Life continues...

Erin is now settled into school at Bryan College and seems to really be enjoying things there. She still needs to figure out how to do all she wants to do, needs to do and still be able to sleep, but that will come with time I guess. It was fun to get a phone call from her last night as we were all sitting at the supper table. She called our Skype-in number which then forwarded to my cell phone, so we were able to put it on speaker mode and all of us talk to her as we finished up supper. Technology is so much improved since I was in school!

Ministry continues at a brisk pace here in Tirana. At the AEP we are gearing up for our annual conference to be held once again in Struga, Macedonia. Lots of details have to come together to make it work well, so we are busy trying to coordinate everything. Krahët e Shqiponjës, the transitional home I am working with, is also at a busy time. After a summer in which we found out what some of our strengths and weaknesses are, we are trying to improve where we need to and build on what we did well. We also received word yesterday that one of the girls we have had in our minds and our prayers since the founding of the ministry has decided that she wants to come and live in the home! Praise God! We were able to submit the final documents necessary for our licensing as well, so things are moving along nicely. The Albanian Youth Ministry Network is also planning a weekend training retreat for this fall, so there will be some traveling to various churches around Albania to publicize that event. Now that we have a vehicle we can actually get out and make these visits!

Cindy and the kids have started back into home schooling for the year. With our "math teacher" (Erin) gone, the kids are finding things a bit different this year. Caleb is developing his musical abilities and plans to have guitar lessons and drum lessons in addition to his piano lessons from mom. Emily continues with her cello lessons and is loving it. Just today she learned another hand position so she is moving along. Cindy has well over a dozen piano students as well so between that, home schooling, worship ministry in the church, and keeping us all taken care of, she is also very busy.

Maybe someday soon I'll blog about a typical day... if I ever have a typical day. But then, that is one of the things I love about our life and ministry here. We do get lots of variety in life.