A Challenging but Encouraging Week...

 

Lake Bohinj

As the title says, this last 2 weeks have both been challenging and encouraging. I'll start with the good news. This week I was helping with a short term team from Alabama, USA. They were from the sending church of some friends of mine. My friends will be moving from Ljubljana to help serve in a church plant in a nearby town called Domžale. This team came from America for a week to help reach people there. They did a great job handing out fliers and speaking to people on the street. Each evening on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had an English conversation class for whoever wanted to turn up. My main role was to help facilitate conversation since I speak both languages. The first night, a woman, U, came in to say that she wasn't coming but ended up staying the whole 2 hours. The second night she came again only to drop off some biscuits but again stayed the whole 2 hours. The third night she came again but this time didn't stay the whole time but she said that her mind had been changed by some of the conversations she had had. On Monday she was calling herself an atheist. On Wednesday she said that she could no longer call herself that. This may sound small but in a country like Slovenia this is huge. It shows that God is working here in people's hearts. It may be small, it may take time but God is working. Wednesday night was also encouraging as we had several people turn up after only U and her family came on Monday and Tuesday. Please pray for the church plant and the work in Domžale that God would continue to work there and that my friends would be able to make good contacts and relationships with the people who came.

It was also encouraging to me to see a team from America come over with a heart to serve the people here. It was great to get to know them a bit and to spend time with them on some day trips to Ljubljana and Lakes Bled and Bohinj.

I now get to the challenging part of my fortnight. Many of you will know that I've had issues with my knee since 2008 (including 2 dislocations and 3 stints on crutches!) 2 weeks ago my knee started hurting for no discernable reason. I was able to see an orthopaedic specialist yesterday and was told that I need to have an MRI scan. I'm praying I will be able to organise that within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime I'm left limping around which is obviously having an impact on what I'm able to do. Please pray that I will be able to navigate both the Slovene medical system and the health insurance red tape, that the doctors would be able to find out what's wrong and that I would be able to cope with the pain and to be able to do all that I need to do. Fortunately as it's summer I can take things a bit more easily but obviously it's making life that little bit more challenging!

These next few weeks should be a bit quieter now as I start to plan and prepare for the new school year. Please pray for me as I prep and as I transition into this new role in the church.

A Conference, A Holiday, Camp and Finally Rest...

Enjoying camp next to the river

It's been a crazy month! I know that I haven't written anything in that time so I hope you'll forgive me for that. At the end of June I travelled to the UK for 2 weeks. Despite horror stories of cancelled flights, delay and strikes, it all went relatively smoothly (well, apart from a damaged suitcase on my return flight but that's a story for another time!) The main reason I travelled was to go to a conference in London called EMA (Evangelical Ministry Assembly) which is run by Proclamation Trust, who run the Cornhill training course I have just finished. It was the first time I had been to a conference in person since the pandemic so it was such a joy to be amongst so many believers and gospel workers, being trained ways to communicate the Bible and to praise our great God together. It was also a good chance to meet up with old friends and to meet new people. It was a true blessing to be there.

As I was already in the UK, I took the opportunity to spend time with my family and to go on holiday together. Although I still had a few bits of work to do, it was a chance to relax and to enjoy being with my parents, my sister and her family. We travelled back to my parents' house on Friday 8th July, I flew back to Slovenia on Saturday 9th July and was then straight to camp on Monday 11th July. Because of the tight turn around I was already a bit tired before I went to camp but despite this, it was a really good time together. We were looking at the themes of family, friendship, opponents and a Slovene word - naklonjenost. Each day a leader gave a talk and then the campers broke into groups by age to do a study based on the theme. I gave my talk yesterday morning (14th July) and it was the last talk of the camp. I was given the theme of naklonjenost which is a word that doesn't translate very well into English. This obviously meant that I had fun writitng a talk on it! As far as I can tell, it's showing love to one another in the way we act - at least that was the angle I took. I used the passage of Ephesians 4:17-5:2 which talks about putting off the old self and putting on the new self and what that looks like in practice. I gave the talk in Slovene and I think it went ok.

Giving my talk

Apart from that we were camping once again on the border of Slovenia and Croatia next to a beautiful river. I slept in a hammock and for once was not plagued by rain or mosquitos! There were about 30 of us in total including the leaders and we had a mixture of Christians and non-Christians. For the first time we also had a group for students. We had 5 students and 2 British missionaries who work with IFES to help with that work. One of the girls who has been coming for many years commented that it was really good that she felt fed rather than just being there as a babysitter. Please be praying for this group of young people as they transition into adulthood and what that means for them as they start to seek to serve God in the church in new ways.

A good time was had by all and many said that they didn't want to go home. We had lots of good talks with the young people, especially with those who are struggling with different things in their lives. Please be praying that they would be wanting and willing to put the things they have heard and learnt into practice.

For now I have a chance to rest for a few days... before I start to plan for the Autumn term next week...