Compounded Joy

"Friendship redoubleth our joy and cutteth grief in halves." Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Our time of packing here in Finland has illustrated what we have been feeling for two months. You, our friends, have helped carry the "load" of this illness.

Monday morning we got up early and headed out, with the help of three kind Finnish men, to go to Helsinki with the goods we had stored at the Bible school. Iso Kirja College provided the truck and the day's wages for the three men.

But on the way to Helsinki we had to stop in Tampere and buy our little piece of Finland, a Tulikivi soapstone fireplace.


Two of the men carefully wrapped the pieces of the stove...


Others carried them out...


A former student, Usko, came to translate.


And the owner of the store and his wife gave us a special gift of stone cups to use while sitting around the fireplace in America.


Team work helped us accomplish the task in just one hour!


Two days before, on Saturday, 30 former students lined three flights of stairs...



...and passed our things...


...hand to hand...


...to the truck to be loaded...


...no one had to carry it all alone!


And a week ago Saturday I organized a retreat for nine ladies who will be facilitators for the Ladies Bible studies in our international church. When we got out of the car I said, "Okay, let's have an object lesson. Nadia, you carry everything to the cottage." The other eight ladies looked at me with questions in their eyes. Why would we make her carry everything alone?
"Okay, here's the point," I said, "if everybody carries her share of the load, it's not too heavy for anyone. It will be the same with Ladies Only this coming year. If you share the load, it will be easier for everyone."


So they all picked up a bag or two and in we went...to a delightful day of food, fellowship, teaching, and preparation for the coming season among the ladies of our church.



We fly back to the States on September 4, and I await my September 12 appointment with the endocrinologist at UW University Hospital in Madison, but I don't feel the weight of "the wait"--because you are all carrying your share of the load.

Thank you for sharing our sorrow and compounding our joy!

mm