New Site

Hello everybody! Just want to let you know that we have a new blog/website located at ryanandelysedillon.com

All of our old blog posts and comments from this site have been transferred over, and this will now be the place to find updated information about us and our ministry. Thanks for visiting!!

Heading West

One of the big announcements that I planned on sharing with yall a couple months ago (oops! Sorry it's been so long) was that... We are moving to California!!! In about a month now, actually!

This is in now way a permanent move (much to my parents' dismay), as we will only be out there for about a year and a half. We are partnering with a church in Yountville (just 15ish minutes north of Napa) as their sort of missionaries in residence while we dive into this time of full time support raising.

This is not going to be a long detailed post. We are up to our necks right now with selling pretty much all of our belongings, and we have a garage sale happening this weekend that we are getting ready for :-) Please pray that we get everything sold and that God blesses this time of transition for us and paves the way to California these next few weeks!

Yountville Community Church

As far as housing, there happens to be a sweet little apartment inside the church building that we will be able to live in! Ryan will put in some hours helping with worship ministry, and we get a place to live... pretty good trade off!

Anyway, we are super excited and are in awe of how God works these things out! 

Blessings!

R&E

Our 5 days in Germany

Well, it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since we returned from the conference in Germany. I would have wrote about our time there earlier, but I feel like I have needed these last two weeks to wrap my mind around our 5 days in Germany :-) Let's just say, this post is going to be the first of a few big posts about what's coming up in our lives!

First of all... let's talk food.

Apfel Schorle- yummmmm. Apple juice mixed with sparkling water. I usually hate apple juice- but this... this is something totally different. We shared this on our train ride from Zurich, Switzerland (where we flew into) up to Germany. Along with the Schorle we also ate our all time favorite food...

oh yes, Döner Kebab. It's somewhat like a Greek Gyro but ohhh so much better! It was invented by Turkish people living in Berlin. Unlike a Gyro, which is made with lamb, a Döner is made with turkey (at least, that what I've heard). It had been way too long since our last Döner- almost a year! Anyway- just one more food blurb.

German Breakfasts. This photo is just of the remnants... I could never keep it on my plate long enough to take a photo :-) During our week there, I would go to bed at night so excited to be able to get up the next morning and eat more German bread... and salami... and nutella.... and honey..... and herb cream cheese.... and fruits... and, well, the list goes on and on.

We arrived Saturday and spent most of that day setting up for the conference that was to be held the following day. This Kontaktmission conference is an annual gathering of Kontaktmission missionaries and local supporters. The missionaries set up booths all around the conference center and supporters get to see how God is using Kontaktmission workers all over the world while also getting to hear great speakers talk about the growth of, mission of, and opportunities for Kontaktmission and it's workers. It's an exhausting day, but so encouraging and exciting to be a part of. And thankfully, there are headphones available with English translations for those of us who are not quite comfortable enough in our German skills to listen to speakers for 6 hours straight...emmmm yeah, I used those headphones a lot that week.... :-)

I was walking around looking at the different booths and I saw some familiar faces on some of the Kontaktmission flyers!!! :-) We're pretty much famous.

 We're on the flyers that promote the summer short term mission trips that Kontaktmission puts together. Which is really exciting actually, because the first mission trip that Ryan and I went on together was on one of these same summer trips to Germany, Belgium and Austria back in 2007. And then last year we got to lead our very own Kontakmission short term summer trip to those same places! :-) We brought back some of the flyers to show some of our friends at our table during the conference.... but some of them got a bit jealous....

After the conference ended, some of us Americans took a little drive to the nearest big city of Stuttgart to have a bit on an adventure and bite to eat. It was great to catch of with these old friends of ours and hear stories about what they're doing for the Kingdom all around the world! After our little adventure, we headed to the retreat center where we would be spending the rest of our week. This retreat part of the week was solely meant for Kontakmission workers to spend time together in lots of prayer and worship, as well as hearing from each other and amazing speakers. We were in the same retreat center as last year and actually, Ryan and I very randomly got assigned the exact room that we had last year! crazy!

Ryan played all week for the little worship band. There was so much great music and talents shared! Wonderful times of worship and prayer were had everyday- it was all so very refreshing and encouraging.

 We did get to have a very important meeting with the directors of both Kontaktmission and Kontaktmission USA about the direction of our future on the mission field! We have a couple of really awesome announcements actually.... so stay tuned! I'm hoping to have the first bit of news posted later this week! Thank you for your prayers and encouraging words! We had a great time in Germany, and are so thankful that we were able to be a part of this year's activities again!

-R&E

Hello again

Well, as you can tell we have taken a bit of a break from the blog world. The truth is that we have not had too much going on other than Ryan frantically trying to finish his classes so he can graduate this spring from his masters program and I have been working all the time at the day care and making tons of soap for awesome people to buy :-) It's not at all that we have in any way forgotten our goal of moving over to Germany, it's just that sometime God asks for us to be patient and wait for His perfect timing. It seems as though we have been waiting forever! BUT we do know that it is important to finish up our degrees, pay off school debt and make sure we are set and ready to start strong with full time support raising come May of this year.

Our estimated time of departure for Germany is sometime in the year of 2013!

We do have a trip to Germany coming up at the end of the month actually! At the very end of the month Ryan and I will be leaving for Germany to attend a conference/ missionary retreat at the Kontaktmission headquarters in Wüstenrot. We’ll get a chance to meet with KM missionaries from all around Europe as well as to meet with a smaller group of missionaries to Germany to plan, discuss and pray. We are currently looking for churches and or individuals to prayerfully as well as finically support us so that we are able to go to this conference this year. We went last year and are still amazed at how wonderful of a week it was! We were to be able to make connections with other missionaries to Germany as well as other European countries. We will be flying standby to and from Germany to try and save on airfare, so all in all the week will add up to about $1,500. If any of you would be able to support us in any way (financially and/ or prayerfully), that would be so amazing! Please let me know.

Here are some pictures from last year's conference/ retreat:

We hope to keep up with this blog a lot more as we come closer to our goal of leaving for Germany in 2013! Stay tuned for more updates and to see what going on with me and Ryan!

Love and blessings to you all!

Time to say goodbye

Fröhliche Weinachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year) everybody!!

Wow, we really cannot believe December 28th is here already. After almost six months here in Jena, it's time to pack up and go home. Elyse and I have made so many friends and met so many amazing people in our time here, we're finding it really, really hard to have to say goodbye to everyone. First of all, we want to thank all of you for all of your prayers and your support for us while we've been here. We have been so blessed to be able to come here and work and learn for as long as we did. Most of you probably know that we are wanting to come back to Germany full time in the next few years, and this internship was the next major step toward that goal. God has definitely been working in our lives during this time, and we are more sure than ever that Germany is a place where we want to return. Speaking of returning, we actually have some news to share too! This spring, we will be returning to Germany to take part in a week-long conference/retreat for all of the Kontaktmission missionaries. We're really excited to be able to see some of our friends again so soon, but also to be able to continue building our relationship with Kontaktmission and other missionaries around Germany and Europe. We are also going to be helping lead a Kontaktmission trip this coming May. It is the same trip that we went on as students three years ago, and the organization has asked us to come back this summer and lead the trip! So, we plan on keeping this blog up and running for awhile. We'll share news about our progress this spring, and also some more stories from our time here in Jena as we process and reflect on all our experiences. Hope you'll stick around to hear what God has done and continues to do! For now, though, time to finish up the last bit of packing and cleaning the apartment - gotta leave for the train station in 5 hours!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On Saturday we took the train up to a little city outside of Hanover called Peine. Randy and Katie Smelser are Americans who live there in Peine and started a church. Ryan did an internship with them 5 years ago for a summer! And then we both went to see them 3 years ago when I went on my first KontaktMission missions trip. We love them dearly and we so excited to be able to spend some time with them! This Sunday was the second Advent Sunday, and the Smelsers had a big open house Advent party- so much fun! And even more food! It really was great for Ryan and I to be able to have some festive Christmas fun :) Since we have no decorations, tree or gifts around, sometimes I forget Christmas is coming up! So, we made up for it this weekend with lots of fun with great friends!

Doesn't this just look amazing?! And check out all that snow out the window!


I polished all this silver myself! :)


Yum, yum, yummm....


On Monday we went out in the city for the afternoon to look at the Christmas market and go to the city church to see the Nativity Scenes from Around the World display :)




Christmas Market!


It was St. Nikolaus day, so this kinda creepy St. Nikolaus was out and about






Thank you Randy and Katie for having us!

-Ryan and Elyse


ps, some of you Lincoln people might recognize them... they were just in Lincoln and talked in a bunch of classes!

Cooking Class

It's hard to believe, but our time here in Jena is almost over! The time has absolutely flown by! We've been thinking and talking about that recently, so I thought I'd just mention it, but there will be time for getting all emotional and reflective later. We've still got five weeks left :)

Anyway, what the main point of this post is about is to tell you about an awesome event that happened last week here in Jena.

View Larger Map

Let's see, where to start...

OK, so there is another missionary who works with Kontaktmission on the western border of Germany named Dirk Staudinger. He is there with his wife and kids in a little town called Prüm. It is an area with a huge Catholic background. For most people, they are Catholic in name and maybe go to church on Christmas and Easter, but for the vast majority, Christianity plays no real part in the way they live their lives. Dirk is studying in a masters program right now in something like Intercultural Studies, with also a focus in theology - so, a missions program basically. As part of his studies, he had to do an internship in another culture (we know how you feel Dirk!), and he contemplated even going to India or other far-away places like that. But, with a family - and the internship only being about 10 days - that seemed to much. After talking with Rocco, he proposed to his overseers that he do his internship in Jena, and they accepted! It's a COMPLETELY different culture here than in Prüm!! So, what did he do here for 10 days? Well, first I have to tell you one more thing. Dirk is a church planter, but he also studied gastronomy and works as a chef in a four-star restaurant! So, his main project in Jena was to host a gourmet cooking course, as a way to meet people and share with them about what God means in his life.

Step One: Advertise -

Dirk set up a cooking station in the city center - across from Rocco and his weekly book table - and did live demonstrations with free samples, as a way to advertise for the cooking class.

Over the course of the day, he cooked up and gave away three giant pans full of "nasi goreng."

Along with a few people who signed up on this day, some from the church came and invited others too. About 12 in all, including Elyse and I.

Step Two: Cook -

For the menu, we cooked and made a gourmet fall, "Wild" meal, with deer, squash soup, and a bunch of fancy things whose names I don't even know in English - let alone German. The evening was a real success and there were quite a few new people there who had no previous contact with the church. Elyse was content to take photos and eat, and I jumped in a little with the "cooking" doing things I could handle - peeling onions and carrots, and...well, yeah that's about all I had the courage to do; didn't want to risk messing up everyone else's fancy dinner :)

Step Three: Eat -

Step Four: Share -

While everyone was eating, Dirk shared a little about his own story: how he came to become a cook, about his work in Prüm, how he ended up in Jena doing this class...most importantly, he shared about God and what Jesus means to him. None of us knew exactly how this was going to go over. He didn't want in any way to push things on people or trick them into coming to a cooking class only for it to turn into a church service or something. We all felt it his testimony was amazing, though and well received. There are so many people in this atheist town who have never heard the true message of the Bible or maybe never even met a religious person who they also considered "normal." If that was the case for anyone there that night, then I think they got a chance to hear something special. Just a normal guy, with a normal job and a family, passing on this God-given gift of food, cooking and enjoyment, and sharing in a totally open, relaxed and friendly way about the life he has found in Jesus.

Step Five: Don't Forget Dessert -

I thank God for...

creativity, smiles, friendships, different countries, different cultures, and this time where we can all get together and get messy because it's fun! Here are some pictures that my friend Becky took at last weeks Creativity Night. We had a great turn out with about 8 people... we even had a story teller! It really is so much fun, and as soon as it's over I'm already wanting it to be the next Wednesday. Enjoy the pictures, I'll be bringing my own camera this week.

Also, stay tuned for another blog post coming soon about something SUPER awesome going on in Jena tomorrow. It involves a German pastor from the west of Germany and his internship here, gourmet food, and sharing about Jesus!

Creativity Night!

I (Elyse) have started a new little ministry program at our church- Creativity Night! With all the space that our new church building provides, we have all been thinking of good ways to utilize the space and all that God has blessed us with! Having a church building in the city center, right next to a university building has its advantages! So, in trying to come up with ideas I really took a look inside myself and tried to recognize some of the gifts that God has given me and how I can use them. A couple of my gifts for sure are creativity and hospitality. Also realizing that with the ministries that the church already has going, the creative young people in the city were not really being reached out to. SO.... thus was born, Creativity Night!



Last week we had more of a meeting type of night with a few of my friends who are also excited about having fun and crafting it up with some other people! Please be praying that God uses this as a great way to get people more familiar with each other as well as with the church, and what we're all about. I'm praying that through being creative together, maybe somehow they can see the One that gives them creativity is the One who created them!

"Friends"

Recently I came across the blog of a fellow worker in Germany. He works on media projects, and this certain video that he helped with spoke volumes to Ryan and I. It parallels with a lot of things we have been experiencing, and makes us feel all happy inside :)

Friends from Lava Lamp Productions on Vimeo.

Feel free to share your thoughts!

Refresh

Wow, what a whirlwind of a couple of weeks! We didn't want to advertise it much, but a couple of weeks ago Ryan had to head back to the States for his cousin's wedding, therefore leaving me all alone in a foreign country for almost a week...yikes! :) Everything went completely okay, and it gave me a chance to connect with this wonderful city I'm living in in a whole new way. When Ryan returned to Germany he brought a stowaway with him... His brother Cory!

We had a ton of fun while Cory was here, just the three of us. Cory had never been to Europe before so we got to show him just how awesome it is! He also got a good introduction to the Church in Germany and it's huge need for more workers... so we're praying maybe he'll come back to Germany someday to do ministry also! :) Anyway, After Cory's first few days in Germany we rented a car and drove to PRAGUE! It's funny seeing the drastic differences between the Czech Republic and Germany even though the border is only a couple hours away from Jena :) Anyway, the reason why we went to Prague was to meet my grandparents there!!!



We all had a ton of fun in Prague for a few days. We got to go to a Czech speaking church with the Mudrik's (the Missionaries in Residence at Lincoln last year) as well as do plenty of touristy things! My grandparents had also never been to Europe before! I'm so glad they came, it was so wonderful. Prague is a gorgeous city, absolutely stunning... and the FOOD IS AMAZING!




After our few days spent in Prague, we all piled into the car and drove back into our beloved Germany. Even after being in Prague for like a day, I already missed Germany :) I loved being able to recognize words and speak some again! Anyway, on our way back to Jena we stopped by Dresden to spend the afternoon doing some sightseeing. If you know anything about what happened to Dresden during WWII, you know just how heart wrenching it was to actually be there and see the city for yourself. In the book, Slaughterhouse 5, Dresden is described as having looked like "Heaven" or "Oz", but then it was so completely destroyed by the Allies bombing it that it is later simply referred to as "the moon". Being there are looking at some before and after bombing photos I couldn't help but weep, what a surreal experience. The city is totally rebuilt now and they have replicated some of the main original buildings and churches that were destroyed.



Then, eventually, we made it back to little ol' Jena. We loved having Cory and my Grandparents with us at our new "home". We spent most of our time eating waaaaaay too much! Perfect :)

We also got to go to an old WWII concentration camp located about 45 minutes outside of Jena. Buchenwald is particularly unique because it was the very last concentration camp to be liberated during WWII. It was of course chilling and surreal to be there, but I'm glad Cory as well as my Grandparents were able to experience visiting such a place. For Ryan and I, it was the second one we have visited. I believe that it's such a life changing experience that everyone should try to visit one in their lifetime.


The rest of our time in Jena was filled with more and more food, helping around at our Church a little bit, having to say goodbye to Cory (and trying to not envy him too much as he headed off on his European adventure), having my grandparents come to church with us (they were able to witness 2 baptisms!) and then eventually having to say goodbye to them as well :( All in all, having all of them here was a time that we will never forget and we loved every moment of it. Thank you to Cory as well and my wonderful Grandparents for coming to see us! And a VERY special thank you to my Grandparents for spoiling us so much while they were here!!! We love you!


So now here we are all alone again, back to real life. Actually Ryan has been at a conference in southern Germany the last couple days, so I've been on my own again :) It's been kind of nice to have some downtime alone though. I will be blogging again soon with some more ministry related things going on here in Jena! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

-Elyse