Teaching Apocalyptic Literature...

I know it sounds scary right! I've got back to Slovenia safely after spending the last week in England. I was back to attend a conference run by the Proclamation Trust for women in ministry. The theme of the week was Teaching Apocalyptic Literature which was both daunting and immensely helpful. We were staying at the beautiful Hothorpe Hall in Leicestershire. To be perfectly honest I wasn't really looking forward to the conference, mainly because of the timing. I was a bit annoyed that I'd just got settled again into my routine in Slovenia after Christmas and then within a couple of weeks I was back on a plane!
The conference was well worth it and I'm now hoping to be able to go to the next one. Now to the apocalyptic stuff. Before we went everyone had to prepare a talk on a passage. I was given Revelation 5 which for those who don't know is all about Jesus and how worthy he is. To be honest I think I got off quite lightly. As I was on the children's work stream, my talk also had to involve visual aids. This is where I am very thankful for technology and the ability to show a powerpoint presentation on a tablet. I'm not sure I would have been able to fit scrolls and lambs into my carry on...

I won't go into huge detail into what we learnt but it was challenging and thought provoking looking at passages from Revelation and Daniel. The overarching theme was to keep going, to endure because God has already won the victory. He has overcome Satan, sin and death. We don't need to worry about what is ahead because if we trust in him we know he keeps his promises of new life. We know that he has done all the work and we can rest in him and in his promises.

What was very interesting for me personally was being able to take a step back from my work here and actually think it through and evaluate. When I'm in the middle of a situation I tend to just deal with whatever is in front of me. It's not that I bury the hard stuff and don't acknowledge it, it just doesn't seem to affect me that much. Taking a step back and being able to talk things through with other people made me realise that actually I am in a difficult situation. Work in Slovenia is very slow and obviously it is draining living and working in a culture and language I'm not yet fluent with. It's ok to acknowledge that these things are hard. I think this is probably signalling the end of the honeymoon period here. I'm not homesick or feeling culture shock etc, I just think I'm in a better state of mind. I still love the work and life here, I know I'm where God wants me to be, doing what he wants but it's ok not to love every second of every day.

In the end, it's not about me and what I'm doing here. It's about God and his work. Yes it may be slow and difficult at times but whatever the situation we should keep going with God because he has already won the victory.

Post Christmas...

I know I'm quite late in saying Happy New Year but I'll say it anyway. It feels a long time since Christmas and the holidays and it hasn't helped that I've had the flu since I came back. I've found out since that lots of people caught it at the church I went to on Christmas Day. I fell ill on New Years Day and am still not properly well, I still need naps in the afternoon! Despite this I've just about managed to keep going with everything I've needed to.

Our Christmas events at church all went very well. We had a stall in the square outside the building we hold our church services in. I helped out for an afternoon and was quite pleased with myself for only speaking in Slovene. It may not have been brilliant linguistically but most people understood what I was saying. We were handing out free literature including New Testaments. I was surprised at how willing people were to take them. We also handed out leaflets advertising our Christmas service on 23rd. Unfortunately we only noticed at the last minute that they all said 2017 rather than 2018, oops...

The Christmas service went really well. The church was packed out which is always encouraging. We had a lot of visitors including families of church members but also some people that we had spoken to at the stall. It was very busy time for me as I was playing 2 different instruments in the service and I was trying to help get everything set up. The kids performed both a nativity play and then a rap. They were really good and everything seemed to go to plan. Please be praying for the visitors we had that they would be thinking about the gospel message they heard.

The week after that was a whirlwind for me as I travelled back to England and spent time with friends and family all over the country. I was so grateful to see everyone and also that my flights were all good. I had been stressed the week before I flew because of all the trouble at Gatwick but thankfully it was all sorted before I flew. It was a really encouraging time seeing everyone and I really appreciated being able to go to church and understand everything that was going on. I had the opportunity to share about my work with my sending church in Swindon. It was quite interesting for me though to discover that I was more than ready to come back to Slovenia. I had a lovely time and it wasn't that I didn't feel at home in the UK, it's just my home is here now. I missed wide streets, mountains and my own bed! I think it's a good sign though that I've settled here now especially since I'll be here until summer 2020!

The next big thing that will be happening is that I'm actually going back to the UK next Sunday for a Proclamation Trust conference for women in ministry. I will be travelling with another missionary in my church.  I found out this week that I'm expected to prepare a talk. My passage is Revelation 5 and as I will be on the children's stream, I have to prepare it with visual aids. This is made slightly more challenging when I have cross country travel to take into account... Please be praying for us as we both prepare our talks and for our travels. Please also pray that we would be blessed and have a fruitful time of learning.

Now I'm sorry there are no photos in this week's blog but (if it works) I thought I would share with you a video of the New Years fireworks taken from the rooftop of my building. Happy New Year all!