Hey everybody I'm alive! although the first night I was in Jerusalem there was a shooting pretty close to our hotel, wheeew! I had an absolutely incredible time. I told Amy it's like I'm reading the Bible in color now, it has really changed my outlook on so much. Life changing.
It was also incredible to be with 250 youth movement leaders from 60 countries around the world. It was fun to sing songs about "every tribe and language" praising the Lord and singing it with so many other cultures. I've got a mere 400 pictures, Terry took 1500!
We've got so much going on around here. We are in the midst of a fund raising drive for Trdna Skala. We are doing a family of Trdna Skala support thing next Friday as well as a bunch of other program stuff right now. We are also just starting the camp season, just got flyers today and teams are coming together. All that and I'm heading back to the states for a couple days April 9 -14. I'll be in a couple meetings at Cornerstone and then I'm speaking on Sunday to encourage a giveaway offering they will have for the building at the end of April. I'm starting to rack up the frequent flyer miles!
The talk around here is the exchange rate, the dollar is tanking. Kathy has only been here a month and 1/2 and the dollar has lost 12% of it's value. The Jackson's rent has gone from 900$ to 1800$ in 3 years, mainly because of exchange rate, i think they have only increased it 100 euros during that whole time. So everyone is hurting.
The kids are still so much fun. When I got back from Israel Abigail wouldn't let me out of her site for 2 days, she even came in and sat on a step stool while I used the restroom! That translated into lots and lots of hugs and kisses and some sweet cuddling. Eli smiles so much and it's great to seem him laugh. He is very ticklish on his feet! He looks like such a bruiser, like he could start at middle linebacker. He has already started reaching for things and following you with his eyes. It's been nice to have him sleep so long at night, last night was a 9 1/2 hour stretch. We would think something was wrong if he didn't eat so good during the day.
My hats off to Amy, she has done great managing the house in the midst of all of this. We even had a team meeting at our house today which we hosted!
I'm looking foward to being with Jon and Erin and hanging out a little with Noah! I'm not looking forward to being away from my family again.
Well, that's it for the newsy Joel :) Hope everyone is doing good. It's been nice reading what has been going on in your worlds. I think we span like half the world! Love everybody!
3 comments:
It's great to hear from your side of the world! I'm anxious too to see some of your pictures. Have you uploaded them somewhere? What ia Amy doing while you come to the States? We're having a good time with the Pensacola crew. It was fun to watch Ryan interact with the teens at church last night - playing ping pong standing on a chair so that he was tall enough, and talking to them like they were friends (but they're not, they're the teens - his words). I think we're picking strawberries today.
Thanks for the update. Can't wait to hear all about your trip when you come! We're getting the guest room ready.
Wow. Isreal!!! I think there is only one better place to learn about the Bible and that would be Heaven. Joel I"m sure your can hear me say "my brother was in Israel the other week and..." That's cool. Glad you made it safely, be careful on your world travels. Love ya
Ben
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