Val is 12 years old! Hard to imagine. The picture above is of her enjoying her birthday meal at dacha — piles of food in the foreground and piles of building materials in the background.

We’ve just finished a bit of traveling — we met a team from Athens, GA in Estonia and helped them run an English camp at Camp Gideon. Then we went with them to Finland and stayed there for a week after they went to the USA. It was great to see the team. THEN, we drove back to Estonia to drop Val off for camp while we returned to Russia. Now we’re all together again at dacha.

Next week, for the sixth year running, we’ll run a camp for a drug rehab program for single mothers and their children. A couple from Texas will arrive on Friday to help with that camp. In a few weeks we’ll drive to Montenegro. I will visit a potential ministry partner in Albania while we’re there.

One interesting thing — Olga and I are translating a book written by a minister from Kazakhstan. I’ll give an update about that later. It’s taking a bit of time to work on, and the end result will be very helpful for missionaries, churches and any missionary sending organization.

We’ve already started talking with people about next summer! We hope to have a team in Montenegro and perhaps one in Moldova; the Estonia team has already set dates for their camp. We’re also planning  a Stoneworks leadership conference in St. Pete in October. As usual, we have a lot going on.

This comes to mind, from Psalm 84:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

May our strength be in the Lord, may our home be with Him, may His blessings flow through us to those He brings into our lives.