some of what we're up to here...

I just realized that you haven't really got to see a lot of what we're up to as far as ministries here! Of course we're just making friends and finding connections... Learning how to get around and shop... But we've done a few other things, too! (I try to stay on top of Facebook, if you wanna find me there: jilljohnsoncrawford -to see some daily updates!)

The thing we do almost everyday: language! We have a tutor come over four mornings a week now. It was five, but we switched to four in the hopes that we could have her come an extra month or so... We have three months of tutoring planned into our budget as Missionary Associates. So Nadela comes four times a week to teach us, along with Marine who comes to watch/teach the kiddos! Love those two friends!

Then, Kevin is helping a church here get a live worship band going. They sing live on Sundays now but just by a synthesized keyboard that has all the tracks on it. So now they're learning to have individual instruments and how to play as a team. About 8-10 people meet at our house every Tuesday and we love them! The kids look forward to their weekly practices, too! They band hopes to start leading on Sundays sometime this fall, maybe September. They're such a great bunch and are learning a lot. Kevin is enjoying his time working with them! One guy came for an extra bass practice this week, too. Another church is hoping to have Kev come help their worship team, too, so hopefully that will work out in the future.

The Fire Bible offices has devotions together every Monday morning and Kevin and I have had the opportunity to be a part of that since Nick and Olivia are back in the states with their brand new baby girl, Ava! The girls working up there are some really good friends and love the Lord. Usually the kids come along and watch a movie while we talk, but after that they usually get some snack or get to draw on their white board... good stuff! :)

When we first got here we went to a special needs orphanage and we are trying to get back up there. We'd heard it can be tough to get in to orphanages but since we've already been up there and been asked to come back, we thought it'd be pretty easy! Now the hard part for us has been to track down the address and phone number! Arg. We'll continue to see how we can serve orphans as the doors open...

Both Kev and I have been involved in outreaches, too. I spoke at a womens retreat in Hrazdon, a town north of here, and Kev sang a couple songs at an outreach in the city of Ararat, a town south of here!

We're trying to help Nick and Olivia as they prepare some conferences scheduled for this October. One for women, and one for church planters. Our friend, Marine, is really the one here doing tons of work for it... but we try to help her with whatever we can!

So. We have a few things that we've been up to! Some days we feel like we should be doing more, and some days we're just exhausted with what we are doing! They say that just living overseas can be exhausting... I guess you have to get out there and do it to know what they mean... Just driving and not being sure you're doing the right thing (Kev's been pulled over 6 times, and I got a parking ticket once!), trying to shop when you can't understand/can't speak, having simple things like a pipe fixed or a light replaced... all these little things can be a lot more stressful then in the states where we can at least speak and understand! Driving over pot holes all day alone could be stressful! Ha. With wild drivers whipping past! :)

We have learned more of the language which we're happy about... but still have a lot more to learn! It's easier to understand then to speak. Which is logical, I guess! We're glad we know the alphabet now and can read some. The kids are enjoying learning and seem to be doing well here. So that's huge! Our new year of homeschooling material should be on its way... whoo!

So here we are! This is what we're doing. We've been here 5 months already! You can pray for wide open doors for us and wisdom in what we should be involved in! Mostly, we need prayer just for keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, the whole reason we do anything!

-Oh, we also have family night on Fridays... and Kevin has successfully learned how to call and order pizza in Armenian now! He's become Kevin jan to the pizza guy, even! (Jan, pronounced like john, is a sweet term like "friend" or "dear"... something like that-there's no exact translation!) You know you're settling in when you're friends with the pizza guy, right?!