LD family news

Thanks so much for praying about the rain! We heard from a few of you that you were taking this call to prayer very seriously. About the time that we wrote our last blog those heavy rains started diminishing. And the rest of the monsoon season has been much more moderate.

Our family (without Anna in this pic) after Commencement

Thanks for walking with the Rohingya in this way! The weather is, currently, the least of their problems. But that was not self-evident when we wrote that last post.

Since most of you know our family we want to update you on everyone. We have had two wonderful times together with our whole family this year. (Ironically, when we took a trip in 2004 we wondered if it would be our last big trip with all of us together)!

The 2019 Nursing class at pinning ceremony

At the end of April we were able to return to the States to celebrate Annika’s graduation from Goshen College’s nursing program. We found an AirBNB in the Goshen area so we could be together as family during the weekend we were in Goshen. We are so thankful to the Lord for how Annika thrived in her studies, socially and spiritually at Goshen College!

After commencement weekend we left Annika at Goshen (to prepare for the nursing exam) and had more time in Minnesota with extended family as well.

Annika passed her nursing exam in June and started working at Mayo Clinic in Rochester the end of August. She has a great roommate, and has started working 12 hours shifts as a nurse on a medical-surgical ward. Please pray for her in this adjustment.

Back to Minneapolis on mom Lindell's birthday to celebrate

In July (when we came to the end of our 1 year contract with Medair) we met all the kids in Vienna in order to bike along the Danube river. We have dreamed of this trip for some time! We spent basically a week on the bikes. We generally biked 5-6 hours per day and found campgrounds to stay in for the night. We biked from Vienna to Budapest (probably around 400 kms in total) and then spent a few days exploring Budapest (an incredibly alluring city!). Then we took the train back to Vienna with our bikes and dispersed to our various corners of 

the world.

Nathan and Anna are in Minnesota now. Anna is working with a study abroad program (with which she herself went to Ecuador a few years ago). Nathan will start working with a new immigration law firm the first of October. So they anticipate being in Minnesota for the time being.

Lydia and Annika had planned to graduate from college at the same time. But because Lydia struggled with Lyme disease during most of her college career she took a semester off last year and therefore was not ready to graduate at the same time as Annika. (One of the ironies of our life is that people would occasionally ask us how we could take our kids to Africa and expose them to terrible diseases – and then Lydia contracted Lyme disease when we were back on furlough in the US, was diagnosed immediately from the telltale bullseye rash and treated with antibiotics – yet she has continued to struggle with it). So she is finishing up her last semester doing independent study classes while volunteering on a Native American reservation in northeast Montana. She is on her way out there as we speak.

On the train from Budapest back to Vienna

As all of our kids move on from their undergraduate college careers, we are incredibly grateful to the Lord for how God has worked in their lives and sent professors and faculty into their lives who have been instrumental in their formation. We are also grateful for how each of them grew in their relationship with Jesus, the body of Christ and the larger community around them. Their experiences in college have varied greatly! And it is probably safe to say that each of our children has taken decisions that we would not have taken in their place and had adventures of their own which we could not have imagined possible. But that is normal. And we are so thankful that each of them continues in their desire to follow the One who has been the motivation for what Christine and I have done with our lives, as a couple.

Christine & I are back in Bangladesh and continuing to enjoy the work that we are doing with the Rohingya. Our extended contract goes through the middle of January at this point. Thanks for your love for our family over the years! This has helped to shape who we are.