Of Cows and Cream
We got up this morning and prepared for our meeting with the area directors over YSA couples. It was a Zoom meeting, where all of the couples from Europe and beyond called in to the directors in Germany. They could see all of us on their screen....tiny squares within the larger square of the screen.
We each introduced ourselves briefly. There was a couple from India! It sounds like the program is going very well over there. There was a couple sitting in a room with what looked like a cross-stitched landscape of Denmark behind them. It was Denmark. They are serving up north on Jutland, part of the mainland attached to Germany.
A few more couples introduced themselves, and then a couple in a flat that looked heart-achingly familiar....they are serving in Copenhagen Denmark. After the hour and a half meeting was over, we had all of 30 seconds to converse with them. SK asked them if the flowers he had planted when we were there were still alive. They, of course, thought flower beds, and answered that the flowers were all dead, but there were empty planters outside the flat. It occurred to us only after we had closed out our call, that what SK had planted was hydrangeas....which by now are no doubt 6 feet tall shrubs or taller. I hope we get the opportunity to speak with them again.
The time we spent with the other couples was most inspiring and informative. Most of the meeting was about the Pathways program, which is designed to help people get more and better education. The man in charge, a German said more than once, it is not only to help people receive an education that will help them to find employment, but it is also to minister and to help strengthen individuals spiritually.
I am utterly convinced it is an inspired program.
Afterwards, we took off on a walk. We returned some items to the local hardware shop, we went to the bank, and then we went to the famous "Covered Market" - a landmark here in Oxford.
To look at a video that lasts a minute, click on this link: http://oxford-coveredmarket.co.uk/
We have been there before. It was built in the 1770's and is literally, a mostly covered market, but you still have the sense of being outside yet inside. It is old and quaint, and has all kinds of fun shops. SK, normally a circumspect shopper not prone to impulse buying, found something that caught his eye.
It was a small shop with purses and bags and the window display showed a sale going on. SK's sister gave him some money for Christmas, and he has spent it a thousand times in his head, but today he found something he really wanted.
He had a bag (made from cow leather - with the hair still on it!) he kept all of his racquetball gear in for years and years and years. until the family deemed it a health hazard. SK's brother Robert brought it back to him from Chili, and SK cherished it.
The bag today is the same shape, and as luck would have it, made from a close relative of the other bag....buffalo leather. What kind of buffalo the leather is made from is unknown...SK thinks a water buffalo.
Let's face it, the draw was delicious. Same shape as his former treasured bag, same general kind of material, from a dear sibling, and it is permanently branded with the name of the store and "Oxford."
We stopped at the gelato shop and finished our lovely afternoon walk with what I deem the best chocolate gelato - EVER!
Home again in the rain....ahhhh. What's not to love?
p.s. Have a beautiful and happy birthday Dear Erin. We love you!
We each introduced ourselves briefly. There was a couple from India! It sounds like the program is going very well over there. There was a couple sitting in a room with what looked like a cross-stitched landscape of Denmark behind them. It was Denmark. They are serving up north on Jutland, part of the mainland attached to Germany.
A few more couples introduced themselves, and then a couple in a flat that looked heart-achingly familiar....they are serving in Copenhagen Denmark. After the hour and a half meeting was over, we had all of 30 seconds to converse with them. SK asked them if the flowers he had planted when we were there were still alive. They, of course, thought flower beds, and answered that the flowers were all dead, but there were empty planters outside the flat. It occurred to us only after we had closed out our call, that what SK had planted was hydrangeas....which by now are no doubt 6 feet tall shrubs or taller. I hope we get the opportunity to speak with them again.
The time we spent with the other couples was most inspiring and informative. Most of the meeting was about the Pathways program, which is designed to help people get more and better education. The man in charge, a German said more than once, it is not only to help people receive an education that will help them to find employment, but it is also to minister and to help strengthen individuals spiritually.
I am utterly convinced it is an inspired program.
Afterwards, we took off on a walk. We returned some items to the local hardware shop, we went to the bank, and then we went to the famous "Covered Market" - a landmark here in Oxford.
To look at a video that lasts a minute, click on this link: http://oxford-coveredmarket.co.uk/
We have been there before. It was built in the 1770's and is literally, a mostly covered market, but you still have the sense of being outside yet inside. It is old and quaint, and has all kinds of fun shops. SK, normally a circumspect shopper not prone to impulse buying, found something that caught his eye.
It was a small shop with purses and bags and the window display showed a sale going on. SK's sister gave him some money for Christmas, and he has spent it a thousand times in his head, but today he found something he really wanted.
He had a bag (made from cow leather - with the hair still on it!) he kept all of his racquetball gear in for years and years and years. until the family deemed it a health hazard. SK's brother Robert brought it back to him from Chili, and SK cherished it.
The bag today is the same shape, and as luck would have it, made from a close relative of the other bag....buffalo leather. What kind of buffalo the leather is made from is unknown...SK thinks a water buffalo.
Let's face it, the draw was delicious. Same shape as his former treasured bag, same general kind of material, from a dear sibling, and it is permanently branded with the name of the store and "Oxford."
We stopped at the gelato shop and finished our lovely afternoon walk with what I deem the best chocolate gelato - EVER!
 |
| The sign behind SK says that it was recognized in 2/18 as the best gelato in Southern England. |
Home again in the rain....ahhhh. What's not to love?
p.s. Have a beautiful and happy birthday Dear Erin. We love you!
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