Update 5: Dealing with my yarn stash

I've been a busy little beaver the last couple of weeks. We're moving out of our apartment in a month, so I have been organizing all kinds of things around the house. My most recent project was the yarn stash. There were a lot of unfinished projects and random balls of yarn. I packed up the random yarn and a few projects, but I took a number of them along on the road trip to work on in the car. So, on to the knitting projects...


Remember this one? I thought this shawl was for me, but then I decided it wasn't for me, it was for Sindy. It looks a lot better on her, so I guess it was meant to be! Sindy gave me a scarf that her mentor made.


While I was on that particular trip to Peru, I visited a delightful yarn shop. Sindy and our translator, Silvia helped me choose yarn for a blanket I had been wanting to make. I went straight to work as soon as I got home. I ran out of pattern, but still had a lot of yarn left over (the yarn was smaller than the pattern called for), so I started experimenting a bit on my own. I was very happy with the result... it's beautiful and soft and warm!



When I was done, I still had quite a bit of yarn left over, so I set about making hats for Elizabeth and Michael for Christmas.

I drew Cat this year in the Olson family Christmas draw, so I made her a purple scarf. Purple is her favorite color.

Not much knitting went on this spring. I had bigger fish to fry with all my arts thesis stuff. Not to mention, I had no projects in a state where I could just sit down and knit. I had a lot of planning to do. That explains this sweater: it sat in a bag for two years when all I had left to do was sew on the arms (my least favorite part), sew in loose ends, and block it, but I just never found the time. Oh well, it's done now! I finished it on a very lovely day sitting on the deck of a vacation home on Gambier Island. :)





We went to Colorado for OMF orientation (more on that soon), and took the opportunity to visit Kelly, Janelle, Elaine, and Elliott! We hadn't seen Kelly and Janelle for 3 1/2 years, which means we had never met either Elaine or Elliott! I brought big sister/little brother hats for them. (Elaine was wearing the yellow sweater I made her in the previous knitting post.)



We have a new nephew! His name is Alexander. I made him a little sweater vest. I designed it myself, and I used the same yarn as our other nephew, Michael's sweater.















I'm still working on the green fisherman sweater which was supposed to be for Keith but it turns out it's going to be for me. It was just too small, especially around the shoulders, even after I restarted it once. I'll try again later with a sweater for Keith. Izumi tells me that there are fabulous yarn shops in Sapporo! I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Update 4: Graduation Festivities

Okay, now we've caught up to about 2 months ago. Has it really been 2 months since graduation?? Actually, yes...

The last day of classes, which was also the day of Keith's comprehensive exam (hence the odd apparel--he likes to dress up in various ways for exams, usually like the professor... this time, he threatened to shave his head to dress up like Phil, his adviser, but I told him no, so he did a 3-piece suit and Klompen instead... but I digress...) we held a surprise farewell party for one of our professors, Dr. Clemens, who is retiring. Keith and I had been his TA's in Greek and Hebrew for the past year. We gave him gifts, said nice things, and prayed for him. He has been an inspiration to all his students! Dr. Clemens' comment when all of his students came into the classroom with a cart and drinks was, "Those of you who know me well will know that this is making me very uncomfortable... give me something to parse!" He's a very humble guy, and doesn't like people making a fuss over him. (I kind of hope he doesn't see this.) We will miss him! (Thanks, Roger for the pics!)




















There was an end of the year party for school. We're not really party people, but I made Keith go anyway. We ended up sitting at the CRC table... most of the people at the table go to our church. The "Love Crusade" performed old-school Christian rock from the 1980's, complete with appropriate clothing and sound equipment. Good stuff, that.








Graduation weekend was crazy. On Saturday, we went to three parties. One was brunch (at the BullTucker house), the second was lunch (Brazilian BBQ with Carla and her family), and the third was dinner (a BBQ in honor of some different Brazilians--Rene and Sarah). In between, we ate gelato.

































On Sunday, my Arts Thesis quartet played for the Graduation Tea.




































Monday (April 27) was graduation day. We went to Van Dusen Garden for lunch.






The Arts Thesis trio played for the ceremony. There are lots of pictures of us, since we were sitting right in the front row! In case you were wondering, both of us received Master of Christian Studies degrees. Keith's concentration was Biblical Studies, and mine was Christianity and the Arts. Each of us received 2 prizes. Keith's were in Greek and Old Testament, and mine were in Christianity and the Arts and Hebrew. It was a bit overwhelming... We used the prize money to pay our deposit for our trip to Japan.


































On Tuesday, the pressure was off, so we went to bother our friend, Kayoko at work. She made us drinks.










On Wednesday, we had a picnic.






















On Thursday, Carla and her parents came over for dinner: North Dakota steak! They told us the "polite" way to kick guests out of your home in Brazil: put the broom behind the door. This has become a running joke.



On Friday, we visited the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC.











On Saturday, Keith played with our three broken laptops (not the one in the foreground... thankfully that one still works! It's been a bad year for computers.)

Well, there you have it. We graduated! Hooray!

Update 3: Random stuff this Spring

Here we go again. Another update. We didn't take too many pictures this Spring, since we were busy all the time with schoolwork. But hey, there's a few pictures of that...

Taste of the world. It happens every year... but this year is our last year! The lovely Carla Faria was working on that day (having already finished school anyway), so instead of doing what I usually do (joining forces with the Brazilians), I represented... sigh... my own country. I made Green Bean Casserole. It's my favorite unhealthy-Campbell's-soup-based-Holiday-recipe. (I was so embarrassed--I had to check the box for "contains MSG" on the tag.) I also "dressed to represent" our country as our fearless leader (Eunice) suggested... I went all out with Red Sox garb, complete with red socks. There is a picture on Facebook if you are interested. ;)

Keith "represented" with his full PE uniform stolen from Grand Forks School District. Of course, the usual spam display also made an appearance.





My cello students had starring roles in their school play. Awwwww... The two in the overalls are my students. Student #3 was in the choir. The kids also put on a 3 course dinner! I was impressed...


My birthday, like usual, came right at the end of term. I decided to celebrate by doing nice things for Keith, since he was too busy studying to do anything fun. Here he is marking Greek quizzes, and preparing to eat a bento that I prepared for him.

Then, I went home, and I cooked and cooked and cooked. The result? An impromptu birthday tea party in the atrium at school. Anyone who walked by was welcome to join in and have a piece of chocolate cake.

Yes, it was a crazy semester... see previous update post. Soon, I'll actually get around to posting pics from graduation festivities, and other good stuff. :) Oh, it's so hard to re-integrate to normal life after all that school craziness.

Japan Newsletter

We're going to Japan... pretty soon! Here's our "support letter" for OMF. Enjoy!

Dear Friends and Family,

We would like to share with you some exciting news. First, both of us have graduated from Regent College in Vancouver, BC, Canada with Master of Christian Studies degrees. Keith’s concentration was in Biblical Studies, and Celia’s concentration was in Christianity and the Arts; Celia completed an “arts thesis” project, titled “Praise the Lord with Stringed Instruments: Instrumental Music as Participation and Contemplation.” Both of us served as teaching assistants in Biblical languages (Keith in Greek and Celia in Hebrew). We have greatly enjoyed our studies here at Regent, but we are also glad to be finished and moving on to the next stage in our lives.

Over the past several years, the people of Japan have been weighing heavily on our hearts. This is not really a recent development; both of us have been blessed throughout our lives with Japanese friends, teachers, and colleagues, and we have come to greatly value Japanese hospitality, food, and culture. The Japanese language we also find fascinating, and we are excited at the opportunity to learn it. That being said, the next stage of our lives will take place in Japan. We will be leaving North America for Japan in late July and returning at the end of March.

We have been accepted to take part in an “Individual Placement” short-term mission trip in the city of Sapporo through OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship) International. We chose this particular organization because of its emphasis on the indigenous church—missionaries from outside Japan are there to serve as supporters, with the intention of uplifting the Japanese church so that it can stand on its own. We want to be part of this work. Our specific tasks will be to join in the work of a local church in student ministry and in worship music ministry, and to give concerts. Celia is particularly interested to continue the work she started in her arts thesis and to see how instrumental music can be a bridge in cross-cultural situations. Keith is particularly interested in the possibility of teaching Biblical studies in the local church and in ministering to those on the fringes of society. We will work under the leadership of long term missionaries and leaders in the local church. Our desire in going for this short time is to learn more about the needs of the Japanese church and the Japanese people, and see if our gifts are well suited to meet any of those needs. It could be that God will call us to work in Japan for the rest of our lives!

How can you participate with us in our work? We are looking for people to encourage us and uphold us in prayer. We will be sending out periodic email updates as well as making posts to our blog to keep you informed on our adventures, our work, and our prayer needs. Our current prayer needs and contact information can be found on the reverse of this letter. We are responsible for our own finances, amounting to about $34,500 (US) for the eight months we will be in Japan. If you would like to contribute, please see the instructions below. (We understand that many of you are already heavily burdened by the financial crisis; please do not feel obligated. Please do support us in prayer even if you choose not to support us financially!)

We are very excited as our date of departure draws near. Please keep us in your prayers, and contact us if you want to hear more!

Blessings,
Keith and Celia


How you can be praying for us:

• For details in all sorts of areas to work out, including flights (Celia will need to book a seat for her cello) and visas.
• For minds that are ready to learn and hearts that are ready to serve.
• For energy to keep working even when we are tired.
• For our hosts, Pat and Tony Schmidt and Alaric Dunsmore-Rouse, and for the work of Satsunae Lighthouse Church, our host church.
• For the people of Japan: Christians make up about 1.5% of the population. Japan is famous for its intense work ethic, and the pressures of society lead to high suicide rates, withdrawal from society, and troubled family life.
• For many fruitful conversations, meals, concerts, and worship services, and for the patience to keep trying even when we cannot see the fruit of our work.
• For our Japanese language skills to blossom, and once again for patience when we are frustrated at being more or less illiterate and unable to communicate.

How to Give:
You can give a tax deductable donation to OMF for the benefit of our work. There are 2 options to do this.

On the internet by credit card
Be sure to designate your donation for
“Serve Asia (OMF USA): Keith and Celia Olson.”

By mail:
Send your check, payable to OMF, labeled "Support for Keith and Celia Olson (Serve Asia, OMF USA)."

In the US, mail to:
Serve Asia—OMF International
10 W. Dry Creek Circle
Littleton, CO 80120-4413

In Canada, mail to:
OMF Canada
5155 Spectrum Way, Bldg 21
Mississauga, ON L4W 5A1

**Note: If you want to give, please do so before July 10. We need to have all our finances in order for the entire trip before we leave for Japan!


Enjoying a meal at home with some Japanese friends...