Saturday, August 17, 2013

Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since our last post. I will recap what's been going on in a bit. However one important piece of information first: our team now looks slighty different.  Team 6 and 7 switched a few members and even though MJ will be greatly missed we would now like to welcome Taylah to our team!

Taylah, 18, hails from the land down under: AKA Australia (in case you were unsure). She is full of joy and energy and life, and yet brings a new level of sensitivity to our team.  We are very excited to have her.

Now where did we leave off the last time you heard from us? Well we were in Eden Valley in Northern England working with kids in a holiday club first in Kirkoswald and then Greystoke.  A wonderful man named Carl helped facilitate and organize the entire thing both weeks.  We couldn't have done anything without him.  We met some wonderful kids. But we were also able to talk with the more mature members of the churches and towns. One of my personal highlights is going to a dinner (by myself - no other transiters) with my host Mom and several of her friends and neighbors). After introducing myself and OM I was immeditely whirled into deep and meaningful questions like what is the meaning of life -why are we the only beings who think we can go into heaven, why do Christians think God is the only way, etc. It was fantastic discussion in a very open environment.

Our time at Greystoke was great! Those working with the younger kids saw it grow from 3 kids to 10 the next day. For those of us working with the older youth we aaw it go from 3 kids to 1 the next day.  It is easy to say that that might have been discouraging for those of us with the older kids.  But God works in the small things as well as the big. If he loses one out of 100 sheep - he will seek the sheep out. Even though we had small numbers - God is doing something big. And we all had a great time doing it.

The following week we reunited with the ever so lovely Team 6 and went on a camping trip in Quinta, England.  We were given a great time of training, team building exercises/compettions (obviously our team always won...hehehe).  It felt like summer camp again. Please pray that we put everything we learned into practice during our time on the road the next couple of months.

Last week we went to Lifehope near Birmingham for more training, lessons, fellowship, and relaxation (and Jurasic park marathons).  This past Thursday morning our team left at zero dark thirty (2:15 am) to fly to our new home in Sweden. Our journey together took about 14 hours. Through mishaps and misunderstandings with our transportation - our team remained patient and we were provided with understanding people to help us along.

We are in a place called Jonkoping (there are dots above both the o's which makes the pronunciation "yonchirpin").  I look forward to telling you how things progress throughout the week (in a much less lengthy way) in a few days!

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