New Assignment means more countries to visit

 I have been a slacker this week with the blog. Well really we have been traveling so much that it's hard to find time to sit down and post on the blog. We received a new assignment from our Mission Leaders last week. Up till now we have been working in two countries, Bosnia and Montenegro. We have been working mostly with the local members of our church and helping the young missionaries teach their friends. We are loving what we do. For example last week we went to Mostar again for our monthly visit there. We visited our friend Ljubica, who is an absolute gem. But we have two of our young missionaries who have been with us in Sarajevo since we arrived here that will be transferred so we hit the famous bridge one last time.

After helping with transfers we worked on a new online course we are starting. It's "How to find a job", as unemployment is fairly high here and it's hard for people from other countries to find employment. It is who you know, not what you know here. 

We have been getting some training on our new assignment and starting this last Monday we hit the road running, literally. There are 25 senior couples like ourselves serving here and three single seniors. There has been one couple who are assigned to work with them all and be the go between for our Mission Leaders. Well, that couple is going home in a couple of weeks so we have been asked to fill that spot. It means we will travel to all five countries now. That is a two edged sword, we will enjoy getting to know all the other seniors better and to see all the countries. It also means we will have to travel to all five countries. We will get in a lot of windshield time. We started out Monday morning by traveling to Zagreb Croatia for a two day leadership meeting. We got all trained and the other couple we replaced handed everything off to us. We were drinking from a firehose again. We learned a valuable lesson on our way to Croatia, always keep some snacks and drinks in your car. We were stuck in line for 2 1/2 hours at a border crossing.

It is Spring and everything gets greener each day. We saw some new things on our travels this week. One exciting part of our new job is we actually get to drive fast on freeways instead of goat trails. We had to stop and take a picture of this huge nut. It was in front of a nut and bolt factory. On our way back to Sarajevo we brought the luggage for our two new missionaries so they wouldn't have to haul everything on the bus with them.

We are trying to finish up a few things here this weekend because we will be on the road the next two weeks working our way through the whole Mission going to meetings and meeting with new couples who have recently arrived. We are supposed to train them, (like we know what we are doing). 

Time is sure going fast, this week marks our 1/3 mark and I think it will only go faster with everything we are cramming it to our schedule.

We did have time for a nice lunch yesterday with two other of our favorite couples, the Lambs who live right above us and the Bates who are here for a few days. They mainly work in Turkey but have to leave the country every couple of weeks because they can't get a visa. In the last six months they have made 18 trips in and out of Turkey. Next month they have to fly to Bangkok Thailand with a group from Turkey. I guess our job isn't as crazy as their assignment.

We are truly loving what we are doing here. We were talking today on our walk (yes, Helen has me walking with her) and we feel we are making a difference by being here. We love the people that we have come to know and we love our Savior more each day as we see His help in these people's lives.