Johnstein!

Whew...it's been an interesting couple months. As I shared in the last update, God has already fulfilled a major part of the initial vision for using Baseball for His glory in Kosovo. Beyond even our lofty (at least in my mind) expectations. As I was processing all this upon my return, I found myself in an interesting place. I was amazed by the way God fulfilled this part of the vision. Six independent clubs now exist in Kosovo! A National Federation! WOW! God is doing some amazing things beyond my imagination. I was hopeful and joyful, and yet, I found myself slipping in to despair, and then depression. I was energized...and yet couldn't motivate myself to work. I had vision...but wouldn't see what God was doing. (In fact, I started writing a blog to process this all...and am shocked by my shortsightedness. I never posted it, but I would be "happy" to share it with you privately if you want...shoot me an email ) I wanted to embrace the challenges...bu

The time in between blog posts has been an absolute whirlwind. Two months ago, we saw the need to make an "emergency" trip to California for a period of counseling and medical care. During this time, we gained a bit of perspective on what ministry should look like for us...and how to prioritize our relationship with God, with each other, and then with our calling. As a result, we have made the decision to move away from Kosovo. There are a couple of factors that have gone in to this decision; including Rebecca and Kailyn's health issues, educational challenges. Ultimately we realized that we needed to be back in the states in order to focus on some things. Through our time of counseling, and conversations with our pastors and support we gained a bit of perspective on how we see our ministry, what God was calling us to do, and how we were taking care of ourselves and our family. We realized that our response to the call to Kosovo needed to be revisited. We have seen

As you are probably aware, the Lord is doing a mighty work in our ministry in Kosovo. Doors are opening, opportunities are being created, and a vision for impacting thousands of people is becoming clearer and clearer. Good things are happening in ministry...and yet, we are struggling mightily in our family and marriage. Life in Kosovo is HARD. Over the months we have avoided sharing many of the challenges because the "good" was far outweighing the "bad". And really, who wants to hear about our struggles. People on our mailing list are dealing with severe illness, death in their families, and family crises that are far more challenging than ours... But really, we have been remiss in not sharing these things with you. We know that you all are genuinely committed to sharing in our troubles as much as you are in rejoicing in our celebrations. Long story short, our time in Kosovo has exposed many things in our relational life that we have never properly dealt with. A