Sick Days

We've all taken turns with a stomach virus this last week. The first one to get sick was Maggie, our teammates' one-year-old who was staying with us while they celebrated their fifth anniversary with a weekend in Greece. Within a few hours, Daniel was also sick and Jackie was too a few hours later. Then we skipped a day and Josh got it; the next day Kyle got a milder version. Rebekah is the only one who escaped. Oh, and Maggie's mom, Amy, got it in Greece! (And dad Jeff got it yesterday.) Needless to say, this was not our most fun week!

You will be relieved to know I am NOT posting pictures!

But here are some pics of a religious festival from the week before we got sick. People hiked up to a particular monastery and near the top there was a carnival then inside the monastery they had a liturgy.
And people brought eggs to be blessed by the priest and then the eggs were redistributed to the people. People also light candles for their health or for mercy for a loved one who has died and fill bottles with blessed water to take home with them, again for good health.

Time to Party
Also of note was Maggie's first birthday party. This was two days before we all got sick! Don't we look healthy and happy?! Who'd have guessed what the next week would hold?!

Fruity Kids
Also here is a picture of Josh with his extraordinarily straight banana – and Daniel showing off some Cheetos that someone blessed us with!!!
Coming Up:
We're off to a MUCH NEEDED team retreat April 22-25. All of our team (here and in Ohrid) have been sick with this virus and/or had various extremely stressful kid health issues, so we are all really looking forward to it. First Baptist Church Ruston is coming to take care of our kids.

Please pray for our team retreat to be a time of refreshment and spiritual renewal as we focus on Jesus. Pray that we would leave behind all burdens, distractions (and strategies!!) and rest in Jesus and His unfailing love.

Thank you so much for caring for us and the people of Macedonia!