Well it is almost the end of August and I am thinking of the statement you can hear at the end of every Car Talk radio show “Well you’ve done it again - waisted a perfectly good hour listening to our lousy radio show.”  Where in the world has the time gone?  Here is a glimpse of some of the events of the past two months.

We finished the school year exhausted - both kids and parents.  For the kids it was mostly the stresses of the school environment with peer interaction/pressure.  For us it’s primarily the growth of the English program with all the extra work (finding and hiring teachers being the most challenging part still).  Carrying the responsibility that the program functions well in all its aspects is sometimes a lot of weight.  And I haven’t really learned yet how to let Jesus carry these burdens for me and how to live without anxiety that something is going to go awry.  Preparations for the coming school year are well under way now again.  We are planning our teacher training sessions, working on a website for the UpWork project and starting up the EATS (English Across the Subjects) program at a new school. Katka, one of our co-workers, is stepping into the role of a program coordinator at this new school, which will help relieve some of my responsibilities there and free me to focus on the reconstruction of Zelivka.  

That is the other project that has continued this summer - still in the stages of cleaning the place up and getting reconstruction plans drawn and approved by the government - physical labor combined with meeting architects and subcontractors and strategizing about steps to take next.  We are continuing the process of seeking an EU grant for the reconstruction of a part of the property - the barn that should become a retreat center run as a social business that employs mentally handicapped people.  

We are a bit behind schedule wondering if we’ll make our December 31st deadline when we have to be out of our apartment (which we sold to fund the purchase of the property).  If things don’t go fast enough we may have to live in a tent for a while or go visit the US (not a good option since it costs so much to travel and someone has to be here to supervise the reconstruction).