Come Like the Fall

Hey all,

My cousin Tim has just released a CD entitled “Come Like the Fall.” Tim is one of my closest friends, even though we don’t get to see each other very often. I mean, he was the Best Man at our wedding, and the fact that he has finally released some music thrills me. Anyway, check him out…and buy the CD if you want, I’m sure it will bless you…

The song "Take Me" is amazing and touches me everytime I listen to it.

Find him at www.timsuel.com or to listen to samples, check out: www.independentbands.com/cd/timsuel/comelikethefall.html

Cheers,
Jason

Norway in a Nutshell!

Hey, hey, hey (to be said like Fat Albert),

I seems that I just sent an installment out not too long ago, but it’s time for another one. If our stories annoy you feel free to save this one for a rainy day, but I warn you, you’ll be missing out…Here goes:

So, a couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Norway. We flew into Oslo. We stayed there one night, in a hostel. The next morning was their “Constitution Day,” The equivalent of the 4th of July for our American friends and something akin to Bonfire Night here in the UK. It was a day of parades, hot dogs and red, white, and blue…lots of fun and we were glad to be there on this special day.

We then boarded a train for our pre-booked excursion…Norway in a Nutshell. Over the next two days we had the great pleasure of exploring the fjords of Norway by train, bus, and boat. We went took a ride on the steepest railway in western Europe, witnessed 300 waterfalls (no exaggeration), and slept on the Night Train (an overnight train ride from Bergen back to Oslo). Just talking about this trip does not do it justice. It was probably the highlight of all our time in Europe so far…please have a look at our pics, they speak volumes.

When we returned to Oslo, we still had another day and night, so we got to know the city pretty well. I was totally into Vikings that day…a couple of weeks ago I wanted to be an ancient mariner, who I have decided were the cowboys of the sea…now I’m on to Vikings who were the ancient mariners of their day…other than a lot of killing and overtaking unarmed villages, they did a lot of good stuff…

For instance, I just discovered today that my last name, “Suel,” could come from the Norse “Sigvaldr” meaning “Victory Ruler.” Because I have no idea about my heritage, I like this idea…probably because I’m into Vikings and Norway is flippin’ amazing!

A couple of other exciting tidbits I might throw at you…last weekend Sarah and I had the honor (term used loosely) of being leaders for our church youth group’s weekend away. Despite the fact that we stayed up till all hours of the night and got up at the crack, it was a pretty great weekend. I got to pray with some guys and one guy accepted Christ…that was pretty cool. However, it did rain the whole time…imagine being stuck inside with 40 teens…rough!

We love you all and hope to hear from you. I’m sure that many of you are having exciting summers…we’d love to hear about them.

Peace,

Jason (Sarah, too!)

P.S.: The pictures are of us in the fjords and travelling on the train.

May is Okay!

So, so, so, much has happened since I last emailed and I will have to fill you in…I’ll try not to bore.

Poland

Sarah and I travelled to Krakow, Poland this month and made a day trip to the infamous Nazi concentration camp: Auschwitz. Krakow was one of our favourite cities to visit. We are really becoming fans of Eastern Europe. This city reminded us of Prague because it was easily manageable and complete with history, art, and culture. We took several walks around the city and learned so much about the Polish. One of the most interesting things that we found was the story of the trumpeter who plays every hour from the church bell tower.

Legend has it that during the Tartan invasion of Krakow, a trumpeter blew the warning song from high atop the church bell tower to warn Krakowians that the invasion had begun and because of his warning song, the citizens of Krakow were able to defend their city. Then an enemy arrow pierced his throat before he was able to complete the song. Therefore, every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays the same song from the same location and stops before he finishes…calling to mind the time that Krakow was almost overtaken by the Tartan’s had it not been for one brave trumpeter who gave his life to save many.

As I mentioned before we took a day trip to Auschwitz concentration camp. It is hard to put into words exactly what you feel as you walk around an international monument to the cruelty of humankind. It feels odd to smile in pictures or even to take pictures. And although the site is in ruins, we found the entire day to be emotional and stirring. If you get a chance, while it may not be the most exciting of vacations, it is a day to remember… “lest we forget…”

Somerset

A friend of Sarah’s from work had mentioned to her a long time ago that she had a place for us to stay in Somerset, if we were ever up for a weekend away. Well, all of the UK had a bank holiday on Monday the 7th; so we decided that we would use that long weekend to go to the beach in Somerset. Now, when I say beach, British beaches are not all fun in the sun type experiences, but they are nice in a different sort of way. Taking costal walks, for instance, is one of our favourite things to do.

One of the main highlights from our weekend was going on the old fashioned steam train that runs along the coast. We made a day of it, taking the train to a nearby village and having a meal. The stations and the train itself are all well preserved and they take you back to the times when steam trains would have been the new and only way to travel in style.

Friends

We have had the pleasure of opening up our home, once again, to some friends from the States. We have had three young ladies staying with us for a few days. The girls are all at the beginning of what will be a summer abroad for all of them. Kim and Jody are off to study music in Florence and Cat will be studying French in France. To be honest we only knew Kim before this trip. Kim is girlfriend to one of our nearest, dearest, and closest friends Stateside, Mr. Patrick Peringer. Kim and Pat are both in the music dept. at Bowling Green State University…and Jodi and Cat are her friends. Now that they’ve been snoozing on our floor for the past few days, we feel we know each other really well. And Kim was able to go into Wales and see some live music performance, which was great because she is writing her Thesis on Welsh Music…cool, huh?

Justin Timberlake

That’s right…Justin Timberlake! You see, as a partial joke and partial curiosity our friend Claire got her husband Jez tickets to see Justin live in Birmingham. Jez claims that he, not Justin, originally brought Sexy Back (Jez has actually registered the domain name “ibroughtsexyback.com” although he hasn’t done anything with it yet). So, we quickly decided that we wanted to go and see Mr. Super Bowl Controversy himself with our friends.

I have to say, it was a fantastic show! He was an excellent showman and he made the ticket price worth the experience…once we got over the screaming teenage girls surrounding us!

What’s Next?

With a month that had so much going on, how will we ever top it? The next email will include our trip to Norway, which we leave for later this week! And we will be informing you as to how our Youth Weekend goes. Youth Pastor Claire has again roped us into helping her with this event and we must say that we are looking forward to this event with great expectations!

From us to you, that’s all for now…

OK, Happy End (for all you Eurovision fans!)

Jason and Sarah

Pics: 1. Artist's wall in Krakow 2. Auschwitz rememberance cards. 3. Auschwitz monument. 4. Sarah in Somerset.