my husband and i are christian workers in a musl#m area of eastern europe. 11 yo dd, and 7 yo ds were born after we came to this area over 11 years ago. in this photo, my kids were learning how to pan for gold.
photo: luke and isaac after their teams played each other at soccer a week and a half ago. i’m really lovin the "upward" soccer program that luke has joined because they are emphasizing being Christlike and good sportsmanship above winning. luke’s just having a great time.
with all our traveling, we got in a couple of field trips during our first 2 weeks of school. while visiting mark’s parents in louisiana, mimi treated us to a visit to new orleans with a visit to cafe du monde for beignets and aquarium of the americas. i hadn’t been downtown since katrina.
cruising along the riverwalk
luke and lydia watch some big sharks swimming around the oil rig set up in the gulf of mexico exhibit.
at a local state park, the kids were fascinated by an animal rescue station and shelter for non-releasable animals. below, luke enjoys feeding a pony at the petting park.
lydia broke her nose! she and luke were running around some store racks and ran into one another last week. her glasses pushed into her face, breaking her nose and bruising her up. after seeing the x-ray, the doctor said there wasn’t anything to do–but that it would take 6-8 weeks for it to heal up.
luke has been able to join a church soccer team–a gracious answer to prayer. luke is able to attend most practices & games, and the league is flexible enough to not mind when he can’t come. (in our small town on the mission field, he fell in love with soccer, but there were no organized teams/leagues until high school level.)
he was so pumped about his first "real" game today that he charged out and scored the first 2 goals for his team. he is absolutely thrilled.
luke at a soccer practice, wearing his official "milano" club soccer costume. he bought the costume with his own money in milan a few weeks before the club won the european championships.
here is lydia doing her first week’s science experiment. she’s studying potential energy, but doesn’t know it (yet). i like having her do the experiments before reading the text to raise questions in her mind.
luke and lydia working on their first day of school at aunt sarah and uncle tony’s house in louisiana.
tonight we’re off to a church service where mark will be sharing about our ministry.
WE DO PLAN TO GO BACK TO SE Europe after this year of itineration. we plan to work with the same people group (albani#ns), but in a larger city. there are a few options that we are praying about.
one option is to work in a different, but nearby, balkan country where alb#nians are the minority, but still a huge presence in the capital. there is no church there among them in their language. it’s a bit premature to give details at this point as we and others are still praying about the Lord’s will.
God has been very good to us: a supporting church gave us a minivan to use for a year. it’s great. after bouncing around among family for 3 weeks, visiting and having a few itineration services, we’ll be moving into our own apartment. we’ll be setting up and staying for 1 week before moving on.
luvmy2mks