photo: luke and isaac after their teams played each other at soccer a week and a half ago.  i'm really lovin the "upward" soccer program that luke has joined because they are emphasizing being Christlike and good sportsmanship above winning.  luke's just having a great time.

with all our traveling, we got in a couple of field trips during our first 2 weeks of school.  while visiting mark's parents in louisiana, mimi treated us to a visit to new orleans with a visit to cafe du monde for beignets and aquarium of the americas.  i hadn't been downtown since katrina.

cruising along the riverwalk

luke and lydia watch some big sharks swimming around the oil rig set up in the gulf of mexico exhibit.

at a local state park, the kids were fascinated by an animal rescue station and shelter for non-releasable animals.  below, luke enjoys feeding a pony at the petting park.

lydia broke her nose!  she and luke were running around some store racks and ran into one another last week.  her glasses pushed into her face, breaking her nose and bruising her up.  after seeing the x-ray, the doctor said there wasn't anything to do--but that it would take 6-8 weeks for it to heal up.

luke has been able to join a church soccer team--a gracious answer to prayer.  luke is able to attend most practices & games, and the league is flexible enough to not mind when he can't come. (in our small town on the mission field, he fell in love with soccer, but there were no organized teams/leagues until high school level.) 

he was so pumped about his first "real" game today that he charged out and scored the first 2 goals for his team.  he is absolutely thrilled.  

luke at a soccer practice, wearing his official "milano" club soccer costume. he bought the costume with his own money in milan a few weeks before the club won the european championships.

here is lydia doing her first week's science experiment.  she's studying potential energy, but doesn't know it (yet).  i like having her do the experiments before reading the text to raise questions in her mind.

luke and lydia working on their first day of school at aunt sarah and uncle tony's house in louisiana. 

tonight we're off to a church service where mark will be sharing about our ministry. 

WE DO PLAN TO GO BACK TO SE Europe after this year of itineration.  we plan to work with the same people group (albani#ns), but in a larger city.  there are a few options that we are praying about. 

one option is to work in a different, but nearby, balkan country where alb#nians are the minority, but still a huge presence in the capital.  there is no church there among them in their language.  it's a bit premature to give details at this point as we and others are still praying about the Lord's will.

God has been very good to us: a supporting church gave us a minivan to use for a year. it's great. after bouncing around among family for 3 weeks, visiting and having a few itineration services, we'll be moving into our own apartment.  we'll be setting up and staying for 1 week before moving on.

just returned from alban#a and another wedding.  what a privilege to see God raising up Christian families here.  it's just a trickle, but it's so awesome. 

we're packing for a year of deputation in the US.  we'll be based in AL, but with lots of road time, including both coasts and a bit in the midwest, besides extensively visiting our main support base in La & Ms.  (we're supposed to shoot for 11 services/month).  we've lived here for 4 years, in this small musl#m town, and now we're packing it all up, not to return longterm.  we'll be in the air june 1, and then traveling to visit family (while we start itinerating).  we've got our first service scheduled a week after we hit the ground. 

i always find myself anxious and penniless during major transitions such as this one.  (this is our 4th itineration cycle, so i can kinda recognize a bit of a pattern).  having finished the beth moore bible study in the sidebar: A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place, with a mish girlfriend, i felt like God impressed on me the levitical promise from numbers 18:20,

"...You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I [the Lord] am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites." (NIV)

i really like the NAS, "...I am your portion and your inheritance..." so i have taken to saying that regularly, as a prayer, whenever anxious thoughts start cluttering my mind:  "LORD, You are my portion and my inheritance!!!" what kind of shares/security/investments could be better than that???

i did super on that for about 2 weeks, then i became anxious again.  so, i made a list of all the things we would need when we get to the US and even guessed at prices. prayed over it and it came to several 1,000 dollars.  (that's without the big ticket items like a car and computer.) well, i already have had to buy a couple things from the list, and guess what?  the money has been returned to me.  for example, i needed glasses and decided to shop for some here to try to save money.  the same day, i sold some used things in my house for the same amount of money.  i didn't realize until afterwards it was the same amount. same thing happened again for stuff i had to buy for our wedding trip. so, i've decided to keep my list of things i need as a "faith" list to see how God is going to provide.  He is so good, isn't He? 

You are a very sweet joy in our home, Lydia!  I love you and hope you have a wonderful 11th birthday and year. 

Lydia's a super reader, a great crepe maker, a friend to many, a trooper of a mish, a curious scientist, an animal lover, and my sweet CUTIE!  Love, Mom

Science Lessons from Brown  

scroll to the bottom of the science lessons webpage (PSO: Providence science outreach) above to find the link for homemade ice cream in a ziplock.  it turns out like soft serve.  we did it for co-op and found the secret--lots of ice.  we didn't have quite enough for everyone to be successful  , but even those children whose final product was too soft enjoyed their "milk shake".  this is not for the faint hearted, though, as it takes 30 minutes of real shaking or flipping of the baggie set-up.  below see some tired out co-op participants.  lisa and i walked around and gave the kids short breaks by taking over for them occasionally.

a historic moment for us:  the first believers wedding for our church. he's "ours", she's from a different church a few hours away.  aren't they cute?

below is some traditional line dancing.  lisa (girlfriend!) and i had fun tearing up the danceyard.  our next believers wedding is in albania, another young man in our church is marrying someone he met there at a discipleship school.  we go to that one later in may.

note for Fifi:  i'm 5'8" (173 cm).  i'm wearing heels in the photo.

photos are from my flickr site.  but, mark took them.

LAST WEEKEND:  on saturdays, our church has a radio program going on a local station.  a young woman in our church is the announcer and dh is funding it and finding interesting christian speakers.  topics have been:      

(1) an international mish couple that adopted 2 handicapped albanian children.  (2) national pastor from the capital, a doctorate, discussed the christian history of the area.  (3) some national christian couples and a single discussed the christian view of LOVE and what it means from a Biblical perspective.  this was the most popular show, so far...  (4) medical doctor discussed the physical effects of unforgiveness (5) another pastor discussed the supposed grave of Jesus that was found

it's kind of funny because the islam#c community has "islam#c lecture" on friday afternoons.  they READ a lecture.  mark is hearing jokes in the community about people "voting" for which program they like best...

here's a photo of luke at the microphone inside the sound box.  he went with dad to the station this last sat.

on sunday, we took a bus load of people from our small town to the capital for a joint easter service.  it was completely packed out.  we did our "family" easter celebration, that included an egg hunt, the day before.  the neighbor kids came out when we were finishing, so we re-filled the plastic eggs with candy and hid them again for the neighbor kids to find. 

monday, we went to a wedding. the high school principal of a nearby town is a good friend of mark's.  his brother was visiting from germany to get married to a local girl (yes, an arranged marriage).  mark's friend wanted him to be the "flag bearer" which is the first car that leads a whole procession that goes to pick up the bride from where her family is having a party.  here's our jeep with the large flag on a pole that is held out the window by the front side passenger.  the cars are just starting to line up behind us for the procession.