Mezger Memo

WE'VE MOVED!!

2007-09-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, just like everybody else, we've moved to wordpress. Please update your bookmarks, we are now at: www.mezgermemo.wordpress.com

Brothers

2007-09-13T15:51:00.001-07:00

You may not know this, but my boys have about the same age difference as me and my brother, Josh. That makes me feel good. Especially on Josh's birthday a couple days ago. I hope and pray that they grow up as close as we did.

conversation with the neighbor ladies last night

2007-08-27T22:12:00.001-07:00

Me: We're not going to be here for a few days. We have to go up to Hungary to pick up a friend.
Bahra & Amela: Why'd she go to Hungary?
Me: She had to see a specialist-doctor.
Bahra & Amela: We have everything right here in Sarajevo! What's wrong with you!!?? Spend all that money to go to Budapest and we have some of the best doctors and hospitals in the world, right here! Not even Belgrade has such a fine hospital.
Me: I'm pretty sure that she needed a special doctor and Budapest had one of the only ones in this region.
Bahra & Amela: No, you're crazy, you're the sick one! What a waste...

(Both Bahra and 9-month pregnant Amela smoke a few more cigarettes)

Me: Amela, how's the baby coming along?
Amela: Coming soon, but I'm not having my baby at the hospital here! I'm going to a private clinic somewhere else.
Me: Why not go to the (world class) Koshevo Hospital?
Amela: Are you kidding!!?? They have mice running around all over that place!! No way!!

Picture of Bosnia

2007-08-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

I know that there are many pictures here, but they all show a picture of this region today: broken. We had a WONDERFUL visit from our friends the Nemeths who faithfully serve in another broken town called Vukovar. The time was rich, the food was hearty (one word: MacKenzie), the kids had fun, and we were encouraged. By the way, if you don't know what you're looking at, these pictures were taken just outside of town where the downhill events took place for the 1984 Olympics. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place platforms, so we heard, were ironically used as an execution site during the war here.

Photos that make you cry

2007-08-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

We've done songs already, how about photos? I must have seen this one captured at a KKK rally in Michigan over a decade ago and still can't get it out of my mind:

I suppose you could link your photo in the comments section. Either that or post it on your own blog.

For Josh, Charlie, and Quynh!

2007-08-04T04:34:00.001-07:00

Give me some real food!

2007-07-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that Bosnia has killer watermelons?

a note from Simeon

2007-07-14T13:24:00.001-07:00

dear blok readers-

this is my very first blok posting, and i don’t really understand what this whole blok thing is all about… i think it has something to do with froks though, right?
anyways, some of you have been asking about me and how i’m doing, well, i thought i’d let you know. here goes:
i’m now 2 years 3 months old and my Mommy & Daddy (M&D) say that I am all TWO! what is it they say? terrific twos? something like that. i am now aware that i have my own will and sometimes i like to exercise that will.
we finally moved into our new home and guess what? i got my own big boy bed! no more cribs for me- no siree bob. i sleep in the corner of the room with my Winnie the pooh pillow, my pas (stuffed doggie) whose name is zubie, and my bikie (blankie). right now my bed is on the floor so i don’t fall off of it- it’s also easier to jump on the bed too.
i’ve made 2 new fwenz that live next door- “SelmaBelma, SelmaBelma” (Selma’s 2 and Belma’s 3). they’re alot of fun for being girls, i guess.
we’ve also had some fwenz stay with us in our house. ryu stayed with us (he’s lowee’s younger brother), lowee and jack-a-bee, and kinney. it was fun having jack-a-bee live with us. while he was here he learned how to crawl, drink out of a sippy-cup, and has eaten lots of new foods- he’s growing up so fast!
we had a lot of fun when ryu, lowee, and jack-a-bee were here, but we had to say ba-bye to them. that made me sad, but that just means that we have more room for other people to come and stay with us (hint-hint).
let’s see another thing i’m really good at is giving nicknames. if you think my parents are good at giving nicknames- i think that i might even be better! Let’s see there’s Mulu (Merle), Lute (Luke), Wistee (Kristy), Lokin (Logan), and many others too.
my days are filled with lots of activity. i eat bekfis (cereal-pease, or ekks, or toas) and then i like to go to the pekara (bakery). i usually run there and back and if i’m good i get some of the choca-it croissant.
then we stop by the house with the caws (cows) and sheepas. i like to go there b/c it reminds me of my favorite song: “donald” (old macdonald). then i go play! i especially like the wee next door. it’s a big kid wee where i have to hold on to the chains. and now there’s a really big slide that i go down only with mommy.
then there’s lunch and then mi-mis (nap) and then when i wake up from my nap i get a snack! sometimes i even get a cookie! more playing, dancing around, running around, tickles and that kind of stuff.
did you know that i helped build my house? when Daddy and Ryu were working on the hardwood floors i got to give them the nails and i also got to hamma (surprise-surprise). i like building like BobBuilda.
a couple of weeks ago i had a full weekend! 1 day we went up the mountain and had a pic-nic. i got to run up and down the mountain, i flew my first kite, and went bug hunting. then the next day we went to a wedding! i got all dressed up and got to run around with all the other big kids. Mommy and baby Than danced the electric slide together and Daddy sang a Bob Marley song. Kinney wanted to take a picture of my, but i made her work for it: “Mimo smile”, “Kinney wun”, “Mimo picture”, “Kinney wun”, i did let her take a few pictures of me since she did run a little bit.
and then, the next day we went the center of town where the ground is made out of slippery stones and i got to run! i also got to ride on a choo-choo Thomas!
one time we also went to the wadee. i mostly threw rocks into the wadee.
now that we are in our own home i’m thinking about using the potty. thinking only right now- i’m not ready yet, but soon. M&D said that if i use the potty then i’ll get choca-it…i’m still thinking about it though. the other day i got choca-it when Daddy bzzzd my head. even though Daddy bzzzd my head for some reason i still get a sweaty head…maybe i need another bzzz and more choca-it too.
every night before i go nigh-nigh i tell daddy “ah-song” and together we sing songs about Je-us. Daddy forgets a lot of the words so i have to help him out. like:
i love you LORD
and i lift my VOICE
to worship YOU
oh my SOUL
re-JOICE
take joy my KING
in what you HEAR
may it be a sweet, sweet SOUND
in your EAR
after we sing we pway together. we even pway for you too! ti-ti (thank you) for praying for me, Mommy, Daddy, and baby Than. it really helps when we talk to Je-us. he helps us out a lot. so keep pwaying for us and we’ll keep pwaying for you too.
okay. ciao for now! pah-pah! (how kids say bye-bye here).

One of the best 4th parties ever!

2007-07-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Most of my life I've been in another country for (1) my birthday and (2) the 4th of July. I never imagined that one of the best 4th parties I would ever go to would be here in Sarajevo, Bosnia. We had a ton of Americans over to the "Mare's Head" (that's what our neighborhood is called--Kobilja Glava) and really just cooked out and sang songs. Here's why it was so great though: Don Stevens is a new friend here and is talented with many different instruments. With him leading we sang late into the night all kinds of old American traditionals--Battle Hymn of the Republic, Oh Susanna, etc. He made a good point though, if you go to a Bosnian wedding you will find hundreds of people singing word for word all of their traditional songs until 2 in the morning. We couldn't even make it through one verse of each American song! Though we still had fun singing them, we all realized that we should try harder at passing along our own cultural music from generation to generation.

for the baby lovers...

2007-07-02T02:12:00.001-07:00

still no internet

2007-06-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all, we're still working on setting things up at home. I just returned from 4.5 days (yes, days) of driving all over Germany, picking up things that we shipped and also picking up Mackenzie Rollins, Jack, and Lauren Tayler.

There is so much to tell you, things to pray for, people to pray for. But time and resources are so limited. Living in Europe is not cheap, and that is getting heavy on my mind.

More to come...

photo update

2007-05-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

(clockwise) coffee break in our attick while completing the house. Simeon LOVES his little brother. Simeon has found a great park right near downtown. And finally, some new help arrives--Ryan Lambert! The one and only.

A Ok

2007-05-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

If only we all had the resilience of kids. Simeon is back in full force today. The fever broke and all is well, though he now has a pretty sore throat. Thank you for all your prayers and we'll chalk up "good Bosnian medical experience #1" in our memories.

urgent prayer need

2007-05-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

Please keep little Simeon in your prayers. He woke up from a nap 2 days ago with an outrageous temperature. It goes down when we give him medicine, then goes even higher. Through God's providence we got an appointment yesterday at a private clinic with the retired head of Pediatrics of the main Sarajevo hospital. He prescribed an antibiotic and said that if the fever doesn't go away after a day or so then we have to go through a series of urine and blood tests.

Simeon is miserable. He laid awake most of last night moaning "hoot" (hurt) and "mimis" which means he wants to sleep.

This is hard. Please pray.

Fun Bosnia facts Pt. 1

2007-05-04T05:46:00.001-07:00

If you're 30 or under like me, then you'll notice that more guys than not sport the fauxhawk. What is that you ask? I'm no expert in the field, but I think David Beckham started it a few years back. He's that worldwide phenom unknown to many Americans, from that game that most Americans don't know about: Football (or soccer). Here's what it looks like:

Janet wants me to try it...no way. I told her she can experiment on the boys. Another thing to get used to here: Smoke everywhere. I mean everywhere. What can you do? Here's a quick vocab lesson: something that cracks us up here is the lack of vowels in the language. Take the word "carrot" for example: MRKVA. Or my favorite, the word for patience: STRPLJENJE.

All for now. Thanks for reading!

Finally have a few pics

2007-05-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

(clockwise) Night view of the city from our balcony, precious cargo, and Sim's new "Zumbrock Park", not a bad view eh?

Still homeless...but happy.

2007-04-30T02:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, we made it in one piece. 17 hours of flying with two little boys was comprable to running a marathon. One bag was missing when we arrived but was shuttled to our place the next morning. Our landlady is a riot. Will write more about her later. She is as fiery and witty as her Bosnian red-dyed hair. Simeon loves her. The house should be ready this week. In the meantime we are staying in Merle & Jenny's home next door. They return from the states may 29th.

Can't wait for more people to arrive. Hopefully this month will be the loneliest time that we will experience here.

Peace. Rob

The day has arrived!

2007-04-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

After two years of being at home, training, connecting, GROWING, we are finally returning to the Balkans today. In about 4 hours we fly out to Sarajevo, Bosnia via Washington Dulles and Munich. Yep, 2 layovers, with two little, energy-filled boys. Pray that we miraculously keep a sense of humor throughout our trip, they are pretty silly guys. Here's some pictures taken on Simeon's second birthday.

More to come...

We're gone! Almost.

2007-04-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Packed up and left Wheaton today. Janet and the boys are in Dallas. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Matoon Illinois with Tim Taylor. We got a flat tire on the trailer and when the rim hit the highway, the axel broke. I'm going to ditch the trailer in the morning and get a UHaul. So much for saving money by buying my own utility trailer and selling it in Dallas. Good times.

brief update

2007-03-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

Dad and I made it to Sarajevo ok. PTL all of our bags arrived safely after a flight to London, Munich, then Sarajevo. I am very sick, however, so keep that in your prayers. We came down with a horrible cold as a family just before I left. I had to leave Janet with two very sick little boys. Grandma is there helping out though. I'll update more later. Dad says that he's never seen a city like this one. He compares it a little to Monterrey, Mexico if you've ever been.

Meet Jack Elijah Taylor

2007-03-01T14:10:00.001-08:00

Jack Taylor and his mom Lauren came to visit us last week. He's a great kid as you can see. He looks a lot like his daddy, especially when he squints. Jack's coming to Bosnia with us and boy is Simeon excited. We had such a great time during their visit. We went to a pub and heard live Irish music, visited a coffe shop built around a real roaster, sang a lot of songs, cried and told stories about Nathan (Jack's dad), and drove through one of Chicago's worst blizzards in a decade for 2 hours to get Ethiopian food. Oh yeah, and did I mention that there are now 4 Mezger/Taylor boys, soon to be 5? Aunt Mandi is having another boy! We'd better live in a community together to keep the tradition going.

You have not because you ask not...

2007-02-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd throw this on the table. We have a few practical needs. Can you shoot us an email (or leave a comment) if you can help with any of these or have any ideas?

1. Storage space: 5'x5' and about 7' tall would be ideal. A garage or basement would work. We'll put most of our stuff in those rubbermaid containers that stack nicely and are moisture-proof.

2. Help with support letter-mailings. We would email you a pdf, you'd print it, stuff the envelopes and mail them out from a state-side location. Of course we'd pay for everything.

2 Months from departure

2007-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

In High Honor:
Nathanael Isaac Taylor
9/26/82-11/27/06

Beloved friends,
It is with sorrow and joy that we greet you this post-Christmas season. In late November we got a phone call that Rob's lifelong friend Nathan Taylor had drowned in a fishing accident in Oregon. The news was nearly unbearable and Rob departed immediately for funerals both in Oregon and Texas. Janet was unable to travel because she was already in her 8th month of pregnancy. Losing Nathan has caused some deep reflection and though he is gone, we know he is with Jesus. We also have been reminded of the brevity of life and have remembered our call to make the most of it by following and serving Jesus.
TEAM UPDATE:
As some of you know, we have been working to develop a team for our work in the Balkans. Well, Nathan's wife Lauren Elizabeth is prayerfully considering joining us with little Jack who is now 4 months old. Furthermore, her two younger brothers may be coming for the entire summer. Please join her/us in prayer about this.
INTRODUCING:
Nathanael Divinagracia Mezger!
We had a wonderful New Year's Day surprise when this little angel came 3 weeks early. Praise the Lord Janet was able to have a natural birth! He weighed 7lb 15oz. Both mom and Nathanael are doing great. Simeon is very excited about having a little brother too. He loves giving him kisses all over!

PRAYER NEEDS:

1. Pray that we would find a house suitable for this potential team. Rob and his dad will be traveling next month to begin looking for a place.
2. A car. We are exploring the option of buying a car in Germany to save money and visa/registration trouble. Pray that this could happen through our friends in Germany.
3. Pray for Janet's speedy recovery from the labor process as we are about to begin moving our belongings into storage and over to Bosnia.

You are vital to this ministry with your prayer and support! We thank you for your partnership with us.
By His strength,
The Mezgers

Yay! I get a passport!

2007-02-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

because I'm about to move to Bosnia and become a missionary kid!

Nathanael Divinagracia Mezger

2007-01-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago, Janet had this idea, and we started praying about it: Lara Davis and Scott Barnett were getting married on New Year's Eve and though we didn't know them too well, we kind of invited ourselves to the wedding. Janet wanted to get a babysitter, get all dressed up, go to the wedding and dance the night away. We would come home and sleep for a few hours and she would go right into labor. Miraculously, we got a babysitter (thanks Nick and Stephanie), and at the reception we were half jokingly telling people that the baby was coming that night...3 weeks early. Riiight.

At 7:30 Janet woke me up saying, "Happy new year honey, let's welcome our son to the new year!" I shot out of bed in utter disbelief. In a matter of minutes she was hovered over the couch moaning in pain yelling at me to get Josh and Jennie here NOW (to watch Simeon). I ran 3 red lights on Roosevelt and drove about 95-100mph on the highway, all the while with her moaning "faster!" They wheeled her from the emergency reception up to a room and at the first exam, Liz Garcia (our midwife) looked at me with a huge smile saying, "she's ready to push!"

Janet pushed for about 2 hours like a total champ, and this little guy came out, all natural! His middle name is Janet's maiden name, a Filipino tradition. We did the same with Simeon. So here he is, named after a great man, Nathan Taylor (see previous posts):