We moved out of our previous house (pictured right)  for a couple of reasons. We preferred to not have to pay rent for 6 months while we were in the States. This alone is a huge financial savings for us. But also, the previous house had some mold problems that we believed were contributing to some chronic sickness with our boys.

We were thankful for the 4 years we had in this house. Our landlord was very gracious and helpful during our time there. And it was privilege to get to know her and her family through those years.

I (Zac) will travel back to Slovakia early (December 5-17) to look for a new house. I also will attend a special council meeting in Vienna focused on raising up healthy, reproducing churches across Slovakia.

God has always met our need in housing and we believe he has already prepared the prefect place for now. All of our possessions are now in storage. So, this means we will be moving in the first weeks of January – which is the coldest weather of year. (moving could look like the picture to the right!).

Please keep this whole process in your prayers as we search for God’s chosen location and make a winter house move.

Although tired of the actually traveling in a car, the kids have done exceptionally well (or so it seems at this point). They have endured Sunday after Sunday in a different church and actually enjoyed all the new places.

When asked, it is hard to name just one favorite place.  But the top of the list includes: 4 wheeler ride in Boone, NC ; homeschool co-ops in Greenville, SC (I know! Who would have thought it); garage saleing in SC; cabin with the Potts family; Halloween in Houston, TX; GA Aquarium in Atlanta; summer church camp in Arkansas (was that really THIS summer?);  23 mile bicycle ride in Atlanta, GA (maybe not top on the list, but definitely memorable);  baseball games, zip-line at Camp Highland, GA; Fishing and jet skiing in Columbia, SC; walking tour of Charleston, SC; inner tubing birthday parties, weddings of dear friends; playing in the ocean, swimming all day, everyday in Tampa, FL;  youth retreats and  father/son camp out in SC; deer hunting and Razorback football!

Not on the list would be: long car rides, home-schooling, leaving fun places and friends, so many new churches and  saying goodbye.

We are thankful that the list of good things is much longer than the list of bad! Now, with only 4 weeks left, we look forward to the final things God has in store for us here in the US. However, packing and saying good-bye, are not on that list!

This time has been incredibly busy and yet rich in friendships and opportunities to share about the work God is doing in Slovakia. We look forward to returning, settling into a new home and not traveling! Just living and breathing!

Over the last several months we have been presenting this question to God, asking for his guidance. Through a series of strategic responses, we believe that it is God’s plan for us to remain here in ministry for another term. We can’t see exactly how long this will mean, but probably up to 5 more years.

We were already planning our regular visit (every second summer) to the States this summer. But in light of these new future plans, we see several other factors that must be considered.

First, we have a longing to have some extended time with our families after this long time away from home. So we look forward to spending extra time at home focusing on family.

Secondly, we believe we need to reestablish our financial base as we look to the future. This will necessarily mean raising a certain percentage of additional financial support in expectation of these next years ahead.

We are anticipating that this could take some additional months in the States, so we are planning to remain in America from June until December 2011. This will give us adequate time to do the necessary travel and retooling for this next phase ahead.

We have already bought our plane tickets and will arrive in Little Rock on Tuesday, June 7th.  We really look forward to being home again and to be with all of you.

We would appreciate your prayers as we make preparations for this plan in the next two months. This includes packing up our present house and putting it in storage, finishing the kids school early, renewing our visas early (they expire while we’re away), selling or storing our car, and our housing in Slovakia for when we return (we have the possibility of  building a house).

It will be a hectic couple of months, but we know God is with us and that he gives strength to those who rest in Him.

We understand that we are definitely not the typical Slovak family, wanting to put up our tree almost 4 weeks before Christmas. But  we didn’t understand the concept of having tress, but NOT selling them. We only heard, “come back next week”!

I did try to convince them, in light of the fact that it is the first Advent Sunday, and we needed greenery to make our Advent wreath. Still, he wouldn’t budge. There were 5 people “watching over” the tree lot and i think it must have been the highlight of their evening, however confusing we may have been to them.

To say the kids are disappointed is an understatement, not to mention we still don’t have up any decorations! So,”next week!”

I am a planner/scheduler: grocery shopping, weekly menu, home-school planning, school events, bible study, after school activities, meetings. . . Most of the time, if I get it on the schedule, it will more than likely get done. Now with that said, I also fully believe that at the present moment, I have (or can think of) enough things on my schedule to plan for the rest of my life. So then my planning becomes more prioritizing, staying ahead, SURVIVING.

One day, it finally hit me just how full my days are when I was at the grocery store for my weekly shopping. I saw there a friend. I had my list, he had his, we laughed at how we both were moving so fast through the dairy section. Then as we were parting he said to me, “ok, so we’ll see you when you bring Oli (his son) home from sports”. Immediately I panicked, flushed and my heart sank at the realization that despite my good planning, I had missed it. How could I have forgotten such an important thing. This couldn’t be happening to me. Not only had I forgotten that it was my “day” to pick up from sports, but I had not even remembered to “take” my boy to sports! What a mess! Thankfully my friend was very understanding and stepped right in my crisis and helped me out.

This week (and for many weeks now) on my schedule is to write a web post update on all the great things going on over here in Slovakia. When I see it on my “list” through-out the week,  I immediately think of all the things I can write about and in my mind I have really nice elaborate posts. All i need to do is get them out of my head and onto the web (easy enough). Unfortunately, so many things take over and prevent the latter from happening. Not major things, but just life: dinner preparation, shopping, homework, homeschooling, teaching, bible study, cleaning – the list goes on.

But today, I found a space. I finished homeschool with Emili, sent her off to regular school for the rest of her classes. The house is cleaned (yesterday’s list).  Dinner is already started and on the stove.  Hampton is watching a “program” and occupied for the moment. Here I am, in the kitchen,  computer at hand, ready to dictate all those nicely composed posts. . . . how can i just pick up and write without first an explanation? that done, and now. . . the timer goes off (time’s up) ! Off to the  next thing (lunch date with Zac,  school pick-ups, small group preparation for tonight). But first, necessities to squeeze in (get out of my pj’s, brush teeth, clean up breakfast dishes)

Still I’m thankful for what i did write and hopefully “next time” will prove to be a bit more productive! Until then!

Kids camp is a special event  organized by our mission organization (Josiah Venture) every summer for all the children of it’s missionaries, ages 8 and up. It’s a week long experience, dripping with gripping adventure, novel amusements, strong spiritual challenge and enriching relationship.

This years camp was located in an unknown village on a previously uncharted border between Croatia and Slovenia. And the stories that subsequently emerge are equally obscure – crazy games with dead fish and other strange animal parts, painful paintball explosions and ferocious team competitions.

But without a doubt, all parents know there kids will come home with two things; a deeper desire to follow Christ and be more like him and a solid confidence that there is a group of people in the world that loves them till it hurts.

Thank you kids camp team for your strategic efforts and personal sacrifice for our kids!

But Emili is a trooper and she didn’t let it discourage her. She began to push herself to practice more regularly and in a more focused way. She knew that what the teacher was concerned about wasn’t all just hot air. And by the time it was recital day, she was fully ready.

She sat on the stage with nerves of steal and played her 3 pieces without a mistake. And, she looked like a princess as well. We are proud of her strong and determined spirit and we look forward to years of pleasure as she serves God with her piano skills.

Kim and Gwyneth traveled by train 5 hours east from our home town to attend the 3 day competition. Probably the high point of event was during lunch one day. Mr Dvorsky and the other judges were walking by Kim and Gwyneth’s lunch table, when he stopped and asked about Gwyneth. He assumed she was not Slovak because of her name, but he said that her Slovak pronunciation of difficult Slovak sounds was very good and that she had a very nice voice. This was a real encouragement for Gwyneth.

This was her first national competition, so we were pretty proud of her.

We didn’t know anything about it (nor did her teacher). Apparantly she heard about it at school, signed herself up, and  then one day, very casually, told me that she would be singing in it (the next day of course)!

I was elated that she finally felt confident enough in her ability and finds joy in singing (despite the nerves); almost as much as I did when I heard that she won 2nd place! That’s a photo of the award she received!

Her next competition is May 5 and there is a big 3-day competition in the East at the end of May. We thank God for this very special gift He has given to her. We continually pray that He will use her (and her gift) to reach people for Him.