Velika Noč (That's Easter for non-Slovene speakers)...

Traditional Easter Meal

Happy Easter (or Velika Noč) everyone. Ok ok I'm a week late I know but holidays and celebrations are always a great time for learning more about the Slovene culture. The first time I noticed something was slightly different was on the way to church on Palm Sunday. Lots of people seemed to be carrying branches to church. This is because they get them blessed so that when they take them home, the house will be blessed.

Another difference for me was that Good Friday is not celebrated in Slovenia, it is just another working day. As a church, we took the opportunity to have a stall with literature in the square near the place we hold our Sunday meetings. We did something similar at Christmas and so I had a fair idea as to what was expected. Unfortunately my Slovene is not yet at the standard to have long conversations. Instead I handed out booklets about Trubar (the Slovene reformer) along with a leaflet inviting people to our Sunday service. It wasn't very busy on the Friday afternoon although I did have one notable encounter. I was standing at the stall grabbing some more booklets when I noticed that some police officers were walking towards me. The other people from the church (who all speak Slovene) were all busy in conversations so I tried not to panic. Fortunately they were able to speak English and instead of being told off for the stall (as I expected) they were looking for a missing person. I am sorry that the old man was missing but at the same time I am extremely grateful that they were willing to speak to me in English and weren't demanding an explanation for what was going on!
The stall was in the square on both the Friday and the Saturday. I wasn't able to help out on the Saturday but I heard that it was quite busy and that people from church sang songs and played music to the passersby. Easter Sunday itself was a lovely day. The church was packed and there were definitely people who'd been visiting the stall there. Please be praying for all these visitors that they would be asking more questions and that God would be changing them and bringing them to Him.

Unlike in the UK, Slovenia has a traditional Easter meal. This is made up of šunka (ham) representing the body of Christ, hren (horseraddish) representing the nails, pirhi (decorated eggs especially for Easter) representing the blood and potica (the cake, traditionally made in a circle) representing the crown of thorns. Obviously these all have their roots in the Catholic church but it does taste good!

As I said previously, Good Friday isn't a holiday here but Easter Monday is. The school holidays are also not based around Easter but instead the first week of May, due to Labour Day. This means that this next week will be quite quiet for me. I have no language class or youth group. I've therefore decided to take the opportunity to visit a friend of mine in Prague. It's only 10 hours each way on the coach... Despite this, it will be good for me to have a short break and a chance to visit a country I've never been to before!

The Return of the King - Snapshots from Camp...

My Camp Booklet

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy for me. I may have forgotten to mention that I was preparing for a Spring camp with the teenagers from not only our church in Ljubljana but also other teenagers from across the country and from a church in Linz, Austria. In total we had 30 teenagers on the camp which was a real encouragement. We travelled to a castle near Linz which took 4 hours to drive from Ljubljana (those from Linz had a 20 minute train ride!) but it was well worth the journey. As the camp was international, it all took place in English although I still tried to practice my Slovene on occasions.

You may be admiring the camp booklet we were all issued with. This was the work of one of the teenage girls I meet up with regularly. A lot of people, both teenagers and leaders put in a lot of hard work to make this camp happen and praise God it all seemed to go well. The theme of the camp was The Return of the King, looking at the book of 2 Peter. We had talks on remembering the King's promises and return and also to watch out for false teachers.

I had a few responsibilities on camp, I was involved in the music, running a game and co-leading a workshop on drugs and alcohol (I had to do research for that one!). Unfortunately I managed to come down with a cold on Friday and so was struggling through the weekend with energy levels. Despite this, (apart from the music which had a few issues) the weekend was a success and all the teenagers I spoke to really enjoyed it. They were only sad that it was so short (we only had one full day).

The most important thing is that the gospel was taught and the teenagers were encouraged to grow in their relationship with God. Please be praying for these young people, for those who already know God, that they will be strengthened and will stand firm especially when they live in difficult countries to be Christians. Please also be praying for those who have not yet come to Christ. Thank God that they came on this weekend away and heard the gospel but pray that God would be working in their hearts and that they would turn to him.

Ok so I know I skimmed over the fact that we were staying in a castle in the Austrian mountains. Unfortunately I don't have many photos as other people seemed to be taking a lot. I don't even have one of the castle itself. What I do have though is a picture of a small church on the opposite slope, just so you can get a small idea of what it was like. We were surrounded by mountains and trees and thankfully the weather also co-operated. The one downside of this castle (which has been converted into a Christian conference centre) was the number of stairs from top to bottom. Of course all the girls were in rooms at the top! To get to the meeting room there must have been about 5 staircases and then another 4 or 5 to get to the dining room and then a few more to get outside. It was good exercise but also exhausting!

This was the third camp that has been run between the two churches. A lot of work and preparation was done by the Australian missionaries but they will be returning to Australia in August.  Both churches are keen to continue the partnership and to enable the young people to spend time with other teenagers from different cultures. Please be praying that we will be able to continue with the camp in the years to come.