Update from Sweden.

Today it is exactly a week since we packed all our boxes into a truck and sent them on their way to Bornholm. Currently, everything is waiting for us in a barn, where it will stay till we start moving into our new house September 1st. 

We've begun our life as "trailer trash", as my husband so eloquently put it on facebook. We are enjoying the beautiful Swedish weather at Vineyard Nordens annual Summer Camp (it often rains... this year we are quite lucky with high blue skies and a hot sun). I am waiting, relaxing, vacationing and learning all at the same time. My spiritual life has taken me somewhere I am not comfortable - I know I am waiting on the Lord - waiting for His direction and His move in my life, but I don't know exactly what I am waiting for. As this mornings devotional speaker said... when it comes to faith, sometimes God will put you in an uncomfortable place in order for a breakthrough in your life to become possible. Perhaps I am waiting for that breakthrough....

And as all of this is going on, I have taken up running again. I've gone from being completely passive to running 4, then 5, now 6 kilometers in just 4 runs. I am elated! My good form and shape hasn't disappeared completely! Never mind the amount of time - I was thinking about it this morning, as I ran and mused over life and my own progression... the time in which I ran 6k was not at all impressive - but then again, Sweden is just about made up of a million hills, and I've been pushing myself up and down these hills the last 2 times I've been running. I had a great sentence in mind about the hills while running - now I cannot remember that sentence for the life of me!

I am enjoying camp. As an introvert character, having a trailer is a blessing. Being able to buy Internet access and sit in my trailer working on planning next school year (and blog a bit) is a true blessing. Here I can sit and look out my windows, enjoying the bustle of happy campers around me while gathering energy to throw myself back into mingling again. Here I can sleep at night without waking up wet and cold from tenting. Here I can cook and eat and feel civilized.  Here I can dream about the future and still invite people in for coffee. 

Here I can gather strength for the next leg of our journey as a family - a journey that will take us places we probably cannot imagine. A journey that will stretch us, drain us, renew us and hopefully draw us closer to not only each other, but God himself!

I looove the Swedish wooden houses!

Sshhhh....

I think I made a scoop! I am not very good at frequenting 2nd hand stores (mostly cause I'm too lazy to actually shop by the "search and ye shall find" method), but a few days ago I ventured into the one here in town. I hadn't been in the store for more than a few minutes when my eyes fell on this box:

It looked old and forgotten, the sort of thing you'd find in your grandma's attic if she had one. I had to have a peep inside, a lo and behold, it was a box full of old fashioned sewing patterns! All the patterns were in really good shape and I am guessing they are from the 50's. Included in the box was a DIY "this is how you make a pattern fit your shape" book from 1954! (I know there is a word for that, but right now, way past my bedtime, I can't find it in the back of my head!)

I honestly believe I have made quite the scoop, paying the silly price of 30 kr ($5,23 or 3,43 GP) for the entire box! I paid real fast before they realized the huge mistake they were making, and quickly carried the box like a dear treasure to the safety of my car.

Now, I don't really have the time to revel over my find, as we are truly packing our lives into boxes these days, but it will almost be like christmas when I sometime in the future open up that box and actually have time to look through the patterns and choose one for a dress or skirt.

Packing update

 So... school is out for the summer, and I spent quite a few hours sorting and cleaning out my cupboards at school. I have been employed at that particulat school for 11.5 years - quite a long time for me! Image the stuff that I've saved and hidden away for all those years. Moving offers a unique opportunity to sort out, clean out and throw out junk!

 I've been ok with the thought of moving, but during the last few days of work, it dawned on me that there are people I care about, that I will most likely never see again. I came home from work one of the last days and sat down with a cup of coffee, my husband talking away about houses that we shold go see, now that we're in the market for a new home. I wasn't listening. My thoughts were occupied with saying mentally goodbye, and when he noticed, I had to shed a few tears.

My last day of work was a mixed experience - I went through the wellknown motions of having fun with the kids, gathering with the whole school to watch some kids perform, joining in our vocal welcome to the summer holidays and saying goodbye to the students. 

The annual staff summer party started off really well, and I was sursprised by speeches, gifts and too many compliments. I shed yet another tear, but dried my eyes and had a wonderful party with some wonderful people. 

I know look forward to the future, knowing that I leave behind med 11.5 years of hard, heartbreaking, joyous and victorious work. I leave behind me a lot of competent people who will continue to work hard at offering the best to the kids of that neighborhood. I leave behind me an insecure, shy and somewhat frightened young teacher, and as I step forward, into my future, I strive to take with me a mature, secure and bold grown woman, eager to impart whatever knowledge I may, anxious to inspire and encourage another bunch of children.

It's been SOO long

It's been 9 months since I have last blogged about anything - that's a lot of time - time enough for a pregnancy. I am, however, not pregnant, although a lot of changes have happened in my life within the past 9 months. Most of them have happened since this past January.

Currently we are packing. I am actually taking a break from trying to pack my oldest teenage daughter's room into as few boxes as possible. Up till now, that's 5 boxes, and I am not finished. I know that she has sorted her stuff and thrown out a lot, but boy.... there's a lot of stuff! I find myself panicking slightly when I think about the rest of the house!

But then again - I am trying to pack down almost 12 years of living in this house. 18 years of marriage. 16 years with kids. And we'll be loading all that into the back of a big truck on June 10th.

We're uprooting our family to move to the isle of Bornholm, the place of my dad's childhood and my husband's as well. We've been called to serve in a freechurch in the town of Nexoe - the home of Danish author Martin Andersen Nexoe (1869-1954) (Nexoe is spelt Nexø in Danish, but as this letter doesn't excist in the English alphabet, we adapt it to "oe").

Bornholm is situated in the Baltic Sea, closer to Sweden than to Denmark, but Danish through and through. Bornholm is a beautiful place with an incredible nature. We've joked about moving there for years, and now it is becoming a reality. I took a chance and quit my job here without having a new one lined up - quite a risk, as there are very few jobs available on Bornholm - but by what I consider to be the grace of God, I was offered a part-time job teaching English at a small private school. I think that is just perfect!

Within 3 weeks, our house was sold, and within 4 weeks, I had a job. Somehow that just makes it seem like the right thing for us to do.

So, as I pack up my house and home, I also try to clean out my head, heart and soul - what can I leave behind? What has proven worthless, or usefull? What lesson have I learned here, that I ought to take with me? Believe me, there are many thoughts.

It's an adventure about to begin. A fairytale of sorts that awaits us in the near future. We get to begin again - a new home (which we stil haven't found), new friends, a new time for our girls and ourselves.

Between this life and that, there's summer - a summer that will find us living in our camper, driving through some of Europe, as we enjoy our family, relax, eat well and sleep late, all the time awaiting our new life on Bornholm.

The cliffs on the east side of Bornholm

Please vote and help me win!

We have a saying in Danish, that if you are lucky in love, you cannot be lucky in games...
I must be - I know I am - lucky in love. And I hardly ever win. But if you all help me, I might win this time!

Click on the link below and vote for the picture that my sister-in-law and I submitted at the annual Transformation Women's Conference here in Copenhagen:

http://bit.ly/PxGBPo

Love ya'll!

just a peep

This past weekend was spent enjoying the annual women's conference in Copenhagen. My mom came home all the way from TZ to join me, and we met up with my sister as well as my sister-in-law. The above picture is from Friday night. These cupcakes were sweet in more than one sense, and it was almost a shame to eat them. 

Anyways... besides eating way too much cake, I had a great weekend with too little sleep, too loud music (am I getting old?) and great preaching and teaching. I am taking a lot home with me, and there's a lot to process.

It bugs me that I only photographed the cakes we ate - I completely forgot to take pictures of my family and I. It also bugs me that I can't figure this iCloud, iPhone and photostream out - as I take a lot of photos with my phone, it'd be so easy to just download them from space somewhere... any ideas? Any links to do-it-yourself-videos?

Just another photo taken with my iPhone...

Greetings from Mr. Gutters and Willy Welder

I supposedly slept in today, except for the fact that I woke up around 8. I guess that's ok for a Saturday. Mom served a wonderful breakfast, then it was off to the hairdressers... not me, but my folks both needed a haircut. Here's me waiting, enjoying a ginger ale:

Yesterday I met up with former high school friends, Kim and Jacob Mills, now working at Pamoja Ministries in Tengeru, a good 30 minute drive from here. It was great to see them again and talk like it was just yesterday we said goodbye. In fact, it is almost 19 years to the day that I saw them last. Strange, how time flies and changes you and yet, somehow, you're still the same.

Yesterday morning I also joined the Bible school students in morning devotions, and was asked to share just briefly with them. My father, as usual, introduced me as his African baby, born in Makiyungu (unsure of the spelling, but it both sounds and looks right). Afterwards, I was hugged by fellow tribes(wo)men from the Wanyatulu tribe, whose land I was born in:

Our drive out to the hairdressers today took us through kahawa country - the coffee estates that I feel I grew up living in as a child here in Arusha. The road we drove down was in such terrible shape, having been smooth and fine and black with good asphalt in my childhood years. Now, it's just a dirty, bumpy, terrible road full of pot holes, but there's a lingering grandeur reminiscent of colonial days.  

Oh, I almost forgot... Mr.Gutters and Willy Welder - I have no idea who they are. I got the names from reading shop signs. I think Willy Welder pretty neatly gives away why you would go to him, but I am slightly unsure what Mr. Gutters has to offer.... I am also unsure what to expect at Flamingo Exclusive Hall, but feel somewhat secure going into the Galatians Barbershop.