"I Give My Life and Love to You in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"

18 fantastic years and counting!

Last Sunday was our 18th anniversary so Jeff & Amy Williams offered (well, Amy offered!) to keep the kids while we went away for the weekend. We drove just about an hour and arrived in a charming little town in Greece.
We had a fabulously relaxing time. Thank you SO MUCH, Jeff & Amy!

Just Like a New Bride
We may have been married for 18 years but I have to share this: two weeks ago we had our new teammates over for dinner. That same day we had made a trip to Ohrid to see our other teammates there and arrived back in town half-an-hour before the Fullers were to arrive for dinner! Remember, we must cook everything from scratch here so I hit the kitchen like a Tazmanian Devil and whipped up a delicious meal of beef stroganoff with salad and veggies. (Don't I sound humble?!) Anyway, they arrived at 6 pm and by 6:20, we were eating. While we were eating I stuck a blueberry cobbler in the oven to bake -- now I had also "whipped up" the cobbler (i.e. in a tizzy!) and when I checked on it about half-way through the baking time I realized something was terribly wrong. In my haste in making the batter, I had left out the baking powder, so it was not rising at all! Figuring I had nothing to lose (except my dignity!), I stirred in baking powder right then and returned it to the oven for the remaining time.

Half-an-hour later I served our young and impressionable new teammates some very unattractive black stuff with whipped topping! (It wasn't burned at all but the now-stirred-in blueberries baked extremely dark purple that really looked black!) Thankfully, it was actually quite tasty as long as you ate with your eyes closed! Some of us even had seconds, so it goes to show: you can't judge "tar cobbler" by its looks! NOR you can't judge a cook by her years of marriage!!!

WE LOVE MILTON!!!
Our friend Milton Perry visited us in early May. We met Milton shortly after we arrived on the field in 1997; he was an ISCer (a two-year missionary) serving in Croatia. That began a deep friendship which has remained strong despite our distance. He lived with us for five months in mid-1999, working as financial support (bookkeeping, that is!) for the IMB's efforts during the Kosovo Crisis -- and keeping our dog Jessie when we went to Greece for Joshua's birth! Through the years he has visited us several times here in Macedonia and also in the States when we've been on furlough.

This last visit was in coordination with his job at Samaritan's Purse distributing wheelchairs to contacts we have here in Prilep.

The pic below was taken while we were hiking on the mountain above Prilep. These are old graves cut into the rock about half-way down the mountain; centuries ago there was a fortress and town on the top of the mountain.
Milton, we love you and even though we have no clue when or where we'll see you again, we can't wait!