Treasure Hunt

How can it be, that after years of searching you can find the item you have looked for relatively easily--once the correct clues have been discovered and tried? I can only attribute it to knowing that "in the fullness of time" the hidden will be revealed!
If you thought I was weird up until now you will be sure when I tell this story:
When I was in elementary school our school library had a couple of "horse" books I checked out over and over. I loved the illustrations! I never remembered the name of the books, nor the authors, but I remembered the pictures, the subjects, and the story lines.
Try finding that on Google!
I tried. No luck.
I peruse used bookstores whenever I get the chance, and for years I have searched for these two books, knowing that when I saw them I'd KNOW them, and my quest would be complete.
Each year, at the MACHE home school conference I attend, I search diligently among the stacks of used books brought by the various sellers, chatting about the stories, getting thoughtful responses. Each year I have had no success. This year was no different, but I came home with all sorts of wonderful "finds" anyway! Looking for something specific always reveals other treasures.
I did get a clue about my treasure hunt this year. I went home and thought, let's try this one on Google. Up came ANOTHER clue! Several tries later I had my prize!
The book is "Little Owl Indian" by Hetty Burlingame Beatty, published in 1951. What a beauty! The quest is over! The picture I found on Ebay was of the cover I remembered as a child!
Oh the joys of the internet!
The other book I loved and found was "Ponies of Mykillengi" by Lonzo Anderson. I had remembered only the subject: Icelandic ponies, and this time (why this time?) I keyed in the right combo to reveal the exact book! Someone on a blog about children's books had loved this story too.
Now I'll return to my favorite book sellers, perhaps next year, or any used book sale, armed with pertinent information, and the funny looks will cease! Perhaps I can find them for a reasonable price too!
The home school conference was in Duluth, and the weather was frightful! Glad we had a warm hotel and a cozy convention center for the conference! I've never seen waves crash in from Lake Superior like that. The spray hit the hotel and covered the lake walk. Had anyone been close to the shore he or she would have been swept away. Freighters anchored out in the bay, unable to make a landing in the harbor. It was an experience.
Each year that I go this conference I am encouraged. I know that home schooling is right for our family and I get the "shot" in the arm needed to bolster my resolve to see this whole adventure through.
I love being with people who think hard about life and how the world should be. It's inspiring to share a faith in Christ (however diverse in interpretation) and a similar worldview. I am encouraged with the evidence of success in the lives of people who continue to walk this counter-cultural path. Perhaps we are the "hippies" of this age (sans the long hair and wild clothes!)
It was nice to get away for a weekend, too. We drove across the state to my son's college the day after the conference. His choir was performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony oratorio, and we got to be there. Lovely! Our state is still covered with snow "up north" and the swans, loons, and ducks were standing on the edges of the lake ice, longing to get on with spring activity! I couldn't help feel badly for them!
I am SO glad to see the loons are back. I confess to being anxious about how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would affect our wintering loons. Seems to have had no major effect on them yet. I am thankful.
I'm still processing all the information I gleaned over the weekend. Did I have a day to catch my breath at home afterward? No chance. I'm back in the activity swirl that exists in any family like ours. Snow tonight? Perhaps. It's Passover, and tomorrow we want to do our own version to celebrate. Holy Week is meaningful to me, and I want to commemorate this one and how the Lord has worked in my life this year. I'm not talking Easter Baskets, either.
If I don't get back to post before the weekend I'd like to say, "He is Risen!"
He is risen indeed!

Another Interview

Busy start to the new week with a full day of school activities and Good News Club, along with an interview in a local locale.:) High hopes, as usual, for things to be just right in this job possibility for my husband.
We had to laugh tonight for sheer relief at Monty Python's "silly job interview" on YouTube. It's worth a view!
I think that the Lord is trying to teach me a lesson about joyful attitudes. Stress and anxiety can steal your joy like nothing else, but it is simply WRONG to allow those robbers to make off with this powerful force we can employ in our lives!
My friend told me a story today about the power of praise. Seventeen miscarriages, (!) a baby brought to five months along in the womb, then lost, and she could grieve and go on through the will to praise her Lord Jesus.
This is truly power. Most people would abandon all thought of a deity who would allow this to happen. Most people would wallow in grief, self-pity and depression. Some may justify rage over unjust circumstances. Some might question the very basis of a worldview that would invite such suffering---Are children really that important?
I see a glowing woman who faced a huge enemy and defeated it with a massive opposition force. Godly praise and joy will make the demons run in confusion. Your spirit will take command of a downcast soul and manhandle it back to productivity!
This is strength to combat any foe.

Spring's First Green is Gold

My husband had a very fine job interview yesterday, in another part of the state. There are mixed feelings about this; the job is wonderful, and they are interviewing several people of whom my husband was the first, (should be an advantage, I'd think) and we'd have to uproot and move. Truly everyone is fine with this. Yet it is sort of daunting.
Our lives have been here for the last 12 years. We have let rootlets sink deep, and it won't be without pain to tear up and replant.
There is another job interview next Monday. This one is local. If you are a pray-er, I'd like to ask you to pray that we know the next step. We are so thankful for a possibility of a job after this 9 month wait.
On the home front: The maple syrup is done. The bees are well and happy with the maple pollen. The bluebirds are BACK, for sure, flitting about outside. I've been out doing yard clean-up (after the dogs). That job always makes me feel like the lowest slave of all slaves. It's good for the attitude! It's a good feeling to get the yard ready for warmth.
The sun is shining beautifully today and the crocus are up.
"Spring's first green is Gold" is from a poem my husband likes to quote, Robert Frost? Can't recall. Today the gold is out. No green yet unless you look really close.
Perhaps we'll have snow yet, but let's hope not.
I heard from an old friend today. Very briefly. That was good. She is Turkish, and she lived with us for awhile when I was expecting one of our children. It's hard to stay in touch.
Since I am a sufferer of SADD, a seasonal light disorder, I am thrilled to have made it through the winter again! The sun is back, and I'm feeling up again!
The kids and I have got back to swimming this week after being ill last week. Good feeling.
Good feelings and hope all around. Happy souls.

Another Chapter

Let's see, where did I leave off? I was writing about my German class at the University of Minnesota.
I had a good instructor who was a young German woman. She liked to present issues in class that dealt with German culture, and for whatever reason I started to understand the language more than I had in high school. One day she brought up the "problem" of the Turkish "guest worker" in Germany. Turkey?! My ears pricked up. I had never heard of the German Turkish connection before. I felt goosebumps! Was this only a coincidence? I started to pay more attention in class, and I became quite good at German! I had no idea where this might lead.
There was an ROTC student in several of my German classes who was dating a ravishing red-head named Marie. I became friends with them both, since we saw each other in and out of class. Going to the University was like going to a job. I commuted (in my NEW CAR!), so campus life was practically non-existent for me. I did link up with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, a student campus organization. My dad had been a member of IV in college too. As a family we made the trip out to Bear Trap Ranch in Colorado for family camp several summers. I LOVED Bear Trap. Being involved with IV might just be a ticket back to the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
It was through IV that my friend Marie and her soon-to-be-husband found the Lord.
I found several very close friends through IV, friendships that remain even to now. But there was also heartbreak in store for me.
I applied to be on staff at Bear Trap during the next summer and was accepted. What a close-knit group of college students we became! I fell in love over the summer and was jilted by fall. That was the first heartbreak.
On the rebound at the U I started to notice one guy who always witnessed to everyone he met. He set up tables and distributed Christian literature whenever he didn't have class. We became friends, then more than friends. We had the same desire to be light for Christ.
But we were pretty different from each other too. Opposites attract, you know. After a growing relationship that lasted through my graduation I was destined for more heartbreak.
I was finished with my studies, a certified and licensed teacher. I applied to schools for a year of teaching experience as I prepared to leave for the mission field.
My relationship was going a direction different from my calling. We were not yoked and pulling together toward the same end, other than wanting people to know God. Was I going to abandon my strong sense of fulfilling my intention to be a missionary?
The pain of ending this relationship was almost more than I could bear. I think I could get through it only with a hope of changed circumstances that might bring us back together one day. How else could it end? But that never happened. The scar remains in my heart, but God has healed the wound. Life does go on.
I got a full-time job, teaching second grade that fall. I was accepted to two different mission boards. My pastor advised me to go with the Evangelical Free Church of America, and with my German skills a perfect fit was found: the EFCA had had a German field for years. But it gets better!
The EFCA was actively pursuing the guest worker population in Germany. They were forming a team of missionaries targeting just this people group!
Because I had no seminary (yet) I was slated to go as an "apprentice in missions" AIM. I had my assignment, and I thought it was perfect!
I finished the school year, said good-bye to all my students and fellow teachers, packed up and left in June of 1986.
I flew to Munich, was picked up by my new co-worker and roommate, Lynn, and drove to Ingolstadt.
Ingolstadt is a fairly large Bavarian city situated on the Danube River. It's also on a major Autobahn that connects Munich with Nuremburg. It is the home of the car manufacturer, Audi. At that time every Audi was made in Ingolstadt. (Perhaps still!)
Ingolstadt is also the birthplace of the Illuminati, and the location where Gustavus Adolphus met his defeat. Being Swedish, this was interesting to me.
Really it is a quaint walled city, but more modern than other German cities.
The EFCA was slated to plant a church in this town. Three young German couples who lived there were the seed of this church plant.
My team was made up of a pastor and his wife, my roommate, who was a "Helferin," (Like a church secretary/jack of all trades) and me---the apprentice.
Lynn was a veteran. She'd been on the field for 10 years. Incidentally, she is the daughter of one of my dad's best friends from childhood! So I had known her in a way my whole life. Lynn was lots of fun. She was the best co-worker I could ever have wished for, as she was loved by all the Germans, she had a great sense of humor and she was VERY patient with me! She even taught me to drive stick shift (yes, I drove on the Autobahn, and even more fun; the little German roads around the countryside) which was no task for the faint-heart.
At first I commuted to Munich, to the University there for a language course during that summer. When I began to think in German I knew I'd reached a milestone, but I NEVER was good at the language. I could be understood and understand, but I do not have command. Children were patient with me, as were other foreigners, so I felt more acceptance among them, and these were the people I eventually worked with most. My heart was healing and falling in love again, with a country this time.

Significant Snowmelt

It's still unseasonably cold outdoors, but I haven't ventured out to feel it personally. I'm monitoring the vanishing snow from the warm windows of my living room. Yesterday I was stricken with the third bug of March. For me it was the third flu or something nasty! Unbelievable! I won't belabor the details, but it is getting tedious to be sick every other week! Let's hope April brings relief. Only two of us got it, but that is two too many.
More maple sap was collected and now we have over a gallon of syrup. Lovely. Dogs are feeling spring fever and beg to go out. Blackberry will need a trip to the vet tomorrow as she seems to be showing signs of Lyme Disease. Poor dear. Misty was naughty today and escaped across the road.
I finished "Wesley the Owl," and started "Getting to Heaven," while I've been under the weather. Both interesting. I WISH people would read books like "Getting to Heaven" because they focus on the most important things in life: salvation, love, healing, forgiveness. So positive. So truthful. I haven't the strength to keep up the life story right now, but I've been thinking memories. I guess I think of all the things I have left out! Oh well. I'll pick up the story sometime.
The robins are chirping their good-night song outside. I'm so glad they are back. The chickadees are wildly flying all over the bushes and making nesting noises. Spring is so good!
It's easy to be a little depressed over the Japanese Tsunami and the war in Libya, the unrest in the Middle East and the general anti-Israel attitude. What about the crazy May 21st day of Christ's return and the video about the 12th Imam's soon return? So much confusion and anxiety!
Without Christ's solid promises and commands it would be easy to be discouraged.
But I know He cares for me. He loves me and provides for me. He heals me and lifts me up. He cares for my children.
A little story related in the "Heaven" book: A young mother of six lost her husband when he was in his 30's. She raised all six to be godly successes. What was her secret? She said she made a deal with God: She'd do all the work if He'd do all the worrying! Cute. A good reminder to all of us, right?
Even when there isn't a job, your children run into difficulties away from home, you've been sick...No worries.

While the Maple Syrup is Cooking

It's really cold outside today, but the sap still ran so my better half is outside manning the fire and cooking down several gallons to the wonderful consistency of syrup. I'm going to try to pick up where I left off on the last chapter.
My senior year started with me in a body brace, unable to march in marching band and otherwise handicapped---until Christmas time. I suffered some humiliation just being in the ugly thing, but it wasn't permanent, so it was bearable. What a relief to be back to normal! I still had a time of physical therapy and gradual strength build-up, but by the time the next summer arrived I was in pretty good shape.
During my senior year I was able to attend a weekly Bible study with a group of people who were similarly excited about the Lord. I met some wonderful people, mostly college-age, who were smart and talented, really wanting to make their lives count for the Lord. One of the leaders was a law student who worked for Tad Jude, a state representative and a Democrat. He was ardently pro-life and though my friend was a conservative he felt he could assist Mr. Jude in good conscience, and he did. Being a legislative aide is quite an good job for someone with an interest in politics or law, and I was caught up in the excitement of Doing Politics. The issue that year was gambling. Our state was considering lifting a ban on horse racing and all the trappings that go with that. It was my friend's job to hunt down all the statistics that favored keeping the ban. I helped out in a small capacity--attending informational meetings and passing out literature against off-track betting. Despite what I thought was overwhelming evidence against gambling of any kind the pro-gambling/horse people had more money to invest in convincing everyone that gambling was in the state's best interest! We "lost" that battle, and I learned a lesson in policy making and how government really works. Soon after that I was asked to help on the phone banks, calling people to ask for them to vote Republican. I was and continue to be conservative, but my biggest political issue has always been being pro-life. I think it is, as Francis Schaeffer said, a litmus test for godly values in a society. When you sacrifice children to selfish motives you are no better than any ancient human sacrificing culture. There really isn't any other way to see it.
My friend went on to a stellar career in law, trying cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. With his brilliant mind and godly values I hope he becomes a judge someday.
I was applying to only one college. Sure hoped I'd get in! Wheaton College, in Illinois, was where both of my brothers attended, and what I had seen of it on Parent's Weekends had impressed me. Chicago seemed fun and not too far from home. I was put on the waiting list, yet I held out on any other college. I knew where I wanted to be!
My eldest brother had brought home from Wheaton, his first year, a very lovely young woman who went by the name of "Day." She was beautiful; tall, slender, and blond, with an angelic face. He was totally in love, and never ever would he feel any different about her. They were married right after they finished college. "Day" was someone I would have loved to have gotten closer to. I'd never had a sister. But that wasn't to be. She had her influence on me in ways that she'd never have known. I can even say that her approval of the man I eventually married tipped the scales in his favor! She was of a superior intelligence--earning her PHD from the University of Chicago in English. She taught at several schools including Wheaton and Trinity International University. She wrote and edited books and was considered by "Christianity Today" to be one of the evangelical "up-and-comers" in a special issue. She was artistic and influential. To her credit, her four children are her greatest legacy, as they are lovely human beings.
Tragically she died of brain cancer several years ago. At the end of her life she could no longer speak. Sad irony for one so adept with words! She did say, "I know my Redeemer liveth." Her death was a final sad chapter for a life of difficult circumstances that came about through her background.
In my story I was able to get to Wheaton myself that fall after graduation. I knew my major. I had tried being a nurses' aide at the local nursing home but failed miserably. I had to quit after two weeks of emotional anguish, caring for these dear old people, watching them die. It just wasn't in me to pursue a career in medicine! Education seemed to be the ticket to the mission field for me. I loved my adviser at Wheaton, Dr. Turner. Funny how I remember him well, but my U of MN advisers---??? I LOVED Wheaton. I jumped in with both feet, determined to make the most of it. I joined a group that spent Saturdays downtown at Watertower Place street evangelizing. I joined the "World Christian" prayer group. I did "Prayer Walks" with one of my best friends all around campus, asking for revival and blessing---even at Wheaton, the bastion of evangelicalism! I attended two different churches regularly: a church that met in a well-known German restaurant downtown in the Loop, known as the Loop Church, (when I got a ride) and a little Brethren church just blocks off of campus. These places were special in broadening my spiritual sights. I've always been fairly open to different types of worship and creeds of Christianity, but naturally as I aged I began to home in on a specific faith worldview. These years were truly monumental in shaping my views.
I'm thankful by parents let me find my own path. I think I've ended up more like the way were than they are now! Does that make sense?!! Funny paradox.
Wheaton had its challenges for me. Theologically I was stretched. I had a very interesting conversation with Gilbert Bilezikian once---he asked me why I thought that God was omniscient! Heady stuff for a mid-western gal. One of my favorite professors was Mark Noll. I loved listening to him lecture.
I enjoyed all my classes, really, but anthropology really bothered me. Something wasn't right there. Something didn't "jive" with my worldview, but I duly participated and got a passing grade. Barely.
Apparently I shared two classes with my future husband. We even lived in the same dorm that freshman year. But we didn't even know that each other existed, or something about like that!
Spring rolled around and my year at Wheaton came to a close. It was to be final, but I didn't realize that then. The nation's woes would have an effect on my future plans! That was the year of the farm crisis. Farmers couldn't pay their bills, and my dad's agriculturally related business was suffering. Tuition was killing him so he made a deal with me: Try out the University of Minnesota for the summer and if I decided to stay in-state he'd throw in a NEW CAR! I signed up for summer session, thinking a foreign language would transfer back to Wheaton just fine. I took Astronomy too, and an English Literature class.
Sometimes in life circumstances really do play a role in directing outcomes. For me this was a classic example, and fascinating to see how God can work intricate patterns to His purpose.
Norwegian twins from western Minnesota joined me for that summer at the U. One I had met at Wheaton. Her sister attended St. Olaf college. They were identical and they were a year ahead of me. They were BLOND, blue-eyed, pretty, and FUN! What a summer we had! As I recall we were all serious students, but living together at my home was no deterrent to having many fun times. My parents loved them both.
Summer session at the U was idyllic, really, and I was willing to make the big transfer.
I have to say something about foreign language here.
As someone who is considering missions knows, language ability is really important, most of the time.
My middle school was quite unusual in offering German to fifth grade on up. I took German, but it was hard for me. I struggled through a couple years of German in high school, also. I took 2 years of Spanish in High School as well. I decided German was just too hard. What was I going to study in college?
My best friend at Wheaton, who also had a heart for missions, told me that Turkey was the largest unreached nation in the world at that time. Maybe I should try to take Turkish? Please, not German!! But it was the only foreign language class open for that summer session that I could possibly consider taking. Spanish was full. I was FORCED to take German that summer.
And that's a good place to leave this story hanging.

Chapter 2

High School was a real trip, spiritually. My dad's cousin was a missionary to indigenous people groups in Canada. She and her husband lived in northern Minnesota, but they traveled northwards each summer to put on a summer Bible camp for children. This camp was 500 miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. In order to get there you had to drive on a dirt road through hundreds of miles of lonesome woods to Thompson. In Thompson you boarded a train that linked Churchill to the rest of the world. No roads for any other vehicle then. After a while the train stopped (for you) at a place in the middle of nowhere (no platform) and you jumped down with all your gear. A short walk through the woods, lugging everything, landed you at a dock where a boat was moored. This large open boat would take you for an hour on a vast inland waterway--to a place on the shore (somewhere) where there stood a few simple buildings. That was camp. When I was 16 I volunteered to help out at this camp, "Midway Bible Camp." I did what I could: lifeguard, cook, athletic director, counselor. What an experience it was! The children were primarily Cree or Eskimo.
I chose to be baptized at camp that year, and I was blessed in a way I never thought possible. The Lord Jesus was becoming more intimate with me and I couldn't get enough of HIM! Fire fell in a spiritual way for me. The power of God became so real to me that I could never deny it. This was what the world needed.
The camp studied the book of Galations that summer and that became my favorite book of the Bible. It spoke to me deeply.
My trip home was memorable. I had to leave before my friends, so I retraced my travels back to Thompson on the boat and train. At Thompson I boarded a bus late at night for the overnight to Winnipeg. Imagine a 16 year-old girl on her own for the first time! There were about two villages on the road back, and the bus stopped at both, in the middle of the night. Alcohol was in the air, at least the odor! I was sitting up close to the driver, but I could hardly sleep all night. As day broke and my anxiety levels rose, God sent an angel in the form of an elderly woman to help me. This kindly lady got on the bus about an hour north of Winnipeg. I felt comforted when she sat down next to me. She looked safe! "Where are you going?" she must have asked me...I don't remember the details...but she said she was going to the airport too and she would go with me there---. I thought that if we told the taxi driver to go to the airport we'd simply end up there, so I wasn't too concerned about safety with this person. She took me under her wing, as soon as we got off the bus at the depot. We got a taxi, got to the airport, and she insisted on paying. I went in the airport and exchanged a few words with her----and that was it! I didn't see her again! I got my plane for home and I just knew God had sent me an angel to get through a rather precarious situation in my young life.
The next summer I was determined to get back to Canada, but something else blocked my way.
I had two horses for pets. One was an old friendly mare, mostly Arab. She had been well trained and was excellent for inexperienced riders. Her disposition was just about perfect. Her offspring, on the other hand, was spirited and bad mannered. He was like a big affectionate dog to me, and I loved him. He was pretty, dark bay with white socks and a white blaze. He followed me like a puppy, but only strong young men were able to ride him easily.
Did I mention that I'm strong-willed? Well, I decided to ride Sheik one fine summer day. I'd been pitched off horses before, and I'd ridden most of my life. No problem, right? Well, Sheik was highly offended that our relationship had changed. Off I went and I landed wrong. My back was broken and I was to have a hospital stay instead of a trip to Canada!
Thankfully my accident wasn't worse. I was ambulatory and my back would heal, but 30 years later I still feel it!