10th Update!!!

I’m walking on sunshine oh oh and don’t it feel Good! (apologies to Katrina and the Waves)

This was an eventful week.

Last Friday I took a 10 hour bus ride to Prague and met up with Kristen!! I firmly believe that weekends in Prague with people you love are God’s apology for Culture Shock! It was a blessing and refreshing and amazing. I’m not going to give you a play by play, but the highlights include: Speaking English the WHOLE time, being with someone who has known me over 2 months, comparing notes on the one-year missionary life, things that smelled really good, and black light theater. Another Highlight for me was that we attended an English Speaking church. I had not realized the extent to which I was starving for corporate worship in a language I understand! In summation, we dandered (my new Irish word), we talked, we took close to 500 pictures, we went on a boat tour and saw the Beatles in Blacklight (which was every bit as trippy as it sounds!). It was a great weekend! My pictures are up on Flickr and later this weekend, Kristen is going to put the blow by blow, complete with pictures, on her blog. Feel free to dander on over to http://www.rmfo-blogs.com/kristen and check it out.

I got home on Monday morning at 545 came home napped and went to the office for the afternoon. This week I worked on gathering ideas for the CampFest videos and its starting to come together in my head. Next week I’ll start grabbing some footage from old CampFest videos and deciding what I need to shoot.

Tuesday morning was a rough one. I was running (literally) late for my bus, tripped, fell, crushed my mobile, cut my hand, and the darn bus still left without me. The most damage was done to my mobile phone, my ego and my spirit. I have some amazingly stellar days, but lurking just under the surface you can find culture shock, a little homesickness and a lot of feelings of inadequacy. There is nothing like falling on one’s face while running to catch a bus to bring those things to the surface. In spite of all that, I can honestly say that God is good, and he takes care of his own. Mrs. Biros from downstairs bandaged my hand up and gave me hot chocolate, and some much needed mothering. I got on the next bus, made it to the office without incident and e-mailed my Tuesday prayer warriors as well as a few others. God answers prayers. By the end of the afternoon I was feeling infinitely better. By the time my Slovak lesson rolled around, I had rediscovered my grove. This just highlights how much of a blessing you all are. I would be lost if you all were not praying.

Wednesday was, as I predicted last week, very long. The office was crowded and I had trouble concentrating and sitting still. The highlight was that we finally collected all the documents I need for my Visa (we think) and so next Monday will find me in the police station, with all my paperwork, and only a few forms and official approval between me and being here legally! (Technically, I AM currently here legally, but to stay longer than 3 months, I need the visa)

This morning, when I went up to breakfast, Paly commented that I seemed to be shining. There was good reason for that. Today I went to Kosice to greet the group who came from the Slovak Craft Shop in Grove City. This is the group that includes RuthAnn Humes and Micah Henry. I got a lot of hugs., hugs from Mars Alliance, from my family, and started to make a dent in the 10 weeks worth of hugs that Micah owes me. I am not complaining about this at all. It was wonderful to see Micah, and to meet the people I will be spending the week after next with. The group has gone on to Hermanovce to do a week long work camp with the Cirkev Bratska there. We will meet up again next Thursday and I will join them as they tour Slovakia.

Tomorrow (Friday) morning I leave bright and early (think 5AM) to head back to the Czech republic to a town called Vsetin. MPK is having a Worship Festival there this weekend. It is an ecumenical event and there have been some tensions between the Evangelical and Catholic churces in Vsetin.
We wont get home until Sunday evening. Monday is visa day, Tuesday is location scouting and pulling everything together for the music video. Wednesday will be another long day,, but full of last minute details for the music video and maybe some CampFest Video prep. And Thursday will find me again meeting up with the Grove City group, this time for a week long tour of the country and a full on vacation before the summer gets too crazy! These two weeks are weird echoes of each other.

This week I also caught a vision for a video that will tell the stories of MPK. People keep telling me stories about this ministry and that and how God has provided for the ministry here in Slovakia. I would love for others to hear these stories as well. One problem with this is the language barrier, it’s hard to conduct interviews and edit stories in a language you don’t speak. Another issue is that MPK does not own a high quality video camera of the sort that would be needed to make this type of video. Please pray with me that God will provide MPK with a camera. Especially with the possibility of another video person coming from the US, so much more could be done in this area.

Please Pray:
~ That I continue to have the motivation and ability to learn Slovak
~ For this weekend’s Worship festival. (safe travel for us from Presov, and God to move)
~ The Visa adventure as it hopefully comes to an uneventful close Monday
~ Safety for the GC group as they work in Hermnovce.
~ Things to come together for CampFest 2006
~ A location for CampFest 2007
~ That God will provide a quality Video camera for our use.

Without your prayers, I would be like a boat without paddles, drifting aimlessly and bound to crash into rocks and sink. Thank you for being my oars on this adventure your prayers and support are invaluable.