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.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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? ;)
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