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Dear friends,

We've had a good start to the summer. We've spent most of our time here in Slovakia, but this week is a busy week for our family. We leave Košice on Thursday for a weekend family camp for Ukrainians in Warsaw, and then on Monday we'll fly from Warsaw to the States for the remainder of the summer.

We have a lot of preparing and packing to do in the next three days, but before we head off for our busy summer travels, we wanted to give you a quick update on what's been happening here in recent weeks.

Trip To Sopot

After I returned home from UBI's graduation in Kyiv (you can read about that here), the whole family traveled to Sopot, Poland to visit the church and the refugees we worked with last year. It was an important trip for us to reconnect with so many that we worked with when the war started, and everyone was excited to meet Eliana. We spent good time with several people and are so glad we made the trip.

The church threw a celebration to mark International Children’s Day while we were there.

Justus and I traveled with Bogdan one morning to the city of Elblag to see the new church plant efforts there. We are excited that he and his family are working in this new city, reaching out to the refugees there.

Justus had a very special time reconnecting with his friend Vanya. Vanya is from Kyiv and has been in Sopot with his mother since the start of the war. He and Justus have been playing (and fighting) with one another for years, and so they were very excited to see each other. Vanya even got to spend the night one night. When we asked Justus what his favorite part of the trip was, his answer was "Vanya."

UBI Preparations

Aside from our travels to Sopot, we have been in Košice and I have been in the office every day participating in meetings as well as working on UBI plans for this fall. If you have not already read about the big changes beginning this September, please do so here.

Church Life

In addition to my UBI responsibilities, I have enjoyed taking part in the preaching rotation at the congregation here in Košice. Also, several months ago I began leading a youth Bible class once a week with the teenagers here. I so enjoy seeing young people read the Bible with fresh eyes and watching them see things and think about things they hadn't before. That class is now on pause for the summer, but I look forward to getting back to it come fall.

The Family

Katie and the kids are doing well. Eliana is almost nine months old and brings so much joy to our family. Justus is still a doting big brother, though he does get irritated with her some now that she is on the move. She thinks her brother is absolutely amazing (and no one can make her laugh like he does), but she also knows how to express her irritation when he pushes too much.

A couple weeks ago, ahead of our marathon trip to the States, we managed to get out of town for a few days. We drove an hour-and-a-half to the High Tatras, a beautiful mountain range in Slovakia.

One of the things I find so difficult in work is that the to-do list never ends. There is always something else to work on, and there's always another phone call or text coming in. Rarely does a day go by where I feel like I completed everything that I wanted to for that day. This is magnified by the fact that we are in constant connection with people on both sides of the globe. So on our trip to the Tatras, I fully disconnected from work and from most all messages and focused fully on the family. It was very much needed.

Trip to the States

We leave for the States on Monday (July 10). We will be visiting friends, family, and churches in California, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Even though we look forward to seeing everyone, it's going to be a challenging trip, especially with the baby. And, aside from a two-week stint in Nevada, we will be moving cities every single week.

I will also need to keep regularly working on my UBI responsibilities while we are on the road, staying connected to our staff and updated on what's happening on the other side of the Atlantic. I'll also be preparing for a brand new class I'll be teaching this fall.