Team Retreat and on we go...

The time is flying now... hard to catch my breath between events. I barely got back from Canada, did some debriefing with teams that were just finishing up summer outreaches and then we were off for a week for our team retreat. Would have been relaxing if I wasn't in charge of it, but fortunately this year I was a bit more organized and more relaxed about delegating to others. On the left is our current team picture. Matthew's wife Helen and their 2 boys are missing as the boys were sick. But do you see all the babies? Since last year's retreat, we have added 4 babies to our OM Moldova family!! And this summer Slavic got married... he and his wife Snejana are in the front row on the right. A highlight of the week for me was the return of my friend Corinne to the team, along with her dog Silas, of course.

Also we had an A-1 speaker couple - Ian & Helen Orton really blessed us with their presence and sharing the gifts and passion God has given them. Ian led us in a cross-cultural study of the book of Ruth. Ian and Helen also led several sessions on cross-cultural relationships and relationships in general, addressing couples sometimes and singles other times. I think it was a real team-building week.





But now we are gearing up for the fall and the first week or so of September we are welcoming our new recruits and I am coordinating their orientation program. This evening I will pick up an Australian couple and a British girl from the airport and on Monday we begin our program. At the same time we have a couple from Chile who hope to join us but who have to wait outside the country a bit longer until they can obtain a visa for Moldova.

Tomorrow is a national holiday - Limba Noastra day - ("Our Language") so today the banks are closed and i haven't paid my bills and Monday is the first of the month. a bit of stress there. We pay our bills the old-fashioned way here in Moldova. They arrive in your mailbox (or not - as has happened this month with me) and you pay them at the bank or the post office, after standing in line for some time. If you miss the final date for payment (as I have this month, with not receiving the billls and not being in town to go to the banks when they were still open) then you have to go to the various companies themselves and pay - which of course takes more time and more running around. Other than worrying about my bills not sure what else is going to happen tomorrow but probably there will be a parade and a big festival down in the centre of the city. Might be a good opportunity for the newcomers to see a bit of Moldova, as it celebrates a national holiday.

Anyway, I've cleaned up my kitchen (have been battling ants this summer), am doing a wash and am about to head out to get some groceries. Later I'll pick up the new recruits at the airport and see if they can understand my Canadian accent. Actually, it'll be interesting picking up Aussies and a Brit at the same time... I should be able to distinguish better the differences in accents soon.

By the way, on my last post I had trouble with the photos and so I ended up not posting the photo of my grandson Alejandro that I had planned to. So here he is, in his soccer outfit with his soccer-fan dad.