Down to 3 weeks

We are are the point in our summer where we are beginning to evaluate things. We have started looking at friendships to see where we think they can go and also at new friendships to see how deep we can go in such a short time. It is also sad to know that I can only provide you 3 more weeks of entertainment through this blog! I know it is a daily high for some of you! :) (Probably only my parents!) I don't think any of you will be interested in my day to day life once I get home, trust me its not that exciting!
Tonight we are going out for coffee with the son of the director of one of the schools we taught at. His father is also the director of the school we will be painting next week. We have a team coming from North Mississippi to paint the hallways at the school. At the beginning of the summer I had a conversation with my bosses about possible colors that could be used. I even pulled out the "appropriate colors to encourage learning" card! Haha! The school was very excited to get rid of the gray walls that were painted during the communist period. We were surprised to find out a week later the colors the artist they had hired chose as base colors. Are you ready for this...the colors the artist chose were grey and brown!! Wow, who would have guessed those colors were considered friendly colors as the school director put it! We never figured out how those colors were picked!
Next Thursday night we are going to take a bus to a lake here that is a big tourist pull for our country. We are taking a friend with us so we are all VERY excited. I have a friend from Carey that has lived there for 8 months so she is going to be our hostess! We are also going for our debriefing/get away a week from Tuesday! The summer girls and the wife of our boss couple are going to Greece for three nights! It is a much needed send off for us. We were told at the beginning of the summer that if we could keep our team money/budget under control we should have money left for the trip. Needless to say we watched our spending! I figure this is probably the only time I will be close enough to take advantage of these places so I am very excited about our two trips!
As I was journaling last night I got to thinking about something when I read Romans 12:1. I have traveled across the world to tell people about what I know is true and real, but how many people do I know that don't know what is true and real. According to statistics, several of you reading this have never accepted that relationship. It is so discouraging to know that. I am ashamed that I can take 4 planes to a place to tell people, but I don't have the courage to tell people at home. So for those of you who know and those of you who don't here is what got me thinking, let it make you think also: Romans 12:2 And so, dear brothers and sisters,I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

I am interceding for you!

I think yesterday was one of the most amazing days I have had here. We went to Kosovo as a team with our bosses for a day trip. It was awesome to be in the newest country in the world! It was extremely eye-opening and sobering to see the aftermath of the 1998 genocide of the Albanian people there. We saw one of many mass graves. I told my bosses that things like genocides are unfathomable, they aren't supposed to happen in my lifetime, it should be a thing of the past. It is crazy to know that the same thing is happening as I write this and you are reading this, in the Sudan. It is something that we should all intercede for. It was upsetting to know that almost every one we saw in the city had family members raped, mutilated, and then murdered during the genocide. Unfortunately, the Kosovo genocide reached almost every family.
We did have a good Mexican lunch in the capital city. It was by no means Aztecas, but when you haven't eaten it in 7 weeks, you forget a little what Aztecas tastes like! Oh and no queso dip either! :(
We are not holding English classes anymore, but have no fear, we are not sitting around twiddling our thumbs! Most days we meet several friends and have coffee or visit them at home. Tuesday we met with 7 friends in one day at three different places and times! We were worn out Tuesday night! Please begin interceding that our conversations will begin turning towards Him and that we will have chances to share with our friends. Things are looking good and we are excited about the next few weeks! Don't forget about us! I can't wait to show y'all pictures and hopefully share celebration stories!

Things have slowed down tremendously, but they are still busy. We have decided that a busy summer life is never a bad thing. Yesterday we got to fellowship!! So exciting! It has been a blessing to be back in it the two times we have gone. I am telling y'all I don't know what I would do without it. You are my support system! Today we made a home visit. We went to a friend's home to have coffee/chai. It was so neat sitting there and seeing the open door policy. All of their family lives around them and they just come and go as they please. Aunts and cousins were in and out the entire three hours we were there. Not sure that policy would be enjoyed all the time! Haha! No privacy! :) Tonight we had red beans and rice with our bosses'. They were delicious! They even surprised us with a cherry pie! We were all very pleasantly surprised! This week we don't have classes, we are taking the week to try and go deeper with relationships we have already established. We are making home visits and getting coffee everyday this week. We have a good group of friends. We have made about 12 friends that we think we can go deeper with. Pretty impressive if you ask me...12 friends in 6 weeks! Haha!
I have a huge interceeding request. I got a very numbing e-mail tonight. I considered not telling my family about it, not wanting them to worry, but this request deserves your time. I got an e-mail from our program's state director with a news release. A student summer worker in Peru was killed Saturday in a car wreck. The student (a guy) attended Ole Miss and is from Glen Carbon, IL. PLEASE intercede for his family. His body had to be transported 19 hours to Lima and then flown home. It was a very real and rude awakening to read the e-mail, my stomach dropped. I think I have gotten somewhat arrogant in my confidence that my Father is going to keep me safe because I am in His will this summer. I am still shocked about the e-mail. I can only imagine what his family and friends are going through. Going back 2 and a half years, I can't imagine throwing in a transport from a foreign country to the grief of the situation. Please join me in interceding.

Happy 5th of July, or at least here!

Well our 5th of July picnic was very successful! When we arrived we saw stacks and stacks of Wonder Bread hamburger and hot dog buns, which was super exciting! We were disappointed to find that the rumors of Dr. Pepper and Root Beer was nothing more than a rumor. :( Everyone we talked to was disappointed, they said that in the past there was a limited supply of Dr. Pepper at the picnic. It was a very fun, relaxing evening. It was from 4 to 8 because of hot temperatures. There is no way that we could have done it any earlier in the day. It was nice to be surrounded by people speaking English! Most of the people there were American Embassy employees and their families. The neatest part had to be when the Marines presented the colors. They came from the base that is located in a neighboring country. It is one of the biggest bases in Europe. There were several members of the Marines and Army that were there. The craziest thing was the military from the country we are in protected the area where we were all evening. They were posted like every 100 feet around the perimeters of the park. It made us feel safe to have military from two countries there! The girls had fun, several of their friends were there and there was water balloons! The deal was they could get the front of their clothes wet, being that they had to sit in somebody's lap on the way home in a taxi.
I was glad to hear from my Daddy tonight about the GRACE trip. Congratulations to all of those who began relationships with our Father! That is so exciting for all of you! I can't think of a better place for that to happen than Guatemala. PTL!
*I got an e-mail about one of the pictures I posted. I put a picture up of me and two other girls spelling a word and I was told it was questionable what we were spelling. Alright Mrs. Diane here it is...bus! :)

Some pictures of a VERY busy week!

Me and my taxi team, Hudson, Mr. Mike, and Drew. I did my best to find the smallest taxi possible so the three of them could squeeze in the back seat. All three of them were the biggest guys on the team so it quickly turned into a joke after I did it on accident the first time!

Kimberlee getting the last chance to tell the kids how she met her Father.

Mr. Scott and Alby (translator) thanking all of the people who participated in the camp.

Casey broke/twisted his ankle one of the first nights they were here. I won't tell you how, its not that good of a story! :)

The summer girls, plus Stephen, at the fort looking out over the city.

Jo Beth, Ashley, Kimberlee, Mr. Scott, and Stephen trying to fit as many people as possible on the corner of the house where Mother Teresa was born. She was born here in the city where we live.

The Birthday boys, Michael Paul and Stephen, celebrating their birthdays at Amatti's. The were trying their best to look like so many of the men here do. Stephen really got the look down!

We took the soccer team to Amatti's so they could eat palachinkis. Palachinkis are thin pancakes that they fold into in a pie shape and stuff with all kinds of good things! My favorite is stuffed with Eurocream and bananas!

The soccer team had the amazing idea to pick up the large amount of trash around the soccer field, they even got the kids involved! Somehow Drew managed to get a fan club during trash pick-up!

Summer girls at the top of the fort. We took the guys site seeing this day. Let me tell you we could barely drag them away from all the shopping!! Haha!

Drew and Caleb getting brave and climbing stairs to the top of the entrance to the fort.

One of the boys at the soccer camp wanting his picture taken!

The three girls that were able to come to the soccer camp. They represented well!

All of the kids with the soccer team. The kids behind the fence are the ones that were too young/old, but still showed up everyday to watch the camp.

We had a scavenger hunt Tuesday night with our advanced class. Can you guess what word one of our students, Mckensie, and I are spelling?

The soccer team + the summer girls + the translators. We really did have a successful week!

Having a picnic in the city park with some friends. McDonalds was our picnic food of choice, our friends love it! Any time we ask where they want to eat, McDonalds is where they choose.

Us eating lunch at our neighbors' home, after lunch we watched Step Up.

Happy 4th of July

Lots has been going on in the past three days. Things have just now slowed down! Our bosses took the soccer team to Greece this afternoon after their last soccer session this morning. We are all worn out after our busiest week yet. The poor soccer team is just now recovering from jet lag from coming over and now they are fixing to head back. I don't know if I mentioned it in an earlier blog but the team we had was from Bellevue. It was a high school trip, there were 19 people on the team. They were really great! They handled every change of plans graciously and were as "fluid" as they could possibly be. Us summer girls are baby-sitting this weekend for our bosses' two oldest children who are 7 and 6. As of right now we just finished our third movie. We have all taken turns using our super power abilities to watch movies through our eye lids (as we have ensured the girls we have) so we can spread naps out. I didn't catch any of Princess Diaries 2 and Katie has been, and still is, using her powers to watch Madagascar! Our bosses' interns (who have been here almost 2 years) just invited us to eat hamburgers with them tonight for a 4th of July supper. So we are excited about that! We are fixing to make peach cobbler and cut a watermelon. We have watermelons here, they are just smaller than they are at home. We bought a pretty good sized watermelon two days ago for less than $3! Tomorrow we are going to the American Embassy's 4th of July (on the 5th) picnic. It sounds like it should be fun! We are getting real American hamburgers and hot dogs and there are rumors of Dr. Pepper and Root Beer. We are even more excited that we get to wear our American clothes, we don't have to cover knees and shoulders tomorrow. Don't worry though, I don't think any of us have short shorts and tube tops! Haha!
Later on tonight I should be able to get back on and load some pictures from this past week!
Oh yeah, thank you Bro. Teddy for letting my Daddy read my blog this week. Could you please tell Bro. Terry the web site for it. I tried several times to e-mail Mrs. Cookie and him, but it always came back. Thanks!

All is successful around here!

Last night went so well! Our speed conversations went so much better than we could have ever expected! The soccer girls helped so much! All of us were able to get at our station and each of us had a different question. All of the students were able to be by themselves. The one on one helped us get to know each other so much better! Katie's topics were so good! They loved talking about everything Katie had thought of. After class we went out to eat with the soccer girls and some of our friends. Our friends were so shy with the new girls around. They didn't want to speak English around the new girls. After eating dinner we went back to the futball field to watch the soccer boys play local teams.
We have been so excited watching our friends translate for the soccer team. (We have three guy friends translating for the soccer teams.) They are hearing so much of our Father's word this week. They have to translate everything for us. They are even hanging out with the soccer team. They translate in the morning, eat lunch with us, come to English class, and then play soccer at night with the boys. They are getting a good dose of Him this week!
Tonight our landlord and his family are opening a coffee bar. They have invited us to come and get coffee with them tonight, so hopefully we can bring the soccer girls down with us. This week has already been so much fun! I can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds!