Hospital and Brno

Hospital:
It has been an eventful couple of days. We were enjoying our Labor Day Swim party, our last big hurrah with our Bastrop/Elgin friends, when we got an unexpected call that my mom was having surgery. Long story short she went in the hospital Thursday night with a blockage in her small intestine. They waited it out but with no change decided surgery was necessary. Tuesday morning Addison and I headed to Allen to be with mom. We left the hospital yesterday and spent today taking care of her! She seems to be doing better and taking less pain meds. Thank you for praying for her!

Now it's back to the Top Ten List- #4 Brno, Czech Republic:
After our wonderful honeymoon we took the opportunity to head back to Europe for a mission trip. A group from Parkway had been going to Romania for a couple of years, but this was their first time to go to Czech Republic. We worked with the Hatchel family ministering to Gypsies. We held back yard bible clubs in an apartment complex all week. We shared stories, songs and games with the kids. Another day we went to a village and had a Bible School. Tracy met this little girl who is deaf. She loved him and clung to him all afternoon. He knows a little American Sign Language and was able to communicate with her!
The best part of our trip was meeting Nelu and Doinita. They were Romanian, Gypsy interns for Boyd Hatchel that summer. They came over to help him begin a church in Brno. We lived next door to them for the week and spent time getting to know them. They have money but not a way to get good, quality clothing. We left Nelu some jeans and a few of Tracy's shirts. We also left them some socks that we hadn't worn that week. After finding out that they cannot buy athletic socks in Romania we even left them our dirty socks. If you've seen Tracy's feet you know how desperate they were for socks. I talked to them a few weeks ago and she said they still wear the socks we had given them!
We continue to have a good relationship with them and enjoy hearing about their ministry. Nelu is a pastor and travels to several cities to do ministry. The one that we help support is in Sintesti. Doinita teaches English and other subjects, other wise there is no formal education, and feeds the students lunch 3 days a week. They are doing wonderful work and we are happy to share in it with them. Who knew that we could make life long friends on a one week trip!