Just a little snapshot for you...

Wish I had a picture for you: our international students have NEVER jumped on a trampoline! Our neighbors have one- and we took the load of them over there a few weeks ago. Wow. I am told it was hilarious. Such a good release after stressful finals! A few days ago, Mingma came for brunch before we took him to the airport. He'll be back in August, but is spending his summer with his Mom who is visiting relatives in New York. Phil and Eli took him over to the Wille's for one more jump on the tramp. He said to Phil, while jumping, "When I am on the trampoline, I am the child."

Just had to share that one!!

Summer !

Have you ever had a list longer than your summer? That's pretty much our summer :) But it's ok- we have great friends and students like Mark, Susan, and Nolan, who share their time and help us get stuff done around here. Most of you know we put in 300 raspberry plants, blueberries, apples trees, and peonies last summer with the hopes of a "thooft family summer job" - and the deer promptly started enjoying. So this week, after a year long wait, the DNR is putting up our fence. With our help. It's been fun. You can see more at www.downtoearthgardener.wordpress.com.

Phil has been enjoying his Thursday night men's group, and we are still going through our Danny Silk Relationship dvd's on Tuesdays. Although in the summer, it's kind of hit and miss. And Friday nights, we worship & pray at the Thooft ranch. We hope to be full time on campus again by fall, but frankly, that would take a miracle, and while we believe in miracles, right now we have a plan A and a plan B. :) Plan A- back on campus full time, Plan B- keep doing what we're doing until we can be back on full time. Thank you so much, all of you who continue to support us with your prayers and finances. You bless us SO MUCH!!

Saturday morning, we say goodbye to another international student, Mingma. But he's only leaving for the summer, so this time the trip to the airport isn't a sad one. So many are coming back!

We also hope to get a group of students to the cities in June for Reach the U at the North Central campus. Working on it.

Grace is taking a Doula training course- and I have to go pick her up! I just wanted to give you a quick update, family. Hope your May is as lovely as ours!

Love, Us Thoofts

Staff Retreat

Once a year, Mike calls all us MN Chi Alpha staff together for a staff retreat. It's great. We talk shop, but we also hang out and play games and laugh and de-compress. And we remember we're not alone :) We had a blast- I didn't take any pictures, but here's a few Jeff took. Top left, a bunch of us playing Settlers. Uh....we Thooft's have a few unofficial Settler's rules that can drive the more competitve a little crazy. Like, we give stuff away out of mercy. So, I played that way....and won the game. Hilarious. Top right, a fabulous shot of our fearless leader, Mike. He's so funny. That's Chuck Haavik from UMD next to him. Bottom, Phil and Ashok doing what Ashok does best: laughing. What a breath of fresh air it was!

Hate it when my babies leave....

Ok, so I know a lot of you are empty nesters. And we're not, not quite yet, although it's coming too darn soon. Today I performed a campus pastor ritual. I drove a student to the airport. Only this time, it was for good. Ming came to BSU last fall, became our "daughter" via family friends, stayed a year, and transferred.

She is on her way to Dallas, TX. Anyone know any mothers & fathers in Dallas? How about Ocean City? New York? Pittsburg? Baltimore?

This is where they are all going, some for the summer, some for good. They need families who will love them and help them through crazy unfamiliar American stuff. Enjoy them. Let them teach you to cook. If anyone reading this has any connections, please let me know, and I will connect you to our kids, so they can become your kids.

You know, Fidel Castro came to the US as a student. Four years later, he left, hating America and Americans. Went on to control a country and kill a lot of people, to put it simply. What if an American family had befriended him? Loved him, honored him? What would our world look like today?

Anyway, I have to go make lunch for my own babies. But I have a young lady on a plane to Dallas right now that I left with tears in her eyes, and mine. I hate it when they leave. So please keep Ming - and Tenzin and Tashi- in your prayers. They have left Bemidji for good, with the gospel told and hopefully, shown. Pray for their safety- all of them- Sudhir and Bina and Bikash and Anish and Sanjay - there are so many more!

Thank you for partnering with us!

Love, us Thoofts

An Excellent Resource!

Hey Family!

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but we're going through Danny Silk's DVD set, "Defining the Relationship" on Tuesday nights at Chi Alpha. It is- what. Eye-opening. Healthy. Life changing.

Phil and I have been married for almost 20 years, and we have been through a lot of stuff. We started out tough. Neither of us had any relationship skills, or any life skills, really. Just sort of "winged it." We didn't even have pre-marital counseling. No idea how to handle money or arguments or raise children.

By the grace of God alone, we are still married & thriving, 20 years later! Yay! And we've learned a ton. So after 20 years, you kind of think you got it, or at least most of it, you know? I mean, we don't think that out loud- it's just sort of there in the back of your mind. Well. One listen to this dvd set and we realized we don't know nothin'.

So three listens later, we are still getting good good good stuff. I have learned that my primary love languages- meaning how I hear that someone loves me - are words of affirmation and acts of service. How do I know? When someone needs to tell me something critical- something I need to hear- the only way I can hear it without going into attack/defense mode is what Danny calls a "hero sandwich." It looks like this: "You rock/you suck/you rock." IE- Tell me something good about what I'm doing, then tell me what I'm doing wrong, then tell me something good again. I'll hear it better that way, and I'll know you love me and not trying to hurt me.

See? Good stuff, I told you.

There are several couples and several singles going through the dvd's with us right now. It's finals week, so tonight is our last night on campus. We will continue with this at our home this summer, meeting on Tuesday nights. There are 9 sessions, and once we are through, we will probably just start all over and go through again this summer, for people who want to get in on it.

If you want to get in on it and you aren't in Bemidji, here's a link where you can buy the set:

http://www.ibethel.org/store/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&categories_id=0&keywords=Defining+the+Relationship&x=10&y=2


You won't regret it. It's all about healthy relationships- no matter where we are. Marriage, family, raising kids, work, ministry, art, music- whatever, whatever. Learn to relate well and you will influence the world.

Have a great day!