Spooks

Wow... time is flying by. Halloween, All Saints, Reformation Day, and Veterans Day have already ended and Thanksgiving is on the horizon.... too many holidays, too many events, too much food! I’m behind on blogging the business of BA life. Here are some shots from the boys Halloween party at school. It’s was more or less just a crazy costume party. As Halloween is an “imported American” holiday, it looses something in translation. Which is good. Basically, it’s more like Carnival with a slightly spooky twist... you dress up funny and eat cookies that look like spiders. It’s missing much of the ghoulish, ugly, dark side of the celebration - which is great! We don’t need to import/export garbage!
Anyways, Gabie & David were sporting their Indian costumes. They were very much “in character”. Enjoy!



The guys preparing to carve the pumpkin







Wanna piece of me?!



Gabie's class



The tribe


Hard to get





Lost Boy & Tinkerbell

headaches

These guys (my older students) cause me so many headaches...but still somehow I kind of like them.....

Birdz-i

Last Friday I took my older students at FOREL on a field trip to downtown Bratislava. Our main goal was to visit the Slovak National Bank (NBS) With the world-wide economic crisis and Slovakia's conversion to the Euro in January it seemed like a pretty relevant time to make a visit. The problem with education sometimes it that it can just fill your head with info. And although modern pedagogical methodologies are great, they simply can't replace 100% our natural, firmly established paths of learning - primarily experience. Take language for example. When we learned English (or Slovak...) as a child our parents didn't had us a text book and expect us to be fluent in a few months. No, we had repeated experiences which made sounds and gestures meaningful to us. I believe that other areas of study can follow suit. Basically, get the info, then experience it in real life so that it has impacting meaning. Hence, we visit the NBS. Economy in the round.

The NBS was pretty cool. A public relations officer gave a good and highly informative presentation of the upcoming Euro conversion. Then the students were able to explore a few interactive exhibits on the Euro, the development of currencies, and the history of currencies in Slovakia.

Fortunately, I have a friend at the NBS. Sometimes Slovakia works on the very practical principle - "It's not what you know, but who you know." So, we got the VIP tour to the top of the NBS tower, which is the highest building in Slovakia. Although the weather was very foggy and cold, the view was still great. Here are some birds eye photos.

Beowulf

He could not enter
for the dragon's flame.
Beowulf was angry,
the lord of the Geats,
he who stormed in battle.
He yelled into the cave.

Well... my time as a high school English teacher has been interesting thus far. I have survived almost 2 months now... even with Jr. High! Actually, the school is great - good kids, good staff, and lots of creative energy. For one of my younger groups we have been working through a section of Beowulf (modern translation of course!). Basically they have to learn how to read poetry out loud. But these kids are Jr.Highers... so they don’t have the slightest interest in poetry. But they do like bloody battles with fire breathing dragons... who doesn’t? So we worked off that angle. To get them to be motivated we made a movie of them acting out the poem. Here is a shot from our filming. Lesi the Dragon and Katka (a.k.a - Beowulf). These kids are crazy funny.



Please keep me in prayer as I work at the school and also in my other business lessons as well (Ivetka too). The down side of being a tent-making missionary is that I don’t always have time to do what I would normally see as “ministry.” However, the flip side is that we work intensively with a wide range of people... most of who do not know Jesus. Pray for us as we seek to use our secular jobs as not just a way to pay the bills, but to be a way into the lives of our students, coworkers, and clients. Pray that they would see Jesus in us and be hungry to hear more about the life He offers.

Green

Isn’t God good? Doesn’t he know what we need more then we do? One of the big concerns we had with moving back to Bratislava is where exactly we would be living. Prices are so high and something good is really hard to find. Plus living in a flat in a big city is not the ideal for kids (although many, many families live this way). Yet, that’s where we live. Yet, God is good. He prepared for us exactly the place we needed -right by a park. And not just any park, but the Presidents Park! So we don’t have a yard...or even a balcony... but in a matter of minutes we can be in a green paradise in the middle of a concrete jungle. Kind of like Central Park in NY... but way smaller. It’s actually one of my favorite places in downtown Bratislava. Isn’t God good?!

Burritos

SNAP! Finally it’s November again! SNAP!! SNAP!!! once again Bratislava is hosting it’s annual Month of Photography. SNAP!! It’s a superb project with galleries, cultural institutes, cafes, and other eclectic venues highlighting some of the best the photo world has to offer.

We can across our fist viewing on accident. On our way home we cut through Hivesdoslavovo square and ran into a herd of donkeys wandering between Novy Most and the U.S. Embassy! Actually, they were about 30 larger then life double sided photos of Donkeys invading the town square. What the conceptual idea behind this was I’m not entirely sure...but it’s impressive no the less. The guys liked it and were choosing their own burros.

Off Moment

I caught David in an off moment...

Does it stick?

What do you do with two impatient, over-energized boys waiting at the bus stop and the bus is nowhere in sight. A photo shoot of course. It keeps them busy at least and no running out into the road. Luckily my Nokia is outfitted with a decent camera...at least enough to have fun with. I think of it as more a sketch as opposed to a final product. Anyways... the guys only wanted to do silly shots. Do you remember the last time you made these faces? Well... you should try it. It’s still fun. And it doesn’t stick. So enjoy!

Grandma Summer

Autumn is one of the best seasons here in western Slovakia, as we tend to get at least one Indian Summer. Coming from California I knew what Indians were, and for sure we had sweltering summers...but this whole Indian summer thing is new. For the uninitiated - it’s a period of about 1-2 weeks where the weather shifts from gearing up for winter, back to sunny and comfortably warm. It’s perfect. Actually here it’s called a Baba Leto - Grandma Summer.

Here are some pics from a walk we took around Devin after work/school. Devin Castle is one of the oldest fortresses here in Slovakia. It was once the seat of the Great Moravian Empire. It’s ruins mount a crag that overlooks a strategic position where the Danube & Morava rivers come sweeping into one another. It’s a great place to catch a breath of fresh air.

Cry Wolf

Here is a pic of Gabie out on the hills of Orava trying to catch sheep. He & I took a 2 hour walk in the same area about a year ago. but that time everything was covered with snow. There we reports of wolves in the area last year... so of course this time Gabe was dreaming about bravely fighting them off.

Adrenaline Junkies

Known

Gabe & I took a few walks in the hills around Starky's home. It is great to get out into the Nature, even if we can see the crude skyline of commie-condos in the valley below. What's great about Nature is that it's not a commie-condo. It's not concrete, not limited, it's not a box (or cage. . . depending on your point of view.)It's not soundproof. It's not insulated. It's not airtight. It's not civilized. I once read that technology (=all that is man made) is an attempt to prevent us from experiencing reality as it is. Now, I don't know if that is really true. However, much of what we make, shape, sell, and strive for materially does isolate us from some important things in life. From truths that should be learned. Sometimes walking away for a moment from civilization (and all it represents) is a refreshing way to be human again.

So back to our walk. . . both times we came across small flocks of sheep grazing. This was not only a fun experience for Gabie, but a truth in hiding. As we came to one group of sheep Gabe wanted to 'catch' them. They simply took off through the fields. Gabe wanted me to call them, but of course they just moved further away. Then the lesson appeared.

"...His sheep follow His voice because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." (John 10:4b-5)

I asked Gabie if we were their shepherds. Of course, he knew the right answer. Then we spoke of Jesus being our Good Shepherd. It's good to know and be known by the Shepherd. I believe the lesson will linger in Gabie's heart for a long time.

I don't want to live a "commie-condo life." A grey life of sameness, limits, airtight and insulated from God and those around me.
I want to Know and be Know.

North

Traveling North. The land is quickly aging into deep reds and sunburst yellows set against dark, wet evergreens blanketing the rising hills. Further on the hills rise into misty mountains. Moody, mysterious, and moving. The land is preparing to sleep, to die, to wait for rebirth. A needed pause.

Goal!

The great thing about working at a school are the breaks. For some reason we have this whole week off of school...I still don't know exactly why, but I'm not arguing. Actually, Monday I had to work - a training about discipline...which was actually interesting, but I will leave that for later. So, what will we do with a week off - get out of BA of course! It's great to be in the city, but sometimes you just gotta get out into the countryside - so we hopped into the car and drove up to Orava.

About 1/2 hour before arriving we got an invite to go to a hokey game - Dolny Kubin vs. Trebisov. Gabe & I went with Starky. Slovakia is the perfect place to catch a good game, with excellent players, without huge crowds or expensive tickets. Gabe had a great time and cheered DK on. We won 5/4. Here are a few clips from the game.

Perspective

Just up the hill from us is Slavin - a Communist monument to fallen Russian soldiers of WWII. To me it's kind of a strange thing to celebrate since the Liberators quickly turned their coats to become Occupiers. Of course they would call it being good Big Brothers...but that's another story. History is complicated, emotional, and shifting from age to age. It's not as enduring as the stones we write it upon. Regardless of your view, the view from Slavin on the city is always good.

SNAP! // Spiders