Dear Friends:

As they say in Germany, "Es weihnachtet sehr!" ("It's 'Christmasing' hard outside!"). Just to add the finishing touch to the holiday spirit, it is also snowing. Nobody does Christmas like the Germans, and we love it. Last weekend we went down to the Altstadt (old city) and browsed the many booths jammed in the two market squares and up and down several of the connected streets. Several of the booths are done by local schools and clubs. There were lots of crafts, food booths, (including the traditional onion cake and hot spiced "Gluhwein"), and a few "practical" items on display. Chestnuts were even roasting over an open fire. We did a little Christmas shopping, but mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere. Later in the week Cherie drove a carload of women from the Tuesday International Coffee, to go to Reutlingen and check out their Christmas market. I told her to bring me something, which she did (my favorite): a paper cone filled with burnt almonds (sold hot by street vendors).

Our fall has been very busy, and mostly enjoyable. In addition to taking charge of the week to week operation of the Colloquium, and planning and preaching at the English Vesper Service, I have also enjoyed meeting with an American grad student this semester to read theological German, and am attending lectures at the University on Thursday and Friday mornings. In late November we flew to Atlanta (Delta flies direct between Atlanta and Stuttgart), to attend the Society of Biblical Literature meeting. We spent a good part of the time meeting with different individuals about coming to Tübingen, as well as seeing old friends. Even though I have been attending these meetings on and off for 25 years, this year for the first time since 1980 I ran into two friends we knew when we were in Tübingen back then.

We also had an EES dinner at the home of Wye and Vicki Huxford, in the south Atlanta area. Wye is the new EES Executive Director (my new boss). Also resent were Jim and Ellen Evans (retired EES Executive Director), and Bruce Shields, EES Board President. Dr. Beth Langstaff, the Institute interim director before my arrival, as well as Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck (University of Durham, UK), son of EES founding missionaries Earl and OttieMerl Stuckenbruck.

Cherie continues with the International Coffee, and this semester is singing with an ecumenical choir sponsored by a student group. In January they will perform Mendelsohn's Paul oratorio. She also helped plan the annual "English Lessons and Carols" service at the big church down town, and we are both in the choir for that service, which is Wednesday evening. She continues to help out Gabe, our wheel-chair bound neighbor.

Vesper Service In terms of participation, both the Colloquium and the English Vesper Service have had one of their best semesters in a long time. We had our annual Thanksgiving Dinner a week early, since we were gone on the next weekend, but that did not hurt our attendance. Last year we had too many "drop-ins," and ran out of table service, as well as seating space (and certain foods), so we tried to get people to sign up this year. We planned for about 30, can officially seat 36, and by last count, had served 39. That is three less than we counted last year.

Since Germans do not celebrate Thanksgiving, and roast whole turkeys only seldom, finding frozen turkeys at the store is always hit and miss. No one we know has a freezer, so we cannot buy ahead, either. We are forced to order fresh turkeys from the butcher shop, and pay too much per kilo, but they really are good! Turkeys also do not come with "giblets." I am convinced that the butcher does something else with them--they do not throw anything away. But last year, when we asked for the "Innereien," the woman at the butcher shop made a disgusted face, and asked me why I wanted them. I explained what we did with the giblets, and she disappeared into the back room, eventually reappearing with some chicken parts and pork kidneys, which she gave me for free. A word to the wise: do not try to make turkey gravey with the broth from pork kidneys. This year we settled on the easy path, and made our gravey and stuffing with packaged gravey mix and chicken broth from bouillion.

On the first Sunday of December we had our special annual Advent service, with special music. We had 32, which is the best we've done all year for a non-food event. Last Sunday we celebrated "The Gospel According to Isaiah," with responsive readings from the messianic portions of Isaiah, scripture readings of the Christmas story, and musical selections from Handel's Messiah. Next Sunday, the last service of 2003, is our Christmas Carol Sing.

An example of one international with whom we have come in contact: Rabi, a recent participant in the Vesper Service, is from Nepal. He fled the Maoist regime there some time ago, and has been working to get his wife out. She was recently brought to Poland by an "agent," who promised to take care of the paperwork to get her into to Germany. With the help of an anonymous donor here in Tübingen, Rabi sent a large sum of money to pay for the service, and traveled to Berlin to meet his wife. However, the agent "took the money and ran," abandoning Rabi's wife in Warsaw. After a few weeks, we learned that his wife had walked across the frontier into Germany. With help from our Gemeinde pastor, Jim Kautt, she is on the road to becoming a legal immigrant. She is now in a refugee camp in southern Germany, and Rabi is hopeful that she will be able to soon join him.

The Colloquium has benefited from a couple visiting professors, including Seyoon Kim of Fuller Seminary. We also have a couple American doctoral students who study in England but are here for a semester or two. In addition, there is a doctoral student from Finland, as well as two Koreans and a Japanese man who are studying here. Prof. Lichtenberger continues to sponsor the group. This semester we have also had some extra lectures, such that we will have had three more sessions than this time last year--a considerable increase. In addition, the quality of the presentations remains quite high. I am sorry to say that a couple outstanding participants will be leaving after this semester. But we look forward to who is coming next!

While the Colloquium is enjoying some success, we are also aware that the State of Baden-Württemberg is actively cutting budgets at its three Universities (Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Freiburg), targeting programs which are not up to their standards. There was an audit of the theology programs at the three Universities recently, during which Prof. Lichtenberger insisted we meet every week, even though we have always been a fortnightly colloquium, and are so listed in the University catalog. The fear is they might pop in on an off night, not find anyone there, and use that as an excuse to cut the class and raise the prof's teaching load some other way. I am sorry we needed to meet that night, since Prof. Lichtenberger had planned to attend a guest lecture by his church superior, the Methodist bishop of Germany. Prof. Lichtenberger is the only Methodist who holds a theology professorship at a German State University. In a way, this makes him the ideal sponsor for our group, since he knows very well what it means to belong to a minority here (he says he a young person because he was very much looked down upon as one who was not a member of the Landeskirche). Frustrating as it is, the contract still waits to be signed. As far as we know, there is no huge problem standing in the way, only the University's decision to schedule the appointment.

Monday evening was my turn to read a paper ("Balaam in the Epistle of 2 Peter), which I thought went pretty well. I was especially pleased that Prof. and Mrs. Otto Betz were able to come. Prof. Betz sponsored the Colloquium for many years. He was also the second reader of my dissertation (on 2 Peter) in 1983, and has been after me ever since to do something with the Balaam passage. Since having returned we have been able to renew a friendship with them, and he has encouraged me in my work.

On a sad note, as some of you know, our friend, Cornelia Oswald, went down hill very fast and died in September. We were able to attend the funeral and the grave side in the little town up the Neckar valley, where she lived with her family. We have tried to keep some contact with her husband and children, as well as keeping in touch with her father, Ernst Keller. The Kellers were our landlords in 1978-81. Herr Keller said he felt this loss even more than the death of his wife, almost exactly a year before, since she had been ill several years.

Urgent! The weak dollar is taking a huge bite out of donations. Wye Huxford, Bruce Shields, and the EES Board have committed to paying our salary in the equivalent of Euros. We asked for a review of our status at the October Executive meeting, since the exchange rate was taking 20% of our actual income, and the dollar continues to fall. Thankfully, our December check was adjusted to cover that. However, that means that the shortfall needs to be made up in extra giving. Please prayerfully consider increasing your giving. Unfortunately, a 20% increase in donations will only equal the level of a year and a half ago. Or put the other way, leaving your giving the same equals a 20% cut. Thanks for your parnership with us. Pray for a better economy, and a stronger Dollar to Euro ratio!

Family News: Alisha is doing well with her grades at seminary. She continues to do some tutoring with beginning Greek students, and this year is studying beginning Hebrew. She is proposing an academic internship to fulfill her seminary requirements, and hopes to be able to do that here next summer. Dr. Beth Langstaff has agreed to mentor her. Marty seriously sprained his ankle during a church basketball game, and was on crutches over Thanksgiving. He has been in a walking brace, and has been going to therapy three times a week.

Alisha met us in Atlanta and we attended the SBL meeting together (her first one). She seemed to enjoy it, especially the part about earning "brownie points" by attending the lectures of her own professors from Emmanuel.

Justin is adjusting to life in Salzburg, and is very busy. He is not taking graduate course work yet, but is spending this semester in language study, and a lot of practicing. He quickly discovered that his new prof. expected him to put in more practice time than he was used to (which already was a lot). He has been taking two lessons a week, one on technique with the prof's assistant. He wonders out loud how he will do all this and still find time to take regular classes (we remind him this is why he wanted to go there in the first place).

Justin is playing with a student string quartett, and recently was invited to audition to be a subsitute for the well-known Salzburg chamber orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg. He was accepted as a sub, and plays his first concerts with the group in February in Dortmund (northwest Germany). They will send him over there and put him up, plus pay him for the performances). This week he is off to Frankfurt on the train, to meet a former prof. from Eastman who is working with the Ensemble Modern, based in Frankfurt. The prof. has a guest engagement with them, and invited Justin to observe. The prof. will introduce Justin to some key people, which could open some doors for him later.

We pick up Justin in Salzburg this weekend, and Alisha and Marty fly into Frankfurt on the 23rd. We are very excited about having Christmas together as a family. Right after Christmas we will spend three days near Trier, at the MidWinter Rally, a gathering of Christian Church/Church of Christ missionary types in Europe. We will lead the music, and I will lead a Bible study each morning.

Cherie's Dad has found a friend at church, a woman whose husband died several years ago. He told us recently that they plan to be married soon. This is an adjustment for the whole family, and especially for Jim (Cherie's Mom died last March). We wish him much happiness. After Cherie saw my parents last fall, my Dad was diagnosed as having had a small stroke. He is markedly better, according to my Mom, but still has little memory lapses, and slow days physically. He is able to continue working as a companion at the Senior Center.

Thanks again to everyone for your faithful support. May God richly bless you.

love,

Scott and Cherie Caulley