Filling Our Home

It's been a month of new things in the House of Sven. God has answered our prayers, given us new opportunities and brought creativity out of necessity. I know God is outside of time, knows everything and is pretty much the Don, but I still marvel at the little joys and provisions He sets up in advance...

Firstly something that has given me great joy and has fulfilled a long held desire. About a month ago I got a call from one of the leaders of Revs, the lovely and resourceful Daniel Slatter. Dan called with a plea: would Steve and I consider helping out with an Alpha course? The regular team had suffered a bereavement and needed some space to be family. As chance would have it this coincided with five young women arriving at Revs and asking to know more about Jesus and what it meant to be a Christian. We said yes almost immediately with only one provision, that we could host them in our own home.

For the last four weeks five amazing young women have been joining us on a Wednesday evening to eat dinner with us and then chat about Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. I have been so touched by their wisdom, the way they've shared their lives and the journey they are all on. They have truly inspired me and I am so grateful to be able to get to know them at such an exciting time. A few nights ago as we ate around our table I felt like I wanted to capture this moment and send it to all the people who have blessed Steve and I. I wanted to show the people who bought our Denby set, our cutlery, glasses, cook ware and photo frames what gorgeous people were enjoying them. I wanted them to know they'd not only blessed us at the beginning of our marriage but they'd set up our home to welcome people who need a warm and safe place to be... I'm holding back the tears...

The second thing I'm grateful for is our lovely new housemate! Her name is Kanna, she's 19 years old and this is the first time she's left Japan. When Steve and I decided a lodger would be a great idea we wanted to open our home up to new people. Our local college runs a great host family scheme for foreign students so Kanna is our first. She'll be with us for about six weeks and her polite and pretty demeanor and joyful smile have been a real blessing. At the end of March just before Kanna leaves us our great friend Nat (who's marrying former house mate Ben T) is moving in! As she settles we'll be welcoming another Japanese girl into our home. It'll bring a lot of variety over the coming year as we have four people in the House of Sven and learn about different cultures but I'm really excited about it!

All these new members of our home have brought a new rhythm to life. No longer do Steve and I just eat whatever we can rustle up at what ever time we can grab it. Instead I start to cook at 6.15, carefully choosing something different to introduce Kanna to and at 7pm we all sit down together at the dinner table unpacking our day and tucking into our meal.

Necessity has bred creativity as I've had to start providing desserts each night. Not wanting to go overboard on our food shopping I've delved into our many wonderful cook books and have so far made: apple crumble, lemon drizzle cake, one of my Mother's wonderfully unhealthy creations and banana and walnut muffins. I'm quite enjoying baking. I keep flicking through Nigela and Good Housekeeping and finding delectable little morsels I can't wait to turn my hand too! xc

Comments

[Bill]

We have been hosting students learning english in our home since 1999. Mostly Koreans and Japanese, with a couple of Taiwanese and Columbians thrown in to spice things up. (We've even had a Kana!) We are currently working on #35, a nice girl from Seoul.

We have recently gotten introduced to some Chinese. One man is a professor in China, visiting at our local university. He brought his daughter to attend 10th grade here, while he did research. Now, he and his wife think it might be nice to have their daughter finish HS here. So, we may be having a Chinese HS student for two years.

So, I hope you have as much fun, learn as much, and develop as many foreign friends as we have. Definitely one of our better decisions.

[Lili]

You are adorable. I love you big sis! xxx

[rae]

Hey Carla, Sounds luscious!!Have you caught a glimpse of the new series "delia cheats" have a look! I was horrified! I guess it may work!!! Yak let me know if you are brave enough to try anything love rae

[Carla]

I did flick through it I have to confess I thought 'score!' less work! xc