Texas

We are back in Texas now, so I have a feeling that this blog will remain lifeless for long stretches.  I have been amazed at how busy life is here.  In the month that we've been here, we've driven a couple thousand miles, Karl has replaced two transmissions and repaired Kelli's car and his parents' car, we bought a used car, Karl has done several repair projects in three different houses, we looked for and found housing, we went to Brownsville for Karl's uncle's funeral, we visited friends and family in Houston and San Antonio, we've done some much needed shopping, and Karl has begun the job hunt.  Our lives have taken a major detour from our road map, but we have switched maps and are following this new one that the Lord has given us!

We are amazed by the Lord's continual provision and hand on all that is going on.  We praise Him!

If you don't see anything new on here for a while, just know that I'm busy living our Texas life.  And continuing to be joyful about it!    

Aches and Pains

Karl has a pinched nerve in his neck.  And it's a pain in the neck for me, too!  :)  He's been in pain for almost three weeks now.  He's seen several doctors, but none has been able to alleviate the pain!  He's had an ultrasound, massage, laser therapy, freezing therapy, electric shock therapy, ultraviolet ray therapy, medicines, and more.  The latest doctor says it is degeneration in the vertebrae in his neck, with two bones touching.  Now he has to wear a neck brace to try to help, as well as to continue with therapy.  I went by his physical therapist yesterday to reschedule his appointment, and they had a poster on the wall saying they were certified to do a "hot chocolate therapy" where they pour hot chocolate on your back.  Maybe he should try that!!

When I googled "Hot Chocolate Body Treatments," there were over 3 million results.  This is the new thing at spas, apparently.  All of the goodness, none of the guilt?  (Although I really never feel guilt when I eat chocolate!)  I'm just not too sure about having chocolate poured over me.  I can't stand it when I get a little on my chin or leave a little smudge around my mouth!  I can't imagine having it on my back.  Hmmmm....

And Scott has been fighting ear infections over the past week.  I took him to the doctor on Monday, and he immediately began the standard treatment of penicillin injections every day for five days.  Fun!  What's even more fun is the entire process.  We went to a private doctor, but he sent us to the public health clinic for them to give Scott the shots.  First, we had to go to the pharmacy to buy the penicillin and other meds.  Then we went to the clinic.  Thankfully, our friends Nena and Jovana were with us.  Nena used to be a nurse, so we were hoping that she would be able to navigate the system better.  It's not a problem for adults - Karl had the same thing earlier in the summer and had no problems.  But when kids are involved - different story.  So, we went to the main office, they sent us to the children's building.  After explaining over and over that we had gone to a private clinic and needed someone to administer the shots, they sent Nena to the DENTIST office to pay a fee.  Why the dentist office is involved in this, I have no idea.  It's not really the dentist, though, it's just the name of the office that is in charge of the billing for all of the medical procedures including dentistry.  So, she paid for that, and Scott got his first day's shots.  What was really funny was the nurse who was giving the shot talked nonstop and hardly even looked at Scott's rear when she gave him the shots - just stick and go!  But on the third day, Scott had a different nurse who asked him a million times "Does it hurt?  Does it hurt?" and gave him the shots slower than anything I've ever seen before.  She stuck the needle in then took about a minute to inject the medicine, all the while asking him if it hurt.  I wanted to reach over and just finish giving him the shots!  Ironically, Scott said that those hurt the worst!  Thankfully, the last two days we were back to the fastest shot in the west!  :)  And on the last day, I had to do more running to the dentist office to pay another fee, so I wasn't with Scott when he had his last injections.  Unfortunately, Scott didn't hold the gauze on the spots long enough after the shots, so when we were ready to go, he realized that he had two big blood stains on the bottom of his shirt, one on each side!  Well, battle wounds, I guess.

Unfortunately, the penicillin didn't help.  We went back to the doctor for a follow-up, and he still has infected ears as well as a cyst in the canal.  We were sent to a specialist at the hospital.  Scott is leaving for Germany on Monday (flying!), so the doctor didn't have time to really do any treatment.  He gave Scott a prescription for antibiotic ear drops and told him to see a doctor in Germany.  So, that's the plan for now.  Please pray for healing before Monday!  Please pray for no pain during the flight.  And please pray for good treatment in Germany.  Thanks!

I had an enlarged thyroid (and all the symptoms of hyperthyroidism) as well, but, thankfully, my bloodwork came back fine, so the doctor thinks it was just an infection and will just watch it over the next few months.  I'm already feeling better.  And so we go on.  And I may just have to check out that hot chocolate body treatment after all of this is over...

Busy summer...

So it's been over a month since my last post.  Well, I've been a bit busy!  Busy enjoying my kids, traveling, working, playing, etc.!  Here are a few pics of the last month:

When Kurt and Macy arrived, we had some friends over (including Ziza, pictured) 

Scott got out his remote controlled helicopter that Kurt brought for him. (Thanks, again, Kurt!) 

Scott made a cool domino track.  Fun watching it all fall!  

Made a cherry pie and enjoyed just being all together around the table!  

Went to Budva, Montenegro, our favorite seaside place.  Even took our summer intern with us!  

Got to swim in a cave while in Montenegro!  So much fun!

Family pic (plus Griffin) in front of Sveti Stefan, Montenegro.  

Went to Kosidba na Rajcu - grass cutting festival that we enjoy going to each year.  

Went to Philippi in Greece.  Got to see the place where Paul and Silas were imprisoned (according to tradition).  

 

Went to Delphi (one of our favorite ancient sites)!  

It's been a great summer!  I am full of joy!!!!

Blogging in my head

Wish you could see the posts that I've blogged in my head over the past week or so.  They'd include such topics as:

Commercial dishwasher installation at camp... 

Goofing off with Griffin....

Friends and ping-pong tournament....

Amy's birthday celebration and Cirque du Soleil (but no pics allowed!)....

In the midst of it all, we've been battling the heat and mosquitos.  Hopefully the mosquito battle is over now that I got screens put up on the windows!  :)  Busy, fun times.  Gotta love summer!

The days after "Yesterday"

Ok, so I really need to start my posts with "recently" instead of "yesterday."  It's been quite a few "yesterdays" since my last post.  Since Madrid, we've done a ton of work at camp, our summer college intern arrived, I went to London to see my sister and her family on their way to South Africa, Kelli and Scott arrived, and we did more work at camp!

Guess the real theme for the past few days, weeks, months has been all the work at camp.  It looks so great!  There's a new bunkhouse, a new-to-camp commercial dishwasher, and so much more!  We are so thankful that the dishwasher works - it will be such a blessing during camps this summer!!  Thank you, Lord!

Please pray for the camps - 8 weeks this summer.  Pray for all who will attend, that the Lord will speak to each one.  Pray for the teachers, staff, and campers.  Pray for safety.

I'll update again soon.  I'm exhausted from long days working at camp....

Madrid

Yesterday I returned from a trip to Madrid for a language coach training.  We learned PILAT, which is a very effective way of learning a language.  In fact, we learned quite a bit of French in just two days!  It's so great to be able to say, "Hier je suis allé à la banque en bateau" (Yesterday I went to the bank by boat.)  :)  Actually, we learned pronouns, four rooms of a house, four locations, four action verbs (present and past tense), three modes of transportation, and times (last night, yesterday, the day before yesterday).  All in two days.  I look forward to teaching this method to others in the future!  It works!

While we were in Mardrid, our wonderful hosts, Dwight and Mara, took us to see the sights around Madrid.  We spent one evening in their town, Alcala, where Cervantes was born.  As an English major who spent a lot of time reading and analyzing Don Quixote, I was excited to be there!  Here I am with the chivalrous windmill slayer!  

  

Here's a pic of us in the plaza in Alcala near the statue of Cervantes.  

Another evening we went to visit other places around their town, including seeing the world's smallest bullfighting ring.  Then we went to a place called Europa Park that is a lovely park full of replicas of famous landmarks found in cities across Europe.  We saw the Eiffel Tower, the London Bridge, the Brandenburg Gate, and Michelangelo's David.  Click here to read more about this great park.  

Thursday evening we went into Madrid.  We walked around the Plaza Mayor, had dinner in a quaint restaurant, walked around the Puerta del Sol, then went to the Chocolateria San Gines and enjoyed dipping the delicious churros in hot chocolate.  Yummy!  

Training and tourism!  Great match!  Most of all, I enjoyed the fellowship of friends and colleagues.  Came home full of joy!

Catching Up

The busyness continues....

Karl had a group of volunteers out at camp last week, and they were able to complete the roof on the bunkhouse (two-room building for bunkbeds).  It was a lot of work, but looks fantastic!

I was busy during the week with reports, budgets, seeing friends, meetings, house stuff, and I don't remember what else!  All I know is that I fell asleep quite quickly each night.

On Friday I went to Sofia, Bulgaria to meet with some colleagues.  I had a great time visiting with them, talking about language learning, and just laughing together!  We all went to the Sofia zoo on Saturday and had a blast!  It's huge - 89 acres - and has everything you would expect at a zoo.  We enjoyed the sunshine, the animals, and the fellowship.  Then we went to Ikea for lunch and shopping.  That evening I had dinner at the mall food court with my dear friend, Glenda.  What an encouragement it was to spend time with her!  I'm so thankful for my friends!!

I headed back home on Sunday after a late night of talking.  Karl picked me up and took me to a late lunch.  We realized sometime during the lunch that it was Mother's Day.  We had both forgotten.  That's what happens without all of the marketing around!  :)  We went home, and all of the conditions were right for a good Sunday nap - rainy weather, Sunday, Mother's Day, just returning from a 7 hour bus trip, etc.  I fell sound asleep.  Kurt and Kelli called about 10 minutes after I had fallen asleep to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.  Thankfully, they agreed to call back later that evening!  :)  I ended up taking a 3 hour nap!  At 7pm, we figured it would be best to get up for a few hours before going back to sleep for the night.  We talked with Kelli again, got an email from Scott and ended the day.

The adventures continue!  I'm so grateful for family, friends, and my Lord who give me JOY!

A Getaway

The past month was very busy, especially for Karl.  He was working so hard at camp - renovating the mlekara (milk shed), leveling the field, and tearing down one of the buildings and helping to rebuild it.  Lots of physical work, along with meeting with suppliers, vendors, laborers and neighbors.  Add to this Bible studies, time with Scott when he was home on Spring Break, and other times with friends.  And somewhere in there, he had administrative stuff and car maintenance stuff (changing winter tires to summer tires, getting a flat fixed, buying a new tire because I hit a stump and it blew, getting the car washed, changing the shocks on the car, etc.).  We also had two trips to Belgrade - one to take Scott to the airport to go back to Germany and one for a team meeting.  Are you tired yet?

So, on Monday, Karl saw that Tuesday was a holiday (May Day), so he wanted to take a break!  He called me about 10:30 and said that we were going away for two nights!  We went to Sarajevo, about 4 hours away from us.  We found a hotel when we got there - Hotel Hollywood (complete with James Dean poster in our room).  We slept late on Tuesday.  I'm not sure the last time that Karl slept later than 7am; he's always up by around 6.  Then we went to the waterpark that was right by the hotel.  So relaxing and enjoyable!  The temp outside was in the 80s, so it was perfect!  Unfortunately, we both got sunburned (forgot the sunscreen in the car and were just too lazy to go back to get it!).  But, we had a great time!  Around 2 we decided we just wanted to take a nap, so we went back to the hotel and slept for a couple of hours.  We really needed to just sleep!  I'm so glad that Karl was able to really rest.

That evening we went into Sarajevo to meet some friends for ice cream.  It was so great to walk around the old town with them, seeing historical sites such as the Latin Bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, which started WWI.  Although we've been to Sarajevo several times, we've never gone by that site.  But certainly the best part was the time with our friends!

Wednesday morning, we got up and started the trip home.  We stopped in Visegrad to see the Bridge on the Drina.  This bridge was built in the 1570s and is beautiful!  Then we went on to Mokra Gora where we rode the train up the mountain on the Sargan 8 (you'll have to look it up! It's really cool!).  We had a really great time, enjoying the beauty of the day.  To see pictures of our trip, click here.

We got home about 5:30pm, and, well, the world hit again!  Work was put off for a day or two, but it has to be done!  Karl has supplies to get to get the building roofed, we have reports due, we have people to see, things to do!  But we are so grateful that we had the time to get away for May Day!  It certainly brought us joy!

Sympathy Funk!

The past few days have not been the best.  I've been in this funk - near tears, exhausted, even having  a migraine headache yesterday.  Not been a fun start to the week to say the least.

After talking with the kiddos, I think I've figured it out!  I'm in a sympathy funk!  Yep, I am feeling the funk that my kids are feeling.  It's the end of the school year, and they are sick of school!  I remember that, which is maybe why I've slipped into this yuck of not wanting to do anything, getting frustrated by the smallest thing, etc.  Just a theory.

Recently I saw a video about emotions.  The lady was talking about how good emotions are because they are signals to our bodies for different reasons.  She said that when we are sad, our bodies are telling us that we need to take a break, to slow down.  That really resonated with me since Monday I was just sad and couldn't figure out why.  Last week was a very busy and packed week for me including lots of travel, stressful situations, physically demanding times, emotionally difficult moments, and more.  My body was exhausted, and it came out as sadness.  On Tuesday, that turned into a migraine headache.  So what did I do?  I slept.  And slept. And rested.

And the sun is coming out again.  My kids will finish school, and we'll have a great time together this summer!  My week is not so busy this week, so I have the opportunity to rest and re-energize.  And I'm giving thanks. 

Language Exam

On Wednesday, I went to Belgrade to take a language exam.  It was suggested to me to do this to not only get an assessment of my proficiency, but also to evaluate the system that we are using.

I went with great trepidation because it had been more than five years since my last exam.  And that last exam was only an oral exam, not written!  I wasn't nervous about the spoken part - I speak every day and feel pretty confident, even though I know I make mistakes.  But a written test, focused on grammar?  Not so confident.

The people at the language school were wonderful!  It was really cool to learn that one man is an Aggie, too!  And it was good to see others whom I met in other places, but who now work there.  Everyone was very friendly, and we had a great time just talking.

Then it was time for the exam.  I went in the room with Mila, whom I have heard so much about since she is the teacher for several of my teammates.  She's wonderful!  We had a great time talking, laughing, and getting to know one another.  That was the easy part of the test!  :)  She then handed me the written part.  Which was more difficult.  Why didn't I study more?  I think if I had been taking classes, it would've been much easier, but it's been so long since I studied grammar.  I just speak it!

Well, I scored 80% on my written test for Level 8 (out of 10), so I was extremely pleased!  I'll take that any day!  It's over, and for that I am very thankful.  I was also so pleased with the entire process for evaluation and believe that they are very knowledgeable about assessing language proficiency.  So we will continue to use their services.

Hooray!

Going to Dad's House

I recently had a dream.

I was at my Dad's house (but it didn't look a thing like my Dad's house).  Karl and Scott were with me.  There was a knock on the door, and a group of young people stood on the porch.  They said they came to help, as we requested.  So, we let them in.  We were talking and getting to know them. They sat in chairs and talked, talked, talked, all the while looking at their own belongings.  Occasionally, one would hop out of their chair and run to something in the room, squealing and pointing and talking about how that looked like something from their home.  Then, they all started roughhousing and playing games with each other.  One of the girls opened a large door to run in and hide.  It was a cabinet that was full of delicate crystal and other breakables.  The girl just tromped through, breaking things along the way.  She came out, giggling, but also apologizing.  I looked in and saw some of my Mom's antiques and fragile belongings.  I went to begin cleaning it all up, with tears in my eyes, not for the physical loss, but for the loss of something that belonged to my Mom, who died years ago.  The girl was already on the other side of the room, laughing and talking with someone else.  Dad just silently helped clean it up with tears in his eyes.

Then, we offered them something to eat.  They quickly gobbled up all that we had and asked for more.  We had to tell them that this was all that we had, but that we were working on getting more.  We told them of things that they could help us do around the house.  They got started on some jobs, but then asked why Dad had some things like he did, why he didn't have more of this or less of that.  They asked why the house wasn't like houses where they lived.  They quickly lost interest in the jobs they were doing, and only half-completed the work.

Then I woke up.

It was a strange dream, and really made me sad.  Right before going to sleep, I had been working on updating our volunteer orientation manual.

It makes me sad to think that there are sometimes teams that go to areas and do more damage than good.  We've only had that experience a couple of times in eleven years.  But it does happen.  Unless we are servants wherever we go.  Unless we think more about the people, culture, and history of the place than we do about ourselves.  Unless we strive to show genuine love.  Love, which means thinking more about someone else than we do about ourselves.  Love and respect.  Respecting God's house - which is not a church, but all of the people on the earth, their countries, their histories.  And what God is already doing in and among them.  

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,
As Thou has been, thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see!
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided,
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!


Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above;
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own great presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

Thomas Chisolm (1866-1960)

Tired...

I'm tired...

March was a really busy month.  Between volunteers, conference in Budapest (along with more than 12 hours of travel each way), normal every day stuff, I'm tired...

And Karl, the Energizer Bunny, just keeps going and going.  Ok, he did crash last night around 5:30 when he got home.  Thankfully, Scott is home and is helping him work.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch up on computer work - reports, letters, translations, updates, etc.  Then I really need to catch up on cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc.

Think it'll be an early night tonight.  Praying for energy to make it until a decent bedtime.  6:30 pm is just too early....even for me.

Language Coach Conference

Last week I had the privilege of being among some amazing people - language coaches!  We were in the presence of greatness at this conference - Lonna Dickerson from the ICCT at Wheaton College, David Broersma, also of ICCT, and my supervisor, Sarah Perkins.  All three have extensive knowledge, wisdom and experience with helping others to learn languages.  Not only was it a great conference with tons of helpful info, but it was also very interactive as we were all sharing ideas for helping our colleagues learn language.  One thing is very clear - learning a second (or third, fourth...) language is one of the most difficult things that one can ever do!!! It is hard!!!  And anyone who says it isn't is lying!!!  :)

One thing that was discussed was the difference between training and education for our learners.  We want our learners to understand that we can train them to do certain things, but that they must "buy into" the "why" behind learning language if they want to experience success.  That "why" keeps you going when it gets so hard, when you struggle to remember that word or phrase, when you feel like throwing in the towel.  To help us understand the difference between training in learning a language and getting an education in the "why" of it is best illustrated by this video (enjoy!):

Mom

Mom and I 

Twenty-one years ago today, I was sitting beside my mom's bed with my Aunt Virginia, holding my mom's hand, telling her that it was OK for her to go on to Jesus.  That memory is burned into my head.  I watched her breathing slow down until she just didn't take another breath.  Aunt Virginia and I looked at the hospice nurse, who just nodded her head.  Mom was gone.

It was all so peaceful.  Earlier in the day, a couple of friends had come over to say goodbye to Mom, including our dear friend Herb Fortenberry, who sang some of Mom's favorite songs.  Dad had been there, but not knowing how long Mom would be with us, left to go to the radio station to make some broadcasts.  I really believe that Mom waited until he left before she could completely let go.  Their love was so strong.  She just couldn't leave him.

Mom had been sick for 18 years with Cushing's Disease.  It took almost five years of suffering before she even got a diagnosis.  Once she had that, she underwent treatment at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, including brain surgery and experimental treatments for this incurable disease.  We are so grateful for the incredible care that she received there.  Because of what they learned from Mom's case, Cushing's Disease is completely treatable today.

In 1982, my sister and I were Christmas shopping with her when she suffered a major stroke.  I was 12 and Rach was 10.  We were terribly frightened.  The stroke left Mom paralyzed on her left side.  For the next 8 years, Mom's sidekicks were Esmeralda (her wheelchair) and Fred (her walker).  Through all of the difficult times, humor and God's grace kept us going.

I'll never forget the incredible love poured on our family by our church family.  Meals, visits, special outings for us kids, prayers, and so much more became the norm.  This is what the body of Christ is all about.  They carried us during those years.

The ache is still there.  The hole is still there.  But there is hope!  Because of Jesus, I know I will see Mom again.  We will run and laugh and hug and sing and praise God together!

Dad, Mark, Rach, Virginia, Don, Val and Gayle - I love you.  Thinking of you today, too.  I'm so thankful for our family.

Guitar - a little pain, a little praise

I have wanted to learn to play the guitar for years.  My brother plays so well, and I always admired that.  I have so many Serb friends who know how to play, and I've always admired that.  So, last week, I pulled out our guitar.  Enough admiring - time to learn to play!

I found a website that taught me to tune the guitar, including a cool app that gave each note.  Easy!  So, I successfully managed to tune the guitar.  Then I found a website for basic lessons.  Here we go!  I copied what the teacher did, and then tears began forming in my eye s as my fingers burned in pain!!  Our guitar has metal strings, not nylon, so they dig into the skin on my fingers!!!!  OUCH!

Well, I've kept with it, trying to play for 15 minutes a day at least.  That was pure torture the first few days, but now I can play for 15 minutes without stopping much, and I do that several times a day.  It does still hurt, but it is getting better.  Thankfully!!  I know that those callouses will form, and it won't hurt, eventually, but I'm not quite there yet.  But, I am persevering!  :)

I've found a couple of songs to practice: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and "He is Lord."  These songs have 3 chords - D, A and G, so I work on those.  In the next couple of days I'll learn a few more chords and find songs with those notes.  I find practice much easier when I'm playing an actual song instead of just playing random chords.  The practice time goes by much faster if I play and sing!

Wish me luck!  Maybe in a few weeks we'll be able to sing some praise songs in house church accompanied by guitar!!  :)  

Learning. Always learning.

Last week was a busy week.  A good one.  Not to say that there weren't rough patches here and there, but overall good.  And the reason for that is because God is in control, and all things work together for good.  I believe that.  There may be things we don't like or struggle with, but it is all part of God teaching us to look to Him and only to Him.  I'm learning.  Always learning.

God has been teaching me so much.  I'm doing the 3650 Bible reading plan this year - 10 chapters a day (one chapter from 10 different parts of the Bible).  (check out 10chaptersaday.com).  It's been so great to read from so many different parts but to have them all weave together.  I love that about God's Word - how it is living and active, yet also so connected.  All from the Author of life itself!  I've read through the Bible many times, front to back, chronologically, etc., but this was the first time I've done it this way, reading from different sections at the same time.  I always avoided plans like that in the past because I didn't think my brain could handle it.  Well, it can!  And I love to see how all of Scripture is woven together and all points to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith! Praise the Lord!

Great Lent starts here in Serbia tomorrow.  Most of my friends don't follow this tradition of fasting, but a few do.  I continue to learn more about Orthodox traditions.  And while I don't agree with all of them, I do see value and much good in those that so clearly point to Jesus.  So I respect those who fast and observe Great Lent in the Orthodox tradition, and join with them in fasting and focusing on Jesus, although slightly different than they do.  I recently read a blog about fasting, about subtracting something from our lives in order to add more of Jesus.  I loved that!  Join me and millions of others who will be giving up, subtracting, in order to be filled up by Jesus!!

I'm also learning more and more how greatly the Lord has blessed us with our kids.  What joy they bring to my heart!  My heart just bursts with love for them.  I'm so thankful each time they call or we happen to catch them by phone or email.  They are all busy with their own lives, but we are still connected.  And I love that.  The miles just disappear and the smiles appear when I see an email from Kelli or see Kurt's number on caller ID or when Scott answers the phone at the dorm (you never know who will answer in a house of 30!).  Some of the blessings of this past week:  Kelli got a job as a waitress and started dressage lessons again, Kurt survived an extremely busy week of helping with an international food fair and counseling conference plus school and work, Scott went skiing and did really well on a test!  Love those kids and can't wait for them to be here with us for the summer!

More than anything, I am continuing to learn that this is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.  Whatever it brings, I will rejoice.  And I will do all I can to point to the Lord, the One who sustains me, who loves me, who created me, who gives me life, hope, joy, strength, comfort, and love.  

Find Brian Shipley

Last Tuesday Kurt called me, quite distressed.  His close friend from high school, Brian, was missing. He left his house Monday evening, and no one could find him.  He has now been missing for a week. Please join us in praying for Brian, for his parents Greg and Cheryl, for his friends.  My heart is so heavy for the family and friends.  I can't even imagine the pain, worry, and questions that are surrounding them right now.  Pray for God to be glorified in this situation.

Please help pass along this information!  You can also go to http://findshipley.com or follow on Twitter: #findshipley.  Thanks.

Happy Birthday, Karl!

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!  It's cool, we've been married for half of his life.  I love that.  I can't even imagine life without him.  There are times that we have to be apart, for conferences, meetings, and such, and we count the days, hours, and minutes until we are back together again.  Sappy, I know, but true!  

I love that we can just sit together in the same room, each working on our own things, but that there is still a connection.  In fact, he'll often Skype me (I'm 3 feet away from him), just to say, "I love you," and put several funny emoticons.  Hearts tend to be his favorite ones.

I love his ingenuity - like recently using the leaf blower to get the snow off the car.  He's been clearing off the car and the driveway every day since the snow began more than two weeks ago.  So apparently, doing the job with the brush and shovel got too monotonous, so he decided to add an element of fun!  It was fun to watch the snow go flying!  Never a dull moment with Karl!

I love his passion for serving.  And his creativity and resourcefulness in doing so.  Currently he's helping Darko with plans for renovations and new buildings at camp.  He found a computer program online, but it's very expensive.  So he called the company to see if they give discounts for non-profit work.  I'm not sure that I would've even thought of that!  We're praying that the company will give a discount and help camp put funds directly into the renovations and buildings.  He serves me every day in simple yet meaningful ways - he cooks the bacon so it won't pop on me and burn me.  He often does the dishes.  He brings me chocolate.  :)

He loves his kids and would drop everything for them (and has!).  He spent two weeks in January in Texas repairing vehicles - one that was written off as totaled and headed for the junkyard.  But he fixed it!  And I know one college student who is so thankful to have her car back!  :)

I'm so thankful for my best friend, my companion, my lover, my everything this side of heaven.  God gave me a wonderful gift.  Thank you, Lord, for Karl.  Happy Birthday, Honey!  

Getting Out!

Well, today it was finally NOT snowing, the sun was shining, and we HAD to get out of the house!  So where did we go?  To the POOL!!  :)  It's been a couple of months since I've been swimming, and now that the roads were clear, we packed up our stuff and went.  It was amazing to see all of the snow and ice on the way there and back.  Below are some pics.

Boy, did it feel good to swim again!  After doing about 10 laps (there and back), I was loosened up.  So I tried it.  And I did it!  I swam a length of butterfly! (25m)  I had tried a few times before to swim an entire length of fly, but just ran out umph before I reached the wall.  But this time, I made it all the way to the wall! Woo-hoo!!  My goal is to swim at least 50m of fly before the summer - non-stop!

The winter weather continues, with the temperature expected to fall to -15F tonight.  You read that correctly - 15 degrees below zero Fahrenheit!!  Ugh!  Well, I'm thankful that we're going to get to have Bible study before the great fall in temps.  We've had to put it off because of sickness and the weather (and not cleared roads).  Miss my gals!

We're extremely grateful for a warm house.  We also stocked up at the grocery store today - forecast shows more snow for almost another week.  But, they did get the roads cleared well today, so hopefully that will help.

Enjoy the pics!

This is a lake, not a field!  

Again, frozen lake!!

River house turned ice hut!

Icy river!

Bridge to Ovcar Banja

Where I swim

See, I did swim!

Karl just relaxed in the warm water

Icicles hanging on the windows

Icicles viewed from outside

See that thing sticking out on the left side?  That's a pier out over the river!

Our street

Our house.

Getting a pretty good pile of snow there..  And we can still access the mailbox!

Evidence that the neighborhood strays do come looking  at our trash can!  :)

Thanks for praying for Eastern Europe and Serbia.  We'd love to see some warmer temps!!  Maybe in March.  

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

Winter has hit Serbia (and all of Eastern Europe) very hard.  There have been six deaths in Serbia, but over 150 so far in Eastern Europe.  Ukraine has been hit hardest, with over 100 deaths.  Twenty three municipalities/counties in Serbia have declared a state of emergency, with over 11,000 people trapped in villages because of the high snow.  Please, please pray for the people of Eastern Europe!  Temperatures have been well below freezing for over a week, and the forecast calls for more of the same (with more snowfall) through next Wednesday.  We are thankful for a warm house and not horrible conditions.  Again, please pray.

Here are some pics of the snow here:

People still get out and brave the cold and snow!