The 2018 Serving Slovakia team will be launching soon!  For Father’s Day my wife surprised me with a stack of cards in envelopes, each dated June 20th thru July 8th, one for each day I will be away on this adventure.  (I was and still am very touched, love you honey!)  I got to open the first one this morning […]

Something amazing, I guess

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Unsuspecting…that would certainly be an appropriate word to describe the children I just kissed, hugged, and said goodbye to for the next 18 days. Not to toot my own horn, but I don’t think they could possibly realize what 18 days without mom is really going to be like. It will be a period of huge growth for us all, […]

Be Super!

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Before leaving the States I had the pleasure of attending my nephew’s High School graduation. It was quite good. All of the speakers spoke of the graduate’s bright futures after a few years together preparing them for whatever lay ahead. Flash forward a few weeks and I’m half way around the world at the graduation for the first graduating senior […]

When Gramma cries

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As a first-timer, I observe, analyze, and try to emulate the way the returning people behave and work. I sometimes feel like I don’t have an ability to share yet, but I am wrong. Long ago a famous pastor said that the one ability everyone has is availability. So I stepped out yesterday. I saw a couple of high schoolers […]

My lack of ability

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Over the past few years I’ve begun to see how the Lord weaves themes into my life. Today’s started at breakfast, only I didn’t know it was a theme yet, that happened much later in the day. Over breakfast Brenda shared a story about traveling to Estonia on a mission many years ago, and how an Estonian shopkeep was turned […]

Follow the $$….nope

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This morning we sat under the crowded big top, joining with hundreds of our Slovak and American friends in the concluding service of celebration of the dizzying 20th birth year of the Center for Christian Education in Martin, Slovakia. The bishop delivered his lengthy sermon in what was likely flawless Slovak but, try as I might, I could not flip […]

I Should Have Known

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“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the spirit…” (Phil 2:1-2) One of the sweetest times for me during the Slovakia trip is to connect deeply with team members. While I do connect with students, it is often relationships with folks on the team that last throughout […]

Comfort

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One of the primary reasons for coming to Slovakia is to ‘be with’. Jesus did the same thing; one of His names, Emmanuel, literally means to be with. Be with who? The CCE staff, the students, and each other. Jesus sought out the quiet kid in the corner, not because He felt sorry for them but because He had compassion […]

When picking up road change- be with

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Sometimes in quiet desperation God can be found if we will just listen. The other day I missed the bus to downtown while I worked on pictures. In desperation, I obtained a map from the front desk at our hotel and in broken English was instructed how to find the CCE. I walked for 5 minutes only to discover I […]

He is already here

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Only eternity lasts forever, everything else has a beginning and an end. We enjoy a good movie, book, or TV series and wish the story would go on and on. We go on vacation and enjoy it so much we begin to dread the day we know we must head home. We meet an old friend for dinner and talk […]

Book ends

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After we finished our workshops on Wednesday, we went to a neighboring town to visit a “Wooden Church”. Our guide explained to us that the Lutheran religious community went to the government asking for permission to build their churches. They didn’t really want to allow it, as it did not align with the current mainstream religion, but they felt pressured […]

Are you near-sighted or far-sighted?

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Fingerprinting is dirty business. (So is washing feet.) The powder is like the black soot from a heavily smoking fire. Once you touch it or get it on you it seems like it’s everywhere, and on everything. With 4 to 5 students at 4 table clusters for 12 blocks of instruction in the same classroom….well, the powder was literally everywhere. […]

Nothing more beautiful

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I met Brenda two years ago on my first mission to Martin, Slovakia. She’s pretty much one of the most delightful humans I know. Warm, kind, inviting, and always excited to share her Slovakia experiences. She oozes love and serves selflessly in many capacities, one being friend. I met her equally wonderful husband Larry the following year. I count myself […]

When needs are met

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Reflecting, Sitting back in the tranquility of our home with a morning cup of coffee and thinking about the past 18 days in Martin Slovakia brings up more questions than answers. What impacted me the most? What would I do differently? What were the God moments of the trip? Knowing what I know now, would I still have gone? The […]

Back home

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Greetings from the global outreach team!  We’ve been having an amazing time in Slovakia and it’s been so cool and such a blessing to be a part of God’s work here. This is actually my first missions trip and as I look back at our first week and process everything that has happened I’m blown away with who God is.  […]

God is…

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