Rocky Mountain Region Team 2026 part 1

I arrived back from South Africa into Zagreb on the 18th in the morning, and waited 6 hours at the airport until this wonderful team of 31 Americans arrived. They are all students in colleges in the Rocky Mountain Region of InterVarsity - from Colorado to Utah and Arizona. We send a chartered bus for them, and so I helped with communication with the driver and got us all on the bus for the trip to Banja Luka. 

We then spent 3 full days doing orientation with them - from history and culture, to do's and don'ts in this culture... it also allows them to get to know us better and we have a fun time. I also managed to get all 31 names (it helps that there were returners and staff that I already knew). 

We end that week off with a fun sports day with our teenagers. Always a highlight: 

After that week, they go to different faculties to get to know the students and also get to understand more about the culture. Here we are at the English department. Because of illness, the  promised lecture on cross-cultural communication was cancelled, but I think the exercise they were given instead was equally valuable. The local students were given the task to translate some of Ivo Andric's "Signs by the roadside" which was a difficult exercise, but actually the Americans appreciated the difficulty of translating by the end and learnt a lot about the language and the culture along the way. 

Here they are trying to figure out what Ivo Andric is trying to say in different groups: 

And then each group was able to share their translation of the different texts to the class: 

Here we all are afterwards: 

More on the rest of their stay with us in another blog post!! 

Mom's 80th Birthday in South Africa

I don't usually travel twice in one year to South Africa, but this year was special. It was my wonderful Mother's 80th birthday. My brother and sister also came and even though May is a tricky time for me with our biggest team coming and reports due, I managed to make it work. 

We had a wonderful time as a family the week before her birthday - celebrating Mom's birthday every day in some way. It was really fun. Then it was time for the BIG happening - Mom's actually birthday party. She managed to keep the guest list to just under 40, but it was hard! We had decided to do it at home, and not in a restaurant, as it would be more relaxed. With both Astrid and I helping to organise it (and both of us love organising), it was super fun for everyone! 

And the weather played along... it was a stunningly beautiful Cape Town autumn day (especially as earlier in the week there was a huge storm which caused extensive flooding and electrical outages). We started by mingling outside: 

Enjoying catching up, or meeting new people - we had a fun "Find someone who" knows Sue from different places - like church or aqua... and there was a prize draw at the end for those who filled it out! And the prizes were the 4 spekboom centrepieces which Mom planted specially for the party: 

 

The highlight of our mingling time was having Jack the coffee man - he was making real coffees, lattes, cappuchinos, etc which everyone enjoyed... 

And all this while, the lamb was being cooked on a spit in our driveway! 

And then it was time to enjoy the lamb, and the potatoes and vegetables cooked in the juices being dropped down from the lamb - sooooooooo good! 

We decided to have the 4 of us each have a table and be the host of that table, and it worked really well. Here are all the wonderful tables: my brother, Kevin's:

My sister, Astrid's:

Mom's:

And mine: 

During the party, we had slideshows going in different places - I chose the photos and made sure everyone at the party was on the slideshow:

And it even became a fun talking point with some people: 

Another fun activity was the photo booth: Where you could get into it: 

Or just take a normal photo: 

And two very tall people making it really fun - probably my favourite photobooth photo! 

My brother and I both made a speech, and my sister MC'd the whole event. It really was a fun and honouring party for my wonderful Mom. 

Before everyone went home it was time for cake - made by the daughter of Mom's Maid of Honour who works in a bakery. It was a surprise for Mom (and a gift!) so that made it even more special. The succulents are real (and Mom was able to plant them later). Here are my brother, sister and I with Mom and the cake: 

I don't think we could have hoped for a more honouring celebration, or a more fun time for everyone who came. I believe that celebrations are a small glimpse of what it will one day be like in heaven, and if this party is what it will be like all the time, then I can't wait to get there!!