Tonight we ate dinner with our Ukrainian friends.
They had a friend visiting them from Germany too.
We had a wonderful meal and fellowship. Sarah made
a new friend. What a duzhe dobre(very good) evening.

Leah and Deborah were baptized today after church.
Many of their friends and of course family were
there to support them.

Deborah and I have been out all day visiting Baptist
churches. We went to 7 churches introducing ourselves
and trying to get the churches involved in local
missions. I met some really nice people and had a few
great conversations. I even was surprised to see a few
people I knew at some of the churches. It was a good
but tiring day. This must be what salesmen go through.

Leah and I got up and went to Clarkston today.
First we went over to the apartment to see the
children. A team from North Carolina is here this
week doing a Vacation Bible School with them. I
told the girls that they had to dance for their lunch.
We left there and went to check on an African Mom
who is having some trouble. Hopefully we got a
few things taken care of for her.

We had Benjamin today. I was able to catch up on paper
work type stuff and to start doing some lesson plans
for school for Leah and Deborah.

I have been trying hard to stay ahead because of the
Honduras mission trip. Yes, we are going. The
region that we are going to is stable. The city we are
flying into is not where the military is at. Once we
are in the country we are going into a remote mountain
region. Everything should be fine there. We have a great
team and we are meeting weekly now since we leave in only
45 days from today. I always like to have the house in
order before I go. It is especially important for me this
time since I am going later in the year and it will be
time for school to start back.

Some people have expressed concern over the fact that I am
going on a short term mission trip and doing missions as a
job. I do not feel that when God called me to work with
North American Mission Board that He ask me to stop doing
short term trips. I believe that everyone should do ALL
that God has called them to do!! I believe that being
involved in short term missions continues to allow me the
opportunity to broaden my world perspective. It allows me
to see cultures first hand of people that I work with, to
understand where they are coming from when they come to
America. It allows me to be immersed in the culture and
helps me to learn their language. I prayed alot about my
decision to go on a trip this year. At first, I declined
several trips, one going back to Ukraine- a place where I
feel I have built relationships and have "family." When
the opportunity came up for me to go on a 1 week trip to
Honduras I prayed about what to do. I felt God's calling
to go. Many of the families that we work with in Chamblee
are from Honduras. I knew it would be a shorter, less
expensive trip, and I thought it would be a real God given
opportunity for me to see where some of "my families"
come from and learn about their country and serve in their
country.

My desire in all that I do is to be obedient to what God
has ask of me knowing that one day I will stand before Him
and give an account of my life to Him and what He ask of
me!

This is for Grandma and Papa! It is Bill Gabbard singing in one of the groups that he sings in called Brethren on July 19th at a church in Richmond, Va. He posted it on facebook this morning. I thought you would enjoy it. For those of you who don't know, Bill is married to Mark's cousin and is a professional singer for the U.S. Army. Bill is in the center.

We just got home from having a great day of fun
and fellowship in Clarkston at the apartments where
we helped with the Family Fun Day for the residents.
Mark, Leah, Deborah, and I helped with drinks and
inflatables. It was great fun to see all the people
from many nations out having a fun time. We saw many
of the children we work with but also their families.
God provided the best weather possible today. It was
only 80 degrees and we had a cool breeze. Who would
have known that it was July in Atlanta! Of course
there was lots of hotdogs, popcorn, cotton candy, and
watermelon. Mr.Bennett even got in on the fun and
went into the dunk tank.