At home in Slovenia

For quite a while now we have been pursuing a home of our own here in Slovenia. It's been a roller coaster ride but one that we've stood in line for with the Lord and so when He got on we climbed in behind him. Many days we aren't sure of how this will specifically play out but we are trusting Him and learning so much about actions motivated by faith. If you're interested in more info you can click on our house blog. The link is in the side bar on this blog.

Kathy Codanti: Lady of obedience and faith

This is a shot of Kendra and my dear friend Kathy Codanti. She and I have been friends since grade school. Over the years she has prayed, visited, served at english camps and just generally been a real encouragement and support. Over a year ago Kathy felt God calling her to invest even more of her life in Slovenia and the students here. So she got in touch with Josh and said, "I have no idea how this can possibly happen but I gotta obey and see if God wants to open the doors."
And that's just what happened! Kathy's job gave her a leave of absence for a year, people jumped on her support team and the Lord made a way for Kathy to serve here in Slovenia with us for the past 11 months.

Last week we said goodbye. There were tears and thankyous. Stories about ways she'd blessed the team as well as students that she loved, prayed for, taught and drove around! When Josh summed everything up at the end of our sharing time he mentioned that he really believed that a statement she had made in their evaluation time was true. When they asked her how she felt about her time here she said, "I think I did everything that God asked me to do while I was here." We were able to give a loud affirmation of that!

What a woman of obedience and faith! And Josh's second comment was that he sensed the Lord's pleasure because she did obey in faith every step of the way.
We love you Kathy and miss you deeply!

Night out at the Opera

One of our gifts to Steve was a night out at the Opera followed by a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here. We went to see the Merry Widow and it was such a fun night. Unfortunately the Opera House itself is under construction so while we were in a very nice building I missed feeling like Mr. Darcy was sitting in the next compartment.
It was also a monumental night because it was the first time we had Blake babysit. They did a divide and conquer campaign. Rebecca had responsiblity for Luke and Blake had responsiblity for everyone. There was the one time that Rebecca called during dinner to say that Luka was refusing to go to sleep unless they meet his demands. That was quickly solved by Dad a.k.a the Baby Whisperer. They put Luke on the phone and Josh told him to obey the girls and go to sleep. When I called to check in 15 minutes later Kendra said, "oh yeah he went right to sleep after he talked to Dad." We came home to happy kids and felt very proud of them!