GPC Mission

It is very hard to believe that we are at the end of our stay here in SLOvenia (felt I should put that in incase people thought I’d a typo ) Arriving 10 days ago, to start a new programme venture for Sebastian and Glorija in Radovljica, to teach English to adults in the area and beyond. This is a very exciting opportunity for them in the work that they are doing in this area.

Seb and Glo already knew a number of the people attending, one was the mum of a teen that became a Christian at one of their camps who has been a tremendous witness to her household. This mum, hadn’t stood in the way of her daughter and has ben impressed with the change in her daughters life, this led the mum to be more inquisitive towards the church, having several conversations over the last few years and recently telling Glorija “Your boss must really love me.”. WOW!

Last night we gave our “feedback” to the church in Ljubljana, which had Alison and Nate (we’re calling him that, because the “th” sound is very tricky for Slovenes) giving a brief summation of why they came on the team and what they were taking away from it. Stu and myself did a video of the week (to be fair Stu did by far the most work for it!) which left Pete to give a summation message. He explained why we had chosen the verse on the back of our tshirts and then spoke a bit from the book of Acts, where it mentions that numbers were added to the church through, “preaching”, “Christian love in action” and “worship to God”. The point to the church was that this is a time to grow and that through initiatives such as what has done, the church will grow. He added that he will be happy to come back next year and see the growth – no pressure there then! The guy taking the service last night had originally planned to give a message himself, but decided that what had been said was going to be a challenge enough. The whole church was united in thanking the efforts of our team and also Glengormley Presbyterian for the support that you have shown.

After the service we went to get some tea and were joined by Sebastian, Glorija, Patrik, Metka, Zvonko, Dubravca (Glorija’s mum and dad) and Spela. This was a fun night and there was plenty of eating and laughter. Then it was time for the farewells, which weren’t emotional as we all are quite happy to come back again and therefore it was more of a “until next time” kinda parting.

So as the last post from the Slovene Supremes in Slovenia (this year ) can we once again thank you all for your support over the last few days and we all relish the chance to “bend your ears” about this trip on our return

Well sorry once again for the delay with blog, by the time the guys got back last night from their travels it was very late, oh and yeah – the Internet that had been working all day, stopped!

Today was our day of rest which started with Alison, Nate, Pete and Stu heading off to find a house in Ljubljana to leave off all the gear from the camp at 9am (I couldn’t make it because I was very tired and a day driving in the heat was just too much, so I stayed in and slept and read instead). The plan had been to meet Metka at this house for 9.30, unfortunately the guys got a bit lost and a 30 min journey turned into more like 2 hours! This delay is part of the reason why they got back so late!

So, with a late start we moseyed our way on down to Postonia to check out the second largest cave system in Europe, and let me tell you getting out of the unusually hot weather, about 40 degrees or so, into the nice cool caverns, around 8 degrees, was fantastic! To get down into the caves we had to take a open top train during which there were a few close calls with Stu almost hitting his noggin! After our caving adventure, we headed to the castle cave however we were only able to see the outside for a few minutes as we wanted to get to the beach in Portruz as soon as possible to get some swimming in. After swimming was a nice pizza then a walk in Piran in the evening. Overall, it was a nice day and we were able to catch up/get to know Metka.

The journey back wasn’t as long – even though we left one of the American interns back with Sebastian and Glorija before hitting Kranj for the night.

So far this Sunday we have come to Seb and Glo’s house for some Sunday lunch and are about to head to Ljubljana for a quick look around and then on to church to do our feed back to the congregation there.

Tonight Pete heads onto Italy for a few days and the rest of us head back tomorrow with an overnight in London before arriving back on Tuesday.

Thanks for your support

The Slovene Supremes

Well today saw the end of our camps

We arrived at Radovljica  for a lunch of Kebab – quite different to the ones that we have at home, some of the team managed a full one others made a good effort at it, but failed. Then it was indoors for the conclusion of the kids camp with kids asking for email addresses so that they could keep in touch! At the end of this session, the team were thanked for our input to the week and were presented with a present – chocolate, not sure how they knew

After this is was time to head to Sebastian’s for a quick preparation for the nights class. The students arrived just before 4 – and they all brought something for the BBQ. We split into our groups for about 2 hours which was mostly a recap of the weeks lessons and allowed for more practice at speaking and conversing. We are all really impressed with the groups and the speed at which they have picked up what we have taught, naturally we had to include some Norn Irelandisms just to be thorough After this we prepared for the BBQ with Sebastian starting it off, but was then required for translating and addressing the group so I managed to do my second BBQ in less than a week! – No bonfire though RoManics, sorry

The BBQ seemed to go very well and there was good conversations happening everywhere! At the end we managed a group photo and the students were awarded a certificate and asked to fill in a questionnaire about the week, most replies came back as 5 out of 5 with a few 4′s and one 3 so I think it’s fair to say that it was a success overall There was a lot of hope that this course would run again and I suspect we may get a few familiar faces back if we do!

So now we can officially relax and take it easy, tomorrow is planned that we go to the coast via Postonia to see the caves and the castle and Sunday will be a bit of a look around Ljubljana.

Can we just thank you all for your prayers and support over the last week, it’s been great

The Slovene Supremes

Hi Folks,

You may be surprised to see a Romania comment here but I just wanted to share this with you all.

On the third day of our camp a reporter from a local newspaper came to do an article on us.  Here is a very very loose google translation on the article.

Kereső

2010th July 10   Good atmosphere in the England camp, kindergarten Csemete Author:S. B Ah .    a wonderful love of Jesus – including the children have learned about this – OROSZHEGYI ATTILA ZSOLT RECORDINGS   More than fifty children zsivajától was loud in the last week, the seedling Protestant Kindergarten : the usual summer camp for English ovis program now has a more attractive , idecsalogatva the little ones . 9-13 hours a day between the two groups 6, from Northern Ireland were dealt a voluntary teacher of children , trying to teach them the basics of English , mozgásos lot of games, singing , craft activities completed .   - The Glengormley Presbyterian Church among its members is no stranger to volunteering – we will be Leheltől , director of the kindergarten , who a few years ago , Ireland was during his stay in this church , hence the acquaintance . – Very strong missionary activities, assembles a team every summer , the older and younger volunteers , and somewhere to go to a language and music to teach. I’ve been including Japan and Slovenia , and now we have a place – summed up the director , adding that most of people are involved, who are active or retired teachers or home teachers . The team members ( Isobel and Brian McKenna , Elaine Baird , Lynsey McGilton , Laura Montgomery and Julie Mullan ) quickly slipped the hearts of the children themselves , because they are not ashamed to sing , dance , costumes or even hide the OVI- yard run around , swing . The game and the activities that are part of the German ( Leah Marten ) and India ( Aparna Nambiar ) voluntary , so the children can learn truly international company . In interpreting the Csemetés kindergarten teachers have committed themselves, although in many cases this was not necessary because the children out onto the forms of communication . In the morning, eager to set themselves small, Animal névtáblácskáikat , noon, and the parents showed them arriving happily in the finished drawings, or on the parade of faces , beautiful painted patterns. Face painting and singing : the time passed pleasantly “Jesus love is very wonderful “- Julie taught us the song , the children crouched on the carpet watching the teacher’s gestures sitting in the middle , trying to decipher the ” unders “and” over ” concept . Later, it is danced to the song, imitating a broad gestures , and nyújtózva lekuporodva , while Laura and Lynsey beautiful figurines ( animals and mesehősöket ) drew a small smile. A good atmosphere can be satisfied with both the camp for children , parents and volunteers who are curious as to what the result of the week, on the visit on Sunday morning at 10 o’clock in the Reformed church enclosure , where the children learned during the camp contend songs.

Today was a sad day… the orange tour of Slovenia came to an end The van which we have been using the last few days (with was the backdrop for the American team photo) had to be returned. This means that we now have to use “Big Red” as it has been named (I must add, prior to our arrival!). The American team were using up to now but they departed for home in the early hours of this morning, they are still travelling as I type this and probably will still be travelling if you are reading this tomorrow morning.

I’m not really able to fill you in on the happenings of the kids camp today as I was the second driver for the van swap, which meant driving to Ljubljana and back to Radovljica then on to Jesenice and back to Radovljica – a fair bit of driving. The thing that makes the trade worth while is that it has air conditioning, however the guys reliably inform me it’s not that far reaching – but given the size of the van, not too surprising

Stu capably filled in on guitar in my absence and was therefore unable to take many photos, hence the rather poor turn out today

The evening english class continues to keep it’s numbers with the beginners class covering some medical/ body part words and emergency contacts which was put into scenario role play. While the advanced class covered tenses and the conditions under which they are applied and played a few games. These games included doing a voice-over for a Star trek clip, “just a minute” where they have to speak on a topic for 1 minute and finally a sales pitch based on whatever products came out of Peter’s bag!

Tomorrow see us completing our 5 day course, which is quite scary in itself! Originally we had planned to have the BBQ on Saturday, but a number of the students can’t make it, so it’s being changed to tomorrow evening which means our class is being brought forward to 4pm for the 2 hours of english and then it’s BBQ time Sebastian will be cook, there seems to be a hint of a rumour that I’m not to be trusted after my last attempt naturally I’m denying any credibility to these rumours!

Tomorrow night is when the real work will be done, please be praying from 5pm your time for this, that Sebastian and Glorija would be able to build relationships with the students and that there won’t be any awkwardness at speaking with “non young people”

So we have all made it through the day and are feeling a little tired, but will not give in to sleep that easily! Some wind down is required first and then sleep, with the aid of the fans that we have in our rooms

Thank you all for your prayers and support,

The Slovene Supremes

As wednesdays are affectionately known as “hump day” in many places of work it seems fitting that we should title our blog in this fashion as we are already over half way through our course! It seems like time is racing by and we are loosing track of what day we are up to.

Today we were back up to full strength, however we are all being cautious with energy usage and keeping well hydrated. We were expecting to go swimming with the kids camp today, but the timings unfortunately didn’t work. This was both a blessing and a disappointment as it was about 33 in the shade, but the water would be very refreshing and more importantly – COLD!!!

Instead we spent the afternoon preparing for the evenings classes, the beginners don’t generally have as much to prepare, other than a few video clips of different accents. The accents that we managed to acquire, apart from our own fine ones are Nathaniel’s parents, our very own Scottish legend… Lachlan and Hilary from New Zealand. These clips have worked well with this group as it has given them a flavour of different english speaking accents. The advanced course have a lot more to prepare for their group and this generally takes several hours each day to prepare for.

The classes are going well and it will be the turn of the beginners class to hit the road tomorrow, since the advanced class have gone “on tour” twice now (our group is starting to feel a bit deprived ) The advanced class get to use the down stairs theatre room which is the coolest room in the library and a good place to work from.

Friday night will see us ending the week with a BBQ at Sebastian and Glorija’s house, we shall still have our 2 hours of english class, but that will be followed by the BBQ which should provide a good environment for conversations and relationship building.

So we want to thank you for all of your great comments and prayers and ask you to keep them coming ‘cos we still need them

The Slovene Supremes

Well I suppose I should start this blog by filling you in on why we were doing better now that we had Isotonic drinks, well basically it hot! Dehydration is becoming a factor that is taking its toll on us, that coupled with a “bug” that has about 48hr effects

For the most part we are all doing well, however it is getting increasingly difficult to run around with the kids and then not collapse in a heap! Which is a challenge considering the part we are playing in the kids camp, playing football, basketball and generally having a sporty time :S ( a challenge at the best of time for me )

Anyway, onto the reason we are out here…

We had a chance to speak with Seb and Glo about the previous nights programme, they had some very encouraging feedback to give and a few more pointers on Slovene culture and ways. We arrived at 5.50 to find most of the class already waiting for us at the library, we have kept the same numbers by gaining one in the beginners class and loosing one from the advanced. The classes seemed to go well, with the advanced class going “on the road” and the beginners class outside the front door (mostly because the room we used yesterday was locked, oops!

After the “teaching” bit is completed, we have left an opportunity for “a wee chat” afterwards, which was a lot more engaging tonight, for which we are greatly encouraged. One of the students read the back of our tshirts which we hope will raise more questions as the week progresses. All in all 4 out of 5 teachers would agree… tonight went well

Prayer requests

1. That we won’t be bothered by “the bug”

2. That the heat (which is around 33 in the shade!) wouldn’t be such a challenge

3. That the kids at the morning/afternoon camp would continue to develop relationships with the CEF workers

4. That Jesus would come up in conversation with the adult students and that Sebastian and Glorija would be able to develop them.

5. Pray also for the Advanced English group, with Alison, Stuart and Peter.  The group has come together well over the last two days and one of the members Neda has invited the group round to her house to meet there on Wednesday evening (mostly because the room they are using in the library is incredibly hot).  Pray that this would prove to be a great opportunity for deeper conversations in this group.  Neda is not a Christian herself, but her daughter is, and Gloria and Sebastian tell us that has really got Neda thinking as she sees the changes in her daughter’s life.

Thank you for all your support,

The Slovene Supremes

Ps. the last photo in todays blog is of the outgoing American team who are sharing our accommodation with us, and came to visit our kids camp this morning.

Wow! Man was that a great way to start the week!

Yet again, we have been blessed with great weather, sorry to rub it in guys! This morning was the start of the CEF camp that is being run by Glorija’s parents, Metka and 2 American interns out for the summer, we aren’t too heavily involved with this camp, but we do have some musical input (my fingers will be a bit shorter by the time I get back – no plectrums ) While this is not a very busy camp there are expected to be 11 tomorrow, so the guys are happy that they have the chance for more one-to-one time with the kids.

Next on our agenda was preparing and doing the camp that we have come to do, teaching English to adults.

We had 13 adults attend tonight and following a self assessment questionnaire, it was decided that the mix for the classes should be 9 for the advanced english and the remaining 4 for the beginner level. Alison and Stuart took the advanced group and Nathaniel and myself took the beginners’ class.

The evening starts at 6PM with tea/coffee/water  and “general chat” then we split into our groups from 6.30 for 1 hour. There is a recap and question time allocated at the end of the hour and then we meet up again for the last 30 minutes, or until the conversations stop and everyone goes home! After this, we get a chance to get some tea with Sebastian and Glorija and have a kind of “debrief” of the evening. Then it’s the drive back to Kranj for a good night’s sleep to refresh us for another day.

Tomorrow our morning and afternoon will change a bit, which should give us free time in the morning to prepare and then it’s off to the kids’ camp and then the adults’ classes in the evening. Joking aside, it is warm here and playing games outside is very tiring, so please pray that we keep up and the we have enough energy to complete the evening classes.

The Slovene Supremes

Hi everyone,

Today is our last full day in Romania.  We will all be leaving Romania tomorrow together and then going our separate ways in Hungary.  So this will probably be our last post

We have had a fantastic day today.  Lehel took us up into the hills to see the beautiful Romanian countryside.  It truly was a spectacular sight!  We all felt we had stepped into the opening scene from the Sound of Music.  We then had a delicious barbecue, with our own mini bonfire to celebrate the 12th in style!  Dave – this is the way to barbecue!

Now we are relaxing back at the nursery and trying to talk ourselves into doing a little bit of packing!

We have enjoyed spending our evening with Lehel and Emoke and Robert – Looking back over the photos from the week.   We have really loved getting to know them and it will be very hard to say goodbye tomorrow.

Thank you all for your prayer support over the last week.  It has really encouraged us and makes us feel loved!  We have been praying that all the 12th celebrations back home have passed off peacefully.

Please pray that we all have safe travels.  See you all when we get home!

God Bless,

Team RoMania xo

P.S For a video of the service on Sunday click the link below.

Táborzáró a Tóközi templomban

Firstly an apology to those bloggers who have had to wait until this morning to get their “fix” the blog that was done last night but then the internet went down -oops! (so for all todays read Sunday or yesterday )

Apologies for the multiple photos – stupid internet!!

Any way, onto today’s activities! Well in an effort to keep the post headings in keeping with the main day activity, no great surprise as to where we went to today Yup that’s right, the beach! ….. aww alright, it was a beautiful gorge near to lake Bled called Vintgar, as you can see it was really quite nice Really nice walk and even better because it’s in the shade, which was very welcome! (average temperature so far is about 30 and the daytime is warm also ) Peter and myself have been before and really noticed the effects of the dry weather that they have had recently, the picture of the dam was overflowing really well back then – today it could hardly manage the side channel!

After Vintgar we went to lake Bled and where able to get a rowing boat to go out to the church in the middle of the lake (we have good contacts!) then it was time to sample some local dessert before going back to “Le Chateaux Forjan” for some lunch. We had a short while to relax a bit and then were on the road again to Ljubljana for church, which saw this weeks team feed back to the church on what had been accomplished and fortunately for us (and actually the church also) the American team took the sermon section. Jim was excellent and gave us a section of his talk that he had given on redemption, which was the theme of their camp.

After that, it was back to a bit more eating, don’t want to waste away you know and now we are back for the night. Some are catching the football and others aren’t – I’ll let you figure out who Most of us are looking to an early(ish) night as the heat and quick pace of the days is starting to catch up a bit. Tomorrow sees us at 2 camps, one kids camp in the morning and then the adult “camp” in the evening, which has approx 12 signed up already

Thank you for your prayers – the real fun starts tomorrow and onwards!