Holiday of a lifetime!

For the past 12 years, Ljilja, Sina (our friend from Finland) and I have been going on holiday together. We even managed to find ways to go on holiday during 2020 and covid rules changing every day. We have had a lot of fun adventures, but also just able to relax and enjoy movies and games and looooong discussions about our lives. We also usually celebrate all 3 of our birthdays on Ljilja's birthday in July as I am in June, and Sina in August... 

This year, with both Sina and I were turning 50, we wanted to go somewhere extra special. Sina has also travelled to over 90 countries, and originally she wanted to go somewhere new, but that is quite hard for her! She wanted to go to do an island holiday - and her first suggestion was Fiji! We looked at ticket prices and it was a hard NO from us. After that she thought about Seychelles, but again it looked expensive. She had already been to the Maldives for work, but as that actually looked like the best option price-wise, she was happy with the island holiday there as she had not done the "vacation" side of things there - just visiting projects for work. 

So, in the end we managed to get her "down" to go to the Maldives. We found some reasonable airline tickets ourselves via Doha (with a stopover on the way back) and Ljilja did a phenomenal job of contacting local travel agencies to see if we could get a deal on accommodation. We had decided on a resort near the capital called Kurumba. 

We would just get breakfast included and then go out for dinner, making it cheaper (and healthier!) than a full board/all inclusive option. We got a good deal through an agency in Bosnia, and were about to pay the deposit when Ljilja received another offer for the same exact booking from an agency in Serbia which was even cheaper!! Love it! (we found it it was cheaper in July as it is the "rainy season", but other than a 1 or 2 times of rain during the day, it really didn't bother us at all as it mostly fell at night). 

We stayed in two adjoining rooms upstairs in a condo with four rooms. We didn't have anyone downstairs for most of the time which was nice. It included a fun "outdoor/indoor" bathroom - so you could shower outside... or in the rain - which was a fun experience! 

Being on the top floor meant we had a lovely view from the windows/balcony:

And most of the creepy crawlies kept out of our rooms (which was helpful to those with a fear of creepy crawlies of which there were a few!) We did get to see lots of bats in the evenings and our friendly heron, which we nicknamed Harry the Heron, was always around: 

We had loungers (with our room numbers on!) on the beach which were sort of secluded as they were surrounded by trees, so we felt like we had our own private island getaway. Such a blessing! This is the view from the balcony towards "our" beach and our loungers are in between the trees! 

And this is the view along the beach! 

We mostly spent time at the beach, but did do a couple of snorkelling trips, which were amazing!! It was also lovely just to snorkle around our beach too! And we could also take out the kayaks for some good exercise: 

One of the reasons we chose this resort was that they had different themed restaurants, and one of them was THAI! Which happens to be the favourite food of all of us. We have usually managed to find a Thai restaurant in the places we go to on holiday - there is no real Thai food in Bosnia and it is expensive in Finland! We did go there 4 times during our stay and got to the know the staff, including the chef (from Thailand) and so when it was time to go, they even gave us a special send-off and insisted on taking pictures with us - so sweet! 

The whole time we were there we were all saying everyday, "Thank-you Lord that we get to experience this beautiful place!" There was one moment when I was in the sea at sunset and just looking at the bats flying around and seeing the sunset from the water and I was just praising the Lord for being able to experience this beauty. I am so glad that Sina wanted to go somewhere like that for her 50th, because it really was the crowning experience of my 50th jubilee celebrations! 

InterVarsity Athletes and Center Church Teams

Two years ago, we had a visit from some of the leaders of the InterVarsity Surf and Turf region (they cover campuses in central California and southern Nevada).  During that time we dreamed about having a group of InterVarsity Athletes come and help us run Sports Camps for kids. Last year a team failed to come together, but this year we had a group of athletes wanting to come. At the same time we were asked if a small group could come from another church and we decided to combine the two teams, and it was a great combination! 

We ran 3 camps which were "Day camps" just coming together each day, and the kids had a blast learning new sports and playing games they had never played before! We also had many new volunteers joining us to help translate (always a blessing) and join in the fun themselves! Below is a pic of our last camp, with kids from our sponsorship project, local volunteers and the American teams: 

One of the camps was at the Children's Home and that was so much fun! At first the kids were reluctant to even start playing and making all sorts of excuses, but in the end they didn't want to stop playing when it was time for us to go! We aren't allowed to show the faces of the Children's Home kids online, but you at least get the idea: (and many of the kids didn't want to be in the photo which is their choice!)

The kids got to enjoy flag football which was totally new to them... and so fun! 

Even for the smallest kids who joined us at the home, so cute: 

The teams also held a fun "Cultural night" for students with a quiz on flags... no prizes for guessing this flag! 

The Center Church team left before we got a group pic, but the Athletes took us out for a thank-you dinner at the same restaurant where the "dreaming" started - a full circle moment! 

As usual, it was very hard to say goodbye to these wonderful teams, but I look forward to the day when we will meet again - if not in this life, then in the next!