Our first stop lasted just about two months. Living in The Attic, a cozy apartment on the top floor of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church, we were just two blocks off St. Stephen’s Green (the central park of Dublin--site of many enjoyable walks and noontime concerts) and had a wonderful vantage point from which to observe and participate in the life of that great European city. The congregation of Adelaide Road had just lost its pastor of many years, and was beginning a search for his successor. The church presents a serious challenge for the congregation and new pastor, located where it is in the center of the City, but that challenge is matched by the opportunities it has to live out the gospel and present Christ to the students, expatriate workers and immigrants, as well as native Dubliners, who scurry past the front door every week day. Every Sunday over half of the congregation is 
international, and on Sunday afternoon one of the largest Korean churches in Europe meets in its sanctuary. And the leaders of the church are deeply committed to finding ways to minister that heterogeneous population plus all the others. In a traditionally Catholic country, but one which has become alienated from that church by events of the past decade, the future of the gospel is shared with all believers, and God is at work.After preaching in Dublin for two months, with regular forays into other parts of the Irish countryside, Nancy flew home (with family who had come to visit) while I headed south to Barcelona, Spain, for a month-long cycling adventure. Tour de France
climbs over several Pyrenean passes marked the beginning of Brian and my trek, then for weeks we headed north through the farm land of western France. The weather was perfect, the roads were calm, and the scenery picturesque.
The ending point for me was Gatwick (London), where, after a wind-aided rapid cycle through southern England, I boarded a plane to the US and a surprise short week touching base with our home. Then off again to N. Ireland and Albania, where for two weeks I taught in 
Udhekryq Bible School, located in Erseke, a village in southern Albania. For the first several days in Albania, Nancy stayed in Tirana, the capital, where she renewed friendships with people from last year and offered several English Language
Methodology seminars in the local University. She then joined me in Erseke for rest of the time. While at the school we were privileged to live in an apartment with
Fred and Margie Strock, 50 year veteran missionaries in Pakistan. We also got to know the leaders of the school, and their church and mountain camping facility. We walked through the camp area they used for 1,000 youth this past summer, and also walked through the larger area they hope to purchase for an expanded ministry. These are people with quite a challenge and even greater commitment and vision!Our final stop in Albania was at the church we had shared in while there for five months under Nancy’s Fulbright assignment. In just a couple hours there, we were blessed by the pastor, Barry, and the congregation, many of whom recognized us and greeted us warmly. We were also gifted with a trip with our hosts to the north of Albania, driving literally to the end of the road to the point where Montenegro begins. That area is rugged Balkan territory, but our lunch was just outside the city of Shkodra, on the shores of the largest lake in the Balkans, in as beautiful a setting as you could imagine.
I am writing this sitting just outside our bedroom, at the back of our new little house. I am looking out over out pond, which is glistening in the morning light, and into the trees of the forest behind us. Our youngest daughter, JJ, greeted us when we returned from Albania, and is here for just a couple days en route back to Tacoma from Washington, DC. Our other daughter, Emily, and her husband and their daughter, Colette, have been here every day since we returned. The peaceful morning, following three days of record-setting rain (needed because of a months-long drought) and the prospect of all of us being together is a wonderful thought. From Greensboro to Ireland to N. Ireland to Spain to France to England has been a grand adventure. We have new friends for eternity plus, by the grace of God, have been able to make a bit of difference in some lives along the way. We have been challenged and we have had a great time. We are thankful to God for all and in all. Truly his hand has guided and is guiding—and that hand is the hand of a loving Father who continues to bless, who continues to be the One the Psalmist sang about in Psalm 31:19, How great is your goodness.
