My Slovak Life

Meet Caleb

2010-10-14T20:44:00.005+02:00

Let me introduce you to the cutest little kid ever- my nephew Caleb Barry Bouchillon. Caleb was born last night on my mom's birthday- I hope he doesn't mind sharing his name with his grandpa and his birthday with his grandma!

Caleb and I had our first Skype call late last night. He was about 2 hours old, but he was already a pro. He knows you have to yell really loud sometimes on Skype.

Really, Caleb is the most perfect little baby I've ever seen. I am so happy for Mark and Katie and pray that this little kid grows up to love and follow Jesus just like his dad and granddad!

Budapest

2010-09-27T21:39:00.006+02:00

A few weekends ago I met my college roommate Cari in Budapest to cheer her on as she raced in the triathlon World Championship. Or something like that. Somehow that actually doesn't seem crazy random at all. If you know Cari at all, I'm sure you understand. It was so fun to get out of town and hang out with an old friend for a few days!

Early on race day- we left the apartment around 4:45! This whole

triathlon thing is pretty intense.

The finish line!

A gross sweaty hug. At this point I was yelling,

"Cari, you smell sooo bad!"

So fun to see her though!

Too bad I can't join her for the next one in Hawaii.

Ninjas

2010-09-07T17:11:00.000+02:00

My ministry is going to look a little different this year. During my STINT year, I worked mostly with college students in medical school. Then yesterday I found myself playing the Ninja Game with a bunch of high school freshmen. They were so fun! I'm really looking forward to getting to know these students more this year. The Lord provided an incredible open door into this school, and we were able to speak to both classes of freshmen about our ministry and pass out notebooks that talked about our activities and our "Knowing God Personally" books. In the second class we even got to show a short film and have discussion groups. Each person on my team led a group and we were all able to share our own testimonies with the students. Pretty incredible!

Last week we passed out the same notebooks to freshmen in the education department at Presov University. Almost all of the 80ish students brought back the filled-out spiritual interest surveys after their meetings. Classes haven't even started yet, but we are already having such encouraging days on campus!

Ahoy (or Ahoj)!

2010-06-21T05:30:00.000+02:00

St. Joseph Catholic Church here in Fort Collins

I've had a full day of church visits. My roommate and I went this morning to Summitview, a church that we really like here in town. They were finishing up a week of VBS, so the kids led some of the service. Because they did the "High Seas Expedition" theme, they had everyone in the church pump their fist and shout, "Ahoy!" every time they said one of the truths about God's Word that they had learned. Now, "ahoj" (pronounced the same way) means hello in Slovak. So it was fun to hear everyone shouting it over and over. My Slovak friends would have felt right at home.

This evening we headed over to St. Joseph for mass. As part of our cross-cultural ministry training we had to attend a service at a type of church we had never been to before. The Catholic church seemed like my best bet because Slovakia is so culturally Catholic and I'd never been to a Catholic service in a language I could actually understand. It was strange and pretty sad to go from such a joyful church to one where the majority looked like they might rather be anywhere else on earth. Some parts of the service seemed so reverent and worshipful, but much of it appeared very empty. One of the saddest things in the world to me is to see this view of God that most Slovaks hold- that He is far away, that He is just part of a big, empty tradition, that He is irrelevant to their lives. Slovakia has some of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen, and I pray that they will be filled again someday with people adoring Jesus with their whole hearts.

Potluck & Pies

2010-06-20T00:06:00.000+02:00

I have the greatest roommates at Xtrack! Halle and Kristin and I decided last weekend we wanted to "have a few people over" to our apartment. So we planned a potluck and tried to come up with something that started with "P" for a cutesy name. We came up with "Potluck & Pies" although none of us had much experience making pies. We put it on the announcement board, and plans starting getting a little crazy. We realized that "Potluck & Pies" would need to be moved out to the courtyard and that we would need more pies. By potluck time, we had 8 pies ready. I'm not sure if I've ever made a pie before, but I've now made 5 in a 48 hour period. But it was such a fun time!

About 60 people at my last count- so fun!

Sydney asking Patrick, "Why?... Why?.... Why?"

Showing off a few of our pies

Key Lime, Lemon Meringue, Banoffee, and more

The aftermath

Olivia really just wanted to eat rocks.

I am so thankful for this time at Xtrack and for such fun fellowship. It's a weird feeling to be getting ready to move away from America, so it's incredibly encouraging to be here with 100ish people who "get me." And now I've got lots of new friends to visit all over the world!

Across the Lands

2010-06-07T04:50:00.001+02:00

This summer my church is doing a children's program called "Across the Lands" to teach the kids about world missions. The kids will "visit" countries all over the world and learn more about other cultures and about how they can be praying for the world. It's pretty amazing how many people we have in our church who have lived in or are from different countries. The whole thing is so cute- the kids have passports and get stamps with the names of each country. And each week they'll get a bookmark with prayer requests for the country they visited that night.

So tonight I took about 30 5-7 year olds to Slovakia. So fun! It was so cute to hear them speak words in Slovak, and I was so impressed with the questions they asked. They were very concerned about how long it takes to get to Slovakia. I found a recipe online for medovniky- traditional Slovak honey cookies- and made icing for the kids to decorate the cookies. They loved it-

So how do the kids' cookies compare with the real thing?

I hope this summer is the beginning of lots of little Clemson Pres kids going to take the gospel to the world!

Welcome to Amerika

2010-06-03T03:25:00.000+02:00

My parents have a student from the ministry in Slovakia on project with them in Gatlinburg this summer. I met Jakub a few times during the spring semester but really got to know him on the trip to Serbia last summer. Friday night I picked him up at the airport in Atlanta, and he spent the weekend here in Clemson before I took him to Gatlinburg. Aaron (my SK teammate) and Meredith spent the weekend here too, and we had so much fun showing Jakub around Clemson!
After he slept til noon the first day, we took him straight to Cracker Barrel. Aaron got him some sweet tea and macaroni and cheese- I don't think he'll be ordering any more sweet tea while he's here!

Before we left for Cracker Barrel he discovered the rocking chairs on my front porch. He also tapped on the vinyl siding and said, "It's not wood?" Haha- how do you explain vinyl siding?

After lunch we went to Wal-Mart to look at guns and get some "cosmetics." Also known as toiletries. We made him use the self-checkout and he said, "Wow- you don't have to talk to anyone."

Then we went on a tour of the greatest place on earth- Clemson, South Carolina. Complete with Death Valley and Howard's Rock and hanging out in the dugout at the baseball field.

Jakub was so amazed by the queen size bed in Kevin's room that we gave him the king size in Gatlinburg. I think this was the first thing he really wanted a picture of.

It was pretty interesting looking at America from a non-American's perspective. I also have a new understanding of how Slovaks see us when we are in their culture. And why they talk about so much us in Slovak so that we can't understand. It's a funny thing to learn a new culture.

One last Jakub story- we were standing in Corky's BBQ and looking into one of the side rooms. Jakub said, "A picture of Elvis, baseball on tv, and people stuffing their faces with fried chicken. I need a picture." Welcome to Amerika.

Northside

2010-05-28T04:37:00.000+02:00

I spent a few hours this morning back at Northside Elementary School. I can't believe it's been 2 years since my student teaching there. My teacher found me on Facebook last week and invited me back for a visit. It was so fun to go back and see some of my kids and the 4 ladies I worked with (yep, there were 5 adults for 12 children and we could have used more!). One of the boys was especially hard to connect with that year and was really distant and unaffectionate (he's the one not looking at the camera in the picture. oh wait, that's all of them. he's the one walking right out the side of the picture), but as soon as I walked in the door today, he ran up and gave me a hug. It was so sweet to walk down the hall holding hands with him and hear him say, "Hi Miss B, I missed you." (He also almost never talked during my student teaching!) Another one of my boys that I got to see is now in a regular ed 1st grade class! And another who was in a wheelchair is walking now! How fun to see how much they have all progressed!

Being at Northside today really made me miss being in the classroom. I'm really thankful for where God has me now, and I don't know if He'll ever call me to teach. But if He does, I know I will love it!

We also had our last meeting today for the Revelation Bible study. We did an Anne Graham Lotz study, and it wasn't an in-depth study of the symbolism of the book and we didn't get deep into eschatology, but we studied who Jesus is and the hope He offers. I learned so much. But what sticks in my mind the most is something she said just in passing during the teaching-
"No matter how wonderful I think God is now, He is more."

"He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"
Revelation 22:20

My To-Do List

2010-05-26T03:28:00.000+02:00

This support raising process has been hard. Not necessarily the trusting God with the money part. But the what do I do with my day part. I struggled for most of this year with feeling lazy, with wanting to work on support but not have enough to do to fill a day, with waking up in the morning wondering what I would do all day (not a problem most Americans tend to have). Probably sounds nice to some people, but 8 months of it is just too long. So I got a little addicted to the Today show, to Fox News, to the Amazing Race (I could go on). And going to the mailbox was the highlight of my day.

Until about a month ago. I was asking my support coach what I could do when I didn't know what to do, and he suggested taking a day with the Lord. So the next Monday I spent the whole day with the Lord- without seeing anyone else, talking to anyone else, turning on the tv, making support phone calls. And it was wonderful. Nothing about my circumstances had changed, but I had joy that I hadn't had in months. I realized that the tv was not adding anything to my life. In fact, hearing about America's terrible economy all day was causing me to struggle with trusting God to raise my support. And I realized what a blessing that I had so much free time that I could spend with the Lord. I didn't have to settle for a quick quiet time in the morning then go on with a busy day. And I realized I didn't have to feel guilty about spending those hours studying God's word just because it wasn't directly involving support raising. I may not ever have another season of life like this, where I can spend so many hours a day in God's word, so I'll take it and enjoy it while I can.

So for the past month I have enjoyed the quiet of not having the tv on and have been studying Daniel and Revelation. Daniel I'm studying on my own, but the Revelation study is with a sweet group of ladies from my church. I didn't think much at first about studying them at the same time but how incredible! They go together hand-in-hand in such a neat way. And God's writing in Daniel put the writers of LOST to shame (didn't give up that one but glad it's over!). How incredible to read prophecy and study some of it now as history and see how God keeps his promises.

And while I haven't been spending any more time on support than before, I have seen more come in over the past few weeks than the rest of this semester combined. Amazing. The Lord didn't have to do that for me; I didn't earn more support by spending more time with Him. But how great is His grace!

P.S. Maybe my lack of exciting, fun-filled days explains my lack of blog updates. Or maybe I was just never good at this to begin with :-)

Pray Europe

2010-02-24T04:43:00.001+01:00

There's a neat prayer movement going on right now on prayeurope.com. They are inviting people to pray each day during Lent for a different country in Europe. Obviously I love this part of the world, and it's been so fun to pray each day for these countries. The website has specific prayer requests and a little spiritual background for each country. I've learned a lot already- I don't think I even knew that Andorra is a country! They are also recording the numbers as people click that they have prayed. How exciting to be a part of a worldwide movement of prayer for revival in Europe! It's my dream for God to fill the big, beautiful, empty churches of Europe with people who love Him! Go check out the website and pray for Europe!

3 Months

2009-12-27T03:47:00.000+01:00

Oh dear- it's been almost 3 months. I should give this up, but I don't want to be a quitter.

So here's an update-

October

STINT Reunion

Halloween

November

Apparently nothing happened in November. Nothing picture-worthy anyway.

December

ACC Championship game in Tampa

Oops- I don't have any pictures from the Waldrop Family Christmas but Keri and Kristen covered it well.

Ski trip to West Virginia that ended up in Boone, NC

Bouchillon Family Christmas- Each year someone in the family unwraps a gift to find this scary cat. This was Bennett's lucky year.

Tomorrow morning I leave for our Crusade winter conference in Greensboro, and a few days after that I'm headed to Daytona Beach for the month of January for more New Staff Training. I am excited and thankful for a little break from support raising!

Happy New Year!

In Over My Head

2009-10-04T02:34:00.000+02:00

It's official- I'm going back to Slovakia. I'm really excited about it but at the same time feel overwhelmed. One year was one thing, but this is different. This isn't how I ever would have planned my own life, but I feel like this is where God's calling me. And in a way I want to ask Him if He's kidding. I was meeting with Jill last week, and she helped me put my thoughts into words- she asked "you feel like you're in over your head?" That's exactly how I feel- I'm in over my head. What's a small town South Carolina girl doing moving to Slovakia? But Jill encouraged me to study some stories of people from the Bible who were also in over their head but exactly where God wanted them and where He really used them. I think about people like Esther and Joseph, and I'm reminded that God is always faithful. I pray that He will use me.

The Kosice Peace Marathon is this weekend!

Kind of wish I was there to run it. But kind of not.

That was painful.

Craziest weekend I've had in a while!

2009-09-09T01:23:00.001+02:00

I don't think my parents really like surprises, but they got a big one last weekend. A month ago my friend from Crusade at Clemson told me that he's had this dream to have a party for my parents and invite all the students they have worked with through the years. So we had a "32 years on staff" surprise party on Friday night. The party turned out great all except for my plan to get them there. It failed terribly. I had my aunt invite my family over for dinner at her house in Spartanburg, while the party was actually at her church. My plan was to be in Simpsonville already visiting a friend and ask my parents to meet me at the church to ride over to Aunt Debbie's with them. When I called them, though, they refused to meet me at the church. They thought I was being a big baby not wanting to figure out how to get to my aunt's house. So my mom was trying to talk me through how to get there. Fortunately, I had thought ahead and told Kevin to make sure he was driving. So with my parents all mad at me (and saying mean things according to Kevin), he eventually had to just tell them they were going to the church. Oh well, I'm just glad we were able to keep it a surprise until then! And I know they were surprised to see Mark and Katie and the Chutes. Of course, my family didn't take any pictures. I'll have to get some from someone else.

The rest of the weekend was great too. I was so excited to be back in Death Valley for a game after 2 whole years, and I got to see Dara and Olivia at their first Clemson game! After having next to nothing to do since being back from Slovakia, I was exhausted on Sunday! Thursday I leave for Orlando for Crusade staff training, and my months of nothing to do comes to an end!

Elect Exiles

2009-08-27T04:16:00.000+02:00

I guess this blog needs an update since I've been back from Slovakia for a month now. Not to mention it's been 4 months. I'm giving it a new look but it's staying amberinslovakia because 1) I don't want to go through the hassle of changing it and 2) in hopes that I'll be back there again.

I've really missed Slovakia this month that I've been back. Enough that I've thought and prayed a lot about going back for a longer amount of time. But I can remember moments there when I missed people and living in America. I remember crying on Easter because I just really wanted to be at Clemson Pres and sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" in English. I started wondering if I'll be satisfied anywhere, then I came across some notes from while I was in Kosice. I was listening to a sermon on 1 Peter 1, and the pastor said, "This world doesn't feel like home because it isn't home. We are not satisfied here." We are elect exiles- chosen out of this world for a home with God in heaven. The only way to be satisfied is to keep in perspective that our home is there and we are missionaries here for a time. We store up treasures there in confident hope. (I like to think that I'm helping people do that as I start raising support again next month :-) ) So who knows where I'll end up in the next few years, but as long as I am investing in eternity, it will be great.

Here's to another post in the next 4 months.

We Have Everything

2009-04-28T22:05:00.000+02:00

Today was our monthly Day with the Lord, and I was walking down Hlavna with my ipod. I was listening to worship music and praying for the thousands of people who need Jesus in this city that has become home to me. A song was playing that said, "What do I have if I don't have you, Jesus?" and I was already almost in tears for these people when I walked by a girl wearing a hat that said "Why don't I have everything?" I was overwhelmed with sadness and compassion for her. And at the same time overwhelmed with thankfulness that Jesus has found me and that in knowing him we have everything. I also started thinking about all the conversations I've been having recently with friends here who still need Jesus. One precious girl told me last week that she doesn't even want to think about whether or not God exists- that it's a waste of those moments of her life. A question with consequences that are eternal, and she doesn't even want to think about it. Please pray with me for these friends and for the lost in Slovakia.

Hlavna Street

Pictures

2009-04-21T20:51:00.000+02:00

Palacinky Party at the Technical University

Robo giving his testimony to hundreds of guys at TU

After church on Ash Wednesday-
I hope this doesn't offend any Catholics

Baby shower for Cindy and Cooper

Getting really into Pi Day for Aaron

Michael Leahy sharing with hundreds of students
in Kosice and Presov about finding freedom
in Christ from his addiction to pornography
http://www.pornnationthebook.com/

Blurry, but it's Gatlinburg meets Slovakia

Winners

I love my teammates

Cooper Lukas Taylor is here!

P.S. I didn't take a single one of these pictures :-)

My Family!

2009-03-28T20:50:00.000+01:00

Yay! My whole family came all the way to Slovakia to visit me for a week! I have the greatest family that they would all fly across the ocean to come visit. Although, my mom and brothers and sister-in-law love Slovakia as much as I do, so it wasn't too big a sacrifice. My dad is a different story, though. He just loves me :-)

I didn't have any huge plans for the family while they were here- they just joined in my regular life and ministry. I took them to my church, my mom went to the dorms one day with me, Katie joined me on a few appointments, and they all went to Bible study and English club with me. They also got to meet Petra, Mala Danka, and a few other fun friends of mine.

The older I get, the more I realize what a blessing my family is. I love them, of course, but I also just really enjoy being with them. They should have just stayed and finished out the year here :-) Really, it was such an encouraging week.

The door into my apartment building-

looks a bit like a war zone

The guys with our favorite waiter at our favorite restaurant

It's cold!

2009-02-18T22:26:00.000+01:00

My hair froze yesterday. If I was one of those contemplative people, I could probably make that an analogy for how ministry can be some days or something. But I’m not, so it’s just a funny story. After handing out fliers for 4 hours we started to leave and I tried to brush all the snow out of my hair, but I couldn’t. It was frozen there. It’s been really cold for a long time now, but I still love it. I love the snow. I get made fun of a lot for saying I feel like we’re in Narnia. Especially when we get out of the city into the beautiful, snowy Slovak countryside. I know spring here will be beautiful, but I'm enjoying the snow as long as it's here.

Saturday was a really snowy day. I went skiing with some friends for the first time ever. When it took 5 people and 15 minutes to get my skis on I should have known it was going to be a rough day. But after a few times down the little hill with Stephanie, I thought I was ready to go up to the top of the mountain. It was a bad idea. I don’t recommend Slovak ski slopes for first-time skiers. Slovaks are hard core skiers. Long story short, I spent a lot of time laying in the snow and I'm thankful for some very patient friends.

The end of our mid-year travels was really snowy too. First we spent a week on the sunny coast of Spain for the mid-year conference with STINTers from all over Europe, Russia, N. Africa, and the Middle East. Then we spent 2 nights with friends of my family in Geneva, 3 nights in Paris, and what was supposed to be 3 nights in London. The morning we were supposed to fly back to Kosice, though, London had their worst snowstorm in 20 years and the whole city shut down (it was actually about 3 inches). We had to spend 2 more nights there before we finally made it home!

I haven't taken any pictures in a while, so I'll post some when I get them from my teammates :-)

the past month or so

2009-01-05T16:45:00.000+01:00

Thanksgiving in Prague

Team photo after decorating our Christmas tree

Gingerbread houses

pre-Christmas McDonald's breakfast with Pet'o and L'ubica

Petra's house, where I got to experience a Slovak Christmas

Petra's dad with 3 of the 8-10 cats

Matching pajamas on Christmas morning

My Christmas regulars- a paper crown and jello

I've found that I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures! In the past month I've also gone home for a week, been in a wedding while I was there, gone to our Winter Conference, actually hung out with Petra (not just her dad), and been sledding a few times. Next time I try to do a picture summary, I'll steal a few from my teammates!

But Christmas in Slovakia was great, and there's still lots to look forward to:
January 8-11 Slovakia staff conference
January 19-25 STINT Mid-year conference in Spain
Jan 25- Feb 2- Traveling through Geneva, Paris, and London
February- University classes start again
March- My whole family comes to visit!

Sneh! (Snow!)

2008-11-25T16:40:00.000+01:00

Saturday and Sunday we got our first little bit of snow, and yesterday it snowed most of the day, although it never really stuck to the ground. But this morning we woke up to our first big snow! It's beautiful! It was crazy, though, that we still had to go to language class- life just goes on as normal here, even with so much snow to be played in!

Pictures

2008-11-23T17:42:00.001+01:00

Medieval Murder Mystery

English Club

Jenna came to visit!

Our First Kosice Snow!

I love STINT!

2008-11-15T23:09:00.000+01:00

This post is a shameless plug for STINT for my friends still in school and a little glimpse into what we actually do here. I love life here, and this past week has been one of the greatest yet!

Sunday- Going to church in another culture has really been a learning and growing experience for me. I'd been to services here before, but I've found that going weekly is very different. Hearing worship and prayer in another language has opened my eyes in a very real way to the greatness of God and has even humbled me as an American coming from a culture that is often so self-consumed. And even though we have headsets for translation during the sermon, I usually still have a hard time following. I feel like God is teaching me to be a "self-feeder" and about the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit as my heart's teacher. He's given me a new hunger for good teaching of his Word, and I have found so much great teaching from great pastors online. Lately I've been listening to sermons online at the rate of about one every day. I'm learning so much!

Monday- Day with the Lord. Once a month everyone on the team takes a whole day just to be with the Lord. It's Crusade policy, and it's so great. I get an unrushed day to read God's word, talk with him, listen to him, listen to sermons, listen to music, etc.

Tuesday- Usually we have language class from 8-11:30 but we got out early this week. We have 2 great teachers, and I love the language and am motivated to learn it, but it's so hard. For only being in class for 2 months, though, I am excited about how much I've learned to read. I still can't do much in terms of speaking and listening, but I know it takes time.
That afternoon I had a meeting with some fun friends from English club- Iveta, Nina, and Adriana. We went to a little cafe near campus for tea. It's been fun getting to know them through English club, and I hope we can hang out a lot more!

Wednesday- Every Wed morning is team Bible study and prayer. We are studying 1 Thessalonians together, but this week prayer went so long that we didn't have time for Bible study. That afternoon I met with my friend/language partner Petra. I met Petra knocking on doors in Medicka. She was translating some article into English for homework, and I mentioned that I am studying Slovak and would love help with the language. I was surprised at how excited she was to help me. The first time we met we just sat in a cafe and talked for 3 hours, and now we're meeting every week.
That night was Sports night at English club. I think the American football lesson went right over the Slovaks' heads but the discussion question time was great. We have a solid group of students coming consistently so that's very exciting.
After English club Pet'o brought his friend Radka over to my apartment and Bronny and I sat and talked with them about Slovak politics and whatever else til way too late. Long, fun day.

Thursday- Morning off so I went running with Mikey and Aaron. I've loved running with them this year. Keeps me accountable- if I say I'm going then I have to go. They also make me run longer than I would by myself. I love being able to just follow them and not have to think about where I'm going.
That afternoon I met with one of our leadership students, Zuzka. I met Zuzka during my first summer project here while she was still in high school. I love her! Then I met with my STINT coach, Julie Jones. Hugh and Julie are here for the week coaching and encouraging our team, and I think I've known them since I was born. They took the whole team out to dinner that night to Camelot, a restaurant that's decorated all medieval-ish.

Friday- Staff meeting all morning, language class all afternoon, and team social that night. It was my turn to plan the social, and I did a murder mystery dinner. It was so fun having the power to make a whole group of adults dress up and play make-believe! I'll add pictures later.

Today we hung around the apartment all day then took the train to Spisska Nova Ves for dinner at Nostalgia, an American-style restaurant. I can't believe I just wrote a whole novel about my week. I think it's really more for myself- I don't want to forget anything about this year. The past 3 months I have felt more cared for by the Lord, more overwhelmed by his goodness than I can ever remember before in my life. I am so grateful that he has brought me here!

My Mom's Visit!

2008-11-11T21:15:00.000+01:00

My mom came to visit! It was so fun to see her and show her my life here. It was a busy week, and I think we wore her out, but she was such an encouragement and a servant to my team.

My mom had been traveling for over 24 hours, found out her bags didn't make it, got in the car with Peter and me at the airport, and we had a wreck maybe a mile away from my apartment. Everyone was fine, although I didn't have my seatbelt on and still have a bruise on my leg 2 weeks later! Somehow in all the confusion, though, we still managed to get a picture sitting in the car in the traffic jam we caused!

Her luggage made it later that night, and it was like Christmas! Chick-fil-A, Jan Sherard's bread, and Mexican food!

Halloween party- with roommates, with Mala Danka, and with Mom

(Stephanie, Lindsey, and I were the states of matter- nerds, I know. Bronny is a cute Australian- not really a stretch.)

Rome! SkyEurope had a great deal on flights to Rome during their Happy Hour one day and my mom got us free rooms at a great hotel right in the middle of Rome. Fun trip!

Trevi Fountain

In the Vatican museum

Colosseum

Crazy Slovakia Adventures

2008-10-12T20:19:00.000+02:00

As far as I know right now, I've only got one year here. So I don't want to miss out on a single opportunity for a crazy Slovak adventure. This has gotten me into a few situations where I had to ask myself what I was thinking, but they've all turned into fun stories in the end. Here's a few of them-

A private school here was having "English Week" a few weeks ago so I volunteered to teach an American history lesson for the 2nd and 4th grades. I went prepared with a cute little lesson on the Pilgrims and Indians, but all my plans went out the window when the teacher left me with a classroom full of kids who didn't speak a lick of English. So for an hour and a half with each class (a really long time for little kids!) I made up games and gave them pictures to color and "Indian beads" to make jewelry. The one little 2nd grader who spoke English asked me out for coffee. I agreed (how do you say no to a 2nd grader?), but fortunately he said he had to go home and ask his mom.

The 2nd graders wouldn't stop eating my "Indians beads" (macaroni noodles) long enough to make anything.

Survival Camp- a high and a low for me since being here! We spent a weekend in Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise), a beautiful part of the country, staying out in the woods and playing games and doing a ropes course and "surviving". People brought friends who aren't believers and we played a crazy game Saturday night that led into a presentation of the gospel. There were only 3 Americans so I stayed pretty confused most of the weekend. I hit a low for sure on Friday night when we got dropped off in the dark in the middle of nowhere and were being yelled at in Slovak with a bullhorn and I couldn't find anyone who spoke English. And then again as we pushed the cars up the mountain to the camp, still being yelled at in Slovak with a bullhorn. But once we got to the camp, the weekend turned out to be so fun!

The ropes course
Freezing to death in our cabins that weren't heated

The Half-Marathon- I ran the Kosice Peace (Half)Marathon, Europe's oldest marathon, with a few of my teammates. I definitely don't know what I was thinking. I mean I like to run, but not that much, not that far. I finished though. My time was terrible, but I've made up lots of excuses to make myself feel better and I think it's motivated me to try it again and maybe try training for it. Other than the running part, though, it was a really fun day.

I was ready to punch people in the face for taking so many pictures but now I'm so glad they did!

A picture of Club Clemson after I recovered a little

My victory shot

Stara Lubovna- Peter, Lubica, Aaron, and I went on a Saturday adventure to a castle near the Polish border to celebrate our 23rd birthdays. Any trip with Peter and Lubica is crazy!

There was a random medieval amusement park (that's what I'm calling it) and a random little flock of sheep wandering around it. One of them tried to eat Lubica's belt.

The castle- built in the 1300's, before Christopher Columbus discovered America, as Peter had to point out.

Peter and Lubica dancing outside the castle to medieval music

1985- a very good year

P.S. I don't think there is anything in the world more beautiful than Slovakia in the fall!

Our New International Ministry in Slovakia

2008-10-02T18:56:00.000+02:00

Last night was for sure my craziest night in Slovakia so far! We found out through surveys that there were students at the medical school here interested in joining a Bible study. So we planned it for last night and started contacting the students. Almost all of them said they were busy this week, but maybe next week. So we prayed that God would bring people and left it in his hands, and He brought the craziest international mix of people! Instead of a quiet group of sweet Slovaks sitting around the room we got a guy from Angola, a girl from Ireland, an Iranian Swedish guy, and 2 guys from the Ukraine. Then, since we still don't have a room to meet in (please pray for that, by the way!), we walked to the mall and had our international Bible study in the middle of the food court. All the materials and Bibles we brought were in Slovak, but we worked with what we had and Cindy did a great job teaching and answering crazy questions. Then we walked back to a dorm and had American brownies and Russian (?) tea and talked about world politics.
As I walked home and talked with my teammates, it was so neat to see God's wisdom. Actually, we're still trying to figure out what happened last night, but He knew and knows exactly what He is doing. Imagine if each of those 5 students come to know the Lord (if they don't already know Him, we're not sure yet), have a ministry with their classmates for their 6 years here, and then take the gospel back to Angola and Ireland and the Ukraine and Sweden (or Iran!). It is one of my greatest prayers that God would use Slovakia like that!

So please pray:
For Bible study at Medicka on Wednesday nights- and for wisdom to know if we need a Slovak study and an international one
That we would be able to meet more of the 100 English-speaking int'l freshmen at Medicka
For the ministry at the Vet school- we haven't seen as much spiritual interest there yet
For the ministry at Jedlikova- the biggest block of dorms and a spiritually dead place

Thank you so much for praying!

The First Month

2008-09-23T22:20:00.000+02:00

I can't believe it's been a month! Trying to write about all that has happened in the past month would take days, so I'll try to accomplish with pictures what I don't have the energy to type!

Meet the American part of my team! We spent a week in Copper Mountain, Colorado, for briefing before leaving for Slovakia.

Back row: Stephanie Godfrey (from my Bible study at Clemson), Mikey Taylor (on staff with CCC and married to Cindy), Justin Gibbons (on staff and our team leader)

Front row: Me, Cindy Taylor (on staff, married to Mikey, and expecting a baby in April!), Lindsey Walton (also from my Bible study at Clemson), Aaron Hassell (from Clemson and a 2nd year STINTer)

We loved Copper Mountain, but that Alpine Height Disease really got to us! And it snowed! In August!

Welcome to our apartment! This is our front door, and I'm not kidding.

The view out my window. I feel like I have a glimpse into the lives of these people. They don't realize that people can see them out on their balconies in their underwear.

One side of my room.

And the other.

St. Elizabeth's cathedral. This city is absolutely beautiful.

The dancing fountain and the cathedral from the other side.

This is us trying to stay up all night to watch the Clemson vs. Alabama game. We finally gave up after the 3rd quarter- at 5 a.m.

The whole team after surveys at the university in Presov. The 7 Americans plus Biba (to the left of me, co-leading the team) and Dara (on the far right). Don't know where we would be without Biba and Dara!

Clemson girls need some time in the woods after living in the city for a month!

Spis castle. This country is cool.

The team hanging out through our windows during a trip to Bratislava.

That's it for now, but I promise to write more soon about how God is already working here in Slovakia this year! Thanks for praying!

I'm Moving to Slovakia!

2008-08-12T00:26:00.000+02:00

I've been saying for years that I'm moving to Slovakia, and I can't believe that it's days away from happening- at least for a year! I fly out Thursday for Copper Mountain, Colorado, and then on to Slovakia on the 20th! I hope to update this blog often with news and pictures from my life, my team, and the ministry in Kosice!