Ragnar's Birthday

Ragnar's special day began with the sweetest phone call imaginable - our granddaughters singing Happy Birthday to him in Faroese. So precious - and priceless!

As he went out to Mission Simulation later in the morning, he was greeted again with that song by his students studying his mother tongue - plus a birthday cake, baked in this clay oven.

Lunch time followed suite. When we were eating in the dining room, he was presented with a candle on a mini cake followed by the familiar tune, but this time in English.

Banging on our door around 6:00 caught our attention. When we opened it, we were greeted by 3 car loads of friends, ready to take us out to eat. Our evening had been planned for us - a night out for pizza, back to our house for a mouth watering German truffle and being presented with a Fire Pit, followed by a couple hour discussion on things they had recently been studying in the classroom. Kidnappers can be OK sometimes!!

Then a cute little PS came the next evening when 4 young ladies opened our door and started to sing that well know song. One of the girls had just been to Germany and had brought back some chocolate for Ragnar's birthday - a cute addition to his already fun celebration.

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As we were enjoying the yummy dessert and in the middle of a discussion of what the students have been learning, we realized again how blessed we are to be in this ministry.The hours may seem long some days and the ministry load heavy, but when you see how the students are growing and how sincere they are in their walk with the Lord, thoughts of tiredness melt away. How much more awesome can it be? These young people are on their way to help reach the unreached. What fantastic opportunities!!

Chatsworth House

The volunteer girls have been such a blessing this year. A few have come and gone, 2 have been here from the beginning and 2 more have joined us in the last few months. While looking at the calendar, I realized that there was only one more available Saturday to have an outing with them - we better make plans quickly. After discussing the options with the girls, we choose Chatsworth House - Mr. Darcy's home in Pride and Prejudice.

It was an awesome day together - the 2 hour trip each way, tour of the beautiful house, picnic on the spacious green lawn and leisurely walks through the gardens, admiring the lovely flowers and bushes. So relaxing and refreshing.

We arrived back home around 7:00 and before 8:00 the house was full with over 40 people - with the Missions Class being in 'Jungle Camp; right now, we thought the number might be down, but several people had visiting friends or family, which was great.

It was hard to believe it was our last Open House for this school year.

I'm glad they don't mind using every square inch on the living room carpet or standing in groups around the kitchen counters. We have really enjoyed those Saturday nights with the students and look forward to continue them in the fall.

Two days later was Grete's birthday. All 'my girls' came over for Indian food and then we watched Pride and Prejudice together before we had the birthday cake. It was so fun to see the movie so soon after our visit to Chatsworth - a good ending to our Saturday outing.

My first attempt at making a giant cupcake - lots of room for improvement there - it will take a few tries before I can perfect it.

Although we will soon be miles apart, Grete and I have decided to start memorizing the book of Colossians together. We will be going at a snail's pace, one verse a week, but Lord willing in a little less than 2 years, we'll be able to recite it to each other. As we are on this journey, we will write it to each other, but I'll just have to trust her as she will be memorizing it in Norwegian. I am so looking forward to it and happy to have someone to be accountable to.

I'm thankful for a great year with these young ladies. I'll miss them next year when they have all gone their separate ways. Times like this make us even more thankful for email, Facebook and blogs. The upside - I'm looking forward to meeting the new ladies in September.

Pre Field Orientation

Our campus was recently swarming with lots of PFO (Pre Field Orientation) candidates. Many of them are on their way to either Brazil or the Philippines to help with a 3 week project. We also had 2 young German ladies going to help home school in Bolivia and a carpenter for a longer term in the Philippines. As usual we enjoyed getting to know the folks who are interested in helping overseas - whether it be a short project or filling a role for 2-4 years.

We decided to experiment with having our PFO a little later this spring. One advantage is that it would give a little more time for candidates to sign up for the SUMMIT trips - one disadvantage is that the kitchen is closed and most students are away on a short break.

We are thankful that the long week-end turned out well though. A few more did sign up in the extra few weeks and the kitchen staff volunteered to cook meals on their holidays. As I was chatting with one of the men at the dinner table, I asked him how he heard of NTM. He told me that the name was mentioned in a John Grisham book he was reading which sparked his interest and he looked it up. How interesting!!

An evening 'coffee break' at our house.

Those week-ends are so worth it and I need to remind myself of that sometimes when I am in the middle of arranging the schedule, getting ready for the classes or making early morning and late night train pick ups. These experiences are life changing for these young people and we are thankful to be part of it.

3 sweet little girls showed up at our house at the end of that week-end, adding lots of sunshine to our home. A great way to unwind - we'll take that 'therapy' any day.

Spending time with them at the beach, making sand castles, was special, as well as playing in our back yard and quiet times in our home - or was that only after they had gone to bed?!?! Oh yea, I almost forget to mention that their parents were here too!! We loved having the whole family with us and can't wait for their next visit.

Not 60 yet!

A group of students were making plans to go to Alton Towers (the largest theme park in England) for a Saturday outing. Since we were welcome to join them, we decided to give it a go while we are still 'young enough'. Since we are quickly aging, we'll probably not be able to take advantage of these opportunities much longer.

Gotis Revival Country House on the property.

Beautiful grounds as we walked from ride to ride.

Staying together as a group the whole day and being with lots of young people, we of course went on the most daring and scary rides.

While standing in those long lines, we often thought we must be crazy, as we would see the track we would soon be on. What in the world had we gotten ourselves into - but once we were locked in those seats, there was no turning back.

However we did enjoy the fellowship with the group as we waited patiently for our turns. It was fun to put the mirror and aching joints aside for the day - forget our gray hair and act like teenagers again!! Looking back, we are glad we did it, after all we are not yet 60!!

Ending with one of the calmer rides.

We got home that evening just in time to attend the wedding shower for James Attwood and Grete Rosvik. Since they will be married in Norway in July, we were all happy to celebrate with them now while they are still here in England.