The Host Family

I have been meaning to write about our host family, Roger and Jan Brehm. The are a retired couple in their 70’s. Roger worked as a pharmacist and Jan as a gym teacher. They have 6 kids, 11 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. As Roger says, they are a very prolific family, "no sittin’ round watchin’ the grass grow, get to it!"

The two other guys that Joe and I are living with are Zach and Nate. Zach is a summer class away from a diploma in international business and an all-American center back from Mt. Vernon Nazarene. I played against him when I was at Cedarville but didn’t know it at the time. Nate will be a Sophomore at North West University, also a business major.

The four of us live in the furnished basement apartment of the Brehms. We live mostly independently, make our own meals and keep our own schedule. But, we do spend time with them. Today we made brunch for them (I made cinnamon rolls, thank you very much). We also play tennis and go to church with them.

Christianese: When Roger and Jan retired they worked did clown ministry. They traveled to all sorts of places in the US and world and presented the gospel through clowning. Face-paint, red noses, balloons, gags, big red shoes, the whole bit. They have some great stories from there experiences with that. Also an interesting story is how the furnished basement apartment that we are living in came to be. One day when Jan was praying she felt that God wanted her to finish the basement so missionaries could stay there when on sabbatical from the field. They didn’t have the money to do that, but started building anyway. The next year, God brought people to stay that had different constructions skills so they finished it all for under $10,000. Over the next few years they have hosted 6 missionary families long term. The last couple left just before we came. Very cool.