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.

Oh Hi Oh Hi OH

Well, we are here safely in Ohio. Thank you for Praying!

We had a safe and uneventful trip from Budapest to NYC. We were very glad that we had a direct flight when we got to the airport and found out that our flight had been delayed almost 3 hours. 

We decided that having New York City as your rentry point to US culture was (for us) a little like diving directly into the deep end.
But we really enjoyed visiting with my (Stasi) sister and her family. We got to hold the baby, play RockBand on their XBox, eat at a Cuban restaurant, and we used Jimmy's ID to bypass ALL the lines at the empire state building.

He is currently at the high end of the brother-in-law list.

We also went to church with them on Sunday and then drove to Micah's parents in Ohio. We were only lost once very briefly (well ok, about 45 minutes) in what might have been the Bronx but we are not sure. :)

We are with Micah's family now, working on adjusting to the latest in a long series of lessons in living flexibly. Once we settle a bit more and find a transformer for the external Hard disks, I will continue work on video for the CampFest DVD. Micah also has a number of projects here that he will be working on. We will also be using this time to visit with as many of our friends who support us as possible. If you want to get together, just drop us a line and let us know.

quick update

I know it's been awhile and this will not be a regular full update.

Micah and I wanted to thank all of you who have been praying for us and share two prayer requests with you.


First, Lubo, who works here at the Ranc, and his family (wife & kids ages 3 & ~6 months) were in a car accident on the way home from vacation last Saturday. He ran head on into another car while passing.
Lubo and his wife, Katka, are in the hospital. The kids are staying with their grandparents. Timo the 3 year old has a broken collarbone and the baby Ester was not hurt. Katka has a broken hip. Lubo is having surgury today on two broken vertebrae in his lower back.
Please pray with us for Lubo and his family. Especially about his surgery. He is a very dear man and Micah has gotten to know him well as they worked together.

Second, There have been some problems with getting our temporary stay permits. In the words of our national director, "the whole process went for ages." This is relatively normal with official paperwork and Slovak bureaucracy. Without a temorary stay permit we are limited to being in the country 90 days every six months, so we will be traveling back to the states Friday. We are flying out of Budapest at 1:15 local time and will arrive in NYC at 5:10 EST. My sister is picking us up and we will spend a few days there before heading west to Ohio and staying with Micah's parents.

We will stay for Micah's brother's wedding at the end of October. Hopefully our paperwork will go through and we will return to Slovakia for the rest of our two year term after the wedding. Otherwise we will stay in the states for another month to "reset" our 90 days. Please pray for us as we make plans and fly on short notice. Also continue to pray for the temporary stay permit to come through.

Last Weekend

Last Saturday, Micah and I went hiking in the Prosiecka Dolina.


Micah is really the one who likes hiking. I just like to take pictures. We have a good deal, I go hiking with him and try not to complain and he waits while i take pictures and tries not to complain.


The particular trail we took was written up in a photocopied flier that we got from the info center. It rated the trail as good for older people or children...


So micah wore his new sandals, because if older people could do it, he could do it in sandals.

we want to know who rates hiking trails in Slovakia? We can not imagine our grandmothers doing this.


the trail did end at a pretty neat water fall


I took over 100 photos and Micah climbed a tree.

do you think I will get in trouble for posting this one?

More about CampFest!

How do you capture something like CampFest? 11 days full of preparation, thousands of people, loud music, challenging speakers, and lots of fun.

On August 1st over 120 volunteers arrived to set up tents and other equipment. On the 7th the rest of the atendees started to arrive.

The Festival kicked off that evening and nothing was quiet or still until well past 2am on Sunday morning!


Including the performers and volunteers there were over 4,650 people! The field behind the ranch was turned into a tent city full of people, tents,

water towers, and as many porta pots as i have ever seen in one place.

CampFest is more than great bands from Slovakia,

and all over the world,

the young people who came heard the gospel message clearly presented. There were over 100 trained spiritual counselors who had around 350 discussions with festival participants.

Of those over 200 prayed to confess sins and receive deliverance from addictions and occultism in their lives. We can also celebrate the 40 young people who prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior!!

Can I share just two of the testimonies that we have already received.

I came back yesterday from CampFest. I would like to thank you for great atmosphere and say that it was my first time at the festival but not the last time. I was fullfiled by the strength from above which I was missing. Seminars, concerts, worship- all that was awesome and I took something from it all. I hope that CampFest will be organized also the next year. And if God wants and we will be still here, I will come with my friends again.
Peto

I came to the festival for the third time as performer. I am always amazed by great tents with good construction, technics of good quality, cameras, all the performers...

Most of them are real servants of God and do not pretend to be stars.
Behind this work there has to be people with purpose. And this purpose is not just to satisfy the youth with good music or give them the best. For the leaders the most important things are the hearts of those young people. They want to see them growing, be on fire for Jesus and coming back to their churches renewed.

It is not important there whether you are from apostolic church, lutheran, brethren or catholic...What is important is your faith in Jesus Christ and it has united many of them.
Gina

The big tent

The main Stage at CampFest is in a tent called the Hangar. It is a very impressive structure. When YFC realized that we would need a tent that could hold over 4,000 people, Milos, the director of the ranch, custom designed it.


After CampFest last year they left the skeleton of the tent standing.


So setup this year was much easier than last year. This year all we had to do was to put the skins on. The first four Panels are covered on the inside with black plastic to keep the light from coming in on the stage and the projection screens. They are laying in the plastic here to keep it form blowing away.


Even though we didn't have to set up the frame it is still a lot of work to get the canvas up onto the tent. People have to climb up very the structure and pull from the top as well as having a rope over the top with people pulling on the other side to get the canvas up to the top. Just to cover the tent took almost two full days


Of course after the festival is over, the whole thing has to come back down. This year we took down the frame as well as the cover. Thanks to Gravity, the tent comes down a lot quicker than it goes up. But it still took over a full day to get it all finished.


It is a lot of hard work but in the end when the tent is full of young people listening to christian bands and speakers, I think all the work is worth it.

Photos from CampFest

Here's a link to the Full Set of CampFest Photos. There are more of setting up and tearing down than of the bands and concerts this time. I was responsible for different things this year than in 2006.

we are pulling ourselves out of the mud here. :) Actually it only rained most of Saturday and the sun has shone ever since. I Figure that the rain stopped around the time people in the States were waking up and thinking of us.
I took over a thousand pictures at CampFest, mostly of setup and tear down. I spent today uploading the good ones to Flickr and tomorrow i'll blog with pictures and more detials.

thank you for praying!

CampFest!

it is raining.
Please pray that it will stop.
Please pray that we will be encouraged.
Please pray that the issues with the electricity will resolve.

Thank you for praying. Things are not dire here. God is moving, I just wanted to give you a quick update on how you can pray.

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.