July is almost gone!

I can not believe that July has been here and almost gone already! It has been a very quick month here. The first few weeks were normal business, and then the main thing that happened this month was the trip to Bulgaria Valbona and I took. We went for just about a week, going first to a Women's Conference, and then to the capital city for shopping and sightseeing. The conference was WONDERFUL! The city was incredibly peaceful, the hotel we stayed in was only two weeks old, and the speakers were both great. The ladies who spoke were both originally from Australia, but serving abroad, one in Germany and one in England, so the conference was in English (plus translation into Bulgarian). The speaker I think everyone connected most with was the main speaker, Ruth. During the conference, she would occasionally stop to pray for people and prophesy over them, and that included me. I won't give all the details, but after feeling for a half hour that God was telling me to go back to China, I was prayed for and told to "enjoy my calling and go all the way with it." Soo, I don't know when, and I don't yet know how, but I fully intend to end up back in China. I had originally said I would come back within five years, but I don't think I'll make it by 2009 since I've still got my Master's degree to start and finish. But, I am about 98% sure that I am going back. Hopefully I won't have to wait until I'm sixty to do so.

Albania, in the meantime, is going well. I'll FINALLY be starting my small group next week, and have quite a few girls who are free on Friday nights, so we'll hope all goes well with that and many can indeed come. I have, as a result, been working quite a bit on my Albanian, but, as always, am reminded of how little I know. This morning, I thought someone was asking me how the dog was, but they were asking the equivalent of "What's up?"--I still can not distinguish between some of the sounds in Albanian, and I'm not sure if I will ever be able to easily, but I'm hoping it will get slightly better.

So, prayer requests for this month are:
Bible study--pray for fellowship, unity, and a desire to learn God's word
IT'S HOT!!! Well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit on many days, and I do not have a working air conditioner in my home, or in school. Pray for the kids as well, because it's difficult for them to work in this heat.

Thanks for all of the prayers and emails,
(Please remember comments do not work on the blog, so email me at tuckerkat@gmail.com if you need to get ahold of me, or look me up on Facebook if you're on it.)

Summer!!

It is definitely summer in Albania! We have had a very hot few weeks, and while we're in a cooler spell at the moment (uppers 80s-lower 90s) the temperature is supposed to go over 100 degrees Fahrenheit again very shortly. Not much has changed with Christopher's headaches, he still gets them more often than he should. But, thankfully, I have not had any new migraines. I'm amazed that this week (and the month of June) have gone by so quickly. I now only have 4 and a half months left, which is incredibly bizarre. Pray for me as I'm praying for wisdom about what I'm doing when I get back--I know I'll be starting at Oakland next fall, but I can't start the program this winter as I'd hoped, so I will likely be subbing this winter. I'm hoping I can get another long-term position, but we will see what happens then.

Things have been good here, with little steps and big steps in friendships happening this week, so that has been wonderful. We're also looking forward to two semi-vacations: first, in the third week of July, I'll be going to Bulgaria with some of the ladies from the church for a conference/vacation; second, I'll be going to a camp with many of the staff/helpers in August. The camp needs quite a bit of funds since the church is helping pay for the helpers, so if anyone has any spare change they'd like to send to Albania, let us know!

All for now, thanks again to all who pray for me!