At the end of the semester in July we enjoyed a brief visit from the Mark and Gail Jones and three kids, of Columbus, Indiana, where Mark has been the senior minister. They were sent by their congregation to visit some of the missions they support, and made the extra effort to come here, before visiting missions in Italy and the Ukraine. Mark preached for us at our last Vesper Service of the semester, and Gail added a nice touch to the music with her flute. The kids were real troopers. Thanks for coming!

We had a special time at our end-of-the-semester Colloquium get-together. Not only did Prof. Lichtenberger and several of the participants gather at our apartment for a time of visiting, but Prof. and Mrs. Otto Betz were also able to be there. Dr. Betz, officially retired for some time now, was the faculty sponsor for the Colloquium for many years. He and his wife are greatly loved by many, many foreign students, for their warm hospitality and help and concern. Dr. Betz remains active in writing and editing at home, though is physically unable to get around very well. For that reason he does not attend many evening functions, and they would not promise they would come to the Colloquium gathering. They steadfastly refused to allow either Prof. Lichtenberger or myself pick them up with a car. We were very pleased when it worked out for them to be there.

Prof. Lichtenberger told me last semester that the contract with the University has been passed through the various committees, and the way is cleared to sign papers. At the end of the semester the dean said something about waiting for the University Rektor's office. We are still waiting, though I have every confidence that we will be contacted to sign papers some time this semester. At that point, our de facto working relationship will become official, and my adjunct faculty status should be approved. This will allow me to function at a better level in the University, plus will open some opportunities we have anticipated (like purchase of some computer software at educational discount). I will also find out the particulars about the theological German class I am to teach (like when will it start, who will be expected to take it, what are their target learning outcomes? etc.).

Cherie continues with the Tuesday international coffee. Most of the participants are visiting professors and their families. Through her contacts there we have made some good friends from Germany, South Africa, the UK, and the US. Happily, there are also a few couples involved in the international coffee who are long-term; some of these are at the Max Planck Institute, a science and medical research facility near where we live. At the end of the semester we had a "good-bye" coffee or dinner nearly every day for two weeks. It was difficult to see these new friends leave so soon, but we have already met some of the new ones, and anticipate others.

Cherie has kept busy recently helping our wheel chair-bound neighbor who lives on our floor. The woman has a degenerative spinal condition which affects her motor skills. Cherie helps her with basic tasks, and checks on her so she does not feel quite so alone. When I checked on her last she proudly told me that she and her chair had been down town on the bus. Cherie has also spent quite a bit of time with our former landlord's oldest daughter, Cornelia, who is suffering from cancer. The daughter has been in and out of the hospital with chemotherapy, and Cherie has tried to help out in any way she can. Our friend's oldest, a girl, went off to camp this summer and promptly broke her leg. Since the girl was off her feet, Cherie taught her how to cross-stitch, which she is learning rather well. We are praying for our friend's recovery.

At the Institute, the emergency maintenance items are done. We spent much of last year working in the basement after the flooding of August, 2002. Some drain pipes have been replaced, the floor drains retrofitted with anti-backwash valves. With the o.k. of the insurance company and the city building inspectors, a crew built a 40 cm-high "threshold" outside the back door, to keep out the temporary high water that pools in the stair well during the worst rains. After a two-week long dehumidifying process, we ordered new carpet in the pastor's study, and new vinyl and new baseboards in the fellowship room. To meet fire code, the Schreiner (joiner) finished reinforcing the walls in the stair well to the basement, and building a new solid oak door.

Several maintenance items remain, which are being itemized and prioritized, for the board to consider. Cherie has started redoing the bathrooms at the Institute, and I have been working on refinishing the four oak-veneer work tables in the library. We had to hire a plumber for the upstairs bathroom drain, and had a repairman fix the bell system, so that Birgit can hear someone ring if she is working in the library. A locksmith was here to make a recommendation about our basement door (for security and safety issues).

Family news: By all reports, Alisha had a good first year at seminary. She is an M.Div. student at Emmanuel School of Religion, in Johnson City, Tennessee. She has done well in her course work, and has found a niche tutoring beginning Greek students. She and Marty spent a couple weeks at the camp in Maine where Alisha was counselor for several summers. Marty helped them with some technical things, such as producing a video. Over the summer Alisha worked more hours at the ESR library, and tried to get a head start on Hebrew. "I hate Hebrew," she says, though classes are just now getting started there. I told her we are going to study together by e-mail (I could use a review). We will begin as soon as I figure out how to do it by e-mail. . . . Alisha is working on a proposal to do her internship in Tübingen. If all goes well, she may be with us part of next summer.

Marty continues as the part-time computer "tech" person at Emmanuel, and works at Papa John's Pizza the rest of the time. He is working on our Institute web page, which we hope to have up and running in the near future. I spent part of the summer writing the files for that, which I then sent to him. The plan is to translate everything into German, too, so we have a completely bi-lingual site (Birgit, my secretary, will help with that). Marty will travel to Kansas to be with his parents for a few days when his dad, Wes Paddock, has surgery later this month. Please keep Wes and Arletta in your prayers.

We had a nice visit to Salzburg, Austria, where Justin will be studying this fall. In May he graduated from Eastman School of Music, and the end of June flew to Frankfurt after playing two music engagements in the States. The day after his arrival we drove him to Salzburg, where he auditioned for entry into the Master's program at the Universitaet Mozarteum. According to him, it was a bad experience and he did not play well, but the good news is that he was accepted into the program, starting October 1. His main interest is studying with Prof. Thomas Riebl. He is very glad to be accepted into the professor's studio. The man is in great demand, and Justin knows some students who have been turned down.

Justin spent the bulk of the summer with us in Tübingen, studying German and practicing his viola. He took a five-week German course every morning at the Volkshochschule (community college), and made a trip to Paris to have another lesson with Garth Knox, world-renowned new music specialist. In August Justin attended a week of master classes with Prof. Riebl, at a "Sommerakademie" north of Linz, Austria. We sent him over on the train, but then drove to pick him up. We got to hear the student recital the last evening.

The master class took place in a small town near the Czech border, so we decided at the last minute to drive to Prague for a couple nights. Prague was jammed with tourists, and had a carnival atmosphere we have not experienced in other European cities (merchants out on the sidewalk hawking their wares, people in costume promoting plays and concerts, and along the river, "sailors" from the various tour boat companies wandering the waterfront, aggressively competing with each other for your business). Driving to Prague was no big deal, though driving in Prague is more difficult (we missed our turn and ended up right down town). We found a B&B on the Internet which worked out fine, though we are not sure we would go back (it was actually advertised as a "B&B," though we wonder what that stands for in Czech). It is a large renovated warehouse-like building (or small fortress), in a run-down industrial area. It is run by a single man I characterize as an aging hippy, and decorated in eclectic style--from psychedelic posters to velvet Elvis paintings. My favourite was the large picture of Mr. Ed on our bedroom door. The car-park is in the inner court-yard, for security (we heard later that Prague is a car theft hub, sending stolen vehicles to eastern Europe). We were not far from the Metro stop, so we left our car in the castle keep and spent a day and a half trekking around historic parts of the city.

In late August Cherie used the second half of her open-ended ticket to fly to Seattle and visit her dad in Puyallup. Her dad is doing well, slowing getting adjusted to life alone. We are glad that he is getting out and getting involved in some activities at church and in the community. She was also able to see my parents who were visiting my sister in Tacoma. Then Cherie flew to Tennessee, to visit Marty and Alisha. Last weekend she and Alisha drove a rental truck to New York, where they were to meet up with Justin. They have to get his things out of storage and move them back to Tennessee, and arrange for his car title to sign it over to Alisha and Marty, etc. Cherie will fly back to Germany next week (Sept. 16). Justin returns on the 20th.

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

love,

Scott and Cherie Caulley