30 years of marriage!!

Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will beome one flesh.

It's hard to believe that Mike and I celebrated thirty years of marriage this week! How would a 19 and 22 yr old have been able to even guess where they would end up 30 yrs later?

We are so grateful for the gift that marriage is. Grateful to both sets of parents who modeled love and faithfulness in marriage to us.

We spent the day at the office with staff meetings and then found a steakhouse (quite rare here in Greece) for dinner. We waited to go to eat till 8 pm but still were almost the only people in the restaurant!

One interesting thing, a new friend asked me, what was it that used to get on my nerves about my husband in the earlier days, and I couldn't remember a thing! Does God erase our memories as we grow older in marriage together or just use the early struggles to bind us so closely together? Either way, I am so grateful for my dear husband and his incredible love and friendship over all these years!

A word of encouragement for other marriages: keep on working at it, it is the best, an incredible gift from God and a lasting heritage to our children.

Mike is at the shipyard

Every three years or so the Morning Star is taken out of the sea and brought to the shipyard to be overhauled. This year Mike has been joining the team working on repairing the boat. It is stripped down, sanded, sanded and more sanded. Rust is removed, holes patched, rotted wood repaired and then it gets its new coat of paint and it ready to be launched back in the sea again.

Please pray for energy and safety for all the workers there. Pray for all that is needed to make the repairs complete to come in, including parts, finances etc.

This boat is a big tool that HM uses to take the gospel to the islands and surrounding countries of Greece. To read more, see our new HM website wwww.hellenicministries.com or on Facebook become a fan of Morning Star Santa Cruz.

Greek Easter and Mike's Birthday

Mike and I celebrated Greek Easter with a co-worker and her family down in a village in the Peloponnesos. It was such a treat to be received so warmly by this family and to enjoy an authentic cultural experience with them. Goat and octopus were served for dinner, fireworks and miniature hot air balloons were released on Sat. midnight, and Greek music and dancing in the square on Sunday! Additionally, we celebrated Mike's 52nd birthday there on Easter Sunday. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together and realize it's hospitality like this that causes so many to love Greece.

HM Family Conference a Success!

Mid April found almost all of the HM team gathered up at Porto Astro for a four-day annual conference. This was the first time we hosted this event out at the property and a great time was had by all.

God graced us with mild weather so that we were all able to remain warm enough in our unheated cabins and trailers. It rained a little a couple of the days, but nothing too drastic to keep us (abt 100 of us) inside all day.

A team of adults and high schoolers from Prairie Christian Academy in Canada came and blessed us by cooking, providing camp maintenance and childcare so we were able to enjoy our time together.

The days were filled with personal quiet times, study of Philippians led by guest speaker Jacques Teeuwen, ministry reports, corporate worship times, brainstorming sessions and fun game times together. We all came away refreshed and energized to begin the busy summer season of ministry.

Thank you so much for all your prayers.

No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. Ps 33:16-17. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Neh 8:10.

HM Family Conference April 12 - April 16 2009

Hi Friends,
Happy Easter to you all. While you will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, our HM family will be gathering out at Porto Astro for our annual family conference. Please pray for us, there will be 100 of us out at the camp this week!

Please pray:
for good weather; there are no heaters in the cabins and trailers, and 22 children to keep busy inside if it rains!
for Peggy as she is co-coordinating this conference. for her to be flexible and gracious in all the details of the conference.
for us all to be able to have great time with the Lord and His Word.
for team bonding.
for it to be a great time for the team from Canada who will be cooking and providing child care for us.
for safety.

We will celebrate Easter here in Greece next weekend on Mike's birthday, April 19th.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Work Day at Porto Astro

We had a great work day Friday at Porto Astro preparing for our upcoming family conference. Thanks so much to all of you who were able to make it. The place looked much better after our visit!

Adventures with Scott and Emily

We were so excited to host our first family visitors, Scott and Emily Fedyski (Peggy's nephew and his wife) last week. They came to spend a week with us, checking out Greece and HM. We had a blast. We showed them everything we could think of in just a few days here. In fact, Mike did such a great job as a tour guide they thought maybe he could do that for a job if missions didn't work out for him! Probably our most memorable time was in Corinth when we did not pay attention to the signs and got ourselves locked in at the ancient castle!! We were so thankful for the friendly hospitable Greeks who called for help for us and the lady with the key who came and let us out!

Scott and Emily joined us at working at our weekly love meals and for a work day out at the property on Friday. They were stuck cleaning the bathrooms and did a great job getting those things in shape!

They were able to make a short overnight trip to Nafplio by themselves mid week as well, so it wasn't just all work and no play.

We had some awesome Rook games while they were here, although Peggy and Scott never won a match :( Sorry Scott, my first time playing and I was terrible! I guess you were learning perseverance huh?

Now they are off, and we are back to work. Family conference begins in a week and Peggy is helping coordinate it, so there is lots to do. Please pray for all the last minute details that need to come together this week and for good weather. We don't have any heaters at the property which could make sleeping challenging for all!