[www.chuba.de...] -- On Friday, Joe & Jo-Ann headed to Allmenhausen, a small village near the geographical center of Germany. Gary and Patrick are living and working at CHUBA, a retreat center operated by the German YMCA. One of their tasks here is to help clean up an ancient schoolhouse across the street from the CHUBA house. Later this summer CHUBA is hosting a larger camp to begin major renovation work on the structure. “Bulldoze and start over” was Patrick & Gary’s first thought. They soon learned that several years ago the CHUBA house itself used to be in much the same dilapidated condition as the schoolhouse. YMCA’s Matthias K.’s enthusiastic optimism for the future of such structures in this economically-depressed region helps gives others in the 875-year-old village a sense that they have a future as well as a past. In between digging through dirt, debris, and decay, Gary & Patrick provide a welcome glimpse of a larger world to neighborhood children who stop in for games, crafts, and rides in CHUBA’s “land canoe.” Young adults in the village have also adopted the Goshen pair, giving our students good insights about the lives of German peers. Patrick & Gary were happy to spend the afternoon knocking about the small city of Gotha, 40 km. away. From 1640 to the end of World War I, Gotha was capital of a small, progressive duchy which, among other things, gave rise in the early 19th century to Germany’s insurance system. Returning to the village in late afternoon, Gary & Patrick await a consulting architect’s guidance before they begin to sledge-hammer floors in the old schoolhouse.