Dear long-suffering readers

I am very impressed with anyone who has read the majority of more than one of my posts! I am sorry for how much they probably ramble on, but I've loved writing them. I was planning to journal every night of my internship, but that definitely fell by the wayside, so I am rather proud that I have kept this up every week, and hope to do so in Ecuador, though it may get a bit more difficult!I officially have one full day left in Fargo-Moorhead, so my time is pretty much done! I have really enjoyed living up here, and have occasionally wondered what it would be like to try the place out, since so many of my Bible School classmates come up here. I especially need to thank George and Sharon. I don't think they have looked at my blog yet, but let me say that they have been fantastic hosts and temporary "parents" to me. My real parents have been thankful several times that George and Sharon have taken such good care of me. I hope that they can all meet each other someday. Maybe at Bear Trap Ranch? My parents were there for camp before I was born, and George and Sharon used to live there, so it would be a great place for them to meet up, I think. I am hoping to get back there someday as well!



I really have enjoyed the conversations I have had with George, and believe me there have been plenty. He has really challenged me to think through my opinions and to look at life differently. Most of you probably don't realize that George has only one arm, because I haven't mentioned it. He went through two rounds of sarcoma less than ten years ago, and doctors decided to combat it the second time by amputating his arm. The cancer has not returned as of this writing, but whether it ever does or not, George really exemplifies a faith-filled life, and he has followed God through some crazy times. He and Sharon are just so real and so... real. That's the best way to describe them, I guess. Sharon is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met! She is a tremendous cook, a hard worker, a loving mom, and very, um, thrifty! : ) Those are all qualities I enjoy about her. She talks to at least one of her four kids every day, and she works as the deli manager at Hornbacher's grocery store in West Village and comes home with hilarious stories. I will miss them both when I leave!



Let's see, since last Tuesday, I spent some time on MSUM's campus and went to Elise's Bible study on Wednesday, which was really fun, because we had a good crowd and had some good fellowship time in addition to a good discussion of the Scripture. We also had cookies, which is always exciting! Those Parsley girls sure know how to have company!Then I went to bed, anxious for my sister Julia to come visit me for her winter break from Crown College. Unfortunately, my car, which I had left when I was at home and which she was going to return to me, had been acting kind of strangely, so she took it to the mechanic. He found nothing wrong, and I am happy to say that it is still behaving after the water pump leak was fixed right before Julia picked it up the first time. Though nothing was wrong, she was delayed a bit, so I had to wait for her a bit longer than I was planning to. George was also gone at a staff conference, so I had a good portion of the day to fritter away, though I had originally had big plans, as usual. Julia got to George and Sharon's at about 5:00, and George got there a little after she did. After supper we had three of her Bible School classmates over for ice cream! I had been able to spend a bit of time with all of these girls while I had been here, and it was fun to see them again! Carmen, Sam, and Sarah are quite incredible women, actually!



Julia cuddled with me that night in my little room, and then she got up with me at 3:30 to deliver the paper, which rocked! It was much more fun to deliver with company, and then I had someone to take pictures of me while I bagged, because my carrying colleagues are usually too busy bagging their own papers, and I wanted to commemorate that part of my internship! : ) We slept in the next morning, and then we went to MSUM to meet Julia Olsen for lunch at the Union! It was really fun to meet with her, even though she was getting sick, so she was pretty worn out. I left to give plasma and give Julia and Julia time to catch up, and when I returned, Elise and Julia, my sister, were still visiting in the basement of the Union. We soon went over to the Parsley pad to hang out and see wedding stuff that Leesy was working on, and I put salt in my coffee and the acidity didn't bother me as much as usual! It sounds funny, but Will from Bear Trap told me that the salt somehow neutralizes the acid, which I guess makes sense. Next time I get a hankering for coffee, we'll have to see if it was a fluke.

After a few hours Julia and I left to leave some time to get some work done back at George and Sharon's. I needed to do some reading--my dad asked me to read "Why History Matters," an essay by Ted Byfield that every teacher should read, apparently. It talked about John Dewey and the radical agenda he tried to push in North American schools. It was really interesting, and I definitely had to think through my education at UMM to compare some of the ideas I had studied to his philosophy. Julia was working on her support letter for this summer--for those of you who don't know, my sister is planning to go to Russia to an English language camp with East European Missions Network, and she would love your prayers and your support! Let me know if you're interested in finding out more about her trip. She's very excited about it!

The next day Julia left to visit our friend Katie Schram up at UND, and I don't even remember what I did, besides the normal facebook and e-mail time and random reading and talking with George. Julia came back through early that evening and then headed back home so that she could go to church the next day. That night, George, Sharon, and I watched "Fireproof," which was a very good movie. I would recommend it to anybody. I definitely laughed, and though I didn't cry, I did get misty-eyed. It was worthwhile. For my last Sunday, I decided to go to Triumph West once more, and I brought Kelly Welch with me, so that we could hang out one more time, since this week was going to be kind of hectic for her. Carmen and Elise sat with us, and I was surprised to find out that the team from the church who had gone to Ecuador in January was sharing! It was perfect timing, since I had heard about the trip my second Sunday up here. Pastor Vern talked about how a Christian's strength comes from abiding in the Father, which is always a good reminder for me to rest in Him. Then Kelly came home and ate lunch with George and me, but since she had so much work to do, I brought her home pretty quickly. On my way home, I visited Zandbroz, a variety store downtown that I had been told to visit. It was... full of variety, I guess. It was definitely a yuppie kind of place.I spent the rest of the day making cookies for Bible study, more or less, which was fun but exhausting.

Yesterday I was feeling a head cold coming on, so I was lame and didn't really do anything that I didn't have to, and we went to Bible study in the evening and met with Ashlie. She is such a fantastic girl, and I am so glad we finally got to know each other. We are two years apart in school, so we had mutual friends that went to Bible school with both of us, but we had never talked before this. She is so sweet and friendly, and you can tell that she loves Jesus and people a lot! Today the only thing out of the ordinary that I did was go to West Acres Mall with my friend Amanda Krogsrud and her son Zach, which was very fun! Zach is three and he's just adorable. I haven't seen him since he was less than six months old, so it was time to catch up! Then I walked briskly around the mall for a few minutes for some exercise before I headed home.



Tomorrow is my last day delivering papers. (sniff, sniff) Just kidding! It's been a good run. I haven't made too many mistakes, I don't think! Pray for the Christians at MSUM, once again, just that their passion for Jesus would be evident and that their classmates would be drawn to that. Also pray for George and Sharon; they have been such a blessing to me! Lastly, pray for my preparations and my journey to Ecuador. Probably the next time I will be writing I will already have arrived! I would love to talk to you before I leave, so get in touch with me if you can, as communication will be more difficult once I get down there! I love you all! God bless!Christina