Balancing Work and Rest...

Ok so I know I said I would be late writing this post but you know what, I decided to write this before I go back to England tomorrow rather than after. It's only been a week and a half since my last post so I'm sorry there isn't much new news. No don't stop reading, I still have things I want to share.

This last week and a half have really been a learning curve for me and not really in the way I expected. It's very tempting sometimes to share only the good points of my life here, of which there are many, but how will people know how to pray if I don't share the hard times too. Sometimes it's ok to turn around and say 'yes that was tough' but I know that God is sovereign over it all. After the highs of the summer with both camps I was involved in, I was quite looking forward to a week where I could relax and recuperate ready for the busy new year starting soon. I didn't expect it to be one of the toughest weeks I've had here - I was very lonely. Now I'm not blaming anyone here apart from myself (I'm really not writing this to make people feel guilty!). I purposefully didn't arrange meetings with people because I wanted the space away from people to recharge. Unfortunately both my flatmates were away for the week and the Bible study and my language lesson on the Wednesday were cancelled due to a national holiday. It essentially meant that I was by myself for the week. I had nothing to prepare and so I was just left with self motivated study - that was sadly lacking that week.

Before violins start playing in the background, I've realised that although it was hard at the time, it taught me valuable lessons about myself. However much I see myself as an introvert, I still need to be around people. God didn't create us to be alone, He created us as a community and this is something that I really need to remember.

So then how do I balance work and rest, time by myself and time with other people? It could become very tempting to go to the other extreme and fill my time with so much stuff I don't have time to feel lonely but that's not healthy either. I'm not going to claim I have the answers. I'm still figuring out this whole ministry life thing. I was, however, encouraged to plan things for my week this week and to try and have some things in my diary so I'm not left so isolated. Overall I just need to trust God. I know I'm in the right place serving him and I also know that I will have bad weeks, it's how I react to them that's important.

I'm now going to turn this blog post into an advert for Slovenia! I decided that I needed exciting plans for this last Monday. In fact I actually have been very busy this week which has been great! On Monday I decided that I wanted to travel to Lake Bled to go on the toboggan slide down the side of the mountain. If you've never heard of Lake Bled, Google it! It's one of my favourite places in Slovenia (apparently everyone else loves it too!) I persuaded my friend to come with me and I drove us there (yes I've learnt how to drive on the other side of the road). It was a beautiful day and really reminded me of the beauty and glory of God's creation. It was a great time of fellowship, both with my friend who came with me but also with some friends who live in the near by town of Radovljica. It was great to able to hear how God is working in their church and in another part of Slovenia. Basically it was a day I really needed, not just for the fun but for the fellowship and the joy of spending time here with other Christians.

On a completely different note, I will be travelling back to the UK tomorrow for the weekend. I will literally only be in the country until Monday. I will be spending a lot of time in transit (Ljubljana - Venice - London - St. Albans - London - St. Albans - Southampton - Swindon - Bristol - London - Ljubljana) so please could you be praying for travelling mercies, for energy and that I would both be encouraged and be an encouragement to all the people I spend time with this weekend!

The Mountains Are Alive with the Sound of Music...

I'm sorry to those people who've noticed that I'm a bit late with my post. I've been very good at writing them every two weeks and posting them on a Friday but it just wasn't going to work this time. On Friday I went with about 25 other people from my church for a weekend away - I thought I would wait until I got back to write my blog and so that's why I find myself almost a week late...

Anyway, apology over. We stayed in the Julian Alps which are on the border with both Austria and Italy. I have to say that I don't think that I've ever visited a place with such dramatic scenery, it was absolutely beautiful. It was also a really encouraging time away with my church family. The theme of the weekend for the adults was work and rest and for the children it was music. I again got involved in the music in the camp and was able to play my flute during the times we were singing together. I also led one of the sessions for the children and younger teenagers. My topic was attitudes to music in church whether singing or playing. I was really encouraged by their willingness to participate in the discussions. I had about 10 kids ranging in age from 8 or 9 to 15 or 16. It was an interesting challenge trying to prepare something that they could all learn from but the older ones were really good at helping the younger ones and they all joined in together.

On Saturday evening we had a really encouraging time of music together. The keyboard and the drum kit were brought outside and we all joined in singing and playing different songs and hymns. Strangely enough we finished off with Hark the Herald Angels Sing! It's not quite Christmas here but that doesn't mean that we can't still praise God for the birth of his Son. It was amazing to hear the sound of the music surrounded by the dramatic landscape although it was definitely mountains and not hills!


Another encouragement for me over the last week or so is that I've arranged with some of the girls at church to meet them regularly to read the Bible and discuss topics that are important to them. Please be praying for them as they seek to learn more about God and how they can live for Him in their everyday lives. Please also be praying for me as I seek to lead and choose appropriate subjects. This means that I will soon be meeting with 3 people from the church regularly and to discuss the Bible and Christian books. I pray that I will be an encouragement to them.


Apart from the two camps, summer has been fairly quiet. August has felt like a very strange month. I've either been preparing for or recovering from camps. I'm trying to be wise with my time and making sure I take time to rest and recover from the busyness of the camps. In all things though I can see God's hand at work. I'm very glad I arrived in Slovenia in May. It was a strange time to arrive but it meant that I was able to join in the church activities and get an idea of what happens during term time. Having the summer here has also given me time to settle in, build relationships and therefore prepare for the start of the academic year. Things are quiet now but I know that they will soon get very busy!

As I finish this post I will apologise again in advance as I don't know when I will write my next blog. I'm also due to be writing my next prayer letter very soon. Next Friday, however, I will be travelling to England for the weekend. It will be a very quick visit although I will be in Swindon on the evening of 26th August. Hopefully I will be able to see some of you there and catch up. I will try and write again on 28th August (please don't hold me to that). Please continue to pray for me and the church here and that God would be glorified in all things!

Who Knew Bunk Bed Hammock Camping was a Thing...

My hammock bunk bed!

This last week I've been camping with the church youth group on the summer camp. It was a really encouraging time with the young people. On the camp we had about 15 or 16 kids aged between 11 and 18. Most came from my church in Ljubljana but we had a few from a church in Maribor and still a couple of others from different parts of the country.

We travelled to the south east of Slovenia to stay at a campsite right next to the river Kolpa which forms part of the border between Slovenia and Croatia. On the map below, the blue dot is Ljubljana, where I live and the red pin is where we were staying.

The campsite

I've been part of quite a few camps over the years but I was so impressed with the teenagers we had on this one. They all got involved, helped without complaining and joined in all the activities whether they were Bible based or helping clear up after meals. Naturally there were a couple of smaller groups formed but for the most part they all interacted with each other and the older ones often helped out with the younger ones. It was a real joy to see!

The theme of the camp was freedom. We focussed on the issues of freedom from parents and freedom from school but that real freedom comes from God alone. I was really encouraged by some of the conversations I had and that some of the teenagers said that they wanted to get back into reading their Bibles more. Please pray for these young people as they go back to their normal lives that they would want to continue to learn more about God and living for him. Please also pray for me that I would be an encouragement to those in the church in Ljubljana. I am really thankful that I have had this time to get to know them better!

Location of the camp

My main role on the camp was the organisation of the music. I had to choose 5 songs that related to the theme, that I already knew, that were either already translated into Slovene or could be quickly and easily. It was an interesting task! I also had to choose a mixture of ones they already knew along with ones I could teach them. For those of you who are interested we sang: This Life I Live (Življenje ki ga jaz živim), Amazing Grace My Chains are Gone (Dar milosti prost sem verig), And Can It Be (Je vse to res), There's a Place Where the Streets Shine (Vem za kraj) and Great is He (Velik je).

The hardest part for me was learning how to sing these songs in another language especially when I know them so well in English! I was really aware that my pronunciation could have been better in places but they were all really gracious with me especially when I was teaching them new songs. It was great hearing the kids singing these songs at random times during the day. It was also a great joy for me to have random singing sessions during the day. Some of the girls brought ukuleles with them and their own music so we occasionally sat down and just played and sang together. One of these times was Wednesday evening. Some of the teenagers were playing a game together when one of the girls came and sat nearby with her instrument. Whenever we were out in the game we would run over and sing together until the next game started and we all joined in again. It was a definite highlight of the camp for me.

Much of the camp was also spent in outdoor activities. Being right next to the river inevitably led to lots of time spent in the water whether swimming or boating. It was a real relief to be able to cool down on some of the hot days. To be honest the teenagers would have been in the water whether it was hot or cold!

Another activity we were able to take part in was rock climbing. We crossed the border into Croatia to go to a Christian activity centre. The young people all seemed to really enjoy their time there and most of them gave it a go. They were split into 3 groups and took it in turns to climb the rock face. Once they had finished they were taken aside for a brief debrief. This was another encouraging time as it allowed them to talk about the things they had found hard. The group I sat in with managed to link it to freedom which was great. They talked about how it might feel like having more freedom if you climbed without ropes but in the end it was more dangerous and could lead to death. They were more free with the ropes as it allowed them to go further and have more security. This was then linked back to God and where our true freedom comes from!

I've been really encouraged by this camp and feel privileged that I was able to take part in it. That being said, despite working in a camping shop for 4 years, sleeping on the ground is not my favourite activity! One of the other leaders was sleeping in a hammock rather than in a tent and so I decided that on the final night, I too would sleep in my (own!) hammock. Unfortunately rain was forecast overnight... The other leader was prepared though, she had brought tarpaulin with her but there wasn't enough to cover both our hammocks separately. Cue the suggestion to sleep bunk bed style, which apparently is a thing. It was really comfortable! I slept in the top hammock and needed help to get in and out which did mean that I was somewhat trapped but I slept so well, well apart from the rainstorm at 3 in the morning which woke me up. I was dry, warm and comfortable... in a tree. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the tent I had been in. The rain somehow got in and soaked the feet and some of the belongings of the people in there. Who knew that sleeping in a tree would be drier than sleeping in a tent?

Growing Pains...

Giant light up robot in the centre of Ljubljana

I thought I would start this post with a literal story of growing pains! Yesterday I was in a shop when I realised that I couldn't reach the item I wanted. I tried jumping a few times but it wasn't working and there wasn't really anything to climb up... I had no choice but to ask for help. In England I hate having to ask random strangers to help me because of my height but it is definitely worse in Slovenia! So there I was in the middle of the shop and the only people nearby were a slightly older couple. I screwed up my courage and started trying to think in Slovene so that I could explain the situation. Trust me to pick a Spanish couple who spoke no other languages! Now I learnt French, German and Italian in school but never any Spanish. I realised that even though Italian is similar no other languages were coming to mind except Slovene. What else could I do but mime? There I was pretending to jump and point at the item I wanted until they finally understood! It just goes to show that even knowing some Slovene doesn't always help you in Slovenia!

These last couple of weeks have been fairly quiet but have been a good time for cultural growth. In the summer Ljubljana has a summer festival with outside concerts. They build a stage in the middle of one of the squares and have different performances every night. If you want a seat you have to pay but you can attend for free and just stand around the edges of the barriers. The opening night was a festival of lights. It was amazing! Complete with a giant light up robot, a light up ship and fireworks from the castle on the hill above the city. Imagine the Proms but outside and you might get a bit of an idea. The most impressive bit was the performance of the Montagues and Capulets from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (otherwise known as the Apprentice theme tune). It was a great time to spend with people and to get to know them better.

England vs Croatia

Another good thing for getting to know people better over the last few weeks has been the world cup. Slovenia didn't qualify after being beaten by England a couple of years ago. This has not stopped many of the Slovene men and boys (sorry to be sexist but it's pretty much true) getting very excited about all the football. Wednesday night was obviously the big match. It also happened to coincide with a Bible study. The timings worked out fairly well as the study started at 6.30 and the match didn't begin until 8. For those of you who aren't too sure on your geography, Croatia borders Slovenia and is another ex Yugoslav republic. I spoke to some Slovenes who didn't want them to do well due to rivalries but that was definitely not the case with the group I was with! The Australians were pretty neutral although some were supporting England. At times it felt like I was in Croatia with the excitement in the room. Someone was quick to assure me that they did love me really even though they were celebrating England's loss. It's hard to feel too sad about the result when I see the joy of people from a country that is always described as very small. Apart from anything else it was great to spend time with people from my church and getting to know them better.

This week has also seen a massive answer to prayer: I received my Slovene residency and have leave to stay here (if I wish) until August 2020. This was a metaphorical story of growing pains. I don't know what bureaucracy is like in other countries but it is terrifying here. When I arrived I had to register my presence at the police station in the district of Šiška where I was staying. I couldn't apply for residency to begin with because I didn't have a permanent address. When I moved I was able to start the process. This involves going to Tobačna which is the central office. Despite it being the office for foreigners, they refuse to speak English. I have heard so many horror stories of people going in and being shouted at for not speaking Slovene or saying the wrong thing or the wrong paperwork being started. My Slovene housemate was so lovely and helpful and she came with me the first time. Unfortunately I didn't quite have all the right paperwork with me but we were able to start the process and were told to come back with the rest of my documents. A week later we returned with the documents and were told that it should all be fine but I just needed to wait for an invitation to return when my application had been processed and accepted. At this point I needed to de-register from the police station in Šiška and then register in Moste where I now live. I was so thankful to God that the trips to Tobačna had gone well but I wasn't expecting problems at the police station. I rang up Šiška and thankfully they understood my English and de-registered me. It meant, however, that I still had a piece of official paper with my passport. For some reason this caused a problem in Moste. The police officer was really in a bad mood and was shouting at us because apparently my rental contract wasn't good enough (!) and that I still had this slip from Šiška. It was all in Slovene and I didn't really understand what was going on. We had to wait for quite a while for it to be sorted out but it finally was.

On Monday I received the invitation to go back to Tobačna because my application had been successful. I had 15 days to return but this was really awkward timing. A week had already passed whilst the letter was in the post and my Slovene housemate is on camp this week. My British housemate was also going away and really couldn't help. We managed to get another Slovene friend to come and sit with me which was an answer to prayer because I was really starting to stress out. After all that, the official spoke to me in English! That's pretty much unheard of in Tobačna. It also gave me the confidence to go back to Moste police station by myself to de-register now I have my residency. I was incredibly scared and worried that I would be yelled at in Slovene (although there shouldn't have bee any problems, you never know how they're going to react). Thankfully God answered my prayers and it all went well at the police station (apart from being ignored for 10 minutes whilst I waited to be served). All in all this experience has taught me that I can have the confidence to deal with Slovene bureaucracy although I would prefer to have a Slovene by my side every time. I just need to remember that God is with me and He will help me through the difficult and awkward situations!

Food Glorious Food...

A whole pan of coffee served with a ladle

One of the things I love about living and serving in Slovenia is the relational aspect of the culture. Meeting up with people seems to always involve food of some kind and most definitely coffee! I have learnt that Slovenes love their coffee, it's almost a way of life for them. It is not common for to go to other people's houses, instead you meet them at a kavarna (coffee shop just doesn't sound as good or encompass the full meaning of the place) where you can sit and talk for hours. I have been firmly informed that the stuff Starbucks/Costa/ any other chain you can think of do not serve anything more than hot water and milk. Even mentioning the words 'instant coffee' produces blank stares and questions of why one would even think about drinking it!

Coffee here is made Turkish style on the stove. The picture to the right is a very extreme example. My housemate did indeed make a whole panful and served it with a ladle. She was quick to assure me that it wasn't normal but it was because she was providing for a large number of people at once. Even though this was different from normal coffee is still made in a pan, strong and with residue left in the bottom of the cup. I love it!

British Sunday Dinner

In Britain it is completely normal to open your house up to friends and guests especially on a Sunday (at least that was my experience growing up). As I've already said, it's not that common here. As a house, we've decided we want to be different. We're all in ministry although in completely different contexts. We all wanted to be able to feel free to invite people over and to make them feel welcome in our flat. It's great, it's not a constant flow of people in our flat (yet!) but it is a steady trickle of people in and out. As such we decided that it would be a nice idea to host a British Sunday dinner last Sunday.
Many of you may know that I was brought up by a very proud Yorkshire woman (as in my Mum is very proud to come from Yorkshire, not that she herself is proud). I believe that she would have considered herself a failure if she had not taught us how to make a proper Sunday roast complete with homemade Yorkshire puddings. I'm sorry Mum, we didn't have them the traditional way as a separate course before the meat and vegetables, it seemed a step too far after I'd had to explain that they were savoury and not actually a pudding! The meal was a complete success! We provided for 7 people (including ourselves), a mixture of Christians and non Christians. It was such a joyful time together, getting to know people better and being able to share some of our culture (even though we produced so much food we only finished the leftovers today). I even didn't mind missing the England world cup football match, people are my priority here.

That's not just a glib sentence ending, it's a really important part of my work here. People are the priority, I can study for as much as I want but if I'm not meeting with people then it's almost useless. It's a bit harder over the summer holidays as lots of people are away but my prayer is that I can be building on the relationships I've already made. Please pray for me as I'm the one who needs to take the initiative and as an introvert it's a bit out of my comfort zone. I love being with people once I'm there or if other people invite me but it take an extra effort for me to reach out to people. We were talking about this a bit in ministry training this week - as much as I love the studying part, it's no good if it's not put into practice by spending time with people. If that just happens to be accompanied by food or coffee then so be it.

On the practical side of things, thank you to all of you who were concerned about our plate being returned by the neighbours. It has now been brought back complete with some chocolates possibly from Latvia or Russia, I'm not really sure. I've also seen the older lady from next door a couple of times. I really wish that I could communicate with her more than about the weather. This week I started language lessons finally. It's so great to be able to sit down and talk about the areas I need help with. There is still so much to learn but I feel that the real learning can begin now. I've arranged with my tutor (who is a Christian from my flatmate's church) to have 2 lessons a week until the end of September when I will be starting group sessions at the university. In terms of my residency I've not heard anything yet so I'm still waiting for the letter that will give me an appointment to go back. I don't think there are any problems, it's just of matter of waiting on the bureaucracy.

I will finish this blog post with another story of the worldwide church of God. Two Sundays ago was the annual church picnic. It was an absolute blessing of a day. The weather was good, the food was good and most importantly I had an amazing time of fellowship with my church family. They have really made me feel welcome and as part of the church here. In amongst the people there was an Australian family who are serving in a Middle Eastern country. They were visiting the Australian family who are based at my church. I got into conversation with the wife and as we were talking about England she mentioned the name of the town Shrewsbury (the county town of Shropshire and where I was born). In some surprise (since tourists don't often go to that part of England) I asked her if they'd been to church there. Her answer was no because they'd been visiting friends in Wem and gone to church there. Of all the places in England they could have gone to, they went to the town, to the church that my family belonged to until I was 6 and we moved to St. Albans. Wem has a population of 5,000 people, I certainly never expected it to come up in conversation with Australian missionaries in Slovenia. God definitely has a sense of humour!

P.S I'm also writing my prayer letter today, if you would like to be added to my mailing list please email me at s.re.deacon@gmail.com.

A Small Piece of Heaven...

View from my window

I was thinking today about writing my blog post and realised that I haven't really taken any photos in the last two weeks so I will apologise in advance for the slightly random nature of the choices I've made. When I went to All Nations college last year one piece of advice I remember is that I should take photos of everything that interests me when I first arrive because after a while it will just become normal. I think this process has started to happen!

Anyway, I realised that I should do something quickly about it and decided to take a photo of the view from my bedroom window. As you can see I have a great view of mountains and forest. When I sit at my desk and work it doesn't feel like I'm in the middle of a city!

As I was taking said photo my flatmate walked past the door and decided it was a good idea to take a photo of me taking the picture... I promise I wasn't falling out of the window! I am so grateful for the flat I have been provided with. I've properly unpacked now and feel for the first time that I have a place to call my own. (Yes that is a Welsh flag on my desk chair!)

Me taking a photo from my bedroom window

It's taken a couple of weeks but both my flatmates have also managed to move in now. We decided early on that we wanted to be a witness to our neighbours and to get to know them if we possibly could. We knew that if we waited too long it would become strange to introduce ourselves so we decided to use the opportunity granted us by being new to knock on some doors. We followed the directions of the Slovene as to what was culturally appropriate and took a plate of nice biscuits and a packet of coffee to two different neighbours. We first attempted it a few days ago with the flat opposite. A family lives there and we (when I say we, I mean my two flatmates) spoke to the youngest son who is probably in his late teens. He took the plate but it hasn't been returned. We're not sure if it will be now but it's very rude to go and ask for it back again.

Taking gifts to the neighbours

We decided to try again today with an older lady who lives next door. She seemed so pleased to meet us and invited us in to talk with her for a while. She seems to be very lonely and I think will be grateful for company. I would love to be able to communicate with her but for the moment I am dependant on my flatmates for that. The neighbour has already been back today returning our plate and with it a whole load of cherries. Please pray that this will be the start of a fruitful relationship with her and that we can be a blessing on her and her family who seem to visit fairly often.

Thank you to all of those who have been praying for me over the last couple of weeks as I've been trying to sort out my paperwork for residency. I went last week and started the process but I didn't have all the paperwork I needed. I went back again this week and it seems that everything should be fine. I will need to go back again but I don't envision any problems. I've applied for residency for two years. I don't know how long I'll be in Slovenia yet but if I stay for another year then I won't need to go back. It also means that whatever happens with Brexit I'll have legal residency in an EU country so there'll be no problems with me staying here through that time.

This last week has been a very busy time for me. I suddenly had a lot of meetings to go to which has been great but also tiring. I had my first Ministry Training session last night. It was a really helpful time as we're starting to look at 1 Corinthians and the roles of those in ministry positions and the rest of the church. I've also heard back about a language tutor and hopefully those lessons will start soon. I've signed up for a course at the university of Ljubljana in October but this will help me over the summer months.

You're probably wondering why I entitled this post A Small Piece of Heaven... as I haven't mentioned anything related to it. I thought I would save this story for last. The American organisation Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru for short) has quite a presence in Slovenia, at least six people come to my church and I know that there are others going to different churches. Anyway they arranged for a group of 40 students to come for about a month to run different mission activities. They have attempted to spread them around the different churches but we still had 14 at church last Sunday. They doubled the size of the congregation! Normally my church has headsets for interpretation but they had been forgotten, instead the students, plus me, were sat at the back with an interpreter in the middle speaking loud enough for all of us to hear. In addition to this we had a small group of people from Indonesia. I'm not exactly sure what their connection to the church is or how long they are in Slovenia for. Fortunately one of the Slovene members studied Mandarin at university and so interpreted for them. I don't know what language they spoke but not all of them understood Mandarin and so they were also interpreting between themselves. I hope you can begin to picture the scene, the preacher at the front speaking in Slovene and at least three other languages being spoken at the same time. Added to this, yes there's more, REC has no creche so small children usually sit and play quietly (ish) at the back. We seemed to have more toddlers than usual and so banging was added to the noise. It was a crazy scene but one I wouldn't trade, a small piece of heaven with people of all ages from 3 continents speaking 4 languages all praising God together!

Getting Settled...

Bubble Tea in Ljubljana

So one month in and I think I'm starting to get the hang of this whole living in Slovenia thing. I'm starting to make friends and build relationships in the church which is really encouraging. I know I'm making mistakes and I know that I still will make mistakes but that's ok, it's all part of the learning process.

I'm very thankful that so far I don't seem to have suffered any effects of culture shock although every so often something will remind me of England. It's not homesickness exactly but a reminder of what has been left behind. Often it's not even big things, so for example I was watching Mojster Miha (or Bob the Builder) and seeing all the English names in the credits really made me think of England! It really surprised me that something as small as seeing a British name would give me a jolt. Apart from that I feel really at home here.

This week I had a new cultural experience -  bubble tea. I know that it is Taiwanese rather than Slovene but I was invited to try it by a girl in the youth group and it was a really good time to get to know her a bit better. If you don't know what it is, it's basically iced tea with things in the bottom. Often it's tapioca balls but in my case it was fruit pieces. Although I enjoyed it, I think I prefer good old fashioned British builders' tea!

So how am I spending my time? I think this will be a frequent theme across my posts. I still don't have a clear plan as to how I'm supposed to be spending my time but with the broad ideas of language learning, building relationships and getting involved in church activities I'm trying to use my time wisely. I'm keeping track of everything I'm doing so I can see how many hours I'm spending doing different things. It also helps because it shows me that I am working hard even when it doesn't necessarily feel like I am. That being said, I'm really enjoying getting to know the people around me and at my church. They have all been so welcoming especially in inviting me over after church on a Sunday. I'm starting to feel part of the church and part of the community here.

My old apartment block

Today I moved into my new flat and said goodbye to my old one (4th floor in the picture). My bags are still unpacked and there's lots of organising to do but I'm grateful that I finally have a place I can call home! If you would like my address please let me know and I'll send it to you.

I'm a bit sad to leave my old flat - yes it was full of other people's stuff and I couldn't get properly settled but it was there that I learnt how to live in Slovenia. I learnt how to use the bus, how to do the shopping and most importantly how to get to church and other activities. I know I will learn how to do things here and that it will be easier this time but it does feel a bit like I'm starting the process again.

That being said, I can now start on the important paperwork etc that will allow me to stay here longer term. On Monday one of my housemates will go with me to start the process. Apparently employees at the department for foreigners moving to Slovenia don't speak any other languages apart from Slovene... I'm sure it will be an interesting experience!

Sava Bohinjka which flows into Lake Bohinj

To finish this post off,  I'll share a pretty picture from a visit to Bohinj last week. If you've heard of Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj is often described as being more spectacular still. To be honest I prefer Bled but Bohinj was well worth the journey. It's one of those places that really make you marvel and wonder at God's creation. I am so thankful that God has brought me to serve in such a beautiful country! I know that's not the main point of being here but seeing places like Bohinj really reminds me of who truly is in control over all situations and I thank God because I know He is in charge!