Doors don't swing so well on just ONE hinge

What a great time with the Lord this morning. I found and read the Foreword and Introduction to Tom Eliff’s book, "What Should I Tell My Friend". I wanted to begin reading it and I can do it on the computer. Who would have thought that learning doctrine as part of my time with the Lord could have been so wonderful.
This morning we went to the Evagelisch Stadtmissionsgemeinde for church. We walked from our house in Stetten downtown to the gemeindehaus. Yesterday it rained most of the morning so we didn't get much of a walk. We took our time and had a wonderful stroll on a most beautiful Sunday morning. Stephan Hees, the pastor, preached on 1 John 4:19-21 tying it rather skillfully to Mark 12: 29-31. He had a rather interesting illustration. Most of the doors in Germany have two hinges. In the middle of his serman, Stephan walked to the back of the room in which we were having church and opened one of the double doors. He explained that what Jesus was talking about turns on TWO points and procedes to lift the door of of its hinges! To demonstrate that the teaching requires both points (you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength AND you shall love your neighbor as yourself) he rehung the door on only the TOP hinge. What a visual - the door didn't work right. It was a sort of "oh, Duh" moment. He tried to rehang the 12 foot door on both hinges, but in the interest of continuing the message, gave up after the second attemp and got help from one of the men in the back o f the congregation.
After church we walked on downtown for lunch. The second day of the Lorracher Herbstfest was in full swing when we arrived. They were no longer roasting an ox by the big grocery store downtown, so we opted for wildscheinegoulash with spaetzle for Paula and I had gegrilltkalbsbratwurst with broetchen from the stand on the Marktplatz - eaten at the fest tables under a partly cloudy Baden-Wurtenburger sky in the middle of the fest!
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the fest and around the center of Lorrach. As we were walking home, we took a short detour and found that Stetten has a castle and that the little community has been here since about 650!!
We are past the three day mark in our language school at Goethe Institute! We know that we are in the right places at school, but to say the least, it is challenging. When (perhaps I should say IF) we get done with this eight weeks, I will be at the B1-2 level and Paula will be at the B1-1 level. But we will be nowhere near done. Paula is now having to learn German for the ground up. She speaks pretty well, but has never had any formal German language study. Although I have had formal training, most of it has gone down the large gapping hole of forgetfulness that is in my brain. So while Paula is leaning to conjugate German verbs, I am trying to recall them. I had an exercise the other day that I recognized as German words on a page, but for the life of me I couldn't understand any more than my name at the top of the paper.

Please pray about:
Our language learning - not only that we will be good students, but that we will good LEARNERS;

The new contacts that we are making at Goethe Institute, specifically:
Dr and Mrs Chilluwa from Nigeria
Peter Vimalasekaren - a missionary who works with refugees
Jason - a college student from Indiana. He has asked me if I would be interested in teaching "something" during a Bible study he wants to start;

That we would be faithful in the small things of being here in Germany - our quiet time alone with the Father, finding a church home, learning the culture, etc;

That we would not get so busy doing the stuff that we have to do that we will not have time to care for the people that we are here to serve.