Anna and I were greatly blessed to be able to celebrate our 10 year anniversary (a year late!) by going on the vacation of a lifetime. We had 10 days all to ourselves which was an incredible treat as it was our first holiday without kids since 2003 (not a work-iday or weekend away but a real holiday). It was an incredible gift of grace and you can see more pictures in my facebook albums.
The holiday was necessary because ahead of us is an intense time of ministry. When summer rolls around things tend to slow down or even stop for many people and churches…this is not the case here in Slovakia for us! Here is a quick preview of some of the many things happening in Europe.
Youth Convention Slovakia
As part of our role on the National Leadership Team (NLT) for youth and young adults in Slovakia, we are helping to put on the first ever Youth Convention in Slovakia for the ACS. Youth Convention is currently run by Mike Love in Alberta, Canada with 15000+ youth and young adults in attendance. This year, Mike Love and YC Alberta are partnering with the NLT to host and run this great event for Slovak youth and young adults. We are expecting at least 300 youth/young adults to come to the mountains in Slovakia for 5 days of worship, teaching, concerts and connection.
VIP Visits
During YC Murray Cornelius (head of International Missions for the PAOC) will be visiting us in Slovakia and preaching in Nitra church. After this, Murray and I will be traveling down to Slovenia to meet with national leaders as part of a discovery trip about how the PAOC can potentially work in this great little nation of Europe.
After Murray leaves we will be hosting David Wells (General Superintendent for the PAOC) as he comes to Slovakia to meet with key leaders, preach in the Bratislava church and then travel to Budapest, Hungary for a conference. We look forward to catching up with our former pastor and one of our missions mentors.
Later in August we will be hosting our great friends the Birds (real people, not winged creatures) from Enfield, UK. Craig, Rachel and Ruby will be staying with us for the week and enjoying Slovakia in all its summer glory. The Birds are leading a great initiative in Enfield with Oasis Trust whereby they are leading a church, doing community transformation and helping to lead a school.
Women’s Mission Team
Between 25 July and 6 August, Anna will be hosting and leading a team of women from Canada to four different locations in Europe. The focus of the team will be to investigate and assist in different issues facing women in Europe. The team will go to Berlin to work with Patricia Green and Alabaster Jar, who work with women trapped in prostitution and human trafficking. After that the team will fly down to Novi Sad, Serbia to work with Vesna Radeka and the crisis pregnancy center that she runs. The next stop will be here in Slovakia and a visit to a youth detention center for young women. The final stop will be to Vienna Austria to connect with another mission that works with women who are street workers.
It will be an intense but powerful trip that will help bring awareness to the issues facing women here in Europe and lead to further involvement for some of those on the team. The team is being organized and lead by Gwen McVicker and Linwood House Ministries based out of Gibsons, BC.
I LOVE MY CITY
Once again we will be involved in helping to run our annual “I Love My City” event in Nitra. This year, instead of a focused week of mission, we will be hosting events throughout the summer including family film nights, playground outreaches, teen camps and a small work project. This will be the first year that I Love My City will be completely run by our church with all Slovak participants. This is a great step forward for us to fully own the project and make it part of our missional DNA. This event will take place in July and August.
ALPHA Preparation
In September we hope to launch multiple ALPHA programs in Nitra. We will be raising up Slovak leaders to take on the regular ALPHA course and we will be launching ALPHA Marriage. The other course we hope to see launched is Student ALPHA. This will be a key course as we are surrounded by students in Nitra. Please pray for us as we have a meeting in July with our ALPHA leaders and as we begin to strategize about the autumn.
The Future…
Autumn often brings new changes to life and ministry and we will be updating you more on what those look like as we get closer to the end of summer. Please continue to pray for us as we listen to Jesus and his plans for us here in Slovakia and Europe. We believe that God has placed us here for a specific purpose and plan and we want to continue to follow that far into the future.
Thanks for all your support!