Celebrating Citizenship!

It's always fun to experience a "God Thing" - one of those opportunities to be in a front row seat while God's plan unfolds right before your eyes. On Saturday night, we celebrated with our friend Miriam who just became a citizen of the United States - and it was a "God Thing".

It's kind of a long story, but I'll give you the abbreviated version. Miriam and I were in the same small group at our women's Bible study. She and her husband, Bosen, are immigrants from Sudan who have been in the U.S. for 8 years. When Henrik became a citizen in February, Miriam shared that she too would be taking the citizenship test very soon. Unfortunately, she was very nervous because she wasn't sure she would be able to pass the reading and writing section of the test.

She and Bosen had their first appointment together, and thankfully Bosen passed. Miriam did not, but was given a list of 50+ sentences to work on until her second attempt 3 months later. If she did not pass on her second try, she would have to start the process over again - meaning she'd have to pay another $400.00 to apply for citizenship.

It was then that some of the ladies from church stepped in and started some basic English lessons with Miriam. Symbols and stick figure drawings represented the meaning of the words. She worked incredibly hard and with a very limited understanding of spoken English and virtually no ability to read or write the language, she began memorizing the list of potential test sentences.

Then came the news that her appointment had been moved up to an earlier date! (Since when does anything doing with government happen earlier than it was supposed to???) Miriam didn't feel ready, but there was nothing to do but just head to the appointment and pray that the Lord would fill in the gaps! And of course HE DID!! Miriam passed and we just had to celebrate!

Saturday night we had an All-American (literally) celebration at our friends Rich and Jeanene's home honoring Miriam's dedication and hard work. We also celebrated the plan that God had in bringing Henrik, Bosen and Miriam to the United States.

Two of America's proudest citizens - Miriam and Bosen with a puzzle of the United States.
Here are darling pictures of their four children.

Bonj

Lilly

Oma

Gina

The Bjorndahl boys enjoying the All American picnic -
hot dogs, chips, corn on the cob, Jello, root beer, apple pie and ice cream!

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!!

"I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.'" Isaiah 41:9-10