scott's euro missions journal 2007 #1

Hey XA Blog readers!

Scott and others are over in Eastern Europe right now. Every once in a while they're able to get to the computers to send off an email, so I'll post them up here for you to read as they come in. Enjoy!

-Lance

---

hello supporters:

I am writing you from an internet cafe in the slovakian city of Kosice. It
is one of the most beautiful cities in central europe, a city of around
300,000 people. I spent last week in Krakow, Poland visiting with friends,
but took the train wednesday night to meet the rest of the team here in
Kosice. I didn't sleep much on this train, because I have had a few bad
train experiences, including getting off the train in the middle of nowhere
:(...and almost getting mugged on a train through cheque republic. So when
i made it to the hostel where the team is staying i only had 30 minutes left
until we had to be up for the first part of the outreach.

There are 25 students and staff here with this team. It would have been the
biggest team we've ever taken to Central Europe, but unfortunately four
members of the team had to stay behind. Three of them did not receive their
passports, and one girl could not find hers. This was really sad thing, so
maybe pray for them, as they are all very dissappointed.

We hit the ground running on Thursday dividing into two teams and going to
public schools to talk with students who are studying english. This is a
great way to start missions trips, because each person gets a chance to talk
and share...usually at first about normal stuff...where we are from, what we
like to do, U.S.A stuff, but then the questions start turning to: why are
you here?...and then team members get to share their testimonies with these
students.

We worked with students all morning, then met together at a large
evangelical church here in kosice to practice our dramas and music for
outreach on Friday.

Friday I traveled with Curtis, the team leader to a really sad Gypsy slum
called Lubeck 9. It is a village in kosice of high rise apartments that is
full of trash, broken glass and poor people. but awesome things is there is
a small church there (i will preach here on sunday) and there is a plan to
build a church there as well.

Then we traveled to the square for our first public outreach. We were
amazed when we got there, because the Slovak translators had been hard at
work setting up major sound system for our team. luckily this year we have
such a talented team, that we acutally have a full band...with two guitar
players, bass, violin, trumpet and myself on the drums. we sounded pretty
darn good for only 2 hours of practice.

well i will give you full details of this outreach and our weekend next
email...but please be praying for us and especially for my sermon at this
gypsy village, that it would be full of hope and power for the gypsy
believers there.


scott