25 May 2003

Where are the Stenslands? This may not be the question on the tips of all your tongues, but we know that some of you have been wondering where in the world we have been these last few months. All will soon be revealed….

Break-in

Firstly however, thank you for your emails and prayers following the break-in at the AIM office at Christmas. It was quite a blow and at first we just couldn’t imagine how we would recover and get AIM back up and running again, especially in the few days we had left before our departure. Yet somehow the impossible happened and much of the functioning capacity of the AIM was restored before we left. We had been spending months preparing for leaving, transferring tasks and responsibilities. The theft of almost all the office equipment and other items meant that the transition was not as smooth as we would have liked, but we are very thankful there was a capable person willing to replace us. I am sure that Mark would appreciate prayer though as he seeks to guide the AIM this year through some of its challenges.

9,500 Miles (15,300km) of Driving

We drove from Kosova to England at the beginning of January. Two weeks in England were not enough to visit all of you and we do apologize if we weren’t able to see you, but we are planning on returning to England later in the year. We’ll email before we come so we can arrange to see some of you we missed on our first visit. On January 20, we flew to Arizona where we spent a wonderful time with Erik’s parents who now live near Phoenix. We didn’t intend to be there very long, but we both developed medical problems for which we needed doctor’s appointments, scans and tests. I (Jo) was found to have a multi-nodular thyroid goiter. It appears as if it is not cancerous, which was a question at one point. I have a follow-up appointment with an endocrinologist in the coming week to check that everything is still OK and not needing treatment. While in England, Erik injured his Achilles tendon and has been unable to walk very far since that time. Since there has been little improvement, he will also be at the doctor’s office again next week. We would appreciate prayer on this one. It has been quite frustrating for him to be so limited in his mobility. Anyway, hopefully you won’t have to hear too much more of this old couple with all their ailments!

As you probably know, furlough (now often referred to as “home assignment”) comes up every 3 or 4 years when we take a few months to catch up with our HQ as well as visit those of you who are involved and support the work we do, whether by prayer, encouragement or finances. This year we have decided to take some extra time for retreat, study and reflection. Over the last few years we have felt ourselves slowly drained to the point where we have been almost running on empty. After saying goodbye to Erik’s parents in AZ, we drove across the country (and in the USA that is a LONG journey!) to Tennessee where we had rented a cabin near the Smoky Mountains. It was the perfect situation for us. Holed up with all our books in the peace and, the beauty of nature was just what the doctor ordered. It was an important time for us when we were able to really reflect on the last years. We don’t have all our future planned out, but we know for the time being we need to continue to see a restoration of our passion both in our relationship with God as well as for missions.

Coming out of hiding

We are now in Minneapolis at Bethany’s home base. We have been catching up with all that has been happening at Bethany these past years as well as with the many of our friends and supporters here. If we haven’t had a chance to get together with you, please give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to see you. Apart from visiting, we have both volunteered our services at our missions department. Erik has been put to work on helping design and set up a website which will give Bethany workers around the world a greater link to the home base, to different resources as well as to each other. I am hoping to be able to use my Myers Briggs training in running workshops as well as doing some extra studies. Next week I am taking a class on Home Electrics for Dummies! I thought I’d take the opportunity to learn about some of these practical areas. I am one of those people who can barely change a light bulb, so it should be quite enlightening (no pun intended).

We also on occasion are invited to speak about what we do. Yesterday we were at a local city high school, both of us taking it in turns to participate on a panel on the importance of learning a second language in humanitarian work. It was a great opportunity to talk to these teenagers about what we did and why we did it. I was actually amazed at how well behaved they were. I had been expecting something more on the line of my experience in our local high school in northern Albania with knives being brandished in the faces of cowering teachers. Thankfully it was not the case and it was actually quite enjoyable.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement with us during this time. If you’d like to get together at any point this year wherever you may be, please do get in touch. We plan on being in some different parts of the States during the coming months and in England later in the year. We’d love to see you.

Until then,

Jo & Erik

The Stenslands

6820 Auto Club Road, Suite D

Bloomington, MN 55438

USA

Tel: (952) 996 1314

Email: erik&jo@pobox.com (for mailing lists, Internet subscriptions & e-cards, please use: joannastensland@hotmail.com)

Web: http://www.balkanhop.com/stenslands