Return home early: knee replacement

  Return home early: knee replacement   Do we ever understand the ways of the Lord? In 2019 and 2020, right before and during covid, I had both hips and my left knee replaced.   After years (10 years in the case of the knee) of agony from advanced arthritis and trying everything else that was suggested, I finally agreed to the surgeries.   Well, as many before me have said, “Why did I wait so long?”   Within a few days and certainly weeks, I had markedly less pain, and within a month or so, could say that I had virtually no pain at all after each of the surgeries. I have then proceeded to enjoy 6 years of very few limitations from arthritis difficulty…..until March 13.   I woke that morning to every step being agony related to my remaining joint that had not been replaced: my right knee.   Although it has moderated to a dull ache with each step, it is still greatly impinging on my quality of life….like getting dressed and walking the mile home from...

Road to Rwanda----A Wedding

  Last Saturday our dear household worker got married. Clementine had invited us to be her surrogate parents for the wedding, but we knew enough to say we could not do that! However, I ended up as the honorary grandmother.  At first she said we needed to arrive at 8. I questioned that and she finally said, "OK, 9".  And then of course, our part of the ceremony did not happen until 1.  Not unexpected.  I was put at the front of the procession of about 20 "bridesmaids" who carried in presents, etc. I had no idea what I was to do, but followed directions the best I could, leading the whole group down the white carpet to stand to the side to wait for the bride. (I put on my best wedding smile and led.  When I finally stood to the side and saw all those behind me, they were extremely serious...almost dour.  I tried to erase the smile, but by that time I almost had the giggles and had a hard time.  The bride was completely serious as she was led down th...

Road to Rwanda---Bread Machines and Friends

  Hahaha. This is a write up by a friend in Papua, Indonesia, Melinda McDonald Whited . I am the friend mentioned who used her bread machine. The funny part is I had used about one machine a few times before I used this one, and have not used one since! It was just a time the Lord used both of us to mutually bless each other. It thrills me that I could help someone like this....I am NOT a cook. (This is a mother of 7 kids. I taught 2 of them during my time at HIS in Sentani, Indonesia.) Some things I finally got around to making today… 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) of trail mix Homemade wheat bread Neither are difficult. The hardest part is having the ingredients on hand. Most of the ingredients are purchased from specialty retailers. I bought them this week. Trail mix: cashews, peanuts, walnuts, dried cranberries, and raisins. I roasted all the nuts in the oven (3 separate batches because some roast faster than others). The homemade bread feels like cheating because I use a bread ma...

Road to Rwanda---The Journey of Some Bibles

  Road to Rwanda----The Journey of Some Bibles   We arrived back in Rwanda last night at 10 p.m. after being gone to the US on Christmas break for 3 weeks.   It was a good and fulfilling and restful vacation, but that is often almost erased by the long, long, long trip back to Africa.   There are also all the complications that accompany such a trip. Does Satan work overtime to just pester us while we are packing etc.?   Especially when that packing involves bringing Bibles to gift to friends and acquaintances in Rwanda? Rick has begged Bibles off many people during this 3 weeks at home.   Reid Lehman, the former CEO of Miracle Hill Ministries, and friend of over 50 years, visited with us as we were preparing to share at Kathy St. Peters Jenkins church, Shady Grove Baptist, on Sunday night.   He immediately ordered 10 Bibles on Amazon to be delivered to Peter’s house before our leaving at 4 a.m. on Thursday. We waited on Tuesday when the books we...

Christmas Letter 2025

  MERRY     CHRISTMAS Dear Friends and Loved Ones, near and far, I was trying to frame in my mind what I wanted to share in my Christmas letter, and I realized that more than anything I want to invite you to be a part of two big things going on for us right now. First, our book is ready!   If you have enjoyed Rick’s teachings down through the years, these are his words on the Beatitudes. (In our 50+ years of ministry we have rarely asked for money, but ….) Please, we need you to purchase the book in order to offset the cost of publishing it. But more, we want you to be encouraged and enlightened by the psychological/cross-cultural applications that God has led us to share. If you could add our video on your media with a recommendation, we would also appreciate it.   Then, please, we also would love to have your feedback.   Any author understands how hungry we are to know how our words have been received. Thank you. https://www.youtube.com/watch...

Road to Rwanda---Former Student Greetings

  We were blessed this week by a message from a former student during our Panama years.  He was a very angry young man.  I saw his name on my FB birthday greetings and this is what I got in return from my birthday blessings to him. What a privilege it has been to teach all these many, many years. God is so very, very, very good.  Hello Mrs. Marklund hope you and Mr. Marklund are doing well. I was reminiscing on my past and what CCA did to my life. I remeber i was spiteful and full of anger when i got kicked out and I didnt believe in God. Its been a good amount of years and though it still feels like yesterday when i think about how much I have grown I realize I am sadly not 16 anymore. Its been almost a decade. I wanted to thank you cause younand your husband where some of the best teachers I ever had. I have a lot of appreciation for your husband and you because I feel like you guys really cared, and I’m glad God made us cross our paths. I was very empty and voided...

Road to Rwanda.....Mototaxis

 As I got off my mototaxi this morning after arriving at school, I paid him my 500 rwf (about 40 cents) and thanked him.  He then said, "God bless you."  This was a young Rwandan mototaxi driver blessing me.  I was touched. I realized that I have probably not explained a major part of why we can continue to live in Rwandan into our dotage.  Transportation is a major life challenge no matter where you live. If it is a car, you need gas, maintenance, insurance, place to park, licensure, safe driving venues, etc. (USA, Senegal, Zambia) If it is public transport, you need accessiblity, low price, frequent occurences, safety, etc. (Taipei, China, Panama) ( If it is a bicycle, you need parking space, safe driving lanes, reasonably close proximity to places for you to bike to, and if possible.....gears. (Beijing)  But in several places we have lived motorscooters and also mototaxis have been the best option. (Taiwan, Indonesia, Rwanda).   It means that I...

Road to Rwanda----French Fries (or chips as the Brits say)

  You know how as a missionary you always use up whatever you have? Well we have struggled for years to reheat left over french fries from eating out. And although reheating sprinkled with a bit of water in the microwave is OK, it is not spectacular. But today!!! we put the french fries into the food grinder and got hash browns...which we don't ever make/get here! We are both quite pleased. Follow me for more food tips that no one else needs.

Road to Rwanda----Back to School

    School starts Wednesday, August 20.   I will teach 6 th grade language, 9 th grade World History, 10 th and 11 th grades AP Comparative Government and Politics, and a Digital Media Course in Christian Storytelling.   The last course, specifically, is a bit laughable.   At 72, digital media is not exactly where I can shine.   But I want to share our school, Virunga Valley Academy.   I want to showcase our students in hopes that we can facilitate their attendance in a foreign university.   I also want to use it to recruit teachers to our school.   (All overseas schools struggle with filling their roster.   Praise the Lord that we have 6 new teachers this year, and they are not just bodies filling spots, but rather are excellent educators which will be a blessing to our community: 4 from Kenya, 1 from Uganda and 1 from Ghana). Students also need exposure to subjects involving technology like this and listed on their transcripts to...

Road to Rwanda----Every Day Happenings

  I have not written in months and months.   For one thing I am tired teaching.   I still LOVE it and am not going to quit, but it takes more energy every year….not because of the kids, but because of me. Another aspect is the longer you are in a country, the more things just become “normal” and you don’t realize people might find them interesting.   Take last night for example.   Three of us teachers in the secondary school were taking the 8 high honor roll kids out to fancy eat, as we have each quarter all year.   The instigator of this has tried to make each quarter a bit more posh.   (He decided not to pursue the most expensive restaurant in the city which would have ended up costing almost $1000 USD for the night) but had identified a nice place.   Then the fun begins.   He had made detailed arrangements earlier in the week to have a venue outside of the bar (remember these were MS/HS kids) that would be set up elegantly.   He als...

Road to Rwanda----Spiritual Emphasis Week and War in Goma

 I want to write first about our Virunga Valley Academy Spiritual Emphasis Week. I felt moved this summer to start praying about having a spiritual emphasis week at VVA.  God worked it out, as always.  Mark Little Elk, a Native pastor, from my home area in Minnesota, contacted me about maybe visiting.  I passed it on to our Director and Mark will arrive next Saturday for 11 days.  I am so excited...and so are the kids.   Mark writes on FB: " I'm going to Africa! I fly out at the end of the week and will be there for 11 days. I will be teaching at a school in Rawanda for their spiritual emphasis week. I will lead three assembly times along with having devotion times throughout the week and talking about Naive American History in a social studies class. "To maximize my time I will also be teaching archery and training archery instructors so they can start their own archery program. Please pray for my travels and that there would be no issues getting the ...

Road to Rwanda---Christmas '24

  God’s richest blessings this Christmas Dear Friends, Family, and Dearly Loved, Merry Christmas!!   We have been blessed beyond measure this year!! Mainly because we have continued to be able to work and live here in the beautiful country of Rwanda and teach at Virunga Valley Academy-----look it up on your social media!   And in praying about our Christmas letter I feel like, rather than writing about our family…which overall is doing very well….I want to talk about the struggles faced by this country in which we live. First, I want you to know that Rwanda is listed as the safest country in Africa, the most densely populated country in Africa, and our town is one of the best places to see highland Silverback mountain gorillas.   We live very comfortably on our social security check. Every day (with consideration for the clouds and mist) we see the 5 incredible volcanoes that surround our town of Musanze. However, the struggles are also real.   We were j...

Road to Rwanda (via Indonesia memories)

  Do you remember our post during the time we were in Papua, Indonesia about the miraculous response to the preaching of the gospel in a remote village area? This was after years of preparation and  70+ individuals accepted the gosple message within a matter of a few days.  Well, this is an update that MAF is posting.  Praise the Lord To read the previous posts about the Dem people look here: https://asiabeatitudes.blogspot.com/2021/04/road-to-indonesia-dem-people.html Road to Indonesia---The Dem People https://asiabeatitudes.blogspot.com/2021/04/road-to-indonesia-spreading-gospel.html Road to Indonesia---Spreading the Gospel https://asiabeatitudes.blogspot.com/2021/09/road-to-indonesia-gospel-ii.html#:~:text=Road%20to%20Indonesia%2D%2D%2DGospel%20II Road to Indonesia---Gospel (Read back through some of our previous posts...you will enjoy them.)

Road to Rwanda---Created Equal

  “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” .   I suspect that you are not going to like this post and are also going to be surprised (shocked). Yesterday in my AP World History class, I read the above beginning to the US Declaration of Independence.  I was just hurrying through it, assuming they had heard it many times (and I am SURE they have heard it before in many contexts, but obviously had not stopped to really "hear" it.) I was part way through, when one of the girls asked me to stop.  They could see the words written on the overhead.The phrase she was questioning was that we believe "all men are created equal".  She asked me to tell them again where this was written? I told them.  She said, "Isn't that ironic?" and the whole class burst out laughing.  I stopped, absolutely stun...

Road to Rwanda--Our Home

  A Google picture of the gate to our home in Musanze, Rwanda. There are 7 apartments inside the gate. It isn't locked, but does have a guard that opens the gate for cars and generally cares for us. We are very blessed to have such nice living arrangements about a mile from the school. I take a motocycle taxi to school every morning, and then walk (down hill) every afternoon. It is a good life. Like Comment Share

Road to Rwanda---Tying up Threads

 So many threads to try to give updates on: The Rwanda church continues to deal with extensive closings.  Although there are some buildings still available for worship, there is a significant number which are not opened, and very little projection that they will open again soon.  The Church, as a body of believers, continues to follow Jesus. Paul's mother-in-law continues in the rehabilitation facility, dealing with the aftermath of her Father's Day accident.  She asks for prayer as the pain meds are less effective. It is still unclear as to what future interventions will be needed.  She perseveres in Jesus. Paul's father-in-law's appentectomy is postponed to an indefinite date. The trees cut down in the forest beside our school is complete, but there has been no movement to implement the planned big vehicle parking area.  The State Department is evidently investigating and that is good.   Mpox (monkeypox) does not necessarily seem to be spreading...

Road to Rwanda---Grandbabies

 We deeply love and are so very proud of all five of our grandkids.  They are each unique kids with so many gifts.....just as their parents and aunties (our 4 children) are. Because we live the life that we do, our time with them is limited, but we do see them for an intense week or more at least once a year, when we live in their houses.  None of them have ever been to our house, unless you count our RV's. I soothe myself with the knowledge that there are grandparents who don't get even as much time as we do with their grandkids.  The Lord's words promise us that there will be rewards that we don't understand for the time we have sacrificed away from family. Not to single out one grandbaby, but Sophie's mommy posted this on FB, and I decided I wanted to share it. THIS is what being a missionary is all about:  As a Christian mom raising teenagers... I just want to share how proud I am of Sophie being a light to her classroom. She has connected with the girls in ...

Road to Rwanda---Church, Mpox, Forests

  So many things to pray about. The church situation here has not been resolved.   On the one hand, people are being encouraged/forced to speak directly to and learn from our Father, rather than having a “go between” that many are too dependent on.   But there are pastors who are suffering financially, but also because their God imbued mandate to preach, and shepherd is being stifled.   There are also congregants who really are lost without the guidance provided by the weekly church meetings. There are only 4 known cases of mpox (formerly monkeypox) in Rwanda, but not so in neighboring countries.   Rwanda’s government is very proactive.   Last Monday a health official visited VVA and told us that handwashing, such as was directed during covid, was being re-implemented.   I was impressed how the students so very joyfully (and I mean joyfully) complied with handwashing dictates.   My older students smiled and said, “I would sure rather do this t...

Road to Rwanda---Church

 It is a strange time here in Rwanda.  The government has published dictates that demands churches are open only if they provide for the safety of their participants.  Sufficient parking spaces, bathrooms, fire precautions, etc.  It has also stated that only verifiable, educated pastors can lead churches.  This has resulted in most services being suspended.  At least for a while. Rwanda is a "churched" nation.  The people are definitely used to attending meeting on Saturday or Sunday, depending on their denominational association.  There is much consternation.  Some feel that ultimately this may result in a positive outcome.  The people who currently feel teaching can only come from a pastor and in church may be forced to realize their own priesthood and study the Bible individually themselves.  Only God knows why and the final outcome from this current situation.  I know many who are feeling that prayer is the answer.  Pl...

Road to Rwanda----Cultural Map

  Our before school  trip to a beautiful island. During session on this trip we revisted a cultural map.  When we look at different cultures how do they fit along the continumm of categories such as communication, leadership, decision making, time, etc.? This is of vital importance if we want to build a strong team.   But the Lord has also been talking to me about how important it is for our students to understand these complexities.  VVA is an American Christian school.  Our vision statement says:  “Developing obedient disciples of Jesus who transform Rwanda and the world through academic excellence, growth in the character of Christ, and service to others.” We feel the mandate to train these students so that they can relate to and understand the international community in a Christian manner.  In essence we are asking these students to be "third culture kids", a term we often use for missionary children. This is not always (or even usually) ...