Seattle / Oregon

We were totally blessed by long lost friends we connected with on Facebook a short time before arriving in Seattle. They housed us, fed us, and provided a car for us the whole time we were there. While we have been amazed at the number of homeless in the States, we were anything but that! Praise God. It was great to renew friendship and to encourage one another in God.

We spent most of our time in Springfield, Oregon, with Bob and Lisa Scroggins, past National Directors of YWAM NZ. It was wonderful to catch up with them and the family. They are doing so well and we had the privilege of speaking in the Church they pastor and also to local children and youth workers through a seminar Bob had organized, “Seeing Kids Grow in Christ.” We had positive feedback from both. While with them we stayed in their mobile home which was parked in the bush a few miles from their home. We also went touring in it for five days! What a blast.

Our camping experiences have had similar beginnings with snow falling on our first day! We were unable to see the beautiful Crater Lake that we had traveled to see, but we did see the beautiful snow, and were reminded afresh of the purity and creativity (every flake unique!) of our Maker. The weather cleared the next day and we were able to enjoy so much beauty in that State including water falls, huge boulders in the clear green river valley, and of course the Redwood trees! Although they are actually in Northern California. What amazing specimens they are. Just huge!! Can you see Chris? Click twice for a better view. They have carved a hole through one so that you can drive your car through it, yet it still grows quite healthily in spite of the abuse! The grandeur and majesty of God displayed all around us as we walked through the forests was breathtaking. Photos cannot do Him justice! And of course there was the odd bit of wild life to enjoy as well with chipmunks and Elk doing their thing.

We traveled up the West Coast of Oregon visiting beaches and taking in the sights before crossing back over to Springfield. What an adventure. Thank you so much Bob and Lisa for trusting us with your Mobile home! The first place we stayed we mentioned to the managers that our friends had lent us there RV and his jaw dropped in disbelief that anyone would be that crazy! It had all the mod cons of shower, toilet, central heating, microwave, coffee perk, etc, so we were quite cozy. And it had plenty of raw V8 power, reflected in the economy of 7 to 8 mpg! That’s about 3km/litre, or 35 litre/100kms! But worth every bit.

We had a few more days back in Seattle before flying out to London. We drove to Vancouver (Canada) to visit a good friend for a night, then back to the YWAM Base at Discovery Bay where the KK leaders for the North West USA live. What a beautiful serene spot, and what wonderful hospitality again. It was so valuable to be able to see another Base and how it is run. What a great job they have done in the 9 years since I was last there, just after they moved in.

While there we learnt that British Airways were having problems with Cabin Crew strikes and that our flight to London had been cancelled, but BA had won a reprieve through the courts and it had been reinstated. We were thankful! But then the day we were to leave, we discovered that the union’s appeal had been upheld and the strikes were back on again, but thankfully it did not affect our flight out. But it does mean that our flight to Zambia was cancelled. Three flights in our trip cancelled now! 4 actually, with one reinstated. Bizarre. Never had this happen before. But BA have rerouted us through Sth Africa with another airline and will put us up in a hotel for the night’s delay in London. So we suffer again! We get to Zambia one day later. We are really looking forward to seeing Rebecca again, and I think she is looking forward to seeing us too!

We enjoyed catching up with Dee and Hye Young (ex KK staff NZ) and their little girl Jamie for a few hours while in London. We left a couple of bags of medical supplies for Zambia with them and then flew off to Norway on one of the cheapie airlines. $20NZ for our ticket and $90 for the bag check in! Still a lot cheaper than a regular airline though. Certainly no frills, but a great, slick service.

God really surprised us here in Norway. We have been wanting to experience a King’s Kids Family Camp for almost two years. We would have been prepared to fly to Hong Kong where Dale Kauffman runs them if he had run one in the past 18 months, but that has not worked out at all. Then we heard they may be running one in the States, but that didn’t work either. So we had pretty much given up, but 10 days before arriving in Norway we had an email saying they were running a Family Camp here, so we joined when we arrived. One of the main leaders had done a couple of camps with Dale and his daughter Kiersten. So we are blown away at the blessing of God! We really enjoyed the concept and are so glad to have been here for this time and learnt a lot.

We are staying in a beautiful unit at the house of some King’s Kids workers. We are enjoying a lovely view down the harbour in Oslo and the beautiful spring growth of Norway. The KK worker is also involved in the local city council so I am getting my political passion stirred as well! They are a precious couple. We fly back to London on Friday, pick up our left luggage and fly to Zambia on Saturday, arriving Sunday. Then we bus to meet Rebecca en route on Monday.