"Kali!"

"Kali" means horse in Albanian, and is pronounced Holly but with a K. So, Noah has been calling me "Kali!" "Kali!" which has been quite humorous...not to mention absolutely adorable since its no secret that I have become his favorite ;) He cries and asks for "Kali!!" even when Dave or April are holding him.

We underestimated the time it would take to get to Macedonia by bus...3 hours turned into 5. As we entered Macedonia, we had to go through border patrol. A woman came on the bus to verify all passengers had valid passports. Then, she left the bus to get them stamped, and on we went. The whole process took about an hour. Once we crossed the border it was only 15 mins to the hotel.

The hotel is lakefront with beautiful Albania mountains as the backdrop. Again, we hope to post some photos soon.

The first day of conference went well. Here are some of the things we did: Ben and Steve shared their testimonies with the teens and Steve started showing them how to build a model rocket(he brought a kit from home).The teens seemed to really enjoy it as they have never done anything like that before. Holly and Lori did a puppet show on the fruits of the spirit, explored outside, and worked on a craft, sang songs and played games with the younger kids. Mark was busy leading the adults in worship all morning and spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening providing counselling to many of the missionaries. They seemed eager and thankful to have a licensed counselor to talk to, especially since Mark used to be a missionary himself.

In The afternoon we walked around the local town, Struga, where we window shopped and took in the sights. After dinner we had some more free time to just spend time together talking and getting to know the Albania Christar team.

The weather was beautiful again today...blue skies and a little brisk. Some of us are still feeling some jet lag and struggle with falling asleep at night. But other than that we are healthy and doing very well!

P.S.- We are actually 5 hours ahead. April informed me that they will be 6 hours ahead starting March 31, which is when their daylight saving time begins for them. So, sorry for any confusion :)