Packing

As we pack up our things and clean up our hostel, it still hasn't hit me that we are leaving Ljubljana tomorrow. I just won't believe it. Slovenia needs Jesus so much and we only began to scratch the surface of ministry potential here. I guess now I must leave it in God's hands and continue my prayer for the nation. It breaks my heart to leave this beautiful place. No more walking to the center, no more Cacao gelato, no more mexican pizza from Hombre. No more sitting at a cafe for hours at a time. No more struggling to stay standing up on the busses. No more.

No more speaking to Slovenes about God. No more telling them that they have a Savior. No more discussing the relativity of truth. No more nerves and hesitation to share the Gospel with them.

Still there are no regrets. The definition of successful Gospel sharing is stepping out in faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to tell others the Gospel and leaving the results up to God. I think we have done this. We have been faithful to God's calling to Slovenia and now we have to wait and see what happens today, tomorrow, next year, and in eternity. I hope and pray that I will be in Heaven one day and a Slovene will run up to me and tell me what part I played in him/her knowing God and how he/she is glad to have met me. I truly hope and know that we have made an impact here in Ljubljana and in the hearts of the university students.

Last week is a go!

Hey all!

As we head into our last week in Slovenia, we are praying that we will get to say a few last goodbyes to all the great Slovene friends we have made here, we get to have a few last discussions about Jesus and God, and that we can get our new friends in contact with the future STINT-ers for next year (STINT is like summer project, but for a whole year). If you can pray for all of these things, it would be wonderful!

This past Friday, we all made a day trip to Rovinj, Croatia! We went to the coast and swam in the Adriatic Sea! So amazing! God's creation is so very beautiful. We had a blast and we all got sunburnt! haha!

This week we got to see a few Slovenes come to Christ! We are very excited to have new brothers and sisters in Christ! Please pray for them that they will continue growing in Christ after we leave!

One was very much a divine appointment. She was living in another country when her parents needed to come back to Ljubljana. They were only going to be here for 2 days. God led 2 of our girls to talk to her when they saw her on the first day. That day, she accepted Christ! The next day, they met with her again, gave her a Bible and a book about who Jesus is and she came to our Thursday night party. The next day she had to leave. Only God could have orchestrated that!

Our schedule for this week is this:

Monday: Morning meeting, going out sharing/appointments with contacts, project dinner, and then free night

Tuesday: Sharing/appointments, free afternoon for saying goodbyes to Slovenes, and then Bible study and dinner with our action groups

Wednesday: PACKING and CLEANING our hostel. I can't believe we are so close to leaving!

Thursday: We will be traveling to Austria for our project de-briefing (wrap up)

Friday: Free day in Austria

Saturday: Get on an airplane in Munich and FLY HOME! WHAT?

I am excited to go home and see all my family and friends, but I am not ready to leave this country and project friends. I am glad I get to see all of you soon, though!

Pray for our safe travels and for the country of Slovenija!

Sorry for the wait!

Hello, readers.... if I even have readers....

'Tis the end of another week here in Slovenia. Time flies by too quickly, I tell you!

This past week I had a couple of good conversations. In particular, I had a conversation with a Slovene guy who seemed very close to understanding the Gospel, but he had two diversions: He didn't think that God answered prayer and he had a works-based idea of getting to Heaven. We had a kind of long conversation with him and went through the Gospel. At the end, we told him how he could receive Jesus and asked if that was something he desired. He said he thought it was. When we asked if he would like to pray to receive Christ, he hesitated and said that he would like to think about it some more. We got his contact information and we are hoping that we can have a follow up conversation with him in order to see what he is feeling about praying for Christ to come into his life. Please keep him in your prayers. :)

That is one of the only conversations that truly sticks out in my head for this week. We keep in continued contact with 2 girls we met week 1. It is very nice.

We had yet another grand adventure yesterday (Saturday). We went to Lake Bohinj and hiked to a waterfall. The hike was 5 miles each way and then 500 steps to get to the waterfall. We walked about 11 miles total yesterday and my feet are screaming at me. The waterfall shouted God's glory though and I am glad I got to see it, though I would have preferred to drive there ;).

There was a gazebo where people had written their names all over it with the date they were there and we wrote "Summer Project Slo 2011" and wrote our names, too. The day was quite a long one and we were all very tired, so we had a great night's sleep!

Today was our day of rest, we don't have anything scheduled until 6 pm, which is church. Tonight I am helping with children's church! I am very excited! :)

Again, I hope you will keep me in your prayers and minds. I thank the Lord for each of you!

Weekend Update

Hello again from Ljubljana!!! It has been quite the week. I don't even remember what days were which, but I am going to try to recount it for you.
This week consisted of a lot of sharing and trusting God with our conversations. We take about 4 hours each week day to go to campus and share with students. To do this we have a couple of surveys to get the ball rolling. One os Perspectives and one is Soularium. If you are not familiar with the Campus Crusade lingo: Perspectives is a deck of cards which give you questions and possible answers. It is kind of like a multiple choice quiz but with religious questions. The questions are: Who is God?/Is there a God?, What is human nature like?, What is the meaning/purpose of life?, Who was Jesus? Where do you find your spiritual truths? These questions usually lead t osome compelling conversations! Soularium is another set of cards which have pretty pictures on them that people use to answer 5 different questions, which are: Pick 3 pictures that describe your life right now, pick 3 that you wish described your life, pick 1 that describes God, and I honestly forget the other 2. As you can tell, I like to use Perspectives better.
This week on Friday I got to have a second appointment with two wonderful girls. We talked with them for 3 hours at a cafe and it was a blast. We got to know their spiritual beliefs and tell them about ours: the Gospel. We are meeting with them again on Monday!
The fun began Friday night! This weekend is Slovenia's 20th year as being a country and they had a celebration in the center on Friday night! There were fireworks and a lot of speeches in Slovene that we couldn't understand. It was great though because we got our 4th f July fireworks, just a few weeks early! The Slovene and a few other countries presidents were there and everything! Good times!
THIS morning, I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN! Yep! I did. We hiked up Mount Šmarna Gora which is a whopping 2,195 ft tall! That mountain tried its best to kill me, but I got through. Waiting at the top was a great view and a very cute outdoor cafe that served what is known as the best tea and donuts in Slovenia. And let me tell you, I bet they are correct in that assessment. The tea is made from some substance that comes from some sort of tree that is growing in the middle of the cafe and it tastes like honey and spices and goodness. The donuts were like funnel cake in donut form. They had powdered sugar on them and you put your choice of chocolate, caramel, or strawberry sauce on them. Let's just say U ate 4 of them. So great! The view from the top shouted God's glory. It was so so so beautiful. For pictures, you can click on my previous post which will take you to my Slovenia album on facebook. :)
As you can probably tell, I am having a BLAST in Slovenia and life is great! I would love to thank all of my supporters from their loving gift. I so do not deserve God's grace and He has shown me it through you all. Thank you!!!!

Photo Album

Also, you can see my pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150650427310594.694110.507050593&l=bbed0c946

and you don't need facebook to do so

Sharing our faith

We are now concluding 2 weeks of going out every week day and sharing our faith with students at the university. One of our goals is to get second appointments with students to further discuss God and learn more about their lives. I have a second appointment tomorrow afternoon with a very nice girl. We are very excited to get to know her better and just be able to show her the love of Christ. Pray that God will give us the words to say and that she will be truly open with us, as I know she will.

I thought you might be interested to learn some Slovene words, so here you go:

Hvala (pronounced without the H)- Thank you

Dober Dan- Hello, good day

Prosim- This is a catch-all of sorts. It can mean you're welcome, excuse me, sorry, and please

racun, prosim- Check, please (they won't bring the check until you ask for it)

bela kava- white coffee (kind of like a latte)

kava z mlekom- coffee with milk

Usak Študent- Every Student, the name of Campus Crusade in European areas (the crusades aren't looked on too fondly here)

It's entertaining and interesting that the first words we learned were coffee, please, and thank you. :)

Encouragement

God uses you even when you think you arent working!!! Today we met two lovely ladies on campus who were very excited at the idea of becoming our friends! Please pray for our schedules to coincide so we can spend time with them and share the love of Christ with them and tell them what He did for them. Its going to be great!!!!!!!!!

(Please excuse my poor grammar, I am using a Slovene keyboard and I honestly cannot find the apostrophe button.)

Ljubljana!

I am in Ljubljana, Slovenia everyone!!! I arrived at approximately 3 pm local time after a 1 hour plane ride, an 8 hour plane ride, and a 4 hour bus trip. But I am here!!! We are starting our training tomorrow and we are going to start sharing tomorrow as well! Tonight, though, we rest. I will keep you updated. Keep in mind, I am now 6 hours ahead of you!

Project starts tomorrow!

I leave for orientation in Columbus tomorrow and I get on an airplane Slovenia-bound on Sunday!!!

I am currently packing, always last minute on that stuff! I am almost certain I am forgeting something really important... oh well.

Pray for out safe travels this weekend, please!!!

Also, praise God for my full support!!!! :D

One week to go!

So, here I sit. The night before my finals and all I can think about is SLOVENIA! How is a girl supposed to learn to analyze French literature and learn different ethical theories with that on her mind??? Pray that I do well on my exams!

In ONE WEEK I will be sitting on an airplane. SEVEN DAYS! Whaaaat?

Here are some updates for you:

-I am currently at 68% support (though there are some online donations I don't know about yet).

-I haven't started packing yet. Need to get on that nonsense.

-All of my supporters are crazy awesome! I am incredibly blessed by all of you!

Seriously though, you all are amazing! :) I cannot believe that I know people who are willing to GIVE me $3,435 to go on a mission trip. Ridiculous. That is a huge number. You all such a blessing on my life, for real!

As far as prayer goes, pray that I can finish up support raising, that we all can finish our finals and quarters strong, and that we will travel safely to Ljubljana in a week! Pray that God will lead us to hearing ears and open hearts for the Gospel!

Matthew 28:16-20

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

New blog!

Hello there!

If you are here it is likely that you have found this because I told you about it either in a thank you note or on Facebook. Welcome!

This is where I will be blogging about my trip in Slovenia with Campus Crusade for Christ. I leave on June 12th and will be there for 5 weeks! I don't know how often I will be able to post, since we won't have internet in our hostel, but I will do my best.

I am going to include a map of Ljubljana for those of you who don't know where I will be going!

Thanks for reading and please pray for me!

Allison