These dear friends have known us since before we were married! We first knew them in Germany during our early years of missionary life there, as we led Malachi Ministries and they served on the volunteer staff of one of our ministries.
After those years our lives took different paths and while we moved to the Czech Republic, they moved to the States, working and raising their family there as we did the same here.
The last time Dave saw them (I reconnected last summer) was in 1997 when they came to see us before that move!
At the time we were looking to purchase a facility to use as the home and training center of Josiah Venture, but thought it would be across the mountain from here because at the time, this place wasn't available for purchase.
Who knew that would be our last time together as couples for twenty years?? And that we wouldn't buy the other hotel, but rather this one, Malenovice?!
With so much joy, we got to show them the miracle that God worked in making this place available!
And tell them stories of all that God has done here over the past 19 years since we purchased Malenovice!
A new group of short term teams had just arrived at the hotel, so they got to see it in action, in one of its uses: preparation for another round of camps this coming week!
One of the amazing connections between us is that their daughter-in-law served as a JV intern a few summers ago, and was in this very place a number of times on short term teams like this!
For the rest of the evening we never stopped talking as we told stories and caught up on each other's lives. It felt like our friendship had never gone on pause, even though we hadn't seen each other in so long. Instead, it was so easy and delightful, as it always was, sharing our lives and what God has been doing in them all these years.
"What an incredible blessing to reconnect with you again, Robert and Sondra, after all these years! Let's not wait another twenty till we see each other again! Thank you for blessing us with your visit!"
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