Starting the School Year...

 

Visiting Ptuj

Once again I have to apologise for taking so long to write a new blog. Life has just about settled into a new routine. I'm still meeting with two girls one to one every week and of course we have the weekly youth group. 

Today we've taken the youth on a trip to a town called Ptuj in the north of the country. We're meeting with some of the teenagers who came to our camp in the summer. We've visited the town, had lunch together and just had a time of singing and reminiscing about camp. 

It's such an encouragement to see these young people spend time together and encourage each other with their friendship. 

My time has also started to fill up with ECM work. As you may remember, I was voted onto the Advisory Group for ECM. This is where we review documents on policies and procedures ready for publication to the rest of the organisation. Another new role I have is to help organise the next ECM Biennial in 2025. Although this event is still over a year away, the planning starts now. Finally, I have been asked to be the member care facilitator for three new Australian missionaries who are moving to Slovenia next year. It will be strange to no longer be the only non national in the country but I'm excited to see how God will be working with all these new changes. 

So as you can see, I'm being kept busy. I have some other plans for the youth in the church which I'm just starting to organise. Please be praying for the young people as we're into the new school year. Please also be praying for my plans and all the work I have to do, that I would be trusting God to lead and guide all that I do. 

One Summer, Three Camps, Seven Countries...

The monastary which was the
venue of our weekend away

Sadly, summer has officially finished and life is now starting to get back into a more organised rhythm. Over the summer I've led 2 camps, been involved in a third and travelled through seven different countries (Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, Greece, UK, Croatia and Hungary!). My summer has been far busier than term time and so I'm almost glad to get back to normal life. 

My last trip took place in the middle of August where I took a group of teenagers to the UK for a week to help with a Holiday Bible Club in Suffolk. They were aged between 14 and early 20s and they all did a fantastic job - it was such an answer to prayer, so thank you to all of you who were praying for us. There were a few bumps on the way - last minute passport and ticket issues but we all got there safely. We spent the first day and a half in London before travelling to Suffolk. It was such a great chance to build connections and relationships with the people in the church there. HBC ran for 3 days and they had over 60 kids every day. For the Slovene teenagers it was eye opening to see all the work, the team effort and the numbers of people involved. I truly and honestly have nothing negative to say about the trip and the teenagers. They did everything that was asked of them with a smile on their faces - in fact they went over and above what was asked of them. Since most of them were over 18, I gave them a lot of freedom to wander and explore and it was just a real joy to lead and to see them adapt to the new environments.

Because of the way timings worked out, we travelled back from the UK directly to our church weekend away (via Croatia and Hungary). For the last few years our weekend away has taken place in the north east of the country in a monastary - as pictured above. Although we were all pretty exhausted from our travels, it was a joy to be able to spend time with the church family. We also had people from 3 other churches join us. On the Saturday we had a group come just for the day. Included in this group was L, a teenager who had joined us at our youth camp earlier in the summer. Before camp she had barely opened a Bible before. At camp she was really engaged with everything and bought some books. Apparently since then she has been reading the Bible on her own and is in contact with her local church. It was so amazing to see her come for the day, especially since she brought her mum K with her. Please be praying for L and K. Thank God for the work he is clearly doing, but please pray that they would both come to know him as their Lord and Saviour.

So now summer has finished, holidays are over and I'm looking to the term ahead. Our first youth group meeting is tonight and I hope to be able to start my one to ones next week. I am also starting to get busier with ECM work. Please be praying that I would get into a good rhythm and that I would keep leaning on God for all things.

Flooding and Clean Up...

Piles of ruined belongings at
the side of the road

Wow, what a week! I'm sure most of you will have heard about the devastating floods that hit Slovenia a week ago. There's been so much damage and many people have been left with nothing. I personally was not at any risk - I live on the second floor in the middle of the city, well away from and sources of water - but it actually could have been very different. 3 weeks ago, late at night, it was raining and I suddenly heard dripping in my flat. It was quite bad and I could start to see water soaking into one of my walls. I had no idea what was going on especially since there is a flat above mine. My upstairs neighbours were away at the time but I had the key. I woke my landlords up and together we found that the upstairs terrace had a blocked drain which meant that the water was seeping through the door jamb and into my flat. The upstairs flat was totally fine.

This was all very frustrating but the next day my landlords cleared the drain and totally unblocked the pipe. If we had not found out about this blocked drain, which only caused a little bit of staining and no long term damage, my flat would probably have been flooded when the big rainstorms hit. My story is nothing compared to the people who lost everything, but it was a good reminder to me that we don't know the future. We don't know what will happen in a week, a month or a year, but God does. Although I faced a minor inconvenience, this probably saved me from much worse damages. We may not understand why things happen, we may not understand why God allowed these floods to take place, but I am sure that God is still in control and has a plan. Sometimes he allows bad things to happen to protect us from something worse later on.

This week the rains have finally stopped and the clean up operation is in full swing. The government has declared Monday to be a national holiday of solidarity, to help those in need. Tuesday is also a holiday so this means a 4 day weekend. 

Earlier this week, on Monday, I travelled to one of the affected areas to help a family connected to a church nearby. All along the road people had dumped their ruined possessions. We passed over the stream that had flooded and it was mind boggling to realise that it had been several metres higher only a few days earlier. Despite that, people had worked so hard and the roads were a lot cleaner than I was expecting. The house I was helping at had had 4 feet of water which meant that the whole downstairs and the garage had been affected. We stayed for several hours, throwing away things that could not be saved and cleaning some of the things that could. The smell of mould and damp was pervasive and of course they had no clean drinking water. I felt slightly guilty that I was able to go home to my clean, fresh smelling flat, knowing that I could drink the water and clean my clothes with no risk.

Please keep praying for the country of Slovenia and for all the people affected by these floods.

On a different note, I will be travelling to the UK next Friday with a group of teenagers to help with a Holiday Bible Club. Please pray for us as we prepare to go, we are already facing some last minute challenges. Please pray that things will go smoothly and that the young people will learn how to serve cross culturally. Please pray for the HBC and the church we will be serving with. Pray that God would be glorified and that we would be able to share his gospel with the children and their parents. Also, that we would have a good time together and that they will enjoy seeing more of my home context!

Reflecting on My First Year in Ministry

Early morning view of the River Kolpa

I hadn't quite realised how long it had been since I last wrote a blog post. So much has happened that unfortunately my updates have been pushed to one side. For those who want to hear more about my time on camp, I have just sent out a prayer letter. Please let me know if you would like to be added to that list.

The end of June marked the end of my first school year in full time, long term ministry. That's a strange sentence to write considering I've been in Slovenia since 2018. I've not really had a chance yet to reflect on the year but it's been interesting to see how a job title change has changed my outlook both on my purpose for being in Slovenia but also my confidence. One of the ways Satan loves to attack workers in Slovenia is by making them feel inadequate and I have definitely been on the receiving end of these attacks. What I have been reminded of time and time again, is that it doesn't matter if I'm the best or the worst youth worker in the world because I'm not doing this job in my own strength but in the strength of Christ. I am here, I am willing to serve and I know that God is with me.

My first year has, in general, been very positive. I have seen God working, I have seen young people grow in their faith and want to learn more about God. When I took over this role last September, I wrote the following mission statement: "The point of youth work is to help them grow in godliness as we teach them the Bible, train them, worship God together and do life with them in the good times and the hard times. We encourage them, we have fun with them as we model what it looks like to live as a Christian and as we prepare them to go into the world living lives pleasing to God."

I have said many time this year that although I would love to see lots of people becoming Christians, discipling the young people we have is just as important. I want to see them grow, whether it's from no faith, to faith or to a more mature faith. We are called to make disciples of all nations, not just converts.

As I look back on this year I definitely feel the weight of more responsibility, but I also see the joy and encouragement of a young person having a question answered or discovering something in the Bible that they had never seen before.

Looking ahead to the new year, I know that I will still face challenges, I know that I will still face attacks from Satan, but I also know that God is with me, working through me and I know that I will still see the encouragements of young people wanting to know God better. I know that God has not forgotten Slovenia and most of all, I know that he is faithful to his promises!

Nearly There...

Working on my balcony

The end of the school year is coming up very rapidly. This year schools end on 23rd June so only 2 more weeks! Growing up in Britain it has taken a while for me to get used to the long summer holidays but now I very much appreciate it! The weather has been quite mixed and hasn't quite decided if it's summer yet or not. I've had a couple of mornings where I've been able to work outside on my balcony but then massive thunderstorms have come through in the afternoon.

With the end of school coming so quickly, my attention is firmly fixed on plans for camp. Who knew that it was so much work?! Thankfully I have a team of people who are doing so much to plan and prepare. Things work a little bit differently here, and although we had the best of intentions, we only started to advertise a couple of days ago. Despite that, I already have 7 young people signed up, most of whom don't come from my church. I know that all of the young people from my church will come but it's a really good opportunity for them to spend time with other young people from around the country. Please be praying for this camp and for all the work I still need to do to prepare. We can accept a maximum of 24 young people and there will be 6 leaders including me. Please pray that we will get more people signing up and that all the rest of the preparation would go well. Please especially pray for me as I still need to write 2 talks for the camp - I have started working on them but I would really like to get them both finished in the next 2 weeks.

Apart from prep for camp, I obviously still have 2 more weeks of my normal work to do. I have now finished language lessons which has freed up some time for me. I had a language exam a couple of weeks ago, and whilst I don't know the result yet, I'm confident I've passed. Whilst the exam itself wasn't too hard (I took a level below my actual ability) it is necessary for residency. It is required for permanent residency, which I will be able to apply for in a couple of years. I decided to take the exam now whilst I was still learning so that I don't need to worry about it later on. Please pray that I would have peace as I await the result. Please also pray for these last 2 weeks, especially for the young people as they are finishing exams and wanting to finish as soon as possible. Everyone is very tired and it's great that soon we will be able to rest - well until camp that is!

Preparing for Summer...

Spring in Swindon

 It was lovely to see so many of you when I was back in the UK a few weeks ago. It's amazing how quickly the time has gone since then. It really was a great opportunity to catch up with many of you but I apologise to those who I didn't manage to speak to. I also had a great time with family and meeting my new nephew, who is already a month old!

It has been a strange few weeks since I returned, not least because I got a stomach bug and was sadly unable to go to a friend's wedding. I was very sad to miss it but I did feel quite ill at the time!

It's also ununsual from a British perspective to think that I'm nearly at the end of my first school year as youth worker here at REC. In Slovenia the schools have to finish by 25th June, which is Independence Day. This means that I have just over a month left until summer. I really feel like we're in the home stretch now. The young people are definitely ready to be finished for the summer and many of them are counting down the weeks. This means that plans are in full swing for our summer camps. Our first camp will be 10th-14th July. This is the youth camp and is open to young people and students from across Slovenia. This is my first time in charge of organising it. There is a lot to organise and to remember and I will be giving two talks which I need to start preparing.

I will then have a few weeks that will be relatively calm where I can start evaluating the year and start preparing for September. Then from 18th-25th August I will be taking a group of the teenagers to help with a Holiday Bible Club in Beccles, Suffolk. We will spend a couple of days in London before travelling to Beccles. This also is obviously taking a lot of organisation but I'm looking forward to it. Then in a move, which I'm not sure whether it's brilliant or crazy, we will be flying from London to Zagreb to be collected by parents and then go directly to the church camp from 25th-27th August.

This all means that I have a lot to prepare now but then my summer will be a mixture of crazy busyness and slow restful periods. Please be praying for me, for the teams and for the teenagers as we prepare for all these different activities. Please pray that God would be glorified through all these things and that many children and teenagers will hear and respond to the gospel, whether here in Slovenia or in the UK.

I Finally Got to a Biennial...

Catching up with friends

As many of you will know, I have been in contact with ECM as an organisation since 2016. I have officially been part of the organisation since 2017 and first moved to Slovenia in May 2018. In all of that time I have never made it to a Biennial. The last one took place in March 2018 and so I missed it by only a few months. For obvious reasons, the one that was due to take place in 2020 was cancelled and so it was a great joy to finally make it this year. My journey was probably one of the least stressful as I only had to travel to Umag on the Croatian coast, only a few miles from the Slovene border.

Many of you know that the last few months have not been easy for me and so it was really helpful for me to travel away from Ljubljana and to encourage and be encouraged by other workers from across the world. It was such a joy to catch up with friends I have not seen in person since 2019. I also met some people that I had never met in real life before. I have been meeting with one lady regularly for a number of months on zoom so it was lovely to meet with her properly for the first time.

The main theme of the conference was But God... We had great teaching on how different people in the Bible faced trials and struggles, but God worked powerfully to achieve his purposes. The greatest example of this being the death and resurrection of Jesus - a rather fitting topic for this Easter period. We also had an emotional time hearing about the work and struggles of our Ukranian colleagues, many of whom are based in Lviv. It was good that they were able to come and join with us, and it was a much needed reminder that we need to stand with our brothers and sisters who are going through such times of suffering.

One of our morning sessions

For the first few days of the conference I was a lot busier than I expected to be and so I hardly left the hotel. I was asked to sing in one of the sessions and I helped out with the info desk over a couple of lunchtimes. Later in the week we had our General Assembly where I was voted to join the Advisory Group for ECM International. Please be praying as I take on this new role, that God would give me (and the rest of the group) wisdom and discernment to know what is best for the organisation. I was also involved in introducing speakers at a number of seminars and I led a seminar on singing in church with a couple from Austria. This seemed to go well, so thank you to those of you who were praying for it.

The best part of all, though, was the random conversations with different people and the ministry reports from across Europe. Work in Europe can feel slow and small, especially when compared to other parts of the world, but God is still working. He is still in control, and this was a great reminder for me as I go back to my everyday ministry and work in Slovenia.