I so enjoyed  the after service brunch this past Sunday! Awesome food, sweet conversations, specialty coffee and even a nice breeze to make patio dining delightful. It's a summer snapshot for which I'm grateful. Let me share a few other snapshots from my summer ... moments I continue to reflect on with gratitude, most of them from the recent Albania Team trip.

  • Conversations over dishes in Erseke: Both at the camp and in the home where our team of 23 stayed together, there were always dishes to do - and some of the best conversations happened while doing dishes.
  • The broken arm that didn't ruin the trip: While it was pretty traumatic when Andrew broke his arm and had to be taken to Greece and have surgery - he came back and so did his folks - and we all kept at what we were doing.  Andrew had the worst first day in Erseke of anyone I've taken there over 22 years, but it didn't ruin the entire trip for our team, not even for Andrew.  Amazing!
  • The next generation of leadership:  One of our team's tasks was to offer a Kids Day Camp for 4 days for 6-11 year old kids. We worked with Albanian high school kids mostly to put it together because, of course, they speak the language. Loved, loved, loved watching them lead and serve knowing they are the next generation of church leadership in Erseke. 
  • Grateful parents at Zoo 2 You Camp here in Fresno: We had 75 or so kids on our campus July 20 - 24 learning about what Zoo Keepers do and how much God loves them, too. My 2nd kid's camp of the summer! Twice during the week a mom and dad (or maybe grandmother & grandfather?) who didn't speak much English did their best anyway to express to me how grateful they were to us for offering this program for their children. I did my best to express to them how glad we were that they were bringing their kids.

     What about you? Are there some significant moments in your summer snapshot collection - moments you continue to reflect on with thankfulness or curiosity about what God might be doing in and through them? There's still time to collect a few!

Blessings,

Terry Jaurena