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Groceries, Soccer, Peace, and Friends...a pretty good day.

Hi everyone! Again, it seems like my posts on the blog are never as regular as I'd like them to be...but things are busy.

Today (Saturday) was a very long day that started out with our weekly grocery trip...well, that's not really true, because we actually end up going to the grocery store on a daily basis, but we usually make one trip a week that we stock up on some stuff for the week. It's our "pull-cart" trip and it usually the only time we buy a lot (which never is that much) because it's the only time we actually have our little pull cart along (which doesn't hold very much). We had to hit two different grocery stores to get some specific grocery items before rushing off to Justin's soccer game.

Justin has the privilege of playing on the ICSV middle school soccer team as a 5th grader. Initially, we figured he (and Willem, another staff kid) would only practice with the team, but they have both have been getting some playing time. Today they played against an international school from Bratislava. They did well, but were unable to pull out the victory. Rebecca and I had a nice time cheering them on, although I tried to fight the impulse to go into "coach mode". But, I lost the fight and had to have a quick conference with Jeffrey (assistant coach)...Justin played a little and did well, even though he was matched up against a couple of high schoolers who towered over him. (yes, there were high schoolers on the middle school team - but they weren't good, just big).

After the game we had lunch at Burger King (a treat that seemed appropriate after a saturday morning soccer game) and then headed home to change and a short rest before heading out to the next event. After an U-Bahn, Schnell-Bahn (that we had to run through the station to get on in time), a StrassenBahn, and a short walk, we arrived at the "Be the Peace"...a celebration for the UN's International Week of Peace that kicks off this weekend. Justin was part of a group of students who sang for this function. Interesting event that brought together people from all over the world and religious spectrum together to stand united in a call for peace.

Check out the video of the group singing. It is a bit long and you may want to fast forward through the first minute or so as the kids are entering and getting up...the video will be posted on a separate post.

It was pretty interesting because just before the kids sang, a Hindu nun(?), spoke on inner peace and finding the peace inside of you...then, Pat Davis, the gospel singer who led the kids in singing the song, told the crowd that the light is in fact Jesus. Very cool opportunity for these kids from ICSV to witness and minister to the many folks in the audience.

After this event we headed back towards our neck of the woods to get to the Gardner's house. Thomas turned the ripe old age of 30 a couple of weeks back and immediately became ill, so we couldn't celebrate as planned last Saturday. A bunch of us got together tonight for some sausages, potatoes, saurkraut, a delicious coffee ice cream cake, and a good time of friendship and fun....

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