The Twins Turn ONE!!!!

On Wed March 11, Adalyn and Abigail Crabtree turned one year old!!! I can not believe that they are already a year old. This past year has been so much fun seeing them grow and watching their personalities come forward! Adalyn has a very outgoing personality, while Abigail is more laid back but is very attentive to the things around her. They started walking about a month ago and are now into everything! They really do keep us all on our toes!

On Friday night they had a family birthday party in Indiana with Adam's family. It was fun watching them dive into their cupcakes! I have added a picture of the "Birthday Girls" for you to enjoy!

Happy Birthday Babies!

When Your Life Gets Rebooted

All Our Luggage The Morning We Left Athens

Has your computer ever rebooted? Ever done it on its own? We have a computer (a Toshiba) that we purchased in Greece that seems to reboot itself whenever IT feels the need to be rebooted. This can be frustrating, especially when I'm in the middle of something very important (which is usually the case).

I said that to say this....our life has been rebooted. I am posting our last ministry update letter. Please read it and pray for us.

As is often the case, when the computer reboots, it runs again...as opposed to just shutting down. When our family was faced with the option of rebooting our ministry or shutting it down completely (aka quitting), we chose, by the grace of God, to reboot and continue the ministry that God called us to many years ago.

______________________________
Dear Ministry Partner,

We would like to thank all of those who sent us Christmas cards and financial gifts at the end of last year. The financial gifts were much needed and we say “thank you” from the bottom of our hearts. We’d also like to express our appreciation to those who prayed for us during the riots in Athens. God protected us through some very difficult circumstances and we were able to make it back without a scratch! Since our arrival on December 12 we have driven over 5,000 miles reporting to some of our supporting churches.

The last quarter of 2008 was a very difficult period for the Crabtree family. Brandie and I have worked on obtaining some sort of residency since 2002 with no success. All of our children were born in Greece, but that did not grant us any favor in the application process and the girls were not given Greek citizenship upon their birth. During the fall of 2008, we made another application for residency, even making an additional appeal to the government and they denied us for the final time. We have exhausted all of our options. Without residency, it is impossible for us to stay and minister in Greece.

For the past four and a half years, we were required to leave Greece, a European Union country every 90 days. This was taxing on us both physically and financially. Another law change took effect January 1, 2009 that prevents us from spending more than 180 days (6 months) during any 365 day period inside Greece. This would prohibit us from leaving and re-entering Greece in order to stay legal.

This puts our family in a very difficult position. After much prayer and fasting, we have decided to continue ministering to Greek speaking people. After some research, we learned that there are more Greeks living outside Greece (12 million) than live inside Greece (10 million). The largest Greek community abroad is found in Astoria, Queens, New York (with over 65,000 Greeks). Not only do we see an entire immigrant community in need of Jesus Christ, we also see 65,000 potential missionaries that can live in Greece legally and not face the same residency restrictions that have plagued my family for the duration of our ministry (not to mention that they already know the language and culture). Our plan is relocate to Queens and start a Greek speaking Independent Baptist Church. We want to continue the ministry that God called to do many years ago. We go about this with the complete support and approval of Dr. Jerry Mullendore, Director of Beacon International Baptist Mission (formerly Evangelization in Eastern Europe) and Rev. Wayne Barron, the pastor of our sending church, South Side Baptist Church, Springfield, MO. Our goal will always remain the same: to plant self-supporting, self-governing Independent Baptist churches. One focus of our ministry will be equipping Greek families to do the work of the Lord with the intention of sending them back to Greece where we, as Americans, cannot live and minister (2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”). Our plan is to remain involved in church planting. When Greece opens her doors to allow us to stay and minister, we will be on the first plane.

If you have any questions, please contact us (telephone: (317) 222-1952 or by email: mail@thecrabtree.org), Dr. Mullendore (mailing address: P.O. Box 5907, Johnson City, TN 37602-5907 or by phone: (423) 426-1196), or Pastor Barron (address: 465 S. Grant Ave., Springfield, MO 65806 or by phone: (417) 869-5496). Thank you for your support and confidence in us over the years and please keep us in your prayers as we strive to follow God’s call in our lives in reaching Greeks for Christ!

Serving Him,

Adam, Brandie, Emily, Adalyn, & Abigail Crabtree

Our Crazy So-Called Life

On December 12, we arrived back in the States after being detained in Greece for an additional 2 days. We were tired and worn out, but so glad to finally be on American soil again. Even though we were tired and half asleep, we hit the ground running!!! The following afternoon, we had a 4th birthday party for Emily. We are told it was a great party, but we were to tired to really remember it! The next week was a blur of trying to Christmas shop, Parties, Family and fun! From there we headed to Tennessee to see the other side of the family and celebrated the New Year.

Just after the first of the year, we hit the ground running! Well....Adam hit the ground running, because all of our girls started getting acquanted with the many germs that were circulating in America. Abigail got RSV had to be put on breathing treatments. Adalyn and Emily got the stomach flu. With Adam on the road, it was a fun time for me and the kids! Adam was in Florida when the kids all were finally better, so the kids and I decided to fly down and meet him there. We were able to get an Amazing deal on tickets, so on Sunday afternoon, my mom dropped me, Emily and the twins off at the airport for our trip. I know what you are thinking, and yes I was nuts, but we made it in one piece! We had a great time in Florida! We were able to see some old friends and had a great time. One of the highlights of our trip was going to Sea World. The church where we were staying purchased tickets for our family. Emily loved watching "Shampoo" jump and flip in the water! It was a great day! Thanks Monterey Baptist!

After Florida, the kids and I decided that it was time to stay put for a while in our little missions apartment that we are calling home for the time being. Adam did back to back missions conferences among a few other meetings. We were glad to have him home again after he was finished. We have been in several churches since and have had a wonderful time. Traveling is very tireing for the kids as well as for Adam and I! We are able to be in some great churches and have made some wonderful new friends, but I will be so glad when this all comes to and end and we are again settled!

I am writing this while going down the road heading to Missouri. We get to spend the next week with our home church family and we are really looking forward to a time of re-couping while we are there!

Until I type again,
Brandie

Blog Reboot Coming!

We will make some changes to our blog. These changes will take place by February 25, 2009. Thanks for your patience.

Adam

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! If that offends you, get over it!

Safe Arrival

Just a quick note to update you on our status: We arrived safely late Friday night in Indianapolis, Indiana. My parents were at the airport to give us a ride to their house where we will stay until December 26. On that day, we will drive to Tennessee to spend some time with Brandie's family. Yesterday we celebrated Emily's 4th birthday with a party for our family and friends. It was good to see many people we haven't seen in a long time.

We had a great trip. We had long layovers that we were dreading to be honest with you. But, when you travel with babies, longer layovers are needed and it all worked out. Lufthansa was great and treated us very well. There were porters at each airport to help us with our luggage (as you can imagine, we had our a bunch with all the stuff we need for the kids).

Thank you to all that prayed for us during this very difficult time. We are still a little jet lagged...but we'll get over it in the next few days.

Delays, Delays, Delays

Okay, we're not really roughing it. Lufthansa has put us up in a 5 star hotel. Since we have 5 in our family, they gave us 2 a joining rooms (even though 2 of us are only 9 months old). So, we've not been exactly roughing it. Being delayed has been an inconvenience, however, Lufthansa has done a lot to ease our discomfort with the nice rooms and meal vouchers.

Please pray for us tomorrow as we travel and that our luggage makes it on time. We will let you know our progress as it happens.

Riots & Strikes

Have you heard about the riots here in Athens? It's pretty big news over here as we experience the general public's outlast at the police over the fatality of a 15 year old boy. I'm not going to get political or place blame on either party here....this post is to just recount to you our experience.

Today, Wednesday, December 10 was to be a big day for our family. We have been preparing for furlough for some time now and this date was circled on our calendar for months. Last Saturday night, I believe in downtown Athens, a police officer shot and killed a 15 year old boy. This has sparked outrage in the community.

So, how has this affected us? On Monday night, while trying to pick up Brother Jimmy, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, and his family, the riots started and spread through the part of town where Jimmy lives. We've rented a big 12 passenger van to haul our luggage to the airport and thankfully, I was driving that. Suddenly, out of nowhere, approximately 50 youths (ages 15-25) surrounded the stand still traffic that I was part of. Brandie and the girls were not with me at this time (thank God!). The youths started harassing cars and throwing rocks and fruit. About 5 or 6 of these youths picked my car to try to intimidate. Before I knew it, they had surrounded my car and started rocking it back in forth with me in it. To be honest with you, this scared me to death. I didn't know what to do because they were already burning cars in the center of the city. I was hoping not to become a "well done" missionary at this point. The man in the car in front of me started yelling at the youths and they threw a rock through his window. Immediately after that, about 15 feet from this car, the youths set a dumpster on fire and it burned very quickly. In a matter of seconds, flames were jumping 15 to 20 feet into the air. All of this happened and I just prayed for God's protection and I'm here to tell the story without a scratch on my body!!!

Fast forward to this morning. It is about a hour drive from the my house to the airport. When we arrived at the airport and parked the van, we discovered that the nation wide strike scheduled for today has indeed affected the airport and it is closed. CLOSED!!! We are flying with the German carrier Lufthansa. At the help desk for Lufthansa, there was nobody to help...just a note that said, "If the 24 hour strike has affected you, we apologize." I thought "if..." There are no flights in or out of Greece today. They left a phone number and we called it. The earliest we could get a ticket was on Friday. That's two days away. Plus, on the phone, they told me that since they were not responsible for the strike, that there was nothing they could do (like accommodations, food vouches etc).

It has all worked out so far though. Since this very difficult few minutes this morning, Lufthansa (who is not at fault) made reservations for our family at a 5 star hotel here at the hotel plus food vouchers at a "fancy" restaurant. Tomorrow morning, they want us to report to the front Lufthansa desk at 5 am to see if we can get a ticket "stand-by" and if we can't, then we'll stay another night here and fly at 6:05 am Friday morning. Emily has a birthday part on Saturday...needless to say, we were going to spend Thursday and Friday preparing for that. Thankfully, my mom has taken a lot of this responsibility upon her shoulders and is a huge help.

We are all okay and we just want to get out of this mess. Many say the violence could get worse before it gets better.

First Convert

After 4 1/2 years of ministry (after handing out thousands of tracts, Bible's, and other pieces of literature and building many relationships through which we've shared the gospel), on our last Sunday before furlough, we've had our first convert. We praise the Lord for His eternal promises!!! Words are not enough to describe the feeling today as we watched a lady put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. Please pray for her (name withheld on purpose) as she attempts to reach her family with the gospel.

Catch-Up Post

As promised....

We started the month of November in Olympia, Greece. As you may already know, Olympia is the birthplace of the "Olympic" Games. Wow....it was an awesome place and well worth the 4 hour drive.

Thanksgiving came and went. In the past, we've met with other missionary or American families to celebrate. Not this year. We used the day to see Epidavros. It's an ancient amphitheater built 400 years before Christ. It was an awesome experience. On our way home, we ate our "Thanksgiving" meal at a traditional Greek restaurant. We had grilled chicken skewers, Greek salad with feta cheese, olives, fried potatoes seasoned with oregano, and fried cheese. To top it off, the owner provided us with a huge plateful of fresh oranges on the house. Wow, it was a delicious meal and we were stuffed!!!

After Thanksgiving, we started preparing for our furlough. It will be here before we know it. Our flight leaves on December 10. We will land in Indianapolis and spend Christmas with my family. On the day after Christmas, we will travel to Tennessee to spend time with Brandie's parents. We are so excited as this will be our first Christmas in the U.S. since 2003 and it will be the girls' first Christmas in the U.S. period. Hopefully we will have a white Christmas!!!

I apologize for ignoring this blog. We've been so busy and we look forward to a nice Christmas season. We will keep you updated promptly from now on.

As for our immediate plans, as we said before...we will spend Christmas and New Year's with family. In January, we will start our traveling to report to our supporting churches and also visit some new churches in order to raise some more financial support.

2 Weeks Until Furlough

I've ignored this blog long enough. Preparation for furlough is in high gear and we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off! Check back in the next day or so for a "catch-up" post.

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.

Santorini Getaway

During the last of August, we had the privilege of having Adam's parents come and visit for a couple of weeks. During that visit, we made an unexpected 3 day trip to the island of Santorini. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. There is an underwater volcano that the island is a result of and because of this, the beaches are black! It was so cool! Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures that we took while we were there. Enjoy!

These pictures were not taken on the island, but I thought I would throw them in anyway!

Nanna with her babies.

New Family Picture

Dead, Dry Summer

Hey all, Sorry it has been so long in updating the blog. Honestly, not much has been going on this summer. It has been pretty quiet around here, especially so since the beginning of August. The Greeks just celebrated a big holiday this past weekend. They celebrated the assention of Mary into Heaven. It was actually very quiet around here because everyone is gone from the city until the beginning of Sept. The girls were even suppose to go for some shots this month, but the doctor said that he couldn't do it until Sept. because of August being vacation month. All of Europe is this way. We get a kick out of it and just enjoy the down time.

Adam's parents will be coming for a visit starting next week. We are very excited about it. Emily is especially excited for them to get here. Every time our door bell buzzes, she thinks Nanna and Poppy are here and she gets so excited until I have to explain, yet again, that they are not here and they won't be here until next week. She is such a funny little girl.

Here are a few pictures of the girls at play for you all to see. The babies are getting so big now. Abigail has a new tooth, but Adalyn still is working on it. Getting teeth is hard work for little babies. I feel so bad for them. It will all pass soon enough I suppose. Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Emily playing "dress up" with the babies.

Isn't she a doll!!

Adalyn fell asleep in her walker!

Adalyn and Abigail love "Baby Einstein" just like Emily did at this age!

This one is Adalyn and below is Abigail.

The twins love to cuddle with each other. They sleep in the same bed and sleep right on top of each other. It is so sweet!

Platia Terpsithea

Last night, we went as a family to the local park. This is the highlight of Emily's day! She loves going and playing with the other kids. This is a nice park that's about a 10 minutes walk from our house. Since we live in the middle of the city, having a park close is really nice. It gives Emily a chance to get some energy out and interact with other kids. Enjoy the pictures!

Adalyn

Abigail

What does that sign say?

I'm sorry that it has been some time since our last post. I won't offer any excuses as to why it's been such a long time (other than old fashion laziness). We had an opportunity to see a different part of the country this past week and we found the following sign. Isn't it great?


It has been a very warm, sometimes hot summer thus far. The highest temp that we've been able to confirm so far is 102. It's still early though...August is usually the hottest month of the year. So, we're just waiting for the heat to come. We're not using both air conditioners in the house. We have one in our bedroom and one in the living room. They are like hotel units...not central air. But, we're not complaining at all. It's much better than just using traditional fans. Well, that's all right now. We'll keep you updated if anything exciting happens in the next few days.

Adam

Summer is Here!

Well, Summer is finally here and the temperatures are soaring. We have already had temperatures in the upper 90's and the beaches are full! As for our family... life has been a bit crazy for the past few weeks, but it is starting to slow down some for the summer. Adam has been teaching a Bible study in the home of an elderly woman who lives on the East side of Athens, but she and her daughter left this week for their island home and will be there until Sept., therefore that study is on hold for the summer. During the month of August, there will be a mass exodus throughout the entire country. Everyone heads to their island homes, or to other various vacation spots and the city is much like a ghost town. It is actually a nice month to be in the city if you can stand the heat!

The girls are all getting so big. Emily seems to have grown 6 inches in the past month and the babies are each a little over 10 lbs now. We took them for their first injections this past week and they let us know that they did not wish to do that again. They got over it though and we will go for a repeat performance at the end of the summer.

Well, there is not much else to report, so I will end with a few new pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Aren't my girls sweet?

Emily playing with her little sisters.

Emily likes feeding her "baby" when we feed ours!

Abigail is on the left, and Adalyn is on the right!

My Beautiful Girls!

Just thought I would show off my three beautiful girls. The twins are growing so quickly and they are so much fun. They are laughing now. It is so sweet. Emily is a great "Big Sister." She is great with the girls. We are so proud of all three of them.

Can you tell who is who?

Abigail and Adalyn

Adalyn, Emily, and Abigail

Daddy and his "Girls."

Dedicated to God!

On Sunday May 11, we had a special dedication service for the twins. We invited many of our Greek friends and ended up with a total of 18 people in our home that evening. My mom and I prepared a meal and after we ate, we got a phone call from our home church in Missouri. It was the end of their morning service. Our pastor spent some time over our speaker phone talking about what it means to dedicate our children back to God and he explained that it had nothing to do with their salvation, but it was about Adam and I as parents giving our children to God to do with what He will. He then prayed over our girls. After he finished, my dad prayed over the girls and then Adam did the same. It was a wonderful evening and we were able to share Christ with many of our unbelieving friends. After the service ended, we had several questions from our friends as to why we do not baptise the children and what we believe. They were happy that we allow our children to choose what they will believe and that we don't believe that they are born into it. I found that very interesting!

Here are a some pictures of our girls and their special friends that shared their special night with them.

My mom and dad, Dr. Jerry and Christine Mullendore with Adalyn and Abigail

Costa, Nicole, and Daniel (Daniel is only 2 months older than our girls! AMAZING!!)

Tracy's husband Dimitri with one of the girls, I am not sure which!

Our Wonderful friend Tracy!

Our new friend and new Believer Irene

Adam praying over the girls.