Our Italian Experience!

Where to begin.....Where to begin? I guess I will begin with why we went to Italy in the first place. Back in January, I turned 30 and Adam decided to take me somewhere that I had always wanted to go. Switzerland was the place, but because of expenses, he decided to take me to Milan, Italy and then to Switzerland for a day by train. (Wasn't that the sweetest thing in the world?) Also because of expense, we waited until now to take the trip.

Adam, Emily, and I left on Tuesday afternoon on a plane from Athens headed for Milan, Italy. We arrived in Milan as it was starting to get dark, so we grabbed a taxi to our Hotel. As we drove along we, our hopes began to sink lower and lower as the cab fare rose higher and higher. When we pulled into our hotel, the fare peaked at 88 euros (which is over $100). This was not a great beginning to our trip and on top of that, it was starting to rain. We talked to the hotel guy and he assured us that that was normal fare from the airport, and we realized very quickly that if we didn't find another way back to the airport, that we were going to be out of money before we got started.

The next morning we awoke to rain, rain, and more rain!!! We got up and decided to go down town anyway. We went down to breakfast and our spirits rose a bit. They had a cappuccino machine!!!!! After we had feasted on croissants and cappuccino, we got our coats and umbrellas and headed out to the metro that took us downtown. Emily thought this was great fun and she even held her own umbrella.

In the Center we just spent some time walking around and getting our bearings. We found our way to the Duomo, which is the second largest cathedral in the world. It was really neat to see. We were also able to see the home stores of Prada, Louis Vitton, and Gucci. It was pretty interesting. Emily was getting mad with the rain and she kept seeing us pass "golden arches" and all that she was interested in was "Fry fries". We got her some of course and then walked around some more and then went back to the room to dry out. We rested and then ended our evening by going to a restaurant by the hotel for pizza and spaghetti. It was WONDERFUL. We ended up eating there every day.

The next morning we woke up to beautiful weather and we went back downtown and toured the DaVinci museum. We were able to see some of his sketch books which was really neat. After lunch, we went to visit DaVinci's "The Last Supper." That was really cool. We really enjoyed that. They only allow 25 people every hour and we had made reservations in advance online. We were in a group of Japanese tourist. It was pretty funny. They liked making faces at Emily, and she liked laughing at them.

On Friday we boarded a train and went to Lugano, Switzerland. The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery. Lugano is situated on a beautiful lake and we spent the day walking the streets, feeding the ducks on the lake, and playing in the parks. We all decided that this was the best day of the whole trip.

Now we are back at home and getting things ready for a group of pastors that are coming to visit us next week. We are excited about it, but we still have so much to do before they come, so I better get to work. Thank you all for sharing our adventures with us. Hope you enjoy!

Brandie

A Balloon from Heaven? By Brandie Crabtree

Since we last wrote, we have finally moved into our new apartment. It took us over a month because of the way that things work here, but those stories will wait for another day. Today I want to tell you about an outing that I had with my daughter.

Adam had several things that he needed to get finished at home, so I took Emily out for a little walk and we ended up at McDonald's. Emily loves her "fry fries"! We had finished our food and I let Emily go and play in the little play room that they have set up there. (It is honestly just a room with a mat on the floor and kids just go and run around and play with one another. Nothing like the play places in the States!) The lady at the front counter had given Emily a balloon. Another little girl was playing with her balloon, so Emily wanted hers to play with as well. She was having a wonderful time batting it around and minding her own business, when a little boy came and smacked it out of her hand. He then took the balloon and ran before I could stop him. He then turned and looked at Emily, put the balloon on the ground, stomped, and popped it. Emily got this look of utter horror on her face and then the tears began to flow. I have never wanted to beat a kid more in my life than I did that little mean boy. Emily was so upset and just kept crying and saying "Mama, Balloono" . The people at the front counter did not have any more balloons available, so I couldn't get her another one. I finally decided just to take her home.

We put our coats on and left for the walk home and she was starting to calm down some. I, on the other hand, was still fuming! We walked around the corner and the wind was blowing quiet hard. All of the sudden, Emily started yelling "Balloono mama, Balloono!" I looked up and sure enough, coming right toward us was a big blue balloon. I managed to catch it and tied it onto Emily's balloon stick from McDonald's. Emily was so excited and held on to it all the way home. I was amazed! Who knows where that "balloono" came from, but I believe it was a balloon straight form God for my little girl. Isn't it just like God to care about the little things! Keep this little story in mind when you feel like God just doesn't care anymore. If he cares enough to send a little girl a new balloon on the wind, just imagine what he would like to do for you!

Dedication...or Stupidity!?!

Well, the past few weeks have been busy. Our landlord has remodeled another apartment in a building in our neighborhood. He told us about it and after looking at it, we've decided to rent it. We're excited about it, but a little nervous too. Here's why: The Indianapolis Colts are in the Super Bowl!!! Yes, it's hard to believe. The team that's been so close so many times has finally made it (without Edge too!!). We are hoping to have our new phone line hooked up by the night of the big game so we can listen to it over the internet. If it's not ready, we'll do something else (like maybe crash at another missionary's house and use their computer to listen to the game). It will start at 1:30 am local time. Dedication...or stupidity? You make the call.

Adam

Meet & Greet

Last Saturday night, we hosted a "Meet & Greet." The main purpose was for us to get to know the people that attend our Bible study better. Satan has a clever way of working and only one lady (Tracey) and her children were able to attend. This did not discourage us because we were able to get to know them better. We played the games Jenga and Uno (and we ate...of course).

Tracey is an incredible encouragement as she is reading her Bible and memorizing verses every week. She is really spiritually hungry. Brandie is teaching her children (4 and 10 years old) every Sunday at the same time as the adult Bible study. Her children are like sponges when they learn. Brandie and I are very happy with the way it's all working out right now.

Because of the "Charismatic Mess" we had about a month ago, we have lost a couple of people (hopefully not forever). Michael and Comfort have decided to attend a charismatic church over our infant Baptist church on the basis of our stand against "tongues" and the entire charismatic movement. Please pray that God will open their eyes and that they will obey His Word.

We have moved our Bible study from Sunday evenings to Sunday mornings and we want to start discipling some that are involved in our ministry on a one-on-one basis. We are still working on our Greek language and hope to have some Greeks attend soon.

This is it for now. Monday is a day we spend as a family doing family things. So, we're off to hang out together (because it's 66 deg. and a beautiful, sunny day).

Adam

Long time...No blog.

Wow. I kept putting off updating my blog again and again....and I finally decided that it's time to update all who are interested in reading this blog. My (Adam) parents and grandmother visited for two weeks and we had a great time together. Two weeks later, my in-laws visited for two weeks. Since the time the Mullendore's left, we've had nothing but doctrinal problems in our Bible study. Some of the people that attend our Bible study are Charismatic. I've taught them for over a year now and the differences are really starting to manifest themselves. We've tried to deal with these with patience, prayer, and the Word. The problems are not going away. Will you please pray for us right now? We are trying to be firm and stand our ground...but also trying to be patient and let the Word of God take it's course and change hearts and minds. This Sunday is a BIG Sunday and we'll update you on Monday how things went.

Thank you for your patience and prayers.

Adam

Finally Finished....

Yesterday, things finally took a turn for the better. My family arrived safely on Tuesday. Our landlord called the plumber to fix our water heater and he was scheduled to come and fix our problems on Tuesday while we were at the airport. The airport is a solid 45 minutes to an hour away from our house, so it was impossible to get back in time for him to fix it on Tuesday. So, we arranged an appointment on Wednesday for him to come back.

Yesterday, the plumber came and in an hour, he had replaced the water heater and cleaned up the mess. We also had a small leak under our sink and the plumber also fixed that! The only problems that we have now is the mold and mildew that grew as a result of the stagnate water in our crawl space.

Please pray for our Greek Bible study that we start on Sunday. There are several people interested in discussing what the bible says. Please pray that they will come and that we’ll be able to speak clearly to the people. And you might want to pray that we don’t have any more disasters between now and then!!!!

Adam

Sunday Catastrophe

Adam's parents and grandma are due to arrive here in the morning and we have been preparing for their arrival. We have been busy cleaning and getting the house ready and in the midst of all of that, our hot water heater that is in the crawl space above our bathroom busted and has made a real mess. It has caused mold to grow in our bathroom. Our landlord has been gone to the island and has not been able to take care of it (they take care of things for the first 2 years and then we're on our own after that). We finally got a call from her on Saturday and she is suppose to call a plumber this morning. I just pray that they are able to fix it today since our company arrives in the morning, but as you know, this is Greece and we don't have very many high hopes of that happening. :) I am just thanking God that this happened while it is still under the 2 year contract and that we don't have to pay for it!! God's timing is best even though it doesn't seem so to us sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago, we had to replace our kitchen faucet and then yesterday, I went to change the trash under our sink, and found a huge leak in the pipes! I got the water up and put a big bowl under the pipes to catch the water until we can get it fixed. By this time, I had Emily down for a nap and was getting ready to get in the shower before our Bible Study. People were to be at our house within an hour and all of the sudden.....our power went out! I didn't panic because I just figured that a breaker flipped. Adam checked, and all of the breakers were fine. He checked the main breakers in the house and it was fine also. After calling a friend for help (poor Adam doesn't know much about all of these things to do repairs and things) we determined that it was the main breaker in the basement of the building. By this time, one of our African men (Michael) was here for Bible study and he went down to check it out with Adam. It was the one fuse that only the electric company can fix, however, Michael rigged it some way to get us through the Bible study, but told us not to use any more power than was necessary. It worked!

Later after the study, a Greek friend of ours called and told us that there is a number at ΔΕΗ (the electric company) that you can call and they should come even tonight and fix it. We called and they sent a man over and when he looked at the "rigged" fuse that Michael had fixed... he said "Well, you have power and this fuse is fine, so there is nothing I can do... Why did you call me here?". I was so aggravated at him! I told Adam, "Well, we will just use everything like normal and run our air conditioners like normal and then when it blows and we have no power we will call them back and tell them that now we have no power!" When we finally got into bed last night, we could only laugh a bit at all of the things that are happening all at once.

Now it is 10:39 am on Monday and Adam's parents will be here in 24 hours and we still have a leaky pipe and a busted water heater. Our missionary friend across town just called and said that he has a electrician friend that sold him the fuse that we need for our power and Adam has left to go and get it. I am waiting for the call to say that the plumber is coming (by faith of course, HA HA), and Adam's dad said he would help with the leaky pipe when he got here. Yesterday it all seemed very overwhelming, but this morning, things are looking a bit better. Please pray that we get all of these things worked out!

Brandie