Sights of Plovdiv

I got a chance to tour the city of Plovdiv, one of the oldest cites in Europe. It had many, many beautiful sights, including a view of the sunset from one of the hills in the city center. The smells of Dönners and the bustle of 600,000 made it for a feast for all the senses, especially the eyes. Vast Roman ruins have been uncovered here and the city is taking measures to keep them well preserved. The ancient city wall has also been restored in many places and the homes of the "Bulgarian Renaissance" have been restored to give an idea of what they looked like in the late 1800s after Bulgaria gained independence from the Turks. Look for more photos as I have time.

Bulgaria bound

Monday morning, June 14, Brent heads to Bulgaria to train the CEF® Bulgarian and Greek multimedia teams to use graphic design software. This will help both Bulgaria and Greece better create and produce materials that will evangelize children and help saved children grow in the Word.

Please pray for safe travels, problem-free equipment and wisdom and strength for Brent as he teaches between 8-10 hours a day. Pray too, for the four students who will be taking the course in English, that what is taught can be done clearly and effectively and they would have good understanding of what is taught.

Please also pray for Jen and the children as they are at home during this time.

Brent hopes to have a few updates as the week goes on, but we're not sure how often he'll be able to be online.

Thanks!

Every Day with God

We're excited to be working withCEF® International Headquarters to produce a daily devotional for young readers. The project, called "Every Day with God" will be a 30-day devotional book aimed at 6-8 year olds and will include a Bible verse, application, narrative/interactive, activity and prayer. This project is especially close to Jen and my heart since Amy will start reading in the next few years. The first book centers around the books of Genesis and Exodus. If things go well with the first book, (Lord-willing) we'll be producing six books in all, to be used around the world!

We've been working on the designs, which has been a monumental task. Coming up with several different ideas on one project can take a long time, and this was no exception. The initial designs were submitted this week, but I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of all three designs. Now it's up to the children to pick which one they'd like! It's so far been tested here in Switzerland with children from three different nationalities, and has been sent to several other countries for input from children. This is such an important part of the design process, because oftentimes adults think they know what the children like, but the designs children choose are often opposite of what the adults thought they would be. If you have children between 6-8, please show them all three of these designs and let me know what they thought of them!

Balancing act

Just a couple of weeks ago Jen took off the training wheels to Amy's bike and started teaching Amy how to balance herself. The first day, Jen let go for just a second or two. The following day, I went out, and Amy started going four, five, six seconds without me holding on. The next day, 10-15 seconds. Finally, we went over to the school and Amy took off, riding around in circles and shocking her daddy by how quickly she learned how to balance.

Next up … learning how to stop.

A new era

After 16 years as the Regional Directors for CEF in Europe, Roy and Ruth Harrison have handed the reigns over to Gerd-Walter Buskies. The handover took place at the Conference, and it was an amazing, yet bittersweet event. Bittersweet because of how close we have gotten with Roy and Ruth during our seven years at Kilchzimmer. They've been tremendous encouragers to Jen and I over the years. Yet it was joyful as we're very excited to have Gerd-Walter leading us. His energy, wisdom and insight are gifts from God which will allow CEF to continue reaching Europe's children. Please pray for Gerd-Walter – that God would guide his steps every day.

Photo of Gerd-Walter, Ruth and Roy Harrison by Markus Malzner. Used with permission.