Wedding bells

Jonathan and Janita

April 20th this year, our son, Jonathan and Janita Lord will be getting married in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonathan and Janita are both 23 years old and they have known each other since preschool. They have not been dating since then :) but connected again after some years. Janita worked as an au pair in Denmark and spent the first Christmas with us in Sweden 2009. Later during 2010 she moved to Gothenburg (Göteborg) where she has been with the same family looking after a sweet little 3-year-old boy called Frederik.
Jonathan works as a personal assistant to some handicapped young men, and also to an older gentleman. They plan to live in his apartment in Uddevalla, work part-time and study some. It will be good to have them close by and to see them more often.


Of course, as a family we plan to be at the wedding and to visit with friends and family from end March to 23rd April. As always, it is a faith challenge, but God has been so incredibly faithful so far. Meditating on how God sees weddings and marriage really boosted our faith, as that is the way that He wants to celebrate at the end of time with us, not wanting anyone to be excluded at all. For this reason we believe He will provide all we need as well as Sarah receiving favour to get time off her studies. Pray with us towards this end. We will share some of the testimonies next time round :)

Family holiday car

While we are in SA we need to borrow/hire a car that can seat 4-5 people - if anyone has a "spare" and is willing to loan us this for 3 weeks we would appreciate it greatly. Email us if this is a possibility. We will be visiting Johannesburg/Pretoria, Rayton, Piet Retief and want to spend a few days in Durban doing touristy things so Caleb and Joshua can renew their roots and understanding of SA culture. It is 11 years since we left and they have only been back once during that time. They are now 16 and 14 years and will see SA with more "adult" eyes :) If you wish to see us during this time, please drop us a line so that we can plan a time. Make sure you include email or contact numbers. We sooo look forward to meeting as many of our friends as possible.

Some of the DTS students

This past week we were teaching and debriefing the 4 returned DTS outreach teams. They have spent 10 weeks in Mozambique and 3 Asian countries. Always exciting to see how they have grown through the challenges and are excited about the future that God has for them and seeing where they can make a difference back home. Soon after we return from SA the teaching rounds start again for the spring and we will both be travelling to Finland to teach at various times. The Bible-school students that we have been involved with in Uddevalla will graduate at the end of May. Irrespective of age, we are ALWAYS blessed to see a-ha moments in their lives and when God reveals some truth from His word.

We have had a very mild winter up until last week, but even then temps have only gone as low as -14, but with the wind chill-factor, it feels more like -19. The snow came very late this year and not much of it, but we are thankful for that too. Makes for easier travel and access. We are, however, really looking forward to the warmth and sunshine in South Africa, and it will be even better with braaivleis*, rugby, friends and a Chevrolet. (Old advert from way-back-when!) (*BBQ)

Kerstin teaching during the debrief.

Our picnic with the children whose father had a heart 
transplant recently. He is doing well and the change in his 
physical condition is so very different. God is good and faithful. 
Continue to pray for the two sons who have the same 
inherited problem. There is no filter on this photo - 
it really was cold outside - it was only -5 :)

The pavements are really slippery when the snow melts and then refreezes.
Even more so when snow falls on-top of the ice.

Today is a sunny winter's day and the temperature is nearly 3 plus degrees.
Spring is coming! :)

Things you can pray with us about:

• Praise item - since starting the newsletter Sarah now has permission to attend. Yay!!!
• Finances for air tickets (at a good price :)
• A vehicle to borrow or finances to hire.
• For good family celebrations - Kerstin's brother from Australia will probably attend so that we as siblings can all be together again for the first time since 2007!

We appreciate your friendship and support as always.