the return
We arrived back in Kosice yesterday after a 4 day trip. We went to Bratislava for our in-country breifing, and to meet the Bratislava staff. They’ve been working their tails off for the past 2 years to produce an evangelistic cd that we will be able to pass out to students free of charge. The cd has a lot of content that might be found on an everystudent.com website. The cd promotes pretty heavily a newly developed slovak site for studentsky hlas pre krista (student’s voice for Christ) the Slovak version of Campus Crusade for Christ. They’ve done a great job and something like this takes tons of time, effort, design, evaluation, and creativity. I pray God uses this cd in a mighty way on campuses here in Kosice and in Bratislava to build a movement that glorifies Jesus.
While on our trip, the American stinters made a short day trip to Vienna to visit an Austrian facility to get fingerprinted to prove to the FBI that we’re not criminals, which will enable us to get our visas. We arrived in Vienna Thursday morning at around 8am, with only an address to this place where we needed to be. We asked at information, they pointed us to the subway, and we miraculously made it. The trip was somewhat hilarious, we’re in Austria - a German speaking country, with no knowledge of German and an address to a place that we thought was a “police station.” Turns out, this is a criminal facility with a prison. It seemed very covert. But, $65 later and some inked pinkies, we had our prized fingerprints. We even got to tour around for awhile. I went to H&M and Starbucks while in Vienna.
In Bratislava we had the opportunity to walk around the first night and see some of the sights, there was a large movie screen in the main square similar to the one in Kosice. Lots of old buildings (including a building where Peacemaker was filmed) and cobble stoned streets. The whole team also had an opportunity to go to Ikea (one of the highlights for me). Briefing was also really fun, Dara and Biba did a great job! Me, Shannon, and Carlyn stayed with Tomas and Eva and got the opportunity to meet their 2 precious boys (Andy and Danko).
In a few minutes I’ll head out the door to go to church, or as we like to call it “rock band church” it’s at 4:30 in the afternoon, so I’m excited about that, I think it will be similar to my church in the states. Well, it will be in Slovak, but I think the style of worship will be similar, I wonder what their version of Mike Ashcraft will be like. I have been listening to the Northpoint podcast, and actually need to catch up on Port City’s podcast. Podcasts are a blessing when you’re overseas.
People have been asking me what they can send me and at this point I’m crafting a list. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know. Thanks for your prayers and support, it’s an honor to serve here in Slovakia.