Update on Jo's Surgery

The surgeon confirmed it was good it came out when it did. The actual operation was fairly complicated. She told me they used a SPOON to get the thyroid out! I don’t think she was joking! I now have a nice scar at the front of my neck. I’m so far resisting Erik’s suggestion to draw eyes above it and make it into a smiley face, but it is small and already fading.

Recent Kosovo Events

If you’ve been following the news these past weeks you would have heard about the troubles in Kosovo which left many Serbs, Albanians and some internationals dead. In some ways the troubles didn’t come as a surprise. Not only do we seem to have uprisings in the Balkans every spring, but these tensions are always there simmering under the surface. We are relieved however that order seems to have been restored, at least temporarily. The crisis brought the churches together and we hope that this solidarity continues as a light in this very divided place. It was actually hard for both of us to be away while it was all going on, but we followed the situation closely through email and are relieved none of our friends were harmed.

Erik's Studies and Activities

Many of you ask about Erik’s studies. He has been benefiting greatly from the Organizational Development courses and continues to be stimulated in his thinking in the whole area of organizational and leadership issues. Next semester, he has a course that is focused on organizational consulting and analysis, which is really his “thing”, so he’s looking forward to that. He spends more than 8 hours a day pouring through books, debating with other students and writing papers. He has really been enjoying the entire program. The only dark cloud is his extra required math course. It’s proving to be quite demanding in time and mental energy. Please pray for him in this. The one he is doing now is in fact only the preparatory math course. The real math course he starts in May – and is dreading it!

However, it’s not all books and no play. Around 5am most mornings, Erik goes out into the national park for an hour or two and takes photos. He is now part of the Colorado Photographer’s Forum and loves to get together with the other photographers on the forum about once a month. He is actually getting to be quite good and has started to sell his pictures and cards in the local Hallmark shop. It’s only a beginning and certainly not a profit making enterprise, but it is an enjoyable hobby for Erik (or should I say obsession!) and an outlet from his studies.

 Vacation Rentals

Since returning from England, I have been fairly focused on trying to get a small vacation rental business started together with my landlady. This is a beautiful area which attracts tourists year round. We are trying to find homeowners with empty cabins in the area who would like to rent them out and have us manage them. We’ve got a website up, professional stationary, business cards, all the materials needed for renters, etc, but don’t have any cabins yet! There are two or three in the pipeline though and we hope these will come through to get us started. The idea is that if we can make this work, hopefully it will provide some extra income for us not only now but even after we return overseas. It’s a little scary at times as I’ve never done anything like this before, but for the most part it has been fun and is allowing me to meet all kinds of interesting people in the area (and you wouldn’t believe the kind of oddball characters this little community attracts – ourselves included)

Well, that’s about it from us for now. We look forward to hearing from you.

God bless you,

Jo & Erik