As the old saying goes ...

... all work and no play make Jack a very dull boy. Or in this case, make Mary Beth a very dull blogger! As usual, sorry it's taken so long to provide an update.

For the past couple of weeks we've been so busy with work it feels like we haven't done much else. The laundry stacks get bigger, the sink piles high with dirty dishes, and we fall into bed at night pretty wiped out. We go into the office with one agenda in mind, but emergency "extras" seem to pop up every day, so the to-do list keeps getting longer and we keep getting more behind.

But the good news is: we love what we're doing! And it's better to be busy than bored, right?

Mary Beth's Work

My main focus right now is preparing for our team's World Cup coverage, which starts in about three months. The soccer World Cup, which happens every four years and is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, will be in South Africa this year. Lots of ministries will take place around the World Cup, so we're making plans to report on outreach events as well as the matches themselves. We'll be reporting through Baptist Press Sports and also our own web site and social networking sites. We'll fill you in on more details soon.

Deron's Work

Deron's had lots of Member Care opportunities, both formal and informal. As the resident sports expert, he's also helped with a lot of the World Cup preparations.

Several west Africa colleagues are in town right now with medical problems. People in west Africa don't have the same great animal-viewing opportunities we do here in southern Africa, so they really wanted to go to a game park. On the one day they didn't have doctors appointments, Deron agreed to take them to a game park that's two hours away. They spent 17 hours in the car that day, but got to see lots of great animals!



On the Home Front

Kylie is growing up fast! She's SO close to crawling -- she can move around by rolling and scooting backwards, but she hasn't quite figured out forward motion yet. Deron predicted she'll be crawling by her 8-month birthday, so she's got three more days to figure it out!



She's a precious little girl who loves to laugh and "talk" (so far only squeals, grunts and lots of "ba-ba-ba") and she truly fills our lives with lots of joy. We continue to post lots of videos and pictures on her web site, kyliemeilstrup.shutterfly.com, so check it out from time to time.