ONE FULL MONTH!

So how am I now that I am a month into living in Slovenia? Loving it! Thank you for asking :) It has been a very enjoyable first month. Of course, I have my moments that I miss home and friends and family, but I wouldn't trade where I am for anything! Why get in a hurry, if you are where you want to be? I feel blessed beyond words to be here.

Camp is quickly approaching... We leave on July 5th. We had a team meeting yesterday, just talking out logistics. I have been working on my English lessons for class. I am excited! I think it will be fun! However, I know why I didn't pick the profession of teaching :) Even though this is a lot different because its more just like planning activities to have conversational English! I just don't have the gift of creativity like many of my friends, so its interesting!!

Today, I really felt like I lived in Europe because I took the train all ALONE. I helped the Patty's with some cleaning at their new house they are renovating. Johnny and Brooke are the photographers for a wedding all day and night, so they dropped me off for the day! Apparently, Slovene weddings are long... Brooke just said the activities are going on until wee hours in the morning... so I have gotten some time alone... ANYWAY... back to my train experience all by myself. I just took a train from Ljubljana to Celje and I really enjoyed it. I was a little nervous about getting on the right train but it was no big deal and the ride was so enjoyable. I read my awesome book, "A Voice in the Wind" by Francine Rivers, its a trilogy and cant put it down!! Check it out if you are in need of an awesome novel!! It was a beautiful ride. So we get to Celje and I was just going to walk home because its not that far from the train station... well I forgot my UMBRELLA and walked home in the rain... but for some reason I enjoyed it... I did a little singing in the rain :) It helped me feel a little bit of indepence and confidence about living in another country!!

I just talked to Andrea for almost 2 and a half hours on skype... it was so refreshing and awesome... it was seriously like we were just hanging out together... I was finishing up broccoli salad and did all the dishes and hung up my laundry and brushed my teeth while we talked... and she cleaned her room and ate lunch... I am SOOOOOO incredibly thankful for technology!! And for my incredible friend Andrea Green!! She is one of the most caring people I know and has the biggest heart for ministry!! It is really encouraging to see her desire to serve! One of the biggest desires of my heart is to do ministry with her someday. Lord knows :) we talk about it often!! Anyway... I love you Andrea and I know that the Lord has INCREDIBLE things in store :) Thank you for your heart and friendship. Don't know what I would do without you!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Ok thats all for now!! I gotta work on my lesson plans :)

yay!!!!

SO... yesterday and today we set up a table with flyers to advertise for camp and handed them out to teenagers in the center (equivalent to a downtown area). We feel like it has been a success... We thought that even if ONE student signs up to go to camp, it would be worth our hours of handing out flyers!! WELLLLLLLLLLLLL GUESSS WHAT??!?!?! We had one sign up!! And she said that her friend is going to sign up as well!!! I think right now we have around 22 students signed up! So its a total success!!! (And we are doing the same thing 3 days next week too)

There was a group of teenagers that were kinda hanging out with us and I (with the help of Brooke's pushing) started up a conversation with a girl named Maja. We talked for awhile... just basic things because she doesn't know a ton of English but can definitely hold a conversation! I really feel encouraged that she simply just talked with me... cause yesterday she didn't want to have a conversation with us at all!! So for whatever reason, she decided to come stand by me today and I got a chance to start getting to know Maja!! Then Johnny made friends with another student and I think they are grabbing coffee tomorrow!! This is what its all about!!!

YET...

"Yet, the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show me compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are ALL who WAIT for him." -Isaiah 30:19

Justin (the pastor of Calvary Chapel which is the church I attend here in Celje) spoke on Isaiah, chapter 30, Sunday and I feel like from this verse the Lord revealed some things to me. There is a part of my life that is in waiting and to be honest, I feel pretty impatient and a part of me doesn't believe that He will provide. So yesterday, I spent some time before Lord, kind of wrestling with this. He has been so patient with me as He allowed my eyes to see to what is true and to see what lies I was believing. As I was having a hard time giving this part of my life FULLY to the Lord, I started to think to myself, "Okay, what is true and what is not true about what I am believing right now?" I was believing that the Lord would not provide. I was believing that I knew better. I was believing that I needed to be in control. Then as I asked the Lord to reveal truth to me and this is what I began to see...

ONE, that the LORD ALWAYS provides. I never go without. "...but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." -1 Timothy 6:17
TWO, the Lord gives PERFECT gifts. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father..." - James 1:17
THREE, God has PERFECT timing. "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" -Esther 4:14
FOUR, His plan is ALWAYS better then mine and better then what I think or imagine. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." -Ephesians 3:20

These are specific verses that at one point in my life, the Lord has used to reveal truth to me. So these are things that not only, God has said through his Word, but also things that I have personally experienced. And they are just a few of the promises that I am standing on!
Here are a few more :)
Psalm 27:14
Psalm 130:5
Psalm 40:1
Romans 8:25

And not to say that I still won't struggle and everything is going to be easy... BUT I have truth to turn to in those moments of weakness! So maybe that is a little encouragement for you today :)

Much love from sunny celje!!! :)

Update!!

I have now been in Celje for over a week!! And it has been awesome!! It is a little slow right now because the kids are still in school, so we have been doing random stuff. We made a list of supplies for camp and went through the themes for each night! It is going to be so fun!! One night is an Asian theme and Brooke and I might learn a giesha dance :)

We had a prayer meeting Wednesday morning and Bible study that night. It was about the Holy Spirit and was a great time of learning for me!! Other then that I have just had time to get adjusted to Celje.

So lately its been coffee shops, learning a few Slovene words, running, picking cherries, birthday parties, church, and picking cherries!! Oh btw, Brooke and I signed up to run the half marathon in Ljubljana in October!!!!! We have already started training and she is great with pushing me!! It is such a blessing to have her and to have the ability to run!!! Thank you Lord for the ability to run!!

Picking cherries is a highlight because we get to climb this huge awesome cherry tree and then make YUMMY homemade cherry pie from scratch!!!! Thursday was awesome!! We picked about 12 pounds of cherries from the cherry tree and pitted like half of them, including the worms! YUCK!!! But they are still yummy!!

Then went on an incredible hike!!!! SOOOO MAD that the camera I brought to take pics with DIDN'T have my memory card so I have NO pictures to show for the incredible hike I took. But I will do it again soon bc it was awesome and challenging and BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Friday we went to Ljubljana to help the Patty's, a missionary family here, with their house they just bought. They completely gutted it and are now renovating it. So Johnny and I sanded 5 door frames and I primed almost an entire room by myself. (Brooke was at softball practice). It may not sound like much but sanding little tiny cracks and crevices is not easy, but we did it with the joy of getting to serve!!

Today is Saturday and has been a really busy, but great day!! We left at 8 this morning to go the the warehouse to sort out camp supplies! It was a little overwhelming but got me really excited for camps!!! We were doing that til about noon. Then we had a staff cookout and celebrated Rachel's birthday! Brooke and I got sunburned! Josh Patty, who is our country leader, prayed with us and we had a great talk just about this summer and the road ahead of us. He said expect trials because we are going onto a battle field that is opposing the enemy. We will experience really big, significant, eternal things in a very small country. Something that one of the other missionaries, Joel said, was that some kids will have NO IDEA how simply registering for camp will completely change their life forever. I am so exciting to get to be a part of God's kingdom building!!!

So then we left from there to go to another birthday party for a girl from church! Her name is Polona and she is awesome!! I am hoping that she will be my translator at camp!! I played with a PRECIOUS little girl named Naomi and she wore me out!! Haha it was so funny watching her try to say one, two, three with me right before I would throw her in the air!! She is not quite 2 yet and just about the cutest thing ever!! So after a very long day, I am finally sitting on the couch trying to catch up with emails, getting ready for bed and for church tomorrow!
NIGHT!!!!

COVERED!!!

Last night Johnny, Brooke, and I spent some significant time in prayer over my life and areas that the enemy had a stronghold. The Lord truly spoke simply because we asked Him to and then sat and waited! The Lord is covering me in His blood and I am walking in victory knowing that He has already won the war! I am claiming His promises in Ephesians 1:3-14 over my life. Maybe I am the only one who struggles with my identity and the sins and yuck in my past, but maybe, just maybe, I'm not the only one. And not to say I don't sin anymore because I do, but I am walking in the freedom of Christ because this is who God says I am...

I am:
blessed
chosen in Him before creation
holy
blameless
predestined
adopted as His daughter
redeemed by His blood
forgiven
included
sealed by His promise
the praise of His glory

Wow! If that doesn't move you, I am not sure what will. Romans 3:23 says, "for we have ALL sinned and fall short of the glory of God". But He also says, "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full".

I am walking in the fullness of life. I am choosing the tree of Life because it is a decision. Will I choose to take God's grace or will Jesus have died in vain because I won't accept His sacrifice? My shame, my guilt, my sins were nailed to a cross a long time ago, and I am fully extending my arms out to take His grace and accept His perfect sacrifice!!

I pray that if you are struggling with something today, that you choose to accept the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Love you all!!

1. repentance

So Dave Patty is the founder of JV and has such a gift for sharing the Word of God in a refreshing and challenging way! He spoke about five things we need to take with us as we go into this summer and forever really :) But I just want to cover the first one right now...

Repentance... (Not an easy message to hear, right?) BUT this is what prepares the way for the work of the Lord. The Lord really opened my eyes to a lot of sin in my life I had not recognized. But let me tell the joy in this... 1 John 1:8- confess, He is FAITHFUL to forgive.

Repentance is NOT:

remorse- feeling bad about something... I feel bad about ______
regret- wishing you hadn't done ______
repair- I'll fix that or do better next time
(These 3 things are so easy for me to do and to think that its all better but that isn't what repentance is)

We need to really call the sin what it is... Call it what the Lord would call it. And then dunk it, cleanse it, baptize it, in Christ. And then TURN and head the other direction.

The hope of the message, THE POWER OF REPENTANCE BRINGS FREEDOM!!!

True repentance:
restores relationships (Isaiah 59: 20-21)
produces healing (Psalms 32:5-9)
brings blessing (Matthew 3:

So I pray that God makes me repentant because this is what prepares the way of His work . I want my life to be so full of Him, that there is no room for me.

new friends!

Wow!! How does so much happen in a week!! Crazy! Ok well I'll just jump right in!
Ill start with my new friends. First, is kaylanne (but pronounced kaylynn). She is a summer intern in Poland... I want to go visit her but I do not think there will be time in the summer! BOO!! But she is from Littleton, which I have family there, and she goes to Baylor and thats only like 5 hours from OKC, so I will still see her! We met when we landed in Zurich. I had noticed that she had been on my flight and we were in the bathroom together and she was brushing her teeth but I just had to ask if she was with JV and she WAS!!! YAY! My first friend!! We connected immediately!! She is so sweet and is going to be incredible in Poland! Kids will absolutley love her!

Ok so this pic is Brittney, Laura, and Brooke! These girls made me laugh so much!! I had a great time with them! The 3 of them are full time missionaries with JV. Brittney is in Ukraine, Laura is in Slovakia, and of course, Brooke is with me! I am excited that I will get to see them a couple more times while I am here... They will be at Fall Conference and Thanksgiving Conference!
This is Mateja and she is from Slovenia and is an angel!! She was saved a English a few years ago and now is one of the most mature believers I know! She is 20 and wise beyond her years!! She was my life saver at so many times during the amazing race! I will get to continue building a friendship with while I am here and I am so excited about it! She is beautiful!!