Welcome to the Armitage Cafe

It's past the middle of June and we have just over one month left in Canada. It seems hard to believe that so much time has gone by already. We will be leaving Vancouver on 7th June and traveling to Toronto. We will be in the GTA until 26th July and then finally back home.

As you may know already we had bad news at the end of our Epic Road Trip from Slovakia. Anna's brother Richard collapsed at his workplace and was taken to hospital. The doctor's determined that he had suffered something similar to a stroke due to a clogged jugular artery. He was completely paralyzed on his left side and was fighting for his life in hospital. We rushed back to Vancouver so Anna could be closer to the airport if she needed to fly back. Needless to say it was a few stressful weeks.

We are happy to say that while Richard is still in the hospital, he is recovering well. He has regained some movement on his left side, is able to talk and has just started to try walking. He is in the rehabilitation centre of the hospital in Nitra (our city) and hopefully will be admitted to a high end rehab centre in the middle of the nation in the next couple of weeks. We still need your prayers for him, the family and for ourselves as we continue to trust God through this time.

Anna's family is exhausted and stressed. They have been visiting Richard daily, taking many bus and car rides from their home to the hospital. It has been a roller coaster of emotions for them and they desperately need some rest. We know that this will be a big responsibility for us when we return to Slovakia so we are asking Jesus to prepare us to return as a source of strength and encouragement to them.

As for our time in Canada it has been incredibly profitable, restful, eventful, stressful and every other -ful word you can think of. In summary: it's been full! We are returning to Slovakia with new enthusiasm, vision and even roles and responsibilities. Sheldon has been reappointed by the PAOC to pursue some non-traditional methods to see connections created between the city, business and other spheres of life and the church in Nitra. The plans for this are still being developed and we will send you an update on that as it unfolds. Sheldon will be using some of the skills, talents and ideas that he developed at NLI to help "seek the peace and prosperity of the city" which was one of the prophetic words we felt when we originally moved to Slovakia. Anna will also be pursuing some new things, especially something that has been on her heart for the last few years. She will be learning about and connecting with those who are involved in stopping human trafficking in Europe. This is a call that she has put on hold for the last couple of years but we now feel it is time for her to take some steps into finding her role and place in this challenging but crucial Kingdom responsibility.

We will be unpacking more of the strategic plans for these things after we return back to Slovakia. We are excited to have you part of the journey with us and look forward to engaging you more in this exciting work as it launches in Autumn 2010 and beyond. Be blessed and have a great summer!