Bratislava October 4, 2008

   A couple of weekends ago, our team here in Kosice traveled to the capital city – Bratislava. We met the team there with the country director for in-country training. It was fun to meet the national staff there and have training together. We learned how to better do ministry with Slovak students, the role of discipleship, how we need to train students, and did some planning for upcoming events. It was really helpful for us as we were starting to go on campus that week as classes were starting.     

   It was fun hanging out with the Bratislava team after the meetings. We had a cookout at the director’s house one night. They had a jumping castle, and we had way too much with the kids in there! There were some language barriers with the Slovak children though … I even found myself speaking Spanish to them. Haha!

Team in Bratislava (food court)

My Blogging Incident October 2, 2008

So, I promised I would post something over a week ago… and obviously that didn’t happen. This is what happened…

I just got a new e-mail with Yahoo and then I got this WordPress blog set-up. Well, I went to log in and I forgot all my usernames and passwords. 

So, I just now figured everything out, and I am back on the blog!

 

I will post new pictures on flickr too!

Almost a Month September 16, 2008

   So, we have been here almost a full month! We have settled in to our new home, met new friends, planned for the semester, started ministry, and are having fun.

Here is what we have done so far:

First Week:

   The second day we were here we got our tram and train passes. The tram pass is good for three months. The train pass just allows us to get discounts on train tickets. We use the trams everyday, and we will use the train to go to campus in Presov. We went to the local Baptist church on the first Sunday. Monday, we had staff meeting and prayer walked on campus. We met again Tuesday morning, then went to the Alpine slide… you can check out pictures on flickr. Then, we had in-country briefing on Wednesday and Thursday with Doug, the national director here in Slovakia. We went to Budapest on Friday to see some castles, eat Mexican, and shop for the apartment at IKEA. We watched the Clemson game at 2am and went to the 4pm church service the next day.

Second Week:

   School still hasn’t started here, but the schools had freshman orientation this week. So, we all went on Tuesday to Presov, which is a city about a 45 minute train ride away. There we did surveys that asked about students’ general interests and spiritual interests. We were doing a drawing for a free I-pod as well. It was really exciting to be on campus and meet students. We got about 80 contacts at Presov University. Then, Wednesday we split up and half of us went to the Vet school and the others to Medicka (medical school). I was at Medicka with Aaron, Biba, and Lindsey. Between the two schools we got about 40 contacts. And we were praying that at least 6 girls would be interested in Bible study at Medicka – 7 girls put they were interested! We are excited to follow up with all these students and share Christ with them!

Third Week:

   We had a lot of firsts this week. We had our first team Bible study… we are studying 1 Thessalonians. I am really excited to study this book with the team because it talks a lot about encouragement, loving each other, and living in the light of Christ’s return. We also had our first language class. The Slovak language is intense, but we have a great teacher. And we all have a great incentive to learn. Tuesday night we had our first Women’s time as a team. It was really good to hang out with just the girls and really get to know the Slovak staff more. Biba and Dara are great! We had our first cookout with the team and other Slovak friends. We roasted hot dogs, chicken, and some Slovak sausage. It was fun to get away from the city. We also went to the Spis’ Castle here in Slovakia on Saturday. We had a lot of fun exploring!

 

I will let you know what happens this week on Sunday… you will just have to be in suspense til then.

leaving the states September 13, 2008

  I left Rock Hill on August 14th on a 6am plane ride. It took me to Atlanta where I joined one of my STINT teammates, Lindsey. We headed for Denver, Colorado on our three hour flight. We arrived around 12:30pm. We were then joined with about 40 other STINTers on the 1:00 bus to Copper Mountain (2 hours away). We registered for our week of briefing and training and moved into the employee housing at a ski resort.

  

  By the end of the day, our whole team had arrived. Our team of 7 was joined with about 300 other STINTers from all over the U.S. We spent the week worshipping together, being refreshed, digging into the word, being trained and encouraged. It was exciting to see us all come together and then be sent together to 30 different countries. 

  Our team spent the week getting to know each other and, of course, watching the Olympics. My team includes: Me, my fellow Clemson graduates: Lindsey Walton, Amber Bouchillon, and Aaron Hassell, and 3 other staff: Justin Gibbons, Mikey Taylor, and Cindy Taylor. Mikey and Cinsy have been married over a year and found out a week before we left that they are pregnant!! So, we will have an 8th teammate when little Taylor is born in April.

  On August 20, we left Copper Mountain at 3:00 in the morning to ride a bus to the Denver Airport. We then spent the next day and half flying to Kosice. Praise the Lord, everyone got all their luggage! When we got all the luggage, we were greeting by the Slovak staff: Biba Cziglerova, Jeremy and Dara Adams. Then, we headed for our different apartments.

  Thus, my new home in Slovakia begins…

Slovakia STINT team