T minus 6 days

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the first planning meeting for the english camp to albania that Tim and I are staying on for. Obviously it wasn't quite the first planning meeting as the camp starts on sunday but it was our first planning meeting.

How did we end up here again?

So initially everyone on the team was flying out on the 3rd July and returning on the 14th.

11 days.

Then some leaders dropped out of the english camp and Prim & Dan were getting a little desperate. Very long story short - I felt quite clearly that God was telling me to stay, even though I wasn't overly keen - I'm not a teacher and my grasp of the english language is somewhat tenuous. But having taught the kids in the first week the story of Jonah (I, myself, played quite a convincing whale) I did not want to end up being vomited onto a beach, so here I am...

30 days...

taking it all in my stride...

Tim is coping much better

Beautiful sunset and relax.......

So, back to english camp, there are 11 leaders (9 from the church and us two from Norn Iron) and around 40 plus kids. Most are not from a church background and we have to be very careful how we talk to the kids about anything Christian due to some fairly strict laws in the country. Please pray for wisdom for each of the leaders as we seek to bring the truth of God's love to these young people but are restricted in what we say. Pray that as leaders we would treat each other and the young people with patience and respect and through our actions they may see the love of Christ. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet with these kids and each night there will be a discussion time where we will talk about certain Bible stories, pray for each of those leading group discussions.

A few other prayer points:

- safety in travel: it's a 7 hour bus journey to Vlora in Albania & it's currently 38 degrees

- safety while on the camp: there'll be plenty of sport & outdoor activities as well as afternoons on the beach

- that the food and accommodation will be adequate: we aren't expecting the Ritz but pray that the rooms will be cool at night to be able to sleep and the food able to fuel us through each days activities.

- we are short a female leader

- Tim and I would especially appreciate your prayers as we are definitely entering into the unknown and as 2 of only 4 native english speakers we may be called on to do teaching (at which our only experience was the albanian teaching of the other day!!).

- energy to make it though!!