Please pray

Micah & I attended MTI training with the Ralstons (Art, Danielle and their son Michael) before we came to Slovakia. We became friends and continue to pray for each other and keep in touch. They are serving at the Pioneer Christian Hospital in the Republic of Congo. Please pray for them and the rest of the staff at the Hospital.  I know this is long, and if you don't read the whole letter here is the summary: Our friends and their co-workers are on the edge of a war zone and are asking for your prayers.

Dear Team Members, Friends & Family,

 

    Since October 28, 2009, we have been in a state of heightened security at PioneerChristianHospital here in Impfondo, Congo.  That was the day that we received the first civilian casualties from fresh fighting in Dongo, a town in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Since October over 77,000 refugees have flooded across the OubanguiRiver into the Likouala Region of Congo from the Equateur Province of DRC. 

 

    We received two more waves of war wounded in November, and hear that more are on the way.  From collateral damage, streams of very sick refugees and residents have been flowing into PioneerChristianHospital for HELP.  Currently more than 50% of our patients need nutritional support, have only the clothes on their backs, and no means to pay for the care we administer.  At the same time, we are trying to stem the tide of a confirmed Swine Flu epidemic that has already taken the lives of 3 of the 10 contagious children.

 

    We are glad to be here doing our best to stretch our limited resources and minister effectively to very real needs, but the stress of being so close to a war zone is starting to take its toll.

 

    Things seem to be getting noticeably worse instead of better.  God knows if things are about to turn around, or descend into complete chaos, but I believe He wants us to be prepared either way.

    A lot has happened just this week:

-        On Tuesday, Laurent Fuka (17 year-old son of our surgeon) arrived home after evacuating from Bwamanda, DRC, where he has been attending boarding school for the last year and a half.  He and 7 classmates spent a week, fleeing from the rebels on foot, pirogue, UN motorboat, and truck.  They had several close encounters on the way.  Before leaving one of Laurent's classmates went to the market to buy some food and was killed by the rebels.

-        Tuesday evening we were called upon to treat two wounded rebels at the government hospital.  One is a 14 year old boy with a bullet in his right humerus.  The other is a 22 year old with a bullet in his buttocks. 

-        Tuesday night some people came to the government hospital looking for the wounded rebels, intent on rendering vigilante justice.  The staff was able to hide the patients, but this significantly delayed them from getting the care they need.

-        Wednesday morning during morning report at PioneerChristianHospital our maintenance staff heard gunshots coming from the river.  This was around the same time a Central African Riverboat was released by the rebels after being held overnight.  Occasional gunshots have been heard several other times this week too.

-        On Thursday local public high school students went on a riotous rampage after the government teachers went on strike instead of administering final exams for the semester.  The students trashed their school, then attacked several private schools in town, beating up other students and staff, destroying classrooms, and smashing computers.  The gendarmes and police were called in and ended up arresting 11 students.

-        Thursday night a river boat and barge hired by the United Nations to bring emergency food rations for the refugees came under repeated attacks from armed men in dugouts, and motorized longboats recently stolen from the UN refugee agency in DRC.  The barge was flying the UN flag and the pusher was flying the Congo-Brazzaville flag.  The attack was finally repelled with support from a Congolese military attack helicopter.

-        Friday we were interviewed about this crisis by a correspondent from Bloomburg News Service.  Maybe it will play on National Public Radio.

-        Friday night a river boat barge loaded with fuel for Impfondo was also attacked.  Congo-Brazzaville government soldiers traveling with the barge opened fire, reportedly killing a number of DRC rebels, whose bodies fell into the river.  The boat arrived in Impfondo this morning with a helicopter escort.

-        Saturday the regular Air Congo flight was postponed, and some people say it is because of the increased military activity downriver from Impfondo.

    I think we have no choice but to raise our security alert level and review and implement emergency planning. 

    I didn't want to write this message.  As far as we know, we are not in immediate danger, but we do need your help.  If you would be willing to join our intercession team to pray for our protection, wage spiritual warfare, and ask for peace on this part of the earth, please send a short message to Danielle Ralston (dralston{at}laborersfortheharvest.com) and let her know what day(s)/time(s) you will be praying

-- 

Danielle Ralston

Communications on behalf of 

Joseph Harvey, MD, MPH&TM, Medical Director

Pioneer Christian Hospital 

Republic of Congo, Impfondo

Cell Phone: 011 (242) 960 6289

Henrys in Slovakia

Hello again from Slovakia

All the leaves are off the trees but we are still having nice fall weather here, at least during the daylight hours. It has started to get dark around 4:00. Our days feel so short but the evenings kind of stretch out. It is hard to get motivated to do anything productive when it is dark out before dinner is out of the oven. 

We had a busy 2 weeks here at the ranch.  I (Stasi) traveled to Presov for a worship festival, shot video at a weekend seminar for sound engineers and celebrated 27 years of life! I had Monday and Tuesday off this week because of working the weekend and a bank holiday here in Slovakia. It was nice after working the past 2 weekends and I got some cleaning and crafting time as well as had a really relaxing birthday. The video from CampFest finally arrived and I am starting to really dig in to finish editing video for the CampFest LIVE! DVD/CD set. We are still going to try and have it finished in time for Christmas.....I would appreciate your prayers for that. It will really take a miracle.

Micah has been keeping busy as well. he is working mostly in a building that used to be a smokehouse but will someday function as an office. Today he cut a hole in the wall where a window will go. He is getting quite good at that...I'm sure he will look back fondly at that task someday :) He also has been doing a lot of basic maintenance work here like keeping the fire going and the furnace clean and filling in potholes in the driveway. 

Simon and Angie are back from Switzerland. Further tests showed that the cyst is still there but everything else is normal so chances are good that their baby will be fine. We are praying now that the cyst will go away on its own as the baby continues to develop. Thank you for your prayers for them and please don't stop just yet.

Thank you for your prayers and support, we can not be here without you!

Blessings,

Micah & Stasi

--

The Henrys

e-mail - MicahandStasi@gmail.com

website - http://micahandstasi.blogspot.com

phone  - 440/499-6126 (this is a US number that is forwarded to our computer)

YFC Ranc 

Svarin 1

032 33 Kravolva Lehota 

SLOVAKIA

Posting via e-mail?

It's been awhile here huh?
We have had pretty strict bandwidth limitations here the past few
months. Well the truth is we have always had the limits, but we have
been making a stricter effort to abide by them the past months. The
september internet bill for the ranch was over $200 USD!! So we have
been trying to limit out internet usage and I have felt guilty posting.
Now I have it set up to post via e-mail. So that should simplify
things and hopefully increase our posting frequency while not
increasing our bandwidth usage significantly.

I have been very busy and will continue to be for the rest of the
month but maybe this weekend I will type up and post some back entries

Here is a picture of Micah and I in Krakow last month.

Goose-Ducks?!

No, I certainly did NOT mean "half moose half duck" Although that would be interesting beyond anything we have seen here so far!

Well, I'm finally gettign around to posting about the Goose-ducks and chickens. They arrived a little over a month ago.


there are 5 "Goose-Ducks" (everyone swears they are really half Goose half Duck, but I'm still suspicious that they are just messing with the Americans. I am simply not convinced about their parentage, they look just like normal ducklings to me.

I don't have a more recent photo, but they are getting a lot bigger and have real feathers now.


There are 5 chickens with Ugly heads and 10 chickens that look like I think chickens should look. 2 of them are roosters, as near as I an figure.

I still do not know anything about chickens, But it is my job to close their little door at night so that the foxes don't get them. the chickens put themselves to bed, but I have to chase the Goose-Ducks pretty often. It is kind of funny since they can't see the door in the dark and they run into the wall as often as not trying to get in.

It is also my job to open the door in the morning and make sure they have food and water. I am not sure why any of this is my job. But, no matter what our job descriptions say we are here to serve however YFC can use us. Even if it means putting chickens and Mutant Goose-Ducks to bed and taking them water 4 times a day.

Thank you for Praying for Mobilization weekend. It was a good weekend and many people committed to pray daily for the speakers and bands and volunteers who will be at CampFest. We had excellent speakers and got a taste of what CampFest will be all about. The theme this year in "VIP - Vyplv Informacia Premena" Translated it works out to something like "Influential Information for Change". The idea is that the Information from God's word is powerful and we can be part of that. It was also encouraging to hear from people all across Slovakia about what God is doing in their town and region and to pray with and for them.

We are still waiting for our visas. We have been here 2 months now and have another month left on our 90 day visa. We are praying and trusting that God will open doors and clear the way through the bureaucracy. We still need to get our medical clearance and we are not entirely sure that there is not some missing paper that someone will tell us about. This is a difficult process especially in a foreign language and we appreciate your prayers.

We have continued to take language lessons 3 times a week. Slovak is a difficult language and we could probably study for years and still be scratching our heads occasionally. We are definitely making progress though. We can now use the past and future tenses and we are working on using the possessive. It is not a matter of a simple 's like in English, there are SIX possible ending to show possession depending on wether the possessor and possession are Male, female or neuter. In spite of his insistance that the Slovak language was designed to discourage foreigners, our language teacher complimented Micah on making drastic progress in the past 2 months.

The Lipovsky family (Marian, the national director with his wife and 2 kids) will be moving to the Ranch in September. They are planning to build a house but until that is finished they will be living in one of the cottages here at the Ranch. We are making some renovations to cottage #2 before they come, installing a small kitchen, dividing the upstairs into two bedrooms, relocating the steps and something about moving an exterior wall! Micah has been working hard along with others to make sure that it will be ready for them. My part in the "we are making renovations" has been to photograph the process :)

This past weekend we drove to Kosice to visit with our friends the O'Connells before they return to the US later this week. We had a good time visiting and helping them pack. We also helped by taking a few items like pots, picture frames, some books and a vacuum that would not fit in their suitcases. the vacuum is bright yellow and it makes me happy to sweep, Micah likes it too. We will miss having the O'Connells in Slovakia. If you think of it please pray for them (Jeff, Andrea, Will 6, and Jon 4) as they fly on Thursday and transition to what God has next for their family.

We can never tell you how much your prayers and support mean to us here in Slovakia. We had some rough days last week and know that your prayers helped us to get us through. Thank you!

We have been keeping busy here. We are still adjusting to life in a different culture and appreciate your prayers.

Last week a huge load of wood was delivered and Micah has been busy ever since chopping the logs into firewood for the furnace. He has also been working to get the grass mowed even though the belt on the mower keeps breaking (twice in one week!). I finished the first of the videos from last years campfest. I have a few changes to make,but it is essentially finished.I had the chance to sit down last Friday and brainstorm with Marian and Simon about ways to use media more effectively at CampFest.

Last week was Micah's birthday. Simon and Lubo also had birthdays. It was fun to celebrate all together.

I baked a tri-lingual cake and Simon gave Lubo and Micah water guns; I think they will really enjoy those this summer. There was also lots of pizza and sweetened condensed milk in a tube fore everyone.Do we know how to party or what!

Last weekend was the Crown financial seminar here at the Ranch.

In Slovakia there has been very little teaching about finances and virtually none from a biblical standpoint. Micah and I were able to participate in the seminar along with about 30 others. The seminar was led by the Program Director for Crown Europe in English and was translated into Slovak. So far the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and people have shown a lot of interest to see it taught in their local churches. For Micah and I personally we appreciated the biblical perspective and have had a number of conversations about our goals and thoughts from the seminar. We are praying that others who attended are having a similar experience.

Finally, we think that all of our paperwork has been sent and translated!! We made two trips this week to the Foreign Police and submitted our applications with all(?) the necessary paperwork, including these very unflattering photos taken when we felt like dying two weeks ago.

Was it Erma Bombeck who said "when you look like your passport photo, it's time to go home"? :)
There was only a minimum of run-around and red tape. We still have to have a physical sometime in the next weeks (there is something complicated about scheduling this that is lost in translation) but they will start to process our application in the meantime. It was a huge relief to get this done and now it is in the hands of God and the foreign police. Thank you for your prayers and please don't stop just quite yet! :)

This evening around 100 people will come to the Ranch for a weekend of prayer and fasting for Slovakia and CampFest. There will be previews of the main themes from the CF speakers and prayers over specific regions of Slovakia and over different areas of CampFest. Please feel free to join us in spirit this weekend.

Buchty!

Recipe Serves 4 (pictures served 400!)

-1/4c sugar
-1 ½ c hot/warm milk
-½ package yeast
Mix together and let sit till frothy

-A little less than 5 c flour 
-6 T Margerine
-1 T vanilla extract
-a little lemon zest
-½ t salt
-1 egg

mix together with yeast mixture Let sit 45 minutes to 1 hour or till risen. Punch down if it gets out of hand.

generously flour your work surface and preheat oven to 170 degrees…Celcius ☺ A hair under 350F


plop the dough down –  or if you're feeling proper....Place dough on work surface

be sure and flour your hands!




roll the dough out to between ¼ and 1/8 inch


cut into 2 or 3 inch squares


spoon filling (jam or nutella or stiff pudding or cottage cheese whatever you want) onto the center of the squares


form into balls around the filling be sure and pinch shut


Coat each ball with melted margerine and put into pans


Bake for 25-30 minutes


after they come out, brush sugar water over the finished buchty. Then Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Best eaten warm. The best part is they count as a meal!

Another Language mistake

Dino is one of the dogs here at the ranch. He is very territorial, it took Micah about 2 months to get friendly with him. Dino and I have a tentative relationship at best. And sometimes he is downright hostile. And when he barks outside at 3AM like last night I'm downright hostile. 

Today though, I realized why he just looks at me when I tell him to go into his house ("Do Miesto" - literally your "place".) I have been shouting "Dino, do Mesto".....Dino go to the city!

Poor dog, he is not being disobedient, just very confused!

This is the last week that we will be collecting questions for an upcoming FAQ (frequently asked questions) newsletter, so please e-mail and let us know what you would like to hear more about! (at this point it will be a really short letter)

 I set up a new feature on our website. You can now subscribe to receive these website updates (more detail, more often!) via e-mail. Just click the Subscribe via e-mail link in the right side column. 

The past week or so has been a busy one, we ate meals with two families, attended a conversation class and our bible study, went to the Bazar (second hand home goods), found a great new place to hike, and a spring with fresh mineral water (it's an acquired taste but we're on our way) we also got directions to a natural hot spring.

A missions group from East Main Church in Grove City stopped by Wednesday to see the Ranch and we went with them in the afternoon to the Tatras national park. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the break and the native english speakers :)

It seems like every day something new is added to our home. We now have a kitchen area with vinyl floor, tile backsplash, a refrigerator, microwave, cupboards and a sink. The stove should arrive over the weekend, but I have no clue where we will put it!  Or where we will plug any of this in. We only have one outlet in the downstairs until we re-wire.

We also have new carpet and all the sawdust is gone! 

Along with all his work on our cottage, Micah built some shelves for the terrace kitchen, and helped put up a stage for the program that was here over the weekend 

(notice they were using a minivan to help them pull it up)

370 kids came for some sort of day program! It had a mystery theme, a policeman came (and read from isaiah!) and they basically ran all over. Some sort of safety training meets VBS...I think... It was one of the events that the ranch is just the location for and Micah and I have no real clue what was going on :)

I worked this week to design a logo for the YFC Slovakia training center "Timothy Centrum" and a flier of the upcoming Crown Financial seminar. I also am working on compressing a 64GIG video file to fit on 2 DVD's. I am meeting with only moderate success.

I also helped in the kitchen last Friday making Buchty (a baked roll with filling, we used chocolate) for lunch for the kids who were coming. That was a LOT of fun! (once Mirka gives me the recipe, I'll post the step by step)

For those of you wondering about the status of our visas, we are waiting to hear back from the FBI about our criminal records. After those arrive (hopefully by next week) we will really step it up. But for now it is a waiting game.

We met this morning with our language teacher to discuss some new options for lessons. We have the chance to join another class of Slovak learners or continue with private lessons. We ask that you would continue to pray for wisdom for our decision making. We also appreciate your prayers for language learning, we need a lot of help.

Please continue to pray with us for:
~Language learning and lesson decisions
~A smooth process for the visas (that the FBI clearance comes soon)
~For YFC Slovakia as we gear up for summer events (school ends the 1st of June)

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Meet everyone!

Micah & I are so lucky to have such great people here at the Ranch. It is like being part of a family. I thought we could introduce everyone. I'm sure the rest of the staff woudl appreciate your prayers, and later when I tell a story about Odo or Lubo or Zoe, you will have a face to put with it.

First the Kloters from Switzerland: Simon Angie and Zoe

Simon was in a band that played at CampFest a few times. In 2006, he worked in Presov for a few months as an internship requirement for School. Simon, Angie and Zoe moved to Slovakia last November. They plan to live in Slovakia and work with YFC long term. They are currently staying in one of the cottages and are planning to build a house near the Ranc. Simon is heading up the new training program of YFC Slovakia, "Timothy Centrum" he deals with the logistics and any communication that needs to be done in English. Angie is a mom and helps Simon part-time. Zoe is a little over a year old and unbearably cute.

Next comes Milos Pasternak

Milos is the Manager of the ranch. He is in charge of the day to day running and decisions at the Ranch. He is a certified engineer, and knowledgable about almost everything. The most common thing you hear around here is "...ask Milos..." about any and everything. Milos has a great laugh, and sense of humor. He has 5 kids and is treats us like we are just an addition to that (a good thing).

This is Milos' oldest son, Ondrej. We call him Odo

He is taking a year off School and helping here at the ranch. He is training to be an architect, and is helping draw up Simon & Angie's house. (this is a different Ondrej than was here last summer, that Ondrej no longer works at the ranch)



The rest of the staff lives and works at the ranch 7 days and then has 7 days off.

Lubos is Micah's favorite. He is also called Lubo.

He is from a village just down the road and we have also gotten to know his family as well. Lubo speaks "intermittent" English. He is not afraid to try new words and is constantly comparing similar words...girl, grill, growl? Lubo cooks and helps with a little of everythign else here. He is also very encouraging to us. Everytime we learn new word Lubo celebrates with us, "Progress!"

Lubos works with Mirka,

Mirka was part of a group that I traveled with to Bratislava a few years ago. She takes care of the cleaning and serving guests. When there is a big group, she also helps cook. Mirka makes the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. (Sorry grandma Henry and Meghan) In the past, Mirka has gone with us to the foreigners police.

For a long time we only knew Miro as "the cook" because when someone talked to us about him they never used his name.

Miro does not speak any English, but will occasionally try a German word or two :) He lives in Liptovsky Hradok, with his wife and 3 kids. He was very glad to discover that he is 2 years younger than my dad. This morning he went with Micah to get the tires changed on the car. when Micah asked how much it would cost he told him "if you go 20 Euros. if i go with you 5." Miro knows just about everyone in town. I am going to get him to teach me to make soup. He and Micah have coffee every day at three.

Last but not least is Danka.

Danka takes care of cleaning and guests and office work. Last summer Danka made us feel very welcome here at the Ranch while we are still adjusting. She is a very nurturing person. Danka speaks English and German as well as Slovak and sometimes forgets who she is talking to and what language they speak. It's complicated around here: German and English with the Kloters, English with Micah, English and Slovak with Stasi, Slovak with everyone else...


Now you have faces to go with the names so when you come visit, you will know who's who.

Micah and the chainsaw

Sometimes, pictures just speak for themselves. Like this story of how Micah put a hole in the side of our house with a chainsaw and how now our downstairs is full of sawdust and light!

Gardens and Language Mistakes

I have started a small flowerbed here in front of our little cottage. Last week at this time this bit of earth was bursting with green and life.

I spent a lot of effort hoeing and raking and convincing micah to chainsaw and pick-axe. The result is a spot of ground where nothing is growing at all.

Everyone is interested in my efforts. No one seems concerned that all I’ve done so far is kill everything I touched :) and the strawberry seeds I plated don’t seem to be doing anything either!

I plan to transplant some wild violets, mint and blackberries from down by the river and plant some wildflower seeds I brought from home. I also have some pumpkin seeds that I bought last week on a whim.

I keep trying to tell people that I have never really had a garden before or at least not since I was in Kindergarten. Over the weekend I made the error of telling someone that this was my first zahoda instead of zahrada. Just a few letters difference. What I actually said was “I don’t know what I am doing. this is my first toilet” 

I will not add a toilet to my garden. I am thinking more along the lines of a terra cotta dwarf, just in case my real skill is killing plants.

Latest from Slovakia

We have not disappeared. the thing is, the internet this week is painfully slow! so, i have some news, but no pictures to back it up. i have a number of posts in the works though, and once the internet goes faster than 1 kb/s, maybe you will get to see some :)

Micah and I are starting to get the paperwork together to reapply for our visas. We hope to have everything done long before we need to so that we can avoid another unplanned trip to the United States! Please pray with us that this goes smoothly. There is a lot of bureaucracy here, sometimes you have to submit one piece of paper before they will tell you what the next one you need is. Add to that, the Foreigners Police office is an hour away and that none of them speak English and you might begin to see why we are starting to reapply a few months early! We are currently waiting to hear back from the FBI.

Thank you all for praying for us. We have definitely felt your prayers as we adjust to life here. It is so good to know that we are not here alone, we also have your prayers with us. We can use prayers especially for continuing to adjust and learn Slovak. Also that we will be a blessing to the people here in Slovakia.

We are collecting questions for an upcoming FAQ (frequently asked questions) newsletter, so please e-mail and let us know what you want to hear more about!

I promised an update after we had more than 2 hours of sleep. Micah and I are here in Slovakia after quite a trip.

Last Tuesday we made attempt number one to leave the country, but bad weather in New York kept us on the ground in Pittsburgh. We had already gotten on the plane and taxied but and had to turn around and head back to the gate. We need to thank those of you who were praying for us, instead of freaking out over a canceled flight, we were able to keep our cool while we were talking to gate agents and ticket agents and travel agents and secret agents...oh wait I got carried away! There were no secret agents. But with all the agents we talked to we were able to reschedule our flights for Wednesday and spent the night with Angie and the Kids in Pittsburgh. Thankfully, the canceled flight was the only real glitch in our travel. It was just a very long trip.
This is not a picture from our trip, Just a way to keep our trip in perspective. "how was your trip?" "well, we didn't catch on fire"

We arrived at the Ranc on thursday after a short stop in Presov at the cafe for some coffee and Hot Chocolate so thick you can eat it with a spoon. It is so good to be back and see our friends here. We are especially excited that the Kloters from Switzerland Simon, Angie and their daughter Zoe are her at the ranch. We met Simon in 2006 in Presov and it is nice to have the whole family here working with us as well. everyone here is well and Lubos who was in the car accident before we left returned to work this week. Micah is enjoying working with him again.

There is still Snow on the mountains but the weather in the here valley is nice and spring-like, not the 80's and 90's that some of you have been enjoying but we are having beautiful sunny days.

Thank you to those who prayed about our housing situation. Over the winter they insulated and finished the upstairs of the little cabin we will be staying in, so we were able to move right in.

I borrowed a sewing machine and already made curtains for the window. There are plans to re do some things in the downstairs like moving the entrance and adding a kitchen and a bigger window, but for now it is nice to have a space (and a bathroom) of our own.

I spent the weekend unpacking and trying to readjust to life on the Ranch. Micah adjusted by diving right in. He has been working on building a bank of outdoor cages for the pet birds. I am starting today tackle some desk work and finish editing some videos that I left part-way done in September. I will also work on getting the Ranch logo ready to be cut out of wood to go on the sign over the entrance.

Tonight we are going to an English Bible study and are excited about that. This week we will continue to work here and this weekend the ranch will host a weekend of training for Spiritual counselors.

Please keep checking our website for more frequent updates and photos. We love hearing back from you through e-mail. If you want to give us a call, the 440 number is the number to use(if you don't have it e-mail and i'll send it to you). Just dial it the same way you would if we were in Ohio and we get the call on our computer. You will not be charged for an international call and we pre-pay for unlimited service, just remember the 6 hour time difference!

Please pray:
~for us to continue to adjust
~that we can be a blessing to Youth for Christ in Slovakia
~for the spiritual counselor training this weekend

We made it!

We are in Slovakia safe and sound.

Thank you for your prayers.

We will update again on monday after we have a chance to recover from jet lag and our total inability to sleep on planes and in airports.

Guess who's still in the US? us!

a flight got anceled today so just go ahead and pray for us the same times on wednesday :)

God Bless

Micah and I are sitting int he Pittsburgh airport waiting for our first of 3 flights. We will arrive in Slovakia at 2:30PM on wednesday. (7:30AM EST)

We are excited to return and have been blessed in many ways and by a lot of people while we have been home.

Look for an increase of posting here.

Spring is Here

For the time being, "here" is in Grove City, PA. But in exciting news, as of the 23rd of April, "here" will be Slovakia!!!!!

We purchased our tickets yesterday, and we will fly out of Pittsburgh at 1:00 (or so) on Tuesday the 22nd. There is a lot to do between now and then, tonight we are going to sit down and really plan out our "needs done" and our "want to do's"

We are both a paradox of excited and overwhelmed. We appreciate your prayers as we prepare to return to the place God has for us.

YAY!!

This is the closest recent picture that I have to fireworks. You can't have a celebration without fireworks!

We just received word that we are cleared to re-enter the field which means that we can start shopping for PLANE TICKETS!!!!

Micah would prefer that we book passage on a ship but I think at least this one more time we will fly.

I am so excited.

First, Micah and I would like to thank you all for your prayers. I know we have dropped off the radar so to speak for the past few months, but we continued to feel your prayers as we made decisions about our ministry and God's will for our life.

While we never doubted that we would return to Slovakia, we did not have any peace about the timing and were concerned with some logistical issues. The thought of returning in November filled us with panic and fear rather than peace and excitement. Deciding not to return was difficult, but we did not believe that returning at that point would have been a healthy choice for us or for YFC Slovakia.

We have spent the last few months praying and seeking the wisdom of people we trust. We have taken a class in finances and concentrated on strengthening our marriage and our relationships with God. (Our marriage was not in trouble, but we are still new at this and had some things to figure out.) We have also learned a lot about trusting God's provision. We have adopted Tommy Walkers song "I Have a Hope" as a theme song of sorts. We believe that this time in the US has prepared us to minister more effectively when we return to Slovakia.

We believe that God has released us to go back to Slovakia. We have peace and are excited to return. Because we have been home for over 3 months, Youth for Christ/World Outreach requires us to go through a "return to field" process. It should not be a long or difficult process. The main concern is our budget and support. We need to re-confirm with our donors that their pledges will continue. We will be contacting those who made pledges within the next week or so. We can not purchase plane tickets until this is all finished. Due to the need to complete the process we are planning to arrive in Slovakia in mid to late March. We trust that God will provide for our return. If you feel led to make or renew a pledge please let us know.

We would appreciate your prayers as we tie up loose ends here, pack up, confirm our support and make flight arrangements.

If you want to contact us please feel free to send us an e-mail or give us a call.