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