Zambia

It's time again for our trip to Africa. Since I have returned from my awesome little trip to Texas it has been non stop (literally) getting ready for the big trip. We leave Thursday morning from Copenhagen to start our long travel down to Zambia.

I am really excited about returning to the place that brought so many good memories from last year. We have such a heart for the people of Africa and are excited to be returning for the 3rd time. This year, Martin and I are traveling with an awesome

group of 11 students, 6 girls and 5 boys. We will be spending time helping a lot of different ministry organizations, including the same that we joined last year. This year, however, we are also helping run a campaign in Ndola which we are expecting great results from. We will be involved in a four day campaign bringing the people of Ndola and surrounding areas together in unity. We will be crying out for people to be saved and healed and helping support the local church in Ndola.

We will also be taking a trip deep into the bush to a village called Ngabwe where we will minister to those in need of medical care and supplies. We will assist the nurses and put on a program for the children. This will be an impactful experience for the stud

ents (and us) to see what it is like to live in the bush in Africa. This year we will also be working close with an orphanage called Jabulani, in which we are hoping to develop relationships with the children at this orphanage and share the love of God with them

.

We hope that you will please pray for us as we take this 5 week journey. Pray for wisdom, guidance, protection, joy, unity and most of all for the name of Jesus to be made great in everything we do. Thank you for your support and prayers! We love you!

Christmas in Texas

This year Martin and I were able to go to Texas again for Christmas! It was such an awesome, relaxing time together with our family and friends. God provided a way home for us when it seemed like we would be stuck in the airport for a few more days, so we only arrived about 2 days late.

Highlights of the trip include: Coming home to mom and dad's new house. Relaxing in front of the fire. Seeing all our people. Eating out...a lot. David's 3rd birthday party. And sleeping in...
Me and Mom visiting Aaron at work.

Us and the Martin kids, when they stopped by to surprise us.

Me and my sweet friend Jodi!

The New Year's Eve bunch! We have celebrated NY together for MANY years!Love you girls!!

We are really looking forward to a new year. This year at Euroclass is going to be full of new experiences. In the next few months, we will travel to Austria, Norway, Faroe Islands, and Africa. What amazing opportunities God has given us.

From Africa to Texas to Colorado to Denmark

We are finally back and settled in Denmark after a lot of traveling. Our trip to Africa was amazing and one that we will not soon forget. We were privileged to see God working in many ways. I believe that the hearts of our students were changed forever and this trip will definitely leave a deep mark on their heart. We serve an awesome God! Me and a sweet little girl named "Happiness"
Martin and Samuel, our little buddy who lived at the orphanage where we stayed in Kenya.
After 6 weeks in Africa we left for Texas. We got to spend 5 awesome weeks there with my family and friends. It was so good to be home and relax for a longer period of time. We spent a lot of time at the lake house and with my family. We felt very encouraged and energized to come back and start a new year in Denmark.
Two Danes celebrating 4th of July in Texas!
While we were in Texas we decided to take a little roadtrip up to Durango to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. It was a very good time. We went back and visited Blue Lake Ranch, where we got married. We also found some time to hike, kayak and just relax.So now we are back in Denmark and we have had a awesome start up with Euroclass and Teen Radical. We have a great bunch of new students at Euroclass this year. I am really looking forward to the rest of the year. Right now I'm teaching the Alpha Course and Communications. They are learning how to share their testimony in English. Martin is in school for the next 5 weeks so that he can get his bus drivers license. :) This way we will be able to take the Euroclass bus and drive our students all over Europe. It's going to open up a lot of opportunities, so we are excited about that.
Teen Radical is also going great. We have started a different schedule this year where we are meeting on Monday nights and eating together and then following that we have prayer, worship, teaching, etc. Then, on Thursday nights we open the club in the youth space Martin built and they can come and go as they please. We have a little cafe, games, activities, wii, and all that kind of fun stuff. The goal is to disciple them one on one and catch this crowd of young people who do not yet know Jesus.Thanks for all your prayers for us! We believe our life is all for Jesus and we are trying each day to share his love with teenagers in Denmark!

With love, Lynsey and Martin

On our way to Africa!

First of all, I will say I am officially the world's worst blogger! But this is worth another update!

We are on our way to Africa again! This time Martin and I will be leading a group of 9 teenagers to Kenya and Zambia for 6 weeks! We have a really sweet group of students who are excited to bring the message of Jesus!


Let me introduce our team...

Simone!
Kristian!

Tobias! Camilla!

Louise!

Julie! Johanna!Adam! And us!!

It's a really good, small group! The first two weeks of our trip we will spend in Nakuru, Kenya where we will be working with an organization called IAS, International Aids Service.
(www.ias.nu). We will be staying at a church called Filadelfia Church. It is a small community that has an orphanage and a Women's Crisis Center. We will be staying in the school where the orphans go each day. During our time in Kenya, we will be doing a lot of big events, going out into the communities and inviting people to come each night where we will be involved in helping with the locals whowill put on big concerts and events in order to share the gospel. During the day, we will be working in the schools and with the orphan children. We will also minister, pray and encourage those from the Women's Cirisis Center. In Kenya, we will be living right in the heart of a Kenyan community, so we will get to experience the real everyday life of the locals.

Filadelphia Women's Crisis Center and the place we will stay. Some children from the orphanage

After that, we will fly to Ndola, Zambia where we will be for the next three weeks. We will be staying at Kaniki Bible College where Euroclass has a house there. During these three weeks we will work with three different ministries; Life line, School Mission and Kaniki Orphan Project. Lifeline is a project where we will take supplies and medical care to surrounding communities and minister to the people there. When we are working with School Mission we will be visiting 3 schools a day and making a 45-1 hour assembly where the students will use their drama, dancing and preaching, and then we will work with Kaniki Orphan Project the last week as well as doing practical building assignments for some local missionaries.



Lifeline
School Mission

Our last week we will have a little vacation down in Livingstone, Zambia. We will stay right next to one of the 7 Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls. These days we will debrief the trip, Safari, bungi jump and relax.



Prayer Points:

• Please pray for our safety throughout all the traveling and time we spend in Africa.
• Pray for Martin and I as leaders to be always full of God's wisdom in decision making and leading our team.
  
• Pray against sickness
• Pray for the hearts of the students to be opened up and changed to be even more passionate for the heart of Jesus.
  
• Pray for the people we meet, that they would know the realness of the love of God.
  
• Pray for unity in our team, a family atmosphere.
  
• Pray that above all, God's name will be glorified in all we do.
  

Last, but not least...here is a Euroclass video from the last Africa trip so you can get an idea of what we will be doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWCGZ_4QmtU


Thank you for all your prayers, please pray with us as throughout the next 1.5 months. We leave on April 29 and return to DK June 10. THEN TO TEXAS JUNE 28!!! :)

Our first home...

We have finally moved into our first home! After living for two crazy months in the church office, we REALLY appreciate our new home. Especially since Martin put so much work into it. The building was built in 1875 and is the oldest building in Kolding, so when Martin got the job to remodel it, he decided to tear out everything including the walls and the floor and start from scratch. So, he built up everything himself from there. It was such a blessing because it the building right next to the church in which the church offices are on the first floor and the top floor is our apartment and some teen facilities which Martin is still building. But, since it belongs to the church, we got to choose whatever kitchen, floors, counter top, appliances, etc. that we wanted, but the church paid for it! What a deal!

We moved in 4 days before going to England and manages a House Warming/Graduation Party the next day after we finished at 3:00 am. We figured it was the best way to make a deadline, just invite 50 people over and that's a little motivation to get it finished. :) It worked! We were exhausted afterward though...and then we left for England with 14 teenagers.

So, we've had the week off this week and finally got to enjoy our house. We have loved our LITTLE home! It's very tiny, but perfect size for Martin and me!

England!

Yes, I know it has been way too long since I have updated! Especially since I still get emails all the time with people asking me, “exactly what do you do in Denmark.” So I promise I will try to be better at updating.

This month Martin and I took our first outreach of Euroclass students to England. Euroclass is made up of 27 students and 7 full time teachers. 2 of the teachers do not go on outreach because they have families that they cannot be away from for that long. So, the team is split into two teams and the first outreach is in Europe. Two teachers, Julie and Thomas led a team to Romania, and Martin, Annechein and I led a team to England. Martin and I were the team leaders and Annechein is our dance and drama specialist. (You have to be much better in dance and drama in England than Romania, if you can imagine, there is a different standard)

The trip was a success. We worked full time for 2 different churches. One in Ramsgate (near the East Coast) and the other in Sidcup. (near London) During these two weeks were were almost daily working in Elementary Schools doing the main assembly. Public schools in England have no separation of church and state so we were allowed to come in and share whatever we wanted. Since it was mostly elementary schools, Euroclass usually did three dramas which talked about giving and loving your neighbor. My main job as a teacher at Euroclass is in Communications, so it was a big job to teach the students how to communicate the message of these pieces, in English, in a way that communicates the Gospel. It was a challenge for them, but also very exciting. We spent time in classrooms as well teaching about Denmark and Euroclass and sharing testimonies.

Another big project we were a part of was a Community Action project. Both churches we worked with were in a partnership with the government where they would take areas in the community and clean them up and start youth outreaches there where the really rough kids hang out. So we spent a lot of time digging, cleaning, mowing, and throwing away a lot of trash from really disgusting abandoned areas. I saw more huge, colorful, awful spiders in these places than when I was in Africa! But, it was a great experience to for the students to see the different they made at the end of the day.

Then, they would bring out soccer cages, portable skate parks and a converted double decker bus which was completely redone into a movie room, x-box center and hang out place into these areas and begin to have relationships with the kids that lived in the area. The government provides them with support because they do so well. It was inspiring to be a part of!

Overall, the trip was a success and a growing experience for the students and for Martin and I as leaders. Our next trip will be in May and June and the team will split again into two teams. One is spending 3 weeks in Kenya and 3 weeks in Zambia and the other team is spending 3 weeks in India and 3 weeks in the Philippines.

So, for now back at Euroclass we are back to daily teaching and preparing for the next big outreaches!
Thanks for your prayers and support that we received from so many of you on the trip! We couldn't do it without our prayer warriors back home! We love y'all!

First Week at Euroclass...take 2!

(I had pictures in here, but evidently it's messing up my blog...so I took them out. I'll post some later :)

My first week at Euroclass was amazing! I just love it here!


The students arrived Sunday night and we had a welcome for them. They came in with all their parents and we helped them set up their dorms and their beds. Then, we had a little information service and dinner. Then, we took them to the beach and did lots of "getting to know you" activities.

The group of students this year are so great! I have really enjoyed getting to know each of them! There are 26 students and I like them all in their own special way :)

I started teaching communications this week and it went really well. I'm so impressed with their English. They are 15-17 years old, and I can't imagine knowing another language as well as they do at that age. But I guess it's necessary when you are a country that is so small it can fit inside of Texas 9 times! :) The way it works is that we will each teach a subject for 6 to 8 weeks and then move on to another. So right now, I am teaching communications so they can practice before their first outreach. Neil is teaching Creative Arts/Dance and Drama, and Julie and Thomas are teaching Alpha which is a basic Bible course.

AND...for the fun part. Guess who is taking over for Martin until he finishes school....me! So that means I am also teaching Sports and I take them on their morning run at 7:00am. It's 4.5 km through the forest. HAHA...I just laughed when I found out that would be my task. So, I guess I'm being stretched more ways than I thought living in Denmark. I have actually enjoyed it though. It's great when you are forced to do something...and do it with a smile because you are an example to the kids. God may be changing my heart for physical activity :)

So, it was a great week. Martin and I will be on duty at the school on Wednesdays which means we have to be there from the time they wake up until they go to bed. Normally, we will both be there so that one of us could leave and take a break for a while if we need, but, once again...until Martin is done with school I will be there all day. It was a long day last Wednesday, but I cannot think of a better job!

I have had so many good talks with the students they have really been opening up already. So, we are really excited for the year ahead! I think God has great things in store for the Espensens!

Please continue to pray for our apartment to get done. It's such a huge job to do in the spare time. Living downstairs in the office is really starting to be annoying and we cannot wait until this job is done and we can live a normal life. It is also a big stress on Martin, if you can imagine. We spent 7 hours in IKEA on Saturday. It was like a little vacation. :) We ordered a kitchen for us and for the TeenRadical club and also the bathrooms. It was a lot of fun!

My talented husband building the bathroom floor.



Our pastor, Jakob, helping spackle.


We LOVE y'all and send our love from Denmark.