Batter up!

Finally Spring is here (well, kind of) and with it Baseball! Actually, TeeBall. Friends of ours, Tom & Debbie Johnson, run a sports based ministry called GoodSports here in Bratislava. Tom is an interesting guy - one part pastor, one part former Minnesota Twins player (with his own baseball card! :) Anyways, they are wanting to start up a TeeBall team to their existing ministry. Our guys were totally interested, so we were hooked. Right now we "train" in Deinska Nova Ves, a suburb of Bratislava which currently doesn't have any evangelical church (as far as we can tell). It is also only about two bus stops away from were I work & the guys go to school....hummm "interesting". So, I will start helping out at GoodSports as a coach...haha God has a sense of humor. Anyways, Saturday's practice was loads of fun and the guys had a blast. Here are some pics of the craziness. Enjoy!

Prayer

I wanted to ask you for prayer for a decision I have to make. I just received an email from a short-term missions team that would like to serve our church in doing outreach for a few weeks in May-June. I have to give them a reply soon - Yes? No? If, Yes, what will they do, where will they stay, and a million other details. Naturally minded limitation: They have a 7$ budget a day... but is our God short of cash? I just need some wisdom from Jesus. So... thanks for the prayers!

Also, another short-term team should be coming in late June+early July! We have to also pray for all of those details.

Both opportunities are amazing in the same way - they were totally not looked for! Both team approached us and offered to serve here in Slovakia. For years we have been asking for teams and haven't gotten much of a response. So, it's very cool to see God moving hearts towards what HE is doing here in Bratislava...certainly it is not us! "Not by might, nor by power, but by MY Spirit" !!!

Also, I have been having some great conversations with friend & leader of GoodSports, Tom J., about partnering with them doing sport outreaches. This Saturday is the start of their baseball program. Gabe can't wait to join in and do some Tee Ball!

So, pray for us - wisdom, discernment, open hearts here locally... and time off work to facilitate these teams!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Sorry for the lack of blog updates. I've been sick, tiered, and as you can see from the pics - cold! Brrrrrrr! Actually, generally snow is nice. Yet, in the city it piled up so high that we couldn't use our car for days. Next it starts to melt and huge sheets of snow & ice crash down off the rooftops a few stories onto unsuspecting cars only to smash in windshields and hoods...then the wind, rain, hail....you get the picture. Snow in the city can get old after awhile.

However, in the mountains where snow should be it is great! Two weeks ago we were in Dolny Kubin visiting family and hitting the slopes. It was bitterly cold (-14c), but tons of nice snow to play in. Ivetka did a bit of skiing and I attacked the hill on my snowboard. Neither one of us had done this for a few years, so it was a fun and funny experience.