When I bought my plane ticket to come to Eastern Europe I set my return flight at seven months out.  Seven months sounds like a good amount of time, a long time, over half a year; time enough to experience a spring and a summer and to dip my toes into an autumn.  Now that I am roughly five months into my seven month service commitment, seven months has suddenly become two months, which feels like almost no time at all.

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I have been praying for God’s guidance as to how I should proceed.  I have been invited to stay and to serve longer.  It would seem I am welcome to serve for as long as I care to, for as long as I feel called to, for as long as I can.  I am a man blessed to be single and without children which makes this decision one between me and God and no one else.  Have you ever been away from home, missing it more each day, each day finding fresh memories to pull you back to where you first knew love, first knew loss, first had family?  

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I feel called to stay.  I feel called to serve in Mitrovica.  I can remember working at the Wallingford Starbucks in 2002 with a man named Tom Poole.  We were having a conversation about God and the decision to become a Christian and what that would mean for my life.  I told him that I was afraid of what God would ask of me if I chose to follow Him.  So far God has brought me from Seattle to this place, Albania, and there is nothing to fear here.  If next He leads me to Kosovo I will meditate on this word: “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:8)

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Dear Reader, I covet your prayers and you thoughts.  I am so grateful that you have decided to join me on this journey.  I thank you for your love and friendship,

Joshua