January Travels February 21, 2009

I am finally posting on here again! January was a crazy month. 

We started the new year at winter conference with our students. We celebrated with fireworks, sparklers, hugs, and by praying in the new year. A few days later we made our way to the Slovakia staff conference with the team n Bratislava. Then, we moved from that conference to another one. We made our way toward Nerja, Spain on January 18th. There we gathered with STINTers from all around Europe to be refreshed, encouraged, and challenged. It was exciting to come together and hear how the Lord was working in each country. Since, we were in Western Europe for the conference, we decided to take a week to travel. We went to Geneva, Paris, and London. Biba joined us in Paris and London. It was fun and tiring! Here are some pictures from January:

Tatra Mountains on the way to winter conference

 

Team in Nerja

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eiffel Tower

Candy Canes January 6, 2009

   Before the winter break, we decided to do a candy cane outreach on all the campuses. We made bags filled with candy canes, the story of the candy cane, and a booklet with the gospel. We had over a 1,000 candy canes!! We just passed some of them out, but with some we did a survey asking students different things about Christmas. We got a lot of new contacts for next semester. It was an exciting outreach that we were able to do all together as a team and with some of our students. Here are some pictures of us preparing the bags:

Candy Cane Bags

 

Linds and I stuffing bags.

Praha January 5, 2009

We spent my birthday and Thanksgiving in Prague. We took a 10 hour sleeper train to get there. And we stayed in an apartment on the river. It was great to relax and have fun with the team. We enjoyed the sites, shopping, and food! Here are some pictures from our time in Prague:

Roomies in Prague

 

Prague preparing for Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving dinner at TGIFriday's.

Dressing Up December 7, 2008

In October, we had a Halloween party for our students and friends. And in November, we had a staff murder mystery social: “A Knight of Murder.” It was really fun getting dressed up at both events! Here are some photos…

By the way, I was the one murdered during our murder mystery. That is what I get for being a knightess who is a liar, cheater, and thief.

States of Matter: solid, liquid, gas

                                      

 

Biba and Dara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlamagne, Knightess Rufus/Wanda the Watchman, Poor Pearl

 

 

 

 

 

Citizens of Fernwood

 

 

 

Story of the Soul

   We hosted a “Story of the Soul” coffee house at the end of November as a part of a college night a local church was having. What is Story of the Soul:

 

     “Story of the Soul creates an interactive coffee house experience designed to help lead people to Christ creatively, relevantly,

      artistically, and directly.” 

 

   The theme that night was friendship. We used photos, movie clips, music, and personal stories to lead students into discussion. Students were in discussion groups talking about what they valued in relationships and why they were important to them. At the end of the night, one of our student leaders, Zuzka, shared her testimony. It was exciting to see her step out in faith to share her testimony of the first time with a group of students. We are hoping to continue this outreach next semester on the different campuses. Here are some photos from that night:

Miška introducing a song

Zuzka sharing her testimony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               For more info visit: http://www.storyofthesoul.org/

ROMA November 10, 2008

   We took a weekend vacation to Rome over Halloween. We were able to get these cheap flights from Bratislava to Rome for $50! And Amber’s mom was here for the week, and she amazingly was able to get us free hotel rooms. It was really fun to sightsee with the team. We had real Italian pasta, pizza, and gelato. We also had a lot of funny stories to add to our list. Let’s just say someone tried to force me to buy a rose (he literally tried to put the rose in my hand). So, I naturally told him, “Shoo fly.” Because that is what everyone would say in that situation…

 

Linds, Me, Aaron, Amber, Cindy, Justin, and Mikey

Jesenný Úlet

   Our Jesenný Úlet, also known as Fall Conference, was a few weekends ago. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the students, hearing from the speaker, and hearing from students in discussion groups. Mark Sanders, the speaker, was really energetic and related well to the Slovak students. (He is from America, but is on staff with CCC in Budapest.) The theme he spoke on was “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” He talked about satisfaction in success, relationships, and how really satisfaction is only found through a relationship with Christ. 

                                “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and 

                                 whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”  – John 6:35

 

   Here are some photos from Fall Retreat:

 

Prešov girls

 

 

Račkova Dolina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Lucia - her first s'more

Wrapping Up English Club November 3, 2008

   A couple of weeks ago we finished up English Club (Talk the Talk) for the semester. The topics of the last week were holidays and careers. The students seemed to really enjoy these last two nights… they wanted more!!! So, we are planning to have Talk the Talk next semester again.

   But we wanted to end English Club now, so that we can start a girl’s Bible study in Prešov. We invited all the girls that came to Talk the Talk and many of them seemed interested since it would be in English. So, we are starting it up this Wednesday, November 4th! Please pray that the girls we met at English club would be able to come and that new girls would be interested as we promote it this week. Lindsey and I are excited to start up the Bible study and share with them how to have a relationship with Christ!

 

Talk the Talk October 13, 2008

 

chalk promotion

Last week we began promotion for English club, Talk the Talk. We passed out flyers, hung up posters, invited students we knew, and chalked the walkways. Last Tuesday, we had our first English club. Fifteen students showed up! We met the students as they came, introduced ourselves, talked about values and culture, had them do an activity, and had discussion groups. We got to learn more about their values and beliefs through the activity and discussion time. We are excited to follow up with them and hopefully see them this week. Here is a picture during the activity we did with the students:

english club

 

We only had three girls show up on Wednesday night, but we still had a great time talking with them. We are hoping to hang out with them soon! Please pray that we would see more students this week, and pray that we would be able to set up times to meet with these students outside of English club. I will let you know how it goes later this week!

my flat October 5, 2008

 

front door into the building

Welcome to my living quarters…

living room

 

this jacked up door serves as our security system. no thief is going to want to break into a place that looks like that.

 

 

the living room: the home to many a staff meeting.

kitchen

living room

 

 

 

 

 

 

the kitchen: where cooks are being born

 

bedroom

bedroom