Hoppe Gazette, January, 2006 for the year 2005 - Page 2

Nathan's Work

Nathan has been keeping up with the work in Albania as best he can at a distance. He makes numerous phone calls to Albania each week, following up on people and encour­aging the young leaders who are still officially under his direction. He made trips to Albania in February and June this year and was able to be-present to oversee the children's camps in Kosovo.

While here in the States, he is also doing what he can to promote missions among the Orthodox churches in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He has been encouraged by the interest he is encountering at sev­eral parishes that are considering sup­porting long-term missionaries as a part of their regular annual budget. He hopes to continue visiting parishes to discuss this need and to urge them to include missions as a part of their own community's "mission."

Several times a month, Nathan has been preaching at the Orthodox parish that we have been attending this year. We are grateful for Fr. Nick Kasemeotes and the parishioners who have taken us in as though we were family and showered us with love.

Family Visit to Albania

In October, we were able to make a trip to Albania as a family. I had not been feeling well in September, and there was always a question about whether or not I would be well enough to go. Thank God, despite having to postpone the trip once, I was able to travel, and we enjoyed a blessed ten days in Albania, visiting with our friends and co-workers and enjoying the sites and sounds of a city that has become home for us. The children were delighted to be back in Albania and seemed not to have forgotten anything about their life there. Tristan had even retained much of the Albanian language, and we heard him speaking it often.

One of the highlights of the trip was the nationally televised event at which my book, Resurrection, was recognized publicly and accepted. In the short speech I gave at the event, as I looked out over the crowd that was present, I saw so clearly that the book was not really "my book" but "our book." I had interviewed, or gotten information and photos from so many that were there, and I felt deeply the conviction that we had done the work together. I am so thankful that the book was completed prior to the discovery of my illness, for I doubt that I would have been able to do it from here. I worked so closely with Archbishop Anastasios at every stage of writing and production. It would have been impossible to maintain that close work­ing relationship at a distance. I still marvel at God's timing in bringing my work on the book to a close at the eleventh hour, as it were.

Watching and Waiting

What is happening now? We wait, we pray, we carry out our day-to-day activities with as much patience as we can. Nathan does so much to take care of us. He gets the children up in the morning, feeds them, gets them ready for school, and then takes them to school. After that he tends to my needs. Later he collects the children from school, and prepares dinner for all of us.

We do not know what lies ahead. Apart from divine intervention, there is no hope for my healing, but with God there is always every hope. We submit ourselves to the good and perfect will of God and await his good pleasure. It is our hope and prayer to return to Albania , but when that may happen, we do not know.

In the meantime, we are very happy in our setting, despite the many challenges of my, and my mother's, illness. Our children are enrolled in a small Lutheran school and are doing well. We are delight­ed with the school, which has proved to be very accommodating to our family's particular needs. For example, with very good will, they allowed us to pull our children out of school for two weeks to take them to Albania . We are also thank­ful for the very Christian environ­ment and strong sense of commu­nity we find at the school.

The experience of having cancer has brought so much good into my life that I cannot help but be thankful for it. God in his mercy desired that I might "come and see" Him. He had been calling all along, but I hadn't been listening very well. I am so thankful that in his love he persisted. We have drawn near and found him full of love for us. He has been so good to provide all that we have needed over the past year, and we marvel at how many people are praying for us. Almost every day, we learn of new people that remember us to our Lord, and we thank God for the show­ering of love and support that we have seen. This is a foretaste of that great community of love we will know in heaven, and I thrill at the thought of it.

We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. It is impossi­ble for us to adequately express our thanks, but please know that it is deeply felt. Through your prayers we have been showered with the grace of God for each day. A special thanks to those who have continued to support us financially this year through designat­ed gifts to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center . This support has allowed Nathan to continue working with his ministries in Albania and also to care for me at home.

In this newsletter, it is not possible to express all of our thoughts. I have written much for the website, www.prayforlynette.org . If you want to view pictures of our recent trip to Albania , or read some of my thoughts from this past year, you can access them via the Internet.

"Come and see" is the call of our Lord this Christmas. Let us, like the shepherds, run to where our Lord is, for he desires that we, like the Apostle Andrew, should come and see where he is-in a place of salvation, peace, love and joy.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.”