The
link below brought back memories of the summer of '94 when I visited
dear friends in Holland. I went up to Amsterdam for the day and took a
Museum Boat to the house where Anne Frank and her family and the others
were in hiding, to the Rijksmuseum and to the Van Gogh Museum. Then I
spent almost two months in Russia and Ukraine, and was in England for
some Healing Prayer Ministry meetings at with Francis and Judith MacNutt
at Oxford and at Newman College in Birmingham.
I always said I would go to Europe when the kids grew up. As I have written before this, on the Mother's Day weekend of 1994 I was so very proud of both my kids. Tom finished US Marine Boot Camp in South Carolina on Thursday -- he was an honor grad, the best of the 60 guys in his unit. The parade passed before the honor grads. They got medals and Krista and I sat under the awning with the other family members, generals and admirals. We were blessed that our folks and their dad's mom were there as well as some friends.
Two days later Krista graduated from Bluefield College where she had played on the Women's Varsity Softball Team and excelled in many ways. Both of my kids have wonderful lasting friendships from those days, too.
On Mother's Day they gave me cards and presents and said, "Bye, Mom! We're grown up!"
So then I did go to Europe -- to Russia on a Volunteer in Mission (VIM) trip to Tsarskoye Celo, "The Tsar's Village," which was still called by its Soviet name, "Pushkin." A group of over thirty UMC pastors and their wives and other church members (not only United Methodists) from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York helped remodel a nursing home. This was my second time to Russia. Was also on a VIM trip to Obninsk, 230 southeast of Moscow from December 27, 1993 until around January 20th, 1994. Was blessed to be able to escort interpret on both trips.
The group that was in Pushkin near St Petersburg and I took an overnight train to Moscow. The day they all left to go back to the U.S., I was blessed to be able to take another overnight train to see friends in Kharkov, Ukraine. We had met during my last academic year studying Russian at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana ('77-'78). The husband of the family had been an exchange professor at U of I from September through May and his wife had visited him in the US during the month of January.
So we were very happy to see one another again sixteen years later. Was so amazing because I was able to stay with them in their apartment for two weeks. If I had come to Kharkov during the Soviet era, I would only have been able to stay at a hotel and visit them briefly. They drove me to Kiev to fly back to Holland. A few days later I took the train/boat/train to England for the Healing Prayer Ministry conferences in Oxford and at Newman College in Birmingham.
Being in England for the first time was so amazing. Aside from the fact that after speaking Russian for two months, I had a rough time with various English accents, I felt so at home. So many of the ladies looked like my aunts and grandmother. While in Oxford before and after spending the weekend at Newman College, I was blessed to stay in the home of the sister of one of the first women who was ordained in the Church of England.
Our Dad's parents grew up in Walsall, a small town not far from Birmingham (now part of the larger metropolitan area). All our relatives happened to be on holiday when I was there, so that was too bad. Our paternal grandparents, their parents, and all their siblings left England for Canada, for the U.S. and for New Zealand between about 1905 and 1915 or so, because of economic conditions. One of Grandma's brothers went back to Walsall instead of staying in the U.S. or Canada.
In the summer of '72 we met the widow of our grandmother's brother. She, her daughter and her family came to visit our grandmother. The sisters-in-law had not seen one another for over 50 years! Our aunts had visited them when they were in England on holiday and in our family album there are photos of them holding 5 month old Krista in our parents' back yard in Lake County, Illinois.
I enjoyed the train trips from the port to London; from London to Oxford; from Oxford to Birmingham and back again. While walking through the train station in Birmingham, I was awed to think that my ancestors had walked there, too. Sailing on the ferry back and forth from Holland to England was lovely, too.
I'm looking forward to going back to England and to traveling where the Lord leads me again in His time and in His will. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family members and friends all over the world. I am very grateful to the Lord for all of them and for all the opportunities I have had to travel and to share God's love.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
I always said I would go to Europe when the kids grew up. As I have written before this, on the Mother's Day weekend of 1994 I was so very proud of both my kids. Tom finished US Marine Boot Camp in South Carolina on Thursday -- he was an honor grad, the best of the 60 guys in his unit. The parade passed before the honor grads. They got medals and Krista and I sat under the awning with the other family members, generals and admirals. We were blessed that our folks and their dad's mom were there as well as some friends.
Two days later Krista graduated from Bluefield College where she had played on the Women's Varsity Softball Team and excelled in many ways. Both of my kids have wonderful lasting friendships from those days, too.
On Mother's Day they gave me cards and presents and said, "Bye, Mom! We're grown up!"
So then I did go to Europe -- to Russia on a Volunteer in Mission (VIM) trip to Tsarskoye Celo, "The Tsar's Village," which was still called by its Soviet name, "Pushkin." A group of over thirty UMC pastors and their wives and other church members (not only United Methodists) from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York helped remodel a nursing home. This was my second time to Russia. Was also on a VIM trip to Obninsk, 230 southeast of Moscow from December 27, 1993 until around January 20th, 1994. Was blessed to be able to escort interpret on both trips.
The group that was in Pushkin near St Petersburg and I took an overnight train to Moscow. The day they all left to go back to the U.S., I was blessed to be able to take another overnight train to see friends in Kharkov, Ukraine. We had met during my last academic year studying Russian at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana ('77-'78). The husband of the family had been an exchange professor at U of I from September through May and his wife had visited him in the US during the month of January.
So we were very happy to see one another again sixteen years later. Was so amazing because I was able to stay with them in their apartment for two weeks. If I had come to Kharkov during the Soviet era, I would only have been able to stay at a hotel and visit them briefly. They drove me to Kiev to fly back to Holland. A few days later I took the train/boat/train to England for the Healing Prayer Ministry conferences in Oxford and at Newman College in Birmingham.
Being in England for the first time was so amazing. Aside from the fact that after speaking Russian for two months, I had a rough time with various English accents, I felt so at home. So many of the ladies looked like my aunts and grandmother. While in Oxford before and after spending the weekend at Newman College, I was blessed to stay in the home of the sister of one of the first women who was ordained in the Church of England.
Our Dad's parents grew up in Walsall, a small town not far from Birmingham (now part of the larger metropolitan area). All our relatives happened to be on holiday when I was there, so that was too bad. Our paternal grandparents, their parents, and all their siblings left England for Canada, for the U.S. and for New Zealand between about 1905 and 1915 or so, because of economic conditions. One of Grandma's brothers went back to Walsall instead of staying in the U.S. or Canada.
In the summer of '72 we met the widow of our grandmother's brother. She, her daughter and her family came to visit our grandmother. The sisters-in-law had not seen one another for over 50 years! Our aunts had visited them when they were in England on holiday and in our family album there are photos of them holding 5 month old Krista in our parents' back yard in Lake County, Illinois.
I enjoyed the train trips from the port to London; from London to Oxford; from Oxford to Birmingham and back again. While walking through the train station in Birmingham, I was awed to think that my ancestors had walked there, too. Sailing on the ferry back and forth from Holland to England was lovely, too.
I'm looking forward to going back to England and to traveling where the Lord leads me again in His time and in His will. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family members and friends all over the world. I am very grateful to the Lord for all of them and for all the opportunities I have had to travel and to share God's love.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
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