Girlfriends

(Just an FYI — the date and time for my posts continues to be on Ukraine time.  Sorry if this confuses any of you… for example, I’ll be writing a post within the next few minutes, but it will show up as June 20 morning…trust me, it’s June 19 night!  Just subtract 7 hours to get EST)

Up early this Tuesday morning, so that I could get packed for several weeks away from our home base.  I needed to be ready so that I could spend some special moments with Martha, a friend that I hadn’t seen in 2 years.  Unfortunately those days at the end of July when we will be staying closer to Salisbury, she and her physician husband will be at a conference in Colorado.  One hour this morning, and one more evening are planned together — not much time, but we so look forward to it.  We find ourselves engaging in strategies for ministry, reminiscing about past adventures, updating on families (she’s a grandma, again, as of last week!)

 

Daughter Jeanne then drove Jim and me to Baltimore-Washington International airport for our flight to Orlando.  It has been a long, long time since I have been on a plane with soooo many young children — each moment of  turbulence brought squeals of delight or fake nausea, the landing brought cheers and applause.  Some whining and fussing.  But, all in all, a good flight.

We were met at the airport by Dick, a man we first met in Ukraine.  He has a big heart for the people of Ukraine, active in discipling new believers.  After retrieving our luggage, we went to the conference center to pick up his wife Ginny who was watching their granddaughter play in an AAU volleyball tournament.  They took us to our hotel (for one night) and then we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner.  Oh, my, I loved the salad!  We discussed (sometimes with gusto!) doctrine and beliefs, always with respect but also standing firm for our own beliefs as we believe taught in Scripture.  It’s always fun to discuss differences in doctrine…challenging each of us to know WHAT we believe and WHY we believe it.

They returned us back to the Hilton (paid for by “travel points,” thanks to Karen’s brilliance in figuring out how all of that works!).  We signed up for a few hours of internet time in our room, and I have been trying to catch up on emails, blog writing, and blog reading!

Tomorrow, we switch hotels…to the one where the Christian Medical-Dental Association’s annual meeting will begin and run until Sunday.  Please pray for meaningful new contacts to be made among the medical community.