Happy Father's Day!

I'm sorry I am a week behind. In addition to all the weekly things we do, we had to add on several days of doctors appointments for our physicals that are required before we go on our stateside assignment in September. We had to have our full medical check-up, including a trip to a G.I. for me (because I'm at that certain age!), dental work started because all our fillings are 35-40 years old, and eye exams.

Cile gets her eyes checked out

Fortunately, my vision has not changed in the past 3 1/2 years so I did not need a new prescription. Unfortunately, I do not have a good excuse for getting new frames!

Then on Wednesday we flew to Ukraine for a few days of visiting with our families that live in Kiev before going to the 5 day meeting of the BSO cluster. Another name for this is AGM (Annual General Meeting).

Eating at a Georgia restaurant (as in the Republic of Georgia!)

We went out for dinner one night with two of our co-workers to a popular Georgian restaurant in the neighborhood, and when we got there, it was full of a bunch of our personnel who were on a "last night out on the town" with volunteers from America who were headed home the next day. It was neat running into them. Do you know how big Kiev is, and how many restaurants there are there, and what the chances are of running into someone we know???

Kiev is full of high rise apartments

And at the base of the stairwells are rows of strollers!

One of the many Orthodox churches

We didn't really do any sightseeing to speak of (we've been to Kiev before and saw most of the main touristy places) but as we were driving through town to get from one family to the next, I could take some pictures of the sights.

Way more cars than parking spaces!

I was amazed at how bad the traffic was! When these European cities were built with their high rise apartments everywhere, phenomenal public transportation systems were built because cars were a luxury item and the average family couldn't afford one. Today, the income level is rising and more and more people are purchasing cars, but the problem now is where to park!?!

Beautiful grill-work on the major bridge across the Dniper River

TGI Fridays in Ukrainian!

I'd recognize that red and white striped awning in any language!

Papa John's Pizza???

Somehow, I don't think this is the Papa John's pizza chain that we know and love in Georgia (as in, the state of...)

Tree on fire!

We stopped for coffee and pastry one afternoon and when we came outside, we saw a couple of police cars and fire trucks parked next to Joe's vehicle (which was, by the way, parked very illegally! Imagine the fear in our hearts when we saw all this commotion next to his car!) As it turned out, a tree about 25 feet from his car was on fire! Another gawking pedestrian said it had been struck by lightening. It wasn't raining at the time, but we'd had a doozy of a storm the night before, so I wonder if it was hit the night before and was just smoldering all day until it finally spewed forth enough smoke to attract attention? The firemen had hacked away up and down the tree trunk and by time we got there, the whole trunk was smoking.

Member Care appointments

I led an afternoon session on the new TCK guidelines (TCK=Third Culture Kids; the new term for children born into one culture but living in another, and not really a part of either) and Glenn and I did Member Care visits with the adults during meals and breaks. We met in the dining room at our own table over to the side.

Ten? Ten? Who'll give me ten?

We had daily worship times, training times, fellowship and our annual opportunity to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering through a fun and competitive auction. The volunteers that come from America provide a wonderful children's VBS and always bring suitcases of coveted American foods, books and DVD's for us to bid on. Our personnel bring souvenir items from their respective countries to add to the auction, and our volunteers love to bid on these items too! I came away with pepperoni, French's mustard, Strawberry Twizzlers and brown sugar.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

The first 3 days we were there at the AGM, it was HOT! 90-95 degrees! (And to top it off, the place we were staying at night did NOT have any water, and of course, no air conditioning.) One evening a few of us decided to go get some ice cream so we headed to the neighborhood "convenience store" for something to help cool us down!

It is a small world!

Because we could not handle all the member care appointments in the short time we were there, we had to enlist help. We had a volunteer come out from Marietta!! Brian currently is on staff at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church, but he grew up in Glenn's home church at Marietta First Baptist Church! Small world, isn't it? It was fun getting caught up on folks we both knew. Brian did a great job and expressed a desire to come back again to help us! We look forward to seeing how God will use Brian to minister to our families in the future.

I told you it's a small world!

We returned to Budapest on Thursday, late afternoon. On Saturday, one of our member care couples who live in Paris came to stay with us for two nights. Jerry (and his wife Kathy) used to be the Youth Pastor at Michelle's church when she was in high school! (MIchelle and her husband Brian manage the Eden House.) We invited Brian and Michelle down for grilled burgers to be able to reconnect with Jerry and Kathy after all these years! Truly, the world is getting smaller!

Glenn, Jerry, Kathy and I drive to Poland tomorrow for another cluster meeting and a week of member care visits with our families serving in the Central Catholic cluster. Jerry and Kathy are going to help us with the member care appointments. Kathy and I are hoping we will find some stores along the way that sell the Polish pottery! She even brought an extra suitcase in hopes of finding some. I'm hoping we find some too, and I'm glad we're driving so we aren't limited by weight!!!

Happy Father's Day, Pop! Hope you are having a great time on the cruise!