work and rest: the island of sylt

This was written some weeks ago. Since then we have had almost no internet connection, and posting this was nearly impossible. While we are now 2 or 3 weeks further into this journey, I still want to share what was on my hearts a few weeks ago, comin freshly out of a season of huge transition:


Here we sit on the island of Sylt, situated in the blustery North Sea, at the most northern point in Germany. Some of the houses with their charming reed-thatched roofs date back to the 1600s, older maybe. The characteristic rock walls are green with plants that took over centuries ago, grasses growing in all of the crevices. The air is fresh, coming from miles away off the sea, and is famous in Germany for it special properties.

It is a break that we need, coming at the end of months of planning and praying and pursuing finite details necessary to make this year of living abroad happen. And here we are! In Germany surrounded by German-speakers, and pastries, and sausages, and all kinds of pickled salads. And lovely people who are quick to practice their English skills rather than suffer my German.

I don’t know who is reading this, or your understanding of our journey thus far. I can’t remember what I have and haven’t said to whom. Today’s post is both a summary of what we are doing in Germany, and a review of the vast blessing we have felt in getting to this place with so many of our questions being confirmed, if not answered. It was as if a few months ago we were standing in a long hallway full of doorways. Slowly, after a loud amount of knocking, and perhaps some jiggling of the handles, the doors came open one by one. It has been a tedious process, but now that we are at the end of the hallway we can look back through it and see all the way to the beginning, doors left standing open.

We did everything backwards to make this trip happen, and not for a minute do I recommend this. In our case, however, it seems that the order in which we proceeded has become a part of the testimony of the trip.

My husband (Christian), has long wanted to give our family an extended experience in living abroad, creating an opportunity for the character growth and new language skills that are acquired only through being immersed in another culture. For a number of reasons that I will not go into, the timing seemed right to pursue this. In April, he applied to a single program at the University of Basel in Switzerland for a masters’ degree in public health focusing on epidemiology. Then we waited…

… except that we couldn’t wait for too long because we had to make a lot of decisions about how our summer and our future year was going to look. We had to decide to walk through some of the doorways even though we knew the main entrance wasn’t yet open. A tourist visa for an American in Europe is 90 days, but we needed a visa lasting a minimum of 9 months. To apply for extended stay, we needed the letter of acceptance in hand from the university. Thus began our somewhat backwards approach:

…Without any confirmation that this year away would be possible, Christian gave notice to quit his job.
…We purchased plane tickets.
…We traded in our car for one we could pick up and drive in Europe, establishing dates well in advance for the European Delivery program.
…We listed our California home to be rented out during our hopeful stay abroad.
These are just the big things. I haven’t mentioned any of the minor things, like the hours spent online looking for information about schools for the girls, and housing arrangements, and investigating the likelihood that Christian would actually be accepted to his program, and driving all over town to pick up copies of important documents we needed to have in place.

Three and a half weeks before our scheduled departure the acceptance letter from the University of Basel arrived in the mail. It felt almost too good to be real. Hallway Door Number 1: OPEN!

Even with a letter of acceptance to a university program in Switzerland, there was no guarantee about the ease of obtaining a longer stay visa. We spoke to several discouraging people along the way who found joy in planting seeds of doubt. The most legitimate issue with obtaining visas was going to be the timeline. We had three and a half weeks to get our visas processed before our flights out of the country, and the process standard took 8 weeks, with no way to rush service. It was literally out of our hands.

There was a strange thing happening at the Swiss Consulate in San Francisco, procurer of our visas. They were scheduled to move their offices to an entirely new building during the time of our application. Perhaps they wanted to push all of their paperwork through, or perhaps they were just being kind, but a few days before our departure we received an email saying that if we could come to San Francisco tomorrow, we could pick up our visas before the office closed for their move across town. The visas had been processed in 3 weeks. Hallway Door Number 2 (or number 35, depending on which of the many details we are counting): OPEN!

There are so many pieces to this story just like that, which I am not able to fully convey here. Another example is the great uncertainty there was around finding a solid tenant who wanted to rent our specific home at our specific price for the specific time period we wanted to be abroad. It was hard to believe when the first people who walked through the door wanted the house on those terms, and we really liked their family. We understand well the reality that upon returning home we may find our house not at all the way we left it, but that is part of the journey of surrendering our earthly possessions over in favor of treasure that lasts. There was great peace about these renters, and it felt like Hallway Door Number 25 swinging wide OPEN.

Doors have continued to open since being here in Germany. In the short weeks since we arrived, we’ve received the warmest welcome from old friends and extended family (on Christian’s German side), making it feel a little less like traveling in a foreign country and a little more like a visit with people we haven’t seen in a long time. The biggest logistical hurdles were miraculously squared away in one short afternoon, when we both registered Annike for school in a bilingual English-German Christian school, and found a furnished home to rent that far exceeded our expectations. The home is located in the perfect part of town owned by the loveliest landlady. After days, or weeks, or months of prayer over some of these larger decisions, it is like finally finding the missing puzzle pieces underneath the couch cushions. The answers fit and feel incredulously right.

Don’t mistaken me, however, and think that because we sense the great blessings in the midst of big decisions, that the process has been an easy one. The final month before our departure from California was one of the most hectic and stressful of my life. We had to deep clean our house, and pack up all of our personal belongings to leave our home spotless and maintained well for renters over the next many months. On paper this did not sound like as much work as it was in reality. On top of the many daily decisions being made, there were plenty of unforeseen hang ups. One example being only 5 days before we left when Sommer had the audacity to break her arm (aaaahhhh!!!!) resulting in hours and hours of time spent getting x-rays and waiting for doctors. She’s doing just fine now, of course. Throw in a last minute drive to San Francisco to pick up our visas, and you have a crazy mother on your hands!

What I am trying to say is that while we have had many confirmations of this particularly chosen path, it still took a lot of hard work. Following this dream did not coincide with the option of laziness. There were tasks that needed to be done, and the only way to do them was by pushing forward with our own heathy hands. Working hard, and praying harder, feels like a big part of the character being built in us through this process. Fortunately, there were plenty of blessings collected at intervals along the way to keep us persevering.

History shows us that great adventures are always prefaced by a lot of hard work. With that thought in mind, I believe it may also be the aversion to hard work that keeps us from some of our greatest adventures. Over the last many months one thing that has been hammering into my head is that I never want the fear of hard work to stand between me and something better that God might have for me.


God created human beings with this great capacity to be a part of making dreams He has given us happen. Sometimes a lot of sweat and physical labor is involved. Sometimes a lot of emotional work and changes and choices have to be chipped away. Sometimes there is an interminable amount of patience and perseverance required of us. I believe that while God does like to hand us things for free, His bigger goal in our lives is faith-building, and it doesn’t take a lot of faith to be handed something that we weren’t expecting and we never asked for.

I don’t know where this year will take us. I can’t see the future or the entire big picture for this out-of-the-ordinary sabbatical of sorts. I do know that we have been working pretty hard, and that while it is important to be willing to work, it is also important to find that divine balance between working hard and resting well. For the moment, we are thankful for the blessing of rest found here on this island in Northern Germany. Perhaps it will restore us for the work ahead.