The First Week at the Middle Age Training

So here we are in sunny, hot Southern California. We have travelled over 7,000 miles and burned more gas that I care to think about. We arrived last weekend at our new home for 3 1/2 months and are still getting settled. We have a 2 room suite (one for sleeping and one for studying and living, with all the furniture, sheets, pillows and blankets provided along with a bathroom, and our own outside entrance. There is another training couple living in another part of the house and a family is living in another section. We all share the kitchen, but Stan and I and the other training couple only need it on Sunday nights and Monday for breakfast and lunch. It is very comfortable except for the fact that it is very hot. But we do have a portable air conditioning unit and a fan that we couldn't live without right now. It will eventually cool down, but these are the typical September days that I always remember from growing up here.

The family who live where is very interesting. He is Norwegian by name and character but Korean by birth. He was adopted as a baby from Korea and raised by typical Norwegians. He has the name of Jens (pronounced the J like a Y) Austbo and has a real Norwegian accent, but I have to close my eyes when he talks because the face and the accent just don't go together. His wife's name is Ruth and she is from Malaysia and speaks Chinese -- English, too. They met in Norway in a Chinese restaurant where Ruth was working. They are a very nice couple with 2 cute young kids and a Yorkshire terrier names Boaz. He must me Ruth's dog....We all had breakfast together this morning since it was a holiday. I cooked: pancakes, sausage, eggs, strawberries and cantaloupe. We spent the time to get more acquainted with each other -- like finding out what people did for jobs.

We have completed the first work of the training, which is actually called pretraining where we spent a lot of time in classes that make sure we are spiritually ready to make the most of this training. I can tell you now that there are five main aspects of this training. They are the "goals" so to speak. In order they are: To experience the divine life of God and to live by it, to know the truth and to learn to speak it, to be able to present the gospel in a clear and complete way, to learn to serve in a practical ways with a good attitude (like helping in the kitchen and cleaning bathrooms), and developing a good character. If we achieve all this in 3 and a half months then I can guarantee you that you won't recognize us when we return!! So we are hoping to return for the second and last term in March.

There are people here from all over the world, even though there are only about 100 of us. Some of the represented countries are China, Korea, South Africa, Belize, Nicaragua, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. The training is given in 4 languages: Spanish, English, Korean and Chinese with a pretty even spread among the 4 groups.
The meals are pretty good. They try to do things as healthfully as they know how. We have unlimited fruit, raw nuts and reverse osmosis water along with our regular meals.

We are getting to know our fellow trainees. The youngest is 26 (hardly middle aged) and we aren't sure who is the oldest and no one is asking -- but there are a number of white heads in the class. We have seen a lot of old friends (there was a conference this weekend) and making a lot of new ones. For those of you who know her, we had some time with Catherine Chen last night. She is getting settled in San Diego.

One of the most interesting things about being here is the variety of people we are meeting. There is a young Iranian dentist who is one of the trainees, a brother of the church in Pretoria -- where Joanna and Cobus are....yesterday we had a dinner with a family from Romania. They have 12 children!!!! All grown now but several of the younger girls are still living at home. They are all beautiful with big brown eyes and very sweet. They said they loved growing up in a big family....there was always someone to play with. You could tell that they had much love for one another.

Our "real" classes start tomorrow, along with a lot of reading and studying. I am not sure how the schedule will work, but we are finished each day by 2:30 but there are meetings on some evenings. It is really nice not to have to worry so much about cooking. But we do have to keep our rooms clean at all times. That's one aspect of the character part.

I will have to let you know more after the regular classes start. So for now, I think that will do it!