Nice Weather then Snow?!

Life in Ljubljana over the last couple of weeks has felt a little bit strange. This probably has a lot to do with the weather. Last week and weekend we had highs of 30 °C. It was so nice I was able to work outside and then suddenly on Tuesday it snowed! This has definitely been a bit unsettling. It has also been a strange and sad period as I've tried to be there for a friend who is going through a very difficult time. Despite all this, I have been reminded of the heavenly home that waits for us and the great hope we have in Christ.

Youth work has continued much as normal. It has been exciting to have a new teenager start to attend our weekly meetings, well, he's come twice. Please be praying that he continues to come and want to learn more about the gospel. Please be praying for these young people, that they would be speaking to their friends and inviting them to our youth events.

We have also started properly planning for our youth camp in the summer. Please be praying for those of us who are preparing talks and Bible studies. Please also be praying that lots of young people would want to come. As we are in a new location this year, and we're not camping, we've had to commit to pay for a certain number of people. Please pray that all of these spaces would get filled!

Thank you all for your prayers and your continued support!

Easter Hope and Spring...

The weather is slowly getting warmer and nicer here in Ljubljana.The night after I took this photo on my balcony we had a massive storm and many of the blossoms and flowers were sadly damaged and destroyed. I guess it's a good reminder of the frailty of our lives in this world.

The last couple of weeks have been quite quiet, although it was incredibly encouraging to see church full on Easter Sunday. Our lives may be fragile, but we have a great hope, we know that this life is not all there is and that one day we will be raised with Jesus into an incredible inheritance that will never perish, spoil, fade, or be destroyed by thunderstorms!

In this quieter time I've had the opportunity to spend time listening to sermons and talks from previous years of Word Alive. I know that many of you in the UK are disapponted that it was unable to happen this year and I completely sympathise. I have been so encouraged and enthused by listening to these talks again. One in particular really stood out for me. It was a talk on Psalm 96 by Lindsay Brown from 2010. If you don't know, Lindsay Brown has been involved with the work of IFES for many years, working with students from all over the world. In 2010 I was a student and I heard this talk live. Listening to it again 14 years later, I now recognise what an impact it had on me. At the time I was interested in short term mission but was not really considering long term service. This talk was such an encouragement for me to go and serve, in whatever capacity I could. It helped to shape my theology of mission and what it means to serve. One thing he said really stood out to me as I listened to it again this week. He said that the church is strengthened by sending people out into the world to serve. The church won't grow unless we are willing to send our best people out to serve. God works when we are willing to sacrificially send people.

I didn't realise until this week just how much of an impact this had had on me. I'm not trying to claim that I'm one of the "best people" but I am willing to serve in the situation in which God has placed me. As I'm now in the position of youth worker in a small church in a small nation, it's very easy to think that we need to keep all these young people just at our church, and not to encourage them to serve in other places.

Slovenia may be small, the church may be small, but I have been challenged to think once again how I can encourage these young people to serve, not just in Slovenia but across the world, in the places that God will send them. Please keep praying that these young people would be willing to go, if that's what God calls them to do, and pray that we would be encouraging them and supporting them to go where God calls.
 

Answers to Prayer...

Fun at the Away Day

I want to start by thanking so many of you for your prayers over the last few weeks. I've really seen how God has been answering them. Last Saturday we had our first youth away day. I arranged it as a chance for the young people to catch up with other teenagers from around Slovenia who had come to our camp in the summer. It was also the chance to spend time looking at God's word and to encourage them when the days can still be quite dark and depressing.

It was a great success and so I think I will plan for this to be a regular event in the year. We had 12 young people aged between 11 and 20 come together to think about the Armour of God and the spiritual battle we are in. Please continue to pray for these young people, that they would remember what they have learnt and that they would apply it to their lives.

In another answer to prayer, and news hot off the press, yesterday we got confirmation of our booking for a new venue for our summer youth camp. Some of you may know that we had made the difficult decision to change venue for this year and so it is a massive answer to prayer that we have been able to locate a new venue. I have been involved in these summer camps since 2018 and this is the first time since I've been involved that we will be in a new place. Please be praying for me and for the other leaders as we plan camp at this new venue. It is literally the other end of the country - near the border with Austria - it is fully catered, and has different equipment and opportunities. This will obviously change the feel of camp and what it will look like. Please pray for wisdom as we plan in light of this. Thank you to those who have been praying about this and thank God for his good provision.

Life has been quite quiet in the past week now that preparation for the Away Day is done. Life should go back to a reasonably normal routine for the next couple of weeks for which I am grateful.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!
 

Hope in the Darkness...

 

Sometimes it feels like winter here lasts forever. As I sit here and look out at the rain and grey skies, it is easy to feel tired and drained. Within the last couple of weeks more than one friend has received tragic news. In a time of year that is already difficult, it's easy to feel helpless as I watch them process their grief and anger over their different situations. Please pray for me as I seek to support them and to be a good friend to them all.

Despite the pain and difficulties I see my friends going through, and the sadness I feel over my own family's situation, I look out onto my balcony and I see the daffodils and crocuses I planted last September starting to break through. For me this is a good reminder that winter doesn't last forever, spring will come. It's the same for us in this world. We live in a broken world but we know that one day Christ will return and all our brokenness will be mended.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot about the Armour of God from Ephesians chapter 6. I am preparing material for our youth away day on 16th March. We currently have 12 young people signed up. Please pray for them as they seek to learn and grow in their faith.

In preparing for this, I have been reminded of the reality of the battle we face. We face an enemy who wants to do all he can to take us away from God, to distract us, to make us doubt God's goodness. It's such a great comfort to know that God does not leave us alone in the battle. In fact he gives us his armour. All we have to do is to stand firm. The armour is the gospel of God. All we have to do is to trust in Jesus and keep trusting in him. When he died on the cross, Jesus won the war. Yes we still have battles to face, yes we do still have to face the realities of pain and death in this world, but we know that if we're trusting in God alone for our salvation, we have a great future waiting for us. This is the hope I'm looking towards and clinging on to. I will close with some words we sang last week at youth group:

When I am weary with the cost, I see the triumph of the cross, so in its shadow I shall run, till he completes the work begun.

Encouragement, Patience and Preparation...

A grey week at the Women in Ministry conference

Many of you will know that I have been recovering from illness since the beginning of the year. I am very grateful that I am feeling so much better but I am still struggling with a cough. Even more frustrating for me is that my singing voice has not fully returned since I had laryngitis. This has definitely been a period of learning patience and to rely on God.

Despite this, God has been faithful and it's been so encouraging to see him work in the lives of the young people in the church. At the end of January I travelled back to the UK for a Women in Ministry conference run by the Proclamation Trust. It was a time both of rest and of learning as we looked at how to teach 1 Peter. It was not planned to coincide in this way, but we have just started looking at 1 Peter in our weekly youth group. I've really appreciated being able to use what I learnt and see the young people engage with the material.

Since returning to Slovenia, I feel like I've managed to get back into a good routine and pattern of work. I can hardly believe that it's already school holidays next week! It's also that time of year when we need to start thinking about our big events. The first one will be on 16th March. We are organising a youth away day for young people from all over the country. We will be looking at the Armour of God and how we live in the present but look forward to the future.

We are also just starting to think about our camp in the summer. It is likely that we will need to find a new venue this year. Please pray that we will find somewhere that is both suitable and affordable. We plan to look at Hebrews 11 and how we live by faith. Please be praying for all these plans and preparations and especially for the young people who will come to both events. Please pray that God would be working and that we would see these young people grow in their faith.

Into the New Year...

 

Winter in Ljubljana

It was lovely to be able to see some of you over the Christmas period. Christmas was obviously quite a busy time for me. I organised a couple of Christmas events as well as specific Christmas teaching for the youth group. We looked at Revelation 12 and how the story of the Nativity fits into the wider Bible picture and that through the birth and death of Jesus, God defeated Satan and death forever. This was a really interesting topic for the young people and and led to some good discussions about the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Whilst I had a lovely time back in the UK seeing family and friends, it all ended far too quickly, and, unfortunately, I became fairly ill on my return to Slovenia. Although I can't prove it, I suspect that I had Covid and that wiped me out for more than a week. I'm still not fully well but I am grateful for the love, support, and care of my church family here. It was a real answer to prayer that other people were willing to fill in for me in different roles when I was unable to do so myself.

Unfortunately, this has also had a large knock on effect on the rest of my work. I am due to fly back to the UK next Saturday for a week to attend a Proclamation Trust conference for Women in Ministry. This has meant that I have a very tight schedule to get done everything I need to. Where I thought I would have 2 and a half weeks to prepare for a lot of different activities, this has been squeezed down to just over a week. Please pray for me that I would get everything done that I need to, that I wouldn't be stressed, and that I wouldn't tire myself out before my trip.

This illness has definitely taught me that I'm not essential. God's work continues whether I am here or not, but it is still a privilege to be used by him nonetheless.

Getting Ready for Christmas...

 

My homemade nativity scene

As it's now officially December, it can mean only one thing - Christmas is coming! Last week we had a sprinkling of snow in Ljubljana and more is expected in the next week.

Life has started to get quite busy in the run up to the holiday season. Apart from anything else, I have two Christmas parties to plan and run within the next couple of weeks. Please be praying for these events. Next Saturday (9th) we have the Ladies' Christmas event where we will invite friends to come and make Christmas crafts, play a couple of games, sing songs, and hear about what Christmas is like in Moldova and why it is important. I am also planning a Christmas party for the youth on the last Friday before Christmas (22nd). Over the next two weeks we will be thinking about how the birth of Jesus fits into the whole Biblical narrative. Please be praying that these young people understand that Christmas isn't just a time of nice celebration, but actually represents God's victory over Satan, sin and death.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for the new youth group I have set up. We had our first meeting on 25th November and it went really well. We have started reading the book Dig Deeper together and had a good discussion about why it is important to understand exactly what the Bible is saying, rather than using it to say what we want it to say. We then had a chance to talk through some of their questions. They all said that they appreciated the relaxed nature of the group and the space to be able to ask their questions, think about them and discuss them. Please pray for this group, our next meeting is next Saturday (9th - yes the same day as the ladies' event).

Please also keep praying for me, that I would have the energy and time to prepare for all of these things well. I'll be travelling back to the UK for Christmas and of course I'm planning to visit Swindon so I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in person again. Thank you again for all your prayers and support for me in this work here in Slovenia.