Germany trip continued

So a big apology is needed for all my blog readers. since returning from the trip I/we have been in constant motion. (sleep has been optional) But fear not, Blogging for the Olson's is back thanks to a big kick in the pants by the Johnson's.

I do want to say thank you again to all those that provide a way for me to go on this trip. It was a true heart changing blessing. With out support of my friends this would not have happened for me. I'm still remembering some of the areas that God touched me and I'm trying my best to becoming a better husband, father and Christian.

Well back to the story....

Rewind: So Saturday was a travel adventure(see earlier post) - SFO (delayed) - Heathrow (London) missed flight - world wind adventure in downtown London (just to get a passport stamp), tiring - Another flight to Kiel - BUMPY. 1.5 hour bus ride, restful - arrive at the ship - breath taking - Sleep, welcomed!

Sunday - Woke up to a small bed room and a new guest. I was rooming with Dan and then a new friend from Germany - Berkhart. Morning came early, but due to the long travel day (24hours straight) I acclimated to the time change really quickly. Our room was in the family quarters so it ahd a in room shower and sink(Nice!)

Well Sunday we found out is "get off the ship day" - it was pretty empty. The few people we talked to said that due to the hard work on the ship during the week, Sunday is people's day to escape. We did attend church...worship in english (nice- I was worried about language barriers but it seems that us american's are the only group that speaks only one language.) then Pastor Klaus from Berlin spoke about 'God changing our world view from "us centered" to "Jesus Centered".
Col 1:15-16
"15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."
Here is a shot of the chapel. The floor has cardboard over it to protect the new wood underneath. Its make shift since each of the different sections of the boat is scheduled to finish at different times.

After lunch, since the boat was empty and we were in a foreign country - site seeing (I know all my supports are like - did we send Jonathan on a trip to Germany or a missions trip) Well the week has just begun and my experiences with our small Team from Venture was a mission of its own.

Let me stop and tell you a little about our team:
Dan - Venture missions pastor and our translator (helped a lot) he is also a missionary to the Kurds of northern Iraq. Lived in Germany for 9 years to train for work in Kurdistan. Since there were no direct english/kurdish language translations. He is also a living miracle (like me) - Lung and heart transplant 11 years ago I believe.
Sterling - construction worker - battled his own life demons and God saved him from a tragic fall (4 stories)
Laurie - eldest member of our team, brave lady who has battled through a lot to finally allow God to work in her life
Rod - Church usher with a big heart - also a small plane pilot, retire 30 years from IBM.
Emily - kindergarten teacher with a heart for Christ.
and me

Oh yea, back to Sunday - Well we heard that there was a festival in town, so off we went - 40deg never stopped anyone.
Here is the Ship - the Logos Hope:
I was there - I swear!
Little shopping district.

In town we took in a little festival - medieval times style. There was good food, including brats galore and waffles on a stick. We visited this old church in town:



After the walk through the city, we were back for dinner and some internet and preparations for the first work day, Monday.

So Monday, we head off to the Project worker coordination room for our assignments. There is lots to complete on the ship so they can complete their PSSC license (Passenger Ship Safety Certificate). We arrived in the office and asked what we could do- well we had a carpenter - Sterling, and electrician and handy man - Rod, Dan said he could weld, Emily said she was up for painting, Laurie offered to help the people cleaning the Heavy Fuel Oil tank (more on that later), and me, well I said I was an engineer and had worked on car engines before - So I guess I fit the bill for engine duty - off to the engine room. Me and my big mouth. It was a blessing because I really enjoyed my work during the week and the people I met were just great.

First job - get into uniform. Coveralls all week. They have a whole bunch of loaner clothes so i grabbed some coveralls and steel toed boots, dressed and headed to meet with the Engine room project leaders. - Jana (from germany) and Emily (from the States). These were two tough women that held there own among the engine room men. I get to work with Harold and Karl on engine duty. First order of business - removal of one of the engine heads (valve and rocker assembly) This was a dream - get to do missions work and work on engines! So the ship is powered by 4 4000 horse power each diesel engines. Engine #1 and 2 were already rebuilt back when OM first bought the ship. We were on engine 3. One head was out and the cylinder wall was being honed by George (from England - audio engineer for concerts - nice guy) I was paired with Karl and Micheal (both of the states - Karl from Alaska - long time marine engineer and also a staff member of the Logos ship before it crashed in Argentina and Micheal - from seattle, just started his 2 year stay on the ship.) Our first job was to remove all the connections and then remove the rocker arm and start the process to remove the head completely - our engine had a broken connecting rod. But why not do a complete overhaul if you have to take the whole thing apart to get to the connecting rod.
Hydraulic compressors - no torque wrenched used on marine engines, everything is on the BIG scale. So we used these hydraulic compressors to stretch the bolt until the nut was free to move by hand - ~10,000psi.
closer view - see all that grease - covered everyday.
Rocker arm - massive - weighed a couple hundred pounds.

The removal process took two days. I really got slow down and enjoy my work days - something i can't do at my current job. We were on union time - ie we worked until break, the we stopped right at 10am for coffee - 15min and then back down until lunch - 1 hour - back to work till 2:30 - break again and then off at 5pm. It was so refreshing to enjoy my work day. At home I battle every minute of the day, but this allowed me to really understand my job and get to know the guys I was working with. Our first lunch break - we finally found out where all the people were - man the line was LONG. People everywhere - 250 or so are on the ship currently for the building process. People from all over. Lots of day workers come in to volunteer on the ship from Germany and Kiel in particular. Then there are the project works (just a few during our stay), staff, and long term workers(3 month, 1 year, 2 year stays) I mostly worked with Karl and Micheal, Toby (Germany) and Harold (OM employee from the Netherlands but now lives in South Carolina)

The days were busy - each day new work on the engine - removal, cleaning and dismantle and then rebuild. Two days I spent lapping valves, my engine head and then another engine head. A couple days cleaning the engine and another engine. Another day helping with the engine rebuilding. and the last day - HFOT cleaning - more below.
My engine
Me and my engine - love the coveralls. it was extremely loud in the engine room(hence the ear muffs) what with the generators running, welding being done on the floor, George - in the back ground - honing the cylinder walls, engine parts being worked on in the machine shop, machine shop being dismantled, etc.
another head for valve lapping (basically each valve gets custom fitted to the valve seat - this is done with progressively finer powders - like sandpaper in oil - that is used to remove a small amount of material each time the valve is rotated in the engine head.)
Cleaned and ready for rebuild

So at this time my readers are all bored of all this engine talk so I thought I'd throw in some general shots from the boat.
My room mate - Berkhart - from Germany. Had welding skills, so he worked with a group removing, and rebuilding the floor in the engine room and repositioning the all of the pipes on this side of the engine room. This was to make way for some new heat exchangers. He was a very nice guy, loves God and my wake up call every morning.
Sea water heat exchanger pipes
Stairs, stairs everywhere. The ship has 9 levels and so we were walking stairs all the time
a picture of the bakery. They made fresh bread every day we were on the ship, sometimes multiple times a day. It was great. The food on the ship is excellent and hats off to chef Andy and the galley crew.
Kids playland- this life raft is filled with balls and the kids of the families on the ship were constantly running and jumping into the balls, throwing them, etc.

Book store (very condensed). This section is for the visitors that come to the "open Ship' nights every Friday. The Ship opens up to the community each Friday for tours and progress reports to allow the community an opportunity to see whats going on and how they can help.
here is the future home of the Logos Hope theater - part of the Logo Hope experience Level - Level 4 on the ship will be the experience level for visitors to the ship. hundreds of people will visit the ship at each port. the ship will lead the visitors through a number of sections including this theater and also a massive book store. The ships goal at each port is to share Christ. This is accomplished through theater performances, skits, conferences for women, youth, pastors, etc. also a massive book store. The ship will carry thousands of books in tons of languages to meet the needs of the "lost" at each port of call.
This is another shot of the theater section. The theater use to be where the cars were stored for the ferry. The big opening back door has been closed off and sealed and then this stage section built up.
Material storage - there is so much work being done that there is massive amounts of material stored on deck 4. drywall, lumber, flooring, metal, etc.

Dan - cutting metal for his racks.
Dan's racks - dan worked in the hull of the ship where all of the staff suitcases/luggage will be stored. He was cutting and welding in this dusty hole all week. He even lit his favorite shirt on fire during one cutting experience.
Emily - she donned some ear muffs and climbed into the corners of the engine room for paint striping, cleaning and priming. It was really tough getting into all of the corners to clean off the engine soot and then stripping of the rusted paint to make sure a new layer of paint could be applied.
Rod - showing me where his wall is being built. Rod worked in the staff lounge, helping build out one section.
Staff Louge at the back of the ship. Lots of work to be done.



Sterling - worked first in the staff lounge putting in windows, then worked in the hull area above Dan putting his carpenter skills to good use, building storage shelves.

More to come - hold tight till thursday.

How long has it been?

Sara, here. The cries of the masses have been overwhelming. "Pictures!" they cry. "Posts!" they scream. "Did Jon ever get to Germany from London or is he still touring all the spots from Amazing Race 4?" they wonder.

Well, I'll let Jon respond to the Germany inquiries. As for the rest of us, we're enjoying life:

Ava celebrated her fifth birthday in princess style.

Jillian is growing like a weed and is keeping us laughing and wondering what she's into now.

Eli is 8 months already and filling his mouth out with new teeth on top AND bottom.

I just ended my run as MOPS coordinator and am getting ready for a new stage of my life, homeschooling mother. All that and a mix of friends visiting, some short road trips and prepping for our first vacation with three kids. Let the good times roll!

(Yes, Chris, its on the world wide web...)

Germany - Logos Hope - days 1 and 2

So the first of the month through the 10th, I traveled around our wonderful earth on a global missions trip through Venture Christian Church. I 'd like to thank my travel partners for making this trip a real joy and I'd really like to thank those that gave to support my way. What a blessing you poured out covering all of my expenses. Thank you so much!

My trip started off with saying good bye to my lovely family. It was so nice of them to let me go (and my Sara did just fine without me - thank you to those that came over or called to keep her mind occupied)

After the wonderful trip through security, we waited on the tarmac in SFO for almost 2 hours. Finally taking off at 10 min. to 2pm (instead of 12:30pm), had a very uneventful flight of watching movies and reading "Into the Wild". Landing in Heathrow, we again waited another 20min before even getting to the gate. At this time we had used up our buffer for my next flight and ran to the gate (Heathrow is not a nice airport, busy and full of mazes). We missed our flight time by 2 minutes and they would not let us board. Soooooo, the next flight is at 3pm (its 9am). What to do with 6hours. Well...we did not want to sit around the airport and so we got our passports stamped (#2 for me) and off into downtown London via the underground railway. Such fun. ("Mind the Gap") Stuffed with people, this truly was an adventure. We had a 45min rail trip to Piccadilly circus.

Then we ran around the area until we saw something of interest. This pillar I had seen on the amazing race TV show so we headed this direction.
At the end of this street is S. James park, which at one end has the Horse Guard Palace.

We saw the changing of the horse guards.

We practically ran everywhere. And since I had not slept on the plane it was tough. Walking the same way as everyone else does get you somewhere some times. We saw Big Ben (from a distance)

But at the other end of St. James Park - Its Buckingham Palace!

Who knew. (See I was there, these are not just pics from Wikipedia)

Well all the people that were there knew, just us"Travelers with no guide book".
Of course The Victoria Memorial Fountain is there also.

To end our day in England, we had lunch at an English tea house and then road the underground back to the airport. We caught the next plane without issue and flew to Hamburg. No we were not done traveling yet. After my travel partner lost his luggage in Hamburg (didn't make the flight) we had an 1.25 hour bus ride North to Kiel, Germany. Tired but very excited, we found the ship and our rooms and hit the hay. That was just the start.

Ship Trip Update

Just wanted to give an update on the Ship trip coming up soon. We have 6 people heading out on this short term missions trip. This weekend we were able to talk with a person who had been on the Logos II mission ship a few years ago. She shared a lot insights into the real work of these mission ships. The ships move from port to port all over the world. They stay about 2-3 weeks per port. There is a team that goes 2-3 months before the ship to help prepare the way. Permits, port fees and discussions with the government, also rallying churches, advertising, etc. Its a big deal to all these countries to have a large ship come into port. Once there, the ship opens its doors to everyone. The ship contains a massive book store with books in tons of languages. Each port they reset all the books for the groups they will be ministering to. The also hold conferences for pastors (some of which have never met each other due to political issues with Christianity), they also hold women's and youth conferences. They do street ministry, they visit churches for encouragement. Each stop is like a big carnival. People wait hours to days just to get on the ship for a little time.
Its getting really exciting to go. The Logos Hope needs a lot more work before it can sail the world for Christ and we will only be there for a short time but it will still be cool to help with the preparations. If you can, look into heading out to Germany to help out with your church.

Ship ahoy!

Well I decided to go on the Germany missions trip. It will be an exciting experience. It will be tough on the girls to have me gone, but I hope God will really use me to make a difference. The team thats going is small, about 6. We will be staying and working on the ship. the website is www.logoshope.org I hope that I can count on our blog readers for prayer support before and during the trip. We are going to be putting lots of hours to continue the ship retrofit activities. If you do feel lead to support me in a financial way, please send a check made out to Venture Christian Church. In the memo please put "Ship Trip". Please include my name on the envelope or on a post it note attached to the check. Send all donations to Venture Christian Church @ 590 Shawnee Lane, San Jose, California 95123.

Thanks all for the comments and support. Sara and the kids will love to have you come by and eat meals, play in the yard or just talk. Keep checking back for updates on the preparations and other things going on at the Olson's

Thank you all!
Jon

Four months!

Little Eli hit the four month mark this month. I cannot believe how quickly its going! We took him in for his checkup and he is now weighing 13lbs. 11oz and is 26 inches long. His length puts him in the 85th percentile and this Olson family has NEVER seen a baby quite that long!

He's smiling all the time, giggling out loud and starting to make sounds that are getting a bit closer to mama and dadda. He recognizes his name now and will turn toward you when he hears it. Just the other night he discovered how to turn himself around in his co-sleeper. So now when he wakes and you lean over to check on him he is all scrunched up with his feet propped up over the edge. Too funny! He's grabbing at everything and checking out our food. Doing all the normal infant stuff thats so fun to watch.

Happy Birthday Uncle Andrew!

Andrew O. is turning 19 years old. He's off enjoying his second semester at Cal Poly, SLO. Well the girls wanted to send a Happy birthday message. Here they are sporting Cal Poly gear, supporting their favorite hockey team and showing Uncle Andrew their Lego houses.

We love you, Andrew!

Mission trip Prayer request

So the last few weeks at our church, Venture has been offering a short term mission trip to Kiel, Germany to assist in the rebuilding/reading of the Logos Hope ship for ministry work.
http://www.logoshope.org
Well this has really excited me (Jon). Normally I would chalk this up to a "That would be fun" moment but after Sunday's service, I felt like I should pick up the flier to find out more. Well it turns out to be 10 days and $900. The cost includes airfare, insurance, food and lodging (you live and work on the boat). Now I have not officially signed up, but would love to ask if all you blog readers would pray for Sara and I. I'd really like to go. I think this is right up my ally with hands on projects in renovations including even opportunities to work with the engine groups or builders or whatever. I've had a desire over the years to find a mission trip or something I could be involved in with my skill sets. So far, helping others go has been God's plan. Is this my time to Go, don't know. But if you blog readers could pray that God makes it really clear whether to this is the time, I would really appreciate it. Please pray for us that God will make it clear that I should go. That my Job will be understanding and that my projects at work will slow down during the time I'd be away. That Sara and the kids will be safe. That all of the financial needs would be taken care of. Its hard to think of leaving my family for any length of time (can you tell I don't travel for work) but at the same time I'm feeling a little like this might be a place where one of my kids could be involved in furthering the message of Jesus Christ. That excites me to no end. Please let me know if you will pray for this opportunity in the comments section or via email at brainfrz at sbcglobal dot com

Jon

New Pictures

Been a couple of weeks, man life is flying by with three kids. Here are some of the fun pics we have from January.Here are the kids all in smiles!
Mommy and son - I love you Mommy!
Eli Meets Jillian's love for body art. Sara turns her back for a second and the dry erase marker found Eli. He's stunned. I love this shot. :)
Its the Moon.
This is an image from the telescope the girls received at Christmas. Still working steading the telescope at the same time as trying to have the camera focus through the lens.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our Blog Readers! Keep us in your prayers this new year and lets us know how we can pray for you.

Jon and Sara

Christmas Day

Thought I'd post some Christmas Day shots. We had a great day. Starting out at 7:00am at our house, the girls had a blast opening gifts and eating a special Christmas day meal. Ava got some Legos to build with while Jillian opened a cash register (which has quickly become the favorite play gift for both girls). Jon outfitted the family in new Sharks gear. Even little Eli is game ready. Go Sharks!

Our friends the Johnson's sent us a great snow globe with Finn's picture in it. The girls carry their new friend around all over the house. Give us a big smile Jillian!We next loaded up the van with some gifts and headed out for the day. A grueling 5 minute drive down Blossom Hill road to the Olson's. Uncle Andrew was home from Cal Poly and delivered a group of packages with a theme - Cal Poly Gear. Grandpa O spent a lot of time holding Eli. Grandma O had hot danish - yummy - for breakfast number 2 and we enjoyed some time outside swinging the baseball bat.
Lunch time meant that it was off on the next grueling drive - a whopping 7miles south on highway 85 to the Benson's. Grandma and Grandpa B were waiting excitedly for us to arrive. Uncle Andrew(#2), his girlfriend Michelle and her daughter Haleigh were there Christmas excitement. Some snacks, stockings, and then an early dinner. It was a world wind of excitement during the gift giving. Ava and Jillian got some matching sleeping bags and pillows. The girls had a long day but a fun day. Here we are in front of the tree.

Eli hanging out on the floor with daddy. What a smile!

Merry Christmas 2007!

Stockings - creativity exercise

So Ava reminded us that Eli needed a stocking to hang over the fire place. Since Sara made the girls ones, she needed to run out and get materials on Christmas Eve to make one for Mr. Eli. She made a new one for us too with extra material so that we all matched. She also has been wanting to add something to the stockings to represent the year for the girls. Well we settled on using their birthday party idea for the stocking. We then needed to break out the creativity juices (after the girls had gone to bed) to cut out shapes.


This in the results. Felt cutting was really fun!
A Rocket, a train, a little chick, a butterfly even a hockey stick for Mom and Dad.

Christmas Cookies

Sara had a great idea to make some Christmas cookie for the Grandparents and our friend Rachel. So the girls and I rolled out the dough and then cut all the cookies with cutters - stars, snowflakes, reindeer, snowman. The frosting part was the most fun, but keeping Jillian's fingers from getting into her month was a real challenge. Well those became a tray for us to eat! Ava's choice was the pink sprinkles.


Jillian cutting shapes.

Ava and Daddy having fun!

Frosting time

Jillian's cookies, with little finger licks.

Ava and Daddy's bunch. YUMMY!

Our three month old little guy

Eli celebrated his three month birthday today. We cannot believe how fast time is flying! He is growing quickly and is really starting to show his personality. He smiles all the time and laughs, loudly, at almost any familiar face. He has really taken to his bathtub and is kicking like a swimmer whenever he is in there, soaking the bath giver and everything around him. He is still sleeping fabulously (7'ish pm to 7'ish am) and while naps seem to be intermittent, I'll take the sleeping through the night anytime! His hair is growing in a bit more though his little cowlick seems to be sticking with us. He's considering rolling over and gets to his side before he gives up. Any day now I imagine I'll see him on his belly.

The girls have started calling him Mr. Man and Whammer Hammer ("because he whams his hands like a hammer!") and are absolutely in love with him. I have to keep my eye on Jillian who I have now found feeding him Playdoh and, just today, a watermelon lollipop. The girl loves food and I guess she's trying to share her love with her new little brother. Ava is an adoring big sister and a huge help to me and Eli seeks her out whenever she comes into a room.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. My good friend Rachel from Westmont will be coming into town from Chicago on Saturday and I cannot wait to see her and spend time with her. We'll then be doing the family shuffle on Tuesday celebrating Christmas morning with the Olson side and then enjoying our time with the Bensons and sharing a meal. We hope you all have a great time with your families and celebrating God's gift to us in sending his Son.

Decorating the Tree

Our Tree in all its glory!

Which one can I put on the tree Mommy?

Careful, don't fall.

Merry Christmas from the Olson Kids!

The tree went up perfectly except for the weak branches. We found out how heavy our ornaments were. Oh well. The spirit of Christmas was hopping and we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows. The girls love the the lights and looking at each of the new ornaments we added this year.

Jon

Christmas Tree Farm - the hunt is on!

So the tradition we have for bringing or christmas tree home is to go up to the Los Gatos / Santa Cruz mountains to the Summit tree farm and cut it down. Its a fun tradition because of the hunt involved. Will the tree last till christmas, will it fit in the house (I like tall trees), will it have a random hole we couldn't see before we cut it, or my family's personal favorite, will it fall down this year! (I've gotten some real winners in the past - like my dad; string, wire, support boards, towels anything in the house becomes a great prop to keep the tree up! Well this year was new b/c our newest addition Eli. The girls are more into the "Hunt" and it was a beautiful day up on the hill. The tree we got looked really good, but ended up having "weak" branches. The next post will be about the tree decorations.

Jon

Ava's Creative side - medium Playdoh

Here's a fun shot of Ava's creative side sprouting out. She created all the detail: hair, fingers, the face.

Eli finds his fingers

Here's a great shot of Eli going to town on his middle fingers.

We love our swing set!

The backyard was leveled and then I spent the day on Black Friday putting up the swing set or "Play structure" as Ava likes to call it. Its such a fun addition to our family. Also included is one more picture front yard. Nice and flat.

A visit with the Great-Grandparents

Four Generations: Sara, Eli, Ava, Jillian, Great-Grandma "Gigi" Howard and Grandma "B"

Great-Grandpa "GPa" Howard, Jillian, Ava, Great-Grandma "Gigi" Howard and Eli

We had a great time visiting with the very great Great-Grandparents. Sara's grandparents came down from Roseville to meet little Eli. The girls were excited to see their Gigi and GPa and I know the Howards were excited to see their great-granddaughters and their newest great-grandson. We had a fun time and its always really special to be able to take pictures like these. We are so blessed to not only have such wonderful grandparents to our kids but for the kids to have two sets of wonderful great-grandparents!