A Week of Good Byes

It's been a tough couple of days. Rachel and I have had to say good bye to several of our good friends. Travis, Jeanette and their two children left this week after spending two months here. I believe I have mentioned them before in previous blogs. They were former employees here in Eastern Europe. They came for the summer for various reasons. They lived in the apartment right across from ours. All three of us girls (Rachel, Hannah and I) got pretty close to them. They were such a HUGE blessing in our lives. They invited us over for caj, prayer, dinner, movies and conversations multiple times. They were always there whenever we needed them. They allowed Hannah and I to use their computer to skype our families and friends several times because my computer has been having problems and Hannah's basically died. Travis and I both went to Leadership Camp and shared a small group together. In short, we had a lot of good times with their family. It was hard to see them go.

Probably the most difficult part of this was saying to good by to my roommate and constant companion, Hannah. She also stayed here in Prishtina for two months. She felt the Lord calling her to volunteer here last semester when she received a flyer at school. Her mom was super worried about her traveling and living here for the summer. In a lot of ways, Hannah had to take a leap of faith and obedience to come. Man, am I glad! :)  I seriously don't know what I would have done without her! She always offered a listening ear and willingness to pray over me. I have been blessed beyond measure by her. I cried for a while after she left. It's been quite an adjustment having her gone.

The month of August is pretty slow around here. However, for me it will continue to remain fairly busy. Rachel and I have to start planning out the calender for Oaza, the community center, for this upcoming fall. There's a lot of preparation that has to be done! I have to start up my language classes again. I haven't been able to really "get down and dirty" with Albanian yet because my summer schedule was so sporadic. There are several papers that have to be written for this internship that I'm on. So, needless to say, I won't be bored! Most people this time of year go on vacations before the school year starts up again. Also, Ramadan has been going on and a lot people stay in their homes until evening (after Iftar) due to their fasting. Muslims who observe Ramadan do not eat or drink from sun up to sun down. And because of the heat and the fact that they can't drink any water, a lot of them stay inside where it's cooler. Everything at Oaza is closed for the month of August but will start up again in September.



Hannah and I