Things We are Thankful For, Part 1

Beginning a series of posts highlighting God's wonderful blessings this past year.

 So many things to be thankful for and we love to share them with you.

We pray you are enjoying a happy summer!

 

 Pictures below are from our second trip to English Camp in Romania.

 Sweet friends kept the youngest three Bowers in Alabama for local adventures. :)

Guys loved the steady stream of snacks along the way!

Crossing the border into Romania.
Brother Andrew (God's Smuggler) crossed here with his Bibles.

Our lovely students! We were so blessed to return for a full week of teaching Bible, worldview, and yes...English! Many great conversations.

Loved our campfire and testimony time every night.

Gathered with just the girls. Great time discussing Bible truths. 

Our sweet translators were VERY patient, especially with Mrs. Bowers 

who had (HAS!) a hard time talking SLOWLY. :)

Charlie's (Hungarian) Mighty Men!
He did a fantastic job keeping these fellows happy AND sore. :)

Volleyball every afternoon during Sportstime.

Our sweet friend Esther after some needed medical care. Praise the Lord for His gracious wisdom as we were a LONG way from any hospital. She had to stay put for a bit, so while we waited, the girls taught me Hungarian UNO. Totally ruthless!!! :)

 30th Anniversary!

Thankful to the Lord for marvelous adventures together!

Google Translate definitely helped at mealtime!

Amazing singing time!! 

We sang in Hungarian and Romanian and English all at once 

and it was REALLY so beautiful.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, bread, jam and margarine. Staples! Every meal!!

Soooo yummy. They just KNOW how to cook!

Bowers love tables with everything you need, 

and second and third courses of everything you do NOT need! :)

We were very blessed to have meals and classes in this beautiful new building. If you look back at our Romania 2017 post, the cook really WAS cooking over a campfire! 

Praise the Lord for providing this new space.

Giving instructions for a scavenger hunt. Parts of the memory verse hidden in trees and other places. All in English, and the first team to find and put them in proper order wins! Quite the hoot.

 Camp is about 5 hours from Budapest where we land. Students are mostly Hungarian.

Apologies for the fuzzy pictures. We were busy busy with something

 and quality control was (ahem!) fellowshipping. Or maybe at the top of the tower?!

And pyramiding. :)

One of the very tastiest assignments was blueberry picking!

Had the MOST delicious ice cream at our friend's home.

  Romanian homes have strong, traditional architecture and very warm hospitality.

Mr. Pop in the bright yellow graciously sponsored our trip to Romania. 

It was a privilege to work with his family all week! We attended their Hungarian church, sang for the service, had Hungarian pizza, visited and sang some more. Delightful.

   Love these cousins who were with us at English Camp 

and also attended the church where we sang. 
Picture of THEM taking a picture of US is a favorite. :) 

Impromptu piano moment! Really fun. :)

Lovely walk with the guys.

And then...headed home via Toronto. 

We praise the Lord for protecting us and for providing many opportunities

 to share the Lord with our sweet students! 

Our Hungarian has a looooooong way to go!! 

They think it's quite funny when we try to say ANYTHING.

Oh....yes! The Aldi on the way to the Budapest Airport had freshly baked everything. 

Took a few of these on the plane. :)

 

And back home, wonderful friends took such great care of our littles!

Science at the Pet Store! 

History at the Old Alabama Museum!

And adventures at Fort Toulouse!

And when we all finally, finally got home...we ate A LOT of peppers!

Blessings abound, at home and abroad. 

Thankyou, Lord!