Euro Relief

Man, this is nice! We're not losing as much to the exchange rate as we were just two months ago. Every missionary in a European country that either uses the Euro or a currency that is based upon the Euro is thanking God for the slip of the Euro against the U.S. Dollar. We hope this trend continues. When we served our 6 month internship in 2002 here, the exchange rate was in our favor as it took only $0.90 to buy 1 Euro (those were the good ole' days). Hopefully, in the next few months, the exchange rate will once again at least equalize. That would be very helpful.

4 Years Ago Today

Do you remember what you were doing 4 years ago today? We remember exactly what we were doing October 1, 2004. This is the day that we landed at the Athens International Airport with all of our stuff packed in 13 bags and stars in our eyes. Brandie was 6 months pregnant with Emily and was at the end of the time that it was safe for her to fly. We landed about 6:30 pm local time. Only 9 bags made the trip and the other 4 were delivered in the next few days. We rented a car though orbitz.com...it was supposed to be an automatic. When we got to the counter of Europcar, they informed us that they didn't have any automatics to rent. I had never driven a stick shift out side of a supermarket parking lot. But, with God's help, we made it. It's about a 26 mile drive from the airport to the apartment were staying in at the time...and it was quite a bumpy drive (Ha! Ha!). We had a map and some foggy directions to the house....but we made it. Finally, at about 11:00 pm, we were able to grab something to eat and turn in for the night. This was the start of an adventure that has shpaed our lives in so many ways.