Greece is gorgeous!

To continue our trip to Greece....




Our time of worship on Sunday was fantastic! We thoroughly enjoyed worshipping in English with 200 voices singing praises and hearing a message that went straight to our hearts (without having to be translated)! It wasn't Pastor Ken, but it was still good!

The rest of the week was a blur. We had a full schedule all week of worship, training, inspiration, and peer learning. At breakfast and lunch and during the two morning and afternoon breaks, we had 30 minute (or more, if needed) sessions with our co-workers for them to talk about anything that was on their mind and to share with us any struggles that they were going through. Glenn stayed busy the whole week while I stayed in bed.




Yes, this is where I spent most of the week. I fell sick with a sinus infection Tuesday and didn't go out of the room again until Friday afternoon! I must admit though, as much as I hated to be sick while in Greece, at least I was in an air conditioned room (well, it was air conditioned from 11 am-4 pm and 11 pm -4 am, which we do NOT have in Budapest at all) and I had delicious meals served to me by my wonderful husband who didn't have to stop what he was doing to cook them!!! So, as for pictures of our work during the week, there are none since the photographer was sick.

Glenn spent the week meeting with the families, networking, taking care of lots of business, waiting on me hand and foot, yada, yada, yada, while I rested. I am sure he is exhausted and would appreciate your prayers for him!



Friends from Virginia October-December

Friday afternoon I got out of bed to attend the last of the counseling sessions because it dealt with a family whose child has some educational issues, and it was important that I be involved as the education consultant. Since I'd gone to all that trouble to shower, do my hair and put on makeup, we decided to join the group that we were with in Virginia when they all went out for dinner. It was good to be able to visit with them and to get caught up on their news.



After dinner we all decided to hop on the ferry that would take us to the mainland, somewhere in Athens. The ferry ride takes about 15-20 minutes and cost almost $2! Where in America can you ride on a boat and see such beautiful scenery for less than $2???

Glenn is fascinated with the loading of the cars on the ferry

7 rows deep and not a spare spot. Every side mirror intact!

As the ferry takes off-

Below are some random scenes from our trip across the Aegean Sea, back to the mainland.

The next 3 pictures are for the benefit of Chris, Kate, Kari, Jonathan, my dad, Queenie and Pa, and everyone else who has been to Ivory Coast or Senegal. There were just some parts of the scenery in Greece that strongly resembles what we saw and experienced in Africa! The flat roof builidings; stores on the bottom with 2-3 stories of apartments above....

kinda trashy....

palm trees....

and random stuff for sale on the sidewalks!

Another ferry boat going to get more tourists

I thought the country side was beautiful! There would be small, well developed communities dotted along the shoreline with rocky, scrubby mountains in the background. Everywhere you look, there are hills and mountains in view!

Long, flat bridge over part of the Aegean Sea

Lots of small islands in the Aegean Sea

By the way, the temperature in Greece registered 112 degrees on Wednesday. Don't know if you heard about all the wildfires that were spreading across Greece, particularly near Athens, due to the dry weather and the extreme heat? Well, we could see the smoke from some of the fires from our bungalow, and on the return trip to the airport on Saturday, we could see the burn scars on the ground from some of the fires.

We are now back in Budapest. I am still a little sick (so Dad, I'll call you in a day or two when I feel a little better!) but life must go on.

We have much to do in the next two weeks. Our co-workers, the Doyles, leave for their 6 months in the States on July 15th so we need to learn as much as we can about the details of their jobs. God may be sending us a couple to help with the guesthouse ministry so continue to pray with us about that need!!!! Also, we have a possible answer to our prayer for help with part of the medical side of their job so add that to your prayer list for us! God knows our needs, our limits and our schedule. Pray that we trust Him to provide for what we need in His TIME and in His WAY, and to not jump ahead of Him to "fix" things, as I am so prone to do!

An interesting side note-while we were in Greece, Glenn was eating with the Doyles and their son Dwayne and his wife Melissa. As it turns out, Melissa used to live in Marietta for a few years and was a member at First Baptist Church of Marietta where Glenn grew up! And, even wilder than that, Melissa and Diane Andrew Rose led an Acteen group of 4 girls, one of which was our daughter! Kari was in the 7th grade and it was the year of the Olympics! Melissa (who was Missy Woodward then) and Diane taught Kari, Jill Elliott, Lisa Courson and Cami Smith in clowning, and they used their "gifts and talents" at the Olympics for a week in a clowning ministry! Isn't it a small world?!?

As I close and I think of things I'd like to ask you to pray for, the top of the list begins with our many co-workers with whom Glenn met this week. Besides the everyday needs of isolation in a culture not their own, besides the difficulties of raising children without the help of healthy churches and other Americans or family members nearby, and aside from the stressors of "not fitting in", Satan is quick to attack whenever someone is sharing the news of Christ. So please, pray for our friends. Pray for us, as we are in the same boat. We do count it all joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because we do know that the testing of our faith produces perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything, but it's still hard! We covet your prayers and thank God for each one of you!