Blessed by a short visit with Joey!

Our dear son, Joey, flew into our lives for 8 days! What a total joy to have him around for awhile. It was interesting to see our world through his eyes. So many things which we've just learned to ignore became very obvious to us once again. He confirmed that this really is a crazy place to live!

We are thrilled with what God is doing in and through Joey's life. He's definitely got strong relational gifting and is superb in his work with young teenagers! Now he's back in Australia to finish up his internship with Student Ministries at Hillsong.

We had to work around work but squeezed in a lot of good times and good visits in his few days here. Shots below include time at our beach hut, visiting our driver's family -- that's Jide's Dad with Joey, and saying our farewells. Final shot -- Joey in his own bus (as the only passenger), heading to the airport, with armed escorts following in the white truck behind the bus.

We miss you, Joez!

Happy 4th

Another 4th of July without fireworks, stars and stripes, ... It's hard to even remember what month it is -- they all look alike!
I wore blue and white clothes and a red watch to work -- that was the closest I got to celebrating America's independence.
But here's a strange twist that I didn't even catch until late last night.
Jim left for meetings in Paris yesterday. So some friends, taking pity on me, invited me to join a dinner party at their home. Lovely food, lovely time ...

When I got home, locked myself up tightly in the house, climbed into bed, and picked up the book that I had on my bedstand -- it hit me --
I had just spent the evening of July 4th with a bunch of Brits!!!

So, I read until I fell asleep
that book that I'd been slowly working through
without any previous thought of the season or approaching holiday ...
1776 by David McCullough!!!
Great book!
Great heritage!
Great independence!
Great country!

Rome, Part 2

Rome, Part 1

There was soooo much to see that was photo-worthy in Rome. I'll post photos in parts. It might take awhile. Posting photos is sometimes an ordeal around here! :-) A reminder -- you can always double click on a photo to enlarge your viewing!