Again, things just seem to happen to me...

My friends often joke that if something strange or out of the ordinary is going to happen, it will happen to me! I mean my track record speaks for itself - the time I fell in the sea complete with my bag which held my dry clothes, my purse, phone and passport; the time I was stuck on a plane on a runway in America for four hours in 40 degrees heat; the time I left my phone on the bus and managed to get it back by waiting at a bus stop for the correct bus to come after tracking it online; dislocating my knee by walking in a car park... The list does go on! This last few weeks I've managed to add another couple of things. Yesterday was by far the windiest day I've ever seen in Ljubljana. The city is surrounded by hills so we're usually well protected. Yesterday, there were claims that a funnel cloud had been spotted. Yep, that's right, we had a tornado! You can see the damage to my balcony in the picture. My sunshade was attached to a slab of marble a couple of centimetres thick. The wind caught the sunshade and the force of it broke the marble in half! I had already brought all my plants indoors but when I heard a loud noise I went outside to see the sunshade flapping very dangerously in the high winds. I managed to get out and roll up the sunshade so it didn't sustain any damage but obviously my balcony itself bore the brunt of the attack. There is another balcony directly below me and the owners were away. Their sunshade was ripped clean off! Having seen pictures of fallen trees and roofs been ripped off (including from the maternity hospital) and knowing that winds reached 102 km/h in my area of the city, I'm thankful it wasn't worse!

I also had an interesting journey last week. I'd borrowed a friend's car to have a short break away. I had to leave reasonably early to get back to Ljubljana as I had an MRI scan on my knee (the story of that is ongoing - please keep praying!) The journey itself was uneventful until I went to fill the car with petrol once I got back to Ljubljana. It wouldn't start again! My friend is currently in Wales! There I was blocking 2 pumps at a petrol station with a broken car that didn't belong to me. I was also on a fairly tight deadline as I couldn't just miss going for an MRI scan! Firstly I'm thankful my friend had roadside assistance that actually came quickly, secondly I'm thankful that my neighbour came and collected me from the garage and took me to the doctor, thirdly I'm thankful that it happened so close to home in Ljubljana rather than the place I had been staying. The car had a totally dead battery. So after a drive home, dealing with Slovene bureaucracy and garages and an MRI scan I finally made it home! Of course it had to happen to me - my friend even said so on the phone when I was explaining the situation to her! So much could have gone wrong - more so than it did.

Both of these situations had the potential to be dangerous and in one case I could have been stranded in the wrong part of the country. I'm grateful to God that he kept me safe and helped me navigate it all. Sometimes things like this happen and it's so much harder to deal with it in another country but God is faithful and I know that he was with me through it all!

Summer is now drawing to a close and the countdown to schools starting is on. One of the last activities of the summer is our church camp which will happen next weekend. Please be praying for it and for all of us who will be going. I will be teaching the young people for one of the sessions (in Slovene!) so please be praying for that. The theme of the camp is the church. Please be praying that we will have a good time together, encouraging one another and learning more about our great God!