Only Four (4) Days Left!!

Dear all - yup. You read that correctly! We have but four days remaining here in Prague and then we are headed back to Hodgenville, Kentucky. To day we are excited about that would be a bit of an understatement. While we look foward to going home we are at the same time quite sad to be saying good-bye to our friends and co-workers. Living the transient life-style we have been living since retiring from the U.S. Army in 1991 hasn't been easy but the Lord has rewarded us greatly by giving us a host of new friends. We have been so blessed that's for sure.

Our church here inPrague has given us a gracious send-off. The pastor even allowed me to preach today on our last Sunday here. How cool is that?

Can't say we'll continue the blog, though we may. One never knows. Email will remain the same so I do hope you will stay in touch!

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine

Alrighty now~ we're down to having but only one Saturday left here in Prague! Not sure how that happened~ but we'll take it. Two weeks ago we took a trip a trip on an old steam engine powered train with our good friend Iveta from work. It was a very nice trip for sure. These are some photos!

Love, IN Christ, John & Alvine

Almost There!

Dear Friends,

Well now, we are almost finsihed with our assignment here in Eastern Europe! Two weeks from today we will be on our way home to Kentucky!! The time has certainly gone by quickly for us. Guess it was all those 9 to 5 days in the accounting office!! Here are some photos of the recent baptism of Tom and Emma. They aren't a couple but two folks who came to know the Lord while we were here.

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine

Thirty-Six Years is a long time!

Dear Friends,

Wow! Alvine has put up with me now for 36 years! She certainly deserves a medal for that! Instead I took her to Wurzburg Germany for three days. We had a great time.

We are down to just seven weeks left!! We'll be home so soon!

Love, IN Christ, John and Alvine

Ten (10) Weeks from Today - Exactly!

Wow! We have but 70 short days before returning to the US of A! We are still very excited about going home! We have several dates set up to speak to folks. We get home October 31 and the very first Sunday (Nov. 2) we will be at our home church - Severns Valley in Elizabethtown for both morning services. November 9th we will be in Jamestown at Welfare Baptist Church for the morning service and then at First Baptist in Liberty for the 6 pm service. November 23rd we will be in Jackson at New Hope Community Baptist Church for the morning service and then that evening in Campton at Campton Baptist Church at their 6 pm service. We are still trying to work out some detail to go to Lucas Grove in Upton and Hazel Green Academy in Hazel Green. We so appreciate all that these churches have done for us during our time here in the Czech Republic!
We have mentioned a sister from Yemen in our newsletters before. We have prayed for "Rose" for many months. She was with us here in Prague and her visa ran out and we prayed for her to be able to stay, but God answered no. She returned to her family in Yemen and was under much persecution, even to the point of having her life threatened by a family member. We have prayed and prayed "Rose" and God answered in a mighty way! She landed in Kentucky last Sunday! A University in Kentucky granted her a full scholarship and even flew her out of Yemen and assisted her in obtaining a visa to come and study! How Great Is Our God!!

Take Care and God Bless each of you! See you soon!

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine

Volleyball - for the Young at Heart

Hi friends! Got the chance to play volleyball with some Czech nationals last week and again last night. It was such fun! I played in a neighborhood of one of our Czech national workers. She invited me so I went. They had three groups playing in three adjacent courts, two with young people (20-30 year olds) and the center court was older folks. Well, being the brass American that I am - I joined one of the younger groups. The lady in charge of the volleyball came over to me and very gently (but firmly) took me by the elbow and led me to the older folks court! Turns out she may have saved my life as those young Czech volleyballers really hit the ball hard!!!!

Take care! God Bless.

Love, In Christ, John & Alvine

Visit to Stuttgart

Dear Friends,

Three posts? And all at once?? Yes, needed to get this done. We drove to Germany on Saturday (the 12th) and visited the church where we attended when stationed in there from 1983 til 1986. The pastor at that time - Larry J. Jones was going to be there so we determined to go there and see he and his lovely wife Linda. It was a great time of reunion for sure! We hadn't seen them since June 1986! He is now Dr. Larry J. Jones, the D.O.M. of the Lubbock Baptist Association in Lubbock, Texas. It was a whirlwind trip, a 5 hour drive to get there, and then 5 hours back, but we had such a good time. The church building was different, they purchased land and built a beautiful building after we left, the congregation had changed, as most International Churches do, btu it was the same loving fellowship that we had experienced there some 22 years ago. We didn't have any batteries in our camera so we don't have any photos to post, but it was a wonderful time.

Okay, we are now down to just 110 days left (as of Monday July 14)!!

We'll be seeing some of you sooner than you know!! God Bless!

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine

Another trip to Greece!

Wow! Publishing two posts in one day! Almost doesn't seem legal! After John and Melissa left (5 days to be exact) we left for our second AGM (Annual General Meeting) for the South Europe Field which was held in the same place they held it last year - off the coast of Greece. This year though we (folks from the regional office staff) did not have to work! So we simply enjoyed the wonderful time off and sunny weather!

Here are some photos of the beauty of the place. We gathered at a Greek restaurant with friends - Jeff and Amy and Glenn and Cile. We stayed there for a whole week and were so blessed by the whole event.

We are so looking forward to coming home! We've been so very blessed to have been here and to have gotten to know our colleagues and having made so many news friends and all! But, we are missing our grandkids and kids (not necessarily in that order) (or maybe so?).

We really do appreciate all you all have done for us. Keep praying because we still have som time to go!

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine

John & Melissa's Visit

Dear Friends,

This post is only about a month late, but here it is! Our son John and his beautiful wife Melissa came for a visit in June! They arrived June 7th and we toured Germany and the Czech Republic. We even found a bit of time to pop into France for some eclairs! They had a good time and of course Alvine and I really enjoyed having them here.

When they got home they closed on their very first home! We are so very happy for them. John will keep an eye on our place until we get home in 3 and a half months.

Take care and God Bless!

Love, In Christ, John and Alvine