Here's some of the places we've been. Blue
means Jon has been there alone. Red
means Nicole has been there alone. Purple
means we've both been there!
Click on each picture for a "high res" (but old
computer-safe) version.

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Germany In
1994-95, my family lived in Germany, in a little town
called Kandern. From there, the family visited many
European countries, including Great Britain, France,
Itlay, Austria and Switzerland. In 1997, I got to go back
as part of a choir that would tour France. Some Canadian
friends stayed with me with some American friends in
their German home on the edge of town. This is us on a
hike to a ruined castle near Sitzenkirch -- the next town
over.
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Germany In
2016, I finally made good on an almost-20-year-old
promise to take Nic to visit my old home town in Germany.
We had spaghetti eis, swam at schwimmbad, hiked up to
the castle, and ate pommes. The school was closed for
rennovations, but we had fun exploring this beautiful
little part of the world.
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France Also
in 2016, and since we were in Europe anyway, we visited
Paris. Like many tourists before us, we walked until our
feet almost fell off, saw the Louvre and Notre Dame
(before the fire!) and climbed the Eiffel Tower. On this
trip, we drove a tiny little Reneult with a manual
transmission -- Paris traffic is exhilirating!
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Switzerland Although
we had assumed after our 2016 trip, we weren't going to
be back any time soon, in 2017 I was offered a work trip
to Switzerland -- so of course, Nicole came along. This
time we got to see the Alps, and explore some cute little
Swiss towns.
Next time, we're bringing the kids -- and some skiis!
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Europe
We'd planned to take the kids to Europe in 2020, but a global pandemic
put a wrench in those (and other) plans!
We finally made it over in 2022, and saw as much as we could with the
kids in tow. We visited the grandparent's in England, and did a walking
tour of London (and more than a few hours sitting in the Harry Potter play).
We stayed in Paris, and did the town, stayed in Germany near where I
used to live, and did one-day road trip to the Swiss Alps and back!
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Bangladesh In
1985-1986, my family lived in Bangladesh. That's little
Jon in the center with the red shirt on.
We lived in a little compound called Malumghat, built
around a Missionary Hospital. My worked there as a nurse,
while my dad, behind me in the middle, taught at the
missionary school. The story of Malumghat is told in the
book Daktar: Diplomat in Bangladesh, and is worth
reading!
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Thailand In
2004 a Tsunami hit the small country of Thailand, so in
2005 we got in our minds to see if we could help and
learn about the people there. Some missionary friends
lived in the nearby country of Malaysia, so they helped
us arrange a trip. Here's Nicole after working on moving
bricks into place for a home being rebuilt. We weren't
really there long enough to make an impact on the people
there, but they certainly made an impact on us.
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Malaysia It
wasn't all work and priority-establishing. We had a
little fun too. This resort in Penang was open to the
public for a small fee, so we got to spend a day on a
beach. I went paragliding and jet skiing, while Nicole
relaxed in the sun. We determined we would need to come
back to Asia again soon.
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Cambodia Again In
2010 we got a chance to go back to Asia. In the iterim,
my parents had moved to Malaysia to do ministry there, so
we had hoped for an excuse to go visit. A young friend
from our church who had a heart for medical missions had
been saving up for a "vision trip" and we got
the privilege of escorting her there.
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Siem Riep (Cambodia) Among
other amazing spots, we got the explore the ruin at Siem
Reap, and climb one of the pyramids there to watch the
sunset. After Cambodia, we headed to Malaysia and Hong
Kong.
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China I
got to go on a work trip to China, where my contact there
graciously offered to show me around. We visited the
temple in Beijing, and the Great Wall of China!
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