Good-bye TS, Slovenia and JV

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year already since I arrived in Slovenia. It’s been a year full of fast times, slow times, hard times, good times, fun times, deep times, warm times, cold times, sunny times, foggy times, walking times, riding times, driving times, smiling times, crying times, laughing times, praying times, singing times, shouting times, whispering times, hugging times, reading times, watching times, eating times (way too much of this), fasting times (not enough of this), talking times, sharing times, baking times, hiking times, facebook times, skype times, email times, blogging times, TS times, church times, JV times, fellowship times, ice cream times, coffee times, lost times, found times, profound times, hilarious times, and so much more. Really my time in Slovenia cannot be explained with words but rather it is felt deep in my heart. Now I am sitting in the Munich airport on my way home. What I can say is that God is good and faithful and that I wouldn’t trade this year for anything. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” Now is the time for me to head back home. Recently I learned that the word “good-bye” originated from the phrase “God be with you.” And so I say good-bye and God be with you to my TS friends, JV friends, and all of Slovenia. My deepest thanks go to all of you for the role you have played in my life and ministry during this past year. May all of the glory go to God!

Slovene Bible: Sveto Pismo = Holy Letter
From the rising of the sun

to the going down of the same, may the name of the Lord be praised (Psalm 113:3)!

Busy Days!

Phew! Life is busy these days as I am trying to spend as much time as possible with friends here in Slovenia before I return to the United States on January 12th. Here is an example of what my days look like:

Exhibit A = Saturday January 3rd. Spent Friday night at the home of the Patty's, enjoying precious time with this family that is so dear to me.

Kendra and I colored a sunset beach scene on Fri. night. Thanks Kendra for the art lesson! :-)

Then I woke up at 7am and was out the door at 9am on my way home to change and gather my gear to go snow hiking at the North Pole. Okay, it wasn't the North Pole but it looked and felt like it! I met my Slovene friends Matjaz and Mateja at 10:30am and we headed to the Great Mountain or Velika Planina with two of their other friends. We rode a cable car up the mountain and then took a chairlift up even higher. The temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit! We walked along paths in the snow for apx 1.5 hours, spent a couple hours in a tea house and then walked back.

Thomas, Suzanna, Me, and
Mateja on our Mt. Everest expedition. :-)

Doesn't this look like a shot straight out of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? I'm telling you, we were at the North Pole!
Beautiful sunset from the top of the mountain.

Once off of the mountain, I quickly drove home, jumped in the shower, changed and was at the bowling alley 30 minutes later at 6:30pm to treat the TS students to a round of bowling as one last fun activity to do together as a group.

We had a great time bowling even if most of us weren't any good! :-)

Then we got dessert and hung out for a couple of hours. At 10pm I took some students home then went home myself and crawled into bed exhausted but content at about 11:30pm. The Lord is filling me with His strength to run at this sort of pace for the last couple of weeks and I anticipate the same up until I leave. Thank you to all of you who are praying for me...please don't stop! :-)

Happy New Year!!!

We had a fantastic all-night celebration at TS to bring in the New Year over here in Kranj, Slovenia! Here are some pictures to give you a taste of all the fun we had! :-) I hope you all had fun New Year's celebrations too! May our love for and faith in God be ever-increasing throughout 2009 and for all of our years! :-)

Matic and Jernej set up our movie theater - I'm so thankful for these guys because we wouldn't have anything that requires electronics going if I had to do it! :-) And we had plenty of food as you can see in the background!
We had plenty of fun times around the game table with much laughter! =D

And some competitive but fun foosball matches!

People came and went throughout the evening and at one point we had about 22 people there. But as midnight approached, this was the group that remained. It was 19 degrees F out and we bundled up and headed to the center of Kranj to watch the fireworks and bring in the New Year.

They love fireworks here in Slovenia and aren't so safety conscious so fireworks were being launched all around. I saw one guy decide he would just hold the fireworks to launch it and burnt his hand pretty bad. I don't know why he was surprised. We kept ours a little more tame with sparklers. :-)

The main firework display was quite spectacular though my picture doesn't do it justice.

We were all thoroughly frozen from the 40 minutes or so that we were outside and ran back to TS to give a toast to the New Year!

I got home around 9:20am and slept until 3:30pm! Maybe I should just keep this sleep schedule so that I'll be on the right schedule when I return to Oregon on Jan. 12th. No, that won't work! I still have so many people that I want to connect with here before I leave!