Thank You!

It has been a while since Laura or I have posted any new news about our life here in Lithuania, so I thought I would do just that right now.

First of all I need to say "Thank You!" to everyone who has been supporting us financially, prayerfully, and by sending us emails, letters, packages, and talked to us on skype. We just received our most recent support raising update and we only have $5,300 to raise for this academic year. We are amazed by the generosity of so many. Thank you for putting your trust in us and for loving us.

As you have seen in picutres, we went to Sweden for spring break. We had the great opportunity to reconnect with on of my long time friends, Matt Nowachek and his beautiful, Swedish bride, Helena. Matt and I first met as 1st or 2nd graders at Camp Lebanon and have been friends ever since, competing against each other in sports in jr. high and high school, attending Bethel together, and then hanging out in Austria together in May 2004 (I had just finished working in London and Matt was volunteering at a castle in Mittersill, Austria).

After visiting and relaxing at Matt and Helena's we took the train up to Stockholm and spent a day exploring the city. It was great. It snowed the whole time which made it beautiful, but sloppy walking. The next day we took the train from Stockholm to Uppsala to complete Laura's hometown pilgrimage (she is from Upsala, MN if you didn't know). Uppsala was a great little city and is home to the oldest university in Scandinavia (founded in 1477) and the largest church in Scandinavia. We had a flight out of Stockholm the next morning to Riga, Latvia, and then the bus back to Klaipeda. It was a great break and I really felt at home in Sweden. We will have to go back some time.

Now we are in the middle of hiring our student leaders for next year. Laura is doing interviews for her SOS Leaders (Student Orientation Staff) and I am sitting in on interview for next years RAs (Resident Assistants). We both have lots of students to interview (Laura 27 or so for 15 spots and I started with 65 and we narrowed it down to 45 for 17 spots).

Pray for us to have wisdom in the student leaders we choose for next year. These will be the students with whom we will get to mentor and interact with the most next year. Pray also for our students as they seek to finish this semester strong (only about a month left of class). Pray for our continued finacial support for this year and as we look towards next year. Pray also for my the celebration of my Granda Alice Hanson's life as she just turned 90 years young on Saturday. We had the chance to talk to her and sing happy birthday to her over skype that day. It was very special.

Blessings and Love to you all.