The month of August has been a whirlwind for the Tolbert family! During the first week of the month, I think we had friends or neighbors over to our house every day of the week before leaving for the UK for 12 days. Each year, the IMB hosts an annual general meeting for all of their overseas workers. Sometimes these are smaller regional meetings, sometimes they include the entire affinity (e.g. all of Europe + some), and sometimes they are somewhere in between. This year, this included about half of the EURO affinity and took place in a small town in England. We had an absolutely wonderful week of getting to know colleagues (most of whom we’ve only meet through Skype and emails), worship and prayer, workshops based on our needs and interests, and focused planning and direction for the future. It was such an encouraging time to hear stories of how God is working to grow his church and bring people to himself across northern and western Europe.

Side note: I think we also realized what a blessing it was for us to be able to worship through music in English for the first time in a year. It showed us again the importance of ministering and building relationships in a person’s heart language, even if they might speak English as a second language. So we press on in our Latvian study!

Throughout the conference our children were wonderfully cared for by a church group from Oklahoma who came to put on an entire Vacation Bible School for them over the four days. Complete with t-shirts, games, crafts, songs, and a final performance, our kids absolutely loved it. They also really enjoyed connecting with other kids with similar life experiences. They made some sweet friendships and are looking forward to seeing them next summer!

Since we were already in England, we decided to take a family vacation after the conference. We took a train to London and met up with Luke’s family who came from the Carolinas to spend some time with us. Highlights of our trip included standing on either side of the Prime Meridian, learning about history at the Tower of London, and getting to see where the queen lives (Buckingham Palace)! We were so grateful for time away with family, although the miles and miles of walking each day left us a bit exhausted!

We came back on late on a Friday night, just in time to prepare for our Latvian vacation Bible school put on by our church here in Ādaži which started Monday! More on that in the next post!