It's June Already?

Some of you are probably wondering if I forgot that I had a blog.  Well, I didn’t, I have just not gotten around to writing on it lately.

If you have been able to see any international news, you may have seen that Greece recently had an election in which no single party was strong enough to form a government.  There  were several days of talks between the various parties with several attempts at forming a coalition government, but they all failed to do so, and now new elections have been called for mid-June.  Without going into a whole lot of detail, people are angry at the way the previous government tried to deal with the economic crisis so they voted for their opponents. These opponents are also opposed to the terms of the bailout that have been dictated by the stronger governments in Europe and have caused a lot of grief for people in Greece.  What this has led to is a general uncertainty about whether Greece should or will stay in the “Eurozone” – the large bloc of countries currently using the Euro as their currency. 

While all of this gets sorted out , we are hoping to get a US based 501c3 (charity) set up so that we have a structure over us to receive donations and to keep us clear in the eyes of the governments involved.  As mentioned previously, we will be calling our organization “The 631 Solution” in reference to Jesus’ words to his disciples in Mark 6:31.  Please be praying with us as we seek to get this set up this summer. We’d really like to have it in place by the end of the summer.

We are continuing to work here in Tirana – Matt at AEP and Cindy in the home.  We are thrilled to have Erin home with us for the summer.  Her college requires students to do an internship before graduation and God opened doors for her to do hers here.  She is working this summer as a volunteer intern with World Vision, and it is giving her some great opportunities!  So far she loves it.  Caleb is currently in the US working at Winshape Camps in Georgia.  He was chosen to be on their worship team all summer.  So far he is playing keyboard and some electric guitar, but he told us he will also play back-up for several instruments as needed.  Emily is relishing her last few weeks here in Albania before heading back to Tennessee to start college in August.  By August 3^rd, Cindy and I will be “empty nesters”, so there are more big changes ahead for us as well.

We do appreciate your prayers as we move forward from here.  Sometimes the pace seems glacial, but we are trusting that God has a purpose in everything.  Oh – one last thing.  We have two Albanian “daughters” that will be getting married this summer.  We have started doing some premarital counseling with one of them and will start with the second one soon.  Would you pray for us as we try to help these two young couples get off to a good start, and then as we participate in the weddings later this summer?