Where Do We Go From Here?

So the Slovakia 2005 Mission is over, but this blog is still here. I originally set it up to get missions updates to the masses, and it seems to have worked pretty well, but I would hate to see the blog die now. We still have missions next year, mini missions to small town Montana coming up, and the 2005 school year is just around the corner.

In preparation for the school year, one of our goals is to revamp the Chi Alpha website. We want to make it simple. Something like five links off the home page: About, Upcoming Events, Past Events (with photos), Bloggers (like me!), and Resources (like links to Bible Gateway. Oh, and we're going to get rid of the dead forums. Sorry to you dead forum readers, but nobody ever posts stuff there anymore.

So this is your chance to speak up or forever hold your peace about any cool ideas you have for the site. Yes that means you. You who is reading this. Go ahead and leave a comment. It's the "comments" link at the end of the post. Okay, don't say I never gave you a chance.

In other upcoming events, I know it's not on the official calendar, but the fireworks are getting delivered to my house tomorrow. It's more important for me to mark my calendar, than it is for you to mark yours, but that means that we will soon be manning the XA Fireworks stand! It's a TNT Fireworks stand, and we'll be south of Missoula on Highway 93, across from the Montana Sports Medicine builing and turnoff to Blue Mountain. If you are interested in helping out (it's going to be super fun), just send me an email.

Well, that's all for now. Oh and don't forget to leave a comment with your cool idea for the website!

what a trip...#10

hello everyone,

i wanted to send a final email and tell you about the last day of outreach in slovakia and the crazy trip we had coming home.

i woke up sunday morning with a terrible hacking cough...the previous day of fighting my allergies in bonovce and then singing for three hours in a very smoky bar really did in my immune system. knowing that i would have to sing five songs at the outreach in about an hours time, i downed a few bottles of water and tried to talk a lot to get my voice back to where i could at least hold a simple tune.

the main concert of our outreach was scheduled for 9:30am at the cultural center in dubinca. that is a very early time of the day...especially for singing!!!

we arrived with all of our gear, the theater/cultural center was quite comfy with a high ceiling, plenty of stage space and much to our delight a grand piano backstage. i quickly grabbed my guitar and started tuning as everyone scurried around setting up the equipment. people started filling in the seats.

ada, the slovakian girl i'd recruited to play piano with me last night had found the grand piano backstage and began playing. i came over with my guitar and we found ourselves in an impromptu worship set. it was a beautiful way to start a morning. the feeling she evokes on the piano is very pleasant and haunting. i talked her into helping me play my new song again today...and then it was time to start.

there were about 100 people present, and i found it difficult to tell the difference between the church folk and the visitors. the slovakian band opened, then i came out with my guitar. matusch joined me for the first two songs, and his voice really helped hide the scratchyness of mine.

we finished the set with the whole team coming up and singing "here i am to worship" together. then the team shared the skits and a couple of them shared testimonies. the service was getting a bit long, so curtis shared the message, but had to rush. there was a nice altar call, and we spent a good half hour praying for folk. however the whole morning was a bit of a downer, i think the fatigue of going so hard for three weeks is finally catching up with us.

after the service us and many of the local believers drove to a building that they are trying to buy to be their next church building. so we walked around the building praying for god to give it to them at a very cheap price, and for many lives to be transformed through the work of the church in that building.

we then went and ate some lunch, then we all hopped on a bus with the people of the church and drove out to an old castle ruin. it was a great way to finish our missions trip. with our team and the local believers and translators, laughing and taking pictures of each other. finally we returned to our hotel and began packing for the early morning drive to vienna where we would be flying out at 10am.

it was a sad night since we had to say goodbye to our four translators who we bacame very close to during this last week. one of the special moments was when i had one of them a girl named danielle pray for me. both her grandfather and father had prayed for me, and so with her praying for me i had three generations of a strong christian family blessing me...wow...powerful.

lastly i said goodby to matusch. he has been a translator for the last three missions trip, including the one i was on two years ago. we are like brothers. we can get into with each other (especially since matusch likes to dink with the volume knobs on the sound system in the middle of a song, which really can irk a musician.) but i truly love matusch. and while we were there i got the dream of helping him start a chi alpha type ministry at one of the major slovakian universities. for only $500/month, he could have a standard salary and operating budget. here in the US it takes about $3000-$4000/mo. to facilitate a campus ministry. so i will be working with him and the other chi alphas here in montana to see if we might be able to partner to make this happen. matush has all the skills to be a successful university minister...he is passionate, committed and has a drive for excellence. please pray with me that this idea would grow into action...the way to change the spiritual culture of a nation is to start with the university students.

monday morning we piled in the two vans and headed for vienna. little did we know we were about to have one of those terrible airline adventures.

at the border, our driver was not allowed to cross into austria, because he had let his passport expire, luckily we had a slovak still with us so she hopped in the driver seat and we continued on to the airport.

we boarded the flight and had an uneventful hop to paris. the flight was a little late getting to paris, so we started walking quickly to the gate where we were to board for JFK. when we got to the gate it turned out to be the wrong one...so we started jogging/speed walking to the correct gate, as the loud speaker is blaring out "last call"... jack is lugging a backpack full of pottery vases, one of the girls purchased for family...the zipper comes loose, and in the middle of our rush the pottery goes flying everywhere...as they stop to pick up the mess...we rush on to let the gate people know we are coming. we make it onto the flight but all of us are very high strung now and it takes us a good hour to calm down again.

we land in JFK and find out our flight to salt lake city has been delayed, because of a storm from 5pm to 8pm...then later to 9pm...then 10pm...finally 11:30pm. we've spent 7 hours in the airport hanging out, and we've now been up for 24 hours. so we board the plane put all of our luggage away and settle in for the flight. then the intercom fires up and the stewardess tells us some bad news. they were hoping to get some pilots that had enough sleep hours, but none showed up, so everyone must get off the plane.

we find out the next flight won't be until 7am the next morning, and the airline will not give away any hotel vouchers, since the storm outside has cancelled so many flights that the hotels are full. so we are going to have to sleep on the floor of the airport. i remembered that the burgerking lounge had some padded benches, so i instruct our team to go claim some. i wait and get our new plane itinerary...then head up to the lounge. i end up sprawled out on the comfy BK bench, sleeping in my suit and tie with my suit jacket pulled over me as my blanket.

i sleep for a good 5 hours, although it was not very quality, just sleeping away the hours helped kill the doldrum. finally we head to the new gate and stand in a long line to get our new boarding passes. five of us get seats, but the last two people in our group are not given seats but are put on standby.

fawn ends up with a seat, but unfortunately jack is left behind...he will have to catch the next flight out at 4pm. i give him some money for food, but feel terrible that he will have to find something to do for the next 8 hours.

once on our flight, it appears we may not even get off the ground, because they can not get the intercom working. by now i'm feeling desperate (and so are many of the passengers). i am just praying desperately that they don't ask us to leave the airplane again, if they do there are surely some people that might short circuit (including me)...but finally they get it fixed and we take off and are finally in the air.

(a little sad side story...two planes over from us there is quite a commotion with police cars and ambulances surrounding a plane that has the markings from south africa. i find out later on the news that a man hid himself in the bay of the landing gear, trying to hitch a free ride. but he ends up getting killed by the landing gear and so the police were extracting his remains from the plane as we were dealing with all of our crazy flight stuff.)

i was sitting in a very spacious exit row seat, feeling very blissful about finally getting on with the flight and feeling like all the adventure was done, when one of the girls from the team yells my name. i turn around in my seat to see one of the other girls having a major seizure in her seat. (this girl has had some personal trauma in her past, and part of the reprocussions of those things is that her body sometimes shuts down with a seizure...especially if her schedule, eating, sleeping gets disrupted, which with our crazy trip home was certainly the case.)

the stewardesses begin yelling out for a doctor, because by now this girl is having a seizure and vomiting all over herself and her seat, all the while her eyes are zombied and staring straight forward. i rush back and kneel next to hear grab her hand and start talking to her. within seconds three men approach us and let me know they are doctors. we lay the girl on the floor so she won't choke on her vomit and they begin taking her vitals. i try to encourage her that everything will be okay and i also attempt to let the doctors know what her condition is and how to deal with her.

at one point there is talk of doing an emergency landing in pittsburgh. but i convince them that i think it is not necessary...once the doctors find out that her vitals are still very strong, and that she is not in serious biological danger, they agree. about 15 minutes after it started the girl finally regains her senses. we slowly get her to her feet and take her to the back of the plane to have some privacy, some fresh air and some water. i clean up the vomit as best i can and retake my seat...wow what a long strange trip!!!!

thank god the girl recovers her strength, ends up retaking her seat later in the flight, and feels good the rest of the time. i walk through the plane and thank the kind doctors who jumped in and helped.

after we get off the plane we find the nearest restaurant and have a big meal, before retiring to our hotels for a long night of sleep (we have been traveling for almost 48 straight hours). luckily jack makes it back right on time, and the next day we all say our goodbyes to each other and head off our separate directions. some to boise, some to pocatello, and some to montana.

we have been together every day for the past three weeks and it is a little strange to think that we won't be around each other tomorrow or the next day. we have become a little family and the memories we had together won't soon be forgotton.

i don't make it all the way home, instead i pull over about an hour from missoula to take a small nap, which turns into a 5 hour nap...before i finally finish the journey and end up at my house.

as many of you know we just got a chi alpha guys house, which i moved into just before i left for slovakia, so i leave one mission field and launch into a brand new one. there is already a new guy living in the house, his name is graeme (graham) from iowa. so after another long nap, i take him out to eat, so i can get to know who he is and find out if there is any way that god can use me to speak into his life...so ministry doesn't stop it just changes...all part of the great adventure of serving Christ!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who helped by giving money and by praying for us on this missions trip.

Thank you to Curtis Cole for leading this trip with such wisdom, patience and grace.

Thank you to the team for giving me lots of grace in the morning (i'm not a very good morning person :) and for all the talents and gifts you poured out on the people of poland and slovakia.

Thank you to anka, ada, matush, becca and jack for singing and playing with me at the outreaches.

Thank you to Lance for forming the blog site and keeping it updated with all our entries.

Thank you to Jesus for all the gifts you gave me on this trip and for using me to help build your Kingdom, i am truly blessed to call you my Lord, my Father and my Friend!!!!!!!!!!!!

tata....scott

Welcome Back Jess

Welcome Back from Slovakia Jess!

For anyone who is interested, we will be having a welcome back party for both Scott and Jess at my place at 6:00 tonight. Call, email, or just show up.

Welcome Back Scott

Well, it was a pleasant surprise to see Scott at church this morning. I'm sure he had told me before when he was going to be back, but I have not really been paying attention to the dates.

Welcome back! We'll have to get your pictures up soon.

two different emotions in one day...#9

hello everyone,

i ran the gamut of emtions today. today i will see tomas who i led to christ two years ago and tonight i will play a concert at a bar that the owner invited me to yesterday. friday night jess, jack, danielle and i left the market square outreach and drove to bonovce.

we met a friend of jess named mayo. (mayo is seventeen and a very good looking guy. i think he looks like brad pitt, so i refuse to call him mayo, i only call him brad. he thinks this is quite funny and so he always answers to brad.)

we toured the church we helped do contruction on two years ago. they have done so much work since then and now the little house has been transformed into a two story building with much room for a church of about 200 people. they still have a lot of work to do, but it is very encouraging to see their vision for the future.

we visited the internet cafe where we spent a lot of time two years ago. tomas was not there, but the owner of the cafe named andre was there and he was sooo excited to see us. he gave us big hugs, and reminded us that we celebrated his birthday two years ago and now it was his birthday again. so we sang happy birthday to him and had a great time hearing his stories and he ours. wow the smile he had on his face reminds me of the great impact we had on this town two years ago. it was truly an inspired trip.

we hit the sack, and the plan was to meet tomas on saturday at 1pm at our hotel. i was hurting pretty good, since from the time we reached bonovce, my allergies went crazy. some thing they farm in bonovce really messes with me. i don't remember that from two years ago. but my throat is swollen my nose is stuffed and runny at the same time (is that scientifically possible???) but it's definatly happening, and i dare not touch my eyes or they will turn red and become extremely itchy.

all this makes for a very terrible night of sleep, since they don't have a/c in europe, so to stay cool we have to have the windows open. i cough and sneeze all night long. when i wake up the next morning i feel like i have been hit by a truck (this is becoming a commen feeling for me here :). but today feels different, i really sense the holy spirit tell me to pray and give this whole dayto him. this is something i will do a lot, but not in a formal way, usually as i'm going through my day. but I had a strong sense i needed to intentionally give this day to god. so as i sat on my bed, i just said "god i give you this day whatever happens, i am here for you, use me as you will...i love you"

we stumbled though the morning eating and finding a pharmacy store so i could pop some allergy pills. i think they were totally a placebo, but when you are dying from allergies you will take whatever you can to make it stop.

as 1:00pm approached we found some chairs by the front door and drank some beverages waiting for tomas. i was eager to see him again. i had some gifts for him and i just wanted to hear what was happening in his life....

we waited and waited....by 3:00pm it was clear he was not coming. i went to the internet cafe and emailed him again, but i knew it would not happen. we ended up going to brad's house (mayo) and having some coffee and snacks with his grandma and mother. they live in one of the old communist flats that are all over eastern europe. it was nice to see what they look like on the inside. soo depressing, but mayo and his family were so happy to have us there. i layed my head back on the couch and tried to just stay alive as my allergies were giving me a merciless beating. finally we left bonovce, twenty miles away, my allergies cleared up and i felt great!!! so odd

we made it back around 7:30pm...i had some time to run through some songs on my guitar. i'm still bummed about not meeting tomas. i keep thinking "what happened". spending time with tomas was my whole reason for coming to slovakia and now i won't even see him. i'm trying to figure out what went wrong. then the holy spirit starts speaking to me. i think back about how I was originally going to spend the whole weekend with him, but because of the posters that promised an american band, i decided to shorten to just saturday morning and afternoon. then the holy spirit reminded me that if that hadn't changed, that i would have had to turn down the bar owner when he invited us to sing at his bar on saturday. so now we have this incredible opportunity to witness and sing praises to jesus to a group of people that would never have heard. as i sit on my bed i thank god that his ways are always better than mine, and i pray that he will take care of tomas, since tomas is his child not mine!!!!!!

we arrive at the bar and richard the bar owner is very excited to see us. we set up and then all our team and many of the slovak believers show up. his bar is packed to the brim...probably about 60 people packed in.

i sing my guts out for three hours. i start with songs i have written as well as some pop songs thrown in. then we do an hour set of gospel/worship songs. i have matusch one of our translators sing with me in polish on "lord i lift your name on high", "open the eyes of my heart" and "i could sing of your love forever". we fill that bar up with praise to jesus. i get to share that we are all there in slovakia to talk about how much we love jesus. since slovakia is very catholic, it was great to share the difference between religion and a relationship with christ.

many of the team got to have great conversations with the people in the bar, including one with the bar owner's friend. he was deeply touched about jesus.

i finished the time with some more songs i had written and a few pop songs thrown in. one of the best moments was when i sang "with or without you" by U2. every body in the bar joined in singing. this was probably one of the sweetest moments of my life. there is just a tremendous feeling when strangers and friends join together. when i got done...i was so pleased. i love to sing and worship. i don't get to do it very often, so tonight was a very special nght in my life. God was soooo good to allow me this opportunity.

i went home completely exhausted, but filled to the brim with so much joy....thanks jesus

tata...scott

banovce, sweet banovce

good afternoon friends,
i slept late todaz and got up, showered and had breakfast with mz friend majo§s grandma. it was the first cereal i§ve had in a month and it tasted delicious. thez were making me these extravagant spreads with cucumbers and tomatoes and cold meats and cheeses, which were wonderful, but for anzone of zou who know me, i prefer cereal. plain old cereal. cornflakes, to which i added raisins and walnuts. ahhh. i apologiye for the lack of posts on mz part. we have been so busz that whenever i§d get to a netcafe i§d check mz mail and be done and off and running again. last night was amaying. we had another night service and curtis preached on the baptism of the holz spirit. then he opened it up for people who wanted prazer. the place was packed. i sat in the hall with mz gzpsz girls. so i went in when everzone was prazing and i was prazing and majo asked if i would do something for him, he wanted to praz for this zoung girl named linda. so we went to her and prazed and prazed. it was amaying. i got a picture for her of a bag of flour and a ball of dough. the dough was perfect and round and just sitting there bz the oven, and i believe God spoke to me that He had been preparing her, He put people and situations in her life and she was prepared to be baked, like perfected or brought to fruition, but that she couldn§t bake herself. like, she had to let God do it. dough can§t crawl into the oven on its own and there was nothing in her power she could do, she just had to believe and let God. so afterwards, majo and his mom daska and i were walking to a piyya joint called geronimos and majo thanked me. he said he had felt stronglz to praz for linda and that God had a word for her but he didn§t want to disturb mz prazing etc. but he finallz asked me and he was so glad he did. i guess she had been on drugs and God completelz set her free from that. she has been in the church 6 months. oh goosebumps and tearz ezes just came. God is so good. curtis had me share a little the last two nights and i just shared first about treasuring people and time and time w God. God is teaching me to treasure. because we don§t know how much time we§ll ever have w people. then last night He just led me to talk about boldness and sharing Jesus w people, that there§s power in the name of Jesus bezond what we could ever know, expect or understand. i talked about an encounter we had our first night in poland with a guz named sebastian. one girl spoke with boldness that we§d praz for him and his face visiblz softened, after having been kind of sarcastic about the things of God. and i shared something about mz brother too. i think it was reallz annointed. the slovak people need boldness. thez have to trust in the power of Jesus§ name. it§s cold and rainz now, after having been hot all 3 weeks prettz much. i hope missoula gets the rain out of its szstem before i get home. tonight i§ll meet with curtis and rasto and linda, who pastor the apostolic church here in banovce and a group of new believers at one of the guz§s apartment. i am so excited. thez have about 15 new zoung believers and i am so encouraged. we§ll have some kind of bbq. hope it doesn§t rain. but for now i§m meeting mz gzpsz kids in 15 minutes. i have some gifts for them, but feel bad bc i don§t have enough for all 25 of them, u know_ tomorrow i§ll travel to kosice, which is pronounced ko sheets uh, with daniela. i hope to be reunited with katka, one of our translators. she lives in kosice, and will be leaving fridaz for london for the summer. she has been one of if not mz verz favorite person on the trip. she§s the slovak audrez hepburn, she§s cute and hilarious and mischievous and incredible. i love that girl. well i suppose this post about makes up for all the 3 weeks of lack. a few bad english tshirts ive seen... one said vegetal and one said fruitage, adjectives i§ve never heard of. oh shoot, i saw one todaz, what was it_ i§ll look on mz waz back. i miss u all.
jess

crazy develpment...#8

hello everyone,

we had a crazy development today that has god's fingerprints all over it. as jack and i were playing our guitars today during the outreach in the square, the owner of a local bar was walking by and liked what he heard. he asked us to play at his bar on saturday night. we agreed to do it...and now he is planning on spending the whole day tomorrow promoting the event. he wants to print up posters and the whole bit.

he agreed to pass out invites to our major outreach sunday morning at the cultural center, so this is going to be a great opportunity to make an impact on this city. i plan to sing my guts out and try to tell some stories about how jesus changed my life for all the people who show up. all the believers from dubinica are planning to come as well as the rest of the team, so it should be a pretty cool concert.

this rock and roll evangelism is pretty sweet. i've been enjoying playing worship songs as well as many songs i have written over the years. jack and i are seriously talking about coming back to europe next summer and traveling around playing music and forming relationships, and witnessing to people about jesus. i've heard stories from my friend mark drake about how in the early 70s, many born again hippies would travel around in vans and play rock and roll at beaches and the parking lots of towns up and down california, while they witnessed for jesus. eastern europe is wide open for this type thing. so the whole idea is very tempting for me...a bit farfetched with all the responsibilities i have with chi alpha, but the idea is just inspired enough to make me dream awhile.

now i am in the small town of bonovce, tomorrow i will meet up with my friend tomas (hopefully). he is the one i led to christ two years ago. no matter what happens i know god will prepare something for us while we are here. then we head back to dubinica tomorrow night for the concert at the bar, then sunday morning we have the outreach concert at the cultural center and then we fly back to the U.S. on monday.

please be in prayer for the rest of this weekend!!!!!! God is up to something, i'm eager to see what happens.

tata...scott

back in banovce

hello everzone,
please excuse the ys and zs being backwards. thez are opposite on the slovak kezboard and i am tired of trzing to remember to switch them. plus i think it§s funnz to read it this waz...zes i am back in mz little town with scott and jack. i couldn§t be happier. we just had some beverages at a little pub and came to the netcafe to see if we knew anzone here. unfortunatelz we don§t. i will be stazing with majo tonight, mz friend from the church. scott and jack will staz in ultimate luxurious paradise. 20 per night, which includes an amaying breakfast, to staz in the most beautiful hotel i§ve ever seen. but things here are great. i alreadz saw a roma girl that i knew and gave her a picture of herself. she was reallz happz. i am reallz happz too. but i think i better go since majo is stazing up late to come get me. tomorrow night jack and scott scored a gig in a bar in dubnica. we were doing an outreach at a grocerz store todaz and this guz stopped bz and said would u plaz in mz bar_ that was a question mark, bz the waz. i can§t find it or the apostrophe on this peskz kezboard. ah the ys and zs. enough bad euro techno, i§m signing off.
love u all,
jess

a new city... #7

hello everyone,

yesterday, we started the day traveling to a large city named trencin to speak at a christian school. i did not know what to expect and i was quite tired from having given my all the day before singing in the square and preaching at the outreach.

we ended up doing a performance for three different age groups...2nd - 4th graders, 5th-7th and 8th through 13th. each group had about 50 kids. curtis took things for the first wave (the little guys)...i sand a silly children's song i wrote five years ago, but otherwise i sat in the back as the team did the dramas and curtis talked about how much jesus loves each of them.

afterward curtis asked me to take the lead for the next two groups, because he thot i'd be able to relate better. well i was so tired, but i said sure...

with the junior highers we played a game with hula hoops to get them laughing. the dramas and testimonies went well, and then i had a chance to share with them a short message about jumping in the water with jesus.

finally the high schoolers came. i knew it would take more than hula hoops to get them liking us, so i came up with an elvis dance contest. i called out three kids from the crowd and then their teacher even decided to join the volunteers. i had them put on the guitar and dance their best elvis moves while the rest of the class howled in laughter. finally when the teacher had her turn the whole class could hardly contain their laughter. it was all quite funny, and gave us a real open door to then share our testimonies and dramas. curtis came up with an impromptu sermon about an incredible man that saved a buch of people in the twin towers, but gave up his own life...like jesus.

so we left the school feeling very elated with the open doors jesus gave us...then we traveled to a town northeast of trencin called dubinca. the entire church (25 people) met us at their building. they were all very excited about us being there. we shared about our team and then each and every person in the church shared about themselves. it was a bit odd, but it many ways it felt like a family reunion with family you have not seen in a really long time.

then we went to the back room where we saw the posters that they had hung up all over town. there was a picture of a guy in a cowboy hat playing guitar and over the top it said in slovak "come see the american music band" curtis looked at me with his eyes in big shock. they were promoting us like we were a talented traveling band...when all we really are is one geeky american guy who plays his guitar like a drumset and is mostly energy with a small tad of talent.

well we talked it over in hushed tones then said "why not"...so here we go again with some more "rock and roll evangelism". in about 30 minutes i will be back in another public square singing my guts out. we will do the square today tomorrow and sat. morning...followed by the big event sunday morning in the cultural center. this will all be quite tiring but i'm excited to see how god uses us and how this will all come together.

now some of you my be wondering about tomas, the slovakian guy i led to christ two years ago. i was hoping to be able to spend some time with him on this missions trip and hopefully disciple him a bit more in what it means to follow christ. well the plan had been for me to leave the team on friday travel to bonovce and spend all day saturday and sunday with him. well with this new revalation that we are the "american music band" and i am the only one who plays guitar, everything will have to be adjusted. now i am hoping to go over late friday night and spend most of saturday with tomas. then i will invite him to come back to dobinica with me sat. night we can spend sunday together here.

i'm not sure what will happen. please pray that God will help us connect and that i will be able to impart some good thing into his life while i'm here. also please pray that he would be willing to come back here sunday we can spend sunday together as well.

thanks for all your prayers and support...

tata...scott

hit the wall

hello everyone,

i have hit my first wave of exhaustion...the last two days completly sapped me. i sang in the square both days, and last night we did our outreach in the cultural center. the room could seat 100 people but many more than that packed in. the local church's band played some songs, then our team performed two five-minute dramas...then i put on a mini-concert.

i really get into this singing stuff!!! over here in europe they have a shortage on charisma. so i am a bit of a novelty to them. i love to sing and play guitar, but my skills are not exactly professional, so i make up for it with genuine enthusiasm and some over the top theatrics.

at one point yesterday in the square a group of high school kids approached where i was playing. our generator had taken sick, so as curtis (our leader) went to fix it, i decided to just go acoustic. so there i was singing my guts out to the square, when this group of very well dressed high school students walk up to me. (the custom for the last day of school is to dress up in the best possible clothes you have and pretty much make a party of the day.) well many of them are smiling and talking to each other about me in a language i don't know...so i do the only thing i know how to do...really go for it.

it was a bit chilly, so i have a sweatshirt on with the hood on, and my sunglasses. the song i am sining is winding down and so as the group starts to walk away, i get on my knees, then fall to my back and finish the last chord of the song on my back looking at them. they loved it!! and all started clapping...they then approach us and we all start talking. so many of them come to our outreach at the cultural center.

after my mini concert, i preach the sermon. i felt it went over really well...i mainly shared my personal testimony and led everyone in a prayer. afterward we had many great conversations...including one i had with a young guy named daniel. i could tell god was really doing something powerful in him...please pray for him.

today we went to a christian school and got to minister there...i will tell you more later...i have to race to the statue in the middle of the square where our team is meeting in three minutes...it is a great thing to be worn out for the kingdom!!!!!!

tata...scott

today we visited a school in trencin, the biggest city in this region of slovakia. there is quite a beautiful looking castle on some steep cliffs in the north of the town.