The Ramont Family

San Diego Wild Animal Park

2010-02-22T05:26:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T23:37:00.001+01:00

Here's what our family was thankful for this past year . . .

- Celebrating our 9th anniversary with ice skating
- Richard III losing his first tooth
- Spending time with Grandma
- Zachary's 3rd birthday
- Going to the Sacramento Zoo and train museum
- Spending a month in Sweden and Romania visiting family and friends
- Richard II and Richard III getting their hearing back after bursting an eardrum
- Camping near lake Tahoe with friends
- Dreaming of surfing in Santa Cruz
- Richard III's 6th birthday
- Getting Weimar's health show on 3ABN, a worldwide satellite network
- Seeing some amazing creatures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine World
- And most of all, the birth of God's Son

~ Richard & Roxana

Richard II's 3_ Birthday

2009-02-24T05:22:00.006+01:00

Ok, so I'm 32 now and no, I didn't have a cake, or a party, no presents and nobody sang "Happy Birthday" (except my friend Daniel's five year old boy over the phone from Sweden). But getting so many happy birthday wishes through Facebook made up for it all (they should pay me to say that).

This isn't to say that I didn't have a good time or something. In fact, I had a great weekend. We joined up with a couple other families with kids, and headed up to the mountains for some fun in the snow. Just 40 min. north of where we live, it's over 5000 feet elevation and plenty of fresh powder for some good sledding. It was just as much fun as skiing (ok, almost) but at least I didn't have to pay those pricey lift tickets!

~Richard

Richard III's 5th Birthday

2008-11-16T20:19:00.003+01:00

From R3 5th B-day

Ok, so Richard celebrated his 5th birthday some time ago, but hey, life's been busy, and it hasn't been easy uploading pictures through this weak cell phone connection that we have. It's been fun getting to know all the new faces here at Weimar and celebrating with them. There are several kids Zachary's age, but unfortuately no one for Richard. He still misses his friend Elliot very much from Sweden. But having a grandma and grandpa closer by has made up for some of the loss.

~Richard

Our Next Big Adventure

2008-06-27T20:58:00.003+02:00

After much thought and prayer, we accepted a call to Amazing Facts which has recently merged with Weimar Institute in Northern California. It was a difficult decision to make as we were faced with many interesting opportunities. But we believe the Lord has led us to a place that will be the best all-around fit for work and family.

I will be serving as the Media Director for Weimar. Some of what I will do will include starting a new media training course for their college as well as producing health and educational videos for their lifestyle program. Roxana will continue in her role as Mother and Teacher of our two children, Richard III and Zachary, from home.

We are so grateful for all your prayers and support during this important time in our life. We are certainly looking forward to being closer to family and friends and oh, did I mention some sun?

~Richard & Roxana

Leaving LifeStyleTV, Part 2

2008-06-03T20:21:00.002+02:00

Well, we've finally fixed a date for leaving LifeStyleTV. June 30 will be my last day at work. We haven't yet committed to where we will go next, but we hope that you will pray with us as we seek God's will.

~ Richard & Roxana

Part 1 of this post can be found here.

Mother's Day

2008-05-26T21:03:00.002+02:00

Mother's Day comes two weeks later than in the U.S. We celebrated on Sabbath with a children's program. Enjoy the video!

~Richard

A Spring Day in Sweden

2008-05-17T22:01:00.004+02:00

It was our turn to watch the TV station today, so instead of going to church we got to enjoy some of the beauties of Spring.

~Richard

Surprise Serenade

2008-02-24T20:03:00.002+01:00

When we were in Romania last summer, Roxana's sister got surprised with a special song by her husband-to-be.

~Richard

Zachary's First Haircut

2008-01-30T20:43:00.001+01:00

Well, we finally cut the curls. Zach got his first haircut on Sunday.

~Richard

Trip to Romania

2008-01-02T18:58:00.001+01:00

We returned from Romania just in time to welcome in the new year. Here in Sweden, they did not disappoint. Fireworks were going off all around us. It felt like our quiet country surroundings had been transformed into some kind of war zone. Roxana and the boys have nearly recovered from being sick and now it was my turn today with a mild fever. What people say about visiting Romania in winter is true, don't do it! It was consistently between -5 and -10 C and a heavy fog persisted on most days. For most Romanians, heating is expensive and kept to a minimum, but Roxana's parents did their best to keep us warm.

From Herghelia Studio

We felt this was an important trip not just for me to explore a position at the Herghelia TV studio, located about a half-hour drive outside of town, but also for the boys to spend some quality time with grandparents and other relatives. Although we weren't able to get out much because of the poor weather and the family's health, we still had a very enjoyable time and I was able to spend three quality days at Herghelia, getting to know the media team and doing a bit of volunteer tutoring. Roxana and I are still processing the idea of moving to Romania and weighing it against some options that have come up in California. It's important that it be a Win/Win situation for me as well as for Roxana and her ministry to our children. We're grateful for your continued prayers as we seek the Lord's will. We've settled on May 1st for my resignation from LifeStyleTV so we'll need to make a decision in the near future.

~Richard

Trip to Stockholm

2007-10-22T11:11:00.001+02:00

I'm enjoying the day off today after returning home last night with my family from a week long production at Ekebyholm, the Adventist high-school near Stockholm. This particular trip was unique because it was the first time that myself, the audio technician and our four Media Missionaries were the only ones who came from LifeStyleTV. The producer thought it would be better for me to lead this time while he and the others worked on other projects at the station. All I can say is that the Lord really blessed with a very smooth production. We taped every morning and night a week of prayer with Jeffrey Rosario. My crew and equipment performed very well and we all had a good time.

As a bonus, it happened to be Roxana's birthday that week, so we all took a day off between meetings on Thursday to have some fun in Stockholm. We took a quick trip by the castle where the king and queen live, ate at this amazing vegetarian all-you-can-stuff-yourself-silly restaurant that overlooks the river, and visited a museum that houses the Vasa, a 17th century Swedish war ship that sank in the harbor on her maiden voyage due to design flaws stubbornly held onto by the king at that time. Then we finished off at one of Stockholm's premier bakeries for cake and a tour by one of the bakers who happens to be a good friend and former Media Missionary at LifeStyleTV.

~Richard

Leaving LifeStyleTV

2007-10-14T11:59:00.001+02:00

This week I officially put in my resignation at LifeStyleTV. This was anticipated because of the temporary work status that I qualified under when we moved here. But because of the critical nature of my position, this still means that I won't be leaving until 2nd Quarter,2008. In the mean time, I am helping to find a qualified replacement. I've begun to work on a job description that will go something like this:

******
Editor/Director Wanted

LifeStyleTV, a Christian media ministry based near Malmo, Sweden, is seeking a team player with a proficiency in Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Mac OS X and DVD Studio Pro programs to produce and edit various media projects as assigned. Applicant must be able to write scripts and create storyboards, be able to direct live programs at church and elsewhere as needed. Position requires a history of Christian dedication and willingness to relocate to Sweden. Please contact Claus Nybo at cn@lifestyletv.se to submit your cover letter and resume or call +46 415 425 10.

******

The question everyone is wondering now is, where are we going next? Well, we've left that in God's hands and we're still praying for His guidance.

Please keep us all in your prayers as we undertake this important next step in our lives.

~Richard and Family

Richard III's Fourth Birthday

2007-10-02T07:54:00.001+02:00

On Sunday, September 16th, two days after Richard III's Birthday, we held a small party for him and invited his best friend, Elliot. Elliot's dad is the Communication Director at LifeStyleTV. We organized a treasure hunt for the boys and Roxana made lots of yummy food that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Just before we sat down to eat, we spotted three moose in our back yard! That was probably the biggest birthday surprise of all.

~Richard & Roxana

Kivik Apple Mural

2007-10-01T22:20:00.000+02:00

Recently, we drove out to the east coast of Sweden to the small town of Kivik. Each year they put on a special festival during apple season and one of the highlights is a large mural made entirely of local apples. It took 70,000 apples (5 tons) to create this work of art.

~Richard

Moose Sighting

2007-09-17T20:25:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, just before dinner we spotted three moose in our backyard. Sweden is known for having lots of moose, but the big deal was finding them here! This was the first time we had seen any in the area and the locals tell us that it is extremely rare to find them this far south.

~Richard

The Ramont Family Website

2007-08-21T21:27:00.001+02:00

We are excited to announce the creation of a new website for our family and friends:

http://rramont.blogspot.com

We want you to know about all the exciting things that are going on with our family as we live and work in the mission field here in Sweden. You will get periodic email updates from us and if you visit the website, there you will find photo and video galleries, links to ways you can contact us, and even local news and weather. So go ahead, check it out, and tell us how you like it either by posting a comment at the end of a particular article or simply by sending us an email. And if for any reason you would rather not get email from us, just let us know (we won't be offended, honest). Also, please pass this around to anybody we may have missed and let them know that they can subscribe right on the homepage.

Thanks and enjoy!

~Richard & Roxana

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The Ramont Family - http://rramont.blogspot.com
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Trip to LegoLand

2007-08-19T20:23:00.001+02:00

From LegoLand

Recently, my mom and sister came over for a short visit. One of the highlights of our time together was a trip to the original LegoLand in Denmark. We assumed it was located somewhere near Copenhagen which is about an hour's drive from where we live but it turned out to be a 3 1/2 hour train/bus ride beyond to the little town of Billund. The only redeeming factor to it being out in the sticks is that it was close to an airport. But all in all, it's worth the time spent getting there. Millions and millions of little tiny plastic bricks form beautiful scenery at every turn. It's a lot of fun to see and of course the boys throughly enjoyed it. For some scenes, they claim it would take a person 12 years to build by himself! I think it would be a lot of fun to work there. Can you imagine saying, "yeah, I play with Legos for a living"?

~Richard

Trip to Romania

2007-08-15T20:38:00.000+02:00

From Elviras Wedding

From Mama Ana

This summer right after we wrapped up the VBS, we headed off for Romania. Roxana's sister was getting married and we didn't want to miss it! While we were there, we met lots of relatives on both sides and we even took a trip to visit Roxana's Grandmother on her mom's side out in the country. We enjoyed a wonderful 2 weeks with some of the best weather we've experienced in a long time.

~Richard

Vacation Bible School

2007-08-15T20:22:00.000+02:00

From VBS

We had our VBS in May since most Swedish people leave for the summer. Our church here has never heard of a VBS, so we organized our first one this summer. Not many Christians in this country, so we were hoping for at least 10 kids from the community besides our own. We called our program "Spring Fun." And the kids did have a lot of fun. We had perfect weather the whole week (which is a big deal here:). Our first day started with 10 kids and our program ended with 27. Our theme was, Who is Jesus? Each evening we started with outdoor games, then we had a lesson from the Bible, Jesus our Shepherd, our Provider, etc. and then we had a craft. The Lord really blessed our program.

~Roxana

Ambassadors for Christ 2007

2007-08-10T10:38:00.001+02:00

Ambassadors for Christ is LifeStyleTV's biggest and most important event of the year. It goes for nearly a week and a half, ending on Easter Sunday. During the week, we hosted a series of Bible training classes called Bible Boot Camp with a health seminar series for the public each evening. Then, over the last weekend, we featured a special guest, Sebastian Tirtirau (pictured), who talked about his extreme mission adventures from the Arctic to the Kalahari dessert. His stories have captivated audiences everywhere. Click here if you would like to listen to one. In all, we came away with over 40 hours of finished programming. Directing this one was a real marathon!

~Richard

Zachary's First Words

2007-08-06T22:09:00.001+02:00

Today we started counting up how many words Zachary knows at 15
months. Here's a list of what he says:

no
mine
I know
what?
papa (food)
yuck
apa (water)
mama
tata (daddy)
Richard
happy
I'm fine
te rog (please)
gata (I'm finished)
arde (it's hot)
nani (sleep-baby word)
hi
bravo
moo (when asked what the cow says)
amen

~Roxana

LifeStyleTV Goes Live!

2007-08-06T18:10:00.000+02:00

On the 3rd of March this year, LifeStyleTV went live from our studio for the first time. It was also my first time directing a live show. And who better to film than Mr. Danny Shelton, President of 3ABN, and his lovely wife watching over my shoulder the whole time!?!? Needless to say it was a real adrenaline rush for me and by the end of the half hour interview, I was nearly shaking.

A lot of our solutions at LifeStyleTV are home-baked, cost-effective guerrilla techniques that don't always perform the way they should. But some how, by God's grace, we made it without any significant problems. The Shelton's were impressed and feedback emails from viewers confirmed that we were on the right track.

~Richard

Inspiration Weekend 2007, Norway

2007-08-06T17:14:00.001+02:00

Our first big trip of the year, Oslo, Norway. It was the beginning of February and -4 F outside . Snow and ice covered the road as we made the 8.5 hour road trip North. It actually ended up taking us close to 11 hours. A section of road in Northern Sweden had completely disappeared in a mud slide a few months earlier and traffic had to be routed another way. Sometimes trying to follow foreign detour signs can be a little unnerving, especially when the road suddenly ended on the banks of a large river. Before we could decide what to do, we were being motioned to proceed onto an old barge which carried us to the other side. We shuttered to think how much we were going to be charged before they would let us go, but it turned out we were on the right path and this was part of the planned detour.

Our destination was a small village on the outskirts of town, called Skotselv, home of the European Bible School. They were hosting a weekend of youth meetings and LifeStyleTV was asked to cover the event. The keynote speaker was a young Hispanic from BC, Canada named Jeffrey Rosario. He was a lot of fun to direct. He was full of interesting stories and strong spiritual applications. In fact, to hear what he said, click here.

Filming took most of my time, but Roxana and the boys had a lot of fun sledding when they got tired of sitting. The air was so cold, that crystals would form on your eyelashes and the inside of your nose felt like Velcro. Norway is gorgeous any time of year. I would have preferred Summertime, of course, but it was the family's first time and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Although the trip home took just as long, I'm still amazed at how well our 1 and 3 year olds did. They're real road warriors!

~Richard

My First Blog

2007-08-03T11:10:00.000+02:00

This is my first attempt at blogging so excuse me everyone! I'm still trying this out to see if I like this way of communication or not. It's a bit more hassle than simply shooting off an email to people. Besides, how do people venture across this blog to begin with to even know that I've said something new? Anyway, at least they can look back at previous posts once they find it. And for me, I've got a neat way of looking back and reminiscing, ahhhh.

~Richard