Friday in Slovenia

After a great night's sleep, we got up the next day and met J.P., his wife Angie, and son Josh, for a walking tour of Ljubljana, with stops for prayer along the way. I fell in love with that city; it is beautiful, and has such history. One meaningful time was when we stopped at a former monastery that has been turned into an amphitheater. J.P. has a dream of a Passion conference coming there, and the amphitheater being filled with young men and women, passionately following Christ. He had us scatter out and pray to that end, and also for the person who would one day be sitting in that very spot. It was very moving.

The monastery

Ljubljianica River

Praying at the amphitheater

Legend says that Jason and the Argonaut sailed up the Ljubljanica River looking for the Golden Fleece, and that Ljubljana (Emona at the time) is where Hercules killed a dragon. There were dragons everywhere!

See the castle on the hill in the background?

Centuries old fountain celebrating the three main rivers of Slovenia

The Lock Bridge--if you put a lock on with your love's name, your love will last forever.

You can't quite see them all, but there are 3 bridges close together right there. It's next to Preseren Square, very close to our hotel.

This day was graduation day in every city and village in Slovenia, and was celebrated in all the town squares at noon with music and dancing and whistles (and drinking). We left the city for the town of Kranj early to avoid getting trapped by the crowds. Kranj has over 54,000 people and only one evangelical church, which about 12 people attend on Sundays. We worked with an American missionary (Todd), a 2-year volunteer (Shauna) and a local believer (Tilen) to pass out fliers as the kids left the square. We ran out of them quickly, and most people were very pleasant (although several of them were already drunk). We didn't really have any meaningful conversations, but I did see kids reading what we gave them.

Getting our fliers

We got there just as the dancing stopped--I was hoping to get to see it.

Todd got us some more and we passed them out at a couple of schools before lunch.

See the Alps in the background?!

We ate Bosnian (or Slovene or Croat, depending on who you ask) food for lunch, and I loved it! Cevapi--links of ground meat (like sausage) on delicious bread spread with red pepper sauce and kajmak, a kind of buttery cheese or cheesy butter. Mmmm!

After lunch (and ice cream, of course) we went back to the church and stuffed envelopes and prepared more fliers, which we passed out along with gospels of John in mailboxes at apartment buildings.

I thought this gave a good sample of the language-

The church we helped

The apartments where we passed out literature

When we got back to the church, we rested for a little bit before helping with a youth fellowship that night. That was a lot of fun! About 10 kids came, and we played some ice breaker games and board games, then 2 of my girls shared their testimonies. All of the kids spoke English, but one was a little uncertain so Tilen translated for her. I don't know if they realized it or not, because they talked really fast! He managed to keep up though, and they did a good job. We found out afterward that only a couple of them were believers, so I pray their words continue to take root and grow.

Mingle

Nejc

My "family" for a while in one game. :)

Jungle Speed

Tilen and Tim

Amy

Lauren

Talking to Nastia and Shauna

We got back to Ljubljana so late we ate supper (at 10:00) at McDonald's on our way back in. Fanciest one I've ever seen! I was so sleepy and tired by the time I fell into bed--but it was a good day.

May Re-cap Part 4

4. Mission trip to Slovenia!
It's hard to even know where to begin! I had such an amazing time. I was super nervous about being the team leader on an international trip with 4 college girls. But God gave me grace and strength and smooth (mostly) travel and team unity and a great missionary family to work with. He is so much better to me than I deserve!

Lauren took this picture of me sleeping, and the flash made me make this face as I woke up. Lovely.

This is Lauren.

What comes around, goes around!

The Alps from the airplane--they were massive.

See? My "delicious meal." It says so on the box!

After traveling for about 18 hours total, we landed in Venice and were picked up at the airport by IMB missionary J.P. Manley, who drove us from there to Piran, Slovenia, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. We bought sandwiches from a gas station for lunch, then walked through town and found a place to eat, put our feet in the sea, and had our orientation/devotion time there. Followed by the first of many ice cream cones/gelatto/slado led. So good!

We drove through many actual, long tunnels, but I loved these trees that made their own tunnel on our way into Piran.

When we stopped at the gas station to buy sandwiches, we took pictures of this view of Piran. The colorful boxes in the foreground are bee hives, something Slovenia is known for.

I was fascinated by the architecture.

That's an old Roman fort on top of the hill!

Can you see the sun dial on the red building? I loved it.

12th century church

Clear waters of the Adriatic Sea!

Wildlife!

I made this little guy, based on the ones we saw in Canada 8 years ago.

J.P, Ashley, me, and Amy...mine was cookies and cream, I think. Or maybe cappucino...I had both...

From there he took us to our hotel in Ljubljana, where we checked in, went around the corner for some pasta, and then were happy to fall into our beds and crash.

Entering the alley that leads to Hotel Emonec

Looking back out the alley

The yellow building on the left is where our room was.

This tells what "Emonec" means--Ljubljana began as a Roman city called Emona. You can click on it to make it bigger if you want to read it.

The inside of our room (which was really 2 connected rooms and the bathroom shown below.)

Yes, when we took a shower the whole bathroom got wet.

Our breakfast choices the next morning (every morning): cereal, cheese, lunch meat, mayo, Nutella, yogurt, bread, jelly, butter, juice, and...a cappucino machine!

May re-cap Part 1, 2, & 3

1. The Eye Doctor

No bifocals and my prescription even went DOWN! I was feeling really good about that until the doc said, "Yeah, they typically start going the opposite way when you hit the mid-40's."

2. The Move!

Our move to our new house went off without a hitch. We had friends help us, and roll their eyes at my changing my mind where I wanted the table...and the couch...and the piano...
Anyway, we are in, and have most of the boxes unpacked and pictures hung. Now if I could just keep it clean...

3. The Graduation

After a couple of days in the new house, we drove down to New Orleans over the flooded Mississippi.

We stayed in seminary housing, which was quite nice and felt very protected. The girls had their own room, which made them feel grown up. We ate lots of good food, spent lots of time in the French Quarter,

took the free ferry ride,

went to the zoo

and the aquarium

and the insectarium (where Mike made me taste his blackberry/cricket fritter. ew.)

and IMAX

the children's museum,

and of course: graduation!

Sights of the homeless and of Katrina damage even 5 years later

were very sobering in the midst of our fun. I had been working through this Bible study on lifestyle prayer walking, and found myself praying--and even worshiping--at times around the city. I hope I carry that habit on even after the study is over.

*More pictures can be seen on fb!*