Spring-time!!!

Hello, all!
I thought it was probably time to give a little update on some of the latest happenings that have been going on here in Dubuque. Christian and I have found ourselves very busy lately, but have been enjoying our time getting to know people immensely! God is just so good! We are continually amazed at his grace and provisions. The people that He has brought into our lives are such gifts to us, and we love having all of these great opportunities to build relationships.
I will back-track a bit to the month of February. Christian and I were privileged with getting to join Emmaus in attending our very first hockey game ever. I think Christian has officially fallen in love with something new... and we've only been married for three months as of today! Uh oh! (Just kidding ;-)) But really, he does just love the sport now. Here is a photo of our experience-

It was great! The state team, the Fighting Saints won the game and wiped the ice with the other team. GO SAINTS!
Closer to the end of February we experienced what we have officially considered "real" Iowa weather. One night, the sky was clear and the air cool and crisp, but by the morning we woke up to a solid five inches of pure white, billowy snow! It snowed for the entire day, and let me tell you... It was fabulous! Christian and I are just in love with the midwest snow. From the sound of it though, we might be two of only a hand-full here in Dubuque that really still have any appreciation for it. While it is kind of a hazard and annoyance for driving, we still think it's beautiful. And for those of you who know me very well, you'd know that my favorite holiday is Christmas, so I just can't be upset when I live in a perpetual Christmas land! That's right, I even watched Miracle on 34th Street with a hot cup of tea one morning while Christian was at school. I know... it was almost March and I'm still not letting go of the holidays. It's ok. I'm over it now. ;-)

Since March though, it's been crazy! The weather is apparently at a record of high temperatures! This last week has been nothing but weather in the mid-70's to the mid-80's! Absolute craziness for Iowans. We have all broken out our sandals and flip-flops and Emmaus has even stamped their approval on the wearing of shorts, now! Christian is definitely happy about that. He's a total shorts man.
Last week we were blessed to have our first visitors from back in Portland come to see us! The Papworths have been making their way around to their supporters giving Iran updates, and they took time out of their schedule to come spend a lovely afternoon catching up with us. We were so happy to see them and hear how life is back home and how everyone is doing at Westside. We miss it so dearly, and having a piece of home come to visit us was precious.

Finally, this last week has been Spring Break. And a much needed one, too! According to daily reminders from students around campus, this semester has been really tough on everyone academically. I know, because Christian has been having to date his books and homework instead of his wife during the weekdays (and I say that without bitterness, because what he is studying is amazing and we are so privileged to be here). Thus, we began our week of break with an in-home date night. Redbox has been our best friend for date-nights. :-) And just recently, one of our new favorites came out on DVD. That's right-- Puss in Boots!
Complete with popcorn and raspberry iced teas. Just like the cinema, but better... And lighter on our pockets, too. Haha!

This last Monday, we decided to leave for a visit to Chicago and Aunt Carol Papworth. We were accompanied by one of our new friends, Benjamin Jimenez (another international student from Mexico). He was heading to O'Hare to pick up his brother who is here to spend Spring Break with him. :-) We took off Monday evening and arrived in Chicago around 11pm, unfortunately for Aunt Carol... But as always, she was a trooper and greeted us with love and smiles despite our late arrival. It was just amazing. Christian and I spent the whole day on Tuesday walking all over the city of Chicago, seeing the sights! We had no agenda, no schedule, just a map and some good walking shoes. It was great! We went to Millennium Park, saw The Bean, the outdoor amphitheater, the John Hancock Tower, the Chicago Sun Times building, the NBC building, and Navy Pier! What a day! Then we got to take the train home, which was another great adventure. Union Station is quite a busy place! Especially at 5 o'clock in the evening... Rush hour. Oops. But it was great. The train was like the Portland Max on steroids. Not kidding. Christian loved it! We even made it back in time for supper with Aunt Carol and Dick and Nita, again. :-) They weren't leaving the area until this last Thursday, so we got to spend some more time with them during our visit, too. The next day, we drove out to Moody Bible Institute to tour the campus with our old Doulos friend, Willem MacCleane from the Netherlands! It was great to see him again after four years. He was just his same old happy and silly self, and we had a great time catching up. He brought us to the top of the John Hancock Tower, where we sat in a cafe there and enjoyed some strawberry smoothies (BEST ones we EVER had!) and see the city from the top of the world. It was beautiful!!! On Wednesday we said goodbye to Aunt Carol and the Papworths and made our way home for some more R&R time. :-) 

 Us in Chicago, at Millennium Park

 Christian in front of the amphitheater

 Us in front of the Bean! A big stainless steel dome, thing that reflects everything 

Our reflections in the Bean! :-) 

 That is the Prudential building on the far right. Just another pic of the city from Millennium Park :-)

Here is a pic of Chicago from the end of Navy Pier. Gorgeous, right!?

 Me with the train... Awkwardly

 Us with Willem at the top of the John Hancock tower!

The view from the top of the tower at the cafe. That's the Sears tower on the top right (the one with the antenna). Seriously, Portland City Grill has nothing on this place. 

On Thursday we had a GREAT family come over for dinner--The Hernandez'... Or as I call them, the Hernandae. Joel is one of the Intercultural Studies professors here at EBC, and his wife, Amy leads one of the women's church bible studies. They are just fabulous. We spend a lot of time with the Spanish speakers here in Dubuque, particularly the Hernandae. Amy has taught me how to knit (she is a knitting phenomenon, no joke, and she shares many of the same loves as me: coffee, people, music, unique things, creativity, art and Starbucks mug collecting. She is literally a woman after my own heart. I just love her). Anyway, we had Joel, Amy, their daughter (a student at EBC) Sarah, and their neice... Sarah (no seriously, they are both Sarah's) over for calzones and it was a fabulous evening. Enjoyed every minute thoroughly! They are all Spanish speakers, and all of this spending practically all of our social time with Spanish speakers is doing me some serious good! I'm getting a lot of my Spanish back, but I'm still working up the guts to actually speak it. It's ok. It will come. In fact, there is another young couple here, the Orrico's. Samuel and his wife Rebekah. They are just too sweet! Sam is from Mexico, and his wife is from Iowa. She is in the process that I am... Trying desperately to learn Spanish. We all attend Spanish bible study together on Sunday nights, and oftentimes all are getting together at someone's house to hang out. It's great! And Bekah and I are picking up a lot by spending so much time with these amazing crazies! We love them! And it's so nice to have someone who is in the same shoes as I am. We definitely get to encourage each other, and that's definitely nice. 

On Friday we went bowling with Benjamin and his brother, Isaac. We had so much fun! It's been so long since either of us bowled. But, unfortunately, Ben and Isaac kicked our booties pretty hard. We decided that we need to go bowling more often. Then they came over for dinner afterwards and we got to know Isaac a bit. Such a super guy, and we are so glad that we got to spend that time with him and Ben. 

Finally, we are ending the week tonight with going out for dinner with Ben, Isaac, our friend Elena (her parents were missionaries in Paraguay! And she's a student at EBC), Macarena (our friend from Peru) and her boyfriend from Kansas. Also, as a gift from one of my new bosses, Christian and I are going to hear the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra tomorrow, as they play Beethoven's 9th! We are so looking forward to it! God has blessed us richly with so many amazing people around us. This will be a great ending to a great week! Then on Monday, Christian is back to school and I start my job at Dubuque Bank and Trust. YAY! 

Many more exciting things to come! Thanks for praying, reading, loving and being our friends! We love all of you! Blessings from Iowa! 

A Lesson In Trust

Hello, all!
I'm so sorry that this update has taken a while to get here. Much has been happening in the Neufeld home. God has been so unbelievably good to us, and we are ever thankful. Obviously, life for the past two months hasn't been the easiest thing ever... We are learning what it means when people say, "The honeymoon doesn't last forever". I don't mean that in the sense that there is any lack of love and romance in our relationship. What I mean is that the burdens of real life start coming into view, and we must once again begin to battle the temptations of worry, busy-ness, stress, tiredness and the list seems to go on. The Lord has been teaching us so much, though about what it means to really rely on Him, and what it means when He says that He is sovereign, even over the things that seem more trivial than others. Praise God that He is the only God that always does what's best for His children, and that He always has us in the palm of His hand, never dropping us and never leaving us.
It's kind of funny how many conversations that I've had lately where people ask me, "So how are you adjusting to Dubuque?" I usually talk about how great it is, how we are slowly but surely making this place home and getting to know people. Usually the question that follows that is, "So are you working while Christian is in school?" Up until yesterday, my answer was, "Well, I'm looking for a job. Doing everything I can to find one." People that stick around to talk after that usually then get my spiel about how I have learned throughout my life that God tends to teach me lessons in concentrated amounts of time. He doesn't really spread the lessons out over time. It's kind of like, "Hey Linda, I know that you need to work on trust, so I'm going to have a bunch of scenarios in your life for the next several months that teach you about it." Now, if I'm going to be theologically correct, I know that that's not necessarily true, but the Lord always knows what I need, and it seems as though when he pick a lesson, that's all my life has to do with for several months in a row. I must be stubborn. Who would've thought? ;-)
I know that the subject of trust has been a great theme through my relationship with Christian, and especially since we got married. So many changes and so many uncertainties, there really has been nothing to do but trust in the Lord, which is what we're always supposed to do anyway, even when we do seem to have a rough idea of the future. This not having a job has definitely been one of those areas in which I have had no choice but to hand the situation over to the Lord. Much easier said than done. Much. I think when any of us are tossed into situations where we literally can do nothing about the outcome, it really tends to make the inner control freak in all of us come out. That's definitely what happened with me.
I am so thankful for the people that God has brought into our lives here. I think of how blessed we are to have such wisdom and encouragement put into our lives daily from these incredible believers, here. I was blessed with something that a new friend of ours here told me one day while I was lamenting over not having an income. She told me that I shouldn't feel all of this weight on my shoulders to provide; that my worry is sin, and that ultimately God is the one who provides for all of our needs, and that it's really never up to us. And you know what? That is so very true! Honestly, I had never thought of that. I had done all that I could do to find work. I was diligent, I was putting forth the effort and that is really all I could do. It was time for me to lift my hands and say, "Ok... I'm done with this worry. I'm sorry for my sin of not trusting you. I'm sorry that I don't give you the credit that you deserve." I needed also to not just trust the Lord, but to make sure I give Him all of the credit for His provision, especially when He gets me a job. I'm so thankful for that conversation. It really let relax and take advantage of this time of not working. This has been a valuable time in itself. I have been blessed with the chance to build a home for my husband. I have been blessed with the time to learn about him--the things he likes, prefers, and what is important to him. I have been given such a great opportunity to open our home to people (mostly students), so that they can finally get off campus occasionally. I have been given this time to build these relationships and learn to be a wife, and who knows when a time like this will be available to me again?
I went out for tea with a new friend of mine, Beth a couple of weeks ago. It was a great conversation. The Lord has blessed me so much through her friendship already, and I am so thankful that He has brought her into my life. After our tea-time, she drove me home and got the chance to come up and see our new place. Now, because of this lesson that I have been learning about trust, I had had the song "Trust and Obey" stuck in my head everyday for about a week at the time, so I wrote a little sign on a 3x5 notecard that had those two words on it. When Beth came into our apartment she saw that sign and started shouting, "No way! No way!" It just so happens that she has the same two words on a 3x5 notecard in her office here at EBC (she works in the admissions department). Turns out we both have trust issues with God in different ways, so we need a daily reminder for us to "trust and obey" Him. I love the words to that song. They are so simple, but so great:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word,

what a glory He sheds on our way!

When we do His good will, He abides with us still

and with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

to be happy in Jesus,

Than to trust and obey.

As it turns out, a couple of weeks ago I got a call from a bank in the area which is just one bank of many based out of Heartland Financial, Inc, and it's Dubuque Bank and Trust. This bank has about a zillion branches (or so it seems) in the area, and I happened to see a job opening on a local job website. I figured what the heck, and went ahead and sent in a resume and cover letter to them, only to receive a phone call a few days later to schedule an interview. What amazed me about that was that I knew I was already way under-qualified for the job... I mean, based off of my previous work experience. I have never worked in investments or even at a bank, not even as a teller. I was told on the phone that I was going to be having a two hour interview with four people. That's not intimidating, right? Let me tell you my first impressions. So, I go downtown for this interview, park at this building which is the DB&T corporate offices building (so it's not actually a bank branch) and walk in. There is a receptionist desk just inside two sets of double doors, which I go to and say, "Hi. Umm... I have an interview with umm... Andrew Douglas?" To which she smiles in a way that says, "You obviously don't know how any of this works, do you?" You know those smiles. Anyway, so this is a place where apparently you have to have an appointment with someone who works in the building in order to even access the elevator or stair case. The receptionist has to call to that person's department, and then buzz you through the door that goes to the elevator. High-tech, right? Gee whiz. 

      So after my interviews, I felt pretty great! But I also knew that there were probably a ton of other applicants who were far more qualified than me for this job, which really wasn't hard to do. Again, I was sooooo under-qualified. So about a week passes and I get another phone call from the portfolio manager in the investment department, telling me how much they loved me and how great I was, etc. I won't lie, I was waiting for a "but..." in there somewhere, but there wasn't one! She just told me that they needed me to come in on March 2nd for a formality interview with the wealth management department, and so that the president of the wealth management group for ALL of the banks could meet me. Then the investment team would take me out to lunch after. Wow. Needless to say, I bought my power suit, and went in yesterday for these interviews. Talk about the Lord pulling a miracle! I GOT THE JOB! I work now in what is called the "middle office", so half of the day I am working in wealth management, and the other half in the investment department. It has great  pay and more benefits than I ever could have hoped for, which more than meets our needs, and will allow us to use our excess for ministry. We are SO thankful!!! As Beth said in her text to me, "Praises be!" 

     My God is SO great. HE got me this job. HE most certainly provided in ways that I could never have hoped for. I hope this is encouragement for people struggling with trusting the Lord. It is an intense struggle. The reward of trusting in His provision though, is just soooooo much greater than you could ever expect. He always has us in His hands. Always, always, always. And His ways are so much higher than ours, and His plans so much greater. SO MUCH GREATER. 

     "For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."- John 1:16