Catching up

It's been a while since my last blog and the reason for that is so many things were going on in my life!

Ok, let's go step by step.

1. I was invited to join a team of people from our church to go to Serbia on a missionary trip to work with children from the Gypsy community.
I prayed about it and thought about all of the things I needed so I could go and.. God said yes. I wasn't sure if I'll manage to pay for the trip by myself BUT my prayers had been heard and the Lord provided money + He provided some extra money as well.
This is so huge for me!
Anyway, we leave on Monday in the middle of the night (we have to be in Belgrade early in the morning) and come back on Saturday morning. During the week we'll organize an English camp for around 60 kids from 12 to 17 years old. We'll teach them English, play games + sports with them, have dance nights.. but mostly we'll try to show them they're loved and accepted by Jesus Christ and us, we'll show them they're the same as we are, no matter what the whole world things of them. We're gonna try and break stereotypes.
Please, be a part of our team and pray for us and think of us while we're there. We really wish childrens hearts would be open for Jesus and we really want to work as a team even though we don't know each other that well.
If you'd like, you can read our youth group's blog and follow what we're doing in Serbia. We're gonna try and update things daily. Exciting! :)
The link to the blog is right here ---> http://vecmore.blogspot.com/

2. I'm applying to 3 Bible College's.
I started thinking about it in late November but started working on the idea in January. First I talked to Josh Patty and he directed me to a few websites. I checked them in detail and chose 6 schools from all around the world: Calvary Chapel in Hungary, Holsby Brunn in Sweden (Torchbearers International), Bodenseehof in Germany (Torchbearers International), Belfast Bible College in Ireland, Ravencrest Chalet in Colorado, USA (Torchbearers International) and His Hill in Texas, USA (Torcbearers International).
I looked at the applications and started filling out the easy stuff (medical part..) but left the "hard" parts for later.
After a month I talked to Josh again and he said I should pray to God and ask Him which school I should apply to. I doubted I'll hear Him but I tried and guess what!! He said "Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden, Sweden!" I wasn't completely sure if I heard Him right (Sweden was 6th of 6 schools on my wish list) --> could I even hear Him wrong if He said it so many times?!? :) ---> so I listened for a couple more seconds but that was it. I talked to David Bordner about it later that day and he said I should ask if this is the only school I should apply to or should I apply to any other schools. We didn't know what God really wants from me - does He want me to fully trust Him and apply only to Sweden? Does He want me to follow His plan He has for me and let go of my vision? (my vision was Calvary Chapel, Hungary)
I prayed again next day and was honest with God and I told Him what I would like and when I asked if I should apply to any other schools, He said Colorado and Hungary.
Another funny thing happened right during that time - around 10 students from Ravencrest, Colorado came to Slovenia with their principal for a few days and I got to meet all of them! Aaaa :) I was nervous when I talked to Frank, the principal. I told him I'm thinking of applying to their school and he was really excited :)
During the next few days I was thinking if that was a hint from God.. oh, He's so mysterious! :)

Oh man, I turn a short story into a novel.

If I get to the poin..
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to fill out the applications and send them. I'm not quite there yet and it'll have to wait until I get back from Serbia but I think I should be done soon. Exciting! :)

3. and most important - I GOT BAPTIZED!! :)
I decided to do it in January when I talked to Zvonko, the pastor of our church. I didn't want to get baptized in a small pool at church, I really wanted to do it in the sea.
Every year our church goes to a yearly conference to Croatia and usually someone gets baptized. Well, this year 7 of us did it! :)
David Bordner was our lecturer for the whole weekend and he talked about who men and women are and what are our dutys. This theme was hard for me and I was struggling with it on Saturday night.
I woke up on Sunday morning at 6.45 from a nightmare. I had a dream that it was forbidden to read the Bible. You were killed if they caught you with it. Well, I had it and I was reading it and so I was killed because of that. I knew in a second that "the bad guy" is trying to get to me but I stayed firm in faith and after breakfast I gave my testimony in front of almost 100 people (I was crying before I even got up there) and after that we got baptized. The water was COLD (14 degrees) but the weather was sunny and a bit windy (weather reporter said it's going to rain the whole weekend - God really took care of us) but it was unforgetable and so amazing!! I wish my family could be there with me but my sister is the only one who supports me and she was the only one who knew about the baptism. My parents just wouldn't understand.
+ I wish Anna could be there with me. She's the one through whom God worked and through whom I found God. Thank you for that, dear friend.*

A picture of Zvonko, talking to the group before the baptisms.
(I'll post more pics when I get them)

This week's been hard, I've been noticing signs of the "old Mana" all the time. It's difficult to deal with them and it's so much easier to just oppress the feelings but that's so wrong.

I'm glad tomorrow's Sunday and I can go to church and just be with people + celebrate Jesus Christ's Ressurection! :)
- Matthew 28:5-6