Guten Tag (German for Good Day) family and friends!
We have had loads of fun adventures this month that we would like to share with all of our loved ones. It sure has been a busy month!
We began this month with a special trip to London as a belated gift for Carsten’s birthday. We got all dressed up and rode the underground into London. We ate at a fancy restaurant called Tutton. Carsten and I agreed that it is strange that people pay so much money for such little food at fancy restaurants. Not our style, but it was a special occasion. Then we headed over to the Lyceum Theatre where we watched the musical, “The Lion King.” Carsten sang almost every song and looked like a kid in a candy shop. It was so fun to see the excitement on his face. We had a wonderful time! Here are some pics from our evening in London….
The next big event of the month was the Annual Awards Banquet at RAF Mildenhall. Carsten was chosen to sing the National anthem for the ceremony. What a privilege! This was my first banquet ever with the air force and I was quite intimidated. Since Carsten was singing, we had the privilege of sitting at the head table with all the “big wigs” from base. Talk about intimidating. I thought it was kind of comical that at my first banquet I would be sitting with people who have been in the air force almost as long as I have been alive. Haha! I think I was more nervous than Carsten and I wasn’t singing the National Anthem like he was. Carsten did an outstanding job singing. I am so proud of him! Here are some pics of this event…
Another event was Valentines day! The Saturday before valentines day, Carsten told me that I needed to be ready to go somewhere that night. He had planned a surprise. We drove around and ended up on RAF Lakenheath. Carsten made up an excuse to head to the BX (the store) on base. When we parked he started walking in the other direction towards the based chapel. We walked in and there were tons of people standing in a hallway. As soon as we walked in a lady said, “Is there a Charmayne Stahr here?” So Carsten raised my hand for me. Then she said, “I wanted you to know that your husband is the only one who planned this as a surprise for you.” I laughed while thinking what exactly is the surprise? Haha! Then we walked up some stairs into a room that was decorated with valentine stuff. There were tables set and romantic music playing. It turned out that we were attending a valentine marriage conference. At first, I thought this is kind of a weird present. Then a British couple got up and began sharing their experience of being married for 25 years and serving in the British Army. In the middle of the conference, I was filled with overwhelming emotion and was holding back tears. I had realized that this was the perfect gift! This gift showed me how much Carsten loves me more than any other gift could have. It showed me how committed he is to me and our marriage. It showed me that he desires a life long, happy, successful marriage that is centered on God. Wow! My heart was overwhelmed! I could not express in words to Carsten exactly how much that meant to me, but it was the best present he could have planned for me on our first valentines day as a married couple.
The final event of February, was our trip to Germany for a volleyball tournament. Carsten had hurt his shoulders in previous months by playing football and basketball. We were a bit nervous about going to Germany for him to play volleyball if his shoulders were still injured. At the same time we were anxious to go because some of our friends from England, the Wests, are temporarily stationed in Germany. We wanted to go spend time with them and Carsten wanted to get back to playing volleyball too. So we prayed about it and we decided to make the drive to Germany. We drove half way, stopping in Brussels, Belgium. We toured Brussels for the day and then drove on to Germany. Carsten played volleyball for two days straight and his shoulders did pretty well. He actually feels better now after playing that weekend. After the volleyball tournament was finished, we spent our final day touring Frankfurt, Germany. Then we made the long hall back to England by driving through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France. We got to take our car on the chunnel, which is a train that goes under the ocean through the England channel. It was so cool! Here are some pics of this adventure….
It is and has been such a blessing to live overseas in our first year of marriage. At first it was extremely difficult and I was very homesick, but now we are seeing how much greater God’s plans are for us than we could imagine. God’s will is perfect and good! God is good!!
If any of you would like to pray for us here are a few things to pray for…
1. Pray for Carsten because he is very stressed and he has a lot on his plate right now. He started his masters program this month and will be starting a second job on base. Needless to say…he is on overload.
2. Pray for Carsten’s back and shoulders. He is in constant pain and we have seen many doctors to see what we can do to help him.
3. Pray for me to find fun things to keep me occupied while Carsten is busy with work and homework.
4. Pray that we would be able to juggle everything and be able to make time for just spending time together.
5. We are going to be on the worship team at our church starting this weekend. The pastor expressed to us that he is looking for a worship leader and thinks Carsten could eventually do that. It will take some time because we are Americans in a British church so we need to learn and get to know them first.
Thank you all for your prayer, encouragement, and support. We miss you all back in the states! For all I know, I am the only one who reads these things, but it is neat to take the time to reflect on all that God has done. If anyone is reading these, thank you!
So long for now!! God Bless!
