Deep Breaths

What to do...and who we are

2011-07-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Right now we are flooded with campers....lovely little middle schoolers cavorting through our buildings, banging on our doors for fun, destroying our property and disrespecting the staff and neighbours (like the people who stood outside their church van at 8am this morning in the parking lot blaring Christian worship songs from the speakers). My custodial, a wonderful sweet older lady, was bemoaning the toils of having to clean up after these kids on a daily basis and she said something I will never forget: 'In all that they are teaching these kids about Jesus in their camp sessions, can't they show them how to respect others and their property?' The camp counselors often gather their students in the lobby right outside my office door and I can usually hear their conversations if I am at my desk. The other night I overheard a rather lengthy discussion about drugs and he was advising his young listeners not to smoke pot because there were far greater rewards in their crown in heaven if they avoided such things. Later that night, the same students were not smoking pot but they did keep wiping off my 'do not enter' sign from the whiteboard on our apartment door and then banging on it and running off laughing.

I do not intend to undermine the counselor who gave sound advice to his students to avoid taking drugs, I applaud his care and love for these kids. What does concern me is that I have spent a lot of my time with youth groups saying and focussing on the same kinds of messages 'don't do .... because of.....' instead of pointing out all that we can and should be actually doing. John often has said to me that God asks us to give up something only in the place of something far greater. He offers perfect beauty and intimacy in marriage in place of relationships without full commitment, emotional freedom of grace and forgiveness in the place of bitterness, revenge and hatred, charity and blessings for everyone over personal gain and material objects.

What are we replacing for our students if all we're giving them is a list of don'ts? I am more convinced than ever that we should all be looking at who we are at our core and how we are impacting our world by our choices. Shouldn't we be teaching our students about the character of Christ; about what it means to take up your cross and follow him (which doesn't just mean give up drugs, sex etc but truly lay down our core of selfishness) and how we are to practically love others as ourselves? What should we be doing because of who we are? Maybe the other things wouldn't be such a struggle for our students if they were focusing on all that has to be done and not just what they should be avoiding.

Christ is King

2011-07-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Living on campus, right in the middle of downtown Cleveland, at the heart of a residential area, I often wonder what the people around us think of Lee and more importantly of Christ. One of the unofficial slogans here is 'a campus where Christ is King'. In this community we have provided a great many services. From supplying all kinds of jobs and industry to Cleveland, either through students' purchasing power or the filling of positions around campus, to the hundreds of hours of community service projects every semester, Lee's impact is definately felt. The students are required to go to Chapel, we have prayer groups, social justice clubs, small groups, conservative lifestyle guidelines and not forgetting that everyone gets a minor in Bible - surely it seems as if all the bases have been covered. However, is Christ holistically King here? I think about how money is (and isn't) spent, the tactics used to aquire donors and feed enrollment numbers, the hierarchy and the job expectations, the Pentecostal snobbery and of course the way the employees are treated. More than any of these, the one thing I worry about the most, is the message sent to our immediate neighbours. As it has constantly expanded, Lee has been consuming its way through surrounding property and as a result we are face to face with many local residents. Right at my back door, there are several elderly people and families who indirectly interact with us on a daily basis. Here is my question? Do they think Christ is King on our campus? In our lives? When we take up their parking spots or wake them up with loud noises, or buy them out of their property for our new dorms, what do they think of Lee? What do they think of Christ? You see, people really take note of what we say about ourselves- they look to see if we are genuinely following what we claim. Does Lee completely know and embrace the responsibility of making such a statement as 'a campus where Christ is King'?

Looking around at the Christian world, especially here and in the West in general, it seems that we have watered down this identity of Christian to something less than the huge task entrusted to us. Just like Lee, we are telling the world that we are following Christ and moving towards becoming like Him more and more everyday, that we are willing to lay down our entire lives for the love of our God and others but are we perhaps picking and chosing what we like and/or what is easiest? Will people look at me and say 'there goes someone with the love of Christ overflowing in her heart' or will they spit in my wake as they mutter 'hypocrite'?

We are never going to be perfect (I think of the apostle Paul and his famous words about the struggle of what we want to be doing and what we actually do). Being a Christian is one of the hardest and most challenging lifestyles one could choose to follow. My issue is not that we are necessarily failing at being perfect but moreso that 1) we cannot seem to be honest about our truly sinful selves and 2) we don't enter into this commitment as we should. No one should get married thinking 'well I will give this idea of being a wife a go and if I can't be faithful- no worries!' What we do is go into it fully aware about the kind of relationship we are signing up for and promising to do our best against all odds- I didn't get married thinking I would be the perfect wife, but I definately didn't think, "seeing as I can cook well it won't matter if I am mean to John at dinner!" But isn't that kind of how we look at our commitment to loving God and loving others? I can pray really well so it doesn't matter if I am rude to the person serving me coffee. What would happen to our testimony as Christians if we could be honest about who we are but give it our all to let people see Christ through us? What if Lee tried to follow a slogan like 'we are a campus constantly trying to let Christ be King even though we are not there yet but this is our ulitmate goal because that's what being a Christian college is all about- let us know how we're doing'.

I am Leia, a woman trying to let Christ be King over her heart and although I daily fail, this is what I am committed to- please fogive me for my shortcomings but help me see how to do better!

It's not about the donkey

2011-06-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Mother Theresa, upon receiving the nobel peace prize, was asked if her life was going to change and if she was worried about becomming prideful after such global recognition. She answered 'do you think that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the donkey thought it was about him?'

I wonder if anyone knew the name of the donkey on that day. It was certainly not significant enough to be recorded in any story. He didn't receive a special grooming that morning or a rewarding marvelous dinner in the evening for his toils. He didn't become a tourist attraction where people came through to touch him, take a few strands from his tail to keep in a locket around the neck, or to see if there was an imprint upon his back from where the king had sat.

Not only did Mother Theresa give a great response but it really captures the philosophy of her entire life. This is how she lived, like the one carrying Jesus to his next destination. Not caring to be rewarded, and mostly unaware of how much of an impact she was having but simply there and fulfilling the task ahead. I have recently been reading about the early part of her life and it is so humbling and convicting to read about someone who only cared about others from the very beginning of her journey. No one seems to know how she came to be this way, and she probably didn't even have an answer as she wouldn't have thought it necessary. But unselfish she was from the moment she left her home country and arrived in India as a nun, to the end of her life, all she could see was the poor and their need for love. In all her travels and meetings, she was driven to spread the message of loving the poor. She had no riches of her own, lived a peasants life, sacrificed all just to bring hope to those who were suffering.

I find myself asking daily what stops me from being that way? What holds me back from letting go of everything and living in that manner? Even more frightening than the question, and even the answer itself, is the ability to answer truthfully. If I just think about this critically and play around with all the possible answers, I don't have to face the reality that my heart is so very dark. I can look to all the nice things people say about me, or the way I may have touched lives, or the exterior accomplishments and not actually force myself to admit I am still very selfish and self focussed. Even though I have given so many 'things' in my pursuit to become less materialistic, there are conditions of my heart that don't allow me to be humble and to completely let go of everything. My real selfish desires all seem to linger there hiding behind goodness, always pushing her to the front to convince me she is alone. I like goodness. I can placate myself with goodness but I will never be like Christ, fulfil my call to love unconditionally if I settle on looking at the surface alone.

Why is being truthful so frightening when answering these questions ? Because once you have the real answer, you cannot ignore it anymore. There is no more pretending, you cannot go back and act like you havent seen darkness hiding in the background. I reflect on every motive, every action, every word through this lens of truth and that is how I know for sure- I am not the donkey yet.

Another Deep Breath

2011-06-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

So I spent the entire afternoon reading through all our posts on here and it brought back many memories- almost hard to remember what life has been like over the past 5 years because it has changed so dramatically!

Anyway, I found something I began and never finished so I thought I would go ahead and post it and then fill in the gaps. It was from January 2009! Who knew how things would change over the course of the next year! Enjoy:

I cannot believe a new year has arrived, and yet we are already flying through January. John's family have this great tradition where on Christmas Eve the entire Murray family (his mum's side) sit around and reflect on the past 12 months. (Or as my brother in law puts it 'the part where everyone cries!') Trying to summarise a year is actually quiet hard for several reasons such as remembering painful events, or stressful times or even dwelling on good times that have since passed.

John and I began the year, I think, feeling very secure about our future. I received a promotion and the company was doing well, John was headed back to school and we were paying our bills comfortably. However, the year has ended in quite the opposite way: my hours have been cut, John had to abandon his school plans and is now looking for a job so we can meet all our financial demands. *deep breath*

I have so many thoughts colliding and running together that I've decided to use this blog to navigate my way through all that I'm feeling. I may not make an entry regularly, let's face it, but writing helps me come to conclusions much faster than sitting and gazing off into space. Also, I know I have a tendency to disconnect from people when I'm not around them despite how much I love them. I realize I am a very 'in the moment' kind of person and can get easily swept away with what is immediately in front of me rather than what I am thinking about.

I know it was a very unfinished one but there you go! That is fairly typical of me....I have great ideas for beginning things but am not always very good at following through! Hence the fact that I forgot I even started this post! I have learnt however, that I am awesome at getting people inspired to take on projects and then can spur them to carry it through which is what they are best at. Teamwork is incredible!

What happened next on our deep breath journey was rather insane honestly! John didn't find work until June that year and we were terrified every month that we were going to lose the house. Starbucks became a very sad place as the economy got worse and you really began to see what they were made of- money! All the partners soon lost a lot of their benefits for working there and we were (and they still are) worked much harder than what they're paid for. It was rather a tough six months. In February, I applied for a job at Lee University as a Resident Director. On campus living in the States is a much bigger deal than in England and every residence hall is run by a school staff member with student workers. They are places designed to build community and help students grow and develop into fully fledged healthy adults. It was a grueling four month interview process and in July I was hired to fill a Resident Director position. We put our entire house contents into storage and moved into a tiny apartment in Sharp Hall (residence hall for freshmen girls) and John began his Masters in Biblical studies. This job included all housing costs, free Masters tuition and a small stipend on top. Finally, I was doing a job that touched on so many desires of my heart and John was back on track to becomming a professor. I was working with young women, planning events, figuring out budgets (for those of you who don't know my secret I love accounting!) mentoring and developing people. It was an amazing change after two years of being a barista. I suddenly felt like God had not forgotten me and was opening up doors I had been waiting at for years!

The craziest part- our house did not get rented for a whole other year (despite our best efforts) so we didn't earn a mortgage payment for 18 months and didn't miss one payment thanks to God's provision through friends and families and other crazy ways. Thankfully it is now in the hands of a family who are enjoying the space and mostly it has been going well considering renting. (There was a small bout of unauthorized chicken keeping in the garden but this has now been taken care of!!)

We are still on this path at Lee and although I have changed locations, have more than doubled my resident and staff load, and John has worked his way round three new biblical languages and numerous topics, life as a couple is still just as meaningful and probably even more fulfilling than those early days five years ago when this blog was started. We are learning to be very intentional with our time and to prioritize our family above all else- very important lesson indeed!

My job has gotten much harder due to structural changes but there are so many moments still where I am in awe of what can happen when openly pouring into the lives of others. Not only do you watch them grow but you are also transformed more than you could have imagined. I am forever changed because of the people here.

John is doing excellently in his program (those of you who know him are not really surprised I am sure!). He began working at a local bookshop in June 09 but this year was able to work for professors as a teaching assistant which has reassured him all the more that he was meant to be a teacher. The students love him - especially the ones taking bibilcal Greek as they text and call for his hints and study guides ALL the time! He is so patient and willing to help them succeed - far beyond what he is paid to do. (This is all my unbiased opinion of course! :))

We are part of a wonderful church here called Christ Community- it's completely different to our previous church experiences but we love it and are very plugged in. We both teach on occassion and have made great connections with the people there some of whom I work with so we are really doing life together in every way- sharing work, housing and church. It's a very rare opportunity to do this and is actually also challenging at times -to learn to love people when you see and know so much about each other.

Anyway, I hope that helps fill people in (for whoever is reading) and I will try to be a little more consistent every now and then. Seeing as it's summer and I am off duty, I will probably try and share more about my thoughts and ideas rather than just what we're up to.

Leia

Hope springs eternal

2008-04-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

We're back (but probably not consistantly as you may have already realised!)

It's crazy to think December was our last post because it doesn't seem that long. I guess time really does fly...that or we are becoming more and more forgetful as we get older!

So what's been happening?
John celebrated turning 30 last month. We had the joy of renting a cabin in the mountains with some of his college friends and went hiking, played lots of pool and air-hockey and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I will be joining him in less than a month...hard to believe. Although most people seem to shy away from getting older, I once heard from a dear friend in London (Jaqcuie) that your 30's are the best so I anitcipate an exciting new journey as a woman.

I was promoted in January to a Shift supervisor and placed in charge of managing our community involvement and donations. This job invloves supervising shifts in the cafe and making sure everything runs well and all the Partners (collegues-everyone who works for starbcuks is called a 'partner') are getting the breaks and the help they need to serve awesome coffee! My new position has just been incredible. From the first day I experienced such a sense of peace and have been able to flourish. Of course, all the communirty contacts have been a blast. We have so many organisations and schools who are trying to raise funds and they come to us for donations. I've been given the responsibility of supervising this aspect of our business and it's an awesome feeling to know that we are contributing to all these different causes. One primary school had a student write a thank you letter which we have posted on our wall in the back and it's adorable.

John and I have also started a college home group on sunday evenings for church. So far we have about 10 college kids who come and we discuss topics, arrange outings etc and just build relationships to share our spiritual journey. These are people who were in the youth group before we moved to Cyprus and have now grown up so it's a privilege to continue mentoring them. Our middle school group is still going strong and we are working through the bible with them on Wednesday nights. They are very lively but a lot of fun (most of the time!) and it reminds me of the good thing about being in the classroom that I sometimes miss.

John is working through projects for the organisation Initimate Life. In September he will hopefully enrol at the local theological seminary to get his Masters of Divinity and eventually be getting his doctorate to become a college professor. Although this is nerve-racking because of the work involved and the expense, we are excited for the future and the doors this will open for him. He has been accepted so we are just waiting for the financial aid to come through so please pray that God takes care of this burden for us. John has mentored and taught so many young people over the last ten years, and has a vast knowledge of the bible and history, it's only fitting that he has the paper qualifications to match his experience!

These past two weeks, I have been attending training sessions for Crisis Intervention with a local Pregnancy care centre which prepares people to counsel women who come to the centre for help. It's a pro-life christian organisation so it doesn't believe abortion is the best option BUT I have been so humbled and moved by the approach they take. I was a bit nervous at first because I don't tend to like Christian organisations who assert their beliefs in aggressive ways and humilate the beleifs and attitudes of Christ. However, this centre truly serves and ministers to women in trouble. Whilst, they want to preserve life, they care more about loving these women and supporting them. They are strongly against manipulating women who are vulnerable and base everything they do on Christ's extravagant and graceful love. I don't know if I have the time to volunteer at the centre right now but working with as many young women as I do (and have done) I want to be equiped with tools to minister in every area of their lives.

Well this post should keep you going for a while. Comments as always are greatly appreciated- just to know if anyone is still reading this and if we should keep it up (more consistantly!)

Don't hit the 'back' button...it really is a new post!!

2007-12-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it has been a awfully long time. We are so sorry for taking so long but hope this makes up for it a bit. As many of you will already know, we have been rather busy settling in and have lots to report.

JOBS: John is working for a ministry based in Texas called 'Intimate Life'. They are dear friends of ours and John edited three books for them a few years ago. He is now working on a couple of their new projects and its been much less stressful than the book he wrote last year. The hours are really flexible and work well with my job too. Speaking of which, I'm working at Starbucks as a Barista, something which I love. As I have shared with many of you, I was done with teaching and really needed something with a lot less stress and fewer off-the-clock hours! It's definitely the best job for this season in our life ...and I get tons of free coffee!! Most of all though, I had no idea that Starbucks is such a giving, caring company and I'm so impressed with them and proud to say I work there. The people I work with are awesome and I actually enjoy my job.

HOME: We have bought a gorgeous house and are settling in the last few things (more on that later). It's a brand new three bedroom, three bathroom two-story house with an open plan living, kitchen, dining room, and a finished basement (which is our office and family TV room), plus a back wooden deck/veranda, large garage and huge storage room. We keep looking around saying 'is all this really ours?'- God has certainly blessed us, especially through our friends and family, and particularly our parents. My mum and dad were able to send us some money for new furniture and John's helped us with appliances and other things too. (Thanks guys, we couldn't have done it without you. We love you lots and lots.) The house is right next to an excellent primary/elementary school and just outside Cleveland so it's quiet and surrounded by nature and just a few neighbours. Anyway, photos will be posted soon - don't be mad - there is a reason for the delay!

OUR STUFF: On July 23rd, our stuff was packed into boxes, and taken by a shipping company estimated to arrive in TN, 2 months later. However, almost 5 months later after a number of crazy delays, heart attacks, worry and confusion, our boxes finally arrived yesterday. John and I kept only what we could fit into four suitcases for our plane trip, which was mostly summer clothes - it was July- and have been waiting anxiously for our winter clothes, books, cds, dvds, kitchen stuff, office bits, bedding etc. Most of all, John's computer was in the boxes, so we haven't had internet access since we moved in, and he has had to go to his parents' house every day to work. Which also means, we haven't been able to keep up with people as much we would like, or blog, hence the delay. Even still his computer needs some adjusting to work on US power so I am writing from Larry's computer. BUT we promise as soon as it's all sorted and everything is in place, we will take pics of the house and post them.

MINISTRY: we are teaching the middle school (which is aged 11-13) bible class every Wednesday evening and it's a lot of fun. It's the first time John and I have been able to team teach and we are really enjoying it and loving how the kids are responding. We are also on the verge of starting something with another age group after the new year (more on that when it happens). That's one of the reasons why our jobs are such a blessing because we have much more free time to be invloved with the lives of young people- something important to us.

Anyway, please comment as we enjoy knowing who is keeping up and thinking of us. Makes us feel closed to the ones we miss.
Love you guys and thanks for the emails, prayers and thoughts.
Leia (and John)
XXXX

No news is good news

2007-09-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back to blogging but the reason it's taken a while is not so much because of being busy but more to do with lack of news!

We love being back here and have been catching up with friends and family. Everyone has been really sweet and supportive, trying to help us find jobs and get a house. It's wonderful to go to church and both of us understand the language and be able to sing along in the worship and listen to the message without translation!

As far as jobs go, John has an interview next week for a writing project but I haven't really found anything yet. Everytime I think I'm at a dead end, another avenue opens. Just the other night, a dear friend gave me a name of someone who may be able to help. The problem is the kind of job I am looking for isn't advertised in Cleveland and so I have to rely on word of mouth. If I don't find something in the next couple of weeks, I am just going to get a basic office job or something low-stress until the right opportunity comes along.

Next week, John and I are going to be looking at houses. One of John's oldest friends is a realtor (or 'estate agent' for us British folk!) and he is helping us find something. It's really a good market to buy right now because there are more houses for sale than there are buyers so prices are reasonable and there are lots of choices. I am extrememly excited because it's our real first home together. Our apartment in Cyprus was fully-furnished so now we get to chose everything together and combine our tastes. Needless to say I have been watching a ton of DIY/Decorating shows (I LOVE U.S.A. TV!) and drooling over furniture and accessories in the shops!

On Monday we are attending a two-day conference in Georgia for 'progressive' youth ministers by Intimate Life Ministries and at the end of the month, we are teaching at a week-long training conference in North Tennessee for upcoming youth leaders. My mum is attending the latter conference so we're glad we get to see her. She will spend a few days in Cleveland with us which will be lovely.

So, lots to look forward to and lots to pray about! Not a bad post considering I said we didn't have much news, hey?!

- Leia

We're baaaaa-aaaack

2007-08-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you all know that we are finally back in the States. We managed to sell our car and sort out all of our last-minute errands in Cyprus, and we had a hassle-free flight/immigration experience yesterday. We'll be living with my parents in Cleveland for the immediate future, and will keep you updated on our job/home prospects as things arise. Most of you will be getting an email with our current phone/address info in the next day or so. We can't wait to see all of our American friends soon!

– John

Camp, Touring, and the Big Move

2007-07-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

This will be our last post for awhile, because our computer is being boxed up tomorrow morning to be shipped back to the States. Obviously this is a very exciting and stressful time for us, and we appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers as we deal with all the last-minute complications of an international move. Our biggest remaining hurdle is selling our car, so please help us pray that we can get that done soon.

This update concerns our recent misadventures with a team of students from Lee University in Tennessee, who visited us here in Cyprus for just over two weeks. During the first week, we were conducting our summer youth camp at Governor's Beach. We had a great turnout of kids this year, and the Lee students served as additional camp staff, which was a great blessing to Leia and me. During the mornings, the Lee students conducted small group sessions with the campers, focusing on helping them to explore and develop their gifts in a variety of ministry areas (music, art, drama, and media). Our afternoons were spent frolicing in the waters of the Mediterranean, and then Leia and I led the evening services. All in all, it was a fantastic week, and everyone bonded very well and had a great time together despite the minor linguistic difficulties and cultural differences (not to mention the 100-degree heat!)

The following week, Leia and I took the team to a variety of places around the island. We visited museums, archaelogical sites, local craftsmen, an Orthodox monastery, a mosque, a Roman amphitheater, the supposed site of the Apostle Paul's scourging, and (as if all of that weren't enough) a waterpark with some pretty awesome slides. We also had a couple of incredible mezze meals (one Greek, one Syrian), plus a wonderful Filipino meal at the Filipino church in Nicosia, not to mention the huge spread that Leia's parents provided for us on the last full night of the team's stay. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience (although we were completely and utterly exhausted by the end of it), and it was such a joy for me to be around some Americans again (and hear lots of good ol' Southern English being spoken), and for Leia to meet some new friends who will be in Cleveland ready to welcome her back to the States. So, to Bob, Josh, Joe, Tyler, Brett, Ben, Daniel, Jenn, Rachel, Emily, Jessica, Gayle, and Mamie, we say thanks again for giving us such wonderful memories.

We'll leave you with some pictures from the past couple weeks. Please feel free to comment, as we will still be checking the blog once or twice a week until we leave. See you all at Wal-Mart!

–John

Scenes from the camp morning groups: Media with Joe, Jenn, and Gayle

art with Rachel, Emily, and Brett

music/ worship with Tyler, Mamie, and Daniel

and drama with Josh, Ben, and Jessica.

Dr. Bob Bayles, working hard for the money.

The ol' swimming hole.

Paul's pillar and environs.

Part of the art and architecture at Kykkos Monastery.

The whole gang at Agros village.

Back row: Emily "I'm Not Pregnant!" Chenoweth, Gayle "Hold the Pork" Myers, Bob "Sleepy" Bayles, Ben "Cheeky" Winder. Third row: Jenn "Word" Delfin, Daniel "Rico" Parker, Josh "Utah" Allen, Tyler "Can I Just Say..." Yosick. Second row: Rachel "Black Cannon" Murray, Mamie "Blackjack" Murphy, Jessica "Hello? Anyone Still Here?" Dane. Front row: Brett "Rubik's" Gallaher, Joe "Pasty White" Williams.

Weddings, Beach Parties, and Blackouts

2007-06-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

Time for another update, quite possibly the last for awhile as things are going to be getting crazy around here over the course of the next few weeks. As most of you have probably heard by now, our second interview with the American Embassy went fine, and we recieved Leia's immigrant visa on June 15, which means we are free and clear to move back to the States in August. Obviously, this was a tremendous relief, and we are very appreciative to all of you who supported us with prayers and encouragement.

The day after our visa interview, we flew to Athens for the wedding of Leia's cousin Siana. It was my first time to attend a Greek Orthodox wedding, which was a fairly interesting religio-cultural experience, especially given all of my recent research on the history of Christianity. One interesting aspect of it is that you actually hurl rice at the couple during the course of the ceremony! The wedding reception was held at a top-flight hotel on a huge patio overlooking the sea. As you can see from the pics below, the scenery was just spectacular.

The following day, June 17, was our first wedding anniversary. In some ways it seems hard to believe that we've been together that long, but in other ways it seems like much longer. Anyway, we spent the majority of the day alone in Athens, strolled through a bustling open air flea market, walked around the foot of the Acropolis by moonlight, and had a delicious Greek meal at a taverna with tables on the sidewalk. All in all, it was a lovely way to celebrate our first of many wonderful years together.

Last night, we took the kids from our youth group to an interchurch beach party in Limassol. Since our big conference in March, the Protestant churches on the island have been periodically getting their youth groups together to do things, and this was the latest chance for us to continue promoting this spirit of unity. The kids played soccer and ultimate Frisbee, had a sand sculpture contest and a swimming relay race, we grilled hot dogs, and closed things out with moonlit worship on the beach. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, and it was good for us to see that there will still be talented, loving people on the island to promote youth ministry after we've gone.

After we got home late last night and were just about ready for bed, disaster struck. First, the power went out on our entire street. Now temperatures this week have been in the 100's during the day, and the nights haven't been too cool either. So losing the air conditioning and fans is no picnic. To compound the problem, we have a plug-in mosquito repellent thing that, of course, also lost power, meaning we had to choose between closing the windows (and completely suffocating) or leaving them open and being eaten alive. And just to top things off, someone's car alarm was going off nearby for about 20 solid minutes, beginning about 15 minutes after the power went out. Talk about the perfect storm to ensure that there is NO WAY you're getting any sleep! Fortunately, the car alarm finally stopped, and at some point after we had finally started drifting off, the electricity was restored and the fan and mosquito repellent dispenser mercifully kicked back on.

So now our focus is on our upcoming youth camp and visit from the team from Lee University (who arrive a week from today). A week after they leave, we're having the bulk of our possessions packed up and shipped by a moving company, and slightly less than a month later, we're coming home! It still seems far away, and we definitely still have a lot of things to do and details to work out, but it's finally starting to feel like a reality. Keep us in your prayers, and we can't wait to see you all.

–John

The beautiful bride, Siana, and everyone's favorite bridesmaid, Nadia.

Either she's growing taller or I'm shrinking.

These next two are scenery from the reception.

Part of the Athens streets. That's the Acropolis in the distance, but the building in view is not the Parthenon. We were on the other side.

They don't build them like this anymore.

The taverna where we had our anniversary dinner.

Homecoming and Such

2007-06-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

So what have we been up to since April, you say? Glad you asked. Well, by far the biggest news is that we have been making preparations to move back to the U.S. This past Friday we had our first of two interviews at the American Embassy here in Nicosia as part of the process of securing a visa for Leia. We had no problems at all with this first stage, and are just waiting for a couple of her documents to arrive from England so that we can schedule our final interview. Assuming that goes well, we will be back in the States on August 21. We will be living in our old hometown of Cleveland, TN, at least initially. We are hoping to find a job in full-time youth ministry eventually, but for the moment we are just thrilled at the prospect of coming home and reconnecting with family and friends. Of course, Leia has a lot of mixed emotions about leaving her family and friends in Cyprus and starting a new life in the U.S., but we ultimately feel that this is where God is leading us and that it is the best option for our marriage, our ministry, and (someday) our children.

Apart from our impending move, there have been several other major recent developments. I have finally finished the massive writing project that has consumed the last year of my life: a 653-page introduction to the History of Christianity, plus a 147-page leader's guide for the same course.. a nice round 800 pages altogether. Let's just say I'm not too eager to tackle anything that big again any time soon. But the comments from the review committee have been extremely positive so far, and I'm pretty proud of it. It will probably be several more months before it finally hits the shelves at White Wing, so those of you who are eager to snatch up a copy will just have to be patient (I guess if you're a loyal reader of our blog, you're used to waiting for things).

May 4 was Leia's 29th birthday, and I had a lot of fun spoiling her. I went out while she was at work and bought her some flowers and candy, and I wrote several notes for her that I left in each room of the apartment, one leading to the next. When she got home, she was led by the notes from the living room to the kitchen to the bathroom to the office to the bedroom, and finally to our balcony, where I was hiding behind the shades with her flowers, chocolates, and lunch laid out on our outdoor table. That night, we went to one of our favorite restaurants and had the best steak to be found in Cyprus. And finally, we came home and I played/sang a little song that I had written about her. So I think she enjoyed the day, apart from getting older... although, as she constantly reminds me, she'll never be as old as me. *sigh*

The last week of May, we traveled to Cambridge, England for the wedding of our cousins/close friends Eric and Christiana. It was wonderful to see so many family members and friends, many of whom are incredibly dear to Leia in particular. The wedding itself was beautiful (depsite the rain that is a constant feature of life in England), and it was great to see the happy couple united at last. In addition, it was a lot of fun for me to be in an English-speaking country again, and because Eric and his family are Americans, I even got to chat about things I'm actually conversant in (like American sports). So all in all it was a good trip, and a nice change of pace from life in Cyprus.

This month, another of Leia's cousins, Siana, is getting married in Athens, Greece. Her wedding is the day before our first anniversary, so we're going to attend the wedding and then spend an extra day in Athens celebrating together... not a bad place to have a first anniversary, eh? Then the first two weeks of July, things really get busy. First, we are having our youth camp, which is held at a place called Governor's Beach. This year, a team of college students from Lee University in Tennessee is coming to assist us in running the camp and to lead some ministry training workshops for our kids. Then after camp ends, Leia and I will spend a week touring the Lee students around the island and providing them with some cultural and service opportunities that are required for their trip. And then it will be time to start packing boxes and preparing to move!

So as you can see, the next two and a half months are going to be fast and furious, but we are looking forward to all of it and waiting patiently for a chance to exhale. Thanks to all of you who have been faithful companions on this journey with us. We love you very much.

- John

Conferences, Birthdays, Easter, and Food

2007-04-09T01:55:00.000-07:00

So sorry once again to keep you all waiting for an update. I think it’s safe to assume from now on that this is not something we can keep up as often as we would like. So without further ado, here is the latest on our lives….get comfy…and you may want to grab your coffee otherwise it will get cold!!

Well, our youth conference was a huge success. We had around 300 people over the course of the weekend and everyone had a blast. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of it, but it was totally worth it to see all these young people come together. Unfortunately in Cyprus (like everywhere I guess), we have many small Evangelical groups with about 10-30 teenagers each. Most of these kids believe that they are alone and isolated as there have never been any efforts to get them together in the past. We wanted to show them that there are others, maybe even people they know, who understand where they are coming from and who share the same beliefs as them. When we began planning this event, we thought only a few churches would respond and perhaps we would get an attendance of about 70 people. We were stunned and amazed at how many people were excited and eager to help and get involved. We had to hire three buses to bring people from other towns!! What was really cool were the stories we heard from the weekend. I want to share one in particular with you guys. Two girls have been attending the same private lessons since September and have been sitting next to each other in the classroom. They discovered this weekend that they both attend an Evangelical church and shared the same faith. They were so excited their parents couldn’t wait to call their youth leaders and thank them for organizing the event.

It was John’s birthday on the 22nd. (Thanks to those who sent birthday wishes and gifts!) I’m not at liberty to say how old he turned- it’s a touchy subject!!! I had a lot of fun spoiling him and planning lots of fun things. I secretly ordered him some things off his Amazon wish list which he was excited to receive. Also, Mum offered to make him a cake but as we were fasting chocolate for Lent, we were stuck thinking of what to make him BUT brilliance prevailed and we created a giant peanut-butter cookie cake. Needless to say there wasn’t much left of it after about 24 hours so I think that means he enjoyed it! We popped by my parents’ in the afternoon and we surprised him with the ‘cake’ and my family were able to give him their presents. In the evening, John and I went for a romantic dinner to a Polynesian restaurant which was gorgeous! If any of you manage to visit us (and bring mint Oreos!!) before we leave we will take you there. So, all in all I think he had a nice day.

Tele, my brother, was here for two weeks and we loved having him around. He had his birthday here with us as well so we all went out to a Syrian restaurant to celebrate…have you noticed that we all we do is eat in Cyprus?!!

I am off work from the 30th March – 16th April for Easter. We don’t have a spring break and Easter is a big deal in Cyprus so we get two weeks vacation. I’ve been enjoying relaxing a bit. John unfortunately has been working frantically to finish the last two chapters of his book. Almost at the end now and I think it’s beginning to sink in. It’s unbelievable how much he has worked on it and I’m very proud of his achievement.

Easter has arrived here in the East too. Everything is closed from the Friday to the Tuesday of Easter weekend, and the Orthodox churches are packed out for services every night. The Saturday night service is particularly important because just before midnight, the Archbishop chants the resurrection liturgy and at 12am the church bells ring announcing the rise of Christ and the celebration begins. It’s televised on EVERY channel and no matter if you haven’t been to church all year, this is the night that everyone goes. On Sunday, people get with their families, buy a lamb and roast it all day on the spit and eat it all night. (Yes guys, that scene from Big Fat Greek Wedding is there for a reason!) Of course this explains why this is the busiest day in the ER because they have been fasting for 50 days and some gorge on cheesy-egg pies and meat!

Today, we had the pleasure of going to the mountains with my family to my grandfather’s village, called Lofou, and ate Meze (a Greek version of Tapas) at a traditional old little taverna. (again eating!!) It was lovely and yummy…we had all kinds of Greek dips and bread and halloumi cheese, and meats and sausages. Everything on the table is home-made/grown…and I mean EVERYTHING! Good stuff!

So a pretty packed month as you can see and I’m sure I’ve even forgotten some things. We have an awful lot on our plates (not just food!) and on our minds at the moment. Please keep us in your prayers as we are very overwhelmed. Perhaps I will post some of it later in the week if enough people post comments (hint hint!!).

Spring is in the Air

2007-03-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

My, how time flies. It seems like only yesterday that we updated you all on our lives, and it's been like five weeks. When last we spoke, the bitter chill of winter was in the air, and now it's looking a lot like spring (in Cyprus, at least). Sorry about the lengthy delay. So let me get you caught up...

As it turns out, thanks to a very gracious friend with a satellite dish, we actually DID manage to see the Super Bowl - albeit two days later on tape delay, and with most of the second quarter edited out for the sake of time. I stayed away from the phones and internet for two days, so I had no idea what the outcome had been when we sat down to watch it. Very cool. Glad the Colts pulled it out, although it was a pretty sloppy game, and because the second quarter was chopped I missed most of the Colts' scoring. Oh well.. it was still nice to finally catch some American sports footage. Now if only I could get some baseball..

Leia and I went out to a very cool sushi place to celebrate our first Valentine's Day together. We had a lovely sushi/sashimi sampler, green tea, the works. I went out that morning and got her some lovely purple flowers (her favorite color) and had them arranged on the coffee table along with a balloon, a card, some dark chocolates, and a little bear, so she would see everything when she walked in from work. It was fun. I love plotting surprises.

I have been clawing and fighting to finish the book I've been writing since July. I have about 3 and a half chapters left to go, and just over three weeks until my deadline. Should be a photo finish. I'm dying to be done with it, but I'm also pretty proud of what I've accomplished when I look back at it. It will just be nice to have it sitting on my shelf instead of having to load up an increasingly-huge computer file every morning.

Next week is going to be pretty eventful. Wednesday night is the talent show at Leia's school. She helped a group of kids put together a little drama production, which apparently has been drawing rave reviews in all the rehearsals. So I'm going to go check that out with her. Then on Friday and Saturday we're helping out with the pan-island youth event that Leia's been helping to plan virtually since I arrived in Cyprus. Two days of music, sports, games, food on the grill... I guess some things appeal to kids in every culture (not to mention those of us who can't claim to be kids anymore... at least not very convincingly). Supposedly around 230 kids are coming, which, if you know anything about the number and size of the evangelical churches on this island, is absolutely phenomenal. So we're looking forward to that, both because it will be a lot of fun and because after it's over we won't have to go to any more meetings about it.

Hmm.. so yeah. That's pretty much what's been going on. My birthday is coming up in about two weeks (hint hint... get those presents in the mail now), and then Leia's two-week Easter break, and then a trip to England in May for her cousin's wedding... so we have some nice things to look forward to in our immediate future... and hopefully you'll have some fresh blog posts to tell you all about it. In the meantime though, comment away on this one. We'd love to hear how you're doing.

- John

A few tidbits

2007-01-28T05:28:00.000-08:00

A couple brief updates on recent happenings around here:

First off, we wanted to assure everyone that Leia's health has been fine since our momentary heart scare a couple weeks ago. All of her test results came back clear and she hasn't had any more episodes like the previous one. So the doctor says it's either a non-threatening genetic condition that may not even crop up again, or it was a one-time reaction to stress or something. Anyway, we're greatly relieved and thankful for your prayers.

We've been doing a bit more youth ministry networking recently, which has been refreshing. The Friday before last, we invited another youth group to join our kids for a night of snacks and games in our youth room. We had a lot of fun with them, and it was nice to have the room packed out with kids. Then yesterday we had a meeting with youth leaders from churches all over the island, in preparation for a big nationwide youth day in March. It was really cool to meet some people from other parts of the country who have similar passions for God and young people, and it was especially nice for me because most of them were English-speakers, so I could actually follow everything that was going on and converse easily.

Other than that, not much is going on. Leia has a school holiday on Tuesday, so she's looking forward to having a day off. I'm scrambling like crazy to finish the book I'm writing before my deadline, and just trying to stay sane. I'm devastated about not being able to watch the Super Bowl this year (Go Colts!), but we are looking forward to spending our first Valentine's Day together as a couple, which will be wonderful (Last year we had to do Valentine's Day over the phone, which is extremely unsatisfying).

So that's our life at the moment. Nothing too spectacular, but it's the only one we have. We look forward to hearing from all of you soon (hint hint).

–John

The Holidays in a (chest)nut shell

2007-01-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

Wow... so it's been a long time since you heard anything from us, huh? Sorry about that. Life's complications keep getting in the way of our best intentions. So here, in a very belated and somewhat abbreviated fashion, are a few nuggets about our first holiday season as Mr. and Mrs. Duncan and the aftermath:

We decked out our apartment with green and gold Christmas deocrations, including a tiny little tree that was rather reminiscent of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. But it was strangely perfect for our first Christmas, and it was nice to have a little bit of holiday atmosphere in the apartment. We had a lot of fun opening presents together on Christmas Eve, even though only a few things were surprises because we took each other shopping a few days earlier and let each other pick out a few gifts (otherwise I would have done a horrible job of picking out clothes for Leia, and she would have had to awkwardly pretend to like them while secretly trying to figure out a way to return them without hurting my feelings.) One thing we bought together was a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, which we spent a portion of our holiday putting together whilst listening to Christmas music and such.

We spent Christmas day with Leia's parents, grandmother, and some family friends, and enjoyed a traditional English-style Christmas feast, complete with turkey and stuffing, roasted potatoes, cranberry sauce, and apple tart (among many other things). It was very hard being away from my large and loving family for the first time ever at Christmas, but in spite of a bit of homesickness we really did have a very nice time, and the food was phenomenal.

We had promised to take our youth group caroling before Christmas, but we ran into a scheduling conflict and were forced to take them the Friday after Christmas instead... so it was more like belated Christmas/early New Year's caroling, which I'm sure caught some of the church members off guard (as evidenced by a few church ladies who answered the door in their nightgowns). Nevertheless, they all showered us with snacks and candy, not to mention cash contributions (Budding entrepreneurs, take note: Christmas caroling is apparently a much more lucrative enterprise in Cyprus than in the U.S.) The only hitch with the whole evening was that all our caroling was in Greek, so at the back of the group was this big tall guy with a beard (perhaps you've met him), towering over everyone else and conspicuously not singing a word. Talk about feeling a bit out of place!

We basically repeated our Christmas pattern for New Year's, doing the romantic, on-our-own thing on New Year's Eve and going for a daytrip to the mountains with Leia's family on New Year's Day. The scenery was spectacular, and we had a very nice traditional Greek tavern-style lunch (let's just say that mouthwatering grilled sausages and cheese were prominently involved), but our fun was tempered a bit by the fact that our vehicle broke down and we ended up having to catch a taxi back to Nicosia.

On Jan. 2, Leia and I threw a post-New Year's dinner party and games night for a few of our friends, during which we introduced them to one our favorite desserts (chocolate fondue) and one of our favorite board games (Cranium). It was a crazy night filled with much laughter and high school reminiscences on the part of Leia and the girls, and a good time was had by all. It's pretty surreal being semi-adults and giving dinner parties, but I'm kind of starting to enjoy it.

Alas, our blissful, restful holidays eventually came to an end, and we returned to work on Monday. Then Tuesday night we had quite a scare, as Leia started having rapid heart palpitations. Her parents rushed over and drove us to the hospital, and I got to do the attentive husband routine, sitting with her in the examining room, stroking her hair, trying to make her laugh... in retrospect, it was really quite wonderful and intimate in a way, in spite of the scariness of it. Anyway, you'll all be relieved to know that after a battery of tests, it seems that she's perfectly fine. Thanks to those of you who comforted us with your prayers during those few frightening hours.

For all our friends back in Tennessee, we thought you should know that we recently dispatched a representative of ours to Cleveland. Stephanie Alexandrou, a member of our youth group, has moved to the U.S. to study at Lee University, so those of you who meet her at church or on campus, be sure to give her a very warm welcome and help her to feel at home in what will definitely be a strange environment for her at first. And ask her what she REALLY thinks of her old youth leaders. Then report back to us.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. We are back in the rapid currents of work, youth ministry, bureaucratic red tape, and all the other activities that constitute our lives here. We deeply appreciate the phone calls, emails, MySpace messages, Christmas cards, and care packages that we received over the holidays from all our family and friends around the world. Staying connected in those ways makes our lives so much less lonely and challenging than they otherwise would be. So, in that spirit, let's see lots of comments to this post! If you guys are craving more frequent updates, make it worth our while! ;-)

We love you all, truly and deeply. We hope your own holidays were blessed and happy, and we'd love to hear all about any (mis)adventures you may have had. Until next time...

–John

Chestnuts (and Marshmallows) Roasting on an Open Fire

2006-12-17T03:33:00.000-08:00

Well as you may have noticed, we have delayed posting once again….mostly because it was my turn and I am a terrible procrastinator but also because there were a couple of weeks where we were quite busy but nothing actually ‘blog worthy’. I just have three more days of work and then I’m FREEEEEEEE!!!!!! (well until 8th Jan…but we wont think about that yet!)

Christmas is upon us. This week was our first Christmassy-style week. On Thursday we went to Mum and Dad’s to put up decorations, toast marshmallows and chestnuts in their fire place, and make mulled wine. Truth be told, it represents our new multi-ethnic family traditions….marshmallows- American, chestnuts – Cypriot and mulled wine- English. It was nice to spend the evening with them because we have both been so busy and not seen each other much lately.

Last night was our church Christmas dinner, sponsored by the Youth (see pics below). It was a huge success although very exhausting. We all decorated the cafeteria with gold and silver decorations and put candles everywhere. It looked beautiful. The adults came dressed-up because it was a formal dinner and we all wore white and black to look like servers. Some of the youth prepared a few Christmas songs and played excellently. Everyone worked hard and all the guests were congratulating the kids and thanking them. We were very proud of them and hopefully we made some money to spend on future activities.

Today is our six-month anniversary. We are going to a Spanish Tapas Restaurant for dinner which was the style of food we had in London the night John proposed. The restaurant is in the old city so we will be able to take a nice walk through the Christmas atmosphere of down town. We are both a bit under-the-weather because of last night and the beginning of a cold BUT we will not be deterred from our romantic time together. Yes Mums/Moms and Grandmas we will wrap up warm…we promise!

Thanks to those of you who have sent us Christmas cards and gifts. We want you to know that we are thinking of you all through this season and missing you. May God bless you and we hope you have a lovely week leading up to Christmas.

Leia
XXX

Happy Day After Thanksgiving

2006-11-24T02:05:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. We hope you enjoyed stuffing your faces with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and all the other seasonal fare. We didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving meal (funny how that works when you're outside the one country that celebrates Thanksgiving), but we did go to TGI Friday's for a big American-style burger, and my mom sent us some ingredients to make our own sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie, so we're planning to enjoy that at some point this weekend.

We're sorry for the delay in putting up pictures from our weekend away awhile back. We spent a couple days in a small, quaint mountain village called Kakopetria and had a wonderfully relaxing time. We took long walks, read a lot, ate out, and generally de-stressed. Below you'll find some snapshots of the scenery.

Last weekend we went out to a very nice Asian/Polynesian restaurant called Pago-Pago to celebrate our five month anniversary. The food and service were some of the best we've found in Nicosia. We had dumplings, satay, curry, tropical fruits.. it was amazing. We highly recommend that you check it out if you're in the area. ;-)

We're quickly approaching the Christmas season and are going to be increasingly busy with youth group events. We're in charge of the church Christmas dinner, which serves as a fundraiser for the youth group, we're taking the kids Christmas caroling, and we're exploring the possibility of holding a winter retreat right after New Years' for our group and another youth group in town. Hopefully we'll manage to work in some rest and relaxation during the holidays as well.

We just wanted to take the opportunity at this special time of year to let you all know how very thankful we are for your love, prayers, and comments. We are truly blessed to be surrounded by a lot of caring, thoughtful, supportive people (along with a handful of equally-lovable crazies and delinquents). We love you all very much. Happy Thanksgiving.

–John

Chop Chop!!

2006-11-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

So after many months of dragging a brush through my long uncontrollable mop, I finally got around to going to the hairdressers. It was one of those moments where I was on the verge of grabbing a pair of scissors and attacking the forest that was my hair. Fortunately, the appointment at the salon came first! I just said 'go for it!' which was actually very brave of me because cutting and styling curly hair is quite a laborious business and needs expert attention. It wasn't what I was expecting and needless to say I was pretty shocked, but after a day of playing with it and a big can of mousse, I finally decided I like it!

Of course, this is not the only thing that has been going on around here. We actually have had quite a few undesirable adventures! First of all, in the wee hours of the morning, our bed just decided to collapse on one side!! Not the thing you want to happen when you have to be up at 6am for work! But, after some serious glueing and nail hammering, we managed to put it back together...of course this was on the same day that the ghost of funky odour decided to visit our apartment! (what's that saying? - when it rains it pours) NO.... it was not John's feet! Trust me - I checked! We seemed to realise it was generating from the fridge so we took everything out, cleaned it thoroughly and went off to Friday night youth. By the time we got home, it had penetrated the whole apartment and we were baffled. We checked behind all the furniture in case something had gotten in the flat and died in the corner. BUT nothing, zip, nada! So, on Saturday morning we cleaned the fridge again and it was at this point that we realised the smell was generating from BEHIND the fridge...a mouse I hear you say...but alas! There was nothing there! In fact, it was THE ACTUAL FRIDGE itself. Something had defrosted and leaked into a draining pipe and gone stale. The electrician came round and pulled out the 'culprit' and there are no words to describe the smell that was exposed...it took us a while to get hungry for lunch!

One good thing that came out of all this? We were ecstatic to be renters because our landlady (who lives upstairs and is the sweetest woman) took care of it all. Yay for renting!

My mum and dad are in Israel this weekend..(yes we are jealous) and I have the day off on Monday (thank God for the Orthodox church and Archbishop day!) so we are going away for the weekend. Thank God again for friends and parents' good ideas - a friend of my parents owns a hotel in the mountains and he has let us stay for the weekend for free.(Also we are checking it out for a future Youth retreat.) We leave tomorrow around noon and get back Monday afternoon. Ahh, the thought of doing nothing for three days sounds marvelous. This is my first day off since school began and we only have one other day off from now until Christmas so I plan on taking full advantage of it.

Anyway, we'll be back in a couple days with some pictures of our vacation! Love you all.

–Leia

Why Oh Why

2006-10-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. As you can see from the pictures above, we were treated to the sight of a gorgeous rainbow on our way home from Sunday lunch yesterday. One thing I will say for Cyprus is that it has some pretty amazing meteorological scenery. Rainbows, cloud formations, lightning storms. . . the sky here can just be magical.

In other weather-related news, summer has finally changed to winter. What about fall, you ask? Apparently there's no such thing over here. It went from being shorts and sandals weather to "Quick, where are the extra quilts?" weather in the space of about a week and a half. Which is ok when you have central heating and proper hot water heaters, but not so fun when you're depending on a kerosene heater that's locked up in a central storage room and a roof-top hot water heater that only heats the water when the sun's out. So we've been walking around the apartment draped in bedspreads and blankets for a couple days.

By way of a brief update:

Friday we took the youth group out bowling. Needless to say, Leia and I suffered humiliating defeat at the hands of our teenagers. The whole evening proved eye-opening in terms of Cypriot youth culture. The bowling alley was full of probably 100-150 kids (many of whom were just sitting and eating, not bowling), with nary an adult in sight. Apparently, parents just drop their children off in droves and leave them there for a few hours, at which point the kids proceed to wreak havoc and drive the employees completely insanse. We saw one kid who must have been twelve or thirteen stroll in the front door with a big smile on his face and a pair of brass knuckles on his hand. Craziness. After bowling, we took the group to McDonald's, where the scene was disturbingly similar–dozens upon dozens of unsupervised pre-teens running amok. I guess bowling alleys and fast food restaurants are where gangs of kids spend their free time when there are no malls. . . it was just a very weird experience.

On Saturday Leia and I enjoyed a nice, relaxing day at home, apart from the fact that I gashed my finger when a glass I was washing at the sink broke in my hand. Needless to say, I acted like a complete baby and let Leia make a big fuss over me. That's one of the great perks of being married. Saturday night we went out to our favorite Chinese place and had a lovely dinner, followed by a quick stop at the nearest bakery for a couple of mini chocolate cakes. Not a bad way to end the week.

Thank you for your prayers for Leia. She's been much better this past week or so. We are both still dealing with a lot of fatigue and the mid-semester blues though, so please keep holding us up. We'd love to hear from you either by comment or email. It's so wonderful to have such a great group of people continually reminding us that we're gone but not forgotten.

I hope everyone has fun dressing up, carving pumpkins, and trick-or-treating tomorrow. Eat some extra candy for us. Talk to you soon.

–John

Random Happenings

2006-10-24T01:13:00.000-07:00

Not much has been happening around here lately, but I thought that in the interest of keeping our promise to provide more regular updates, I should at least write a little something.

Leia and I have been extremely busy with our respective jobs, as well as youth ministry stuff. I think we're both going through "half-way between summer and Christmas burn-out" at the moment. We really need a vacation, and there's none in sight.

We enjoyed our night out last Tuesday, although the Asian fusion restaurant proved to be a bit of a disappointment. The sushi was very nice, but the hot dishes were nothing special. We're eyeing a Polynesian place for our next "month-iversary" dinner.

On Thursday night three of our good friends visited the apartment and Leia made a lovely chicken curry. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing with them (although the girls did most of the talking whilst I struggled to keep up with a running stream of inside jokes and allusions to people they went to high school with). :-)

Some friends of Leia's family visited from England this past weekend, and we enjoyed chatting with Leia's good friend Irene for a bit. She had missed out on our wedding because of her job, so Leia got to show off wedding pictures, which always makes her giddy.

Tonight we're taking a group of Leia's Media Studies students to see the new M. Night Shyamalan film, Lady in the Water. Leia and I are pretty big fans of his, but we've heard very mixed reviews on this one, so we'll have to wait and see. At any rate, it should be a fun evening out.

That's about it I suppose. Nothing too remarkable. Still, it's nice to have a group of people who care about what's going on with us, even when nothing is going on. Please feel free to give us updates on the minutiae of your own lives any time.

Here's your quote for the day. I'm going to try to get back to doing more of this kind of stuff:

"Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things . . . as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value."
–Teilhard de Chardin

Until next time . . .

–John

Reconnecting

2006-10-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, after uncounted delays we finally got our DSL installed yesterday, and are back in cyberspace where we belong. This means that you can now expect much more regular updates on the happenings in our lives (and yes, we really mean it this time). I know, I know.. you can barely contain your excitement right? And rightly so.

So today is our four month wedding anniversary, which also means that I've been in Cyprus now for a shade over six months. Pretty weird stuff. We've established a tradition of going out for a nice dinner every month on our anniversary, so tonight we're going to a new, funky Asian fusion place that's within walking distance of our apartment. It's nice to have one really special date night to look forward to every month.. we both appreciate that break in our hectic schedules.

Leia's been battling some minor health problems recently. She has had to miss a couple days of work because of stomach troubles, and we think she may have developed some sort of dairy allergy. Anyway, I've been trying to nurse her back to health, and she's been much better the past few days (since we realized that dairy seemed to be the common denominator and cut most of it out of her diet), but we would still appreciate your prayers.

It's so bizarre to think that the holidays are just around the corner. Of course, "the holidays" here consist of only Christmas and New Year's — no Halloween, no Thanksgiving. It was strange recently to walk into a store and see Christmas merchandise out already, but then I realized that when there's no other major fall holidays to prepare for — no reason to stock the shelves with plastic jack o' lanterns and witch costumes, cans of cranberry sauce and bottles of pumpkin pie spice — then you can start selling Christmas stuff as soon as summer ends if you want to. Kind of made me feel homesick in a weird way. This year is definitely going to be very strange because Thanksgiving and Christmas are such precious times for me, and I've never spent either one apart from my family. Of course, I'm looking forward to my first holiday season as a married man, but it still seems very surreal to be here far from so many people I love at my favorite time of year. Anyway, now that you all have our new address, feel free to send us Halloween candy, pumpkin pies, and Christmas presents. I'm sure that will make everything seem more familiar.

That's all for now, but I promise you'll hear more from us in the next day or two. Please leave us a comment and let us know how you're doing as well. We love you all.

–John

Lunches and Lock-In's

2006-09-24T05:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. It feels kind of weird writing a new blog entry without having dozens of photos to upload, but maybe a few words will be entertaining enough to tide you over until the next update.

Leia is back at work now, shaping the young minds of tomorrow with her trademark brilliance. Meanwhile, I am starting to feel like I am making real progress on the book I am writing for my job. It's an introduction to the History of Christianity, and I have now completed twelve chapters (out of a projected 29 or 30). It's a huge undertaking, but I'll be really proud of it when I've finished. The first book I wrote (an Intro to the Bible) was just published last month, and Leia and I now have our own copy to admire, which is fairly surreal.

Apart from my writing, I've been doing some house-husband stuff to relieve my wife's stress. I've started cooking lunch for her during the week so there's food ready when she comes home from school. Lunch tends to be the main meal of the day here, so I can't just throw together some sandwiches, but I've had a lot of fun experimenting in the kitchen. I've done fish and vegetables in foil packets, pork cutlets with a mustard-cream sauce, rosemary potatoes, homemade tacos, shrimp fried rice, pasta of various sorts... I think I should apply for a job with the Food Network – maybe I could be Iron Chef Cypriot!

Friday night we had a lock-in with our youth group at the church. For the uninitiated, a lock-in is where you get a bunch of teenagers together in a building and stay overnight and eat pizza and play games and watch movies and generally do a lot of fun things and see who can stay awake the longest. You would think these kids could manage to stay up all night, but most of them slept for several hours, and the only person who made it through the entire night was me, the old man of the group! I guess they just don't build teenagers like they used to. But at any rate, we did have a fun night with the kids. Some of them taught me to play backgammon, and I taught them to play ping-pong, and it was just nice to have a break from the usual madness of our routine.

Leia and I both really appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this challenging time in our lives. Now that our long blissful summer has ended and the reality of the working world has once again asserted itself, we are beginning to feel a bit worn out. There are a lot of things about our life here that tax our physical and emotional energy. In particular, we are both bothered by the fact that our real reason for being here in Cyprus in the first place (youth ministry) often seems to get pushed to the sidelines by our many other responsibilities (most of which are necessary to pay the bills). I know a lot of you understand what a frustrating feeling it is to have to subordinate your passion to your "day job." So please remember us in your prayers. We really need a lot of encouragement at the moment.

I know we have sent some of you our new address and phone number for the apartment, but if there are any of you who don't have it and would like to, just drop us a comment or an email and we'll be glad to send it to you. We love getting calls and cards...and presents (hint hint). We love you all, and we promise that when we finally get an internet connection to call our own (within the next week and a half, supposedly) the frequency of our communication will greatly increase. Thanks for being patient. We are so grateful to have such a wonderful group of friends and family members who care about what's going on in our lives. You are a great blessing to us.

–John

Photo Spread

2006-09-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Here are those pictures we promised. First up: the new youth room.

So... this was basically a large-ish Sunday school room before, with plain white walls. With the help of our kids, Leia and I chose a paint scheme consisting of silvery gray, coffee brown, and Nanking Blue (tm). Over the course of several long and messy nights, we managed to repaint the whole thing so that it doesn't look half bad (if we do say so ourselves). This is one end of the room, where many an epic ping pong battle has already taken place.

This is one of the side walls looking toward the other end. The little white bookcase contains books, music, and DVDs that the kids can borrow, and some board games they can enjoy in the room.

And this is the other side wall, looking toward the entrance from the hallway. Our eventual plan is to use stencils to cover these two brown walls with Scriptures/poems/art in silver paint. We've also been given two couches and two armchairs that will fill up some of the empty space once we have them re-covered. We're basically going for an informal living room type vibe for our Bible discussions. This way we can do the fun and games and the more explicitly spiritual stuff all in one space.

Here, Anna Maria and Teresa are engaged in a friendly game of chess atop one of our stylish and cleverly color- coordinated bar tables, while Stephanie and Martha provide an enthusiastic audience.

And these are a couple of the older kids playing Battleship. Doesn't Leia look like she's trying to figure out a way to cheat? You'll be happy to know that it didn't work.

This is our new car, fresh off a ship from the UK. The model is Zafira. Apparently the make is Vauxhall in England and Opel everywhere else. Go figure. It's a legitimate seven-seater, which is cool for youth pastors (no, we're not intending to fill it with our own children anytime soon). *Waits for the frustrated exclamations from the disappointed grandparents- and great-grandparents-to-be to die down, then continues.* It has "modern luxuries" (like power steering and air conditioning) that our previous car did not. It doesn't have a CD player, but luckily we have one of those tape player to Discman adaptor thingies, so we're good.

And these are the shots of our new apartment, or if you prefer, our flat. N. T. Wright (one of my favorite theologians and a very bright guy) rightly notes that, depending on whether you’re American or British, the sentence “I’m mad about my flat” either means “I’m angry about my punctured tire” or “I’m happy about my apartment.” Well, we’re the latter (happy that is . . . not British . . . at least not entirely). This is the front door and the entertainment center. DVDs are to the left of the TV, CDs to the right of the picture. We like to keep all the essentials close at hand.

This is the seating area opposite the entrance, along with one of our many bookcases. We definitely feed each other’s reading addiction in a way that’s probably not entirely healthy . . . but we both feel like we can stop whenever we want to. We just don’t want to.

So if you’re facing those couches and take a left, you come to the kitchen/ dining area. Because of the clever shopping of the previous tenants, we basically have all the gadgets and appliances we could want in there, along with a nice supply of cereals and cookies. Thanks Chris, Eric, and Nadia.

This is the veranda off the kitchen, a nice place to sit and read. Or just watch the traffic. Or practice your spitting skills.

On the other side of the living area from the kitchen are the bedrooms. This is the master bedroom, complete with our comforter and sheets from Target. And there’s Leia’s dressing table . . . and some more books. Seriously, we can stop any time.

And this is the guest room. For my male friends who may want to come and stay with us at some point: I resisted the purple bedspread. Really, I did. But ultimately, you just don’t want to go up against your wife in a battle over interior design. Anyway, rest assured that you’re welcome to sleep on the couch instead. Yes, that’s another bookcase in the corner. And yes, that’s a Family Guy poster (featuring Stewie) on the wall. Thank you to my friends who gave me that as a “leaving the country” present . . . and to Leia for agreeing to let me hang it up. See? She gets the purple bedspread, I get the Stewie poster – compromise. This is how marriage works.

The guest room also doubles as our office. This is the computer where I eke out a living as a writer by day and play Space Cadet Pinball by night. Internet access is supposedly coming soon. Yes, yes, yes, more books. But those are Bibles and Bible reference stuff, so you can’t really count those. I promise, we don’t have a problem!

Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the virtual tour. Please come visit us any time. We miss you all. Drop us a line when you get the chance.

–John

Apologies!

2006-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

We would like to offer our sincere apologies for keeping a low profile this past month. Quite a lot has happened and we have been flooded with all kinds of things. Here is a quick run down of the last month BUT our next post will be filled with exciting pics of all I will now tell you.

First of all, we had a wonderful time house sitting for our friend Nicky who was in England for two months. Her apartment is beautiful and it was a lovely extension of our honeymoon when we returned from the USA. We had many decisions to make and a great deal of business to take care of after our vacation time so we felt extremely overwhelmed. Amazingly, or should I say expectedly!, God helped provide us with many answers and opportunities.

For a while now we have been looking for a car and finally, after quite a lot of looking, we have bought one. It's a Vauxhall Zafira (picures will follow!) which is rather big but works out well for helping to carry round the youth! My uncle is a car dealer in England and found it for us (thanks Taki) and sent it to Cyprus. The best thing is that there is air conditioning and power steering...our old car had neither and it was a miserable summer driving it around!

Also, we have found our own place to rent. It's a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment and we got an amazing deal. John and I had been wrestling with many options about renting/buying furniture/electrical appliances and spent many an hour at night worrying and stressing going round and round. Because we have no idea how long we will be in Cyprus, it was difficult to make the wisest decision. BUT God helped provide a place that answered all the 'maybes' and 'whatifs'! (again pictures will follow). My cousin Christiana, her fiance Eric and their daugher Nadia, found the apartment back in July. It belonged to an old man and when he passed away early July, his daughter didn't want to deal with moving all the furniture, kitchen stuff and linen so she basically rented to them 'as is'. In August (just after returning from Nicky's place), Chris and Eric decided to move back to England and needed to find new tenants so as not be penalised for breaking the lease. It worked out perfectly for everyone and they left us a heap of things they couldn't take with them which saved us a lot of money. Thanks guys...we miss and love you.

During all this time of moving from Nicky's, moving to a new place and running round government offices for car and residency paperwork, John and I have been painting a room in the church for the youth to call their own. What we thought would take a couple of nights, ended up running into three weeks! However, after much sweating and sore muscles, it is finished and looking very cool. We are in the middle of buying furniture and fixings but we have already had one meeting in there with the youth.

Other than that, I start work again on Monday :( which is a bit sad because I have enjoyed the free time to dedicate to the youth and our new home. This year will be easier in some ways but just as difficult in others. There is no wedding to plan (PHEW!) but we are starting a college group ministry and we want to have more time for the youth in general.

Thank you for all your comments and prayers during this time. We are especially grateful to my parents for all their help with moving and running around to sort out all our paperwork. We truly appreciate all that you have done.

So, our next post will be another great photo catalogue to hopefully give you all a better idea of our life here in Cyprus. Please drop by and post comments...they are a real encouragement and keep us going....don't just visit and not say anything! It helps us to know there are people reading.

Love you guys

The Big Update, Pt. 4: The Honeymoon

2006-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I know . . . we've been stretching out this Big Update post longer than George Lucas strectched out the Star Wars saga. This is the last installment, I promise. The reason for the lack of activity on the blog is that we've been house-sitting for a friend of ours (sans internet access) since we returned from the States. We should be back online more regularly in about a week, and we will have plenty of exciting things to share, including pics of our new car and the new youth room we've been fixing up at the church. But for now, feast your eyes on this little virtual photo album of our honeymoon.

This is our cabin (tastefully named Midnight Fun), just outside of Pigeon Forge, TN in the Smoky Mountains.

The cabin had a nice comfy living area, as well as a host of other fun features . . .

. . . like this jacuzzi . . .

. . . a rock wall shower with a waterfall shower head . . .

. . . and a hot tub on the back deck, perfect for soothing my aching muscles after a long day of shopping at outlet malls.

Clearly, the cabin was not somewhere we wanted to leave very often. But when we did venture into town, we enjoyed some of the local culinary specialties, like breakfast at the Pancake Pantry . . .

. . . and dogs from Fanny Farkle's. Seriously, isn't my wife cute when she's enjoying her food?

Clearly, we stuck to a strict low-cal regimen while we were honey- mooning.

We took a ride up to the top of a mountain on a ski lift that offered equal parts scenic beauty, quaint charm, and heart-pounding terror.

You guys can make up your own caption for this one. Only in Gatlinburg . . .

Upon returning to Cleveland, we took part in a 1920's-era murder mystery. Here we are, the (slightly crooked) district attorney and the sultry lounge singer.

And here's the entire cast of characters. Special kudos to Adam for busting out the mutton chops.

Leia had never taken part in a 4th of July celebration before . . .

. . . so my brother-in-law Sean and I put on a little pyro- technics display for the whole family.

The ladies mostly just stood on the porch and yelled at us to be careful . . .

. . . but at least Leia got some cool pictures. I think this was right before the fire department was called in.

After nineteen glorious days, we headed to the airport for our looong return trip to Cyprus. We had a couple of final photo ops with my family . . .

. . . then said our tearful goodbyes. *sniff*

We had a twelve hour layover in Amsterdam on the way back, so we thought we'd do a little sightseeing (in spite of the fact that we were complete zombies by this point). This is the central train station. European architecture never ceases to take my breath away.

A lovely old church. I find it sad that Europe has all these beautiful cathedrals that basically stand empty for lack of worship- pers, while we in the States content ourselves with meeting in sparkling new high-tech spaces that basically feel like public auditoriums. There's just a certain lack of sacredness in most of our churches that really hits you when you visit places like this.

We took a boat tour along the city's famous canals. This is a spot where you can look down under seven bridges that stand in a row. (Admittedly, you'll have to squint pretty hard to see all of them in this picture.)

Finally, this is the statue that stands outside the Anne Frank House Museum, a sobering place if ever there was one. Compre- hending the horrors of the Holocaust never gets any easier, does it? Leia and I both felt that this experience was worth the stopover in Amsterdam.

So that's it: the end of our wedding and post-wedding adventures. We hope you'll keep coming back to see what's going on in our new lives as man and wife. We think the best is still ahead. We love you all.

–John

The Big Update, Pt. 3: The American Reception

2006-07-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, brave travelers. We're off now to the American reception. (Incidentally, we're a bit short on nice digital pics from this reception, particularly of the toasts. We have some great analogue pics, but alas, no scanner. So if any of you have any digital pictures you'd like to share, please pass them along).

The Peerless Road Church gymnasium, like you've never seen it before. Seriously, the decorating job was just spectacular. Thanks again to everyone who pitched in.

The most important element at any reception: the buffet table.

Leia and I go through the time-honored ritual of cutting the cake. (Interesting side note: Those of you from USC might spot Mr. Jay Evans, who apparently had just made his usual timely entrance, in the background.)

We followed that up with the thoroughly American tradition of smashing a piece of cake in each other's face.

Clearly, I got the worst of it. Trying to get icing out of one's beard is not terribly fun.

Now we move on to some of the beautiful people in attendance, aka our crazy friends. We begin with Mr. Jon Brock of Columbia, SC (yes ladies, he IS available) and Valerie Bogan from Indiana, two of my dearest college friends who drove a looooong way just to see me get cake smashed in my face. Thanks guys.

Leia with Amber and Leslie.

Leia with Faith and Tammy.

Leia with Christy and Geremy . . . yes, this was our reception in MY home country, and yes, Leia has way more friends than me, even there. But then again, who can blame them from being drawn to her?

Leia with Shauna, who won the prize for longest distance traveled by flying out from Utah.

And finally, Leia with Melissa (who, unlike Shauna, only had to survive the grueling trek from the other side of Cleveland).

A lovely shot of the new bride and groom with my parents, Larry and Susan Duncan, who worked very hard to give us this beautiful reception. Thanks guys, we love you.

"The cousins": Sean and Laura Weldon (my sister and brother-in-law); Sarah Murray, Leia and I, and Katie, Emily, and Abby Aukerman. Yes, they're all very cute. No guys, you cannot have their phone numbers. So back off.

Our getaway car, which, in line with a grand tradition of vehicular vandalism, had been appro- priately decorated by a few of our friends. And with that, we were off on the rest of our honeymoon... but that's another story for another day.

–John

The Big Update, Pt. 2: The Reception Dinner

2006-07-16T03:07:00.000-07:00

The story continues!

After making our escape from the hand-shaking throngs, Leia and I hopped into our waiting Mercedes (courtesy of Mr. Tony Pastos).

We made our way to a local park, where our photo- grapher got some nice shots of the new couple in the gathering dusk.

Meanwhile, across town, a lovely banquet hall sat awaiting our arrival (not to mention the arrival of our guests, many of whom took awhile to get there, with the result that Leia and I were circling the block in our car for half an hour waiting to be told that everyone was ready for us to make our entrance).

This is our head table.

. . . and these are our heads.

Our lovely wedding cake (that no one had so much as a piece of. Apparently cake cutting is a purely ceremonial affair in Cypriot weddings).

Some of our legions of adoring fans.

A tender moment between the bride and groom, and some nice product placement for Saint Nicholas bottled water.

"Everyone raise your glass to Mr. and Mrs. Duncan."

Our first dance, to "The Way You Look Tonight" (It's subtle, but if you look closely you'll notice that there's a bit of a height difference between us.)

Sure, we looked happy at the end of the night, but by this point we were thinking, "Ok people, let's wrap it up. You don't have to go home but at least get out of here!"

We then headed for our hotel, where we had booked an African-themed suite . . . and that's where the story ends and you guys leave us alone.

Seriously, get out of here. More next time.

– John

The Big Update, Pt. 1: The Wedding

2006-07-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

June 17, 2006 is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. (And if I don't make a special point to remember it every June 17, I will really be in the doghouse.) Our wedding day was truly beautiful, and after suffering through an incredibly stressful week of preparations leading up to it, Leia and I were both pretty calm and relaxed on the day itself. Our friends and family members truly made it special with their kindness, generosity, hard work, and warm wishes. Below are a few pictorial highlights, along with insightful commentary:

My gorgeous and stunning bride being accomp- anied down the aisle by her father, Michael, who's not so bad himself.

Finally, after a long, slow entrance (or maybe it just seemed that way from the perspective of the anxious groom), she reaches me and I beam.

Leia's uncle Tony delivered the sermon . . .

and Michael presided over the formal vows. . .

. . . but we were mostly just paying attention to each other.

Next, we exchanged our own personal vows . . .

. . . along with the bling. . .

. . . and then sealed the whole thing with a kiss.

For our unity ritual, we decided to forego the traditonal candle thing . . .

. . . and instead poured together two vessels of colored water . . .

. . . so that they formed a new color in the larger vessel. Pretty cool, no?

We left the church in a shower of petals . . .

. . . and made our way to the back garden for some quick photo ops. Here's Leia with her cousins Christiana, Lizi (her maid of honor), and Siana . . .

. . . and me with Eric (Christ- iana's fiancee), Tele (Leia's brother and my best man), and Leia's cousin Ryan.

And finally, here we are with our new combined family: Michael and Soula Charalam- bous, John and Leia Duncan, Susan and Larry Duncan. At this point, the six of us proceeded to shake about 600 hands (and kiss 1200 cheeks) before leaving the church grounds to head for the slightly more intimate family-and-friends dinner. . . but that's a story for another post. Stay tuned!

–John

Promises for the Future

2006-07-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

We are back in Cyprus now, having completed all of our blessed nuptials and post-wedding adventures. This post is not much more than a promise that a lot of new content is coming soon. We have lots of pictures of the wedding and reception in Cyprus, the reception in America, the honeymoon in the beautiful mountains of Tennessee, and our family Fourth of July celebration to share with everyone, along with some stories and memories to make them come alive. That's all coming very soon. In the meantime, we are settling in to our friend's apartment, where we will be house-sitting for the next few weeks. We don't have internet access there, so the big update may take a few days, but it will be worth it, guaranteed. If nothing else, you have to come back to see the pictures of me with cake and icing smeared throughout my beard, of Leia scarfing down a foot-long corn dog, and of both of us dressed like mobsters from the 1920's. How's that for a tease?

Thanks and much love to all our family and friends who made the last month so wonderfully memorable and special. We miss those of you we have just left, and we can't wait to see those of you we have just returned to. You are all in our prayers and in our hearts, always.

–John

one week and counting!

2006-06-10T03:31:00.000-07:00

As you have probably noticed due to our lack of blogging, we have been drowning in wedding prep stuff. Fortunately, all the hard work, sleepless nights and endless decisions are coming to an end in 7 days. Hard to believe there is so much involved in preparing for an event that lasts such few hours!! Although, I am beginning to get excited as I see things come together.

So what exactly have we been up to?..hmm...get comfy while I attempt to unravel the whirlwind of days!

We found the missing injured kitten and despite a close call last night, where he seemed almost a gonner (!), it looks like he will survive and be fine. I have decided to detach myself emotionally from them because it was absolutely horrifying and heart-breaking witnessing that dog attack last Friday. Sounds really pathetic to those who aren't animal lovers I'm sure, but I can't even handle watching wildlife programes when the lions hunt other smaller creatures let alone watching a tiny kitten being taken into the jaws of a white Alsacian!

I had my last day at school yesterday which is a nice relief because now I don't have to be up at 6am. My family from England have been flying in and so we've had many late nights catching up and talking weddings. Now, I can enjoy it without waking up at the crack of dawn!

Today we (John, me, my brother, my cousins and three friends of mine) are all going to Limassol to a Sting concert! After we watch the England World Cup Football game of course. Dont know which to be more excited about....at least if England lose then seeing Sting will be something to enjoy and take our minds off another depressing let down! (For those of you out of the World Cup loop, England have a tendency to win and lose randomly...very unpredictable game history and yes..very very annoying!!) The USA game is on Monday against the Czech Rep...could be an interesting game.

Tomorrow is my Hen night (bachelorette party) and we're going to an Italian restaurant all wearing a crazy hat or wig! Should be fun.

This week has been a crazy time of driving to other towns on various wedding business which is really wearing us down. John and I both haven't been very well and it's making things more difficult. Keep us in your prayers because we don't expect to get much time to rest this week.

We are increasingly excited about our approaching trip and reception in two weeks. It will be nice to see most of our USA peeps again soon.

Hope we get a chance to blog again this week before the wedding. If not, we would just like to say thanks for your prayers, support and kind comments. We love you all.

Leia
XX

Two Weeks and Counting

2006-06-03T01:54:00.000-07:00

So... we're down to two weeks before the big day. I think maybe we should change the title of this blog from "Deep Breaths" to "Our Lungs are Aching for Air." Any anxiety I feel at the moment has nothing to do with being married, and everything to do with wondering how in the world we're going to finish getting all the details taken care of. As most of the men in the audience know, being a groom basically means being dragged around for several months by a group of women who ask for your opinion on things that you don't really care about (like, "Which guestbook do you think is prettier?") and assume that they don't need to ask your opinion on the things that you actually would like some input on (like, "Would you rather go shopping all day tomorrow or do something a little less torturous?") ;-) And it seems that the list of little details that simply must be considered never actually gets any smaller. Again, my advice to you all (and I cannot stress this enough) is to elope. It's so much less stressful.

Having gotten that off my chest, I must admit that, now that a few things are finally taking shape, I think we're going to have a beautiful ceremony. Leia and I have prepared a slideshow with pictures of us as a couple interspersed with some of our favorite quotes about love and marriage, which will run as guests are entering the church. We have a unique unity ritual planned involving the mixing of brightly colored water instead of the traditional candle thing. The back garden of the church is going to be all lit up and decorated with flowers for our receiving line. I think it will be a beautiful day... I just can't wait for it to get here!

At the moment, Leia is out having another fitting with her wedding dress and picking up her custom-made wedding shoes. I love seeing how excited she gets about being a bride.. it's very cute. I don't really get the same thrill about being stuck in a tuxedo for eight or ten hours, but at least I can enjoy her excitement.

Now for a quick rundown of some of the highlights since the last time we posted (I know, I know... it' s been awhile).

* Last Friday we finished our series of lessons with the youth group, and then last night we all went out for a food and fellowship night in downtown Nicosia. We're currently trying to determine whether we have enough interest to go ahead with our plans for youth camp in July. Because there's so little time between our honeymoon and the camp, we have to start planning lessons now if we're going to pull it together in time. At first it seemed like there weren't enough kids who could make it, but after talking with them last night it looks a bit more positive.

* Some time last week (Thursday maybe? The days are all blurring together at this point) we went to the beach for a few hours so Leia could work on her wedding-day tan. We went swimming together for the first time, which was quite fun, although by the time I could finally get my chest wet, poor Leia was treading water for dear life. :-) Anyway, that was a very fun day.

* Last night we had a terrible tragedy. A dog got into our back garden through a gate that had been inadvertently left open by someone who was doing some work around here yesterday and killed one of our kittens, and mauled another one (who may or may not survive). I was on the phone at the time, and I heard Soula and Leia screaming. Leia had chased after the dog with a garden chair to scare him off, and by the time I got to the back of the house she was crying and trembling and hyperventilating. Needless to say, it was a terrible scene, and it really upset me to see her so shaken. I stayed with her last night until she fell asleep, and fortunately she didn't have any nightmares or anything.

So as you can clearly see, never a dull moment. We are both really worn out right now and basically just can't wait to be married and enjoy a couple weeks of much-needed rest.

It's been great to see s0 many recent updates from our other blogger friends (Sean and Laura, Ben, Emily, Amber). Good job guys. Now you can start leaving hints in your posts about how John and Leia's blog never gets updated. ;-) We really miss all of our family and friends and are so excited about seeing so many of you soon. From what we've been told, our Cleveland reception is going to be lovely, and we really want to thank all of those who have been donating their time and expertise to make that day special for us.

See you in a few days. In the meantime, comment away. Thanks for all the kind words and prayers. You all really keep us going.

–John

Anniversary

2006-05-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, faithful readers. As you can tell by the decreasing frequency of our posts, things continue to be crazy. However, after receiving a few pleas (and at least one threat), I decided to set aside a few minutes to give you all an update on the last few days.

Friday night, we took our youth group to Pizza Hut. Now, ever since I was old enough to chew, Pizza Hut pizza has been one of my favorite delicacies, and after a solid month of chicken, seafood, Greek salad, olives, and other admittedly-delicious-yet-relatively-bland-and-healthy fare, it was a welcome change to ingest some good old-fashioned American grease! Yum. Poor Leia is still on a dairy-free and not-much-bread regimen, so she had to settle for a small thin-crust pizza with no cheese, which is not nearly as much fun. :-(

Saturday we had lunch with two couples, one of whom are very close friends of Leia's. The second couple had two small children with them in the restaurant, which only served to reinforce our conviction that we want to just enjoy marriage for a couple of years before adding kids to the mix (although I think all of our parents are already in full-fledged "we want grandkids NOW" mode).

On Sunday we attended a city-wide ecumenical Christian celebration at a local hotel. It was a very cool scene—English folk, Greek Cypriots, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Africans, and one very tall American, all worshipping together in various languages and cultural forms. Wonderful vibe of unity, although our enthusiasm was tempered a bit by the fact that we were sitting directly under one of the main speakers, which had been cranked up to somewhere between "jackhammer" and "jet engine."

I've wracked my brain, but I have absolutely no idea what we did on Monday. I guess it must not have been too exciting...

Yesterday we ran down to Limassol once again to get the tailor started on the waistcoats that my groomsmen and I will wear for the wedding. I think we'll both be very relieved when this wedding is over so we can go through a few days in a row without asking, "which city are we driving to today, again?"

Which brings us up to this afternoon. Leia has gone off to have another fitting done with her wedding dress, which I am expressly forbidden to see before the ceremony starts, hence all the free time I have to blog. ;-) Tonight we're going to Starbucks to relax with some sort of iced drink (we're in the midst of a heat wave at the moment) and plan our youth group lesson for Friday.

Today also marks the one-year anniversary of the night that Leia and I officially became a couple after attending an Atlanta Braves game (thank you Jason, Teresa, and Faith). It seems like yesterday. . . it seems like a decade ago. We're both really grateful for the past year, and for all the great people we've been able to share it with. Can't wait to celebrate the culmination of all of this with all of you. We love and miss you.

–John

You are invited...

2006-05-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

So the last few days have been a bit of a blur as the task of inviting people has become quite overwhelming. In Cyprus, you have to actually place the invitation into people's hands as opposed to sending it through the mail because they can get offended.... sounds strange, I know, but what can you do?!

Sunday is a great example of how crazy this can all get. Both my parents are from the coastal town of Limassol and it was the first church my dad pastored when they moved here 15 years ago. Anyway, you can imagine the list of friends and family to be found there. Fortunately, my Gran is the social bee of the century and has had a great time visiting almost all the relatives and inviting them to her grandaughter's wedding! Anyway, she loves an excuse to galavant so she did most of the work for us but we had a few remaining. Our day began at 8.45 am when we left Nicosia and arrived at 10am just as the first church service was starting. This group of people consists mostly of our friends so it was pretty cool hanging out with them. At 12am, as their service ended and we were saying our goodbyes, we had to rush off to another church which was scheduled to finish at the same time. Unbeknownst to us, our presence (actually mostly Mum and Dad's coz they're more known than me and John!) had been announced so when we slipped in the back door and realised this service was just getting going, (after an already two hour and a half warm up!) panic struck! Because John and I are such heathens (my Cleveland friends do not have to agree so fervently!), we snuck out and left the old folks to it! Needless to say, my Gran was very welcoming and was happy to feed us while we waited for them to finish!! Then later that day after we all awoke from our afternoon kip on the couch, we visited two Greek-speaking uncles' houses and didn't get home until 10pm! Phew... just writing about it makes me twitch!

So, Monday, Tuesday was pretty crazy as we ran around doing random wedding jobs. Mum and Dad, bless their hearts, have been visiting other towns like Larnaca and some mountain villages, giving out invites to friends and church folk. John and I have the weekend shift where we're meeting up with two different sets of friends on Saturday for lunch and then dinner.

Today, we escaped to the beach (notice how this is becoming a weekly occurence) and John actually got to dip his toes into the Mediterranean Sea. (Almost literally because we went to a really shallow beach and he walked and walked but the water didn't get very high...my poor baby). I, on the other hand, am a bit of a wimp and just watched him from the shore because the water is still a bit too frosty for me. But, I had fun seeing him enjoy the sea and the waves... I think we will be going again soon.

Tomorrow we're taking the youth out to Pizza Hut with another group. I think John is thrilled to be going somewhere with pizza and somewhere with familiar menu and surroundings.

Ok this long blog should keep you going for a while. Please don't forget to comment because we love reading your thoughts.

Leia

A Quiet Saturday Night

2006-05-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. Leia is at a school function this evening, and Michael and Soulla are off attending another wedding, so I'm just soaking up the silence of a big empty house for a few hours. Been reading a bit, playing my guitar, and generally enjoying some down time after a long day of cleaning the house and helping to tear some carpet out.

Last night was the third installment of our series of lessons on the Bible with our youth group. We discussed the fact that the story that the Bible tells regarding the nature and purpose of our existence (which we had explored the previous week) is only one amongst several competing stories (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, secular science, etc.), and challenged the kids to think about what separated the Christian story from these other stories. As you might imagine, that topic generated quite a bit of discussion among the group (tragically, since it was all in Greek I can't really re-cap much of it).

The point we tried to emphasize to them was that the Christian story centers on loving relationships between God and humanity (and also loving relationships between humans, which grow out of our relationships with God), while the other stories tend to say either A) There is no God, and therefore no one with whom to be in a relationship, B) There is some sort of God, but not the kind that you can be in relationship with, or C) There is a God, and you can be in a relationship with Him, but not a loving relationship. Anyway... in spite of my linguistic shortcomings that keep me from interacting in discussions with them as much as I would like, it is so rewarding to watch the young people grappling with new ideas and attempting to flesh out their faith. I think putting together this series of lessons has really given both Leia and me a fresh sense of enthusiasm regarding our calling and our ministry partnership. (And by the way, any of you guys from the youth group who may be reading this, please feel free to chime in with your thoughts about all of this stuff).

Tomorrow, as you well know, is Mother's Day (at least in the States), so we are going to Limassol tomorrow morning to attend a church service there (and give out more wedding invitations), after which we will take Leia's mom and grandma out for a nice lunch. Naturally, I am a bit sad about being far away from my own mom and grandmas this year(actually, this just occurred to me, but given the fact that I usually went home for the summers before Mother's Day when I was in college, I don't know WHEN I was last away from my mom on Mother's Day...hmmm), but on the plus side, it does mean another day down near the beach, as opposed to fighting for a table at Cracker Barrel or something (For all you British and Greek readers who may be wondering, "What in the world is Cracker Barrel?" well... words do not do it justice.)

We are beginning to count the days until our wedding, partially because we're eager to start our life together, and partially because we want to reassure ourselves that we won't have to deal with pre-wedding stress much longer, but also because we're so excited about seeing so many of you soon. Please drop us a brief comment now and then. Our mood improves considerably when we receive tangible proof that someone's actually reading all of these ramblings.

I'll leave you with another thought-provoking quote this evening. This is from a song called "Sounds Like Sunday" by a band called Mineral. Part of it comes from Luke 6:21. I put bits of it into one of the first cards I ever gave Leia, and into the last letter I wrote to my grandfather before he passed away, so it's pretty special to me. Enjoy.

Time doesn't always heal.
It just breathes, and swallows memories,
Sending showers,
Beating flowers into the mud.

How blessed we are for crying now,
For we will laugh some day, and how.

Nothing is forever in this place—
Nothing but the way my heart fits in Your hand,
The held breath of hope,
And the sweet, lingering taste of grace.

Amen to that.

–John

It's a Concert! It's a Rave! It's a ... Wedding??

2006-05-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

Let's see... where were we? Oh, right... Sunday.

Sunday morning Leia and I attended a service at a place called New Life, which is an English-speaking congregation. We went there for the purpose of hand-delivering some invitations to our wedding (don't get me started), but the experience turned out to be pretty enjoyable. The people were very friendly and welcoming and it was nice to sing a couple of songs that I recognized and that consisted entirely of words that I know how to pronounce properly. The congregation seems like a pretty eclectic mix, everything from former Anglicans to full-fledged Pentecostals, with the only common denominators seeming to be the language and their commitment to each other as a community (which was very commendable and refreshing to see).

Sunday night we attended a Greek wedding reception that was completely surreal. The hall that it was held in had a huge stage, complete with a band that blended hard rock (their drummer was in a big drum cage) with more traditional Greek instruments like the bouzouki. There were giant projection screens filled with psychedelic images (sort of like glorified screen savers, really), colored lights flashing everywhere, smoke... you get the picture. All of this while several hundred people are having dinner and screaming at each other above the circus, trying to be heard. Then, the coup de grace: a section of the stage (which was quite high) sunk down out of view of the crowd, only to be slowly raised back up (amid appropriately dramatic music) bearing the bride and groom and the cake table, as the audience cheered thunderously. Seriously, what could be more tasteful and understated than that? Needless to say, Leia and I spent the evening being alternately amused and horrified. (Fear not, this is not typical of most weddings here, nor will our wedding be anything like that).

The last couple days have actually been fairly relaxing. Monday night we met up with some old friends of Leia's at Starbucks. It ended up being two other couples, each of whom had a young child, and us. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and at the end of the evening we got to make fun of them because they had to rush home and put their kids to bed, whilst we were free (theoretically) to party late into the night. In reality, we let them get out of sight and then left ourselves so that Leia could get to bed early enough to get up for school.. but that can just be our secret. Then last night the two of us went out for a nice dinner at a place called Cafe La Mode, and just crashed afterward. It's been cool getting a bit of a breather this week, and it's even going to continue today—we're leaving in a little while to go down to the beachfront at Larnaca and plan our next youth group lesson for Friday night (let the jealousy commence).

Not that we haven't been getting things done for the wedding. This week Leia had a trial with a hairdresser and found a general style that she likes, she took her dress to a seamstress to make some final alterations, we're taking the material for her maid of honor's dress to a dressmaker in Larnaca later today, and this morning we went and filled out all the necessary civil paperwork for our marriage. So things are slowly coming together. Hopefully our health and sanity will hold up a bit longer.

So there you have it. You're all caught up now. Sorry about the intermittent updates, but we're thrilled to hear that so many people are keeping up with our blog and enjoying it. We really want to hear from all of you, whether it's through the comment system or just via email. Let us know what's going on in your respective corners of the world, and see if you can submit a crazy wedding reception story that can top ours. We miss you all, and we're starting to get very excited about seeing so many of you next month. Thank you for your love and your prayers.

–John

Slackers!

2006-05-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

O.K. so we started well but this week has been a bit thin on the posting front! We sincerely apologise for the delay in your daily dose of John and Leia.

It has been a hectic week and I wish I could report that next week will be better but so far, our days are fully booked all through until Thursday already! It's stressful and tiring just thinking about it. However, John and I have scheduled some time out too so hopefully we'll have time for this big long deep breath we desperately need to continue!

My birthday was lovely and I was thoroughly spoilt by my sweet man ...(all the girls may sigh dreamily along with me here, while the guys make fun of him..but only a bit!) I was taken shopping and this time I actually had permission and cash to buy 2 PAIRS OF SHOES!!!! In the evening, we went to a cool gothic-with-a-modern-twist-style restaurant which had the most amazing food...as you see, we're using this blog to try and tempt all our friends and family to come visit! Needless to say, it was a very special day mostly because of who I got to spend it with. ok...enough with the sappy moments...

Yesterday, we had our youth meeting and the second lesson of our series this month about the truth and relevance of the bible. It went really well and the kids are beginning to look at the bible in a completely different way. We were both very excited when we came home.

Today, we were supposed to see a car but it didn't quite work out. There's a saying in Greek 'Every obstruction is always for the best' and even though it's disappointing to not be getting a car as soon as we would like, I'm sure there is a better option just around the corner. We ended up going to Limassol instead to buy some material for the wedding and visiting my Grandmother. We all went out for lunch to this great little local Taverna and had real genuine Gyros....hmmmmmm! (tempting isn't it?)

Tonight we are going to just chill because tomorrow we have another fairly busy day. :(
Hopefully, we will find time to update and fill you in on our next eating adventures seeing as that's what we mostly do here in Cyprus!

Once again, thanks for all your emails, comments, wishes and texts on Thursday. I felt very loved and special. (Somebody write something warm and fuzzy for John too so he doesn't feel left out!)

Miss you all a bunch
Leia
X

Regularly Scheduled Programming

2006-05-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry the news has been a little scarce around here lately. Wedding plans continue to devour most of our free time. So let's see... where were we?

Monday, May 1, was a national holiday here (as it apparently is most places, except the U.S. - what a ripoff), so we spent the day straightening some things up around the house. I finally got the last of my things unpacked and all my empty boxes stowed away in the attic, so that was a nice feeling. We spent the evening sorting through our invitation list trying to decide who's getting invited to the "family and friends" dinner and who's just getting invited to the ceremony, AND whose invitiations we can just mail as opposed to those that need to be hand-delivered (and if it sounds to you like the whole process is WAY more complicated than in the States, well... you're right).

On Tuesday morning I went to the American Embassy to complete some paperwork that is necessary for us to get a marriage license. Let me just say that airport security has nothing on these guys. I'm a U.S. citizen and I was a little intimidated, so I can't imagine what it's like for the poor people who go there to get a visa to visit America and have to try to convince the stone-faced inquisitors that they're not terrorist threats... very eerie kind of place. Fortunately though, I got what I needed with a minimum of hassle.

Yesterday evening Leia and I went to a planning meeting of local youth leaders who are aiming to put on a large interdenominational youth event here in Nicosia sometime this fall. Then we came home and started planning our own youth meeting for this Friday, in which we intend to help give our kids a holistic overview of the biblical story – yes, we dream big.

That brings us up to today, which is Leia's 28th Birthday! (quick, everyone send her an e-card now and maybe she won't realize that you forgot!) She's at school at the moment, but later today I'm taking her shopping and then we're having dinner at a fancy Italian place downtown, so we're both very excited about having a day off to just be together.

Since the last time we posted, a very close friend of ours lost his father. Two other friends became parents for the first time. It's very difficult to feel so far removed from the joys and sorrows of the people that are dearest to us, but we wanted to let ALL of you know that you are never far from our hearts, and that the things that touch your lives deeply touch ours too. It's amazing that this collection of silly little posts and comments and replies can make such a difference in our lives, but it does. It truly has become a source of grace for us, and we want to thank all of you for the part you have played in helping it to become so. See you soon.

–John

Weekend Update

2006-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Leia and her mom went off shopping together (which meant the credit card companies rejoiced and Michael and I sat at home sobbing and trying to figure out what we could sell to pay off the creditors). But seriously, she got some very nice things and even managed to resist the impulse to buy any shoes, so I was proud of her, and she looked beautiful in her new outfit.

I spent the morning finishing my unpacking job, and managed to get most of my things stored away. I also set up my computer and it is working fine, so I will start writing from my new bedroom office this coming week.

After Leia got home, we went to the church for a music rehearsal. The youth group was leading worship this weekend, and they asked me to play drums with them. The drumkit at our church is a tiny little 4-piece kit that is missing some heads and has a very very low stool and cymbals that have seen better days, but it was still a lot of fun just getting back behind a set and playing again. Some of the young guys here are really talented musicians, and it was fun connecting to them through the universal language of music.

Last night we went with Leia's parents and another older couple to a really nice Chinese place. We had Peking Duck and Lemon Chicken and 4 or 5 other things. I felt a bit lost because the majority of the conversation was in Greek, and every once in awhile everyone would burst out laughing and then Leia would turn to me and repeat in English the joke that had just been told while everyone else stared expectantly at me, waiting for me to laugh... naturally, I obliged them. ;-) Anyway, this couple, Mary and Spiros, offered some advice regarding a way to get a good deal and low interest rates on housing, and also mentioned a possible job contact for me, so it was good to make their acquaintance.

This morning we went to church and our youth band debuted to throngs of adoring fans... or a bunch of old ladies looking confused by the racket... probably somewhere in between, actually. I thought that the guys did a fantastic job, and I think Leia and I both felt a bit of parental pride toward our youth. I think music will be a good way for me to connect with some of them, so that was nice to discover.

We had some grilled octopus for lunch (can't get that at Captain D's), and then basically lazed around for the rest of the afternoon. Then this evening, Chef Leia prepared a lovely batch of crepes with fruit and honey and syrup and almonds... yummmmm. I'm beginning to think that being married to a beautiful, intelligent, talented woman who is also a great cook is going to work out just fine.

Now we're preparing to sort out our schedule for the rest of the week, which promises to be quite hectic between wedding preparations, Leia going back to school on Tuesday, and most importantly, Leia's 28th birthday on Thursday (everyone mark your calendars and send her lots of e-cards and such.. she's a sucker for stuff like that). So we should have plenty to report on as the week progresses. Keep us in your prayers... it only gets crazier from now til the wedding.

Drop us a line and let us know how you all are doing. We miss you and love you.

–John

Groupie

2006-04-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

After our little late night musical experience, we took some time waking up this morning. I had to run to the courthouse to begin some paperwork for our marriage license around mid day and then spent most of the afternoon writing out invitations for the wedding.

John had fun finishing some of his unpacking and organising his things. It's really cool to see our stuff combined. Felt like I was getting all these christmas presents early! In fact, it felt like I had been given the stock of a small Mackays! Needless to say, I was very excited.

This evening we had our weekly youth meeting. The students are leading worship this Sunday morning and they have asked John to play drums for them. When he practised with them before the meeting, they were all very impressed and excited. (And I was cheering in the background like a faithful groupie!!) One of the church workers was dropping off his daughter and his eyes lit up when he saw John behind the drums. We are going to have to figure out a good excuse so that he isn't asked to play every week! Oh the trials of being so talented and popular! :P

The meeting itself went really well and the kids responded exactly as we had hoped. They are very interested in learning more about the bible and I think it will be very beneficial for them to truly understand it holistically and not just as bunch of fairy tale miracle stories from Sunday School classes.

It was also very encouraging to see some of the kids making an effort to talk to John and connect with him. I'm sure he felt very lost most of the evening as we babbled on in Greek but I was very proud at how much he actually picked up on despite the language barrier.

Tomorrow will probably end up being a bit hectic but we are going out for dinner (Chinese) with my parents and another couple who are trying to help us find an apartment in the near future.

We love and miss you all....thanks for all the ungoing support, prayers and encouraging comments. They really make our day!
Leia
X

Christmas in April

2006-04-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the airport at Larnaca to pick up all the stuff I shipped here from the States. For awhile it seemed like we might have some problems with the Customs officials, but after I provided some additional paperwork and Michael and Leia reasoned with them a bit, we managed to get out of there without having to pay any tax.

So I spent most of the rest of the day yesterday lugging everything up the long staircase and eagerly tearing open boxes like a kid on Christmas morning. Fortunately, everything seems to be in terrific shape, all things considered, and it is nice to have some of my favorite books and music again, and especially my guitar, which I had been missing more than I realized. Today I plan to finish unpacking and set up my computer at the desk in my bedroom, which will now become my office during the day as I continue my writing projects. It's exciting to have a space that feels more like my own now... of course, my excitement is tempered a bit by the knowledge that after Leia and I get married and move into one bedroom, we'll just have to rearrange it all again, and then move it all out when we find an apartment... but we just won't think about all of that yet.

Late last night we went out with our friend Zara to see a jazz band that we were considering booking for our reception. It was a four man group–guitar, bass, drums, sax– and they were phenomenal. Tragically, after talking with their guitarist, we learned that they would not be available on the night of our wedding. So now we're back to square one and are considering just going with a DJ. Seriously, planning a wedding is way more work than could possibly be healthy. Oh well... we just keep chipping away at our list a little at a time and trying to stay sane. You may have mixed impressions about the success of those efforts. See you later tonight.

–John

...and back to the ocean one more time

2006-04-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today Leia and I spent yet another day criss-crossing the island in our car, this time venturing all the way to Paphos, which is on the southwest coast. Leia had an appointment with a doctor/nutritionist there, so we decided to just turn it into a day trip, taking back roads and stopping at some scenic points along the way.

First we stopped at a place called Kourion, where there is a huge ancient amphitheater that is apparently still used occasionally for dramatic performances. It's situated on top of a high bluff that offers a panoramic view of the Mediterranean... just spectacular, breathtaking scenery. Being up there was a welcome, peaceful respite from our normally hectic routine.

Next we stopped at Petra Tou Romiou, which is where this picture was taken. You can see a series of three rocks leading into the sea, and the largest of these (marked by the arrow) is the namesake of the spot. Legend has it that a giant hero who protected Cyprus threw this big stone at a fleeing enemy and it landed in the sea.

After Leia's appointment, we went into Paphos and sat in a cafe planning our youth group meeting for this coming Friday night. Leia and I really enjoy working collaboratively on stuff like that, and we managed to come up with a lesson plan fairly quickly between the two of us. We are going to be starting a series of lessons that we hope will give the kids some new perspective on the true nature and relevance of the Bible, so we're pretty excited to have some firm direction for the group for the next month or so.

After walking around the touristy areas down by the sea for awhile, we headed home. Tomorrow we are going to the airport at Larnaca to pick up my belongings, which have finally arrived from the States. We're just praying it doesn't cost too much to get them out of Customs. So the next couple days will be a bit crazy as we try to get all of that stuff moved in and take care of some more wedding arrangements. But I think we both feel a lot more at ease today after spending some time alone together and with God and with His amazing creation, like our strength has been renewed a bit. And of course, we have a wonderful group of friends and family supporting us and praying for us.. thank you. It's much-needed, deeply appreciated, and regularly-reciprocated. Bye for now.

–John

Really big deep breaths!

2006-04-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sadly today was fairly uneventful. John and I had some jobs to work on seperately most of the morning and early afternoon but this evening we planned a rough idea of our wedding service over a nice beverage at our favourite cafe.

There are so many wedding details still left to work through it can be very overwhelming most of the time. I find myself solving one problem or crossing something off my list, only to discover that there are another twenty things I forgot to consider. I often find myself wishing we lived hundreds of years ago when the whole process of courting and marriage took in total one week! Where exactly did it become about so many other things like 'what colour and font type shall we use for the table plan?'!! It's so important that we take time to sit back and just get excited about being married soon instead of focussing on all the decisions being demanded of us. I just want to marry my best friend and soul mate and begin our life journey together...ok marry him while I'm wearing a pretty big white dress...I am a woman after all! And yet, if I sit back and start letting others just make the decisions, I begin to feel that the wedding wont reflect mine and John's true selves or our relationship. Not that the day is ALL about us but isn't it wrong for us to look so out of place on our wedding day? So what do we do? Where is the middle road? How can one find enjoyment in all the stress ahead? (8 weeks to go! GULP!)

At the end of the day:
'People may make plans in their minds, but only the LORD can make them come true' (Proverbs 16: 1)
One friend emailed me this morning about how she is learning to trust God and stop trying to solve everything alone. I know that the most important thing is that John and I join together in God's eyes as one on June 17th. Whatever else has to happen will happen and I've got to just do my small part and let the rest work itself out.

I think the title of our blog says it all. Today I've been taking lots of big deep breaths while looking to heaven, holding onto John's hand and trusting it will all come together!

Leia

To the ocean and back..and back to the ocean... and back.

2006-04-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Fear not everyone, we are alive and well. We've had an exhausting couple of days. Yesterday was Greek Easter, so we went to an Easter Sunday service here in Nicosia, then left to go to Limassol to pick up Leia's grandma (or, in Greek, her giagia, which is pronounced "ya-ya"). Then the five of us drove to a place called Governor's Beach, which is where Leia and I had our engagement party back in October, and which is also where our summer youth camps are held. We had a lovely dinner overlooking the ocean, which as you can (sort of) see from the picture, was beautiful yesterday.

When we got back to Leia's grandma's house, I got to see some cute/embarasassing pictures
of Leia as a child. Let's just say that she was never camera shy... hehehe. Later last night, we drove through Limassol and saw all the touristy beach resorts and the main oceanfront road with many restaurants and cafes and so on. It sort of reminds you of a less glitzy and seedy Las Vegas strip, or (for our friends in Tennessee), a less cheesy Gatlinburg.

Leia's giagia came back with us to Nicosia last night, so today we drove back down to Limassol again to take her home and to hang out by the beach a bit more (yes, it's a rough life). Leia and I and her parents walked along a lit path right next to the beach, and stopped for some drinks at Starbucks. All in all, it was a lovely time, although there was quite a bit of deja vu involved, as we basically spent two whole days driving in circles.

So much for our Easter adventure... now we're faced with the prospect of lots of wedding preparations with fast-approaching deadlines... the next few weeks are going to be really hectic and we're just trying to brace for it. All of my things that I shipped from the States are supposed to be arriving in the next day or two, so we'll also have the challenge/fun of unpacking and sorting all that stuff out. I'm very excited because I have missed having my books and CD's and guitar and all the other random odds and ends that one never really misses until they're sealed in a box in the hold of a cargo plane on some other continent. Hopefully being able to arrange all my stuff in my new room will make it feel a bit more like home.

Anyway.. that's about all for today. Thanks for tolerating the brief interruption in your regularly-scheduled blog programming yesterday. Hopefully we didn't cost ourselves any loyal readers. Please post some comments and/or email us as often as you like. Hearing from our friends and family always makes our day. We would also like to encourage some of our friends with blogs (you know who you are) to post something new soon because we check them faithfully every day and say things like "STILL nothing new since March 20th?!? What's wrong with (insert friend's name here)?!?" :o)

I'll leave you tonight with another quote. This one's from Rainer Maria Rilke:

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

We are definitely living some questions right now (as I know many of you are), and trying to learn how to love them. Maybe we can help each other live into some answers along the way.

More tomorrow.

–John

Lights, camera, action!

2006-04-22T13:04:00.001-07:00

Tonight was our Youth Easter Drama presentation so John and I spent most of this morning and afternoon preparing a few last minute additions. The play itself was written by one of my girls but the presentation was organised by our church and the Evangelical church. This past year our two youth groups have been meeting regularly and have become great friends and seeing them work together on this has been a real treat. We are both very proud of them. I was very glad that John arrived in time to help and be part of this event because I couldn't have done it without him.

So how did it go? Well, pretty well! By that I mean, everyone turned up in time for the performance, no body was injured or murdered in the last minute technical emergencies, the electricity only cut out during the practise but worked fine later AND we still have a job! I'm convinced that I felt a few new wrinkles pop up and I'm sure if I look in the mirror I will discover a new patch of grey hair but otherwise we were very pleased! John unfortunately got to see last-minute-late Greeks at their best. I'm sure many of our readers in the UK know exactly how that plays out! All in all though we heard positive comments and I think it was the first time the people in Cyprus had ever experienced an Easter production like it. We mixed music, images, film clips and live action to try and transport the people back in time. The kids acting was really superb and I think they left feeling very pleased about the evening overall.

We would like to inform our commenters that due to certain complaints, we have unlocked the blog so that you can now make anonymous remarks wihout having to be a member. Therefore, those of you (in England especially...nudge nudge wink wink!) who have tried making comments and had trouble, have another go!

Now for some very sad news. Tomorrow, being Easter Sunday, means that we will be gone the whole day and wont have time to post a blog.....that's very sweet but please stop crying...no seriously please stop...you'll set me off. We hate to cause so many of you such terrible grief (particularly as it's John's turn again tomorrow!) but it is unavoidable. We are going to a place called Governor's Beach to eat at a Fish Tavern overlooking the mediterranean sea with my family. Then we will be going to Limassol (another seaside town) to erm....walk by the sea some more! (before you ask...of course I'm taking sun block for John! bless his little pale genes!) We hope that you will not miss us too much and as a peace offering we will try to remember and take pictures of the ...erm...sea!

Christos Anesti!! (He is Risen)
Leia

Lost in Translation

2006-04-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here it is, as promised... one completed, semi-high quality, Malaysian-manufactured, Cypriot-and-American-assembled wardrobe! Impressive, no?

Today was a very busy day. We cleaned some around the house this morning, then had some wonderful chicken and onion souvlaki (homemade by Leia's dad on his grill) for lunch. Afterwards, Leia went to the church to have a dress rehearsal for the youth Easter drama that is going on tomorrow night, whilst I sat chained to my computer, futilely trying to get some work done on the book I'm currently writing.

Then this evening, we attended a pre-Easter service at the church where Leia's dad pastors (which just happens to be attached to our house... makes for a nice, stress-free 5-second commute). One of the men in the church kindly accomodated me by providing translation of the sermon into English through headphones, but there were a few technical problems, and one of the sound engineer guys kept rushing up to the section where Leia and I were sitting (two rows from the stage, naturally), and fiddling with the headphone jacks. Finally, he got one to work, but the phones I had to wear.... let's just say on a scale of 1 to 10 in size, with 1 being an Ipod earbud and 10 being the ones that workers on an airport runway wear, these were a solid 8.5. I felt a bit conspicuous, sort of like I was the random guy on the subway in a trenchcoat and a propeller hat that everyone sort of looks twice at, then keeps their distance from. Anyway, I finally did get to hear most of the message, and thankfully I remembered to take the headphones off before I tried to stand up for prayer.

With that, I must bid you farewell for the evening. Leia and I still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the drama tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to tell you all about it tomorrow night, and if we're REALLY lucky, they might even let us remain the youth ministers. *knock on wood*

I thought I'd leave you tonight with one of my favorite quotes and pieces of advice, by Frederick Buechner:

"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

Wish I remembered that more often. Thank you all for reminding me occasionally.

–John

Shoes and Eurotrash

2006-04-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

So today was kinda interesting. This morning I had some errands to run downtown for the youth drama on Saturday and dragged John down there with me.....little did he know that downtown is also the shoe shop district mwwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaaaa!!!! It's only fair that he be initiated into this experience as it will also be a lifetime commitment in June when he says 'i do'!! However, I did take him to Starbucks and introduced him to a 'Mocha Coconut Frapaccino'..yes all you American Starbucks fans...we have extra special European versions of your menu. I have a feeling little stops like that will ease his torture and he may even eventually suggest indulging in my shopping addiction! (hey...I can always hope!)

We returned to find Dad still struggling with the infamous wardrobe. The curse of the useless instructions and bad handicraft was in full swing and I was surprised he wasn't rocking back and forth, screwdriver in hand and muttering 'Piece A connects to Part F'! John and I sent him away to refuel with lunch whilst we re-arranged a few hinges and finally got it looking somewhat like the picture on the box!!

This evening we went to Fridays for dinner with a friend of mine from work and her American husband. It was nice for John to meet someone who can understand and sympathise with the vast culture shock ... although he wasn't a great help. It was more a case of 'do you like pancakes...yeah they don't have the same kinds here'...'what about sausage?....make sure you have some in June coz you wont find them again in Cyprus'!!! And although I was insulted several times for being a 'dull Euro-trash Britt', the evening was fairly pleasant!! I'm sure we will go out with them for dinner again some time.

We are very excited about everyone's positive feedback concerning this blog. We love logging in and reading your comments. It makes us feel more connected with our loved ones around the world. Now for a little slap on the wrist for my people in the UK....er...hello? anybody want to contribute?...come on you're making me look bad! you're totally letting down the euro-trash side of our family! :P

John and I are currently working on a reward for all you commenting folk...yes...that's right...for your eyes only, we are going to publish the first exclusive never before seen pictures of the legendary wardrobe! If that doesn't make you come back and see us...then nothing will!

Leia
XX

Secret Agents and Greek Goddesses

2006-04-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned yesterday, Leia and I went out for coffee last night with our friends Jimmy and Christopher. Had a great time (and some very nice beverages), and Christopher kept us all rolling with laughter as he narrated the story of how he proposed to his girlfriend. (Let's just say that it involved a Santa suit, a gypsy selling flowers, and a woman hiding in the men's bathroom for half an hour... you couldn't make this stuff up).

Today I slept reaallly late and got up just in time to have a quick bite, grab a shower, and head next door to the church, where we had another Easter drama rehearsal with the youth group. The kids are very friendly towards me, and today one of the girls pulled me aside and told me to go tell Leia, "Ise Thea." Now, having seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," I was understandably a bit hesitant to go and say some random thing to Leia in Greek in front of the youth for fear that I was actually saying, "Your odor is most foul" or "Your mother is quite a looker" or something. But apparently what I said was, "You're a goddess," which is appropriate enough.

After that, our day was fairly uneventful. I helped Michael figure out some minor computer problems he was having, Leia showed me a pretty hilarious comedy routine by some guy named Pablo Francisco, and then we watched a few episodes of the first season of 24 on DVD. My whole family is hooked on that show, and so is Leia's brother, and he recently converted her parents as well when they were staying in England, so she is the only one out of the loop and I'm working to remedy that. Thankfully, she seems to like it so far. Unfortunately, I left the States when the new season was only 2/3 of the way finished, so now I'm stuck wondering what happened for months until the new DVDs come out. (If you're reading this in America and you watch the show, DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME).

Tomorrow night Leia and I are going out to dinner with a friend of hers from work and her husband, who is also an American, so that should be a lot of fun. We're hoping they'll become a couple that we can enjoy hanging out with semi-regularly. Will they make the cut? Come back tomorrow and find out!

We miss all of you guys. Starting this blog was such a great idea, and we have a lot of fun signing in a couple of times a day to see which of our friends and family members have contributed. Makes us feel a lot more connected to all of you. We hope to have some photos and links and stuff up in a couple of days. Thanks for dropping in.

–John (tomorrow it's Leia's turn to write again... don't miss it).

Some Assembly Required

2006-04-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

So today, Leia's dad Michael and I (with Leia's help and supervision) attempted to put together a huge wardrobe that we picked up from a furniture store yesterday. Apparently it was made in Malaysia (insert your own joke here), and the instructions were so incoherent that we kept looking around to see if we were on Candid Camera or Punk'd. Needless to say, it's still sitting half-finished in the middle of the bedroom.

We had a wonderful lunch of grilled fish and potato salad and such. I am really enjoying Greek food, and I even like several traditional Greek things that Leia can't stand, which is a good way for me to score points with her parents. But yeah.. "Cyprus! Come for the beach, stay for the food, leave before you have to put any Malaysian furniture together." That's what they should put in the brochures.

The four of us went today and looked at the hotel near our house where our friends and family will be staying for our wedding, and where Leia and I will spend our wedding night. The lady there was very friendly and helpful and gave us a great deal on room rates, so it was nice to get that task crossed off the list. So much to do.... My advice to all of you single folks out there is to elope... sure you'll make your family angry, but you can buy back their good graces for a tiny fraction of the money you would have spent on a formal wedding, and you'll save yourself a lot of stress. Then again, you probably shouldn't take my advice...

Tonight Leia and I are going out for coffee with two friends of ours, Jimmy and Christopher. I don't know either of them extremely well, but they seem like nice guys, and it will be cool to hang out with some people who are close to our age. So we're looking forward to that... and I should actually run and get ready now. See you tomorrow.

–John

Lazy day

2006-04-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well this is my first post. Although John really is the writer in the family, I thought I would make a few comments today...and because he told me it was my turn!!

I'm really proud of us for keeping this thing going even if it has really only been three days!! Hopefully in a few months we will be able to look back and read the initial adjustments and see how far we've come on our Cyprus adventure.

Last night, despite IMDB's disappointing review, we watched 'The Brothers Grimm' and have to say it was pretty excellent. I'm glad that John and I are too rebelious to take much notice of other people's opinion when it comes to important things...especially movies! The film is directed by Terry Gilliam who also directed my favourite film 'The Fisherking' and it was very much keeping within his interesting unique style...in other words it was weird but fascinating!

Today we haven't done anything very extravagant. John managed to do some writing (he's really very tallented) and I did some laundry and ironing...yuck! BUT we are going for a little walk in a bit to get John acquainted with the neighbourhood and get some fresh summer air.

It's great to be on Easter break for two weeks so I can get some rest and also enjoy time with John as he becomes more familiar with his surroundings and new lifestyle...poor thing! I'm sure many of my English friends and family reading this acknowledge what a challenge Cyprus can be because it's so different. However, there are also many beautiful things to enjoy like food, the seaside and the mountains so hopefully tomorrow we're going on a day trip somewhere round the island.

Leia

Easter

2006-04-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Today is Easter Sunday... at least for most of you. For those of us in Greece, Cyprus, and perhaps a few other nations where Orthodox Christianity is prevalent, Easter is not until next Sunday. So if I had just stayed in America one extra week, I could have had double the amount of Cadbury Eggs, Peeps, and chocolate bunnies... oh well.

So this coming week, Leia and I will be helping our youth group to put together an Easter drama for Saturday night. Should be pretty cool. The kids seem nice, and a few of them even made me a little Easter/welcome card and gave me some candy. Most of them are a bit shy around me, however, mostly because they are not very confident in their English... and it goes without saying that I'm not very confident in my Greek!

Leia is a school teacher, and she has the next two weeks off for Easter break, so we are going to use the time to finish some wedding preparations, and also to work on getting all of my belongings moved in and set up (once they arrive, hopefully in one piece). So it's going to be a busy time, but I'm hoping it may keep my brain occupied and prevent me from freaking out too much about this drastic change in my life. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster so far, but there are little moments of grace and beauty all along, which is really all any of us can ask for.

I'll leave you for now with some song lyrics that I really like, and which sort of hint at an Easter theme, at least:

"Gjs" by Mineral:
"You woke me in the morning
To say 'He is risen.'
And I replied with a smile,
'He is risen indeed.'
And somehow you always leave the room
alive with truth and beauty and
carry yourself like you know that
it's all just a matter of time.
I say, 'What if I'm too far down this time—
too proud to hope, too weak to climb?'
But you just pierce me through with eyes
that know I'm not . . . and I can.
And carry yourself like you're sure of it
that the stitches dissolve, that the wounds all heal in time.
And your words are giants next to mine.
And your thoughts are giants.
I only hope that, someday
I might resemble you in even the smallest way.
I only hope that you can be proud of me."

Be blessed, dear friends.

–John

First breath

2006-04-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Three days ago, I arrived here in Cyprus and have finally been reunited with Leia. We have been having a wonderful time as she shows me around and helps me get acclimated to our new home. It is very exciting and a bit bewildering and disorienting all at once... very strange, but very cool.

On the plane flight over, I read an interesting quote in a book I brought with me. It said something to this effect: "True faith is not marked by the absence of doubt, but by the presence of action." It really rang true to me somehow, and seemed particularly appropriate for this time in our lives. We certainly have plenty of doubts and questions about what exactly the future holds, but we are acting on our faith and clinging to each other, and we both have a sense that God has surprising and exciting things in store for us. It's nice to feel those occasional quiet assurances of His presence.

Today Leia and I drove down to Larnaca, which is where Cyprus' major airport is located (and which is also a seaside city). We sat by the beach and had coffee and tea and then had lunch at a fish tavern overlooking the sea. Then we went to the airport to pick up her parents, who had been staying with relatives in Greece. So now we are all together here at home for the first time, and are slowly learning to be a family.

We are currently trying to wrap up a lot of loose ends concerning the plans for our upcoming wedding (June 17.. send cash). I brought over Leia's wedding dress with me, along with her bridesmaids' dresses and our wedding rings, and she has been drooling over them like Gollum. :) Our invitations are going out soon, so keep a close eye on your mailboxes... and start planning your outfits.

So yeah... that's the news for now. We'll see how this goes. We're both new to the whole blogging experience, but pretty excited about having this medium for expressing our semi-incoherent thoughts and musings and keeping everyone up-to-date on the happenings in our lives. We love you all very much. Stay tuned...