It's been a while. I've been incredibly inspired lately but it comes out in a variety of ways other than blogging. Sorry for the long delay. Since we got pregnant last summer in USA, moved to India and then unexpectedly relocated to Sweden for a little while... writing has been placed on a back-burner. So here is what life has looked like the last 9ish months...
Samuel and I got to spend an extended time in America last summer and it was wonderful. God set us up with so many incredible people and opportunities! We were blown away by the love that was poured on us by so many... especially from our church in Youngstown, Ohio (Victory Christian Center). We also launched our evangelistic organization called
Until the Job is Done which focuses on Gospel Campaigns in unreached areas of Asia and Africa, pastor/evangelist seminars and Bible schools!
And then... we found out we are expecting a baby... and then... four days later we moved to New Delhi, India! A city of 23 million people. 23,000,000!!! It was wild! The moment we walked out of the airport we were smacked with an intense wall of heat like we've never experienced! Yes, we lived in Africa for several years, but desert-dry-heat is nothing compared to tropical humidity! So.. we moved into our Indian dad's(Abraham) guest apartment for a few weeks until we could find a place to live. That's about the time the greatest sickness I've ever experienced hit me - hard. "Morning sickness" can't even describe what I felt those first 6 months... combined with the 100+ temperatures, and not finding one single thing that I could eat, (not even a saltine!) I was knocked off my feet. Instead of gaining a baby bump, I was loosing weight and felt totally helpless. Our first trip to a clinic was exciting and scary. We walked into a dark room full of women and were directed to
take a number to see the doctor. When we finally entered her office about an hour later she did an ultrasound and said "There's no heart beat. You have a cyst. You need to get hormone injections right now and start taking all these medications" and sent us on our way... all in about 90 seconds. Say what??? Samuel asked her on our way out the door "So, we are pregnant right??" It was chaos. One and a half years before this, we found out we were pregnant while living in Ethiopia and lost our baby... I thought the same thing was happening again and was so afraid. I remember we laid on our bed that week, listening to worship together and not knowing what to say, but we felt a peace come over us. We prayed that God would enlarge our baby's heart and make it strong.
At our follow-up appointment we heard a steady beat coming from my tummy! What a relief! My cyst had grown though. We were soon having our first Gospel Campaign on the opposite side of India and my doc didn't want me to go... but I knew I needed to be there. I went and was bed-ridden except for the time of our night meetings in the middle of a village field. It was a mighty time. God gave me tremendous strength to run around among the unreached those nights! Thousands attended and were saved, healed and filled with the Holy Spirit! There were so many miracles... like heavy rain pouring down all around us but never touching our field... and during the first night, 50 elephants were spotted behind our stage (elephants trample villages all over India) but they never came near us! Even the high-caste hindus were testifying about how God's hand was over our festival!
Back in Delhi, we had another ultrasound and got to see details of our precious little one! I asked "what about the cyst?" and she said, "what cyst?"!! I know God healed me on that field during our Campaign :)
Love the top left photo where she's kicking her little feet up!
Finding a place to live was hard. We found one apartment and the owner backed out. Then we found a second place, paid all the security deposits and rent, and on moving day... the owner said "no" again! We were homeless. I sat on the back of a motorcycle holding a few bags while Sam swerved for 2 hours through Delhi's crazy streets... I was dripping sweat, sipping on a Gatorade (the only thing I could keep down) and thinking about how crazy people must think we are. Who puts a pregnant woman on a one-way flight to a wild land with no home, no family, no friends, no food...... all we had to stand on was a word from God. He asked us to go and we said "yes"... He was giving me peace. We moved into a hotel that night and a few weeks later were able to move into a little ground-floor apartment in South Delhi. We had a bed and a table... but it remained empty for a few months until we could find some things to put in it!
Around week 24
As my pregnancy continued, we became more and more restless about my health and baby. Our doctor had me on about 25 different medications in a few months, many of which were strong hormones. They were constantly talking about preventing pre-term labor. Once she gave me pills to "stop the baby from coming out on airplanes"!?!? I don't know if there's a list of things NOT to tell a pregnant woman... but if so, that has got to be on it! We were praying and sending emails and phone calls back and forth between Sweden and America to try to understand if we were just having a culture-clash or if we really needed to make a change. I wanted to have the most natural pregnancy and delivery as possible and wasn't comfortable with all the stuff I had to pump into my body every day. Since we receive free medical care in Sweden, we decided that would be the best place to be at this time. So Samuel put me on a plane headed North while he stayed behind to finish an evangelist/pastor conference.
I immediately felt like I was in good hands when I reached Sweden. We were able to find out that we are having a baby girl *
swoon* ... it is illegal to find out the sex of your child in India because girls will often be aborted. There are 50 million
missing girls in India. This is tragic. For us though... we are utterly thrilled to have a girl! I think we both knew before... I had many dreams that it was a girl :)
Week 30
A little over a week ago we found out that baby Strandberg is measuring below average on the growth chart. She is just over 4 pounds and I'm entering week 37 now. We are running tests at the hospital every 2-3 days to check on her progress. As long as she grows on her own scale we will just wait for labor to start on it's own. If she slows down though, they may induce. So we are just waiting to see now. Our actual due date is April 8. My midwife has commented a few times about how calm I am about everything... I know God has given me His peace. I prayed when she was just a few weeks old that He would create a warrior inside of me and was given a word that our circumstances and the dark place we were called to would not have any effect on my womb. Her name (which will be revealed after birth) means
lion... I think it's quite appropriate :)
It's been sad not to be able to prepare a home or a nursery. We are still living the suitcase life in a tiny beach house here in Sweden. I am sooo passionate about design, style, decor and sticking it all together in some eclectic blend of cultural beauty... and have been waiting a lot of years to be able to make a home somewhere. For now we have a fabulous stroller and a few cute outfits to get us started. We are living our lives in total submission to God and know that He has so many surprises ahead of us. Even though every few months we have to give away the few things we collect in our temporary homes around the globe... He is faithful to give us the desires of our heart. That's what I'm standing on now!
Week 36
Sometime in June we will be making our way to the States to spend some much needed time with my family and church. Can't wait to introduce our little gift there!
Lauren and Joey found some homemade dumbbells. Genius I tell you.
Leona and I visiting my first African disciple who got saved 4 years ago!
A few days into our trip that flimsy stroller was stolen by our minibus driver. It's a workout carrying your 6 month old everywhere you go... and there are no floors to put her down on!
Leona with her Ethiopian grandpa Mohammed
Sweet girl with the biggest eyes you ever did see... running around while her mama chewed the Ethiopian drug called Kat.
Multitasking mama... Africans know how to get the job done.
Joey with some new friends
Spice market
Vegetable Market
Introducing Leona to the hyenas
Her own chauffeurs
Our pastor's wives loving on Leona
Play date
Leona and her BFF Lauren
Orphaned street kids accepting Jesus as their Savior!
The city that I love
Why use your hands when you can throw it on your head??
Beauty everywhere
The sweetest street baby boy
Oromo girl in the old walled city
Lauren and I praying for people to be filled with the baptism of Holy Spirit
World's strongest man and greatest balancing act
My great aunt Darlene decided to join us in Ethiopia for her 60th birthday! She was an incredible encouragement to us all, a prayer warrior and comedian! We were so blessed!
