in England now. All the boxes are gone, all our rooms are put together, and we feel much more comfortable in our home. It is still pretty crazy to us that we have the opportunity to live in England for three years. Wow!
As I mentioned in previous blogs, it was quite the challenge to bring my dog from California to England. It seems like whoever you ask for help for pet travel usually gives you incorrect information. It appears that the animal transport system is not the most helpful nor distinct in directions. Thanks to my wonderful mother, Leslie Zegan, India is here and slowly adjusting to this new environment. It was quite expensive and time consuming, but she is here and we are loving it! In some ways, I feel like we are training a puppy all over again, even though she is 3 years old. She was very traumatized by the plane rides and being transported all over the world. I will tell you all about picking her up another time because I'm waiting to get the pictures off of Carsten's phone. =)
Instead, I wanted to include some pictures of Carsten's wonderful master piece that he is so proud of: India's dog house built by Carsten himself. First of all, finding lumber/wood in this country was quite the challenge. Actually finding much of anything is a challenge when you do not know what words they use for different items. For example, sidewalk is where we walk in america and pavement is what we usually drive on. Well, in England you walk on the pavement and drive on the road. Might seem logical after thinking about it, but it can cause much confusion if someone tells you to walk on the pavement if you do not know the English meaning. In the states, you would get hit by a car real quick. =/ So we faced the challenge of discovering what the English call wood or lumber. I am not even kidding, it took me about 3 days to find this information out. I kept typing into Google, "what is lumber or wood called in England?" and the search results said, "Lumber is a word commonly used in the United States when describing wood or building material." Really!?! Finally, I was able to discover the word the Brits call wood....Timber. Duh! haah! Makes sense now, but it wasn't easy to find this. Before we came to England, people kept saying to Carsten and I that at least we are going to a country that speaks the same language. hahahahahahahahahahahah! Yeah, right!!!! I cannot even begin to describe the difference in vocabulary and word usage between english in America and english in England. It can be quite comical at times, but we just blame it on us being naive americans and then the Brits are more understanding.

Any way, when I finally discovered the word, Timber, I was able to find a nearby store that sold timber. Well, selling timber is a broad term in england. It can mean anything between, they sell small pieces of wood or they sell all types of wood for all purposes. This is when Home Depot or Menards (for all your Nebraskans) seem like luxuries. We went to the store and found it very difficult to find much of anything. We found 2x4's, but no 4x4's. We found particle board with limited sizes (SMALL!). I think we spent over two hours in the store trying to figure out ways to improvise for what we could not find.

Eventually, we made it home and Carsten began his plan. Im so proud of him! He was able to make a plan and carry it out all by himself (well, besides my small effort in helping)! I tried to help, but he did such a great job with the whole project! You would think he was the son of a carpenter or better yet someone who moves & restores houses for a living. hahah! (We love you Bruce and you taught your son well!) Carsten did such a GRrrrrEAT job!!We completely finished the building of the house in one day, but it took me a few days to stain the wood and make a sign with India's name on it. We introduced India to her doghouse when she arrived, but she was not thrilled. India is still quite afraid of any closed in areas like her kennel and the new dog house, but we are showing her (prompting with treats) that if she does not use her doghouse she will be sopping wet whenever we are not home. She will figure it out! Well, as I said before here are some pictures of Carsten's masterpiece:

You cannot tell in the pictures, but Carsten designed it so that the top lifts open on hinges. This way I can open it up and easily clean it out from time to time. It is a law here in England that dogs have some sort of shelter when left outside due to all the rain. Plus, the shelter has to be elevate atleats 4 inches off of the ground. Carsten made sure that this house would keep india warm and dry! Now, if only she would use it! =)

Any who, Thanks for reading our blog again! There are so many stories we want to share because living in a foreign country is constantly an adventure! I will make sure to keep our blogs updated with more stories! And I'm still determined to get Carsten on here to write a blog, but he is such a busy guy. 

We love and miss all of our loved ones very very very much! With the holiday season approaching, it is becoming more and more difficult to be so far away from all our family and friends. Please continue to pray for us and email us! We would love to hear from all of you!

God bless you all!!

The adventures of tiny English homes....

Hello from England,

Today...its SUNNY!!! Hip, hip, hooorraaayyyy!!! Its such a beautiful day and Im loving the sunshine! I need me some Vitamin D. Its been way to long since we have had some good sunshine! Praise the Lord for this blessing today!

Any who, a lot has been happening the past few weeks since our household goods arrived. Our garage is filled completely with empty boxes that are waiting to get picked up by the moving company. We have shelves, a medicine cabinet, and our fridge waiting for our Landlord's handyman to come put in place. FYI: These english houses have interesting walls and if you try to hang anything heavy on them, yourself, you will end up with huge holes everywhere. So our landlord advised us to wait for him on the big stuff. So I have been at a standstill with organizing and putting this house together. 

Until the completion of our house, I would like to tell you a little about one or two of the adventures we have had the past few weeks. Well, as I mentioned before, our queen box spring did not fit up the stairway in our house. So after sleeping on the matress/floor for a few nights, I was able to find a cheap Divan base (kind of like a box spring but split in two halves) off of a local website here where people sell used stuff. We bought it from a sweet old man and his wife. The man came to help Carsten get it up the stairs. After trying many different positions, they concluded that even just one half of the divan base would not fit up the stairs. Ugh, talk about frustrating. Then the light bulb turned on in Carsten's wonderful head! Bing! What about boosting it up through the two story window??? What!!!! hahah...Carsten measured the base and the windows. The base was 40 inches and the window was 37inches. Mmm....not gonna fit! Then I had a light bulb turn on! Bing! What if we remove the windows??? What!!! hhahaha...so Carsten measured and taking off the windows would give us an extra 6 inches to perfectly fit the base through. I was amazed to see my muscular husband boost each half of the heavy base up to the second story with no ropes or anything. Just simply lifting it up, balancing it on the bottom story window, and running up to pull it through the window. Remember, he had to do this not just once, but twice! Man, I love my husband! He is amazing! 

Here are some pictures to help illustrate this event:

This is looking up at the two story window

This is the first story window, what the other window looked like before we took off a few parts. 

That is Carsten boosting one half of the base up to the window

Thats Carsten and the little old man pulling half of the base through the window

Hooorrraaayyyy!! Its in...now to do it all over again. Then put the windows back on before our landlord finds out what we had to do. haha!

Another special event that I would like to share is the Year Anniversary from when Carsten asked me to marry him. =) We both remembered that day so clearly and wanted to celebrate what God did in our lives a year ago. I decided to try to make a peach pie, one of Carsten's favorite deserts that his mom makes. She had taught me how to make it over a year ago, but I had never had time to try it again. So I decided to give it a try. I succeeded!! Carsten was very surpised and he said it was almost as good as his mom's. haha! And that's a shadow on it, its not burnt. haha!

Any who, so after I made the pie I got all dressed up in the exact outfit that I wore the moment Carsten asked me to marry him. Carsten was still at work so I began making a delicious dinner and setting the table to be ready when he got home. I was almost done when Carsten walked in, grinning from ear to ear, with a bouquet of flowers and a very thoughtful card. I love that man! He is so romantic! Carsten quickly got changed into his tux. We ended up eating our dinner with candle light and discussing what a great day Carsten had planned over a year ago. After dinner, I showed Carsten the pie and he was so proud of his wife! We cut the pie and scooped ice cream. Then we spent the rest of the evening watching the video of our entire engagement! What an amazing day that was! I am so blessed to be married to such a godly man and he did an unbelievable job planning such a great proposal...So glad I said YES!!!! He was worth the wait and past heartbreak! =) Here are some pictures of our evening:

That was the set up for our romantic dinner with my flowers in the back. =)

Isn't he handsome? 

He makes me smile!

Well, hope you enjoyed reading our blog. One of these days, I have to get Carsten on hear so you can all read something from him. =) I enjoy interceding for him though! It has been a blessing to be on this adventure! The Lord is definitely our everything! He is teaching us that his grace is truly sufficient enough for us, especially in a foreign land. 

Thank you again for reading our blog, supporting us, and praying for us as we continue to follow the Lord on the path he has laid out for us. So now my question is...who is gonna come visit us first?????

Love you and miss you all!!

The Stahrs

Quick update

Hi all!! Things have been crazy busy here, but I don't want to leave you all hanging. So I thought I would write a quick post to inform you all on our progress.
We have all of our stuff! Yipppeee!! Its all here! Now we are slowly getting everything unpacked and organized. This is quite the challenge when Carsten and I have never lived in a home together and we are in another country where the houses are different, obviously. We are realizing that our garage is going to be quite full because the rooms are just too small to keep much in. Living in another country poses many challenges, but the most frustrating one is that nothing fits up the tiny English stairways. Our queen box spring and our sleeper sofa would not fit up the stairs. We had to sleep on just our matress and the floor for a few nights, but then we were able to buy a divan base which is a whole different story that I will share in another post when I can get the picture uploaded. We are slowly buying different pieces to help us organize our stuff on English terms. Besides the few frustrations, it feels soooooooooo good to have our stuff here. It has definitely made us feel more and more like this is our home. I will post pictures once we get everything unpacked and organized. =) So get excited!! haha!

Sometimes I can hardly believe that the Air Force is a job. Don't get me wrong, they work very very very hard! But they also play very hard too! This past friday was Sports Day on base. Every squadron supplied athletes to participate in different events, anything from pushups, volleyball, tug-of-war, to football. There were tons of events. Carsten, being the athlete that he is was signed up to do basketball, volleyball, football, tug-of-war, and push ups. After his recent injury, I was kinda of worried about him doing so much. Yet, he was more than thrilled to get out there and compete. Carsten's squadron did such an amazing job all day long. It was head to head between them and the cops squadron all day long. As Carsten would say, the tug-of-war competition was the deciding factor in who one the entire Sports Day. To give you a picture: Carsten and Chris Wilson are two big guys compared to many others in the squadron. They showed up to the tug-of-war competition just in time to watch the expressions on their squadron's face turn from fear to pure confidence once they saw Carsten and Chris Wilson walk up. Of course the other squadrons were embraced with fear. They won the tug-of-war competition and were pretty confident that they won the whole sports day! Woohoo!! Well after all was said and done, the cops were awarded the sports day trophy. =( This did not settle well with Carsten and his men. Something had to be wrong! Carsten ended up reviewing the score board when he discovered that their team had been gypped 5 points. They brought this to the official's attention. He reviewed the results from each event and discovered that this was true. These 5 points meant that Carsten's squadron was the champions of the Sports Day! I feel bad for the cops who had to return the trophy after they just received it in front of everyone. But Carsten was ecstatic!
As for me, I am continuing to work out with my friend Darla everyday in the morning and I'm feeling more and more in shape. I have been trying my hardest to put this house in order, but I can only do so much by myself in such little time. It will get there eventually! Now with my mom's help we are making arrangements to send India, my dog, to England! Im so excited to get her here! She is gonna be the cutest English dog! Our project for this coming weekend is to make some sort of dog house/shelter for India to keep her out of the rain.
We are thoroughly enjoying the couples bible study that we are apart of. Each week we meet at a different couples house. That couple makes us all dinner and then we watch part of a video series on creation. It is such an awesome topic to study while here in England because Evolution is taught every where. Last week, after we watched the video, I couldn't help but observe how America is headed straight toward where England is. My friend here says that America is always just 5 years behind England in everything. This saddens me! England is such a dark place. At the market place, a man was playing worship songs on a guitar, my friends and I stopped to encourage him. We told him that we are believers too. He said that it was encouraging to hear because almost the entire country believes that there is nothing after death. It is a dark and hopeless country. In so many ways, I see America heading in the same direction because Americans always want "change". Some change is good, but America needs to realize that the grass is not greener on the other side. I have really realized this since we have been here. Our freedom and our beautiful nation will be no more one day soon, and it will be too far gone before the nation's eyes are opened to what they took for granted... FREEDOM through basing our nation on the true one and only God! Just some thoughts I wanted to share with yall. Think about it. You might not have the perspective like we have after living in another country, but just think and observe things around you. Do what you can to change the pattern! We are trying to do what we can here in England, to bring hope to a dark and hopeless country that sees no need for a God or Savior. We are starting this by having a harvest day food drive this sunday at our church. We are hoping to provide meals for those in need, spiritually and physically during this harvest time.

Well, thanks for reading our blog and for following us on this journey. I cannot express how much we truly miss our family and friends! There are days when we just want to wake up back in America, but we are trying to keep our eyes focused on where the Lord has placed us. Thank you for your prayers and support! Please keep praying! I will try to send some of this cold weather toward America. hahah!!

Cheers!

Its getting cold!!! Send us some love!!

As we left the Antelope Valley in California more than a month ago, one thing we both said was that we would not miss the WIND!!! Well....I think we have discovered that the Lord didn't want us to miss the Antelope Valley so he brought us to a place that had WIND that is even more insane than in the AV. Wow!! I never thought it was possible to find a place with more wind. This week we have felt the cold weather coming quickly. With the wind and the temperature dropping, we have reached what would seem like winter to California, but fall to Nebraska. We haven't even reached fall yet and it is already COLD!!! haha! We are not complaining, but we are wondering what winter will be like. We have heard that it barely snows, but it is extremely cold. This is going to be such an adventure! Good thing England has cute sweaters to keep me warm!
Well, we are breaking in our house. Literally! I tore up some grass and made a flower bed. Carsten is dying to take unnecessary doors off the hinges. And we are already planning many more projects when our household goods arrive. =) They will be delivered this coming Tuesday! YYYIIPPPPPPEEEEE!!!! It is such a blessing when the process has gone quicker than we thought it would! We officially own two cars now. Yay! Now Im not stuck at home all day! We bought a charcoal Jeep Grand Cherokee wednesday! Carsten is loving it! I keep telling him that he needs to share. haha!
We feel really blessed to have the opportunity to live in England! It is such an adventure! We never imagined that our first years of marriage would be spent in a foreign country. Praise the Lord for knowing what is best for us. We are growing so much! We miss our family and friends more than ever, but it has given Carsten and I the ability to grow as husband and wife. I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man who loves the Lord more than he loves me. I can truly say that I am more in love with Carsten than the day I married him and I am more in love with my Lord and Savior after marrying Carsten. Praise God!
One thing we are really enjoying about being stationed at RAF Mildenhall is the wonderful opportunity to get/stay in shape. Carsten has to run a 5K once a week and do other Physical Training throughout the week. Not to mention, volleyball scrimmages on sundays and football during the week nights. I have found a work out partner, Darla, who I am enjoying getting back in shape with. We meet at the gym every morning for intense workouts. I am more motivated when I have a work out buddy. Yay!

God provides for our needs even before we know we need something. We have met so many wonderful christian couples here. In fact, we are all starting a bible study together. I am thankful for women of God who do not define themselves by the air force and their husband's rank. They are difficult to find, but the Lord placed them right in my lap. Praise God!

We are trying our hardest to passionately live in the moments that the Lord has blessed us with here in England. It has not been easy by any means. For those of you who are prayer warriors we would like to share some prayer requests with you.
1. Please pray for Carsten and his new job. It has proven to be an overwhelming new position. He is responsible for many other airmen and he is working in an area that is not very familiar to him. He will be doing loads of research and will probably have his pride shaken by possible mistakes. It is still all so new so we are praying that the Lord will fill Carsten with the wisdom and provide the resources that Carsten will need to get the job accomplished. We are thankful that his commander is a very understanding and family oriented person. I know the Lord will totally guide Carsten and we are trusting in HIS faithfulness!
2. You can pray for Carsten and his pulled muscle. He was playing football the other day and he heard a pop. He was feeling a lot of pain when we just walked. He came home and was in pain. I knew that it was seriously painful for him because he made a doctors appointment to get it checked. We went to the doctors today and Carsten will not be able to do physical activity for at least a week.
3. You can also pray for us as we try to figure out how to get India (my dog) to England the most efficient, safe, and cheap way.
4. You can pray that the Lord will place non-christians in our lives that we can minister to. Pray that the Lord will give us the strength to take opportunities to share our faith.
5. Please pray for us as we are missing our families and friends deeply! As the holidays approach it is affecting us more and more. We are praying that my family will be able to come out to England for christmas and new years. We are praying that we will be able to fly back to the states in January to spend time with the Stahr and Post families in Nebraska and the Zegan and Peirson families in California.

Thank you to those of you who are praying for us!

Here are a few pictures of our life here..

This is our Honda Accord. I haven't taken pictures of our Jeep yet. 

This is a pub that is right by the base.


















This is Carsten at the pub by the base. Pub food is definitely worth a try, but not the best.












Thanks again for reading our blog! Thank you for your prayers! If anyone would like to share some love or encouraging words with us you can email us at Carsten.chary@gmail.com. Or if you would like to send some love from America, you can mail us letters and packages to
Captain Carsten Stahr
PSC 37 Box 4014
APO AE 09459
It will not cost you an arm and a leg to mail anything to us because this is considered a US postal address. It will cost you the same price as sending something to New Jersey. =)
We pray you all have a wonderful weekend! We love you and miss you all!!

God Bless and Bless God,
The Stahrs

Our New Home

Hello everyone!! Sorry that it has taken us forever to post another blog, but we have been keeping quite busy here in England. We have been traveling fiends! Two weekends ago we went to London where we went to Hillsong London for a church service in the morning. Then we spent the day touring London. We decided to attend an Evensong Service at Westminster Abbey. It was such a blessing to worship our true Lord and Savior in two different forms. The next weekend we headed to Oxford (about a 3 hour drive from RAF Mildehall) to visit our missionary friends, Alan and Anna Berthiaume. On the way we stayed the night in a place called Swindon and then toured the historic town of Bath. Bath is where there are Roman remains such as roman baths, hence the name. We loved Bath because it was nestled into this sweet little area, but was filled with so much character. This place was OLD!!! haha! Then we continued onto Oxford where we spent Sunday attending Alan and Anna's church and then touring Oxford. Oxford was also amazing and so historic. Alan and Anna were great tour guides! We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. Monday morning we woke up and headed home, but as a slight detour we ventured out to see Stonehenge. Talk about awesome!  Thats all I'm gonna say. So that was our past two weekends.

This week we finally moved into the house that we will be letting (renting) for the next three years. We have temporary furniture for now so we are starting to really settle in. Only a few minor issues after moving into our house such as the UK Fridge that our landlord ordered does not fit in the kitchen. Problem!! Our landlord will be visiting us on Monday to sort out the many issues we are facing. I hope he likes the newly planted garden that I made with my wonderful husbands help! It looks better than our weed infested front and back yard. Last night we got an email telling us that our household goods are going through customs so we have to sign some documents and then hopefully sometime this next week they will be delivered! Yiipppeee!! I was wondering what I was going to do the next month (as Carsten is busy at work) as we waited for our stuff, but Praise the Lord that it has arrived! We will keep you all posted on that. We still only have one car which has made things a bit difficult at times, but we officially put a deposit on a charcoal Jeep Grand Cherokee friday evening. We should get that by wednesday if all goes smoothly!
Well....after many requests, here are some pictures of our house. Just think small and English! haha! Imagine that most of the rooms are the size of closets in the US. =)
Here is the view of our house from the street:

Here is our front door...
 

Here is the entrance hall as you walk in the door..

Here is the cloakroom (half bathroom) that is right off of the entrance hall...

If you go left after entering the door this is the view...

Here is our living room from one direction..

Here is the living room from another angle...

Here is the dinning room..with our lovely overgrown weedy backyard through the door.

Here is the kitchen...

Here is another view of the kitchen...

Here is the Utility room...

Here is our Master bedroom...

Here is our en suite (master bathroom)...

Here is Bedroom 2 (our closet...we are putting our wardrobes in here)

Here is the family bathroom...

Here is bedroom 3...Carsten's office

Here is bedroom 4...our guest bedroom..who wants it first?

Here is the view looking out from our front door...

So there is a preview of our house. We will post pictures after we have unpacked and moved all of our stuff in so stayed posted!

Thank you for reading our blog and for being a part of our journey! We are enjoying the opportunity that the Lord has given us to live in England. We are meeting new people every day and our goal is to be godly influences and to share our faith with all those we come in contact with. Please keep us in your prayers as we are adjusting to this new culture and for the heavy demand for Carsten at his new job.

We miss all of our family and friends more than words can express! We miss our Grace Chapel family and the ministry that God has placed there. We miss our little puppy, India (we are hoping to get her here by December). We love you all and we appreciate all your prayers! By the way, we have an empty guest room for anyone who wants to come visit. Just saying!

God Bless you all!!! And All Bless God!!

The Stahrs

Settling in for the long hall!

Hello to those who are reading our blog!


Well, we have been on quite the roller coaster here in England! But we have a "Praise The Lord"....we got a house!! YYIIIIIPPPPPEEEE!!!! Its not the one we were originally going to get. Right as we were about to give a deposit and sign papers, things went down hill for the original house. The Lord did not give me peace about that house even after things were coming back together. I couldn't explain it, but I just didn't have a peace. We decided to attend a previously made appointment to view another property just to see if I was just being overly cautious. We viewed this property and we both immediately knew that this was the one!!! Of course, its not an American home that we are more comfortable with, but it is a nice home that we can hopefully fit our furniture in. =) We are currently looking for a car for Carsten because the BMW deal fell through. (Sorry Kate, you won't know anyone with a BMW any more..hahah!)


This week, Carsten has been able to go to work for a few hours every day to get his in-processing done. I do not like waking up to an empty room. Its depressing when Im in another country and do not know where anything is. haha! But I'm trying to stay strong and take advantage of the time that the Lord has given us. Wednesday, Carsten participated in his squadrons annual "Bat-a-palooza"! Being the jock that he is, he has been getting stir crazy not being able to participate in any kind of sports since we have been here. So this was such a great experience for him. The day was filled with many different events. Carsten started the day with an "Amazing Race". It was a scavenger hunt/ sprint-a-thon!?! This took most of the morning. At 10am, I joined the other wives at the park and we watched as more events took place. The events included "bat-spin", "bat-a-war" (tug of war), "bat-walk", and many more! Carsten was able to meet almost his entire squadron and I was able to meet a bunch of the wives. Carsten was placed on a team last minute because someone didn't show up. That team was very grateful because Carsten ended up winning two events by himself (football throw and football kick) and then lead his team to win another event. Im so proud of my husband! Then for the "bat-a-war" the wives decided to go against the husbands...haha! We won the first round because they let us! Then they put their full strength into the next one and we had no shot! hah! I have video of those whole day, but I can't figure out how to get it on my computer. But..I have a few pics to share..

Carsten's team getting ready for the first event where they had to spin on a bat 12 times around and then run with an egg on a spoon then do jump rope then do the "bat walk" and then do 10 pushups and many more things.

Carsten throwing a water balloon with all his might!

He totally beamed that guy who you can only see his legs. haha!
















That was Bat-a-palooza!!!

Carsten figured out how to call people on skype the other day. He is paying 3 dollars a month to have unlimited phone calls through skype to any phone number. He was able to call MaryBeth, Grandma Em, and Grandad one day. Then we got to talk to Maureen last night! It is an encouragement to us just to hear our loved ones voices! It is hard to keep in touch with the time change. Im hoping to steal his computer to talk to my family tonight, if the internet allows us to! hehe! 

Today, we were able to sleep in, watch some movies, and get some stuff done! I washed some laundry...this in itself has been a frustrating adjustment for me. The washers and dryers are soooooooooooooooooo small here! And they eat your clothes alive! At least one item in every load has gotten destroyed. Today, my favorite new sweater...well...its now destroyed! I am trying to learn quickly with their machines, but I don't know if we have enough clothes to go through. haha! When we move into our house I will have to adjust all over again because the house has a washer/dryer combo...meaning  one machine does the washing and drying all together. Crazy! It is small as well so I think I will be doing  laundry ALL day long! haha! It is so funny the things that we have to adjust to between cultures. Simple things like doing laundry. Im learning though!

Well...thats all the excitement for this blog! We are hoping to get away this weekend. Its a three day weekend here! We have some appointments to look at cars, but we might be able to fit a trip to London in. =) 

God Bless you all and know that we miss you and love you all VERY MUCH!!!

Cheers!

God sustains us!

Hello all! We have been keeping pretty busy here in England. We have been going to newcomer meetings here on base. For me (Chary) because I am new to this base and the air force, the meetings have been very informative. In between meetings we are house and car searching. In our last newcomer meeting we took our drivers' tests, so we are now licensed drivers in the UK. After searching and searching, we found/bought a blue 2000 Honda Accord Hatchback Type V. Its a really nice car and we are enjoying having a car because Carsten is sick of the rental car that he doesn't fit in. We met with a guy who is selling a silver 2000 BMW 323. He is taking it in for some check ups and then we will buy it this coming week. House searching has its ups and downs. After looking at, I think 10 or more houses, it becomes quite discouraging when you cannot find anything you like or can fit your furniture in. We looked at a house down the street from our friends, Mark and Erin Watson. We loved the house, but the guy was not willing to lower the rent to fit our budget. We were a little bummed, but the search continued. We believe we have found a house that will do and we are going to meet with the owner this weekend to discuss and make agreements. This house is our second favorite that we have seen, but there are a few things we do not like. The living room is really small. When I say small...think about the average master bedroom in the US and think smaller than most of those. hahah! Everything is so small here, but we are adjusting. =) We just keep praying that the Lord would lead us to the house he wants us in, instead of what we selfishly want. The owner of the house we are interested in has been a joy to work with so we are praying for God's guidance in this. 
Well, we are taking advantage of this beautiful country. We like to get lost out in the country to just explore the land. One day we decided to just drive when we came to a town called Ely (eeeleeee!). From a distance we saw this huge tower coming from what we thought might be a church. We decided to try to find this church. We drove throughout Ely and found the church. This church was astounding! It is hard to describe the church in words because it was so ancient and beautiful! Here are a few pics of the church ---> 

Isn't that church amazing? I wish you all could have seen it! 

Other than house hunting, car hunting, and getting lost I have been able to spend time with some good godly girls. We had a tea party one day! I felt very English and I was trying to drink my tea with my pinky up. =) 

We ended up buying a TomTom GPS so that we will be able to find our way around better. Although, it is kind of exciting getting lost here because you never know what you will find. 

I am thoroughly enjoying this time that Carsten is not working yet. Im dreading the day that he goes to back work because Im not gonna know what to do with myself. He is so much fun to be around all the time! Im such a blessed woman! 

Thank you for reading our blog! I have enjoyed writing about our different experiences! Today, we are going back to church at C3 in Cambridge with our friends. Well, I think we are reaching the point of realization that this is no longer a vacation but our home. Weird, sad, exciting, intimidating! We miss our families and friends soooooo much, but may we not lose sight of the reason the Lord brought us here! May HE receive ALL Glory and Honor!!

Cheers!

The Stahrs

Cambridge

Hello! Wow, jetlag has sure set it! We are really struggling to adjust to this new time. The first two days were not as bad as these last few days. We have been waking up in the middle of the nights, hungry as can be and not able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. We usually end up watching some FRIENDS episodes from 3:30am to about 5am because we just can't sleep through the nights. We have heard that it takes about a week to fully adjust, but we have to be self-controlled enough not to fall asleep before 8pm or  sleep in past 9am. Carsten does a great job at being self-controlled with it, but I just end up being cranky for a few hours. He does a great job putting up with me. =)

On Sunday, we were invited to go to Camridge to visit a church that some of our friends have gone to. We have met some good christian couples just in these past few days. Lauren and Matt Miller have been stationed at RAF Mildenhall for 1 year so they have been such a blessing to us. They have been very gracious to teach us and show us around. Carsten has a friend, Mark Watson (who also went to the AF Academy), who is stationed here also with his wife Erin. We have been hanging out with them a lot. Through the Millers and the Watsons we met another Christian couple, Shawn and Darla West. They are a sweet couple! God is so good in providing new friends for us for such a time as this! We are so thankful! It helps ease the pain of missing our friends and family back in the states! We miss you and love you all!!!

Any who, we went to a church called C3. The church meets in a school gymnasium, but they are trying to move into an old abandoned church if the government permits them. We enjoyed the worship and the speaking. We were blessed by the fact that the speaker actually spoke straight from the bible! We are praying about possibly attending this church every week even though it is quite a ways away.

After church, Lauren and Matt Miller took all of us to tour the city of Cambridge. We had lunch at a small cafe where they served hamburgers and chips (french fries). They even served milkshakes! The hamburgers were actually pretty good. Carsten found out that their version of BBQ sauce is quite different than ours.

Then we went to an area where we could shop. We went into a camping store to look at jackets to prepare for winter/all this rain. The prices were outrageous!!! We decided to order them offline from the states instead. =) We went to a cellphone store next. Carsten was originally stuck on buying us Iphones, but we have been told that we wont use our cellphones much here. Our friends said that they bought cheap cellphones and only use them to call each other, but they use their house phone for major calls because its cheaper. Here in the UK, the whole pay-as-you go type of cell phones are popular. Everyone has it unless you have an Iphone. So needless to say, we bought some pay-as-you go phones, but Carsten is pretty determined to get his Iphone unlocked. =)

Then we decided to venture out on our own, along with the Watsons, to tour Cambridge further. We decided to go "Punting". Words cannot describe this experience, so I will post pictures to help. Let me just say....funny, entertaining, frightening, peaceful, hilarious!

These are the boats that you use to go "Punting"

Thats Carsten, learning how to "Punt" with Erin and Mark Watson in front.

There were many bridges that the guys could barely duck under and almost fell off many times.

Carsten was attempting to turn us around after we ran into like 5 other boats. haha!

That was our first trip to Cambridge!! Hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure so far. Now it is time for us to head to bed! Good night!!