I'm an aunt!

Okay, not a real aunt but rather a surrogate aunt. Sorry sis, didn't mean to scare you there. :-) Right from the start of my time in Slovenia I have had the privilege and blessing of serving as an aunt for the Woodard's two kids, Abigail and Elijah. I think I had only been in country for five days when Joel and Amy skipped town with Elijah for a few days and left Abigail and I to hold down the fort. I survived my aunt initiation (and so did Abigail) and we've been having fun ever since!

This is what Abigail looked like after I fed her spaghetti the first day of aunt initiation! :-)

And this is when I showed Abigail how to look cool while she is coloring.
This is when Elijah helped me learn how to feed a baby cereal.
This picture says it all...I love this little girl!

Shortly after arriving in Slovenia I was also adopted as an aunt by one of our students from Trdna Skala. While walking around town with a few of the gals, one of them (who shall remain nameless, Ana) decided to get an additional ear piercing. No problem, she went into the jewelry store while another gal and I waited outside and talked. When we went in to check on her she acted a little nervous and the salesman asked me something in Slovene. I just looked at him blankly and said that I only speak English. Once we were back outside she informed me that she had told the salesman that I was her aunt and that I had given permission for the ear piercing. I quickly asked if her mom knew she was getting her ear pierced and she said yes. Phew! But still we had a little talk about truth-telling. :-) Also, right before I went to a choir concert at Ana's school I found out she had told her school principal that she has an American aunt, yours truly. Ana, I like being your aunt! Is there anyone else that I need to know about that you've given this information to? =)

Ana sporting an additional ear piercing!
Ana and I outside of her school after the choir concert.

Fall Festival!

Why am I always talking about things that happened a week ago? I would never make it as a newscaster - this just in...a week ago! :-) So last Friday we had a fall festival party at the Woodard's house. We carved apples instead of pumpkins and it was a lot of fun! Then some people played games and the rest of us watched Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe. We kind of had an apple/caramel theme going on for the evening and ate caramel apples, caramel corn, hot apple cider and spice cake. It was fun to be together and hang out for the evening!

Yummy caramel apples that Joel made.

Creative apple carving in action!

Nejc won for longest continuous apple peel strip!

LAN Party and Picnic

Last Friday night the boys at TS had an all-night LAN party. I don't even know what "LAN" stands for but I opened up TS for them and watched in awe as one by one they showed up with computers in hand and plugged in cables every which way to connect them. I think they had 13 computers networked together and played some war video game with and against each other. It was quite the sight to see! The girls and I hung out for awhile and observed and talked and then we left the boys to carry on with their mesmerized video game playing! :-)

Setting up!

Too many cables for me to keep track of!

Game on!

The weather has now turned cold and rainy but I'm still thinking about the beautiful weather we had last Saturday at Bled Lake for our all day TS picnic. Joel and I took our bbq grills and we had a bbq picnic right there on the lake shore. A bunch of students came and some parents and siblings too. We had a great time eating, playing, and hanging out together! We also had a guest speaker who led a great discussion time about sin, death, and resurrection.

JV 2x3 Campaign

Beginning October 26th, Josiah Venture is hosting vision nights in 11 different cities across the United States and you all are invited to attend the one nearest you! This will be a great evening of hearing what God is doing in Central and Eastern Europe through the JV ministry, catching a vision for the future, and seeing how you can be involved. We are asking God to double the fruitfulness of the ministry in the next 3 years so that is where the "2x3 Campaign" logo comes from. Trust me, this will be an encouraging evening for you so please attend if you are available! Delicious desserts will be served and the event is free of charge but you do need to rsvp within the next few days if you are able to attend. For more info or to rsvp online go to www.2x3campaign.com.

Tour Schedule

Date	City	Time	Venue
Oct 26	Bellevue, WA	7:30pm	Crossroads Bible Church
Oct 28	Portland, OR	7:00pm	Marriott Downtown Waterfront
Oct 30	Scottsdale, AZ	7:00pm	The Westin Kierland Resort
Nov 1	San Jose, CA	7:00pm	Marriott San Jose
Nov 3	Pasadena, CA	7:30pm	The Westin Pasadena
Nov 6	Atlanta, GA	7:00pm	Hyatt Regency Downtown
Nov 7	Hamilton, ONT	7:00pm	Crowne Plaza
Nov 8	Peoria, IL	7:00pm	The Waterhouse
Nov 10	Minneapolis, MN	7:00pm	Marriott City Center
Nov 11	Denver, CO	7:00pm	Hyatt Regency Downtown
Nov 13	Oak Brook, IL	7:00pm	Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort

One Percent from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

JV Fall Leadership Conference

Last week I was in the Czech Republic for the JV fall leadership conference. Our theme was the Radiant Bride of Christ...His Church. There were 170 JV staff and nationals there from 11 different countries and we had a great time learning together about four New Testament pictures of the church as the family of God, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, and the temple of God. I came home inspired to see the church (God's people) in Slovenia grow in all of those areas!

Amazing Hike on Krvavec Ski Slopes

On Monday I did an amazing hike up the slopes of the Krvavec ski area exploring more of God's creation. It was steep hiking up the ski slopes but the spectacular views were worth it! Take a look for yourself...



Makes me want to go skiing this winter just so I can see those mountain peaks when they are covered in snow! I see mountain peaks as big arrowheads pointing up to God as the glorious Creator and they do my soul so much good by pointing me to Him. :-)

"Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." -Psalm 90:2

TS and Paintball Wars!

We had a lot of fun the weekend before last...on Friday night we had a TS meeting and a group of students from the nearby town of Radovljica came to join us. We played shuffle your buns and wink 'em. For those of you who aren't familiar with youth ministry games you can try to guess how they work by looking at the pictures below! :-) Then Josh Patty led us in a discussion about the differences between men and women in how they communicate and what their strengths and weaknesses are. We had a great time!

Shuffle to the left...

shuffle to the right...and try to jump in!

You can wink at my gal...but I'm not gonna let her escape!

On Saturday morning a group of us got together to play paintball war games out in the woods. As you can see...some of them take this pretty seriously with full camo attire! This was my first time of participating in a real paintball war and I have to say that it can really get your adrenaline going. Being a rookie, I was a little cautious and too reserved with my ammo but look out next time everyone because I'll be out to get you! :-)

Attack of the paintballers!

Myself and Zan...ready, aim, fire!