We're in Nowhere, North Carolina!

Wow, what a whirlwind. After returning home from our travels in Europe, we spent two days at home. Yes, sadly, only two days. I can’t tell you how good our own bed felt at traveling for so long and staying in so many different places. We basically had time to unpack, do laundry, see some friends, and repack. It hasn’t necessarily been the 2 most relaxing days.

On Thursday, we drove 12 hours to Union Mills, North Carolina, to the Center for Intercultural Training. [Sidenote: we cannot say a big enough “THANK YOU!!” to Justin’s parents for helping us in preparing for leave for NC. For the groceries in our home when we returned from Albania, for filling up our gas tank, helping us pack the car at 6:30am, and for the donuts, coffee, and chocolate milk for the road. We are so blessed! So THANK YOU, Mom and Dad Hall!!!]

Here we are just starting out on our journey to NC. Don’t we look so excited to have another 12 hours traveling?



Okay, where was I?...We will be taking two classes here… “Equipping for Cross Cultural Life and Ministry” and “Language Acquisition”. We’re not actually taking any Albanian language course...we’re just learning how to learn a foreign language. Tools to put in our toolbox ☺ We’re not sure we’re mentally or physically ready for 5 weeks of homework, papers, research, and studying, but we know that God will give us the strength and persistence. And the motivation. We know that we need this training for our departure for Albania and that the things we learn will be greatly helpful in our transition to life in a different culture.

We have now been here for ½ of one day. Orientation goes all day but we have an hour break right now. There are about 10-12 other couples/singles/families here for training. And it has been so cool to meet some of them and find out what country they will be serving in, what they will be doing, etc. Please pray that we would be able to form good and lasting friendships here. This morning, in our group devotional, we were each asked to write down 2 areas of our lives that we know we need to develop and grow these next 6 weeks. Independently, Justin and I both wrote down “vulnerability” and “patience”. So we are both looking forward to see how God will teach us to be more vulnerable and patience, not only with the other students here at CIT, but especially with each other.

We’ll keep you posted…Remember, we love hearing from you…what is going on in your life, how can we pray for you???