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.

“Mom! I can see things I never saw before”! That’s what Emili told me as we walked home from the city  Wednesday from picking up her new glasses!

I felt bad that I had put off taking  her to the eye doctor since the beginning of the school year.  Then one day after a science class at school, I asked her what the class was about. She told me that she didn’t know. Surprised, I asked her why? Did she not understand the slovak I wondered?  Then she said, “I couldn’t see anything the teacher was writing on the board”!

Needless to say, I made an appointment immediately.  Obviously, she needed glasses. Sounds easy enough. . .however, have you ever shopped for eyeglasses with a 12 year old? Oh my! It wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be.Many stores and one week later, here are the results! I think she looks even more like her dad! Which makes her happy too. She loves them.

Life with glasses comes with many learning experiences: Lesson #1: don’t wear your new glasses while in the car, it makes you car sick (her pop tells her that she’ll eventually get used to it). I’m sure there will be many more lessons for us all. For now, we’ll start with this!

I wanted to officially get word out about my recent surgery. It really has been a whirl wind. I was just reminded that it happened exactly 1 week tonight, although it seems like 2 days ago for me.

It was last Friday night (March 12), all the kids were asleep and Zac and I were just getting into bed when I began to have severe abdominal pressure and pain. As best as I can explain it, the pain felt similar to the last stages of labor (full of pressure) and pain. I went to the bathroom thinking it would relieve the pressure and it only got worse. Now I felt nauseous, hot, cold, faint, ughh everything all at once, it was overwhelming.

Over the next course of hours, I was seen by my doctor (gyn) who quickly diagnosed me with a ruptured tubal pregnancy. This was not exactly a surprise. I had been seeing my doctor since January, at which time I learned I was pregnant again! But after several weeks of careful watch (and a 3 day hospitalization in February for observation), it was determined that I had an ectopic pregnancy that was spontaneously dissolving.

What we were surprised with now, was that it was ruptured and I was hemorrhaging internally. Although devastated at the moment, God allowed me to think clearly and remember a friend here who had gone through this same thing. I immediately called her for a recommendation of a doctor (for surgery). And within 15 minutes that doctor called my doctor. (This was necessary since unlike the US,  hospitals here are staffed with their “own” doctors. So the doctor you see in the office setting is not the doctor who will treat you in the hospital). The results of this one phone call was completely the hand of God. Because our greatest fear was going into surgery without any knowledge of a reputable doctor.

Within a few hours, everything was worked out and I was in surgery in a nearby town – Cadca. It was a scary time of course, but God did give me a real peace about everything. You can not look at the circumstances without seeing His hand in everything. Even the detail of which hospital was from Him. it was a newly renovated GYN ward and operating room (that we didn’t know existed until I was in it).

The nurses were amazing and caring women. They took such good care of me.  Zac was not allowed  with me during recovery very much and my 2 days in ICU!  They told me: “he doesn’t need to see you like this, we will take care of you”. And they did. Although it was hard not to have Zac there, I think they were right. He didn’t need to see me that way. I was in a lot of pain, and it would have been very difficult for him to see me like this for long periods of time.

I was released on Tuesday (March 16) and Zac has had plenty of opportunity to take care of me! He is doing great nursing me back to health and managing our brood! He’s exhausted and 1/2 sick himself with some respiratory bug. We have had precious friends bring meals every night. They have been a real blessing.

I do not understand why I needed to go through this trauma (not just the surgery, but the roller coaster of emotions since we found out we were pregnant. . . then not. . . then yes, then it’s ectopic). What I do know is:  I have a God who cares for me. He protects me.  He provides for me. He comforts me. He is REAL. If you have never experienced this God, you are surely missing something.

At the same time, I have to be honest and say that our debt free status may not last long. In the last year, we have only added one new monthly partner to our support family, from the ten partners (we have mentioned so often) we need to shore up our financial needs. Also, in this condition, we have NOT been able to add back  the $500 salary reduction that we imposed on ourselves last year.

So, please pray for us in this situation. We  really need God to bring those additional 9 monthly partners to us soon.

Dinner together usually follows, prepared with love by my wonderful wife. Then me and Jay find a quiet room for focused time in God’s Word and for prayer.

For some months, Jay has been coming closer and closer to our family and to God. He also is enrolled in our school for youth leaders at Kompas. So, there is always lots to talk about – from theology to Bible study to relationships to ministry.

At present, he is working in his father’s business and is asking God to show him the next steps for his life. He wants to finish his college education and serve God wherever he leads.

It is obvious that God has His hand on Jay and that he has great plans for using him here in Slovakia.

Please pray that Jay will keep growing in God’s wisdom and grace in the days ahead.

We can’t control timing of when needs come, and God does say that “we have not because we ask not”.  So, I’m writing about some of our urgent needs:

dishwasher- Our dishwasher has been broken for about 3 months now. It needs a new electronic panel (for 375$). We’ve been hand-washing (not unusual, but tiresome) and would be very thankful if we could get ours repaired or buy a new one (which ever is cheaper)

computers - Zac’s computer has been broken since our last return from the States. It needs a new motherboard. The home computer is out of date and doesn’t have sufficient memory to run the educational programs we have. The good news is my computer is working perfectly, so we are able to work, but there isn’t enough time during the day to share it between so many uses. We need to at least purchase 1 new computer, probably for the home (desk top), so Zac can fully take over mine. This will be a big investment of probably around $1200 (or less if we can find a good used one).

If you are willing to help us with either of these special items, we are creating a special funds account with JV to cover these items. Or, if you have a newer computer you would like to give to our ministry we would be thrilled to work out a way of getting it here.

So here is our family’s Christmas story. I was hesitant to share it until now. I pray I can communicate it correctly.

Because of the financial situation we are in,  I sat down to think and plan for Christmas and made out a very modest budget for our family. Because things are so much cheaper in the States and because online shopping is so much easier than shopping here, I decided it would be best to order all our gifts from the US and have them mailed here.

It was fun to shop online, and even more fun to take advantage of the incredible deals offered at Thanksgiving. I let the kids buy gifts for each other online as well. I was so happy with the products and prices, and it confirmed to me this was the right thing to do.

By December 4th, my mom had received all the packages, unpacked everything, then repacked it for overseas mailing. On December 5th she mailed the first box, express mail (7-9 days) to Slovakia. December 7th she mailed the second box (2 smaller boxes were more economical than 1 large). From that day we began praying for these boxes. Everyday we prayed for them to get here safely, without taxes or trouble. Sometimes the kids would ask, “what if they don’t come” and I would reply in confidence, “don’t think that way, let’s believe God will do this”.

I was determined, as the days drew closer, I would make no back-up plan. To me a back-up plan didn’t show faith. We continued to pray, with confidence.

On December 23 (the last day for mail delivery ) when the package didn’t arrive, I was more devastated than the kids. I prayed and prayed, asking God to give me wisdom and understand for myself, so I could explain it to the kids.

We had a family meeting that evening and all agreed that God could have gotten this box to us on time. Next we asked ourselves why do we think He did it this way. Emili (our oldest) spoke immediately and said, “probably He wanted us to focus more on Jesus and not getting gifts for ourselves”.

Tearfully, I agreed with her and it didn’t take long for the others to agree as well. So from that moment, we decided to forget about the boxes (which we figured probably had gone to someone who needed them more than us) and focus more on Jesus. We had a beautiful Christmas, celebrating through our advent traditions, visiting with friends and lots of food It was perfect. We really could not have ask for a more meaningful time.

I avoided posting about the boxes not arriving. I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for us or even worse, give money to buy last minute gifts. I just felt God wanted me to be quiet on this. The kids were not fully without gifts. Special friends here gave them wonderful gifts that they loved. And there was 1 big gift in hand that was given to us back in the summer, but we had waited to give it until Christmas – a Nintendo Wii!!! So, this was way more than enough.

And then one day, around the 30th of December, as we were leaving for Poland to celebrate New Year’s with our close friends, guess what? The package came! Yep it sure did. We opened it with joy and were thrilled with each gift. But I’m sure the timing wasn’t a mistake. Our hope is that our perspective was changed for ever – to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.