Goodbye...or shall we say, "Until next time!"

How truly blessed we have been with our time here in Greece. Our goodbye is bittersweet and mixed with emotion. The Lord has shown us more of Himself and given us deeper friendships than when we came.
We look forward to the day when the Lord brings us to this beautiful land again.


Phil with Johnathan Macris

Peggy, Irene, & I



How much our kids have changed in four months!



It is hard to believe the day is almost here to leave; we fly out tomorrow morning. Thank you to all who have prayed for us while we have been away.
We will continue to need them as we make the journey home. The Lord provided and we were able to get our Russian & Chinese visas. We are excited to spend some time with missionary friends in different places. We will be making stops in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Mongolia, & China. Please pray that we would be an encouragement in each place we stop. Also pray for safety in travel with all the connections we need to make.
We should be back in Seattle on April 14th. We look forward to seeing you all then!!

Birthdays...

We can't believe it...our baby girl is growing up!!! We had the joy of celebrating Caitlyn's birthday here in Greece with Grandma & Grandpa Poole & the McAtee family.

A darling new sweat outfit from Aunt Jennie & Uncle Louie

Caitlyn kept asking me if Grandpa Ken was going to bring marshmellows to roast as she had so much fun doing that at their house...well, sure enough they brought some for her. We did not get a chance to roast them but they worked great for decorating her birthday plate!


My Mom's friend Marianne knitted this scarf for Caityn and sweater for Levi...lots of love went into both and we thank her!



Bruce, Irene, Grace, & Emily McAtee have become dear friends. The girls were very excited to decorate for Caitlyn's birthday party!




Caitlyn & Grace






Levi is next as he has his first birthday April 6th.

Santorini...does it get any better this side of heaven?

We are spending our last morning on the island of Santorini. What a fabulous four days we have had here. We arrived home from the HM family conference and two days later were off again for a time of rest and refreshment with my parents.
The last two nights we have spent at a place called "Alexander's Boutique Hotel." Nothing short of fabulous!! The place was stunning and the hospitality so appreciated. I have not slept this good since leaving our home in Seattle almost four months ago!





The walkway leading to our place in "Alexander's Boutique Hotel."

Many things here are brought in by donkey as this is a "pedestrian only" part of town. I was joking last night as the policy seems to be "dump and dash"...no body seems to pick of the leftover animal droppings but it just adds more character to this exquisite place!


This lady was just precious. We each greeted her and she just kept holding our hand and smiling as she mumbled in Greek to us.





I can't seem to put my camera down; this place is amazing!
We will board the ferry is about five more hours. I know we will all be sad to leave this slice of heaven.

Hellenic Minitries Family Conference

Two days after arriving home from Cairo we headed off to the HM Family Conference. We spent four days together hearing about reports from the different missionaries worshipping and fellowshipping together. It was a wonderful time with spiritual renewel.


The added blessing was joining two other HM families in a dedication service for our children to the Lord. It is our hearts desire to raise them in the fear of the Lord so that He will one day have their hearts too.
Thank you Jesus for your abundant gifts to us!!

A week in Cairo, Egypt

The anticipation mounted as we arrived in Cairo on March 26th knowing that Grandma and Grandpa would be arrriving the next day! It had been over three months since we had seen each other.
We got settled in the Guesthouse and before we knew it we were answering their knock at the door. Unfortunatly for them Phil had just taken Levi and Caitlyn to the grocery store so they had to wait about another hour to shower them with kisses. It was a wonderful reunion.

We had five days of touring and they were packed leaving us all longing for some good sleep at night. The kids did amazing as they were dragged all over.
Phil went to Alexandria on an overnight to attend a conference on Evangelism so missed some of the touring but he had a great time.



Some of our destinations included the Pyramids, the garbage city, the Egyptian museum, the Pharonic village, a faluka ride on the Nile, a very memorable Camel Auction and more. I think the camel auction was one of the highlights for us and unfortunately Phil missed that.

We had no idea what to expect. I was picturing an arena where they would parade the camels around to bid on them...nothing like that!!!
We arrived about 8AM to a big open dusty space. There we were greeted by a camel laying right in the road. We went through the gate and had to pay our "camera fee." There were groups of camels everywhere, huge camels and baby ones too. One big batch of camels were from Somalia but the "best tasting" and more expensive ones come from Sudan. All the camels have one leg tied up so they don't try and run off although some were quite able to escape on three legs! Our human rights groups would have been all over that. The camels are not treated well at all and are beat quite badly when loading and unloading the animals. We were told they sell from $500-$2000 each.
When purchased they get loaded in small trucks, forced to lay down, and off they go!



After lunch one day this man picked up Caitlyn and put her on his camel. She was not at all scared even after they trotted off at a good clip! She really enjoyed it!




We had a Christian tour guide who did a fantastic job. Everywhere we went people flocked to touch & photograph Caitlyn because of her blond hair and fair skin. Thankfully she is not shy and loved all the attention!

We were all blessed by our Egyptian adventure together.