Candy Canes

Candy Canes

We had our last English classes for the year this week. I incorporated some Christmas songs and the candy cane story. Everyone loved it! No one had ever heard that story before. We had lots of fun. Thank you to all who sent candy canes :) We are also giving one small candy cane to every one with their coffee and offering "Peppermint Mochas". One candy cane+hot chocolate mix+milk+espresso=goodness in a mug!

A Sleepless Night

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 (NRSV)
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord
has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to
bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the
prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion -- to give them a
garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of
praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up
the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of
many generations.

For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and
wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and
their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people
whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall
exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he
has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a
bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to
spring up before all the nations.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 am and immediately God said "You need to open your Bible right now and read". Not in a voice, but more in a knowing. I don't know how to explain it. So I read Psalm 91 over and over and then 92. And then I checked my e-mail for my "daily devotional" i get from Goshen college and this was the scripture of the day. It was such an encouragement because as of late, specifically yesterday I've been struggling with "Why am I here?" "Is 2 years here even effective at all"? But I KNOW I am called here. And this is why!!! Praise God. THE LORD GOD WILL CAUSE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PRAISE TO SPRING UP BEFORE ALL THE NATIONS! Which is the same verse Melanie pointed me to yesterday, which is confirmation of God's plan for Ohrid and for all nations!! My sister also reminded me to prayer walk more and just pray more! If anything happens here it will be THE PLANTING OF THE LORD. Not of my great words or good deeds or even because of my love for the people. If any place has been devastated on the inside and outside, it's Ohrid. Even in the architecture, so much renovation needs to be done. This is a reminder to me of the people. They need restoration from the "devastation of many generations". Praise God for a fresh word. And for sleepless nights!

Lichna Karta!

Yay! We finally finished getting our visa! And we got our "lichna karta". It's like an identification card for Macedonians. I know it's a backwards picture. But if you look closely, you'll see they TOTALLY misspelled my last name haha. They don't have a "w" in their alphabet. So they just used 2 "v"s and then forget the "L". Hahahahaha. That's just how it is sometimes!!! Oh and the first time they took my picture I smiled. And they told me I wasn't allowed to do that. So I took another one and you can see I"m trying REALLY hard not to smile. I'm just a smiley person!

Bikin' with Fetiyeh

Ok so I know this is a little late. But this is some photos of Fetiyeh and I the day we biked to Struga. And just a side note: trying to take a picture of yourself while riding a bicycle isn't a good idea ;) But it was fun and the view was beautiful. I caught a dad and his 2 little kids feeding the birds too.

Starbucks and good friends

Yes! I got to visit Starbucks 3 times in Prague :) Plus I got to hang out and catch up with people I went through training with

Prague

I got to spend 5 days in Prague with some great friends. What a treat!

Turkish Wedding

I had the privilege of attending a wedding with some friends. It was really fun! They like to dance! The bride and groom wore ribbons around their neck and people came by and clipped money onto them! I like that idea ;)

Prilep

Melanie and I used on of our free days to visit our friends at their new home, Prilep. It was really good to see them, just to hang out with them. They just finished language school in Skopje and are now starting something new in Prilep. I can't wait to see how God uses them in this city. Tobacco is huge in the city. I took a pic of just a small sampling of the dried tobacco. And the other picture is their dog, Zlatka (goldie)

Game Night!

What a fun night! We have some neighbors who love to sit outside the coffee house on a nice night and play cards. They're funny old men and they have lots of friends who walk past our coffee house. It's kinda cool cause their friends come and sit with them for a little while and sometimes drink coffee too. So they're a help to making us seem not so strange to Macedonians. Also, there's a great picture of Igor and Brian playing chess. Igor is our "Man of Peace". He has introduced us to soo many new people! Plus he speaks English like and old British lady :) And then there's little Maria. She is always hanging out with us. Her mom, Yordeh, owns a botique next door so she's always around and she is such a little sweetheart.

Beautiful Ohrid, Wonderful friends

Last weekend I made a new friend, Irena. She is a believer from Bitola who was on vacation in Ohrid. We became good friends and I was really blessed by her. We had pizza, drank coffee, went to the beach, and hiked up to Plaosnik(the excavation sight where you can also get a great view of the lake). What a good weekend!

Tanya and Olga, Igor, and Beautiful Melanie

Marko, his mom, and a couple from Skopje

People at the concert

Friday Night Concert

We had another great concert this Friday night. Lots of our friends came and even some new people we didn't know. But everyone had a good time, even Christo, the guy with the dark curly hair who I met on the street the day of the concert and he agreed to play some songs too. It was a great night!

I'm an aunt!

On August 5th my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Benjamin. She and her husband Kyle are gonna be great parents.

Disaster Reliefers

I don't know why, but I got chosen to go to the Disaster Relief training class. Haha. It was kinda fun. But we got badges and yellow caps! Me and Suzanne are standing with Cindy Smith, the wife of our trainer.

The Lottie Moon Auction

OK. Every year there is an auction where people bring special things from their country and we auction them off. All of the money goes to the Lottie Moon offering. Also the volunteer teams bring special things from the States that we can't get here like Dr. Pepper, Splenda, Moon Pies, BBQ sauce, etc. It was a lot of fun :)

Our Greecian village

The Jgirls

Doing a little souvenir shopping in Greece

Bike Ridin' with the Girls

It's become a Sunday afternoon ritual for me, Dafinka, Angela, and Anna to take a bike ride by the lake on Sunday afternoons. I love hangin' out with all 3 of them! They have really been a blessing to me. The girls are hillarious! I wish I could understand them more!

Alien Carrotts

These were the weirdest batch of carrots i've ever seen! When I bit into them, the middle had this strange texture. So I tried cutting one open, and the outside came off kind of like a shell and on the inside were these spikes! I don't know what happened. I still ate the outside and just threw away the insides...I'm doing Ok

Angela and Anna's 7th Birthday Pary

Baby Kate

She was just so cute in her stroller with her little umbrella on top!

Fins!

Maria and her 2 Finish friends from Finland. It was Maria's last day in Macedonia :( She was here for one month on vacation. But WoW! She had a huge impact on the coffee house. She was able to learn the language just as well as me only from conversations! And in about 2 months! Amazing! I hope she comes back again soon

Presidential Parties

Sunday night as Melanie and I were walking to Brian and Mandy's to feed Cloud, we happened upon a huge concert! The whole city was flooded all day with charter buses from all over Macedonia. There were large groups walking around carrying flags and wearing hats to represent their presidential party. When i asked some one what was going on, he said this is the new presidential choices. Ohrid was on fire that night! There was a huge rock concert! Flags flying! Everyone celebrating! I even heard some fireworks going off around midnight.