Events This Month

We expected June to be a busy month, but it has already held a few surprises for us and it's only the 10th.

On the first, we had a big get-together to say goodbye to one of our families. They are returning to the US for a few months and then will transfer to a nearby country. We expect to see them occasionally whenever we have to travel for medical care (hopefully that won't be too often) but Kevin will miss having another guy his age on our team.

That same week, we had two semi-unexpected visits. One is a family who is considering moving from another country in this region to our city. Randy walked in the door with them Wednesday evening and told me that they had a turkey that needed to go in the freezer. Odd, I thought, but of course they could put their turkey in my freezer. Later I realized that it was a gift for us--a genuine all-American butterball. We feasted on that after church this Sunday with our house church group!

Our other visitors arrived in the wee morning hours on Thursday, and stayed in our home until Saturday night. They work throughout our region doing member care, making sure that workers with our company are staying sane in some of the crazy places we live. It's always a joy to have them visit, as they embody the phrase "servant leadership". They even helped us carry some boxes to our new house.

That's the other major event this month. The family that left earlier this month vacated a great house, and they began working on us months ago to move in as soon as they left. At first, we didn't consider it very seriously. Now, we're in the middle of packing. We had hoped to move by the middle of this month, but that doesn't seem likely at this point.

Yesterdy, our favorite plumber spent five hours at our house. Saturday was the third time in about as many months that our hot water heater caught on fire. It turns out that whoever originally installed it used very thin wires to connect the thermostat to the power source. As Anar was explaining the root problem, a song from one of the children's Bible verse CDs kept running through my head:

He who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. (Proverbs 18:9)

We also have plans to go on a day trip with Allen and his mother some time next week. None of the details are worked out yet, but that isn't anything unusual here. I'm sure everything will come together in good time.

Also coming up this month is Hannah Grace's birthday and our 18th wedding anniversary. With all of that going on, we've had to turn down two wedding invitations this month. Weddings here are rather different than US style weddings, and Randy wasn't too distressed about having to miss out on the fun.

As you think of us, please pray that we will be able to use our time wisely, and that our trip with Allen will be eternally fruitful. Please give thanks with us that we have found a good place to live and that we didn't have a serious fire in our current apartment.