June 19, 2009

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.