a brief little window

time to check email and be online has been gloriously scarce lately. i love the feeling that comes from being in community with real live people. being in nature away from cell reception and wifi.... this is life.
i have a whole theory on how facebook is replacing heaven in the hearts of people everywhere.... but that can be reserved for another day. or by request.

anyhoo. so here's the basic rundown of what's happened since april 29th.

celebrated st george's day again this year. it was sad. the people i celebrated with last year wanted to go to the picnic but didn't have the money to get the food they felt they needed in order to make an appearance. but we hung around the house and still enjoyed each other's company.

my mom and sisters came to visit.
AMAZING.
we spent three days in Skopje and they got to meet some of my friends and see what I live like on this side. it was so great to let them in on this. then we took a taxi to greece. haha. we planned to take the train but it was delayed and no real indicator was given on the certainty of it's arrival time. so we took up a trolling taxist on his offer and were on our way.
3 short hours later we were riding an INSANELY crowded city bus in thessoliniki to go and get super great gyros and crepes.
after a night in greece we made out way to the airport to head to italy.
flew to milan, trained to florence.
FLORENCE!!!!!
it was so so so great. we stayed in a fantastic little hotel in the perfect spot. everything about being in forence was perfect. at least twice daily gelato. on my birthday we took a segway tour of the city. we walked and ate and ate and walked and ate and relaxed... and did laundry.
it was so wonderful.
on the way out we flew from pisa, so we got to see the leaning tower. check.
after that we went to london. awe... london. my love. i really enjoy london and feel so blessed that i have gotten so many chances to see it - and always from different angles.
we had a great time in london for two days and then it was time to say cheerio.
so they went back to the states. i am so glad that this trip happened so close to the end of my term - otherwise i think it may have been much more difficult to part ways.
after they went through security, i went to the hotel got my junk and headed to the other airport.
so i left skopje the 18th.
left italy the 22nd
left london the 25th
came to san sebastian - maybe my favorite city of all. maybe.
got to see some awesome ministry stuff happening there. met some great people. stayed with strangers that are now friends.
yesterday i came to seville. this city is also rad. really really rad. so different than san seb. the bull fighting ring is beautiful. the building where columbus got the permission to go to the new world is here. the monument marking where he embarked on his journey is here. beautiful architecture. close to the coast.... and plus some great ministry happening here too. please pray for the work here. (and in san sebastian).
i took the overnight bus from san sebastian to seville. it was a mere 14 hours. yipes.
and when i arrived i immediately got wisked away to join in on that day's ministry activity. i met the coolest young couple from germany and absolutely love them.
please pray for them as they are seeking out God's will for what they will be doing.

tomorrow i head to madrid. i will spend two days there before i make the long short trip home. (flight plus bus equals 10 hours of moving towards my own bed).

i have gotten to see some incredible stuff. meet a lot of incredible people. and get another glimpse of the vast size and beauty and reach of our God and Savior.


so that's it for now.
peace and blessings. peace and blessings.


i leave you with these: