A return to South Africa

I'm back in South Africa and have been here for over a month! A week after I came, Dennis Hilman joined me and three weeks after that Bob Maki, Calvin and Debra Matson, Dan and Joyce Karnes, Thomas Questad and Jacob Seppanen came.

Before the team arrived, much of my time was spent in planning with the awesome planning committee here. However, I also found lots of time to hang out with my kids and with other friends I made here over the last few years.

I also rather enjoyed doing some gardening--it was a nice way to relax! I put in beans, beets and swiss chard...but now I haven't had time to weed and water, so I hope something actually grows... :)

The team arrived on Oct 18th and since then it has been BUSY! Schools, prisons, hospitals, youth centers, churches, Sunday schools, detention centers, preschools, and private homes: it's been a whirlwind so far and it's not over yet!

Calvin and Debra left us a few days ago and they are missed! We are now in a new province: the Northwest province where we've slowed down slightly, but not too much. :) This last picture is from the first Saturday adter the team arrived. We held a Sunday School day for about 100 kids from the United Lutheran Church! It was a great day! Please continue to pray for the team here as we continue to work together until next Monday.

Russia...take 3!

A week ago, I returned from my third trip to Russia. This trip was unlike all my previous trips to Russia or anywhere else because I went as a leader of sorts!

Several months ago, the Foreign Mission board of my church asked me to take the position of Foreign Mission youth leader. Part of my duties is to lead/help lead youth mission trips. Russia was the first trip I took in this position. It was awesome to travel with my good friends and fellow missionaries Greg Greve and Dennis Hilman on this first trip. They are and always a pleasure to travel with...and I always learn a lot from them. Also with me on this trip were Brian Niematelo, Thomas Questad, Jaclyn Somero, and Debbie Rokala. Here is the trip in picture-form:

Here is are whole group minus Dennis. This is as we are leaving Schekino for Moscow at the beginning of the trip. From Moscow we caught a train to Yoshkar-Ola. In Russia, there is always lots of travel by bus, train, subway, tram, car, etc.






Sergei and Luba shared a beautiful testimony with me as we were visiting after the short service we had in their village. Unlike most families here, Sergei was the first member of his family to come to faith. He said that he felt God's call for 10 years, but it wasn't until this small mission church was planted here a few years ago that he listened. Before he came to the church they were always fighting and had considered getting a divorce. Now, however, he confided to me with a smile, he was so happy that his wife was there beside him and that God had brought them together again in faith!

Eating cotton candy in Cheboksary! :) We went walking in the evening and the cotton candy caught our eye!








It was awesome to be in the country for Oksana's wedding! There were two ceremonies--one civil ceremony in town (required in order to be married in Russia) and then a religious ceremony in Oksana's home village of Guruz Purga. Dennis Hilman took part in the religious ceremony.

 The youth camp held immediately after the wedding was a highlight of the trip! We had lots of kids show up--more than was expected! We almost ran out of places for people to sleep. We combined English teaching with time spent around God's Word. On the last evening we all shared personal testimonies and then Dennis, Greg, and Brian prayed for all those who requested prayer. Immediately following the prayer our van arrived and we said quick good-byes and headed off into the night!
 

Greg and I stood as godparents for the daughters of Yuri and Julia in Yekaterinburg. Angelica is 4 and Veronica is 1 1/2. Please pray for this family that they will continue to raise their daughters with the love ad fear of God! Angelica and I became friends over origami frogs and cranes after the service. Veronica is happier hanging out with her godfather... but hopefully I'll be able to spend more time with them both next time I visit!

It's always fun to hang out with kids! This is me playing with the kids in Gargarka. These kids come from difficult homes. Most are dirt poor and, statistically, many of these boys will be in prison before they are out of their teens. Many of the girls will be pregnant. Many, if not all, will be alcoholics. Please pray that God will touch their lives, give them a living hope, and raise them out of the poverty they live in today.




Our group in Rzhev with Maxim. Maxim first heard about living faith when Pastor Valery (the local pastor of the Lutheran church there) spoke at his school when he was thirteen. He was the first one to come to faith, followed by his mother, Olga. They both attend church now as well as Maxim's little two-year-old brother, Jacob.

I'm going to stop now! Lots more stories and pictures can be found on the foreign mission blog: www.foreignmissionnewsblog.blogspot.com.

I'm in New Hampshire now, but I'll be on my way to South Africa next week. Prayers always welcome!

From Marcn to August in North America

I have been rather remiss in keeping this blog updated, but instead of dumping several entries on you, I'll try to summarize the last 5 months in one entry.

After my birthday, I left sunny Canada in mid-March...and arrived in snowy New Hampshire! I thought it would be a two week stay...two months later I was still there! As it turns out, I now have a new position as a foreign mission youth leader. This means I get to travel overseas much of the year, so that's rather exciting! While in NH, I stayed with John and Colleen Ruotsala and worked with John on various foreign mission projects.

While in New England I got into all sorts of things: hiking waterfalls, maple syrup tasting, climbing mountains, cooking meals on the manifold of the car, fishing, swimming, and hanging out at bonfires to name just a few! The meal cooked on the car manifold was great! But oddly enough, the chicken cooked fine but the potatoes never did! It took a couple hours, I think, to cook the chicken—and, oh, was it good! I definitely recommend that you all try it on your next road trip!

In May I decided I'd been in the USA too long, so I convinced some friends to join me on a road trip to Canada! We took in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls in three days. Not bad! It was absolutely awesome to see John and Cheryl Hood and Aliyah in Toronto (which was actually one of my reasons for going!). Also enjoyed camping on the side of the road outside of Montreal and running madly through Ottawa in order to get back to the car before our metre ran out.

In June I was off with John, Colleen, and Bruce Ruotsala to Ironwood, Michigan. We couchsurfed on the way in Flint, Michigan. It was a great experience! Check out the website for more info: www.couchsurfing.org.

While based in Ironwood, I traveled around with John and Colleen to several different churches talking about the foreign mission. We hit places in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota! Next I jumped on the plane and flew to Sylvan for a few weeks for a Hilman reunion and then was back by the beginning of July to attend our church convention in Hancock, Michigan. The reunion was fun! It was great to see everyone. Scary that I can say I hadn't seen some of my cousins in over 10 years...

I'm back in Ironwood now and enjoying idyllic days (and nights) by THE lake (Lake Superior), evenings of volleyball or bonfires, and lots of relaxation! Next week I will attend two different Bible camps (first a family camp and then a youth camp). The week after that I fly to Russia.

Cheers for now!

Barnston Island birthday cruise

Who says no money has to cramp your style. Since my pocketbook was looking a bit flat, I had to get a bit creative to celebrate my birthday this year...after some serious thought I decided on turning a ferry ride into a cruise! Now, if you live in the Greater Vancouver area, you have a plethora of options: Vancouver Island, Bowen Island, the Sunshine coast, Lonsdale Quay, etc. However, if you really want to embrace your lack of funds, I reccomend the last remaining free ferry in the area: the Barnston Island ferry...

I was so excited about going on a cruise that I insisted to my friends that we arrive early. However, we didn't quite manage--instead we pulled into the parking lot just as the cruise ship was docking. I was too excited to be upset, though--I was going on a cruise!! The ship was magnificent--it was so big it was almost like there were two ships instead of one. I can't believe they make ships that big. We got on board and the first thing I did was stretch out on deck in my bathing suit! It was grand. Soon people came around with drinks and snacks, which just added to the decadence of the whole experience!

Half-way through the cruise we docked at a local island. It was exciting to get off the ship and walk on dry ground again! The scenary was stunning: greens and browns blending in with the blue of the water. The ship docked right next to a sandy beach, but we decided to walk down the island to a local park to see if we could catch sight of some of the island's famed flora and fauna. Amazingly enough, we did spot some of the island's elusive animals on our walk! We were amazed at the exotic black and white coloring!

The park also had a decent beach and after having a snack (we brought food from the ship) we enjoyed the beach and the amazing views over the water. It was a true island paradise: birds calling in the trees, the sun beating down on the water, the wind blowing through the trees...who could ask for more.

Soon it was time to head back to the pier--we didn't want to miss the boat! The island was nice, but if we had to wait for the next boat we'd be there a bit long--we didn't pack for that! Luckily we made it back in plenty of time and even had the chance to make sandcastles on the beach as we waited for it to dock. It was a magnificent view! Our huge majestic ship gliding gracefully up to the pier...I'm glad we weren't too late to miss watching it come in.

The second half of the cruise was spent much like the first half: on the deck in my bathing suit working on my tan! Very relaxing. I also took time to snap some shots of the fabulous scenary on the way. We finally docked back in Surrey and we were the last ones off the boat. I wanted a picture with the deck hand who we had seen the most, but he wouldn't allow any pictures. For some reason, I think I scared him...

Happy Birthday to me! It was a dandy celebration this year!

Doing nothing...

It was great being back in Thailand for a few weeks. Great to see old friends, great to eat at my favourite restaurants, great to enjoy the warm weather...and great to sit and do nothing! :) Okay, not absolutely nothing...but a lot of nothing. THe non-nothing bits are below.

This first one is sort of a "doing nothing" note, but it was doing nothing on a beach instead of in Bangkok! I managed to hitch a ride as far as Hua Hin (beach town) and then met Libby, an old friend who now runs the Juniper Tree: a Christian retreat/resort area on Dolphin Bay. I spent a very relaxing four days there. Relaxing on the beach was interspersed with kayaking, motorbiking, walking next to the motorbike after it got a flat, building sandcastles, and swimming. Very nice! (More info on the Juniper Tree here: http://www.juniper-tree.org/dolphin-bay.html.)

The next big adventure was actually a big adventure! :) Though I suppose I didn't really "do" much...mostly just observed. When I got to Bangkok in February, I found out that my friend Opas was getting married in early March. Since it didn't cost anything to change my ticket (thank you Air China), I decided to extend my ticket so I could attend. It didn't quite take planes, trains, and automobiles to get to his home village, but it did take a skytrain, minibus, back of a pickup, and a motorcycle.

I arrived Friday afternoon for a Saturday wedding only to find out the wedding was postponed to Monday. No, I'm not kidding! Things are a bit more casual there. No save-the-date cards or months of planning here! Well, some people do plan more than Opas and Gif... these two didn't even bother with invitations! It was a nice wedding, though! (And, no, it's not rude for guests to wear white to a wedding there. As a single female, I was expected to wear white!)

I got back to Bangkok just in time for another party: a pancake party! It is traditional to eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (the day before the beginning of Lent). Historically this was to use up any sugar or eggs or whatever wasn't going to be used during the 40-day Lenten fast. The party was at the vicarage--so I didn't have far to go. :) It was fun. We started by eating pancakes and ended by throwing them. They tasted great--though they were crepes, not pancakes--and we all ate too much. After eating we had pancake races and then pancake flipping contests. It was this last contest that turned into a food fight...and I think it was the vicar that started it! :)

The rest of my time in Thailand was spent doing lots of nothing and it was really great. I should do more of that more often.

Back to India

After the Philippines and a quick 12 hour stop in Thailand, I--along with John, Jada, and Julie--flew to India. Here is the four of us in Bangkok. We managed a whirlwind five-hour tour of the city before our connecting flight. (The other seven hours were spent sleeping!) Once we got to India we met the rest of the team: Phil Wilson, Lana Wilson, Bethany Helmes and Matthew Impola. Dennis Hilman met us a week later.

We started our trip in Rajahmundry with the doctor and his wife. During our time there, the pastors on the trip were invovlved in pastors' training and the youth were teaching in a small slum school. In the evenings we all attended big services. Teaching in the slum school was fun--but really quite chaotic! One day we told the story of Jonah and them made origami whales with the kids. It was really great to hear them retell the story with all the details at the end of the day!

The big services were, well, big! The smallest was about 800 people and the largest about 12oo! That's not including the people that could hear from their houses due to the loud speakers! On the last night everyone came forward for personal prayer and we spent almost an hour praying for people. I struggled a bit with this because a few days previously I lost my voice and it hadn't quite come back.

During the last few days with the doctor, we had a myriad of activities: visits to the A.H. Mission Hospital, A.H. clinic, Little Lambs orphanage, and the site of several wells donated for poor Christians. We also had baptisms, food distribution to lepers, and even some time for a bit of shopping!

After our week in Rajahmundry, we were off to Kapileswarapuram to stay with Pastor K and Ruth. It was so great to be back there again and to see all the kids that live there! Our time was busy as usual with kids' programs, pastors' training, women's Bible studies, evening services and lots of visiting at the ALC Home or throughout the village. I especially liked hanging out with the kids--some of them I've gotten to know fairly well as this is my thrid trip to the ALC Home!

One of the highlights of the trip for everyone concerned is the trip to the river. The kids' are allowed to have the day off school and we all head out to play at the river. This year the kids had a cricket set, hula hoops, frisbees, a homemade kite...and that doesn't count the readymade "toys" of sand and water! Instead of taking the boat back across the river, John, Bethany and I decided to swim! It was great fun!

There are more photos and stories of Kapileswarapuram from my point of view at the foreign mission blog (see link below picture) so I'm going to move on. Our next stop was the Vizag area where there was a church dedication, several baptisms, more pastors' training and more services. Unfortunately, much of the team ended up sick while we were there, so only John, Dennis and I went to our next stop at Pastor M.P.'s. We only stayed for a weekend, but in that time there were services, kids' programs and church visits. A very busy final weekend. (F.M. blog: http://www.foreignmissionnewsblog.blogspot.com/)

We ended our trip with one more night at Pastor K's before heading off in different directions. I'm off to Bangkok for a few days with friends--more about that soon. :)

Flying through the Philippines!

A week anywhere is just not long enough! And that's doubly true for a mission trip! However I suppose it's also better than no time at all. I met up with John Ruotsala, Julie Matson and Jada Questad in Manila and we flew together to Cagayan de Oro. An hour later we were also met by Dennis Hilman, Colin Kinnunen, Fratt Aho, Randy Kinnunen, and Karl Somero. All of us fro overseas et with the team frm Philippines that consisted of many people. I worked mainly with Daisy and Sandy-Lyn Senonis.

Here are a few stories and pictures from our whirlwind week!

The main reason for my trip to the Philippines was to join a team from my church who would be conducting Pastors' training seminars. During the seminars, however, Julie, Jada and I had other tasks. One day we went with Daisy and Sandy-Lyn to make house visits. We visited several families and shared the story of Noah with the kids and adults. Julie and Jada told the story and I added an addition for the adults connecting the story of Noahbeing saved with Jesus coming to save us all. In the picture, the kids are making paper boats to remind them of the story of Noah.

The next day during the training we ran a kids' club so that the kids weren't running madly through the hall where the training was taking place. That was lots of fun--we did two stories: Noah and Jonah. In the afternoon we all split into teams and went to a small seaside village to visit homes and pray for people. We split into teams and my team is shown in the picture. After the house visits, I hung out with the kids and made frogs! Always a good time. :) Afterwards there was a service and a lovely lunch.

The next day we were off to Kitcharo. In Kitcharo we had big services where many different churches came together to worship God jointly. After lunch, we had a program for the kids and another for the youth. Here is Jada with the kids. We were making boats to go with the story of Jesus calming the storm. Julie, meanwhile, was talking to the youth about letting your light shine!

On the road again

In the middle of January I left the snow behind and flew to Bangkok. As I was sitting in the back of the taxi riding from the airport to my friend's place it felt like I was home! (Anyone reading this i the hopes that I'll move back here shouldn't get to excited...I feel that way about a lot of places!)

It was great to be back here though--even for just a few days. I spent most of my time wandering around "my" neighbourhood or visiting friends. The time went quickly too! Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the airport and fly to the Philippines to meet up with a mission team from my church. I got to the airport on the new high speed train--it's great! Much cheaper than a taxi.

More soon from the Philippines.