Whew! What a whirlwind our time in the U.S. has been so far! We started with a visit to Tony's parents in South Carolina (with a few touristy days in Tennessee for fun), where Tony shared at Cornerstone Assembly of God. Then we drove south to Orlando, where we made new friends at Orlando Church where Tony was honored by Pastor Dave to have an entire Wednesday night service to introduce ourselves and talk about how God is moving in Romania.
From Orlando we continued to Miami for two weeks with Tony's sister, Chris, and lots of visits with old friends. The Lord blessed Tony with the opportunity to speak to the youth at our home church, Words of Life Fellowship, and He moved in some very special ways on the following Sunday morning at Harvest International Church, with our friends, Pastors Brian and Lena Miltenberger. Before we left Miami, we even got to visit Keys to Life Church in Miramar, where our friend Arthor Jackson is the pastor. (Arthor sang at our wedding, over 12 years ago!) At the end of last week, we left Miami for Bradenton, FL, and just a few days ago, Tony spoke at Bethany Baptist Church, which has supported us faithfully and generously since we returned to Romania in 2005. We were also especially blessed to attend a deacon's dinner at Bethany Baptist and to get to know several of the beautiful people who serve at that church.
In addition to the privilege of sharing our heart for Romania and kids with so many people, God has granted us many many marvelous times with family and friends. Tony's parents took us to a beautiful aquarium where the kids touched horseshoe crabs and saw live sharks. Grandma Dee, Aunt Lorrie, Rhianan, and Nick surprised us with a fun visit in Orlando. In Miami, they chased their cousins everywhere, and we got to experience Wii bowling and tennis with our friends the Caballeros. Chrissy attended a bridal shower tea for our dear friend Patty Garcia, who is getting married next week. And now in Bradenton, we were just blessed with tickets for our whole family to go to Busch Gardens! God has been so good to us!
We will be in Bradenton for another week and a half, then back up to South Carolina to prepare for our return to Romania on Aug. 5. If we haven't connected with you yet, please contact us via email or on our Vonage phone at 941-803-8303, which we forward to our new location each time we move. We will be mailing out a more detailed update within the next week or two, so please watch your mailbox for that. (Or if you don't currently receive our paper newsletter but would like to, please drop us an email!)
