Dear family of friends:

 

Lynn here. 34 hours til we leave for Slovakia!  Yup.  It's THAT time.

 

But first a story ... Anyone remember the book called ''Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day"? Last Thursday was one of those for us. Our eagerly awaited four days with our kids and granddaughter, was affected by a 'someone tested positive at your place of work' calls.  Jamie and Katie and Juni had to turn around on the highway and go back to Toronto to get tested and wait two days for the results before making any further plans to hang out with us.  Honestly?  I had a fragile day. 

 

It all caught up with me.  I've left Africa, I have seen hardly any of the people who we normally see here in Canada, I'm about to leave my kids and i really don't know enough about where i'm going and who will speak English when i get there and how cold it will be, and how well i can adjust my being on 'African Time' to European time!  All very big cultural changes for me.  I was also taking my mum's death certificate into a bank that day to finalise things there and we were dealing with an unusual amount of red tape from the Slovak Embassy ... so i had a little cry and asked the Lord to remind me again that this too IS the Will of God concerning me.

 

Saturday morning dawned with good news.  A positive result from Jamie and they were on the way and would stay til Tuesday (today).  What precious times with our Kohls Bubble.  Ryan is here in Peterborough for a few months too so we were all together.

 

And today?  We say our family goodbyes - then finish packing, cleaning, and final appointments to pick up new glasses, finalise things with 2 banks, get a tune up from my chiropractor ... those of you who travel know the drill!

 

We just wanted to say - SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!  And how deeply we appreciate the few visits we were able to make despite all the COVID curves we were thrown and how much we wish we could have seen more of our friends and supporters.  I know you all understand how different these 5 weeks in Canada have been (2 in isolation and 3 'out and about') and both Paul and I just want to thank you.  I think a few zoom, facetime, whatsapp calls are in order for our upcoming isolation in Slovakia so you can SEE us!

 

Please pray for the following events to line up :-) 

 

1. That our recent COVID results will be ready for when we land in Austria. And of course that they will remain negative!

2. That the Austria/Slovakia border will still be open (it is at this writing but things are changing daily) and we will be able to enter without problem.

3. That our documents which we sent to be super legalized here in Canada WILL be ready on time for our appointment with the Foreign Police on September 25th.  At this writing they aren't done yet.

 

and once that is all in order and you hear from us ...

 

4. That our transition to the land where God is calling us, will be filled with joy and deep peace, despite all the moving pieces.  

5. That we find a place to live fairly quick once we're done our isolation in our gracious hosts home, Steve and Patti Herzog!!!

6. We will be living in the city of NITRA and working at GATEWAY COLLEGE there.  

7. We begin teaching later in the Fall - pray that we will be ready spiritually as well as educationally.

 

Please find Nitra on the map (like we had to- haha) and pray for that city and our upcoming school year with our new students!

 

Much love to all of you and yours!

 

Lynn ... with 33 hours now to go ...