New Beginnings

Sunday, August 1st, started with our second, and last, church service. It was beautiful and inspiring. Pastor Randy, wearing the traditional Reformation clergy black robe and white tabs, gave the sermon at both the 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. worship services, translated by Lead Pastor Jan Hroban. Pastors Jan and Randy also went out to Bystricka, a small village outside of Martin, to lead worship at 2:30pm to a small and faithful group of elderly Lutherans. One of the Minnesota builders, KJ, gave a message....in Slovak! It was wonderful. She has been taking Slovak lessons for 1 year and everyone says she speaks it beautifully, so much so, that the elderly woman in front of Priscilla and I turned, smiled, and shook our hands! As we left after the service, another woman did the same. Thank you, KJ. Your outreach brought us all closer together.

After lunch we had free time until 4 p.m. when we piled into the buses for a trip into the countryside, past tiny picturesque villages to a small, local ski resort where the Bible School staff barbequed sausage and chicken. One of the refreshments was cofola, the Slovak version of a cola soft drink, that was quite good. The staff brought their families, and even the kitchen staff, 4 sweet young ladies from, I believe, the university, joined in the fun. The children were a delightful diversion.
After dinner it was back in the buses, but Michal took us on a side trip to the village where Bohdan, Adrian, and Michal (the top three leaders) are all building homes for their families. I squished around in the mud with Jim, a Minnesota builder, and Adrian, who told us in great detail the next steps in building his home. On the drive back through the rolling hills we saw sheep, cows, and a wonderful overview of the small village where we worshipped on Thursday night just as the sun set. These are memories for a lifetime! God is truly great!

The picture below is of Pam with a former student who was kind enough to join us for the BBQ!

Today, Monday, it was back to class. We had 14 new students, mostly employees of the City of Martin. Priscilla and I were given 3 new students: Ludo, Dana, and Alena. We spent the day getting to know them and introducing many new English words for them to learn. We are very excited to have these fine folks for this final week here in Slovakia.

Good Night dear family and friends! Breck

Patty, Lubor, Lukas, and Angela enjoying a lunch break Monday afternoon