our newest additions

This is our new car. After a trip to the police station at 5 this morning, (yes, FIVE AM!) we now have all the paperwork, emissions, inspections, insurance....and now we have a car we can drive. Technically, the car is not in our name, but until the quest for a visa is complete we are satisfied by the ability to make trips for cat food! and chocolate in Liptovsky Hradok.

More recent than even the car, our family has grown by about 200g. No, that is not how much weight I have put on. We now have a (very) little kitten.

Here she is almost lifesize! (I am only kidding a little bit :)
Our friends the O'Connells saved her from the cold city outside their apartment in Kosice, and we promised to give her a new life in the country. So far she does not like to venture off the bed much, but she loves to cuddle. We think she may be blind in her left eye, and when she cries at night Micah wishes he were deaf. She had a hard few weeks on the streets and we're glad for the chance to fatten her up.

So that's the summary, still looking for an apartment, still in the process of getting temporary stay permits, but we have paprika, a car and a kitten. Life is good in Slovakia!

P.S.We are taking suggestions for names (for the car and the kitten)

Micah's Addiction

In addition to Salt, Pepper and Toothpicks, the table setting here includes Paprika. Micah rarely eats a meal now without adding paprika to it. He is trying very hard to convert me but so far I am holding out.
I just thought you should know. :)

Ranc Tour Part 1

You may notice that I have no clue how to spell Ranch. Sometimes I leave off the H at the end. This is the Slovak spelling....kind of. In Slovak the C should have a "v" above it. I am just too lazy to add the special symbol. At any rate, you get the idea right?

Vitajte do Ranc YFC (welcome to the YFC Ranch)
We begin our tour at the main building and Summer terrace


Let's Go in Shall we?


This dining room is the first thing you see when you walk in. To your right are the fish and birds. this room used to be outdoor seating but has been closed in to allow larger groups to eat her in the winter. The expanded terrace created plenty of outdoor seating.


As we continue straight ahead you enter the second dining room, to the right outside this photo is the bar and the kitchen.


If we turn around from the previous shot, we can enter the larger group meeting room. This room has a shound system, chairs and also a pool table. It is also where my desk is.


That concludes the downstairs portion of our tour, maybe you would like a peek into one of the rooms upstairs? There are 12 rooms upstairs, most of them look like this one, to the right, out of the photo, is a small bathroom with a toilet sink & shower.


If you look out the window of this room you can see the terrace. The open part will have a tarp cover eventually. Since this photo was taken, Micah and I helped stain the unfinished wood


Here you can see the inside a little better. There are tables and a (not currently functioning) outdoor kitchen. This is also where large groups can hold meeting in the warmer months.


Well, that's all for now, i hope you'll join us later for the rest of the tour.

Mobilization

I promise to continue the ranch tour later. I just wanted to share a few shots from the weekend so far.

We have had some great times of worship and prayer as well as good speakers and encouraging testimonies.


The most powerful times for me so far have been the times that we all prayed out loud together. It is a beautiful thing to hear the hum of voices all asking God to bless Slovakia and to use us and the festivals and event this summer to Change Slovakia for His glory.

We will be here fasting and praying until Sunday at noon. (6pm EST) Please continue to pray with us.

The Ranch

Would you like to see the ranc?

this is what it looks like from above.

I'll post more pictures and a tour after this weekend. If you can't wait, you can see more at flickr

Mobilization Weekend, for fasting and prayer for campFest is starting in a few hours. Please join us in prayer?

Next week we may be headed back to Presov to help out at at a Matt Redman and Hillsong concert....exciting stuff

We still don't have a car or a place to live. Please pray with us about this. the leads we thought we had fell through. it is very difficult to locate a car and apartment in a place where you don't have a car or speak the language.

We made it!

I am writing this from Slovakia! We started out from Pittsburgh with our stuff on the 5th at 8:15 in the morning!


24 hours, four flights and one confiscated pocket knife later, we arrived in Kosice.
Paly and Ivetka who I lived with here before picked us up at the airport with thier son Teo. I was exhausted from traveling and also was carrying luggage at that point so I didn't get any pictures of Teo who is easily twice the size he was when I left!

We stopped at the YFC offices in Presov to say hi to some people there and have some lunch. The cafe there is up and running, it was exciting to see how it looks finished and with people in it.
We also remembered that sometimes Europeans make their hot chocolate thick enough to eat with a spoon (it was veeery good)


Then Paly drove us out to the Ranch then where we will be staying until we find a place to live and a car.

We are just having a relaxing weekend here before the real work of searching for a place to live and a car and cell phones and all that needs to be done starts on Monday.

Thank you for praying, we had a safe trip and the baby we sat next to while we crossed the Atlantic ocean didn't cry once! If that is not God's grace I don't know what is!