My dad came to pick me up in the morning and I thought my mom was coming as well but she wasn't with him so I asked my dad if she had to work but he said she had some medical problems and she's in a hospital. And then I asked what's wrong with her and he said she had a pretty big heart attack on tuesday morning.
They didn't want to tell me before because they didn't want me to worry. They thought I couldn't do anything but that's not true. I could pray. Thanks to God my mom is better, out of the hospital today with no consequences. She will need to change her lifestyle though. She hasn't been smoking for the past 5 days and hospital signed her up for some kind of a exercise training.
I'm still shocked, I can't believe she almost died. It was so close.. my dad drove her to the emergency room at 3am and she was barely with him. They went through all the red lights and my mom was so weak.. it was terrible hearing what all happened and.. I'm so scared. I don't want my mom to die!
Please, please, please... pray.
I know God is with her, I know He'll use all of this for good and I can't tell you how thankful I am that things are changing, concerning the smoking.. but please pray for soft hearts right now, please pray my mom, dad and sister will all realize they need Jesus. Please, pray for my mom's strenght and her body and especially her heart.
Please.. pray.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The last day
It's the last day in Vajta, I'm leaving tomorrow at 11-ish. I'm so excited to go home but saying goodbye to people made me feel so sad to leave this place. It's only for 6 weeks but this castle became my home and people here became a part of my big family in Christ. Most of them are returning next semester but some aren't.
It's hard.
The ones that are still here are together in the Coffee shop, spending time together, watching movies, listening to music.. and I think we'll go and play in the snow, we have a lot!! :)
I'm so thankful I got the opportunity to study the Bible every day and got to be a part of this College. Sweet times.
+ I'm thankful I'm coming back next semester :)
And I'll see you guys in just a day or two... ;)
It's hard.
The ones that are still here are together in the Coffee shop, spending time together, watching movies, listening to music.. and I think we'll go and play in the snow, we have a lot!! :)
I'm so thankful I got the opportunity to study the Bible every day and got to be a part of this College. Sweet times.
+ I'm thankful I'm coming back next semester :)
And I'll see you guys in just a day or two... ;)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The last month.
Finland outreach.
It was great and at the same time a bit discouraging but it's not anymore. What I mean by that is that everything went smoothly, there was no real opposition, there was unity in the team, our friendships got better, we enjoyed Finland and snow.. but the discouraging part was that I thought we would do more. We were a part of everything that church there usually does + we did some street evangelism but I felt like I'm on vacation.
I talked to a bunch of people about it and I learned that God sent us to Finland for different reasons than I imagined.
I know why He sent me there. I was able to experience how to lead an outreach, how to be in charge of certain things, He helped me to prepare for sharing morning devotions on the book of Ephesians, it was perfect for an outreach and He really spoke through me. It was amazing. It was one of the steps in faith that I had to do, even going on a plane and spending some hard time up in the air with turbulence and snowy weather. But I knew He was with me. The team was great, guys went to home sauna while us 2 girls didn't want to go (we don't know each other that well yet :) and we had a lot of time playing games, fellowshipping and just having fun.
The flight back was so scary. It was snowing in Finland and raining heavily in Budapest and the whole flight was shaky. I was praying for the whole 2 hours and a half, but knew God is in control.
I did learn a lot on that outreach.
Finals.
I had Acts, IBS and G. of Mark Finals and they were.. well, a bit easier than Midterms. I had to do the same thing for Acts Final as I had to do for Acts Midterm. I chose to write about prayer because I learned how important it is on our 10-day outreach.
For our IBS Final we had to do a study on the book of Philemon. First of all, I didn't even know there's a book of Philemon in the Bible. It's really short. :)
We had to do 5 steps;
The 1. one was to do a background study on it and we could use internet to find info.
The 2. step was to read the book in 3 different versions (NIV, ESV, NKJV) and write down 100 observations altogether and to breakdown the whole book.
The 3. step was to answer some questions that teacher gave us.
The 4. step was to come up with a theme title for the book and 3-5 points that backed up that theme title.
The 5. step was to write a 4-5 page message – sermon.
It wasn't that easy, I struggled with it for a while but I finished it on time.
Mark Final was.. interesting.
The 1. step was that we had to read the whole gospel of Mark and write down 50 principles of leadership (of Jesus or His disciples) and we needed to write down why do we think that's a principle of leadership.
The 2. step was to pick 10 weaknesses of ours from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down why do we think that's our weakness, what the Bible says about it and what is God teaching us about it.
The 3. step was to pick 10 strenghts of ours from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down why do we think that's our strenght and what is God teaching us on how to use it.
The 4. step was to pick 10 positive characteristics of others here at CCBCE from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down who they are and how they demonstrate it.
It was a 40 pages long Final and it took me forever but it was great to think about our own characters and just see what God thinks about it.
Sickness.
I finished my Finals on Saturday morning and then went to babysit 2 precious girls but I didn't really feel ok. I woke up with a huge headache but went to babysit anyway. During the day my sickness got worse and I ended up throwing up and having fever. That was Saturday evening. I slept during the whole Sunday and didn't drink a lot, threw up a lot.. so I got dehidrated. I went to the doctors on Monday evening and … it was horrible. I was so dehidrated that the minute I got to the doctors I fell into a shock, my whole body was in a biiig cramp, I couldn't talk and my throat started closing up. They examined me right away, gave me water with calcium and a shot. It was the scariest thing I've ever went through and I literally thought I was going to die. BUT I also learned a lesson of trust. God didn't leave me, He was the one that told me and our nurse here at the same time that it's time to go to the doctors. It was so amazing.
I didn't sleep all night from Monday to Tuesday; I was waking up every 7min, drinking a few sips of water because I was still throwing up big time. I wasn't doing better on Tuesdy evening and I talked to my mom and dad and my dad was REALLY worried and said he can come and get me the next morning. I was almost ready to go home but I prayed to God and told Him that I'm scared of not getting better and that I'll stay if He shows me I'm doing better. In less than 30min I was eating, drinking, sitting up and laughing. It was amazing how He answered my prayer so quickly and told me to stay here and not go home because He's going to take care of me. And He did, He is so AWESOME! :)
I'm doing better right now and am trying to do homework that I didn't do during the week. Thank you all so much for your prayers, they helped!!
The last week.
We're in our last week of school right now. As I said, I'm finnishing my homework during the weekend so I can be free during the week.
On Monday we have Dove Awards which is a Christmas party with a game and a lot of fun. Check out the pictures on facebook :)
On Tuesday we have Graduation dinner and it's gonna be all fency and pretty. Check out the pics :)
On Wednesday we have cleaning day when ALL of us will clean up the whole castle. It's gonna be a lot of work but also a lot of fun :)
People start leaving on Thursday and I'm leaving on Friday! :)
Esther, my Korean roommate is coming with me and it's gonna be a lot of fun having her with me. I'm so excited :)
But mostly I'm really excited to go back home, to a known place, with known people who I love. It's been a wonderful semester and I'm thankful I'm coming back next semester but it's also so nice to go home and enjoy some family and friends time.
It was great and at the same time a bit discouraging but it's not anymore. What I mean by that is that everything went smoothly, there was no real opposition, there was unity in the team, our friendships got better, we enjoyed Finland and snow.. but the discouraging part was that I thought we would do more. We were a part of everything that church there usually does + we did some street evangelism but I felt like I'm on vacation.
I talked to a bunch of people about it and I learned that God sent us to Finland for different reasons than I imagined.
I know why He sent me there. I was able to experience how to lead an outreach, how to be in charge of certain things, He helped me to prepare for sharing morning devotions on the book of Ephesians, it was perfect for an outreach and He really spoke through me. It was amazing. It was one of the steps in faith that I had to do, even going on a plane and spending some hard time up in the air with turbulence and snowy weather. But I knew He was with me. The team was great, guys went to home sauna while us 2 girls didn't want to go (we don't know each other that well yet :) and we had a lot of time playing games, fellowshipping and just having fun.
The flight back was so scary. It was snowing in Finland and raining heavily in Budapest and the whole flight was shaky. I was praying for the whole 2 hours and a half, but knew God is in control.
I did learn a lot on that outreach.
Finals.
I had Acts, IBS and G. of Mark Finals and they were.. well, a bit easier than Midterms. I had to do the same thing for Acts Final as I had to do for Acts Midterm. I chose to write about prayer because I learned how important it is on our 10-day outreach.
For our IBS Final we had to do a study on the book of Philemon. First of all, I didn't even know there's a book of Philemon in the Bible. It's really short. :)
We had to do 5 steps;
The 1. one was to do a background study on it and we could use internet to find info.
The 2. step was to read the book in 3 different versions (NIV, ESV, NKJV) and write down 100 observations altogether and to breakdown the whole book.
The 3. step was to answer some questions that teacher gave us.
The 4. step was to come up with a theme title for the book and 3-5 points that backed up that theme title.
The 5. step was to write a 4-5 page message – sermon.
It wasn't that easy, I struggled with it for a while but I finished it on time.
Mark Final was.. interesting.
The 1. step was that we had to read the whole gospel of Mark and write down 50 principles of leadership (of Jesus or His disciples) and we needed to write down why do we think that's a principle of leadership.
The 2. step was to pick 10 weaknesses of ours from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down why do we think that's our weakness, what the Bible says about it and what is God teaching us about it.
The 3. step was to pick 10 strenghts of ours from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down why do we think that's our strenght and what is God teaching us on how to use it.
The 4. step was to pick 10 positive characteristics of others here at CCBCE from that list of 50 principles of leadership and write down who they are and how they demonstrate it.
It was a 40 pages long Final and it took me forever but it was great to think about our own characters and just see what God thinks about it.
Sickness.
I finished my Finals on Saturday morning and then went to babysit 2 precious girls but I didn't really feel ok. I woke up with a huge headache but went to babysit anyway. During the day my sickness got worse and I ended up throwing up and having fever. That was Saturday evening. I slept during the whole Sunday and didn't drink a lot, threw up a lot.. so I got dehidrated. I went to the doctors on Monday evening and … it was horrible. I was so dehidrated that the minute I got to the doctors I fell into a shock, my whole body was in a biiig cramp, I couldn't talk and my throat started closing up. They examined me right away, gave me water with calcium and a shot. It was the scariest thing I've ever went through and I literally thought I was going to die. BUT I also learned a lesson of trust. God didn't leave me, He was the one that told me and our nurse here at the same time that it's time to go to the doctors. It was so amazing.
I didn't sleep all night from Monday to Tuesday; I was waking up every 7min, drinking a few sips of water because I was still throwing up big time. I wasn't doing better on Tuesdy evening and I talked to my mom and dad and my dad was REALLY worried and said he can come and get me the next morning. I was almost ready to go home but I prayed to God and told Him that I'm scared of not getting better and that I'll stay if He shows me I'm doing better. In less than 30min I was eating, drinking, sitting up and laughing. It was amazing how He answered my prayer so quickly and told me to stay here and not go home because He's going to take care of me. And He did, He is so AWESOME! :)
I'm doing better right now and am trying to do homework that I didn't do during the week. Thank you all so much for your prayers, they helped!!
The last week.
We're in our last week of school right now. As I said, I'm finnishing my homework during the weekend so I can be free during the week.
On Monday we have Dove Awards which is a Christmas party with a game and a lot of fun. Check out the pictures on facebook :)
On Tuesday we have Graduation dinner and it's gonna be all fency and pretty. Check out the pics :)
On Wednesday we have cleaning day when ALL of us will clean up the whole castle. It's gonna be a lot of work but also a lot of fun :)
People start leaving on Thursday and I'm leaving on Friday! :)
Esther, my Korean roommate is coming with me and it's gonna be a lot of fun having her with me. I'm so excited :)
But mostly I'm really excited to go back home, to a known place, with known people who I love. It's been a wonderful semester and I'm thankful I'm coming back next semester but it's also so nice to go home and enjoy some family and friends time.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Things are moving..
Before I left Slovenia, Dubravka said she would like to contact my parents so they can have tea or coffee sometimes and just get closer since I'm a part of the church now.
Dubravka just sent me an email yesterday, saying that they contacted my parents and are waiting for their reply and their answer if they want to come for coffee and cookies.
I talked to my sister yesterday and asked her if my mom and dad mentioned anything to her about it because they didn't to me and she said they did and that they're thinking of going tomorrow afternoon/evening.
I know my dad doesn't trust Zvonko at all. He has known him for a long time because they worked in Telecom together for many years and then Zvonko quit his job there and became a full time pastor.
They don't know why Zvonko and Dubravka invited them and they're nurveous. It's huge thing that they even said they're going.
Please, pray that their hearts would be soft and open and not hard and stuborn. Please pray that they will see how great Zvonko and Dubravka are and that they are only people, just like them.
Please pray that they would see a difference between themselves and Zvonko, Dubravka, me.. and people from church. So they will see what we have and what they don't.
Please pray for protection of Zvonko and Dubravka's heart, for wisdom when choosing words and topics to talk about, for courage and boldness to say something even if it's uncomfortable, for love they're going to show to my parents and for just a nice time.. pray they're going to enjoy the time together, watching the snow outside.
Please pray for my mom specificly. Pray that she wouldn't be careful of her response because she would be worried of what my dad things about all of it. Pray that she would stand for her own opinion and follow her own choices and not my dad's.
Please pray for my dad specificly. Pray that he wouldn't terorize my mom and wouldn't attack her with words and judgments, please pray that his heart would change and that he would be able to see the difference. He's seen the difference of my old me and my new me and he likes it. Pray that he'll see the difference in other people too.
Please pray that my sister would go with them because my parents would feel so much more comfortable if she would come along. She's a part of our Christmas show now and she knows Zvonko and Dubravka more than my parents.
Please pray that God's hand would be upon the visit and that He'll have things under control.
I trust that He knows what He's doing. This visit is an answer to my prayers for them. It's an unusual answer (that's so God :) ), but it's an answer. And it's another step in faith for me.
Please pray for peace in everyone's hearts.
I'm really excited and scared at the same time. I keep thinking of fearful things, I keep thinking how is this going to effect my relationship with my parents.. but I am excited. My only goal is to follow Jesus and if that means that I won't be in a good relationship with my parents for some time, so be it. But I have hope and I believe wonderful things will happen.
p.s. I'll update my outreach to Finland soon!
Dubravka just sent me an email yesterday, saying that they contacted my parents and are waiting for their reply and their answer if they want to come for coffee and cookies.
I talked to my sister yesterday and asked her if my mom and dad mentioned anything to her about it because they didn't to me and she said they did and that they're thinking of going tomorrow afternoon/evening.
I know my dad doesn't trust Zvonko at all. He has known him for a long time because they worked in Telecom together for many years and then Zvonko quit his job there and became a full time pastor.
They don't know why Zvonko and Dubravka invited them and they're nurveous. It's huge thing that they even said they're going.
Please, pray that their hearts would be soft and open and not hard and stuborn. Please pray that they will see how great Zvonko and Dubravka are and that they are only people, just like them.
Please pray that they would see a difference between themselves and Zvonko, Dubravka, me.. and people from church. So they will see what we have and what they don't.
Please pray for protection of Zvonko and Dubravka's heart, for wisdom when choosing words and topics to talk about, for courage and boldness to say something even if it's uncomfortable, for love they're going to show to my parents and for just a nice time.. pray they're going to enjoy the time together, watching the snow outside.
Please pray for my mom specificly. Pray that she wouldn't be careful of her response because she would be worried of what my dad things about all of it. Pray that she would stand for her own opinion and follow her own choices and not my dad's.
Please pray for my dad specificly. Pray that he wouldn't terorize my mom and wouldn't attack her with words and judgments, please pray that his heart would change and that he would be able to see the difference. He's seen the difference of my old me and my new me and he likes it. Pray that he'll see the difference in other people too.
Please pray that my sister would go with them because my parents would feel so much more comfortable if she would come along. She's a part of our Christmas show now and she knows Zvonko and Dubravka more than my parents.
Please pray that God's hand would be upon the visit and that He'll have things under control.
I trust that He knows what He's doing. This visit is an answer to my prayers for them. It's an unusual answer (that's so God :) ), but it's an answer. And it's another step in faith for me.
Please pray for peace in everyone's hearts.
I'm really excited and scared at the same time. I keep thinking of fearful things, I keep thinking how is this going to effect my relationship with my parents.. but I am excited. My only goal is to follow Jesus and if that means that I won't be in a good relationship with my parents for some time, so be it. But I have hope and I believe wonderful things will happen.
p.s. I'll update my outreach to Finland soon!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
We're leaving for Finland..
.. in 2 hours and a half!
We're super excited and also scared (at least I am) but I know + believe that God wants us to go and He'll take care of us. He has been with me and the team since the beginning; with the tickets (only 50€ for a round trip to Finland!), with organization, arangements.. everything.
We're leaving Hungary at 6.30am and landing in Finland at 10am. We'll settle in and have a mini tour around Turku, the city where we're staying, and in the evening we'll have a group prayer meeting with some worship and fellowship.
We'll gather on Saturday morning, eat breakfast together, do devos and some worship and then go to the mall where we're going to do gospel sharing. We'll eat lunch and then go on the streets to evangelise some more + to the students' village as well.
We'll have some free time then, dinner together and some fellowship with our + Finnish team.
On Sunday we'll go to church, do some work there, then go and cook a meal for around 50 people, have dinner later together, hang out, talk, have fun and close up with a prayer.
We leave on Monday morning; the plane leaves at 10.30am and we land in Hungary at 12.05pm.
That's gonna be our schedule and we really are excited.
There are 6 guys on the team and 2 girls and it's gonna be interesting and a lot of fun :)
Please pray for safety on the plane, for no complications at the airport, for unity in the team, for serving + open hearts. Pray that we'll listen to the voice of God and do whatever He'll ask us to do. Pray that we'll be reminded of the truth no matter what and pray that God will be our shield of protection before spiritual attacks.
Also pray for the church in Finland; that we're gonna be a huge blessing to them and that we'll be able to help them in any given way.
We had church service today and pastor Bud was sharing about Revelation 3:7, where Jesus speaks to the church in Philadelphia. He doesn't correct them, He tells them good stuff. Bud also shared about a missionary, David Livingston. He always said: "God, send me anywhere you want me to go, just be with me." and when I think of this sentence.. I want the same. And right now God is sending me to Finland. It's only for 4 days but He was clear and I know He's the one who's sending me there. And I know He's with me. He promised He would never leave us alone and He doesn't.
I am so thankful that He is my hope now.
I'm thankful I belong to Him.
We're super excited and also scared (at least I am) but I know + believe that God wants us to go and He'll take care of us. He has been with me and the team since the beginning; with the tickets (only 50€ for a round trip to Finland!), with organization, arangements.. everything.
We're leaving Hungary at 6.30am and landing in Finland at 10am. We'll settle in and have a mini tour around Turku, the city where we're staying, and in the evening we'll have a group prayer meeting with some worship and fellowship.
We'll gather on Saturday morning, eat breakfast together, do devos and some worship and then go to the mall where we're going to do gospel sharing. We'll eat lunch and then go on the streets to evangelise some more + to the students' village as well.
We'll have some free time then, dinner together and some fellowship with our + Finnish team.
On Sunday we'll go to church, do some work there, then go and cook a meal for around 50 people, have dinner later together, hang out, talk, have fun and close up with a prayer.
We leave on Monday morning; the plane leaves at 10.30am and we land in Hungary at 12.05pm.
That's gonna be our schedule and we really are excited.
There are 6 guys on the team and 2 girls and it's gonna be interesting and a lot of fun :)
Please pray for safety on the plane, for no complications at the airport, for unity in the team, for serving + open hearts. Pray that we'll listen to the voice of God and do whatever He'll ask us to do. Pray that we'll be reminded of the truth no matter what and pray that God will be our shield of protection before spiritual attacks.
Also pray for the church in Finland; that we're gonna be a huge blessing to them and that we'll be able to help them in any given way.
We had church service today and pastor Bud was sharing about Revelation 3:7, where Jesus speaks to the church in Philadelphia. He doesn't correct them, He tells them good stuff. Bud also shared about a missionary, David Livingston. He always said: "God, send me anywhere you want me to go, just be with me." and when I think of this sentence.. I want the same. And right now God is sending me to Finland. It's only for 4 days but He was clear and I know He's the one who's sending me there. And I know He's with me. He promised He would never leave us alone and He doesn't.
I am so thankful that He is my hope now.
I'm thankful I belong to Him.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Lesson learned
As a leader of an outreach team, I'm being put in different awkward and hard situations. Since everything's new, everything's even harder.
There was a question of doing the skits in Finland or not and I decided to do them even though none of us was excited about it. We were suppose to practice it on Tuesday when the doors got closed because interns had a meeting and Travis, the intern didn't have time, later on I didn't have time.. it just didn't work out. Later on I talked to Travis and he said that when he went to Finland last year in October, they weren't able to do it and that maybe we should ask Kyle, the Finland guy, about it again.
I did (and I didn't get his answer yet) and I asked everyone from the team to pray about it. It's been 3 days and I still didn't get any answer from God.
BUT I realized something today. I don't think I'm going to get an answer from God because He's giving me a choice to do it or not. I don't think there's a wrong decision that can be done but it's about me learning a lesson as a leader.
In these past 3 days I was leaning more on not doing the skits because it's gonna be awkward and hard and we don't have to do it and none of us wants to do it.. perfect, we're not gonna do it! But what I realized today was that I wasn't looking at God, but at us and our comfort. What kind of servant is a person who looks at himself and decides what's best for him based on comfort and awkwardness? No servant!
We had a prayer meeting yesterday and I told the team what I've learned and I also told them that it's hard for me as well (I need to be a model in the »Everything skit« which I don't know how to do and I don't want to do it) but it's a sing of humbleness and it's not for us, it's for God and for lost souls that might get saved!
They agreed and when we prayed, most of them prayed for strenght from Him, for courage and not awkwardness for the skits. I know they don't want to do it because they've never done it before but I think we might enjoy it and connect even more as a team.
Anyway.. we tried it today and it was a lot of fun! It was awkward and we weren't comfortable doing it but we tried and we're gonna try more tomorrow.
I'm so glad I decided to do it because we are getting closer as a team and we're getting to know each other more.
Nice job, God, like always :)
There was a question of doing the skits in Finland or not and I decided to do them even though none of us was excited about it. We were suppose to practice it on Tuesday when the doors got closed because interns had a meeting and Travis, the intern didn't have time, later on I didn't have time.. it just didn't work out. Later on I talked to Travis and he said that when he went to Finland last year in October, they weren't able to do it and that maybe we should ask Kyle, the Finland guy, about it again.
I did (and I didn't get his answer yet) and I asked everyone from the team to pray about it. It's been 3 days and I still didn't get any answer from God.
BUT I realized something today. I don't think I'm going to get an answer from God because He's giving me a choice to do it or not. I don't think there's a wrong decision that can be done but it's about me learning a lesson as a leader.
In these past 3 days I was leaning more on not doing the skits because it's gonna be awkward and hard and we don't have to do it and none of us wants to do it.. perfect, we're not gonna do it! But what I realized today was that I wasn't looking at God, but at us and our comfort. What kind of servant is a person who looks at himself and decides what's best for him based on comfort and awkwardness? No servant!
We had a prayer meeting yesterday and I told the team what I've learned and I also told them that it's hard for me as well (I need to be a model in the »Everything skit« which I don't know how to do and I don't want to do it) but it's a sing of humbleness and it's not for us, it's for God and for lost souls that might get saved!
They agreed and when we prayed, most of them prayed for strenght from Him, for courage and not awkwardness for the skits. I know they don't want to do it because they've never done it before but I think we might enjoy it and connect even more as a team.
Anyway.. we tried it today and it was a lot of fun! It was awkward and we weren't comfortable doing it but we tried and we're gonna try more tomorrow.
I'm so glad I decided to do it because we are getting closer as a team and we're getting to know each other more.
Nice job, God, like always :)
Pécs outreach
It's been 2 weeks since we got back but I just didn't find time to write the update of our outreach. This is kind of what I wrote for my outreach paper..
While we were having meetings in the month before the outreach, we prayed and I did expect God to do a lot of things but I'd never thought God will do so many miraculous things.
There were 15 people on our team and our schedule was busy all the time. People who run church in Pecs are Leah and Balazs and a correspondance couple from Australia who are helping them. It's not a really big church but it's growing.
We had 2 youth nights, we went to 2 different nursery homes, we went to prison, fed homeless people at the park, hang out with kids in the park and played soccer with them, had a »give-away« thing for people in need, we went to the worst high school in the city and did the »Everything » skit there.. and while doing all of those things, we did things the church usually does; church service on Sunday and Wednesday and prayer meeting on Tuesday. It was a crazy time but it was so good.
We got to Pecs on Friday and had a day for our team; we got to meet the church people, we all shared our testimonies, hang out and prepared things for Saturday when we had youth night. We went to the park to invite kids and didn't really find a lot of them but on Saturday, on youth night, there was around 30 kids! It was amazing, unexpected, and 80% of kids were new ones! That was the first sign of God's work and we were all so amazed how well the outreach started.
We went to old folks home on Monday and Balazs asked me + Mike and Cindy, a couple from Australia, to share our testimonies. We also played some songs in Hungarian and English (yes, I learned 2 songs in Hungarian), we baked a lot of cakes and cookies.. I had no idea what to share with people about my past, I had no idea what kind of words to use and which part of my testimony to emphasize. Balazs introduced me and I started talking. I'm not really even sure what I talked about. I told the basics and focused on Jesus' love for me and for them and how he's with them and cares for them. I cried by the end of it. It was really hard to see those people's faces at the end of their lives. I really hope something's changed in their hearts and that they'll except Jesus into their lives and go to heaven when they die.
We went to old people's home on Tuesday as well, a different one. We repeated the »program« so the same people shared their testimonies, the same people sang.. It was even more challenging for me because I didn't remember what I said about my testimony on Monday but God spoke through me again and it was great. It was so amazing to see how He takes care of everything, how we don't have to fear at all, we don't have to worry at all. He has everything in control and I realized what it really means to be God's instrument, how it wasn't my strenght, how it was totally Him.
Our team went to prison on Wednesday but I didn't go. Leah told us at the beginning of the outreach that not all of us will probably go because people at the prison sometimes complicate things but we didn't talk about it until Tuesday. I heard God saying to me not to go but to stay at home and pray. Everytime we went somewhere or we did something, at least one person (usually 2) stayed back and prayed.
So, on Wednesday, I stayed at home with Kim, one of the correspondence people. We prayed for almost an hour and a half but it seemed like we'd prayed for 20min. It was crazy! I was really scared of praying for so long and I think that's why God wanted me to stay at home and experience talking to Him for so long. I'd never done it before and didn't know if I'm able to talk to God for so long but I was! It was really an amazing experience but the most amazing part is that God answered all of our prayers! Crazy! When the girls got back, they explained everything that happened and it was funny to hear that every single detail Kim and prayed for got answered. 4 girls got to share their testimonies and women in prison all cried. Even Leah was amazed. + they got to see the whole prison, with cells and everything. God was working in a big way that day!
The church also ran into opposition. It was expected with all the work that God's been doing. Homeless people started coming to church after months of talking to them and inviting them but the problem is that the church is in a building where there is a lot of stores and store owners started to complain. After a couple of days of »arguing«, the owners of the whole building said the homeless people are not welcome in the building anymore. On Satuday a lot of youth smoked in the hallway and was loud and the church was in trouble. We had a meeting and we had no idea what is going to happen. We prayed a lot that evening and believed that God is faithful. We had another meeting in the morning and Balazs said the church is going to move to another buidling, they had no idea which one yet. We were all pretty much bummed. But God really is faithful. We had church on Sunday right before we left for Vajta and so many people came that we ran out of chairs! I talked to Leah and she said:«We're not gonna move because of the opposition, we're gonna move because the church is growing and we have no space for this amount of people!« It's amazing how God showed us that we don't have to worry because of all the trouble we/they had this week. He's gonna take care of them and they really don't have to be stressed out.
It was a really crazy week. One of the most important things I've learned is to pray all the time. We really prayed all the time for everything. We had a big team and so we could afford to leave 1 or 2 people at home to pray while doing things and it was amazing to see how God answered all of our prayers. I've never experienced anything like this before!
One thing we prayed for a lot was unity in our team and we were all amazed how there were no big issues or conflicts. God helped us to be more patient and nice and we tried to be a big blessing to people from that church.
It was awesome to see Leah and Balazs + Kim and Andy and how they dedicated all of their lives to God. In 10 days I didn't see any selfishness or complains. Even in bad moments, they had a smile on their faces (weak smile but it was a smile) and tried to encourage us. They always turned to God and never lost hope. That's how I want to be when I'm a missionary, if I'll ever be. They were a great example of people who serve God with their whole hearts and don't give up.
We had Speakers' week this week and Leah and Balazs came. They went back to run the church service on Wednesday and when they got back, they had wonderful news! Almost all the homeless people got saved that evening! They said it was amazing, they all sensed the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way and.. oh man, God is so GOOD!
I'll write about the Speakers' week too.. I hope it doesn't take me as long as it did for this one :)
While we were having meetings in the month before the outreach, we prayed and I did expect God to do a lot of things but I'd never thought God will do so many miraculous things.
There were 15 people on our team and our schedule was busy all the time. People who run church in Pecs are Leah and Balazs and a correspondance couple from Australia who are helping them. It's not a really big church but it's growing.
We had 2 youth nights, we went to 2 different nursery homes, we went to prison, fed homeless people at the park, hang out with kids in the park and played soccer with them, had a »give-away« thing for people in need, we went to the worst high school in the city and did the »Everything » skit there.. and while doing all of those things, we did things the church usually does; church service on Sunday and Wednesday and prayer meeting on Tuesday. It was a crazy time but it was so good.
We got to Pecs on Friday and had a day for our team; we got to meet the church people, we all shared our testimonies, hang out and prepared things for Saturday when we had youth night. We went to the park to invite kids and didn't really find a lot of them but on Saturday, on youth night, there was around 30 kids! It was amazing, unexpected, and 80% of kids were new ones! That was the first sign of God's work and we were all so amazed how well the outreach started.
We went to old folks home on Monday and Balazs asked me + Mike and Cindy, a couple from Australia, to share our testimonies. We also played some songs in Hungarian and English (yes, I learned 2 songs in Hungarian), we baked a lot of cakes and cookies.. I had no idea what to share with people about my past, I had no idea what kind of words to use and which part of my testimony to emphasize. Balazs introduced me and I started talking. I'm not really even sure what I talked about. I told the basics and focused on Jesus' love for me and for them and how he's with them and cares for them. I cried by the end of it. It was really hard to see those people's faces at the end of their lives. I really hope something's changed in their hearts and that they'll except Jesus into their lives and go to heaven when they die.
We went to old people's home on Tuesday as well, a different one. We repeated the »program« so the same people shared their testimonies, the same people sang.. It was even more challenging for me because I didn't remember what I said about my testimony on Monday but God spoke through me again and it was great. It was so amazing to see how He takes care of everything, how we don't have to fear at all, we don't have to worry at all. He has everything in control and I realized what it really means to be God's instrument, how it wasn't my strenght, how it was totally Him.
Our team went to prison on Wednesday but I didn't go. Leah told us at the beginning of the outreach that not all of us will probably go because people at the prison sometimes complicate things but we didn't talk about it until Tuesday. I heard God saying to me not to go but to stay at home and pray. Everytime we went somewhere or we did something, at least one person (usually 2) stayed back and prayed.
So, on Wednesday, I stayed at home with Kim, one of the correspondence people. We prayed for almost an hour and a half but it seemed like we'd prayed for 20min. It was crazy! I was really scared of praying for so long and I think that's why God wanted me to stay at home and experience talking to Him for so long. I'd never done it before and didn't know if I'm able to talk to God for so long but I was! It was really an amazing experience but the most amazing part is that God answered all of our prayers! Crazy! When the girls got back, they explained everything that happened and it was funny to hear that every single detail Kim and prayed for got answered. 4 girls got to share their testimonies and women in prison all cried. Even Leah was amazed. + they got to see the whole prison, with cells and everything. God was working in a big way that day!
The church also ran into opposition. It was expected with all the work that God's been doing. Homeless people started coming to church after months of talking to them and inviting them but the problem is that the church is in a building where there is a lot of stores and store owners started to complain. After a couple of days of »arguing«, the owners of the whole building said the homeless people are not welcome in the building anymore. On Satuday a lot of youth smoked in the hallway and was loud and the church was in trouble. We had a meeting and we had no idea what is going to happen. We prayed a lot that evening and believed that God is faithful. We had another meeting in the morning and Balazs said the church is going to move to another buidling, they had no idea which one yet. We were all pretty much bummed. But God really is faithful. We had church on Sunday right before we left for Vajta and so many people came that we ran out of chairs! I talked to Leah and she said:«We're not gonna move because of the opposition, we're gonna move because the church is growing and we have no space for this amount of people!« It's amazing how God showed us that we don't have to worry because of all the trouble we/they had this week. He's gonna take care of them and they really don't have to be stressed out.
It was a really crazy week. One of the most important things I've learned is to pray all the time. We really prayed all the time for everything. We had a big team and so we could afford to leave 1 or 2 people at home to pray while doing things and it was amazing to see how God answered all of our prayers. I've never experienced anything like this before!
One thing we prayed for a lot was unity in our team and we were all amazed how there were no big issues or conflicts. God helped us to be more patient and nice and we tried to be a big blessing to people from that church.
It was awesome to see Leah and Balazs + Kim and Andy and how they dedicated all of their lives to God. In 10 days I didn't see any selfishness or complains. Even in bad moments, they had a smile on their faces (weak smile but it was a smile) and tried to encourage us. They always turned to God and never lost hope. That's how I want to be when I'm a missionary, if I'll ever be. They were a great example of people who serve God with their whole hearts and don't give up.
We had Speakers' week this week and Leah and Balazs came. They went back to run the church service on Wednesday and when they got back, they had wonderful news! Almost all the homeless people got saved that evening! They said it was amazing, they all sensed the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way and.. oh man, God is so GOOD!
I'll write about the Speakers' week too.. I hope it doesn't take me as long as it did for this one :)
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Thoughts and struggles
It's been a week since we got back from 10-day outreach and I will write about that, just not right now.
I have a feeling I have to put things out of me and blog is a perfect way of doing it because I can let people know how I'm doing at the same time as I'm putting it out in words.
It's been a crazy week and I can't even believe that's it's been 5 whole days since we got back. I've been dealing with a lot of thinking, in a bad way. I keep having this thoughts in my head that I can't get rid of and I know they're not from God. Even when I pray, I get distracted so easily and it bugs me so much!
We had a prayer meeting with my prayer group yesterday and God put a girl from College on my heart to pray with, we're going for a prayer walk in 15min. I didn't even tell her that God said we have to pray for a whole day because I didn't think it matters but I didn't feel at peace this morning so I just told her. She didn't think I'm crazy which is great. I'm not even sure what we need to pray about.. maybe we just need to talk to the Lord and see.
The other thing that doesn't give me peace is being a leader of Finland outreach. We have a skype meeting with Kyle today, the guy from Finland, and I'm so nervous! I prayed yesterday and told God that I know I can't do this by myself, I know I'm not capable of doing this by myself.. I gave it all to Him but I still don't feel at peace.
I ask you to pray for peace in my heart and that I'd know He's in charge of things.
The other day I had a conversation with my roommate Sarah. We talked about how we see Bible College and she said she sees it as a hospital. She's dealing with a lot of spiritual stuff and she knows she came here so GOd can reveal Himself to her and heal her.
I see Bible College as a military. I came here and God is training me to be his soldier in a way. And.. you know, every military has a hospital or at least a nurse that takes care of sick people.. and while training there, it's not always fun. It hurts when your muscles are strenghtening and you think you can't do it anymore, that you're done but you keep going.. It's the same here. God is strenghtening me in a big way and at times, I have a feeling I'm done and I just want to give up. But He lifts me up and gives me more strenght.
I don't know if any of this makes sense but.. Huh.
I'm ready to hear Him. I'm ready for Him to reveal Himself to me and let me know He's in charge. I'm ready for Him to give me a hug and let me know everything's going to be ok because He's here for me.
I know all of this in theory but I'm not sure I know it in my heart.
I'm ready for Him to give me His wisdom because I don't have any. I'm ready for Him to give me the ability of being a leader because I wasn't born a leader.
I'm ready to be humble and wait for Him.
Please pray for me.
I have a feeling I have to put things out of me and blog is a perfect way of doing it because I can let people know how I'm doing at the same time as I'm putting it out in words.
It's been a crazy week and I can't even believe that's it's been 5 whole days since we got back. I've been dealing with a lot of thinking, in a bad way. I keep having this thoughts in my head that I can't get rid of and I know they're not from God. Even when I pray, I get distracted so easily and it bugs me so much!
We had a prayer meeting with my prayer group yesterday and God put a girl from College on my heart to pray with, we're going for a prayer walk in 15min. I didn't even tell her that God said we have to pray for a whole day because I didn't think it matters but I didn't feel at peace this morning so I just told her. She didn't think I'm crazy which is great. I'm not even sure what we need to pray about.. maybe we just need to talk to the Lord and see.
The other thing that doesn't give me peace is being a leader of Finland outreach. We have a skype meeting with Kyle today, the guy from Finland, and I'm so nervous! I prayed yesterday and told God that I know I can't do this by myself, I know I'm not capable of doing this by myself.. I gave it all to Him but I still don't feel at peace.
I ask you to pray for peace in my heart and that I'd know He's in charge of things.
The other day I had a conversation with my roommate Sarah. We talked about how we see Bible College and she said she sees it as a hospital. She's dealing with a lot of spiritual stuff and she knows she came here so GOd can reveal Himself to her and heal her.
I see Bible College as a military. I came here and God is training me to be his soldier in a way. And.. you know, every military has a hospital or at least a nurse that takes care of sick people.. and while training there, it's not always fun. It hurts when your muscles are strenghtening and you think you can't do it anymore, that you're done but you keep going.. It's the same here. God is strenghtening me in a big way and at times, I have a feeling I'm done and I just want to give up. But He lifts me up and gives me more strenght.
I don't know if any of this makes sense but.. Huh.
I'm ready to hear Him. I'm ready for Him to reveal Himself to me and let me know He's in charge. I'm ready for Him to give me a hug and let me know everything's going to be ok because He's here for me.
I know all of this in theory but I'm not sure I know it in my heart.
I'm ready for Him to give me His wisdom because I don't have any. I'm ready for Him to give me the ability of being a leader because I wasn't born a leader.
I'm ready to be humble and wait for Him.
Please pray for me.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Pecs 10-day outreach
Midterms are done, there was a lot of homework to do and catch up on everything and before we knew it, Thursday came and we're leaving for a 10-day outreach tomorrow!!! Crazy! :)
We're leaving at 8am which is pretty solid (people who're going to Ukraine are leaving at 5am..). We're gonna take a bus and spend all day tomorrow sharing our testimonies to each other and the team of missionaries in Pecs.. we're gonna do some felowship and praying and prepare ourselves for our first day, Saturday.
We have no idea about the schedule but we do know we're gonna go to the old folks home, to girl's university, to the prison, we're gonna have a free garage sale, we're gonna help to feed the homeless people, have a youth night, hang out with high schools in the park.. it's gonna be awesome.
Our team is really big, there's 15 people including a family with 2 small girls. It's gonna be challenging and stretching :)
I'm excited to see what's gonna happen and how the Lord will work through us + in us! We're gonna need a lot of patience and wisdom.
For the last couple of days we've been all feeling a LOT of spiritual attacks and.. it's crazy. My left arm's been hurting for 4 days now without a reason and it sometimes hurts so much that I just want to cry. My whole body started hurting today, it's just sore. I'm not the only one feeling like that but it's so great to know that even though the devil is trying to attack us, he has no power over Jesus. You know.. even if I get sick during tonight, that's not gonna stop me from going. :)
My life is different and stretchy and hard but there are a lot of joyful moments when God speaks to my heart and reveals Himself in the most beautiful and usually unexpected way. I've been starting to get to know Him better, I'm trusting Him more and more every day. He's becoming a really good friend. I really hope He'll become my best friend soon.
I don't think there's any doubt :)
Please pray for safety on our way to Pecs and back (btw, Pecs is pronounced Paige), for safety from all the spiritual attacks, for health and unity in the team, for God's amazing work and for wisdom.. we're gonna be doing some street evangelism as well and I've never done it before. It's gonna be pretty much challenging and different but please just pray for boldness and courage and for Him to have a hand on the whole outreach.
This is gonna be awesome!! :)
We're leaving at 8am which is pretty solid (people who're going to Ukraine are leaving at 5am..). We're gonna take a bus and spend all day tomorrow sharing our testimonies to each other and the team of missionaries in Pecs.. we're gonna do some felowship and praying and prepare ourselves for our first day, Saturday.
We have no idea about the schedule but we do know we're gonna go to the old folks home, to girl's university, to the prison, we're gonna have a free garage sale, we're gonna help to feed the homeless people, have a youth night, hang out with high schools in the park.. it's gonna be awesome.
Our team is really big, there's 15 people including a family with 2 small girls. It's gonna be challenging and stretching :)
I'm excited to see what's gonna happen and how the Lord will work through us + in us! We're gonna need a lot of patience and wisdom.
For the last couple of days we've been all feeling a LOT of spiritual attacks and.. it's crazy. My left arm's been hurting for 4 days now without a reason and it sometimes hurts so much that I just want to cry. My whole body started hurting today, it's just sore. I'm not the only one feeling like that but it's so great to know that even though the devil is trying to attack us, he has no power over Jesus. You know.. even if I get sick during tonight, that's not gonna stop me from going. :)
My life is different and stretchy and hard but there are a lot of joyful moments when God speaks to my heart and reveals Himself in the most beautiful and usually unexpected way. I've been starting to get to know Him better, I'm trusting Him more and more every day. He's becoming a really good friend. I really hope He'll become my best friend soon.
I don't think there's any doubt :)
Please pray for safety on our way to Pecs and back (btw, Pecs is pronounced Paige), for safety from all the spiritual attacks, for health and unity in the team, for God's amazing work and for wisdom.. we're gonna be doing some street evangelism as well and I've never done it before. It's gonna be pretty much challenging and different but please just pray for boldness and courage and for Him to have a hand on the whole outreach.
This is gonna be awesome!! :)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
God's call
I had a really bad day on Saturday. I had to submitt the first Midterm on Monday, the words weren't coming out of me, I felt stressed out and not able to do it.. my day was blah. I got to my room in the evening and started crying. I talked to 2 of my roommates and just said that I give up, I want to go home and that it's just too hard.
We talked for about 2 hours, Esther (my Korean roommie) tried a lot of different clothes and just walked around and was really funny.. and I went to bed in a better mood.
Sunday way better. I got to finish my Midterm in an hour, worked on another one.. it was ok. In the evening I was listening to Chuck Smith's sermon and he was talking about God's call. In that moment, I felt a really strong feeling - I don't even know how to describe it.. it was like if someting would take control over my thoughts and my body and would put my focus on only that voice/thought.. anyway, I heard a voice, saying: "You're coming back next semester and you're gonna sign for missions training program". It was such a strong feeling that even in my head I couldn't think of a word "no".
So.. I guess I'm coming back next semester. At first I wasn't really excited about it but I am now. It means God has something more for me and He showed me the next little piece of the puzzle of my life. That's all I have to know right now, He'll reveal more when the time will be right for me to know.
Ah, I'm so excited! :)
We talked for about 2 hours, Esther (my Korean roommie) tried a lot of different clothes and just walked around and was really funny.. and I went to bed in a better mood.
Sunday way better. I got to finish my Midterm in an hour, worked on another one.. it was ok. In the evening I was listening to Chuck Smith's sermon and he was talking about God's call. In that moment, I felt a really strong feeling - I don't even know how to describe it.. it was like if someting would take control over my thoughts and my body and would put my focus on only that voice/thought.. anyway, I heard a voice, saying: "You're coming back next semester and you're gonna sign for missions training program". It was such a strong feeling that even in my head I couldn't think of a word "no".
So.. I guess I'm coming back next semester. At first I wasn't really excited about it but I am now. It means God has something more for me and He showed me the next little piece of the puzzle of my life. That's all I have to know right now, He'll reveal more when the time will be right for me to know.
Ah, I'm so excited! :)
Monday, October 11, 2010
Update on Finland outreach
We made an announcment this morning and 7 people signed up; 2 girls and 5 guys. We're in a process of buying our plane tickets and arranging how to get to the airport and back.
Please, pray for God's guidance, strenght and courage as we prepare for this outreach. It's a scary place for me to be at right now especially because we're in the middle of Midterms and right before the 10-day outreaches.
I know He's with me/us and He has a plan for all of us. It's just hard not to know what that plan is :)
Please, pray for God's guidance, strenght and courage as we prepare for this outreach. It's a scary place for me to be at right now especially because we're in the middle of Midterms and right before the 10-day outreaches.
I know He's with me/us and He has a plan for all of us. It's just hard not to know what that plan is :)
Friday, October 08, 2010
Outreach to Finland!
It's official, we're going to Turku, Finland for a 4-day outreach! :)
It was really hard for us to decide which date would be the best and everything but it's decided that we go on Nov 19th and come back on Nov 22nd. Since that's from Friday to Monday, we're gonna miss some classes but that's ok because they tape every class and we can just listen to it and do our homeworks.
I'm not sure what we're gonna do there, I'll get those answers tomorrow. I'm so excited!! So far I know 4 or 5 girls are going, including me + if there's not gonna be any interns or leaders with us, I'm gonna lead the outreach! It's really scary because I've never done it before but it's also exciting and new and I'm going to learn so many new things!
Please pray for me and the team.. pray that God will have things in His hands and that He'll have control over the whole outreach. Please pray for directions and protection over spiritual attacks + for encouragement and strenght!
Thank you!
It was really hard for us to decide which date would be the best and everything but it's decided that we go on Nov 19th and come back on Nov 22nd. Since that's from Friday to Monday, we're gonna miss some classes but that's ok because they tape every class and we can just listen to it and do our homeworks.
I'm not sure what we're gonna do there, I'll get those answers tomorrow. I'm so excited!! So far I know 4 or 5 girls are going, including me + if there's not gonna be any interns or leaders with us, I'm gonna lead the outreach! It's really scary because I've never done it before but it's also exciting and new and I'm going to learn so many new things!
Please pray for me and the team.. pray that God will have things in His hands and that He'll have control over the whole outreach. Please pray for directions and protection over spiritual attacks + for encouragement and strenght!
Thank you!
Friday, October 01, 2010
Lost souls
I talked to my sister and my mom yesterday. It was actually my mom's birthday. I'm so sad for not being there with her. This is the second year in a row that I'm not there for any of my family's birthdays.
I asked my mom what she got for her birthday and she said she got a perfume. Every year's the same. I know she is happy that she got something but she was kind of dissapointed because in a way, she doesn't think my dad cares a lot about her birthday. I'm not sure what I think about it but it really seems like he didn't put a lot of tought in it.
I talked to my sister after that and told her about my conversation with my mom and she said that situation at home hasn't changed; fights, stress, fear, no peace, no love.. I feel so sorry for my family. Right now I feel sorry mostly for my mom since it was her birthday and.. you know what? She deserves so much better!
It's so sad that they're refusing God's love. I can't believe that I've been refusing God's love for long 7 years and even before that.
When I think back, I remember all the people who prayed for me and even with me. I remember how those people fought against Satan and shared the gospel with me for so many years. Right before I left Slovenia for Bible College, I shared some words with people from our church and Josh was up there with me. He said that after 6 years, they kind of gave up. They didn't think I would accept Christ into my heart. But I did. And I really believe that my family can accept Him and I believe He is pursuing them all the time.
My heart is crying out to the Lord for all of those lost souls who are wandering around with no goal, with no clue what meaning of their lives is.
I pray that someone would share the gospel with them and I pray their hearts would be open to receive God's love and peace into their hearts.
We had church service yesterday and Paul, the director of the school, talked about Romans 5:1-2; »Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained acces by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of glory of God.«
He talked about a lot of things and gave a lot of examples but one of the things really stood out for me.
He told us a piece of his wife's testimony. I'm not sure when she got saved but when she wasn't a believer yet, she moved to the States (she's originally from Sweden) and went to Calvary Chapel. She didn't have peace in her heart and she had no idea what's the meaning of her life. She didn't know what she lives for and everything seemed to be worthless.
She went to church one day and prayed with someone. She didn't really mean what she prayed for but when she said »amen«, she felt that feeling of acceptance for the first time. She felt at peace.
That's what I've been experiencing since I became a Christian and it's one of the best feelings ever.
I really wish my parents and my sister could feel at peace, too.
Please, pray for them. I know God is working in their lives and I know He'll never stop giving them chances to turn themselves to Him and accept Him into their hearts. But please pray that until they do that, He'll be their comforter and the one who takes care of them.
I asked my mom what she got for her birthday and she said she got a perfume. Every year's the same. I know she is happy that she got something but she was kind of dissapointed because in a way, she doesn't think my dad cares a lot about her birthday. I'm not sure what I think about it but it really seems like he didn't put a lot of tought in it.
I talked to my sister after that and told her about my conversation with my mom and she said that situation at home hasn't changed; fights, stress, fear, no peace, no love.. I feel so sorry for my family. Right now I feel sorry mostly for my mom since it was her birthday and.. you know what? She deserves so much better!
It's so sad that they're refusing God's love. I can't believe that I've been refusing God's love for long 7 years and even before that.
When I think back, I remember all the people who prayed for me and even with me. I remember how those people fought against Satan and shared the gospel with me for so many years. Right before I left Slovenia for Bible College, I shared some words with people from our church and Josh was up there with me. He said that after 6 years, they kind of gave up. They didn't think I would accept Christ into my heart. But I did. And I really believe that my family can accept Him and I believe He is pursuing them all the time.
My heart is crying out to the Lord for all of those lost souls who are wandering around with no goal, with no clue what meaning of their lives is.
I pray that someone would share the gospel with them and I pray their hearts would be open to receive God's love and peace into their hearts.
We had church service yesterday and Paul, the director of the school, talked about Romans 5:1-2; »Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained acces by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of glory of God.«
He talked about a lot of things and gave a lot of examples but one of the things really stood out for me.
He told us a piece of his wife's testimony. I'm not sure when she got saved but when she wasn't a believer yet, she moved to the States (she's originally from Sweden) and went to Calvary Chapel. She didn't have peace in her heart and she had no idea what's the meaning of her life. She didn't know what she lives for and everything seemed to be worthless.
She went to church one day and prayed with someone. She didn't really mean what she prayed for but when she said »amen«, she felt that feeling of acceptance for the first time. She felt at peace.
That's what I've been experiencing since I became a Christian and it's one of the best feelings ever.
I really wish my parents and my sister could feel at peace, too.
Please, pray for them. I know God is working in their lives and I know He'll never stop giving them chances to turn themselves to Him and accept Him into their hearts. But please pray that until they do that, He'll be their comforter and the one who takes care of them.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
An update
Nothing much's going on right now but we are super busy with preparations for Midterms and 10-day outreaches. This weekend is going to be super busy but I'm kind of excited. I need someone to help me explain what exactly the teachers want from me for the Midterms but from what I've seen/read, it's not gonna be hard, it's just gonna take a lot of time.
For Inductive Bible Study we're gonna have to dig into the first half of Psalm 119, so into 11 paragraphs. We're gonna have to look for verbs, write down certain definitions of words, explain some things.. a page and a half for one paragraph.
For Gospel of Mark we're gonna have to do a bit of Bible study on it and dig into first half of the gospel, so 8 chapters. We'll observe them and then write a letter to someone from our family, a friend.. who's not a believer and we're gonna have to apply what we've observed in the letter. We're not gonna have to send the letter but it's awesome because we can practice sharing the gospel to someone we know in a way they'll get it + Caleb, our teacher, will see if we got the application part.
For Acts Midterm, Shaun, the teacher, gave us an option to choose between some titles and I chose the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna have to read through the book of Acts, observe + write down how vital was the H.S. to the apostles and I'm gonna have to write down how I can apply that to my life. It's gonna take me awhile but I have time :)
I have to memorize a verse from Mark by tomorrow - Mark 9:35 --> "And he sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." and tell it to Lynn (because it's a part of our servanthood and she's my supervisor). I'm excited to start learning verses; I'm not gonna do it if I don't have to and it's great that they kinda "make us" memorize it :)
There's another thing going on but NOTHING is official yet. Since Finland is not one of the options for the 10-day outreach and I really feel I have to go there, I told that to Lisa who's in charge of missions. She thought that'a a great idea and now she kinda wants me to lead a 4-day outreach to Finland :) I sent an email to the pastor and a former student of CCBCE who's there now, and asked if we can come. I'm waiting for their answer right now.
I feel so scared because I've only been here for a month and people who usually lead outreaches, are interns. I've never done it before but I have all of these wonderful people helping me, directing me + most importantly, I have God directing me and I know He's holding my hand. I'm not alone :) (btw, LOVE the feeling of not being alone :) ).
I'm not really sure why He wants me to do this but I trust Him. Well, we might not go, it depends if they need us but people said finnish people are always excited about students coming for an outreach to their church.
We'll see how that works out. I'll sure keep you updated :)
I love being here because I'm growing in my faith, in my trust in Him and I'm getting to know how amazingly wonderful He is. It's really hard but it's SOOOOO worth it! He's worth it :)
For Inductive Bible Study we're gonna have to dig into the first half of Psalm 119, so into 11 paragraphs. We're gonna have to look for verbs, write down certain definitions of words, explain some things.. a page and a half for one paragraph.
For Gospel of Mark we're gonna have to do a bit of Bible study on it and dig into first half of the gospel, so 8 chapters. We'll observe them and then write a letter to someone from our family, a friend.. who's not a believer and we're gonna have to apply what we've observed in the letter. We're not gonna have to send the letter but it's awesome because we can practice sharing the gospel to someone we know in a way they'll get it + Caleb, our teacher, will see if we got the application part.
For Acts Midterm, Shaun, the teacher, gave us an option to choose between some titles and I chose the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna have to read through the book of Acts, observe + write down how vital was the H.S. to the apostles and I'm gonna have to write down how I can apply that to my life. It's gonna take me awhile but I have time :)
I have to memorize a verse from Mark by tomorrow - Mark 9:35 --> "And he sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." and tell it to Lynn (because it's a part of our servanthood and she's my supervisor). I'm excited to start learning verses; I'm not gonna do it if I don't have to and it's great that they kinda "make us" memorize it :)
There's another thing going on but NOTHING is official yet. Since Finland is not one of the options for the 10-day outreach and I really feel I have to go there, I told that to Lisa who's in charge of missions. She thought that'a a great idea and now she kinda wants me to lead a 4-day outreach to Finland :) I sent an email to the pastor and a former student of CCBCE who's there now, and asked if we can come. I'm waiting for their answer right now.
I feel so scared because I've only been here for a month and people who usually lead outreaches, are interns. I've never done it before but I have all of these wonderful people helping me, directing me + most importantly, I have God directing me and I know He's holding my hand. I'm not alone :) (btw, LOVE the feeling of not being alone :) ).
I'm not really sure why He wants me to do this but I trust Him. Well, we might not go, it depends if they need us but people said finnish people are always excited about students coming for an outreach to their church.
We'll see how that works out. I'll sure keep you updated :)
I love being here because I'm growing in my faith, in my trust in Him and I'm getting to know how amazingly wonderful He is. It's really hard but it's SOOOOO worth it! He's worth it :)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Budapest
I took a weekend off and went to Budapest with some of my roommates and other students. It was really great to get away from homework for a couple of days and just enjoy the exploring and experiencing other culture, tasting different food, seeing things we've never seen before.. It was also kinda hard because I'm a person who plans everything in ahead and other people weren't so we had no idea where we're going for the entire weekend but this lesson kinda helped me learn how to be more patient and how to lean on God more. It was all a part of His plan.. :)
(I can't upload any pics on my blog because my access is denied but you can check them out on facebook).
We've also decided where we're gonna go for our 10 day outreaches and I decided to go to Pecg, which is a beautiful Hungarian town around 2 hours away from Vajta. We're gonna do some street evangelism, we're gonna go to Universities, to men's and women's prison, we're gonna prepare a concert for them.. it's gonna be awesome!
+ I think I'm gonna go to Finland for my weekend outreach (plain ticket costs only 50€ for both ways!!) on the Thanksgiving weekend (we have 4 days free).. I'm really looking forward to it and am excited what God will do and how He'll use me.
I'd really like to ask you to pray for spiritual attacks (I keep being reminded of my past life and it's really discouraging) and for my trust towards God. Even though I'm in a Christian bubble right here, that doesn't mean the enemy can't get to me and to other people. Please, just pray that I'll always recognize his lies and turn to God and the Truth.
(I can't upload any pics on my blog because my access is denied but you can check them out on facebook).
We've also decided where we're gonna go for our 10 day outreaches and I decided to go to Pecg, which is a beautiful Hungarian town around 2 hours away from Vajta. We're gonna do some street evangelism, we're gonna go to Universities, to men's and women's prison, we're gonna prepare a concert for them.. it's gonna be awesome!
+ I think I'm gonna go to Finland for my weekend outreach (plain ticket costs only 50€ for both ways!!) on the Thanksgiving weekend (we have 4 days free).. I'm really looking forward to it and am excited what God will do and how He'll use me.
I'd really like to ask you to pray for spiritual attacks (I keep being reminded of my past life and it's really discouraging) and for my trust towards God. Even though I'm in a Christian bubble right here, that doesn't mean the enemy can't get to me and to other people. Please, just pray that I'll always recognize his lies and turn to God and the Truth.
Friday, September 17, 2010
An outreach
Another week has past by and another weekend is ahead of us. This week's been easier but still not easy. A lot of homework, a lot of thinking, a lot of learning BUT it's great. I see how good it is for me.
A few days ago a guy, a former student of CCBCE came to visit us, his name is Kyle. He is now working as a missionary in Finland. He joined an american couple and they started with Bible studies and now they have a young church of around 40 people. It took them 5 years but that's a lot of people for 5 years.
Kyle was leading Devotions in the morning and he said we can come and talk to him during the day if we want to know anything about Finland. I'm not really interested in Finland but after Devo's I went to the coffe shop to do my homework and I saw him there, drinking his coffee. I asked God if I should go and talk to him and I didn't really get an aswer or even a specific feeling but I went there and talked to him anyway. He told me a lot about Finnish people and their culture and.. you know what? It's a lot like Slovene culture! So, he told me how their church works and what's his job there and then he said there might be a 10-day outreach to Finland and he asked me if I would be interested of going there. I was kinda shocked but I said yes!!
Later that day, right after lunch, a small group of people went to a small town 1 hour away from us to get visas and stuff. I was in that small group and we started talking while driving there and it was a lot of fun. I talked to Ana, a girl from Finland. I told her about my talk with Kyle (they go to the same church) and she was so excited! Then I told her about countries that God put on my heart and one of them is Ruanda, a country in central Africa. We talked about some other stuff too but then she told me that one of the 40 people from their church is a guy who comes from Ruanda and was a part of the genocid that happened 16 years ago.
I don't know about you but I have a feeling I have a lot of pieces of a puzzle in my hand and I just have to figure out if they fit together or not.
It's definitely intersting. A lot of praying is neccesary and I'm really curious what God has for me.
What do you think? :)
A few days ago a guy, a former student of CCBCE came to visit us, his name is Kyle. He is now working as a missionary in Finland. He joined an american couple and they started with Bible studies and now they have a young church of around 40 people. It took them 5 years but that's a lot of people for 5 years.
Kyle was leading Devotions in the morning and he said we can come and talk to him during the day if we want to know anything about Finland. I'm not really interested in Finland but after Devo's I went to the coffe shop to do my homework and I saw him there, drinking his coffee. I asked God if I should go and talk to him and I didn't really get an aswer or even a specific feeling but I went there and talked to him anyway. He told me a lot about Finnish people and their culture and.. you know what? It's a lot like Slovene culture! So, he told me how their church works and what's his job there and then he said there might be a 10-day outreach to Finland and he asked me if I would be interested of going there. I was kinda shocked but I said yes!!
Later that day, right after lunch, a small group of people went to a small town 1 hour away from us to get visas and stuff. I was in that small group and we started talking while driving there and it was a lot of fun. I talked to Ana, a girl from Finland. I told her about my talk with Kyle (they go to the same church) and she was so excited! Then I told her about countries that God put on my heart and one of them is Ruanda, a country in central Africa. We talked about some other stuff too but then she told me that one of the 40 people from their church is a guy who comes from Ruanda and was a part of the genocid that happened 16 years ago.
I don't know about you but I have a feeling I have a lot of pieces of a puzzle in my hand and I just have to figure out if they fit together or not.
It's definitely intersting. A lot of praying is neccesary and I'm really curious what God has for me.
What do you think? :)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Romans 12:10-11
These 2 verses have been on my mind since Friday when we had our prayer group and Laura shared them with me and Dunja.
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
I've been really thinking about them and how we compare each other and compete in so many things. It says really clearly (especially in Slovene Bible) that we should compete in respecting each other ("..Tekmujte v medsebojnem spoštovanju."..). It's so true. I had problems with that in the past (I still do sometimes) because another girl had perfect skin or her hair looked perfect or.. something.
Ah. I love how God is slowly, in His perfect timing, revealing things to me. He is so awesome :)
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
I've been really thinking about them and how we compare each other and compete in so many things. It says really clearly (especially in Slovene Bible) that we should compete in respecting each other ("..Tekmujte v medsebojnem spoštovanju."..). It's so true. I had problems with that in the past (I still do sometimes) because another girl had perfect skin or her hair looked perfect or.. something.
Ah. I love how God is slowly, in His perfect timing, revealing things to me. He is so awesome :)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Prayer group
Fridays are not the same as the first 4 days in a week; we don't have Acts and other classes but we do have a class called Ministry and Discipleship (love it!!) where every week one of the teachers/pastors will come and speak for an hour and a half about one of the characters in the Bible. Don (who also teaches Genesis) spoke about Enoch yesterday and it was an awesome lecture. He made me cry, laugh, think... in an hour and a half. Awesome. We have to write a 2-page paper from our notes about the lecture every week + write down a personal application. It's a great class.
Right after that interns told us who is the leader of our prayer group and who else will be joining us in it and I'm sooo thankful that God put me in a prayer group with Dunja (a croatian girl who we met at the castle in Austria this summer) and Laura (+ another lady will be joining us but they haven't arrived to Vajta yet - she and her family are coming from South Africa!). Dunja and Laura are both so nice and their hearts are so gentle and warm and soft and I know He put me in the same prayer group with them so I can open up myself and not keep things inside me. Before we started praying, we talked for a bit and I started crying because Don was talking about our moms in his lecture (ministry+discipleship) and since then, I couldn't stop thinking about my family and how they're not saved yet. It's so hard to live a great life in God's arms (no one said it's not hard) and seeing how they suffer and how they're looking for a way out but can't find it. I'm praying for them all the time and I have hope for them but I really wish they could see how their lives could be so much better with Him.
We prayed then and poured our hearts out and after that talked about what it's like to be a missionary and which places has God put on our hearts. It was awesome and it's really amazing how I can see God's work in all of our lives. Every one of us has it's own story and God has a special plan for us. It's amazing to see Him working in our hearts and teaching us things that make no sense at the beginning but after a while, when you stop yourself and look at everything, at the whole picture, it makes so much sense!
Awesome.
So.. I survived the first week of classes :) Sarah and I got up at 8 this morning and have been working on our homeworks all morning and after lunch (actually, it was brunch - bacon, eggs, pancakes, some kinda potato stuff.. yum!) and we're gonna go for a walk now. We're inside a lot cuz it's been raining a lot but we don't care today. We need fresh air and a longer break! :)
Right after that interns told us who is the leader of our prayer group and who else will be joining us in it and I'm sooo thankful that God put me in a prayer group with Dunja (a croatian girl who we met at the castle in Austria this summer) and Laura (+ another lady will be joining us but they haven't arrived to Vajta yet - she and her family are coming from South Africa!). Dunja and Laura are both so nice and their hearts are so gentle and warm and soft and I know He put me in the same prayer group with them so I can open up myself and not keep things inside me. Before we started praying, we talked for a bit and I started crying because Don was talking about our moms in his lecture (ministry+discipleship) and since then, I couldn't stop thinking about my family and how they're not saved yet. It's so hard to live a great life in God's arms (no one said it's not hard) and seeing how they suffer and how they're looking for a way out but can't find it. I'm praying for them all the time and I have hope for them but I really wish they could see how their lives could be so much better with Him.
We prayed then and poured our hearts out and after that talked about what it's like to be a missionary and which places has God put on our hearts. It was awesome and it's really amazing how I can see God's work in all of our lives. Every one of us has it's own story and God has a special plan for us. It's amazing to see Him working in our hearts and teaching us things that make no sense at the beginning but after a while, when you stop yourself and look at everything, at the whole picture, it makes so much sense!
Awesome.
So.. I survived the first week of classes :) Sarah and I got up at 8 this morning and have been working on our homeworks all morning and after lunch (actually, it was brunch - bacon, eggs, pancakes, some kinda potato stuff.. yum!) and we're gonna go for a walk now. We're inside a lot cuz it's been raining a lot but we don't care today. We need fresh air and a longer break! :)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
First week
It's been a week since I came to Vajta but it seems like I've been here for a month now. I'm not homesick, the castle is a lot like the castle in Austria, food is similar and people are amazing.
So, on Monday we started with classes! My schedule is changing every day (not classes but activities, free time for homework, free time for fellowship, laundry time, dorm meetings, servanthood..) and it's really hard to know when am I really gonna have time to be on email, facebook and skype. I'm sorry if you didn't hear a lot from me but this week's really been busy so far and it's really stressful.
I have Acts on Mondays+Wednesdays and G. of Mark+IBS (inductive Bible study) on Tuesdays+Thursdays. I also had Hebrews but don't anymore because it was just too much of everything and Hebrews is a really hard letter to study. I like the teacher, though.. so I might go and listen to his class sometimes.
I LOVE Acts! It's such an interesting book! We just did Acts 2 yesterday and Shaun, our teacher, explained things in such a good way. You know, apostles get up one morning and go and pray for a bit and there comes a wind with fire tounges and everyone starts talking in other languages because the Holy Spirit is working through them. And then other people come and start wondering what's going on and Peter gets up and starts preaching them the word of God! Amazing! Do you think he knew that's gonna happen on that day? He wasn't even prepared, he had the word of God in his heart and just.. started preaching! And around 3000 people became Christians that day! WOW!
I mean.. can you imagine yourself getting up one morning, thinking what's on your "to do" list, how you're going to do something, where you have to go.. and then BAM!, there's the Holy Spirit working in you and you start telling other people about God and A LOT of people convert and become Christians! :) I'm really amazed. Can you tell?!? :)
Anyway.. one of the classes is servanthood; we have to do 8 hours per week of something they signed us for (cleaning, laundry, dinning room...) and they signed me for taking care of kid's library and helping them with their homework and tests! Isn't this awesome?!? I've been working on the library for the whole week, re-arranging books and organizing everything + I'm gonna help with "Sunday school" tonight. We don't have church service on Sundays but on Thursdays (and they call it Koinonia) because they want to encourage us to go to other churches on Sunday morning. I can't wait.
I have to start working on midterm assignments this weekend because due date is October 9th which is gonna be here soon. I'm thinking of writting about Trinity for Acts class and I'm not really sure what we have for G. of Mark and IBS. Hm.. I'll have to check.
So, really, as you can see, we are busy but the truth is that this is our first week where everything is new and we just have to get used to it. Once we're "into the system", everything will get easier. Can't wait for that :)
There have been some hard times in between as well and it's really hard to focus on my relationship with God with so much "school work" even though it's about God and His word. My relationship with Him is really good though, one of the reasons is probably that we pray a lot (Devotions in the morning, before and after every class, before EVERY meal, before and after every meeting we have..) and that I'm trying to trust Him and I try to lean on Him. I can feel the enemy but He doesn't have a lot of power in my life, he's definitely not stronger than God :)
My roommates are awesome and I became really good friends with Sarah. We go to classes together, we do everything together.. we already cried together and shared a lot of personal things.
I'm so thankful that I'm here because even though I've been here for only a week and I have NO IDEA about my future, I'm starting to see what is He trying to teach me and how huge of an impact He has in my life. He is worthy of every hard hour in my life, of every stressful homework I have to do.. because that homework will help me get closer to Him and that is so awesome! :)
If you'll pray for me, please just pray that I won't forget He's always with me, holding my hand like the best Father in the world does.
+ p.s. I'll post some pics soon! I didn't take any but Sarah did :)
+ words that I've learned in Hungarian (I don't know how to spell them, just how to say them):
- Jó reggelt (joregelt) - good morning
- Jó estét (joeštet) - good evening
- Köszönöm (ksnm) - thank you
- Nem - no
- hol (van) a vécé (holvan a vece) - where's the bathroom?
- Jó (jo) - good
- segítség (šegitšeg) - help
Sarah and I went for a walk in between classes and started running/jogging and screaming:" Segítség, hol (van) a vécé?" A funny, funny moment :D
+ I reached my goal for the whole semester (Katka said I have to learn at least 5 words in the whole semester :)
So, on Monday we started with classes! My schedule is changing every day (not classes but activities, free time for homework, free time for fellowship, laundry time, dorm meetings, servanthood..) and it's really hard to know when am I really gonna have time to be on email, facebook and skype. I'm sorry if you didn't hear a lot from me but this week's really been busy so far and it's really stressful.
I have Acts on Mondays+Wednesdays and G. of Mark+IBS (inductive Bible study) on Tuesdays+Thursdays. I also had Hebrews but don't anymore because it was just too much of everything and Hebrews is a really hard letter to study. I like the teacher, though.. so I might go and listen to his class sometimes.
I LOVE Acts! It's such an interesting book! We just did Acts 2 yesterday and Shaun, our teacher, explained things in such a good way. You know, apostles get up one morning and go and pray for a bit and there comes a wind with fire tounges and everyone starts talking in other languages because the Holy Spirit is working through them. And then other people come and start wondering what's going on and Peter gets up and starts preaching them the word of God! Amazing! Do you think he knew that's gonna happen on that day? He wasn't even prepared, he had the word of God in his heart and just.. started preaching! And around 3000 people became Christians that day! WOW!
I mean.. can you imagine yourself getting up one morning, thinking what's on your "to do" list, how you're going to do something, where you have to go.. and then BAM!, there's the Holy Spirit working in you and you start telling other people about God and A LOT of people convert and become Christians! :) I'm really amazed. Can you tell?!? :)
Anyway.. one of the classes is servanthood; we have to do 8 hours per week of something they signed us for (cleaning, laundry, dinning room...) and they signed me for taking care of kid's library and helping them with their homework and tests! Isn't this awesome?!? I've been working on the library for the whole week, re-arranging books and organizing everything + I'm gonna help with "Sunday school" tonight. We don't have church service on Sundays but on Thursdays (and they call it Koinonia) because they want to encourage us to go to other churches on Sunday morning. I can't wait.
I have to start working on midterm assignments this weekend because due date is October 9th which is gonna be here soon. I'm thinking of writting about Trinity for Acts class and I'm not really sure what we have for G. of Mark and IBS. Hm.. I'll have to check.
So, really, as you can see, we are busy but the truth is that this is our first week where everything is new and we just have to get used to it. Once we're "into the system", everything will get easier. Can't wait for that :)
There have been some hard times in between as well and it's really hard to focus on my relationship with God with so much "school work" even though it's about God and His word. My relationship with Him is really good though, one of the reasons is probably that we pray a lot (Devotions in the morning, before and after every class, before EVERY meal, before and after every meeting we have..) and that I'm trying to trust Him and I try to lean on Him. I can feel the enemy but He doesn't have a lot of power in my life, he's definitely not stronger than God :)
My roommates are awesome and I became really good friends with Sarah. We go to classes together, we do everything together.. we already cried together and shared a lot of personal things.
I'm so thankful that I'm here because even though I've been here for only a week and I have NO IDEA about my future, I'm starting to see what is He trying to teach me and how huge of an impact He has in my life. He is worthy of every hard hour in my life, of every stressful homework I have to do.. because that homework will help me get closer to Him and that is so awesome! :)
If you'll pray for me, please just pray that I won't forget He's always with me, holding my hand like the best Father in the world does.
+ p.s. I'll post some pics soon! I didn't take any but Sarah did :)
+ words that I've learned in Hungarian (I don't know how to spell them, just how to say them):
- Jó reggelt (joregelt) - good morning
- Jó estét (joeštet) - good evening
- Köszönöm (ksnm) - thank you
- Nem - no
- hol (van) a vécé (holvan a vece) - where's the bathroom?
- Jó (jo) - good
- segítség (šegitšeg) - help
Sarah and I went for a walk in between classes and started running/jogging and screaming:" Segítség, hol (van) a vécé?" A funny, funny moment :D
+ I reached my goal for the whole semester (Katka said I have to learn at least 5 words in the whole semester :)
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Bible College
Greetings from Hungary! :)
I got the internet code yesterday and now I can update my blog and stuff like that.
We just spent a few days getting to know each other and spending time together and things got a bit deeper yesterday+today with the registration and orientation. We found out our schedule and which classes we're gonna have/take.
I took:
- Hebrews
- Acts
- Gospel of Mark
- Inductive Bible study
- 1st part of the Old Testament
- Ministry & Discipleship
Our trip to Hungary was great (David&Katka, Alex, Tilen, my sister Nina and I took the red super van and drove to the school. It took us 4,5hours but we stopped by the Balaton lake on our way so it took us more than that.). It was a great time of just hanging out, talking about different things and since people don't really know my sister, it was great that they got a chance to talk to her, specially on their way back home cuz I wasn't there with them :) I am proud of her coming with us. It was a big step for her.
Am.. life here is similar to life at the castle in Austria. It's so easy to feel at home and people are really nice. I have 5 roommates; Ester is from Korea, Kati from Hungary, Nastya from Russia, Wendy and Sarah from the States and I'm from Slovenia. An international room. They're all nice but I really got along with Sarah. She's 20 and just soooo nice and open and God blessed me by putting us in the same room together. We took the same classes and I think we're gonna spend a lot of time together. I also invited her to come to Slovenia for Christmas and January since she's gonna stay here for another semester and wants to experience other cultures and see other parts of Europe.
Hm.. Food here is different but good. I think I lost a few pounds already but I'll probably get them back soon.
Nothing much is really going on yet but that will change in a couple of days so I'll write more later in the week.
I'm really grateful that God has given me a chance to be here and spend a lot of time learning about Him and deepening about relationship. I feel very loved by Him and by people here + this place already feels like home to me which is kinda weird cuz that's not in my personality.. it's actually not me, it's God. I would never be able to react so calm+peaceful on a change like this.
Oh, He's just so awesome :)
I got the internet code yesterday and now I can update my blog and stuff like that.
We just spent a few days getting to know each other and spending time together and things got a bit deeper yesterday+today with the registration and orientation. We found out our schedule and which classes we're gonna have/take.
I took:
- Hebrews
- Acts
- Gospel of Mark
- Inductive Bible study
- 1st part of the Old Testament
- Ministry & Discipleship
Our trip to Hungary was great (David&Katka, Alex, Tilen, my sister Nina and I took the red super van and drove to the school. It took us 4,5hours but we stopped by the Balaton lake on our way so it took us more than that.). It was a great time of just hanging out, talking about different things and since people don't really know my sister, it was great that they got a chance to talk to her, specially on their way back home cuz I wasn't there with them :) I am proud of her coming with us. It was a big step for her.
Am.. life here is similar to life at the castle in Austria. It's so easy to feel at home and people are really nice. I have 5 roommates; Ester is from Korea, Kati from Hungary, Nastya from Russia, Wendy and Sarah from the States and I'm from Slovenia. An international room. They're all nice but I really got along with Sarah. She's 20 and just soooo nice and open and God blessed me by putting us in the same room together. We took the same classes and I think we're gonna spend a lot of time together. I also invited her to come to Slovenia for Christmas and January since she's gonna stay here for another semester and wants to experience other cultures and see other parts of Europe.
Hm.. Food here is different but good. I think I lost a few pounds already but I'll probably get them back soon.
Nothing much is really going on yet but that will change in a couple of days so I'll write more later in the week.
I'm really grateful that God has given me a chance to be here and spend a lot of time learning about Him and deepening about relationship. I feel very loved by Him and by people here + this place already feels like home to me which is kinda weird cuz that's not in my personality.. it's actually not me, it's God. I would never be able to react so calm+peaceful on a change like this.
Oh, He's just so awesome :)
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Calvary Chapel BIble College
I'm all packed, all ready. Excited and also a bit nervous, I have no idea what to expect but I feel at peace. I didn't this morning, though. I went to David and Katka's to pray; we took 4 hours and just prayed over my memories from my childhood and let God be in charge of things. One of the lies I believed was that God doesn't love me and this morning He very clearly showed me how much He loves me and He healed some wounds that needed to be healed. I really feel at peace leaving home for a couple of months. I know He's going to stay with my family even if I'm not gonna be here and He's gonna take care of them.
We organized a roadtrip because I really don't want to go to Hungary alone so David and Katka are picking up the Super red van and Alex, Tilen, my sister and I will join them and we're gonna hit the road to Hungary! School is 4 and a half hours away but we're gonna stop by the Balaton lake and play some games, hang out, eat some lunch.. and then go to the school.
I'm so thankful they're coming with me + they're gonna see the school and meet some people there. Nice! :)
I'm gonna go to bed now to get at least some sleep. I'll write an update as soon as I get a chance!
Please pray that I'll always remember He's with me, holding my hand and that He loves me.
Thank you for all the prayers and support!
We organized a roadtrip because I really don't want to go to Hungary alone so David and Katka are picking up the Super red van and Alex, Tilen, my sister and I will join them and we're gonna hit the road to Hungary! School is 4 and a half hours away but we're gonna stop by the Balaton lake and play some games, hang out, eat some lunch.. and then go to the school.
I'm so thankful they're coming with me + they're gonna see the school and meet some people there. Nice! :)
I'm gonna go to bed now to get at least some sleep. I'll write an update as soon as I get a chance!
Please pray that I'll always remember He's with me, holding my hand and that He loves me.
Thank you for all the prayers and support!
Monday, August 30, 2010
My Redeemer lives
I sang this song in April 2010 for Easter.
Thank you Katka, Glorija, Anja and David for singing with me and playing the piano, it was a special time for me performing with you.
I love my life in Him.
Thank you Katka, Glorija, Anja and David for singing with me and playing the piano, it was a special time for me performing with you.
I love my life in Him.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Performing arts camp 2010..
.. was SUPER DUPER FUN! :)
We met the American team on Friday 13th (spooky, scary!). We shared some information about ourselves and then talked about Slovenian culture. It was interesting to hear things about our culture because we've lived here all our lives and it's so logical for us that we are who we are and people from other places of the world see it differently.
The American team was great! Drama/dancing teachers from the States were running late but we met the German American team: Brandon+his sister Danielle and Landon+his sister Lacey and their leaders Darryl and Debra. Very nice people and a very good team!
The camp started on Saturday, Aug 14th. We met at Tivoli and started getting to know each other. The beginnings are always so awkward.. but it was ok. We went on our bus and headed to Cakovec!
The first day was an easier day.. we played some icebrakers, got to know each other a bit more, went through some easy singing, drama and dance stuff so we could get the feeling of the days ahead of us; it was a good day. The next day camp really started and we started to work hard. We usually began our days with breakfast :) and then with choir practice, all together or divided by our voices (sopranos, altos..). It was awesome when we all sang together! :) so many talents!
We usually had a 10min break and then continued with dance class. Ugh, that was hard, at least for me! I'm not a dance person, I feel like a piece of wood when I have to dance so I didn't have much fun with it until the end when I figured out what we're actually doing. But it was a good experience, it was great I was given a chance to learn how to dance by a professional (after the performance my sister said I looked like a robot a few times.. ha-ha, funny :))
We had TOOLBOX after that which was a 30min "lecture" from teachers - how to be prepared for auditions, how does a professional artist look like, how to perform.. great advices! We ate lunch after that and had 3 hours of free time! We went to the store, to take a nap, to hang out, to practice for our solo parts, we did some art.. the last 2 days we HAD TO be quiet for an hour and a half, Katka's order. A good order!!
We also had some fun! :) we had great evening programs; all kinds of games, casino night/murder mystery - clue night, western night by the fire and the last night was the rehersal night.
I think Performing Arts camp was the 3rd step of me being prepared for Bible College and for the future ahead of me.
The 1st step was English Camp in Austria; my relationship with God got so much deeper and better!
The 2nd step was Kriz; God tried to show me how my life is going to look like when I move to Hungary.
And the 3rd step was this camp. I learned how to rely on God more, I learned how to be a leader of a discussion group and how to tell people about my relationship with Him and my experience as a young christian. I got to share my testimony again and I was SO surprised when after the evening program a bunch of students came to me with tears in their eyes just hugging me and saying how my story touched them!
It was a hard camp, full of ups and downs but it was a great camp, a great time with God and I loved being a light to lost students who came to the camp.
We finished our camp with a performance for our parents and friends on Saturday and for church people on Sunday and the performances were awesome! There was a lot of nervousness, a lot of crazyness, a lot of mixed feelings BUT it was so great to pray together before the performances and feel that peace from God in our hearts. I am so thankful I got to sing to Him and that I got to praise Him in the show, it was a wonderful experience and I wish people would do shows/musicals like this all the time in Slovenia. We have so many amazing talents and so many young people who are willing to learn and perform and seek God!
Before the camp started, Katka said our goal is to help students come one step closer to God and in the end, 6 people accepted Jesus into their hearts! AMAZING! :)
God is really the greatest and every day I learn something more about Him and I get closer to Him. I leave for Bible College in 2 days and I am nervous and scared (in a kinda good way) and so thankful for this opportunity.
I'd really like to ask you to pray for all the students who came to camps this summer that they would return to us - to youth groups, to Bible studies, to church.. in whichever way, that they would stay in touch with us and let us be their friends and people who share the Truth with them.
Please pray for my family; I am so thankful to God that He's giving them new chances every day and He's not going to stop. Pray that even though I'm leaving home for 4 months, they wouldn't stop seeing the Light that was shinning through me, that they would see the Light and hear the Truth even if I'm not gonna be around them.
Please pray for me; that I would fully trust Him, that I would turn to Him in every given situation and pray that I wouldn't forget that He is my Father and that He does love me. He wants me to enjoy every day and I sometimes forget that.
Thank you for all your prayers and support!
We met the American team on Friday 13th (spooky, scary!). We shared some information about ourselves and then talked about Slovenian culture. It was interesting to hear things about our culture because we've lived here all our lives and it's so logical for us that we are who we are and people from other places of the world see it differently.
The American team was great! Drama/dancing teachers from the States were running late but we met the German American team: Brandon+his sister Danielle and Landon+his sister Lacey and their leaders Darryl and Debra. Very nice people and a very good team!
The camp started on Saturday, Aug 14th. We met at Tivoli and started getting to know each other. The beginnings are always so awkward.. but it was ok. We went on our bus and headed to Cakovec!
The first day was an easier day.. we played some icebrakers, got to know each other a bit more, went through some easy singing, drama and dance stuff so we could get the feeling of the days ahead of us; it was a good day. The next day camp really started and we started to work hard. We usually began our days with breakfast :) and then with choir practice, all together or divided by our voices (sopranos, altos..). It was awesome when we all sang together! :) so many talents!
We usually had a 10min break and then continued with dance class. Ugh, that was hard, at least for me! I'm not a dance person, I feel like a piece of wood when I have to dance so I didn't have much fun with it until the end when I figured out what we're actually doing. But it was a good experience, it was great I was given a chance to learn how to dance by a professional (after the performance my sister said I looked like a robot a few times.. ha-ha, funny :))
We had TOOLBOX after that which was a 30min "lecture" from teachers - how to be prepared for auditions, how does a professional artist look like, how to perform.. great advices! We ate lunch after that and had 3 hours of free time! We went to the store, to take a nap, to hang out, to practice for our solo parts, we did some art.. the last 2 days we HAD TO be quiet for an hour and a half, Katka's order. A good order!!
We also had some fun! :) we had great evening programs; all kinds of games, casino night/murder mystery - clue night, western night by the fire and the last night was the rehersal night.
I think Performing Arts camp was the 3rd step of me being prepared for Bible College and for the future ahead of me.
The 1st step was English Camp in Austria; my relationship with God got so much deeper and better!
The 2nd step was Kriz; God tried to show me how my life is going to look like when I move to Hungary.
And the 3rd step was this camp. I learned how to rely on God more, I learned how to be a leader of a discussion group and how to tell people about my relationship with Him and my experience as a young christian. I got to share my testimony again and I was SO surprised when after the evening program a bunch of students came to me with tears in their eyes just hugging me and saying how my story touched them!
It was a hard camp, full of ups and downs but it was a great camp, a great time with God and I loved being a light to lost students who came to the camp.
We finished our camp with a performance for our parents and friends on Saturday and for church people on Sunday and the performances were awesome! There was a lot of nervousness, a lot of crazyness, a lot of mixed feelings BUT it was so great to pray together before the performances and feel that peace from God in our hearts. I am so thankful I got to sing to Him and that I got to praise Him in the show, it was a wonderful experience and I wish people would do shows/musicals like this all the time in Slovenia. We have so many amazing talents and so many young people who are willing to learn and perform and seek God!
Before the camp started, Katka said our goal is to help students come one step closer to God and in the end, 6 people accepted Jesus into their hearts! AMAZING! :)
God is really the greatest and every day I learn something more about Him and I get closer to Him. I leave for Bible College in 2 days and I am nervous and scared (in a kinda good way) and so thankful for this opportunity.
I'd really like to ask you to pray for all the students who came to camps this summer that they would return to us - to youth groups, to Bible studies, to church.. in whichever way, that they would stay in touch with us and let us be their friends and people who share the Truth with them.
Please pray for my family; I am so thankful to God that He's giving them new chances every day and He's not going to stop. Pray that even though I'm leaving home for 4 months, they wouldn't stop seeing the Light that was shinning through me, that they would see the Light and hear the Truth even if I'm not gonna be around them.
Please pray for me; that I would fully trust Him, that I would turn to Him in every given situation and pray that I wouldn't forget that He is my Father and that He does love me. He wants me to enjoy every day and I sometimes forget that.
Thank you for all your prayers and support!
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Križ
It's been a while since my last update so this one will probably be a long one.. so many things happened!
So, we went to Križ on July 23rd. Got together at Hondo and Trisha's house, packed the van and hit the road! This was my first year at Križ (btw, Križ means K - Kristus, R - Resnica, I - Integriteta, Ž - Življenje; in English, Christ, Truth, Integrity and Life) so I had no idea what to expect. We came up there and went to our rooms which were clean of spiders + bugs (thank you, interns!) but there were still some of them so Stephanie took care of those for me. Ha, scary creatures with too many legs!
First evening was nothing special. We hang out in out Coffee church and Gasper was our waiter - he did a great job! We played games, drank coffee and tea and.. it was nice.
The next morning classes began. John McMurray was teaching us John, Josh was teaching us Ephesians and Hondo was teaching us, beginers, about the first steps of Bible study methods.
It took me 6 days, I think, to get what we were doing altogether. What we learned with Hondo (theory), we used with John.
It was kinda hard for me to get used to different teachers, especially John because I've never been in his class before and I had no idea what was his way of teaching (asking a lot of questions - which is great!) and I knew Josh and Hondo before so that wasn't that difficult to get used to.
We've been learning through the whole Križ.. not just about John, Ephesians and Bible study methods but also about life and especially about God!
He prepared me even more for College; I lived in a room with 4 other girls, didn't have a lot of peace because there was just so many of us (so I got up at 6.30 every morning, took a shower and had a quiet time) and we lived together for 12 days which is not always easy. I learned how to put away my pride (that doesn't mean it's easy to do it!), how to be patient and I learned everything's not (always) about me.
When we were going through John, we started with the Prologue and found out why John wanted us to read his book + what he wanted to teach us through his book. We read miracles that Jesus did and from every miracle, we learned something about God.
The thing that John wanted us to get is that if we know God, we can have a relationship with Him and the relationship is the key to the eternal life. We learned God loves us just for us, not because we read our Bibles or do good works or are nice to people.. nope. He loves every person in the world, no matter who they are, where they live, how old they are.. Isn't that great?!? :)
We learned a lot more in John - ask me in person and I'll tell you what ;)
We went through Ephesians with Josh (and Andrej Lovše)..
Ephesians have 6 chapters; first 3 chapters talk about WHY we should become Christians and the second 3 chapters talk about HOW to become Christians. It's such a great book!
We learned who we are in Christ:
- blessed
- chosen
- holy
- blameless
- predestined
- adopted
- redeemed
- forgiven
- included in Christ
- sealed (with the Holy Spirit)
- in God's possession
AND we are all of those things because of God's grace!
We learned who+where we were before and who+where we are now and we learned our only responsibility is to believe + receive!
We talked about comparisons, competition, insecurity (Josh used the example of the ladder - don't climb, get of the ladder).. this is one of the things that I do. I think a lot of us compare to other people and it's wrong but it's a proccess to get that you don't have to compare yourself to other people because you're so unique and special in Christ and the gifts that He gave us are maybe not the same that other people have but He gave us those gifts with a purpose and He's gonna use us for different + special things!
Andrej talked about unity - we are one in Christ and we have to be humble+gentle, patient+bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2) AND we have to be one! He talked about our old clothes and new clothes - we really have to get rid of the old ones! We talked about the spiritual battle (he called it war) and what kind of armor and shield we have (Ephesians 6:10)
We also talked about wives+husbands and children+fathers. This subject was kind of hard for me.. is was interesting hearing about wives + husbands and pretty hard when we got the the "father" part. Andrej asked us questions: did your dad took you to the park when you were a kid? Did he read you a fairytale for a good night? Did he ask you how's your school when you got home? Did he took care of the finances in your house? .. and then he said this kind of father should a Biblical father be.
I was shocked! My dad did all of those things! And then I asked myself.. "Why do I have such a bad relationship with him then? Is it my fault?.." and after the session I talked to Andrej. I told him the basics of my life with my dad and he gave a really good example of his actions. He said "Imagine a bank account. You do a lot of good works, you're nice to people.. and this is all + on your bank account. And then you do something stupid, something hurtful, something bad.. and it all goes away and on your bank account is -, and that's what happened with your dad and his actions."
And.. it's true. Because of that I didn't even realize/remember that my dad did all of those great things! Bad things are so bad that they beat the good ones, no matter how many there are.
+ I realized that he was a "good" dad but a really bad husband. I don't blame him and I don't judge him for that. He had a bad childhood and his parents did the same + even worse things to him and that's the only way he knows BUT my mom's life is awful because of that! Her childhood was horrible and she thought she'll get out of the misery when she'll get married and it's maybe even worse now! Ugh, this is so hard!!
In Bible study methods, we went through the basics. Hondo talked about the 4 steps of reading the Bible; SEEING, UNDERSTANDING, SHARING and RESPONDING + the greatest tool for it is CONTEXT. It was a funny class because of all of the jokes and idioms Hondo uses :)
He gave us some homework and I learned a lot from it.. what we did in class, we learned through our homework. It was great to go and compare 1 Sam 1-3 and Luke 1-2.. and it was awesome to go through the book of Psalms. He gave us a lot of knowledge and this is a great preparation for Bible College!
On our last day of Kriz, Trish (she was my mentor) and I prayed for my family and for me; going home from a "Christian bubble" is always hard. We prayed I could talk to my mom and dad and just tell them about Kriz and we prayed for our relationship.
I talked to my mom the first day I got home and to my dad a day later. AWESOME! God heard our prayer and showed me His love and grace - that was one of my prayers during the Kriz. It's so hard for me to realize and believe that God really loves me. I'm a sinner and I don't deserve His love but still, He loves me. I really prayed that He'd show me His love in a way I could get it and He did and He still is. Oh, He's so amazing and wonderful :)
Right now, I'm helping Katka to prepare things for Arts camp; we leave on Saturday.
Please pray for all students that are coming and for all the teachers and helpers there, for the staff and the whole week + come and see our show on Saturday or Sunday (21.8.+22.8.). I'll let you know about the details!
So, we went to Križ on July 23rd. Got together at Hondo and Trisha's house, packed the van and hit the road! This was my first year at Križ (btw, Križ means K - Kristus, R - Resnica, I - Integriteta, Ž - Življenje; in English, Christ, Truth, Integrity and Life) so I had no idea what to expect. We came up there and went to our rooms which were clean of spiders + bugs (thank you, interns!) but there were still some of them so Stephanie took care of those for me. Ha, scary creatures with too many legs!
First evening was nothing special. We hang out in out Coffee church and Gasper was our waiter - he did a great job! We played games, drank coffee and tea and.. it was nice.
The next morning classes began. John McMurray was teaching us John, Josh was teaching us Ephesians and Hondo was teaching us, beginers, about the first steps of Bible study methods.
It took me 6 days, I think, to get what we were doing altogether. What we learned with Hondo (theory), we used with John.
It was kinda hard for me to get used to different teachers, especially John because I've never been in his class before and I had no idea what was his way of teaching (asking a lot of questions - which is great!) and I knew Josh and Hondo before so that wasn't that difficult to get used to.
We've been learning through the whole Križ.. not just about John, Ephesians and Bible study methods but also about life and especially about God!
He prepared me even more for College; I lived in a room with 4 other girls, didn't have a lot of peace because there was just so many of us (so I got up at 6.30 every morning, took a shower and had a quiet time) and we lived together for 12 days which is not always easy. I learned how to put away my pride (that doesn't mean it's easy to do it!), how to be patient and I learned everything's not (always) about me.
When we were going through John, we started with the Prologue and found out why John wanted us to read his book + what he wanted to teach us through his book. We read miracles that Jesus did and from every miracle, we learned something about God.
The thing that John wanted us to get is that if we know God, we can have a relationship with Him and the relationship is the key to the eternal life. We learned God loves us just for us, not because we read our Bibles or do good works or are nice to people.. nope. He loves every person in the world, no matter who they are, where they live, how old they are.. Isn't that great?!? :)
We learned a lot more in John - ask me in person and I'll tell you what ;)
We went through Ephesians with Josh (and Andrej Lovše)..
Ephesians have 6 chapters; first 3 chapters talk about WHY we should become Christians and the second 3 chapters talk about HOW to become Christians. It's such a great book!
We learned who we are in Christ:
- blessed
- chosen
- holy
- blameless
- predestined
- adopted
- redeemed
- forgiven
- included in Christ
- sealed (with the Holy Spirit)
- in God's possession
AND we are all of those things because of God's grace!
We learned who+where we were before and who+where we are now and we learned our only responsibility is to believe + receive!
We talked about comparisons, competition, insecurity (Josh used the example of the ladder - don't climb, get of the ladder).. this is one of the things that I do. I think a lot of us compare to other people and it's wrong but it's a proccess to get that you don't have to compare yourself to other people because you're so unique and special in Christ and the gifts that He gave us are maybe not the same that other people have but He gave us those gifts with a purpose and He's gonna use us for different + special things!
Andrej talked about unity - we are one in Christ and we have to be humble+gentle, patient+bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2) AND we have to be one! He talked about our old clothes and new clothes - we really have to get rid of the old ones! We talked about the spiritual battle (he called it war) and what kind of armor and shield we have (Ephesians 6:10)
We also talked about wives+husbands and children+fathers. This subject was kind of hard for me.. is was interesting hearing about wives + husbands and pretty hard when we got the the "father" part. Andrej asked us questions: did your dad took you to the park when you were a kid? Did he read you a fairytale for a good night? Did he ask you how's your school when you got home? Did he took care of the finances in your house? .. and then he said this kind of father should a Biblical father be.
I was shocked! My dad did all of those things! And then I asked myself.. "Why do I have such a bad relationship with him then? Is it my fault?.." and after the session I talked to Andrej. I told him the basics of my life with my dad and he gave a really good example of his actions. He said "Imagine a bank account. You do a lot of good works, you're nice to people.. and this is all + on your bank account. And then you do something stupid, something hurtful, something bad.. and it all goes away and on your bank account is -, and that's what happened with your dad and his actions."
And.. it's true. Because of that I didn't even realize/remember that my dad did all of those great things! Bad things are so bad that they beat the good ones, no matter how many there are.
+ I realized that he was a "good" dad but a really bad husband. I don't blame him and I don't judge him for that. He had a bad childhood and his parents did the same + even worse things to him and that's the only way he knows BUT my mom's life is awful because of that! Her childhood was horrible and she thought she'll get out of the misery when she'll get married and it's maybe even worse now! Ugh, this is so hard!!
In Bible study methods, we went through the basics. Hondo talked about the 4 steps of reading the Bible; SEEING, UNDERSTANDING, SHARING and RESPONDING + the greatest tool for it is CONTEXT. It was a funny class because of all of the jokes and idioms Hondo uses :)
He gave us some homework and I learned a lot from it.. what we did in class, we learned through our homework. It was great to go and compare 1 Sam 1-3 and Luke 1-2.. and it was awesome to go through the book of Psalms. He gave us a lot of knowledge and this is a great preparation for Bible College!
On our last day of Kriz, Trish (she was my mentor) and I prayed for my family and for me; going home from a "Christian bubble" is always hard. We prayed I could talk to my mom and dad and just tell them about Kriz and we prayed for our relationship.
I talked to my mom the first day I got home and to my dad a day later. AWESOME! God heard our prayer and showed me His love and grace - that was one of my prayers during the Kriz. It's so hard for me to realize and believe that God really loves me. I'm a sinner and I don't deserve His love but still, He loves me. I really prayed that He'd show me His love in a way I could get it and He did and He still is. Oh, He's so amazing and wonderful :)
Right now, I'm helping Katka to prepare things for Arts camp; we leave on Saturday.
Please pray for all students that are coming and for all the teachers and helpers there, for the staff and the whole week + come and see our show on Saturday or Sunday (21.8.+22.8.). I'll let you know about the details!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Amazing people, great trip!
At castle camp I met so many great people and as I said before, the American team was the best and I got to meet 2 girls a bit better than the rest of them; Mallory and Michelle.
Michelle reminds me a bit of Anna Burnham (it's so hard to get used to the fact that she's married now!). She looks kind of like her and she's just the best. She's a bit older than me and has been a Christian her whole life so she helped me grow in my faith at castle camp a lot, probably without even knowing it. I think one of her spiritual gifts is a gift of wisdom; she could relate to my problems even though she's never had them before and she's really good at giving an advice.
Right now she's travelling around Europe - awesome! :)
Mallory.. well, that's another ver special girl, khm, young lady :)
She's younger than me but it seems like she's my age or older - very mature and at the same time very funny and relaxed and energetic :)
She's still in Slovenia, she doesn't leave until Aug 6th. She attended a couple of camps during the summer (in Slovenia) and is going to spend the rest of her time here hanging out with students in Radovljica and getting to know them better.
I really like spending time with her cuz I feel I can do anything when I'm around her.. I can laugh, be crazy and goofy and it won't matter. I feel free :) it's a really good feeling and I think I can be like that because she's like that and she's ok with it :)
We're similar in a lot of things but different at the same time! She was homeschooled (until she was 16, I think) and she's been a Christian her whole life. It's great to hear things from her life because it's so different than mine, partly because she's an american.
I might go and visit her in Seattle.. if I'll have money and time :)
So..
Mallory and I decided to spend a Saturday together - hanging out, going for a prayer walk (at Metelkova), eating kebab.. BUT since the Irish team went to the seaside on Saturday (Irish team helped at a camp in Radovljica) and Mallory really wanted to go, we decided to go with them! (Metka and Heather went with us as well).
We went to the Postojna cave (it was expensive but great!) and then to the seaside. We went for a quick swim and found out the water has 30°C - not cool at all! We ate a lot of ice cream and after dinner went to see Piran (yay!). It was so great to be in Piran with all of them (Piran is my favourite slovenian town), they all loved it!
Came back home at 11.30pm and went straight to bed, I was so exhausted! but it was a really good day and I loved spending more time with Mallory and I enjoyed meeting the Irish team.
(don't have pics yet, will put them on when I get them)
Right now we're preparing for Križ (it starts at the end of the week) and I'm ready to spend more time with God. My relationship with Him is not as good as it was at the castle camp - I've been working a lot and preparing things for Arts camp.. excuses, I know. I'm just really glad I'll have a lot of time at Križ. I miss spending time with my best friend!
Michelle reminds me a bit of Anna Burnham (it's so hard to get used to the fact that she's married now!). She looks kind of like her and she's just the best. She's a bit older than me and has been a Christian her whole life so she helped me grow in my faith at castle camp a lot, probably without even knowing it. I think one of her spiritual gifts is a gift of wisdom; she could relate to my problems even though she's never had them before and she's really good at giving an advice.
Right now she's travelling around Europe - awesome! :)
Mallory.. well, that's another ver special girl, khm, young lady :)
She's younger than me but it seems like she's my age or older - very mature and at the same time very funny and relaxed and energetic :)
She's still in Slovenia, she doesn't leave until Aug 6th. She attended a couple of camps during the summer (in Slovenia) and is going to spend the rest of her time here hanging out with students in Radovljica and getting to know them better.
I really like spending time with her cuz I feel I can do anything when I'm around her.. I can laugh, be crazy and goofy and it won't matter. I feel free :) it's a really good feeling and I think I can be like that because she's like that and she's ok with it :)
We're similar in a lot of things but different at the same time! She was homeschooled (until she was 16, I think) and she's been a Christian her whole life. It's great to hear things from her life because it's so different than mine, partly because she's an american.
I might go and visit her in Seattle.. if I'll have money and time :)
So..
Mallory and I decided to spend a Saturday together - hanging out, going for a prayer walk (at Metelkova), eating kebab.. BUT since the Irish team went to the seaside on Saturday (Irish team helped at a camp in Radovljica) and Mallory really wanted to go, we decided to go with them! (Metka and Heather went with us as well).
We went to the Postojna cave (it was expensive but great!) and then to the seaside. We went for a quick swim and found out the water has 30°C - not cool at all! We ate a lot of ice cream and after dinner went to see Piran (yay!). It was so great to be in Piran with all of them (Piran is my favourite slovenian town), they all loved it!
Came back home at 11.30pm and went straight to bed, I was so exhausted! but it was a really good day and I loved spending more time with Mallory and I enjoyed meeting the Irish team.
(don't have pics yet, will put them on when I get them)
Right now we're preparing for Križ (it starts at the end of the week) and I'm ready to spend more time with God. My relationship with Him is not as good as it was at the castle camp - I've been working a lot and preparing things for Arts camp.. excuses, I know. I'm just really glad I'll have a lot of time at Križ. I miss spending time with my best friend!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
English Camp 2010 -- Redeem
As I wrote before, I was a part of this year's English Camp in Millstatt, Austria.
It was AWESOME!
I can tell you all the details what we did and what kind of games we played but I think it's more important for me to tell you what was going on in my heart during the camp.
One of the things that were hard for me was stepping out of my bubble. When we had meetings with our Slovene team, Mateja and Meagan were always saying we're gonna have to do that because we're the ones who know the system and we're the ones that are gonna help and it's on us to make the first step and get to know the students that came.
It was kind of hard for the first two days but once I did the first step, I felt good and I relaxed. For the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of being who I am (thanks for the text message, Brad!) and I really stepped out of my bubble. I was making a fool of myself the whole time and it was a LOT of fun! :)
One of the best things at camp was my English class - the rolling couches! :)
Ryan was the teacher, Jeremy was the helper and I was a translator even though our group didn't really need one. We had so much fun during the games and learning English and especially during discussions. We opened ourselves to one another and it was amazing to see+hear what kind of things these students had to go through.
I didn't get the feeling that we can talk about God until the last day but it was good that we didn't do that before because I think it might scare them and this way, it didn't.
I talked to all of them one on one and it was just so amazing to hear that they want to know who God is and they want to have a relationship with Him. They had so many questions and it was hard not to answer directly but let them think for a bit. They hated it :) but it was good for them.
I know we're gonna stay in touch. They're amazing people and amazing thinkers!
During the camp I realized that camp wasn't only for students that came but also for us. For me. Every morning we watched a video or a clip or something and it was hard.
It was hard hearing the words because it hurt. And like students had to think about things, I had to do that too. And I think we were in a similar position, there was only one difference -- I have a relationship with God. That doesn't mean it was any easier for me or that it hurt less but it means that I went through some difficult things -- with God. And the most amazing thing is that I prayed SO MUCH during the camp and my relationship with Him got so much deeper, stronger + better I could never imagine.
I lost some fears, I feel much more confident and I actually LOVE my life! My trust in Him is so much better and even though I am scared of the future and I have no idea what's gonna happen after December, I'm not worried. I trust that He is the one knowing my future and He is the one who's gonna take care of me. He's already doing it :)
During the camp I mostly prayed for the students and their hearts + for American and Slovene team (btw, American team was the best!) and our wisdom and energy but I also prayed for my own protection of my heart and my mind. After the first couple of days of camp I noticed someone.. in a way I haven't noticed anyone in a year. I started liking him and I was really confused. I still have no idea what I felt or what was going on. I still feel something but I feel less confused. It's different than anytime before and I'm not sure if I really like him or if I like the qualities he has and I want my husband to have those.
I really prayed for protection of my heart and especially for protection of my mind. I usually made up stories in my head what was going to happen and I really didn't want that now. It was hard being around him during the camp. I think he's very mature for his age and I love the way he thinks. I think God wanted to teach me a lot of things with this experience but mostly I think He wanted to show me that I changed and that my mind and my desire changed. And I love this change.
One of the hard parts of the camp happened on the last night of camp; Mateja asked me and Alex to share our stories with students.
We took an afternoon for ourselves while others were playing games. We went to the tower and played Phase 10 for an hour and then started praying and thinking and writting. It was hard to think of the past and God really wanted me to share my childhood in details. I told some things that even people who've known me for a lot of time didn't know and I know my story touched a lot of hearts.
Alex and I talked in Slovene and since the Americans were listening too and didn't understand a word, they prayed while we were sharing and I mostly asked them to pray for strenght. I prayed for strenght and clarity and a minute before I went up there and started talking, my head was empty. I didn't know what I was going to say or how I was going to begin. But I started talking about my childhood and I went deeper than I thought I was gonna go and I shared some things I didn't think I'll ever do.
During the camp I cried A LOT and when I prayed for strenght, I prayed that I wouldn't fake anything or keep tears in my eyes or not let things go like they should and it was so interesting; as I said, I cried A LOT and during my talk, I didn't cry at all. It was hard and I stopped a few times for 15 seconds but I didn't feel like crying. I'm so thankful for that. I started crying when Alex went up there and started talking :)
I had no idea what kind of impact my story was for the students but Aljaz, a guy from my class, wrote that he thinks I'm brave and that he learned a lot from me and that I inspired him. I asked him what he meant with those words and he said he likes that I found my way out of bad things and out of darkness. I asked him what does that mean for him but he just smiled.. He's definitely thinking about things and wondering and I'll give him time but I think someting changed in him and I love that he might come to church sometime or that we'll hang out and talk! He's such a great guy and he doesn't even seem to be 17 years old.
I realized one thing at the end of the camp that is the most important thing for me; before camp I knew that if I get a boyfriend, I'd probably put him in front of God. That doesn't mean I would forget about God but I wouldn't pray as much or read Bible as much as I should and I would probably rely on my boyfriend and not God.
After English camp I KNOW I'll always put God before everything else. He is the creator of everything, He is my Savior, He is the one that comforts me and helps me. And He'll never stop doing that. I know this now and it's the best feeling in the world to know+feel that! I am finally happy and satisfied with my life and so excited about the future! :)
I wonder what will happen at Križ and Performing arts camp.. ;)
It was AWESOME!
I can tell you all the details what we did and what kind of games we played but I think it's more important for me to tell you what was going on in my heart during the camp.
One of the things that were hard for me was stepping out of my bubble. When we had meetings with our Slovene team, Mateja and Meagan were always saying we're gonna have to do that because we're the ones who know the system and we're the ones that are gonna help and it's on us to make the first step and get to know the students that came.
It was kind of hard for the first two days but once I did the first step, I felt good and I relaxed. For the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of being who I am (thanks for the text message, Brad!) and I really stepped out of my bubble. I was making a fool of myself the whole time and it was a LOT of fun! :)
One of the best things at camp was my English class - the rolling couches! :)
Ryan was the teacher, Jeremy was the helper and I was a translator even though our group didn't really need one. We had so much fun during the games and learning English and especially during discussions. We opened ourselves to one another and it was amazing to see+hear what kind of things these students had to go through.
I didn't get the feeling that we can talk about God until the last day but it was good that we didn't do that before because I think it might scare them and this way, it didn't.
I talked to all of them one on one and it was just so amazing to hear that they want to know who God is and they want to have a relationship with Him. They had so many questions and it was hard not to answer directly but let them think for a bit. They hated it :) but it was good for them.
I know we're gonna stay in touch. They're amazing people and amazing thinkers!
During the camp I realized that camp wasn't only for students that came but also for us. For me. Every morning we watched a video or a clip or something and it was hard.
It was hard hearing the words because it hurt. And like students had to think about things, I had to do that too. And I think we were in a similar position, there was only one difference -- I have a relationship with God. That doesn't mean it was any easier for me or that it hurt less but it means that I went through some difficult things -- with God. And the most amazing thing is that I prayed SO MUCH during the camp and my relationship with Him got so much deeper, stronger + better I could never imagine.
I lost some fears, I feel much more confident and I actually LOVE my life! My trust in Him is so much better and even though I am scared of the future and I have no idea what's gonna happen after December, I'm not worried. I trust that He is the one knowing my future and He is the one who's gonna take care of me. He's already doing it :)
During the camp I mostly prayed for the students and their hearts + for American and Slovene team (btw, American team was the best!) and our wisdom and energy but I also prayed for my own protection of my heart and my mind. After the first couple of days of camp I noticed someone.. in a way I haven't noticed anyone in a year. I started liking him and I was really confused. I still have no idea what I felt or what was going on. I still feel something but I feel less confused. It's different than anytime before and I'm not sure if I really like him or if I like the qualities he has and I want my husband to have those.
I really prayed for protection of my heart and especially for protection of my mind. I usually made up stories in my head what was going to happen and I really didn't want that now. It was hard being around him during the camp. I think he's very mature for his age and I love the way he thinks. I think God wanted to teach me a lot of things with this experience but mostly I think He wanted to show me that I changed and that my mind and my desire changed. And I love this change.
One of the hard parts of the camp happened on the last night of camp; Mateja asked me and Alex to share our stories with students.
We took an afternoon for ourselves while others were playing games. We went to the tower and played Phase 10 for an hour and then started praying and thinking and writting. It was hard to think of the past and God really wanted me to share my childhood in details. I told some things that even people who've known me for a lot of time didn't know and I know my story touched a lot of hearts.
Alex and I talked in Slovene and since the Americans were listening too and didn't understand a word, they prayed while we were sharing and I mostly asked them to pray for strenght. I prayed for strenght and clarity and a minute before I went up there and started talking, my head was empty. I didn't know what I was going to say or how I was going to begin. But I started talking about my childhood and I went deeper than I thought I was gonna go and I shared some things I didn't think I'll ever do.
During the camp I cried A LOT and when I prayed for strenght, I prayed that I wouldn't fake anything or keep tears in my eyes or not let things go like they should and it was so interesting; as I said, I cried A LOT and during my talk, I didn't cry at all. It was hard and I stopped a few times for 15 seconds but I didn't feel like crying. I'm so thankful for that. I started crying when Alex went up there and started talking :)
I had no idea what kind of impact my story was for the students but Aljaz, a guy from my class, wrote that he thinks I'm brave and that he learned a lot from me and that I inspired him. I asked him what he meant with those words and he said he likes that I found my way out of bad things and out of darkness. I asked him what does that mean for him but he just smiled.. He's definitely thinking about things and wondering and I'll give him time but I think someting changed in him and I love that he might come to church sometime or that we'll hang out and talk! He's such a great guy and he doesn't even seem to be 17 years old.
I realized one thing at the end of the camp that is the most important thing for me; before camp I knew that if I get a boyfriend, I'd probably put him in front of God. That doesn't mean I would forget about God but I wouldn't pray as much or read Bible as much as I should and I would probably rely on my boyfriend and not God.
After English camp I KNOW I'll always put God before everything else. He is the creator of everything, He is my Savior, He is the one that comforts me and helps me. And He'll never stop doing that. I know this now and it's the best feeling in the world to know+feel that! I am finally happy and satisfied with my life and so excited about the future! :)
I wonder what will happen at Križ and Performing arts camp.. ;)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
New side of art
Today wasn't a really good day for me BUT it got better!
I went to the art shop to buy some paper for English camp's art class (we're gonna make our own bookmarks) and I started talking to the lady that works there about the difference between acrylic and oil paint and then we started talking about the new collection of acrylic paint that's called OPEN acrylics. It's the same as regular acrylic paint except it stays "open" for about a week (regular acrylic paint stays "open" (wet) for a couple of minutes) so it's more like oil paint but it's easier to use and it costs a bit more.
I've only been using regular acrylic paint because it's not really expensive and it's easy to use but I've been wanting to try oil paint for a while now and I don't have the money for all the colors and I don't have a place where I could leave my paintings to dry for a couple of years.
Anyway, the art lady gave a sample of Open acrylics! Isn't that amazing?!? :)
Now I can try painting with them and see if I'll even like them.
Oh, I can just see myself when I grow up and become a big girl. I'm gonna live in a small house with a garden where all of my art stuff will be and right next to my home I'll have a coffee shop/library/diner/florist's shop.
It probably doesn't make any sense but I have a clear picture of my dream life.
I'm sure God has a different picture in his head :)
I went to the art shop to buy some paper for English camp's art class (we're gonna make our own bookmarks) and I started talking to the lady that works there about the difference between acrylic and oil paint and then we started talking about the new collection of acrylic paint that's called OPEN acrylics. It's the same as regular acrylic paint except it stays "open" for about a week (regular acrylic paint stays "open" (wet) for a couple of minutes) so it's more like oil paint but it's easier to use and it costs a bit more.
I've only been using regular acrylic paint because it's not really expensive and it's easy to use but I've been wanting to try oil paint for a while now and I don't have the money for all the colors and I don't have a place where I could leave my paintings to dry for a couple of years.
Anyway, the art lady gave a sample of Open acrylics! Isn't that amazing?!? :)
Now I can try painting with them and see if I'll even like them.
Oh, I can just see myself when I grow up and become a big girl. I'm gonna live in a small house with a garden where all of my art stuff will be and right next to my home I'll have a coffee shop/library/diner/florist's shop.
It probably doesn't make any sense but I have a clear picture of my dream life.
I'm sure God has a different picture in his head :)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Smile at people.
If we want to make a grimace, we have to move 72 muscles and only 14 if we want to smile.
What's easier? ;)
What's easier? ;)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Amazing race!
Mateja prepared Amazing race for Več (our youth group) yesterday and it was FUN, FUN, FUN!! :)
There were 3 teams, I was with Meagan, Kaja and Klavdija. Great girls, super great team :)
We started the race in the center of Ljubljana,
on Prešeren square (at 2pm) and we got a puzzle to put together. On the photo was a tower of Ljubljana castle so we knew we have to go there. It was near BUT it was SO hot (we literally ran up the hill for 5min).
We looked for the 1st station for 20min and when we found it, we were the last ones. We did the task (we had to turn a grocery bag around while standing on it) and ran to our 2nd station where we got some water (y
ay!). The task wa
sn't as easy as the first one; we had at least 10 keys in front of us and we had to put the right one to unlock the lock. It took us forever but at last we did it and we ran to Stari trg to our 3rd station where we had to find a stranger to act a scene from a certain movie with us. We picked out Titanic and we got a man that helped us be Leonardo Di Caprio :) So, he was holding Kaja while Meagan, Klavdija and me were the waves :) it was so much fun :)
We were SO fast at that task we weren't a lot behind anymore so we ran to Plaža (coast) which is a place near Ljubljanica (river). We saw the second team 200m in front of us and we decided to trick them and get to the 4th station faster. They were WALKING by the water while we RAN :) up on the road and we were really careful so they wouldn't see us and start running but at the end, we got there faster! :)
Our 4th task was to fill up half of the bucket BUT the catch was that we had to have a bucket on one side of Ljubljanica and we had to run on the other side of Ljubljanica and get the water. So.. again, a lot of running on the hot sun at 3.30pm :)
It was a lot of fun but the team that we got ahead of was faster and again, we were the last ones. We didn't really care and after filling the half of the bucket, we ran to the 5th station where we got 3 litres of lemonade and 50 plastic cups. Our task was to give this to people we don't know and come back when we're done. We were the last ones so the first 2 teams gave a lot of lemonade to people on Plaža already so we decided to go and find people on the playground and by the store, just 50m away. We found a postman on a bike and he helped us so much! He drank 1 liter of lemonade (6 or 7 cups)! We were so lucky to find him :) we gave the lemonade to some other people and when we got back to the 6th station, Mateja and Metka said we were the first ones! Our next station (7th) was in Tivoli so we walked for at least 20min to get there (Klavdija didn't feel well so she we
nt home during our walk to Tivoli.. bummer :/ )
We got there first (so funny to be the last one for so long and then be the first one just because of one post man :) ) and we had to do some pantomime but only with our face. We didn't get it right (I had no idea :) ) and we had to do another task - gall
ows (never heard of this word in english before). We did it and found out Katka and David are pregnant! :) (I hope it's ok for me to write this on my blog now that everyone knows, right?)
The other 2
teams got to Tivoli as well so we didn't have a lot of time to hug Katka and David so we ran to the playground to our 8th station where we had to lift a stick up and down (a really thin stick) and all of our fingers had to touch the stick. We did it after a while :) and the second team wasn't around yet but we still ran through Tivoli and found our 9th station where we had to touch 30 plates with numbers on it in 30 seconds. The numbers were mixed and only one person could touch the plate at one time. We did it in our first take and then we had to go to our 10th station which was in Štepanjsko naselje. If we would take a bus, it would take us around 30min or more so.. we knew we can't use our cell phones but we could ask someone else to call from their cell phone for us. And that's exactly what we did :)
We found 2 girls and explained everything to them and they called Terry, Meagan's dad to come and pick us up. While we were waiting for him, we saw the second team run to the bus station and we knew we were gonna be faster :)
We came to our 10th station which was Hondo and Trish's house and got some water and cookies and our next task. Each of us got 2 pictures of one story and we had to describe what's one the pics but we weren't allowed to show them to each other. Meagan was so great in this one, she figured out the story so fast :)
Our 11th station, the last station, was at Rudnik, at David and Katka's place. We took a bus and saw 2 other teams running to Trish's house so we knew we were probably gonna be the winners :)
It took us a while to get to Rudnik and we came first so we won (YAY! :) BUT the second team came 5min after us and the third team came 5min after them! Intense! :)
We ate dinner that Katka and girls made and just talked about our day and the amazing race.
Our team was so competitive and great. Each of us had something that would be missing if she wouldn't be in our team. Meagan was the one that was thinking fast and logicly and Kaja had some greeeeat ideas (she gave the idea of running ahead of the second team on Plaža) and I was the one that was stimulating the team (a bit too much sometimes so Meagan had to stop me :) ) and Klavdija was great at team work. It wasn't like anyone would be frustrated or angry or mad.. it was really intense sometimes but still exciting, fun!
Our team at the 2nd station
I'm SO grateful that Mateja did this for us. We had a great time, I probably lost some weigth :) and we got to know each other better. Everyone was in a team with someone he didn't know well yet and has a different task at English camp and that's so great cuz now we can hang out with anyone even if we don't do the same things at camp.
Anyway.. I hope we repeat this sometimes. Maybe sometimes when it's not this hot ;)
There were 3 teams, I was with Meagan, Kaja and Klavdija. Great girls, super great team :)
We started the race in the center of Ljubljana,
on Prešeren square (at 2pm) and we got a puzzle to put together. On the photo was a tower of Ljubljana castle so we knew we have to go there. It was near BUT it was SO hot (we literally ran up the hill for 5min).
We looked for the 1st station for 20min and when we found it, we were the last ones. We did the task (we had to turn a grocery bag around while standing on it) and ran to our 2nd station where we got some water (y
ay!). The task wa
sn't as easy as the first one; we had at least 10 keys in front of us and we had to put the right one to unlock the lock. It took us forever but at last we did it and we ran to Stari trg to our 3rd station where we had to find a stranger to act a scene from a certain movie with us. We picked out Titanic and we got a man that helped us be Leonardo Di Caprio :) So, he was holding Kaja while Meagan, Klavdija and me were the waves :) it was so much fun :)We were SO fast at that task we weren't a lot behind anymore so we ran to Plaža (coast) which is a place near Ljubljanica (river). We saw the second team 200m in front of us and we decided to trick them and get to the 4th station faster. They were WALKING by the water while we RAN :) up on the road and we were really careful so they wouldn't see us and start running but at the end, we got there faster! :)
Our 4th task was to fill up half of the bucket BUT the catch was that we had to have a bucket on one side of Ljubljanica and we had to run on the other side of Ljubljanica and get the water. So.. again, a lot of running on the hot sun at 3.30pm :)
It was a lot of fun but the team that we got ahead of was faster and again, we were the last ones. We didn't really care and after filling the half of the bucket, we ran to the 5th station where we got 3 litres of lemonade and 50 plastic cups. Our task was to give this to people we don't know and come back when we're done. We were the last ones so the first 2 teams gave a lot of lemonade to people on Plaža already so we decided to go and find people on the playground and by the store, just 50m away. We found a postman on a bike and he helped us so much! He drank 1 liter of lemonade (6 or 7 cups)! We were so lucky to find him :) we gave the lemonade to some other people and when we got back to the 6th station, Mateja and Metka said we were the first ones! Our next station (7th) was in Tivoli so we walked for at least 20min to get there (Klavdija didn't feel well so she we
nt home during our walk to Tivoli.. bummer :/ )We got there first (so funny to be the last one for so long and then be the first one just because of one post man :) ) and we had to do some pantomime but only with our face. We didn't get it right (I had no idea :) ) and we had to do another task - gall
ows (never heard of this word in english before). We did it and found out Katka and David are pregnant! :) (I hope it's ok for me to write this on my blog now that everyone knows, right?)The other 2
teams got to Tivoli as well so we didn't have a lot of time to hug Katka and David so we ran to the playground to our 8th station where we had to lift a stick up and down (a really thin stick) and all of our fingers had to touch the stick. We did it after a while :) and the second team wasn't around yet but we still ran through Tivoli and found our 9th station where we had to touch 30 plates with numbers on it in 30 seconds. The numbers were mixed and only one person could touch the plate at one time. We did it in our first take and then we had to go to our 10th station which was in Štepanjsko naselje. If we would take a bus, it would take us around 30min or more so.. we knew we can't use our cell phones but we could ask someone else to call from their cell phone for us. And that's exactly what we did :)We found 2 girls and explained everything to them and they called Terry, Meagan's dad to come and pick us up. While we were waiting for him, we saw the second team run to the bus station and we knew we were gonna be faster :)
We came to our 10th station which was Hondo and Trish's house and got some water and cookies and our next task. Each of us got 2 pictures of one story and we had to describe what's one the pics but we weren't allowed to show them to each other. Meagan was so great in this one, she figured out the story so fast :)
Our 11th station, the last station, was at Rudnik, at David and Katka's place. We took a bus and saw 2 other teams running to Trish's house so we knew we were probably gonna be the winners :)
It took us a while to get to Rudnik and we came first so we won (YAY! :) BUT the second team came 5min after us and the third team came 5min after them! Intense! :)
We ate dinner that Katka and girls made and just talked about our day and the amazing race.
Our team was so competitive and great. Each of us had something that would be missing if she wouldn't be in our team. Meagan was the one that was thinking fast and logicly and Kaja had some greeeeat ideas (she gave the idea of running ahead of the second team on Plaža) and I was the one that was stimulating the team (a bit too much sometimes so Meagan had to stop me :) ) and Klavdija was great at team work. It wasn't like anyone would be frustrated or angry or mad.. it was really intense sometimes but still exciting, fun!
Our team at the 2nd stationAnyway.. I hope we repeat this sometimes. Maybe sometimes when it's not this hot ;)
Friday, June 11, 2010
Summer
is here!
Days are hot, it's sunny all the time and camps are almost here!
English camp in Austria starts in 2 weeks! WOW!
I'm so excited to be a part of it again (after 6 years) + this time I'm one of the team! I'm gonna help in a class as a translator and Naja and I are gonna be in charge or art stuff. CAN'T WAIT! :)
This year the camp is called Redeem and I'm excited of all the things we're gonna do with youth that's coming + I'm excited to see what does God have in mind for us this summer.
Oh, I like my life :)
Days are hot, it's sunny all the time and camps are almost here!
English camp in Austria starts in 2 weeks! WOW!
I'm so excited to be a part of it again (after 6 years) + this time I'm one of the team! I'm gonna help in a class as a translator and Naja and I are gonna be in charge or art stuff. CAN'T WAIT! :)
This year the camp is called Redeem and I'm excited of all the things we're gonna do with youth that's coming + I'm excited to see what does God have in mind for us this summer.
Oh, I like my life :)
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
A big day
I talked to Dubravka about Bible Colleges last week and she suggested Metka and I should go and see Calvary Chapel in Hungary. And that's exactly what we did :)
We stopped in Celje to get the green card for the car and in Lendava to get vingette and some hungarian money (which took us 30min because people in Lendava have all the time in the world :) ) so it took us around 5 hours to get to the school. Shaun, the school registrar, met us at the parking place and took us to the main building where we ate lunch (yummy!) and talked (it actually took us almost an hour to finish our lunches because of all the talking) and got to know each other a bit. I was SO nervous and quiet for over an hour and I'm really thankful that Metka went with me and asked all the questions. I knew mostly everything she asked because I read everything about the school on their website but it was still good to hear it and process it.
After the lunch Shaun took us to the coffee shop on the second floor and introduced us to the director of the school (he was really nice and funny) and to Vivien. She studied there for 2 years and is now finishing a year of internship and she comes from Hungary. She took us on a tour around the castle and told us a bit about the history and the program and she answered some questions that we had (I got relaxed during that tour so I started talking and asking questions :) ). The whole building reminds me a lot of the castle in Austria where we have our English Camps and retreats. It's really pretty, historical, fancy and the smell is exactly the same as in the castle in Austria. Nice :) + the library is AWESOME!
After the tour we got together with Shaun again and he introduced us to Lyn (I have no idea how to write her name but that's how she said it) who is a school teacher and teaches children of pastors and missionaries who live on the campus. She was so open and warm and she talked about a family that's moving to UK in a week and she started crying and it was a really touchy and intimate moment. Metka and I were kind of surprised because she just met us. It was kind of unusual but in a good way. I'm glad she' gonna be there next year :)
We got to know some other people who were at the school and then we
went to see the huge property around the campus. There's a pool, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a football court, a lot of walking paths, a lot of benches, a lot of places where you can "hide" and be by yourself or spend time with God or do your homework. NICE :)
Then Shaun walked us to our car where he prayed for us and gave us a hug which, I think, was a very nice gesture.
So.. we left school at 4pm. We talked about the impressions, pros and cons and just processed a bit together. We stopped by at Tesco's and went shopping for things we can't get in Slovenia but it wasn't a very big Tesco so we didn't buy a lot (for those of you who don't know what Tesco is - it's a store with grocery stuff - like Mercator or Hofer. I know it from UK and Metka knows it from Ireland and we don't have it in Slovenia, that's why we were so excited to find it!).
This is us in a car on our way back. Tired but thanks
Before we got home, we stopped by at Metka's house in Blagovica and I got to meet her family and some friends when we went for some tea in a local coffee shop.
It was a really nice and big day for the both of us and one of the questions Metka asked me on our way back was "So.. do you think you'll go to this school?" and I said "Yep, I think so".
I got a good feeling there and I've been praying about it for almost 2 weeks now and God didn't tell me or show me anything that would say this school isn't THE school.
I'm sending emails to all 3 schools today, telling them about my decision. It's kind of hard for me to actually realize that I'm really going there for at least 4 months because of my bad experience with UK a year ago. I know people and everything will be completely different but it's still a foreign country and I'm going alone. I trust God this is right for me and I'm so glad He's with me in this huge part of my life, I could never imagine how to get through this by myself.
I would like to ask you to pray for my courage and trust in Him. I'm having a lot of attacks from the enemy in all sorts of ways and even though I'm fighting back, it's very hard.
Oh, I'm glad summer will be super busy so I'm not gonna have time to think about September that much :)
We got to see a bit of the sun by the end of the day and finished our trip perfectly
We went there on Monday and we left Ljubljana at 7am. It was rainy and cloudy and blah but we were excited!
Metka with our map - homemade ;)
Metka with our map - homemade ;)We stopped in Celje to get the green card for the car and in Lendava to get vingette and some hungarian money (which took us 30min because people in Lendava have all the time in the world :) ) so it took us around 5 hours to get to the school. Shaun, the school registrar, met us at the parking place and took us to the main building where we ate lunch (yummy!) and talked (it actually took us almost an hour to finish our lunches because of all the talking) and got to know each other a bit. I was SO nervous and quiet for over an hour and I'm really thankful that Metka went with me and asked all the questions. I knew mostly everything she asked because I read everything about the school on their website but it was still good to hear it and process it.
After the lunch Shaun took us to the coffee shop on the second floor and introduced us to the director of the school (he was really nice and funny) and to Vivien. She studied there for 2 years and is now finishing a year of internship and she comes from Hungary. She took us on a tour around the castle and told us a bit about the history and the program and she answered some questions that we had (I got relaxed during that tour so I started talking and asking questions :) ). The whole building reminds me a lot of the castle in Austria where we have our English Camps and retreats. It's really pretty, historical, fancy and the smell is exactly the same as in the castle in Austria. Nice :) + the library is AWESOME!
After the tour we got together with Shaun again and he introduced us to Lyn (I have no idea how to write her name but that's how she said it) who is a school teacher and teaches children of pastors and missionaries who live on the campus. She was so open and warm and she talked about a family that's moving to UK in a week and she started crying and it was a really touchy and intimate moment. Metka and I were kind of surprised because she just met us. It was kind of unusual but in a good way. I'm glad she' gonna be there next year :)
We got to know some other people who were at the school and then we
went to see the huge property around the campus. There's a pool, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a football court, a lot of walking paths, a lot of benches, a lot of places where you can "hide" and be by yourself or spend time with God or do your homework. NICE :)Then Shaun walked us to our car where he prayed for us and gave us a hug which, I think, was a very nice gesture.
So.. we left school at 4pm. We talked about the impressions, pros and cons and just processed a bit together. We stopped by at Tesco's and went shopping for things we can't get in Slovenia but it wasn't a very big Tesco so we didn't buy a lot (for those of you who don't know what Tesco is - it's a store with grocery stuff - like Mercator or Hofer. I know it from UK and Metka knows it from Ireland and we don't have it in Slovenia, that's why we were so excited to find it!).
This is us in a car on our way back. Tired but thanksto candy, full of energy :)
I got a good feeling there and I've been praying about it for almost 2 weeks now and God didn't tell me or show me anything that would say this school isn't THE school.
I'm sending emails to all 3 schools today, telling them about my decision. It's kind of hard for me to actually realize that I'm really going there for at least 4 months because of my bad experience with UK a year ago. I know people and everything will be completely different but it's still a foreign country and I'm going alone. I trust God this is right for me and I'm so glad He's with me in this huge part of my life, I could never imagine how to get through this by myself.
I would like to ask you to pray for my courage and trust in Him. I'm having a lot of attacks from the enemy in all sorts of ways and even though I'm fighting back, it's very hard.
Oh, I'm glad summer will be super busy so I'm not gonna have time to think about September that much :)
We got to see a bit of the sun by the end of the day and finished our trip perfectly
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