First week in November 2009

Here in Slovakia Oct. 31 begins All Saints Day Celebration; Halloween is a non-day here, for which we are thankful. We were out walking on October 31 and saw streams of people making their way to the cemetery. We followed at a distance, and what a sight greeted our eyes. The entire cemetery was a carpet of flowers and candles. This is a time when the Slovak families remember those who have passed away. They go as entire families - three and four generations of them - to the family plot and bring cut flowers and potted plants. Candles in tall glass containers are lit and placed around the grave sites. The cemetery was full of families, but there was a hushed, reverent atmosphere throughout the entire place.

On that Sunday, at the end of the worship service, one of the ladies of the church read a long list of names; these were names of people who had died during the past year. What a reverent and kind way to bring some closure for families affected by these losses.

Slowly we see doors of ministry opening. As we connect with various lives and situations, we're becoming more and more aware of opportunities to serve. As individuals confide in us, please pray that we will be sensitive and keenly tuned in to what God is about in these lives.

This past weekend has been packed with activity. It all began as Katka and I (Larry) were returning from Zilina. We drove into the parking lot and were informed that Bohdan and Adrian had just been involved in a multi-vehicle accident which totaled the car in which they were riding. They had just returned from the USA and were on the way home from the airport. Thanks to God's protection, no one was injured. The trip had been to share with churches in the US the possible expansion of the school. They have been able to obtain the use of land around the Bible School and church. They are hoping to expand the facilities to include up through high school. Pray with us that funds will be made available to fulfill these dreams.

Our Friday night Bible Study group had a new attendee on Friday, a young man from Georgia, who is teaching English in one of the outlying villages. Like the rest of us, he is eager (hungry) for connection and fellowship with other English-speaking believers. Mary, the leader of our study, asked us to "host" the study in our apt. this time. So, we borrowed an extra table and some chairs from the Bible School, and 11 people squeezed into our living room. It was exciting to be able to share together in our home. Again, opportunities for individual connections are emerging; if you want to know specifically how you can pray, please contact us at our email address. Blogs are simply too widely visible to be able to share personal situations.

We decided to have a game night the next evening and invited the Bible study group. Eight show up, to include the mother of one of the Norwegian medical students. There is now a group in Slovakia that knows how to play Mexican Train, with the strong possibility that it will make its way to Norway.

Sunday Brenda and I participated for the first time with the church choir in leading worship. I still do not know what the words mean, but we were able to follow the music and did not mess up the words too badly. In this very liturgical church there is a great deal of standing and sitting, none of which we know when to do except by watching the other worshippers, so to be in front of the entire church caused us to feel a bit vulnerable. Once I (Brenda) thought the pastor was praying (this is all in Slovak, remember!) since an older lady sitting in my line of vision had her head bowed. So I reverently bowed my head and closed my eyes, too. But then I heard those around me shuffling papers, etc., and I "peeked"-- it wasn't prayer time. The dear lady I was simply resting her eyes!!!!!

Following the church service, we had dinner with Milan, one of the church's co-pastors, and his family. His wife Zuzana is a pharmacist, currently on maternity leave for their 14-month-old boy; they also have two girls, ages 6 and 11. Milan and his family joined the staff of the church in July 2008 while we were here with the New Heights group teaching English. AND, Zuzana had made . . . . french fries!!!!! WaHoo!!!! What an enjoyable time getting to know them. The afternoon was topped off by going to coffee with some our Norwegian friends, plus Mary and Emily, an American young lady teaching here in the elementary school.

What a full, wonderful weekend. Brenda and I both feel like we belong. Why, it's even raining like it does at home!!!!!

Thank you for tuning in! We welcome your comments!

Come and See!

I'm sitting in our sunny and cozy little apt (the outside temp is only a bit above freezing). The laundry is reluctantly drying in our living area once more, our two newly acquired Christmas cactii are reveling in the brilliant warmth of their sunny shelf, and our new clock (one must have a clock SOMEWHERE in the area) is telling me why my energy level has suddenly plummeted. So, this post will be mercifully brief!

Larry will begin teaching additional English conversational classes to faculty/staff at the U. of Zilina in the next week or so. Since the curriculum is his choice, he's considering using The Shack as the discussion focal point to generate conversation. Should be lively! Furthermore, he has been asked to be the Guest Lecturer at the University Nov. 12, so he is busily putting that talk together--Topic is "Learning Styles". He's kinda excited about this. God is creating "audiences" that we would have never anticipated! And since religion is not a taboo in public educational settings here, the possibilities are breathtaking! Please pray!

I'm thoroughly enjoying the delights of working with 16 individual students (teachers at the Lutheran Elementary School here at the Bible School). In many ways this "job" reminds me of the work I did at HomeLink as an educational consultant. I have 16 clients with individual skills and needs who sit beside me 45 minutes/wk where, in addition to the tutoring, more importantly we learn about each other. And this, to me, is where ministry happens. Already some confidences are being ventured: One very bright young teacher--she holds a Ph.D in education and is a mother of 2--invited me to lunch in lieu of an official tutoring session Wednesday. Our conversation was insightful as she began to sharing some of her struggles and needs. Oh, Yes!!!! Again, please pray.

The Bible School here (now becoming known as Martin's Center for Christian Education (CCE), recently made a bid on and received a grant to provide English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to city employees. The CCE obtained this bid on the strength, in part, that they could provide instructors whose first language is American English. Thus, Mary Hamilton, Larry, and I are rather integral players here!

Thus, I also teach 3 separate classes of Beginners per week attended by Martin city employees. Each class meets twice a week. Sisa, a CCE employee and an excellent speaker/instructor of English, teaches each class their first sessions each week, focusing solely on grammar and pronunciation; and I meet with them their second sessions each week to help them review, practice, and explore the grammar presented earlier in the week. Many of these employees comprise the police force here; others are clerks. What fun I'm having with them. We laugh a lot at each other as we teach each other words in our own languages. “Circle” is a hoot for them to say; likewise, “zmrzlina”, their word for ice cream, tickles and twists my languid tongue, for It must transition from a “z” into a closed “m”, then on to the trill of the upcoming “r”, then back to the “z” which follows it, and then instantly embrace the awaiting “l”, before finally encountering a fairly straightforward “ina” (“eena”). Try it—but not when anyone else is around and not in front of a clean mirror. (This I know!!!!!) But the rapport we are building will hopefully open doors that just wait to be entered! Again, please pray!

Fall here is in full display, the mountains are declaring God's flair for color . . .

And as a reminder that He is Emmanuel, this picture awaits us out one of our apartment's many skylights:

Thank you, all you Blog readers, for keeping up with our Fast Forward journey.

Emmanuel! BFast

Choir Trip to Czech Republic

Maybe when I learn how to put this blog site together, I will be able to get my pictures where I want them, Oh Well! I'll bet you can figure them out anyway.

Last Sunday, October 25, we went with the church choir to a concert they presented in a church, in Tranovice, Czech Republic. Tranovice is in the SE corner of the Czech Republic, not too far from the Slovak and Polish borders.

Brenda and I had decided to give the choir a try right after we got here. While they really wanted us to sing with them, we decided not to this time, since we had only sung through the songs one time in practice. They did a fine job. I enjoyed it even though I could not understand what they were singing.

Our singing in the choir gives a whole new meaning to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." I do believe that someone in the distant past told the vowels in this part of the world go on vacation to Hawaii, and they liked it so well they stayed. You should try singing four or five consonants all in a row. In fact some syllables are composed of just consonants, I'm sure. They must have some rule for this, but I have not learned it yet.

The church was much more modern than than one in Martin. We got there in time to worship with them. Our choir presented the special music in the worship service, and a concert later that afternoon. The day was beautiful, and it was all topped off by various members of their church taking members of our choir home for dinner.

We had four generations around the table, with a multitude of languages being spoken. We were assigned this family because many of them understood and spoke English. In fact, two of the sisters taught English and both of their husbands, one Polish the other Spanish, spoke English as well. The husband from Spain was actually a Baptist preacher, but currently out of work and living with his in-laws. They had three little boys, one 3 year-old and a set of twins who were 1 year old. The Polish husband's mother and grandmother live close by and joined us for Sunday dinner as well. There were 14 people around the table.

We counted up the number of languages spoken or someone having some academic knowledge and came up with: English, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Plus a dialect that the husband from Poland said he grew up with which was really a mix of both Polish/Czech. It was a mini United Nations.

With three families living under one roof, it was a bit crowded, but it really was a joy to see the multi-generation interaction. The father of the sisters owns the house and about 12.5 acres which surround it. He also enjoys raising horses and has a couple of horses which are of a rare Czech breed. The view of the surrounding country was beautiful, the interaction was wonderful, and our time with the family came to a close all too quickly.

The choir presented their concert in the afternoon, and the church provided yet another meal of sandwiches and desserts before we had to leave and come home.

All in all it was a wonderful time to get to know some of the choir members better as well as worship with another congregation and spend time with a wonderful family.

Not much text this time around, but just thought you might like to see God's paintbrush at work in another part of the world. For those of you who have been on a summer EFL team to Martin, you will recognize the glass building in the middle of the Pedestrian Mall, and the church.

Update as promised via Larry

Brenda promised you an update, but she has been busy all day planning what she is going to do next week with her Teacher-students. I have been Mr. Mom today, cleaning the apartment and doing the laundry. (Note: Brenda says: "Lots of husband points accumulated here!") I think we have mastered the washing machine, but even with the fan, the drying process has been very slow today. (See last week's blog.) Of course rainy, wet weather, with the humidity at about 99.9999% is not helping the cause any.

Just a quick update as to what each of us is doing "officially" and maybe even a bit of "unofficial" activities.

Official Activities:

Larry: I am teaching one advanced class on Monday and Wednesday morning at 7:00 AM over at city hall. Officially I have four students, all of whom handle English fairly well. Except for the first day, I have not had all four of them there at the same time. Last Wednesday, I asked Brenda to come along as my "show-and-tell". Actually I wanted them to get to meet her in person rather than just in pictures, and since she did not have a class at that time she came along. Some of the pictures I had were of her when she was a little girl, so I asked her tell about them. (Br's note: It was quite interesting to hear Alexander, who lived through the years of the Communist takeover, as he shared his perspective on those awful years; whereas Aleta, a much younger student, really could not relate to Alexander's painful perspective. She was 7 when Communism released its grip on what was then Czechoslovakia).

On Thursdays I go to the University of Zilina and do two English conversation classes of an hour and 40 minutes each. I have the option of splitting them into four 50-minute classes with 10 students each, which I may do, simply because having 10 students/class rather than 20/class will allow more conversation from all of them and keep their attention better than the longer/bigger class. The University Prof. has also asked if I would help edit some of their journal articles which have to be published in English because the journals are internationally distributed, not just in Slovakia. Those of you who know my propensity for misspelling words will probably find this as amusing as I do; however, they tell me that I will not have to "proofread", just help them with their word order, content, etc., to make sure it sounds correct in "American" English. Additionally, they have a guest lecture series, and wanted to know if I would consider being one of their "guest lecturers". WOW! Talk about a change from what I have been doing for the last 35+ years!

Brenda: Brenda teaches the second half of three beginning English classes for the city workers. These classes are taught on Monday and Tuesday by Sisa, a staff member here. Brenda sits in on Sisa's presentations and then follows up Wednesdays and Thursdays with more oral work. She also works with 16 teachers from the Lutheran elementary school, which is a part of the Bible School, throughout the week at various times. She has 12 slots of 45 minutes each for these 16 people, so a lot of them are getting 1:1 tutoring. Their skills range from upper beginner to advanced. The picture above is her preparing for her teacher-pupils.

Unofficial:

We have attended the Lutheran church which is associated with the Bible School each Sunday. While they are hoping to have regular translation into English available in the future, it is not in place yet. This makes worship interesting. We are beginning to put some sounds with letters, but have not even begun to master Slovak words, much less follow the liturgy, sermon, and hymns. We have decided to participate in the adult choir, however. We can both read the music and thus stay on pitch. We are getting better at making the Slovak sounds along with the notes. We have to trust them when it comes to content of the songs, because neither of us has the foggiest idea the meaning of what we are singing. The choir will be going into Eastern Czech Republic on Sunday to do a concert. We have been invited to go along. We are not planning to sing, having only sung through the songs once. But we are looking forward to visiting, even briefly, this neighboring country.

We are also involved in a Friday night Bible Study in English, conducted by Mary Hamilton, the other person here from New Heights Church. Besides Brenda and me, four Norwegian medical students who attend the medical school here in Martin and two Slovak students who have excellent English skills participate in this study. We have just begun a study of Matthew.

OOPS!

Updates this weekend--we promise!

Basics in Laundry 101

See the innocent looking washing machine above? Don't let it fool you. Apparently laundry theft must be a problem somewhere in Europe because this little machine has a 3-door opening (and thus closing!) process, somewhat akin to Swiss banks, I suspect. SO first, if one is lucky and this door does not have an attitude, one opens said door on top only to encounter a second door with, thankfully, a much kinder attitude. But alas, THEN one encounters the "Swiss bank": the door on the drum that has to be persuaded to unlock itself only if one pushes in the right places, ponders the options, and doesn't get one's fingers caught or worse in the process. Then and only then is one able to load the washer.

Now, remember that one has to reverse this process to close the monster? Well, I didn't exactly remember all the steps. So shortly after I had started the cycle (that's another narrative), Larry and I heard a clanking and clunking and thumping racket emanating from the laundry area a bit like someone trapped in a manhole who has finally found the exit cover above his head but it weighs 300 pounds.

THEN, when said load was completed, you guessed it: Would that top door open even a tiny bit? NOPE! But likewise, that, too, is another story!!!!