Summer is definitely here

We apologize profusely for not posting anything real in so long! Hope you liked our recent family picture (below)!

Summer is in full swing here. And, man, is it HOT. And sunny. And dusty. Which signals two very important things for me (Gretchen): 1. Students are out of school and we can hang out with them a LOT more, and 2. I have to mop the tile floors in our home almost every day, because the dust settles every day, all day long… For some of you, you’re probably thinking, “so what, I clean my floors every day” (admit it, I know some of you do!). But for me, a budding housewife whose natural talent is not housekeeping, this is a foreboding task. I’m making headway though, I hope.

Like I said, we’ve had lots of more time to spend with the kids now that they’re mostly out of school. Actually, we have the same amount of time as we did before, but they’re more free! Lots of coffee dates, going to the pool, long chats in the park by the lake…we’ve had a great time getting to know more of the students on a more personal level while we hang out with them. We are still praying that God would give Justin more opportunities to meet teenage boys, build friendships with them, and disciple them. We are praying that Camp Eureka (an evangelistic English that a team from our church is leading in July) would provide more contacts for Justin to follow-up with in the fall.

There are two sisters, Iva and Enxhi (“Angie”), who have come to camp the last two summers, but who are not yet saved. They have also been coming to our youth group after Justin and I providentially ran into them at the mall a few weeks ago. I hadn’t seen them since last summer, so I got their phone number and invited them to come to church. They come from an Orthodox family. They have heard the gospel before at camp, but have had lots of other questions about God and Jesus and about salvation/justification by grace alone. Last week I met them at the park along with 4 other Christian girls from our youth group. As we were walking, I asked them some questions to help me determine if they understood this concept, and it was clear to me that they were not saved yet. It was amazingly encouraging time because the sisters were asking questions, but I was in turn directing those questions to the other girls and teaching them how answer. Two girls shared their testimonies, but were focusing more on events and circumstances rather than what God was doing in their hearts and how they were changed inside. So I asked them to share their testimonies again, but this time to share more about how God was changing them on the inside. We were sharing the gospel with non-believers as I was discipling the believers in how to share the gospel! Please pray for these two sisters. They are coming to both camps this summer – one for believers and one for non-believers. Their family won the lottery for an American visa and they are moving to Boston in October – I am praying that God will save them and that they can be discipled here through the Foundations of the Faith class before they leave Albania.

We are also in preparing-for-camp mode!! A team from Houston will lead our Summer Camp for believers (July 10-15) and a team from our church (GCD) will lead Camp Eureka for unbelievers (July 17-22) – two weeks in a row! Lots and lots of details are requiring our attention…everything from planning the daily menu to printing the materials to tracking registration numbers. But it feels good to be busy! Please pray that we’ll have the maximum number of kids at each camp (about 75). Also please pray that we would be strategic and prayerful about follow-up for these kids. Justin and I will be in charge of keeping in contact with kids after the camps, which is a huge task.

I’m still praying and thinking about a purity ministry for the young women here. I recently met with some women from the church about future ministry possibilities. Particularly we’re thinking about how to encourage more interaction between older and younger women in the church, when and how to conduct a purity conference for teenage girls, and how to shepherd them in general where sexual purity is concerned. Hopefully I will have more to tell you soon. Please pray for the very beginning stages of this ministry – it is so vitally important for the spiritual health of the girls, and for their witness in a dark but watching world.

We are really looking forward to visits from two of Justin’s family members, Jonathan (his brother) and Lindsay (his cousin). Lindsay will be staying with us for almost the whole month of July! We look forward to her visit and her help with our camps. Jonathan will be with for the first two weeks in August, during which time we’ll be in major recovery from the craziness of camp!