It was possibly one of the simplest, most basic conferences technically that we’ve ever done (at least in the 4 years that we’ve been here) but, as it seems from the feedback that we’ve received so far, one of the most significant in terms of the impact that it had on the personal lives of the students and youth leaders who attended. The theme for this year’s youth leadership conference was “Nie z vlastných…”, or “Not from my own…” and talked about the resources that we have when our lives are rooted in Christ. Awesome stuff. It was actually the exact same material, delivered by the same guy, that we covered last fall at our JV staff training conference, except this time it was given in Czech. There were a record number of attendees (roughly 600) and, as staff, we were absolutely in shock about how stress-free the preparation was. But, instead of giving you more details about the conference, I’ll just give you some excerpts from the feedback…

“The whole conference was great and the Lord spoke powerfully to me at KPM and I’m thankful to Him, and to those who served in any capacity at the conference, for that. It’s great that we have something here like KPM, may the Lord bless you in your work”

“The Lord Jesus is amazing! It’s unbelievable how touched I was through the whole conference, through the speakers, worship, stories from the lives of missionaries, etc. ”

“I only want to say that this KPM was for me and my team a huge blessing. God’s presence there was obvious.”

“KPM was for me a huge encouragement towards further youth ministry; a big inspiration. In many things, Dave convicted and encouraged me with love towards further ministry”

“I wish God’s blessing upon you and for many KPM’s, because KPM is a giant cornerstone for a huge number of people, thank you!”

…and there were 56 more comments that were all essentially the same. Some talked about how the music was, at times, too loud, or the sessions were sometimes too long or too short, but the message was very consistent; that God showed Himself to people in a huge way over the course of the 4-day conference. And if you never got a chance to download and listen to the messages last September, they’re worth a listen…! JV Fall Training Conference

Well our little boy turned 2 yesterday (March 19th). Hard to believe that he is getting so big! Because I was still recovering from my back issues, we had a fairly low-key little party with our friends the Sheppersons (their son, Samuel Green, is 3.5 years old and one of Jackson’s friends). I made some yummy chocolate cupcakes, which Jackson is about ready to devour in this picture. He got lots of great gifts, including a play-dough set, Matchbox cars, a little train set and tracks, a puzzle, and a Mr. Potato Head. He’s been having fun with his new toys, and we are loving watching our little guy grow up!

As far as new things he does… he is able to climb out of his crib pretty well, especially when the bar is down. Although when he wakes up in the morning or after naps, he’s pretty content to just hang out in there, and doesn’t try to get out. He knows about half of his letters, both by picking them out and by saying them. He loves jumping and dancing around, and has become quite the ham when we have visitors over… after about 5 minutes of getting comfortable with them, he drags them off into his room to show off his toys.

Jackson has been such a joy to us… a challenge at times for sure, as he has a very strong personality in a lot of ways, but also just such a sweet kid. He just loves Morgan, and is always giving her hugs and kisses, which we find adorable. His laugh is still one of the greatest sounds in the world, and we could not imagine our lives without him. Happy Birthday sweet Jackson!

Wanted to place a post and give Gavin kudos for being Super Dad the past 1.5 weeks. It began with my trip to Rome on Wed of last week. On returning last Friday night I assumed my motherly duties, but then this past Tuesday morning, while loading the kids and the groceries in the car at the shopping center, my back went out. This happens to me about 3 times a year (yes, I will admit that I don’t do the exercises I need to do on a regular basis), and generally takes a couple days of mostly laying down to get back to normal. Well, not this time - it has been the worst it has ever been, and I have been in bed now for going on 5 days. Gavin has had to take on full responsibility for the kids and now taking care of me as well, and if he was not able to be here, we have had to have other friends come over and help out. I hope to be up and about in the next couple days, but it will still be a while before I can actually pick up the kids and resume my day-to-day activities. I do have to say though, that this time I am now motivated to do my exercises, as it’s been a *long few days in bed. So my praises go out to Gavin for being such an amazing dad and husband!!

I know that in the English language we don’t string together consonants like in the word Vlčince (pronounced ‘vuhl - cheen - say’), but this is the area of town where we now live. In any moderately-sized town in Slovakia you will find groups of what can seem like hundreds of 7 to 11 story apartment buildings clustered together… housing that was built by the communists so that everyone in Slovakia had a place to live. To this day I have read that 90% of Slovaks live in these type of apartment buildings across the country. From the outside they are gray and rather dismal looking, but many apartments are being remodeled and actually look quite nice on the inside. When traveling through the country you will see these buildings, called panelaks, pretty much everywhere. In Zilina, there are 3 of these type of residential areas, and we live in one of them. Below is a picture of a part of Vlcince, although the actual sidlisko (that’s the name for the entire area) is probably 8 times the size of what is shown here:

Our apartment is on the right side of this main street, about halfway down. We are on the first floor, and the bus stop is right outside our window. The main walking path is right outside our back window, and it takes Gavin about 8 minutes to ride his bike to Kompas (and about the same amount of time to drive in!). It is very rare to look out our window and not see at least a few people out and about… it is a very family-friendly area, and there are people from all different walks of life literally next door!

Here is another picture of part of Vlčince with the snow-covered mountains in the background:

We have enjoyed living here thus far. While our apartment probably is not bigger, footprint-wise, than our last one, it is laid out better in that we have 3 bedrooms rather than just one. So Jackson has a great room, and when Morgan finally stops getting up in the night we will move her to her own bedroom as well. We have a nice new (but small) kitchen, and a new bathroom.

And finally, a couple pictures of our photographers (Jackson enjoyed taking pictures of himself using the remote):

Yes, I was able to go to Rome! For 2 days! The Josiah Venture women had their annual conference, and this year the theme was ‘tending your vineyard’, and it took place in Rome! When I first found out about the conference, it was last fall and I knew that I would have a newborn who I could not take with me (no kids allowed). But I so wanted to be able to go, and the prices of the plane tickets were so low, that I decided to buy a ticket for 2 days, and decide last minute if I would really go or not. We worked for a couple weeks to get Morgan to take a bottle, and after saying good-bye to my very brave husband, I stepped on the plane for 2 days in Rome with my JV sisters! The rest of them went from Mon-Fri, and I was able to be there from Wed-Fri. Not very long, but I did get to see quite a few sights, and had a great time connecting with the other women, who are all serving in a 2nd culture here in Eastern Europe. Morgan also did great while I was gone (one night she actually slept from 12-8… I guess she figured it wasn’t worth getting up for a bottle!), and Gavin did a wonderful job taking care of both her and Jackson, and giving me this great opportunity to get away for a short while. So here is our group of 33 women in front of the Roman Colosseum (which was magnificent to see).