Hi Friends!!

The last days for us in Naryan Mar are here! I’ll update you on what we have been doing since I last updated for you.
SCHOOL VISITS: our first visit to the school was on Thursday (March 1) we were all really surprised at how welcomed we were! It was amazing! We were ushered right into a meeting hall, a room filled with children applauding for us! I wasn’t really expecting there to be very many kids there, so it was such a shock! They sat us down and then put on a performance for us with some Russian songs, and dancing. After their program we were able to do our program, which they seemed to enjoy. We were invited to come back the next day, they told us that they had a strong volleyball team and they wanted to play us! HA, so the next day we came back in, three of us excited (Lenneke, Leivur, and Annika) and the rest of us a little nervous(ok, honestly we were filled with dread). But, play we did! It was the 3 I mentioned earlier as well as Cherob, Bex and myself on a team. We played one game against their girls team, and then we mixed teams for another game. It was an interesting experience for me….a little stretching J They invited us back again for Saturday, to join them with a party and a disco! What a party! They fed us FRESH fruit (ok, about as fresh as fruit in northern Russia can get) and chocolate! If it’s possible to overdose on fruit I think that I got pretty close! It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen fruit (those brown and black object that slightly resemble fruits in the supermarkets do not count!), so we didn’t want to miss anything while it was available for us! Mmmm, such a delight!
SUNDAY: Our Sunday morning started with a laid back church service. Larissa (a Christian hairdresser, whom we met last week) came and joined us. It was nice to see her again. Then in the afternoon and into the evening we invited some of the students from the school to join us. So we had about 10 teenagers fill our living room! Only one of them spoke a teeny tiny bit of English…so our English/Russian dictionary was in high demand! We made balloon flowers together, and played the animal game…..yep, the animal game. It’s become one of our favourite guest games. In the evening we also had another couple come over to hang with us.
MONDAY: Yesterday most of us stuck at home for the day. The major project we had was to redo the wallpaper in one of the hallways. What a job! I’ll leave it at that J Lenneke and Olga left for the city in the morning to do some errands and stuff. They went by the school to visit one of the teachers and Lenneke ended up getting invited to teach part of the English class! The English teacher had lots of questions about our school and different things about her beliefs. At the end of the class the English teacher invited us to come back on Tuesday to have Christian programs for some of her classes! So that’s what we did today! We had 3 classes where we were able to talk about God’s love and even teach them ‘Jesus loves me’ and ‘our God is an awesome God’. It was so much fun!
Tomorrow is our last day in Naryan Mar and we got invited for one last trip back into the school. J They had been planning a concert for the 8th (which is Women’s Day), but they moved it up a day because they wanted us to be there! Such precious people. We also plan on having some friends over for the evening to say good bye. Then on Thursday morning we fly!
I don’t know if we’ll have internet access for the next weekish. SO: Borgen peeps…we look forward to seeing you again on the 12th! And everyone else we look forward to seeing you whenever we will (that’s March 25 for YOU my fab fam)

XOXOXOX,
Melodie, for everyone else

Hello, it’s Mel here again! let’s talk about the date once more, shall we? The Last day of February!!!! WOWsers!
Ok, now that I have that out of my system: how are you guys??? We all hope that all is well.
Here are a couple of quick highlights:
• We’ve been busy hosting a variety guests. A couple of ladies from the English classes came over to visit, as well as some others that we’ve gotten to know the last couple of weeks. Our teapot is never cold :)
• We’ve made a new friend Yegor (or yogurt as well like to call him) we met him through a lady that Olga met on a bus one day! Really random, but we’ve been totally blessed by him and we pray that we’re being a blessing to him.
• The next 3 days we’re having different events at the school here! Pray for us as we go in there.

And to sign off I’ll leave you with a personal favourite.


John 13:9,11
I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Remain in my love (make yourselves at home in my love) I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes your joy will overflow.

Hey everyone! Happy February 20th! Wow, February 20th already! That is positively insane! Ok, i’ll stop talking about the date and start filling you all in on what we’ve been up to in Naryan Mar! So we arrived at this cold, but beautiful place on the February 8. What a miracle it is that we’re still in Naryan Mar. Thanks Helen, for updating the blog with info about that.

here's a picture of our home sweet home. we live in the top right corner.

One highlight for me was Valentine’s Day. We had a very low key day at our apartment, had an encouragement game, etc. and then we all got dressed up for supper! It was no normal supper though, because I was leader that day I decided to include a little team building exercise: We had a yummy reindeer meal (thanks Jung Im!) which we ate with our hands tied to the person beside us! Hehe, ah JOY I tell you! Ok, so it might not have been everyone’s highlight……but I LOVED it!

Valentine's Day table

working together to eat our food!

Another celebration we had was Lenneke’s birthday this Sunday!! Our little girl’s all grown up!

The beautiful birthday girl!

Going back a couple of days now, on February 15 we were able to go out into the tundra and visit a Nannet tourist thingy (that’s the best word I can think of) we all put on our warmest clothing, took a taxi ride out of the city, then got picked up by a snow mobile, and arrived at a little tepee. We ate traditional Nannet food, tried on their clothing, took little joyrides on a reindeer sleigh, and hung out with the people. It was a really cool opportunity to see the way that the people used to live. We all got a little cold by the end, but what a great opportunity.

the team ready to go out to the tundra!

Lenneke, Leivur and Cherob dress to impress

The next day we were invited to visit a children’s home. We were told by the people that we had ½ an hour there and that we were not allowed to play with the kids. So, we decided we would just go in there pray, and hope to get invited back again if we behaved ourselves. This children’s home was for kids from infant to 3 years old. We talked with the director for about ½ an hour, and then went into the play area where there were about 10 children, who were maybe 2 or 3. Right away one of the little boys ran up to us with open arms…and we then spent the next hour playing with the most precious children. They stole our hearts. A lot of the children were abused by their parents before they came to the home, and man, it was just heart breaking to hear some of the stories. They were such beautiful children. We got invited back to play with the children outside one day when it’s not to cold. I haven’t heard of a date when we’re going back, but I’m really hope that we will be able to see them again.
Last night Cherob and Bex had a chance to show off their English speaking skills and teach an English lesson! It went so well that they got invited back again on Saturday!
I think that’s all to update for now. We’ve been learning a lot here in Naryan Mar, as individuals and as a team. God has been so faithful to us. Bless you all.

Love, Mel (and everyone else)

p.s. just in case you guys are curious, Schnitzel (Cherob's cockroach) is still alive!

Registration Sorted

Hei!

Thank you for your prayers. The team is now able to stay in the apartment instead of a hotel which is good. But they were charged an administration fee of 4000 NOK which is a lot of money they team definitely does not have.

I will update here as much as I hear from the team.

Helen

Russia Update.....finally!

Hi Everyone!

Now here's an update from Russia! Time has been flying by - but it's been great so far. We have been staying the last 10 nights at the airport hotel in Murmanshi. This is one stylin' hotel - i'm telling you! heheh riiiight. Maybe i'll just leave it at that! Here a photo of team with hotel in background

The weather has been quite a bit colder here than it was in Kautokeino, one day it went down to -40C degrees . The average temp has been - 25, so we've been piling on all of our winter gear everyday! People are always staring at us when we walk down the street. They are dressed in normal clothing, while we have HUGE winter boots, ski pants, BUG winter jackets, scarves pulled up to our eyes and toques (woollen hats) pulled down to our eyebrows. It is a funny sight to see.

We've had lots of cool opportunities ministry-wise as well. We have been working with 2 people from the YWAM base here, Sergei and Galina, and they have been such a blessing! They have been translating for us, setting up events and taking us around the city. I really don't know what we would have done without them!

Waiting for the bus with Sergei

We went to 2 children's homes (these kids wee soooo precious, it was hard to say good bye), some schools and we also spent a couple of evenings with some Christian groups. It's been a lot of long days - but it's been such a joy being with the Russians.

Another joy that we've had has been HELEN (who is actually the one typing this post - transferring it from paper to computer - Bless you Helen) (....thanks !! hehehe....i am not making this up, just coping what they wrote!). Anyways we have had Helen with us since Feb 2nd and we're sad that we'll be separated from each other again tomorrow (8th). Like always Helen brought along with her fun, joy and wisdom. We love you Helen! (awwwwe shucks....)

Hmm, well tomorrow morning (8th) we're jumping on a Russian plane, flying down to Moscow and then flying up to Naryan-Mar!! I'm hoping we'll have Internet access up there, but not too sure yet. You'll be hearing from us more if we do. If we don't - just keep praying for us!

Bless you all!

Love the Borgen DTS Outreachers...
Cherob has a new friend...which she actually has kept...a cockroach from Madagascar

(since writing this the team has made it safely to Naryan-Mar, they are having a little bump in the road with some difficulties registering with the administration office (Russia is big on having forms filled out) so on Monday they are meeting with the office boss to sort that out.

You could be praying that the team will be allowed to stay at the apartment and not have to move to a hotel!! I will let you know what happens. Helen. You can look at my blog to see my report from my trip with them) http://www.helenjwilson.blogspot.com/

Hey everyone!!!

sorry about the lack of updating....internet has been a little bit less than available!
just wanted to let you all know that we're alive and in Russia!! we'll be sending a bigger update along with helen (whom we have LOVED having with us)
Keep up the prayers for us. we're leaving on Thursday for Naryan Mar. we're all excited about heading out, God's good & we wanna see Him move.

hugs and kisses from us
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

X.Sport Pictures

Here are some pictures from X.Sport

January 21, 2007

Jung Im's new friends
Cherob watches the pizza like a HAWK

the end of the day

hey everyone!

i figured it was about time for an update. do you agree? good. ok, now that we have that all sorted out, i'll continue on with some little updates. for those of you that don't know yet...lenneke DID return to us (with a beautiful new passport) last thursday, the same day that the Team 69 from Borgen came up to help us with our X.Sport! so we were all put to work getting ready for our X.Sport. We had football (soccer actually...but that can be debated later....) tournaments, a dance workshop, and a little craft corner. we had been encouraging the kids to sign up for the football a lot.....but we forgot to encourage them to sign up for the dance & craft. the result was having around 70 kids signing up for football and ZERO people at the dance & craft areas! hehe, actually that's not the complete truth. while some of the older kids were playing football, two little girls wanted to learn a dance, so Annika and I taught them shackles! they were so excited that they wanted to perform it in front of the teenagers.....so we did! :) actually, we just found out yesterday that those girls are going to be teaching the dance to a couple of their friends and they'll be performing it at their school talent show early next month!!! These girls are probably like 9 years old and they'll be bringing shackles into their school! sweeeeeeeet! anyways, back to X.Sport. it was a great success! i think the kids had fun....plus with the older kids the girls team got 2nd place! never before have i been so proud :) hmm, i think that's it...i don't have X.Sport pictures with me right now....but hopefully by tonight or tomorrow i'll get a bunch up on here for you guys.
Our time here in Kautokeino is coming to an end soon. On Sunday we'll be packing our bags and making our way one step closer to Russia. Tomorrow we have our final movie night with the youth, on saturday we'll be spending some quality time with certain, speical youth.....but for today we're busy painting up the Culture House and listening to worship music/testimonies from Bethel together. as i like to say: team work makes the dream work.

much love,
Smelly Mellly

sun & tropical temperatures!!!

Here a little note from Holland, my personal, privat outreachtrip!!!
Here it is about 12 celsius degrees now!!!
Yesterday I had really nice trip. Thanks to Hannah, Leivur and Jung Im, did I arrive in Kirkenes on time. So after a little walk in 'the sunmove' and a wonderful breakfast (Jung Im thank you for your 'homemade' bread and Hanna for your energydrink!!) I entered the waitingroom of Kirkenes airport!!! Wow, overwhelming.... As you can see!!!

But is was really blessed by the sunlight!!! The sky was clear and it was warm. And because I had to find the postofficething I had to walk around (so sad....) And the good thing...I had to walk for about half an hour!! So I really enjoyed that. I had never thought I could ever enjoy a good walk in the sunlight that much, but I did. And I was happy to do it, because I was quite bored the rest of the time at the airport.....but I had sun!!!!....yep, enough about that.....

The rest of the flight was boring....and I was happy to see Amsterdam finally!!! And then to see my father waiting for me at the airport....yeps....and we went to Mc Donalds!!! So GOOD!!!!!

This morning I made pictures...by the way, not good making pictures that early in the morning...and I wasn't allowed to wear my glasses, so I didn't have anything what could hide my 'wallen'...what's that in english...those things under your eyes when you are really tired....well...oja....and your not allowed to smile, so I look.....well....

So now I have to wait to get my passport tomorrow...so after buying my tickets to go back again on thursday, the only thing I can do now is enjoying my duth life, here in Nunspeet!!!! So....I'm leaving now....!!!

Photos from week one

This says it all


Bex and Jung Im made popcorn the
old fashioned way, and hot chocolate


Most of the kids who came for the

movie night


Lenneke, Mel and Leivur doing
a drama\dance


Playing cards after the kids

movie

Karaoke with the youth after

the movie

The police (thanks to Hanna, Mel and

Cherob for being tee decoy posers to get

the photos of the police woman)

Line dancing at the disco (before the kids and youth arrived)

one week later...

We had our first week up in Kautokeino! And it was a good, busy one! On Thursday we went to the school & interrupted almost all of the classes to introduce ourselves and invite the youth to different activities. The response was quite positive from the teachers and the students. On Friday we had our first movie night with them! First we had grades 4-7, and we had about 20 kids out. After the movie most of them stayed and we played card games with them, and just got to know a couple of them a bit. Then a bit later we had grades 8-age 18, we had about 10 girls come out for that one. And then after the movie we hung out with those girls and played SingStar on PS2....haha, i'm telling you these people take this competition seriously! I think the highlight for all of us was when the POLICE stopped by to check up on things. Hehe, we've got pictures to prove it. The police women were really lovely actually. Anyways, we didn't get back to our place until quite late...but we all went to bed really fast knowing what the next day all held for us.....DISCO! On Saturday we made our way to the Klubben (where we were having the disco) at about 1pm to decorate, and check the place out. everyone had their own job & did an amazing job. we basically had 2 jobs: security, and dancers/talkers....although a couple of times the security people snuck their way onto the dance floor. Bex was particularly difficult to get off the dance floor. I'm telling you! It was really good, we had lots of fun, and I think that the youth enjoyed themselves as well.
Last night Lenneke, Hanna, Jung Im and Leivur drove up to Kirkenes (6hrs away) to drop Lenneke off at the airport. For those that don't know, Lenneke's passport expires like 3 months(or 4) after we get back from Russia, and they have this rule that your passport has to be valid 6 months after leaving Russia. So Lenneke has flown down to Holland for a couple of days to get herself a new passport. LENNEKE: we miss you, and can't wait for you to return :)

ok, that's it for now. we'll get back on here in a bit to put some pictures up.

Watch out world, here we come

hi hi hi!!! We've made it to Kautokeino! After leaving Borgen at 10am, Monday morning, we made a stop at Skibotn for passport pictures, which ended up taking 2hrs :) so at 12pm we were finally on the road....and on the road....and on the road...and on the road....until we found out that we had missed an important turn off and had been travelling south for 3hrs when we were supposed to be travelling North. hehe, so finally 11.5hrs after leaving Borgen we arrived at our new home!! it's beautiful up here...everything is covered in snow.

Some of us were sorely dissapointed that we didn't get to live in igloos, but that is okay, we have really great rooms and real beds with real windows that work! Not that we would open them because it is rather cold here and no one fancies waking up covered in snow. We have a kitchen with a table and we can eat there. That is good too. It's snowed here, every night. It's so beautiful and we can almost see the sun when we look really hard.

Okay so now for some serious stuff.... We visted the Nuoraidsiida (Youth/Cultural house) and met some of the youth and staff. We were given a hearty welcome and they gave us each a staff T-shirt, which are really COOL!!! We are currently working with the Nuoraidsiida (Youth/Cultural house) to develop our program for the next 3 weeks. Things are already looking promising as they have asked us to be in charge of some drama, music and creative classes. We have already begun to plan some fun activities such as a disco, movie night, and a sports day, which gives us a great opportunity to get to know the youth here.

Well, that's about it for now.

Thanks for praying for us, we are seeing God move and open doors, and this shindig isn't finished yet!God bless you guys!

From: GROUND ZERO (our team name)




In the van


View form our kitchen


Our new T-shirts

Ground Zero at work