Once again, I've been more than a month remiss in writing a blog...and so much has happened in the month!
To begin, a friend from the States was here all of August to hold babies and go to the baby orphanage with us. To be honest, there really wasn't a whole lot going in August in terms of being here for a "mission trip". Ukraine kind of shuts down in August. Families go on extended vacation to the Sea and to other cool places. A lot of my regular "contacts", the Ukrainians I work with and rely on to translate and get me in and out of jams, were on vacation leaving Amy and I to fend for ourselves.
In addition to that I spent the last week and a half of August near Stuttgart, Germany at a retreat/conference with many of the International Teams workers in Europe. The conference itself wasn't quite restful enough to be a "retreat" and maybe not "meaty" enough to be the kind of conference that exploded my brain and sent me home telling everyone that I learned "so much"... but it was nice. The highlight was getting to visit with some of the friends I made in Chicago back in 2011 during our initial Access Training with ITeams. They are serving in England, Spain, Rome...and I got to meet workers in maybe 10 other countries. It was exciting to learn about their ministries.
At the conclusion of the conference I rented a car and spent 3 days in the Alps. I love mountains and I got to spend a few days not only being in the mountains of Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and France... but I got to DRIVE. A Stickshift! In the Alps! I hit it perfectly- cool weather, NO CROWDS at all. Just me and some of the finest mountain roads I've ever seen.
Another highlight was that my sweet friend Thuy from St Louis (originally from Long Beach, MS and formerly a kid in my youth group in Gulfport) was in Geneva on business and I was able to spend Sunday morning with her. What a treat!
Finally, I returned home a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to get caught up on some rest and get back into a routine. I'm trying to put more effort into language study. I really want to whittle down my weekly schedule to just my obligations at church and language study...with at least a day a week either at the baby orphanage or the baby hospital and of course my IT obligations.
I have another blog in me...about going to the 2014 Winter Olympics but I think I'll wait a few days before I write it.
To begin, a friend from the States was here all of August to hold babies and go to the baby orphanage with us. To be honest, there really wasn't a whole lot going in August in terms of being here for a "mission trip". Ukraine kind of shuts down in August. Families go on extended vacation to the Sea and to other cool places. A lot of my regular "contacts", the Ukrainians I work with and rely on to translate and get me in and out of jams, were on vacation leaving Amy and I to fend for ourselves.
In addition to that I spent the last week and a half of August near Stuttgart, Germany at a retreat/conference with many of the International Teams workers in Europe. The conference itself wasn't quite restful enough to be a "retreat" and maybe not "meaty" enough to be the kind of conference that exploded my brain and sent me home telling everyone that I learned "so much"... but it was nice. The highlight was getting to visit with some of the friends I made in Chicago back in 2011 during our initial Access Training with ITeams. They are serving in England, Spain, Rome...and I got to meet workers in maybe 10 other countries. It was exciting to learn about their ministries.
At the conclusion of the conference I rented a car and spent 3 days in the Alps. I love mountains and I got to spend a few days not only being in the mountains of Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and France... but I got to DRIVE. A Stickshift! In the Alps! I hit it perfectly- cool weather, NO CROWDS at all. Just me and some of the finest mountain roads I've ever seen.
Another highlight was that my sweet friend Thuy from St Louis (originally from Long Beach, MS and formerly a kid in my youth group in Gulfport) was in Geneva on business and I was able to spend Sunday morning with her. What a treat!
Finally, I returned home a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to get caught up on some rest and get back into a routine. I'm trying to put more effort into language study. I really want to whittle down my weekly schedule to just my obligations at church and language study...with at least a day a week either at the baby orphanage or the baby hospital and of course my IT obligations.
I have another blog in me...about going to the 2014 Winter Olympics but I think I'll wait a few days before I write it.
1 comment:
So glad you got to drive in the Alps, bet that was phenomenal!! And so glad you got to spend time with Thuy!! I know you both enjoyed that tremendously! Can hardly wait to hear what's going on with the Olympics thing! Hope you get to be part of it!!
Post a Comment