Day of JV Celebration

My heart is absolutely overflowing with joy for having spent today in celebration at our JV spring conference.

This morning we welcomed seven new babies who have joined our ever increasing family this year, the newest having just arrived on Good Friday a few weeks ago! Five girls and two boys, these little JV Kids are precious to us.

Each year it's our delight to award various team members for such things as having made a difference, for how they've dealt with hardship, for contributions to the team, or to have been faithful to the Lord in some particular way.

This is always one of my highlights at spring conference.

Although goodbyes don't feel like a celebration, in the case of these two, it was! Two of our JVK, Noah and Laurel, have gone through their entire school life in Czech and in Slovenia and are now graduating in just a few weeks and leaving for college. We celebrate God's faithfulness to them for the past 13 years, and send them off with our love and prayers as they head to college.

Another part of our celebration is recognizing milestones of service with JV. This group has been with us for ten years, some serving in Slovenia and some in Czech. SO thankful for these faithful servants of God.

And then there is Mark who has been faithfully serving in Czech for fifteen years! We've had the privilege of him living near us in Frydlant, and the joy of watching him impact not only leaders around the country, but our two sons as well. Very thankful for this guy!

At the end of the evening, after watching several videos made by friends of JV who spoke words of love and encouragement to JV for twenty years of service in Central and Eastern Europe, our team recognized Dave and I for starting JV.

What a privilege to be a part of God's work here, and to serve alongside such amazing people who have joined us these past twenty years.

Our day of celebration ended with a FANTASTIC fireworks show just for us!! Some of the biggest and best fireworks I've ever seen here, went off right over our heads at Malenovice to the delight of everyone!

Noah captured this amazing shot on his phone, with TWENTY bursts of light to celebrate our TWENTY years of ministry!! Pretty cool, huh?!

**Thanks to Greg Carlson who faithfully took these wonderful photos all week (so I didn't have to!)**