The countdown is running short. Tomorrow afternoon 150 volunteers will start arriving for Daniel Generation. DG is the conference for volunteers before CampFest starts. Because they will be working during the festival, the week before CampFest is set aside for them to preview the speakers, have fun getting to know each other, and help setting up the tents, stages, and equipment. August 1st, thousands of young people will arrive and set up their tents. The first concert will start at 7 that evening. From that point till sometime around 2:30AM Sunday everything will be a blur of concerts, speakers, tents, stages, general busyness, and not enough sleep. We will get back in touch with everyone once we recover.

The bathrooms are finished and Micah can put those 6 weeks behind him. Last week there were over 200 young people from an AWANA-like program here for their annual camp. They dressed up like Indians, slept in tents and were very glad that the bathroom building was available to them. On monday, Micah helped hang the letters on the sign above the driveway. Now when you drive up, instead of a plain brown sign it says "Ranc Kralova Lehota". Micah's current project is renovating the outdoor kitchen. It will be down to the wire, but the goal is to have it up and running as the snack bar at CampFest.


Speaking of down to the wire, I am still working on pulling the CampFest video together. There were some miscommunications and changes that need to be made, but I think it will be pretty nice when it is finished.

This past weekend we toured a cave and saw ancient bear bones. We learned a new term as well: stalacnites are the rock formations when a stalactite and stalagmite meet. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside the cave but if youve ever been inside a cave you get the idea. I still think it's cool every time.


We also made our way to the information center in Liptovsky Mikulas and bought a map with all the local hiking trails. Micah is looking forward to hiking and I'm anticipating the chance to take a lot of pictures - - this area is really beautiful, you should come visit us sometime :)

We have had 5 language lessons so far and they are going well. We are taking a short break during CampFest and we'll restart again in August. Hopefully we do not forget everything we have learned between now and then!

Please pray with us:
~For CampFest
~Safety and good health for everyone at the festival
~That it will run smooth from the organization side of things
~That people will be open to the gospel message
~That an apartment will be found for us
~For continued adjustment to a new culture
~Language learning - for courage to practice and make mistakes

Thank you so much, your prayers and support are the only reason that we are able to be here.

update - kind of

I wrote this last monday, sent it on the 24th, and now i'm posting it here. without pictures. i will get better at this....after Campfest

Things are good here in Slovakia, we had palacinky (like crepes with fruit) for lunch and there is fried Cheese for dinner! Some days are hot dogs with mustard for breakfast. But today things are looking up! : )

We are still busy here. I (Stasi) am making headway on the Campfest intro video. I have also re-designed the menu and created lettering for the sign above the driveway. This week I moved into a new workspace. It is a little building, really a small cottage, but it is quiet and I am no longer at risk of getting hit with the back end of a pool stick.

Micah has spent a lot of time the past week digging holes. He says that he is starting to feel like a human excacvator. If anyone has a spare excavator laying around, Micah asks that you to ship it to Slovakia, his arms are getting tired. He has also been working on finishing the letters for the sign above the driveway out of wood. The bathrooms are mostly finished and they are being used this week by over 200 young people who are staying here (mostly in tents).

The weather here has been bizarre this week. I suppose the proper term could be scattered thundershowers. But it's more like the clouds can't make up their minds. It started out very hot and then turned very wet. The sun comes and goes rather suddenly. We have been told that this is not normal summer weather.

I'd like to thank those of you who have been praying for my rash, The trip to the doctor's was very confusing in a different culture, but the doctor looked at my arm and said it was an alergic reaction probably to some food. She gave me a shot and some very strong antihistamines. When Micah started to get a similar rash the next day we started to think it was probably not an allergic reaction. A trip to the vet (all by ourselves!) revealed that the kitten, who we named Rabbit (after our car), had a severe case of notoderic mites. These mites are not supposed to bother humans, but considering how severe Rabbit's infection was and how much close contact we had with her, it is our guess that this is what caused the rash and itching. The vet gave Rabbit some medicine to kill the mites and since she has cleared up, so have we. We are mostly cleared up and only itch a very little bit.

We had our first language lessons this week. Our teacher Danica is very nice and has been very patient working with both of us at different levels. She was very impressed that Micah already knew the word for wheelbarrow. We are looking forward to being able to communicate more. We have not made any embarrassing language mistakes yet, but we will be sure and let you know when we do :)

Volunteers will start arriving in just 2 weeks to start setting up for CampFest. CampFest is YFC Slovakia's big event, a 3 day music festival with bands from all over Slovakia and the world. Last year over 4500 people came. We still need about 10 more guys to volunteer to help with setup and running the festival, and there are a thousand little details being pulled together so that things will run smoothly

Thank you so much for praying for us. The little things are easy enough to take on their own, but can start to grate on us after a while. There is so much room for us to grow and we are by God's grace learning.

Please continue to pray with us:
~Praise - the rash cleared up!!
~That we find an apartment.
~For CampFest. That the final details come together smoothly.
~That we continue to be open to learning in this new culture

Ranc Tour Part 2

Welcome to The second half of the tour of Ranc Kralova Lehota


This is the playground behind the terrace. The ranch also has a sand volleyball court and a (non permanent, kind of bumpy) soccer field.

In addition to the Main building there are also 4 cottages here. Each cottage can sleep up to 12 people.


Even though each is set up a little differntly inside if you go into one you get the basic idea and you can imagine all the different ways that furniture could be arranged.

There is a small bathroom in the back left corner.

Upstairs there is a little sleeping loft.

there is only so much that you can say about 4 beds a chair and overhead lighting.


Now we move to the "Socialka" or the bathroom building. This is where Micah has put in a good deal of work in the past month. This is great if you host a music festival where thousands of people camp for the weekend.

This side is the men's bathroom and showers

And this side has the outdoor faucet (time will tell) and the women's toilets and showers


this interior shot (doesn't that sound fancy) shows the women's showers. The men's side looks pretty similar, and you don't really want to see pictures of the toilets do you? (I couldn't get a good angle of them anyway.)


Above the bathrooms is a little dorm type place. It's not the Hilton, but in my opinion it beats a tent!


I hope you enjoyed seeing where we are living and working. We are enjoying living and working here. Just let us know when you are planning to come and see it in person.