This year we celebrated thanksgiving for the first time. We have so much to be thankful for, so we thought it would be an appropriate time to start, ha! Our team organized a two day family trip to a very beautiful part of Slovenia, and we were blessed to spend it with incredible people we work with. We spent the night eating and simply having fun, while our children played together. It was a nice break from our otherwise busy few months.
We love living in our new home. Eva got used to the house in about a day, no kidding, and she is now a different child, so relaxed, so happy, so easygoing. I (Nina) have been studying all days long and on Monday, the 7th of December I will take my final exam. Then in January I am off to the States to take the final exam over the entire Masters Program, and I will celebrate the completion of my education. Wow, I can hardly believe it!
I love extreme make over shows. I just love what can be done to a place, or even a person, with some color and style. Even though our house is far from being finished, the major step on the outside has been done, and that is why it feels like such a change. Just wanted to share this with you, and there will definitely be a lot of before and after pictures to come! One picture is of precious Eva….and the before with her would be just me and Andrej… and that was not as much fun, hehe! Enjoy!
Don’t know if you know, but Razbor, the village where we hold our house group every Thursday night, is up on a hill. It is a small village of about 20 houses, and it even received a reward for the nicest village in Slovenia. It has an amazing view and most people are breath-taken by it. Yet its people, except for Sergej and Vanja, our hosts, don’t know the Lord. So on Saturday, 12th of September, we all as a group were given an extremely important privilege, to share the Gospel with the village. The church where Sergej and Vanja worship on Sundays put together a play called Liberated. It is mix of drama and music, all for the glory of the Lord, and His message to be heard and understood. This was in the evening. In the morning though, two of our new members of the group were baptized. Amazingly enough, those of you that remember that we lived in Brezice just recently, Ivanka and Rudi are from there!!! God is not moving only in this village but in the surrounding cities as well. Oh, such joy, the day was filled with amazing blessings from the Lord, and we came home at about midnight wondering what we have done to deserve to be a part of such amazing blessings. We concluded that the Lord has shown mercy on our country and we will be glad and rejoice in it! Here are some photos from the amazing, fulfilled day!
Praying for Ivana and Rudi after the baptism
Eva, just walking around
People gathering to see the play
The play begins with a worship song "Great is our God"
First act
Play continues
Vanja translates Justin's message
After the play Sergej distributes Bibles and talks to people
Both Sergej and Andrej got a chance to talk to the priest of the village and his asistent
Meet the Jenkins, Brad and Laurel with their 3 year old son Landon. They have been serving in Europe for 4 years before, then left for a year to the States and have now returned to be a part of Josiah Venture Team Slovenia. They will first go study Slovene in Ljubljana for a year, and then move to Maribor to help us with the youth work that we are doing here. At just the right time, God sent this precious family to us. We have recently learned that we only have a month of time to move out of the house we are currently in and move to our new house that is now in some major reconstruction. The days are too short for all that we need to do, but Brad and Laurel have sacrificed their first few weeks in Slovenia to live with us and help us out with anything that we need. So Brad has been going with Andrej to the house and working hard, while Laurel is helping organize and pack things in the house we are currently in. We are getting to know each other and can already see that with God’s help and guidance, we will become great friends and a great team. Please pray for the Jenkins family as they settle in Ljubljana, start to learn Slovene and get to know and adjust to the Slovene culture. Please pray for us as we try to juggle between school (I am back in my Masters program at ACU, taking my last class), packing, moving, renovating the house, being parents and spouses, and ministry.
This morning, when Eva was sitting in Andrej's lap on the floor, she said she wanted to go walking. That means you need to go too, of course, to hold her hand. Andrej said to her, “well, just go Eva”. So she did! She got up and went for quite a while. So funny! Here is a video of her first steps this morning!
Let the works begin!!! Wow, we became official owners of the house a few days ago and now we are in deep. There is lots of work to be done before we will be able to move in, but we are being optimistic and are counting on moving fast. These are exciting times, but also stressful times. Please pray for us as Andrej works on the house most of the days and Eva and I miss him at home! Today we spent a slow day there and I am extremely grateful for that. Here are some pictures of our new home.
Eva took her first steps today, and then walked on the property like an experienced "walker"
The entry into our place
The view from the other side of the property
The house where we will live
Eva observing the baby chickens at the neighbors place (she loves them so much)
Andrej made us some swings
Eva taking a break from all the hard work (walking around the property)
My dad built us stairs to get to the basement (so needed, right?)
Shortly after we moved to Maribor, we were asked if we would host a team from Holland that will come and help us in our ministry. We were confused as to what they could help us with, since we ourselves didn’t have a clear picture. In faith, we accepted this great proposition and said yes. It turned out to be one of those great adventures, as you can imagine. They came, they worked hard, they became part of our life and ministry and blessed us beyond what we could ask or imagine. Here are some pictures of our different ministries:
Yes, it’s true. We are both thirty now. It has been incredible 30 years in both of our lives, but now we are even more excited to see what the next 30 will be like, what the Lord has planned for us, and what He will use us for in His Kingdom. As is custom in our family, I have planned a surprise for Andrej, and this year it was horseback riding, and then a party at our new house. Even though the conditions at the house are not yet great, I was able to organize a small gathering, with the help of dear friends and family. Here are some pictures from the day.
Andrej on his horse for the hour
Waiting for tati and enjoying another horse
Eva trying to stand on the trampoline The picnic at the house Andrej gets some help with the cake
Proud grandparents (they helped organize the picnic)
This statement was just one of many that the youth at our camp expressed to us. God was so active and present at this camp, it was amazing to watch these teens’ lives being touched and even changed throughout the week. We were blessed as a family to be able to participate in the work of the Lord. I am still waiting for some pictures and videos from the group, but will post now just some personal that we took.
The Castle where camp was held
Eva points to Millstatt, the city where the castle is located in Austria
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