Harry and Andrea

We have been amazed at God’s provision and your willingness to partner with us! Thank you, thank you, thank you. We have raised nearly all of the money that we need for the trip. Praise God!! Anything that we raise over what we need will be used to help other members of our team–which will be a great blessing.

We are traveling to Eretria, Greece, about 30 miles outside of Athens by ferry and bus, on the island of Evia. It’s not the hottest tourist destination, but it is a beautiful retreat for the Ms. It’s surrounded by mountains and the Aegean Sea. We leave at 6 a.m. on June 22nd and will arrive in Greece around 8 a.m. on the 23rd. There is an 8 hour time difference between Nashville and Greece.

The worship team consists of Harry as the sound technician, me and Geoff as vocalists, Jay, Earl, Mike and Ben as musicians and Jeff as our worship leader. As we said in our letter, we are leading worship for a week-long conference for Ms in Central and Eastern Europe. The other members of our team are serving in other ways: Vicki is providing printed materials for the missionaries, Kelly is providing counseling services, Kristi is providing prayer support, and Duffy is our coordinator.

Here are a some prayer requests for the next two weeks as we prepare to leave:

• Praise God for His provision for this trip. We continue to be amazed and touched by the kindness of God’s people. Please pray that He will continue to provide for the other members of our team–financially, practically for their families.
• Pray for the Ms and the regions that they represent in Central and Eastern Europe. Pray that this will be a time for them to be renewed and encouraged in the gospel and with fellowship.
• Pray for the unity of our team. We only have one more team meeting before we leave and it’s finally starting to feel like a team. Please pray that God will use us to be a blessing to the Ms.
• Pray for Harry as he tries to communicate with the staff at the hotel regarding sound issues and equipment. Pray for me and the rest of the worship team as we learn the music.
• It has been a really stressful season for Harry and me recently. We are really looking forward to the time away, a chance to focus on ministry together, and for time to meditate on what God is doing around the world. Please pray that God will use this time to renew our likemindedness, our commitment to one another and our fervor for missions.
• Getting to the airport is going to offer some creative challenges because we have to be there at 4:30 a.m. and we are currently car-less, due to a string of circumstances over the past few months. Please pray that God will provide what we need.
• My passport renewal still has not arrived and getting in touch with the passport office has proven difficult to say the least. Please pray that it will arrive quickly.

Thank you for sending in your blue cards. If you haven’t sent yours in, please give them to us, or mail them whenever you get a chance. We really have been blessed by knowing how to pray for you. Also, let us know if you’d like to be added to the email updates by commenting below or emailing us directly.

Well, we did survive the yard sale, but it’s taken us this long to recover!
I’m sure everyone else knows this already, but people showed up over an hour before we had advertised the sale to start while we were just beginning to set up. I couldn’t believe it. And someone else I’d never met picked up an item and scoffed at it saying, “Do you really want $5 for this?”, with this look on her face that seemed to say, why are you even alive? When I asked her if she wanted to offer less, she set it down with such a wave of disgust that I almost fell down. I mean, for all she knew, my great, great, great grandmother made it! It wasn’t like we refused to haggle with people. Someone should write a book about Yard Sale Etiquette!

Harry and I would have been totally hopeless without the help of his parents, Ed and Harriet. Their help pricing, sorting, arranging, haggling and tearing down was invaluable!! We are also very thankful for the people who donated their stuff to sell–so much stuff that we are going to have to have another sale!
We sold about 25% of the stuff we had to sell and made about $350, which we were very excited about! The only part we’re not excited about is the second yard sale we will be obligated to have with the other 75%. Oh well, it has to be easier once everything is sorted and priced, right???

Harry and I are having a yard sale tomorrow to raise money for our mission trip to Greece in June. Wow. I am in awe of the people who do this often–the yard sale thing. I think this is my second yard sale ever–the first being the one with my parents when I was like 6 years old. It’s so much work! I had to climb over the couches and piles and piles of clothes and kitchen gear last night to turn the radio on and off. And then, Harry had to catch me as I catapulted off of the couches back to a safe place on the floor.

And I still probably have no idea what is ahead of me. I’ve made signs that Harry has secured in the ground, posted on Craig’s list, gathered items from five different families, made posters for pricing and we’ve sorted. Boy, have we sorted. But the pricing–the thing that scares me the most–we’ve saved for tonight! Ah!

But I am clinging to the promise: if you price it, they will come! That’s a promise, right?