grace

it's 1:45 am and now, as well as many times, i ask how is it possible for God to even look at me. how can He look down on me and see what a sinner i am and not to destroy me. God's love and sacrifice are the reason why it's possible for Him to love us, even though we don't love Him always.

and this is not suppose to me a mere thought about our sinfulness (not at 1.45 am, for that maybe a better time) but it's a serious thing that's still in my mind. and now when i look back into this past year i see so much that i regret and that i've done wrong. i see myself going against God so many times and so many times He told me it was wrong what i was about to do. but my desires and my fear made me not to listen to His words and i chose to go my own way. and still i am here. i can be on my laptop at 1:45 am and write on this blog. and of course i wasn't evil all the time but that's not the point. the point is i (we) go against Him so many times and so many times do it willingly and still knowing what we're going into. and we're too weak to resist the sin and when we fall into it and we realize how much we need God's grace. then we turn back to Him and He's always there. but the next day we turn away from Him to go our own way. then we mess up again and we ran back to Him and He receive us again. and this goes over and over.

out of all the kind of things there's one that we can be always sure of. and that is that God is still there and never turns His back to us. everytime we mess up we can be sure there's a place for us where we can find what we need - grace. but we can't use this place of forgiveness just to go there and get what we want and then run back into the mess we just came from. we got to change. there is a sin i've been struggling with ever since i became a christian. and so far (after a year and a half) i have not succeeded in leaving the sin behind me. and i ask myself: how long do you want to go against Him? how much more time will it take you to turn away from the sin and run into His arms of love. it's so hard for me to see myself, on one hand as a christian, and on the other as a great sinner. but God sees us in a completely different way. in this way it doesn't matter what we do but what somebody else did. and that is the only reason why i'm able to write on this blog so late tonight to you all.
just because of the grace.

My God is Enough

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26

merry CHRISTmas

God bless you all.

Google is pretty funny

You all know those Chuck Norris facts, right? Such as:

- There is no 'CTRL' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.
- Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
- Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
- When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

and many more. If you want to know more go to: http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/ . But I got surprised today with Google. Find out for yourself. Go to www.google.com and into the search field type in "find chuck norris" and click I'm Feeling Lucky. Have fun!

Dorast sleepover.

Last night we had a sleepover with our Dorast kids. We wanted to do something special for them and the sleepover seemed to be the best thing that came to our minds, simply just because it's one of the best relationship-building activity you can do.

The kids came at 5 as usually, and we had kind of ordinary Dorast. Warm up, games, some kinda teaching (my responsibility this time) and some more games. Then we had a dinner that Dominik prepared with some kids and I took some kids with me and we set up for a movie to watch and to have dinner. Then we all got together, prayed and ate.

Then we watched a movie. It was Facing the Giants. I now that a lot of people don't like the movie because it's over-happy-ending but you gotta admit that the movie has a lots of points you can talk about. After the movie Dominik made a delicious hot chocolate. I dare to say one of the best (if not the best) I've ever had. Then we played some more games and it was almost midnight and so we went to sleep. But the night. It was really bad. Not because the kids would make any problems, but I didn't prepare for sleeping at the Building good enough. I brought a blanket and since I don't wear a pijama I was there on the stage in my boxers covered with the blanket. I was freezing! So then at 6 am I put on my clothes and slept with them on (I didn't want to do it at first because I brought them for the church).

In the morning we woke up, ate some breakfast and cleaned up and set up for the church. About 5 kids from Dorast stood for the church and during the service we had a Christmas skit so it was really nice to have them there.

Well, that's pretty much what has been going on this weekend. I'm really glad that the holidays have come so I can get some rest after ŠPM, Romania, Dorast and bunch of other stuff. Not that I didn't like them, it was just too much lately (and we were caroling tonight). But I'm thankful for every single thing and person.

My so long promised post about Romania.

OK guys, here you go. My summary from the last weekend I spent in Romania. We went to a city called Arad.

On Thursday evening Dominik and I left Žilina. Arrived there around 11.00 pm and went to do some little shopping for food for the next day. So we ended up going to bed after 2.00 am. Next morning we woke up 5.00 since we were suppose to leave to Romania at 6.00 am. So I woke up, took a shower and got into a car. The way there was quite peaceful and everything went smoothly. When we were crossing the Hungarian-Romanian border we had a little fun experience. We stopped to change some money and some Romanian guy was there with a bucket and asked us whether we want him to wash the windshield for us. We said no but he was kind of ignoring that. So he began to wash it. When the driver came to the car he was about to leave and the Romanian guy was like: Hey dude, I washed your window. Come on. Give me some €. So after this begging he gave him 1 euro. And he was like: What?! 1 euro? Give me more! After that we just drove away. It took us 8 hours to get from Žilina do Arad. And, we crossed a time zone. It was my first time.

After we arrived we met with the pastor of the church. And he explained us the history, the strategy, the goal of the church. How they work and what is their aim and how they are to reach it. I was impressed by the system they have. How their small groups and youth and Sunday services are all so well connected. They have a great strategy. They've planted few churches and are doing missions. Actively involve the small groups and youth into the ministry.

Then we visited their youth. It was really nice. We sang worship songs and the youth pastor was preaching. But there is a little thing that was too much for me - the youth pastor was talking too long for me - over an hour. But it was a good talk. And the churhc has this cool wireless thing there that you carry with you and you have headphones with a translator translating right into your ear. That was really good. Then we got split up into host families and went "home".

Next morning began quite early (I mean the previous night was only 3 hours long:) at 6.30 am. We went to a village about 20 km from Arad. A french couple is doing a mission there with kids. They're doing an awesome job. We were helping out there with chopping wood and making sidewalks. The girls were "playing" with dirt :D Here's a clip when I was working.

Then we went back to Arad because we had a meeting with the youth pastor to talk about the youth. But there was a think. A huge one. There was a protest in the WHOLE country. The government raised the car taxes. Have a look at the clip that Zac (one of my teachers from ŠPM) took. Please, notice the track that is pulling over to prevent another car from getting around.

Nobody knew how long this all might take. So after an hour of waiting and deciding we've decided to walk back to the city (it took us about three hours of walk - try it Americans! jk). It was a good walk. We were talking and it was a good time. When we got to the church we were 4 hours late for our meeting so we went to a coffee shop close-by and spent some time there. Then we all went for a dinner and back to our families.

Dominik and I wanted to spent some time with the guy we were living with. He is the worship team leaders and he just got back from the States where he spent 5 weeks learning how to do worship even better. Well, we were talking and then it ended up going to bed at 3.30 am! I woke up at 7.00 am and got really for the church. The guy's mother offered me a cup of coffee while we were eating breakfast and I thought that it would be really stupid and not good to fall asleep during the sermon. So I took one and I quite liked it so asked her for another one! Then we left to the church where we had our re-scheduled meeting with the youth pastor. And they had there coffee as well and I wanted to be sure I will NOT fall asleep during the whole service. So I had the third cup (it ended up I went to sleep at 9.00 pm without even sleeping in the car on the way back :)

I so enjoyed the sermon. This pastor went to college and seminary in the States and I love the way he preached. He preached the kind of way to he was living what he was preaching. He was using his voice and volume and his body and all of that made a really good impression to me. He made not to fall asleep. And the translator was perfect. She was like she would be reading it all off of a paper. Amazing. I dare to say the best translator I've ever heard so far.

After the service we took some sandwiches and left for home. The way back took only 6 hours since we used highways and we went to Trnava and not Žilina.Well I got to tell you all it was a great weekend and I hope I'll be able to use as much as possible from all that I've learned this last weekend.

Romania

hey guys,
i just got back home from my trip in romania. have lots of stuff i want to share with y'all but i'm tired to death right now. i'll try to post my summary from the weekend tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. until then this is the only thing you get from me: AN AWESOME, BY GOD BLESSED WEEKEND.

Romania trip

Tonight, Dominik and I, are going to Žilina because tomorrow morning there's another exciting think with our ŠPM. We're gonna have something like a mission weekend. We'll be in a city called Arad where we'll be doing...actually I don't know what we're gonna be doing. I got an email that said to bring some working clothes and be prepared for mud. Well, you can make a picture. It will take us about 8 hours to drive there. We'll be staying in families from the local church we're going to help to. I hope I'll be able to gain from this weekend as much as I can. And please pray for Dominik as he was sick and not feeling good this week so he can enjoy
marek

My classroom during a break

At least we're not hungry :)

Krismas

Well, Kris turned 50 today and he was so kind that he made a birthday party for his friends. We had a lot of fun there and the food was great as well. Ryan showed off his hidden love for music and was playing on a weird kind of instrument for us - and he was really good at it! Juraj Klementovič was dancing with Paula (and that was something everybody should see) and Ande made a birthday video for Kris that was really good. We all had fun. I heard some time ago that one of the Kris' wish for his B-day was that it would be snowing. As we were looking at the weather forecast it looked like it would at least snow a little. But the amount of snow we got here today is pretty awesome. I really enjoyed walking for 5 minutes home and listening to some good song on my iPod. Have those huge snowflakes falling on my face.

Thank you Kris for a wonderful time that we could have spent with you today.

Well,

it's been three months since I did the last post. That's a heck long time! I thing i should make a change.

There are some things that happened since the last post. Last weekend Dominik, Lenka and I went to Žilina for a retreat that the church was doing for younger youth leaders (it's called Dorast and we have kids from 11-15). So we went there on Friday and since Lenka doesn' study in Trnava it was easier for her to come to Žilina. So she came to the train station and was waiting there for Dominik and me. We spent an awesome weekend there and we were learning how to lead a youth and about your appearance and that kind of stuff. I see it very helpful and good that we went there. On one hand we've learnt something new and on the other hand we spent a weekend as a team there and it was a good team building event. We came back from Žilina on Sunday afternoon.

On the other day, Monday, Miriam was planning a dinner for the Building stuff. And us, LTP and some other people (not in the Buildng team) came to help out. At morning Miriam, Babulka, Ninka, Kristian and I went to Tesco for shoping (and that was a pretty big shoping :) Then we went to the Building and began with cooking. Kristian and I got a manly job to do: to peal onions :) Well just to sum up, we did 16 onions and were crying like little boys. Then there was some cooking and another stuff that was needed to do in order to prepare a great evening for our friends. The plan was, the boys will be the waiters and the girls will be stuck in the kitchen. After the dinner you could have said they were happy from that cause it was obvious from their faces. And even us (who was helping to prepare this) were happy that we could have done domething to express our thankfulness to our friends and to tell them we appreaciate what they're doing.

So these two events are probably the biggest wow. Btw Ande came to Slovakia for a year so we all are happy to have her here with us. And Lesondaks are coming in the begining of December. I'm so happy I can be here with my friends.

Halloween Party 2

OK. So few days ago I asked you to help me out with a costume for Halloween. Since Ande was the only one that participated (and her suggestion was really good) I decided I'd go for it and so my final costume was suppose to be a NERD. What do you think? Did I look like a nerd?
btw: there was a piece of a toilet paper hanging from my shoe :) Nerdy, huh?

Halloween Party 1

Last Friday we had at The Building a Halloween party. I know that it was a little ahead of time but since we have this evening divided for Jr. High and High school students we have Halloween two times (one of the reasons why it's good to be in the team - get to go there twice, jk! :)
We had a lot of fun and a really good time. And I was thinking what I would be. And about three days before the Halloween I saw we have crutches in the basement and I decided to be am injured man with a broken leg. But it kind of turned the other way and I was injured a little more then was the plan :)

Anyway, tomorrow (when is the real Halloween) we have the program for High school students and I have NO idea what I'm gonna be. Please share some ideas in the comments and maybe it will be your suggestion that I will be tomorrow and then you'll see it on my on this blog. So use your fantasy.

done!

finaly. though it took lenka and me a year but it's done. feel free to visit and some feedback might be a good idea to consider :)

http://www.cbtt.sk

It's been a while...

... since I posted the last time. Let me tell you what happened since then. Last time I did a real post (the last post before ŠPM) I talked about me having hard time in ministry. But there was a little sign of better times coming. So just let me tell you a little more about this and if some of you still don't know what I'm talking about here's a "little" summary:

Over a month ago our church had a youth conference that I really love. Every conference I've been to so far was a huge gain for my in my spiritual life. And so I was looking forward for this conference and the changes it was to bring. I didn't know what God had prepared for me but I knew (from the past experiences) it's going to be a milestone. And you can bet it was! Actually - the biggest one.

Right at the first day when we arrived to Košice (where was the conference) I began to read a book that was about serving the LORD and how this guy later realized he wasn't serving the way he thought he was and he was trying to please people that God. And in this book I just began to see myself and I got scared 'cause I realized that I turned away from God (the one that is to be served) to myself (the one that is to serve) and I kind of switched the positions. I used ministry so people could see how good I AM - and not God. Well I just got to say that none of this was intentional and the first time I realized this was that day of the conference.

Then I just saw how I was messing up with everything I was doing and that my ministry wasn't pleasing God at all. I was trying to take away from the glory of God. Actually I was steeling because the glory belongs to God only. That day I realized that if I ever want to serve Him again I have to change everything I thought was right about ministry and the way I ministered. But where to begin? I was so overwhelmed from what I realized that I ended up on my knees unable to do anything. As days went by and I was thinking where did I get into I felt really down and weak. But after a week or so I kind of heard God telling me:
"Well, you had your time to realize what you've done wrong. Now is the time to stand back on your feet and to fight your enemy."
And I realized that that's exactly what I need to do. Because what do we do when we realize we sin? We fight the sin! And so I went to the battlefield that took place in my heart to fight and win this fight for the glory of God!

And today I'm happy to tell you some important words: GOD IS GOOD! And He has showed me how much He can be. God healed my heart and made me able to serve Him once again. And not just that. He didn't just heal it. He even set it on the right place. He renewed my heart and made it able to serve to the One who is worthy to be served.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Studing at ŠPM

Found these pictures today. It's from the first ŠPM meeting we had last weekend. Next one is gonna happen next Friday. Can't wait!

ŠPM - day 2

well this might be a little weird and not telling you much about this day but it was AWESOME! i love it so much. to learn and study about our LORD and how to serve Him better and to know more about the religion you believe. it's just awesome. we spent like 7 hours of studing and it was lots of infornations for my brain to get for one time but i just enjoyed it so much! next ŠPM is gonna happen in two weeks. gotta say - can't wait!

tomorrow is sunday so dominik and me decided to go Žilina's church to visit and then afternoon we'll take a train home and we hope we'll be able to make it on time for kris' class. and then at 7.30 pm we plan on swimming in in-door swimming pool. sounds like a pretty full schedule :-)

ŠPM - quick update DAY 1

hey guys,

i found here's an internet conection here so it's not that hard to be here at all :-) anyway, today we were just kind of getting-to-know each other and had fun. i like it. tomorrow we're gonna have some serious study that i can't wait for and i'm looking forward to it so much! please pray for dominik and me as we don't really know anybody here (yet) so we would be social and for wisdom when we study. thanks.

btw: another update coming tomorrow :-)

ŠPM

Hello friends,

well tomorrow is the day that I've been waiting for so long (about 5 months). Tomorrow is the first day when Dominik and me will go for ŠPM. ŠPM is a shortcut for Škola pre Pracovníkov s Mládežou (School for Youth Leaders) and it's suppose to be really good (Petra attended this school two years ago). We'll be learning there systematic theology, bible "stuff" and stuff (don't really have any idea :-)

Anyway, this should train us to be better leaders and to know why we are leading and where are we leading to. So I just want to ask you for prayers for dominik and me as we'll be taking this for the whole school year that God would give us wisdom to understand and responsibility so we won't be lazy to study and read and for relationships there. And especialy for my relationship with dominik since we'll be spending even more time together :-)

marek

Dominik - The Hunter

Yesterday we had another Dorast (youth group) and it was special cause we had cookout at Kohút's. We had some sausages and a wasp was flying around the food all the time. The hunting instinct woke up inside of Dominik's head so he grabbed a fork and stabbed it! Here's the proof.

I'm down / Getting Better

Those are songs from The Beatles. I really like 'em. But the names of the songs fit right into my life in the past weeks. You know, when you're down and you think it can't be any worse it will be. Then you start to think that it's so bad that you begin to lose the hope in the things to turn around and get better. What happens then? Then suddenly God's grace comes and enfolds you and you'll begin to feel so strong as you've never been before. But at the same time you realize that it's Jesus that is strong in you. And then you think how could have you ever doubted that God's help was on the way! After this you're trying to raise up again but this time you know what made you to fall the last time and so you're trying not to make the same mistake again. And you ask God for guidance and wisdom and for His grace to never leave you.

I know I wrote this all in second person but the story is about me. And I'm really glad for the time when I was really down 'cause that helped me to see the things from the real point of view (not from the top one when you see everything OK just because you want it to be like that). And when God showed His mercy upon me again I was able to start getting better.

???

hey everybody,

some of you might wonder why i didn't write anything for a while. it's not because here's nothing good enough to write about. so let's begin with the biggest news of the last couple of weeks.

last weekend we had a youth conference of our church. that was awesome. i really like this conference. it's happening once a year and every time a different church is hosting it. and i was really looking forward to this conference cause i so far each conference i've been to (only three) had a special message for me. and each one of 'em was a little milestone for me in my christian life so i was wondering what God had prepared for me this time. and i gotta tell you that this conference was the biggest milestone in my christian life so far (not counting becoming a christian of course). do you wanna know what was the message this time? keep reading...

so far these messages were good and encouraging. but this one was probably the hardest to take. at the conference God let me to see my heart the way it is. not the way i want to see it. and that got me on my knees. cause just all of sudden i saw that my ministry wasn't like i thought it was. that my reasons and my attitudes weren't set right. to realize you stopped to serve God alone is a knocking-down event for a christian. and ever since then i'm finding myself unable to serve, to do ministry and praise the LORD with my life. so in these days i'm trying to repent. to humble myself and ask God for restoring my heart. to live for God is what i love the most. to serve Him is my pleasure. and i just see myself i'm not doing this anymore and i need to get back as soon as possible. all these days i feel empty inside. trying to burn up with love for Christ once again. asking Him for mercy.it's really hard. cause Christ is filling of my life and i'm having problems with that right now what means that my life is not filled and is empty. my soul is starving for the LORD and wants to feel His presence. it's really hard to live the way i live for the past week. i know that God is teaching me a lesson. and i got to learn it. i don't know how long is this all gonna take. i just know that the LORD is in control of everything and must trust Him completely.
please, pray that i will learn the lesson and that this all will be used for the glory of Christ!

marek

first dorast

OK. So today we had our first Dorast (youth group). We went over to Lenka's village and we had a lot of fun. Dominik has the theme for today's Dorast and it was Israelites leaving from the land of Egypt. And we kinda acted it out. Dominik was Mozes, Juraj was an Egyptian and the rest of us were Israelites. Juro was chasing us all the time and then when we were crossing a little creek (the Red sea) he was willing to get into that dirty-stinky water just to show what's gonna happen to those who will decide to go against the LORD. And as Israelites ate bread without yeast we had some dough made (from Lenka and Monika) and we grilled it over a fire (btw: it was pretty tasty). Anyway, that's kinda what happed today.

This was my first Dorast where I was in the leader team. And I want to ask you guys to pray for us as we're young Christians that don't really have much experiences and need to be careful and faithful to the work we were called to do.

sick?!

This morning I woke up and the first thing I remember is a huge headache and I felt awful. So I grabbed a thermometer and I found out that I have a fever! Isn’t that great? (being sarcastic). I tried to sleep and to eat. To rest and do stuff that should help me to get better but, so far, nothing has helped. Ever since I woke up I have this huge headache and fever. My mom just got home from work and she fixed bryndzové halušky so I hope that this good food will help.

THE HUMAN RACE 10K (Part 2)

OK. So yesterday was The Human Race day. To make it I had to run at least 10 km (6.25 miles). But I've decided to make my own record. The old one was 13.44 km (8.4 miles). And just to make it easier to convert from kilometers to miles I wanted to do 16 km (10 miles). And I did it! I've ran 10 miles with one little break. And I'm proud of myself. 'Cause two and a half years ago I would make maybe one mile and be done. And I had my friends that supported me and biked beside me all along. Carried water for me and were a moral support to the end.

But God has shown once again how great He is. That He can give enough strength to His people to complete tasks they would only dream of. And only with His blessing I was able to make this run to the very end. Praise the LORD for the great things He's doing in our lives!

can be even worse?

Few days ago I've probably seen the worst movie in my life. Dominik and me wanted to watch some movie. So Dominik came over and we sat down and took the collection of movies I found at my house. As we were getting through them we saw a movie called I Think Love My Wife. We both said: That sounds like a good comedy. Let's watch it! So we we began.

Just in short I'm gonna tell you what's the movie about. There's a guy that loves his wife and his family is alright. But there's a little problem. He never has sex with his wife. So he starts to look after another women. It's really dumb. But then when he's about to have something with a woman he always dreamed of (and she was hitting on him) he looked into a mirror and saw himself there. Then he turned around and left this girl alone and as he was leaving he said something really good (actually the only good lines in the movie :-) :

Life is about a choice. And most of 'em are made for us. You can't choose when you were born. You can't choose where you were born. You can't choose your family. You can't even choose who you love. But you can choose how you love.

I have to stop complaining about what I don't have and start appreciating what I have.

So since you've read these lines you don't really have to bother to watch the movie. Unfortunately I had to get through all of the boring parts to hear these lines. So next time I won't watch a movie just because of the name :-)

Me, myself, and iPhone

That's an article I read today on some website. That guy was talking how easy it is for a human to turn from God to the technology we have in these days. How to begin to rely on a wrong thing. Here's something from what he wrote:

A capable cell phone today has more computing power than the computer that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon. I love science, because it displays God's wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-31). I love technology, because it shows what great gifts God has given to us, and what great human capacity God has given us to exercise dominion (Genesis 1:28-30). But I see hopes placed in science and technology that they cannot fulfill. Science, it is said, will solve the problems of world hunger. It will bring world peace. And more and better technology will solve the problems introduced by lesser technology. Well, sometimes; and in some ways. Maybe science will find an efficient way to harness nuclear fusion to produce clean power—or maybe not. But we can be awash in technology and still be hate-filled or lonely. You can have 200 friends on Facebook and have no one who really knows you, no one who loves you.

At the end he said that we should not forget what way we're suppose to walk on. That Jesus is the way (John 14:6). The way for us!

THE HUMAN RACE 10K

Nike has a great thing called Nike+ that works with an iPod nano. It tells you how much you ran, how fast you ran and how many calories you burned. And it's awesome.

Nike has decided to make an event called THE HUMAN RACE 10K by Nike+. On August 31st2008 all of the runners around the world will get together and run 10K. But at this day it's not gonna be just a run. Because on this particular day you'll run for a cause.

Beyond running and music, the Nike+ Human Race is also an opportunity to give back. Participants will be able to run for a worthy cause and support the three official Nike+ Human Race charitable partners: the Lance Armstrong Foundation - uniting people in the fight against cancer; WWF - the global conservation organization addressing the causes and impacts of climate change; and the UN refugee agency's www.ninemillion.org campaign - bringing sport and education to refugee youth. Together, Nike and runners will raise funds to donate at least USD $3 million to the Nike+ Human Race charities.
http://www.ninemillion.org/

Budiš commercial

Hello! So this is my third post that I promised you to write within 24 hours. So here it is:

On Thursday Juro Klementovič, Palo and me (and other 250 people) woke up and met at the square in Trnava to make a commercial. The joke was we did not know what kind of commercial it was suppose to be! (actually and us three did not know that). It was a commercial for a mineral water called Budiš. One of their lines says: The Godly taste of a mineral water. What we were doing was to make a mexican wave with drinking the water. The point was that Budiš is traveling across Slovakia and in each city it causes the wave. In fact they will use about 3-4 seconds from what we were practicing for about 2.5 hours. But hey, I'm gonna be on TV!

(when it will appear on TV I'll record it and will let you know.)

Here is an old commercial for Budiš:

And just for fun. Have you ever wondered how many people does it take to make a mexican wave? Here is the answer:

Hiking trip

I don't know whether you knew but there was a meteor shower several days ago when Earth was getting through a mess of an old comet. It wasn't something great but it was kinda nice. Because it's too bright in Trnava Juraj Klementovič, Palo and me went for hiking that day and the plan was to sleep over at some nice meadow and be watching some "falling stars".

Everything went according the plan but we all were so tired. But we did it. Then we made a fire (don't worry it's not illegal to make a random fire in a forest in Slovakia :-) And Juraj was so nice and he took care about Palo and me. He brought some špekačky and some really tasty cheese to grill. It was delicious!

NDuring the night we saw some "stars" but I was so tired that after I got into my sleeping bag I fell asleep right away. But in the middle of the night I woke up just for about 15 seconds and I looked up to the sky and saw a huge and nice meteor falling dawn. It was awsome.

Well that's about all. Next day we hiked back to Trnava and were even more exhausted.
But hey, that's a hiking!

And Palo found this really funny commercial. I think it's worth of watching.
Enjoy!

CampFest -- Open air music fest

From August 7th to August 10th here in Slovakia we had a Christian music festival called Campest. During these days we could have seen a lot of Christian artist from around the world. USA, UK, Australia, SK and CZ. And this time it was happening for the 10th time! Let me tell you a little more about it.

What's the campfest all about is music. And I listen only to kind of music that I like and believe me it might be hard to get the right music for me. And it was. So I didn't go to concerts so much after all. But these are things I was doing at the campfest. I was going for workshops and for speakers with worship music (actually the only Slovak music that I listen to is Christian music [mostly worship - I love worship songs!]). And it was fain. I don't regred going there.

But there's a thing. There wasn't a campfest without rain. And from the name of the festival (campfest) it's not a hard job to figure out how you sleep there. Yeah, we were camping in tents. And it wouldn't be a real campfest without some rain. So it was raing for a day and a night. And camping itself wasn't the problem. The problem was that you were outside when you were going from place to place and you got wet. And it's not really nice to be wet all the day along. But we survived!

I'm really happy I got to go to the campfest. It was my first time and I'm glad I got there. It was an encouragement for me about my decision for my future. I had a really nice talk with some people and I spent a nice time with LORD there. And that's what is the most worth of all. To be with your LORD.

(more posts coming...)

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OK. I know it's not very polite to start a new blog and after a while forget about it. I just wanna let you know that I didn't forget. I just didn't have much time to write. But I'm about to change it. I promise that I will write at least three new posts within 24 hours! Deal?

Špačince Olympics 2008

OK. I know that this post is a little out-of-date since the camp is over from last Friday. But anyway, do you wanna know what was the camp like? Keep reading...

The camp was divided into two parts. Mornings and evenings. At the mornings it was just the same as it was during Jr. High Camp but we didn't have two English classes but just one and we had Music class where Anya was playing on a piano and the kids (and unfortunately the staff as well) were singing funny-silly songs :-) It was for kids from age of 6 to 10. The evenings were for High schoolers and for adults (even though we didn't have any adults after all). Before the camp we thought that we'll have to tell some kids that they cannot come because we're full. The truth was - we had only 7 kids. But that's what God gave us.

For this camp a team from Virginia came to help. And they were actually in charge of the whole camp (kind of). They are great people to work with and I really enjoyed it.

Boss-ka is talking (with Pepsi of course).

We began on Sunday evening with a cookout party in Špačince (a village close to Trnava where Dan and Rebecca live with their family). There's not much that happened during the camp that would be so cool to write it here. During the free time between the parts of the camp (12.30 pm - 6.30 pm) we ate, cleaned up and hanged out. And we had a really good time to get to know each other. On Friday we went to hike and then had a dinner as a team together.

Dan was so nice and brave that he let Dominik and me to use his cool old Škoda car during the week. So every morning we (one day Dominik another one it was me) picked up the rest of the people who would fit in and we drove to Špačince and back. And every evening we drove Lenka home She lives in a village that is 15 minutes by driving away (with Škoda:-) . On Friday when we drove Lenka home we had some difficulties with the car. For some reason the whole car (except the engine) went out of battery. So the car was completely dark. Babulka was driving her car in front of the Škoda car so I could see on the road. Then somehow I figered out how to make the car to work again. So all the energy came back and we got back and this time with our lights on! As danguerous as it seems it was a great ride :-)

Parking is not one of my best skills :-)

All together (Lenka's taking the pic :-(

Anyway, the whole week was really great. Even though during this time I began to feel all the tiredness from the past camps with God's help we managed it to the end. And one woman from the Virginia team - Mary - told me a beautiful thing that encouraged me a lot. She said: "Stay strong for Jesus!!"

The team (though some are missing).

So as I look back for the past 5 weeks when we all worked hard I see a great blessing from LORD that He gave us. I see tons of answered prayers and new relationships He built between us. And lots of other things He blessed us with. And for me personally He made my desire for Him to grow even more!

Imagine This 2008 (Jr. High English Camp)

Hey everybody,
so after a while I have another story to write. It's a camp we had this last week. The camp was for kids from age of 10 through 15. It was Jr. High English camp - Imagine This 2008. Before Xtreme Week we were a little worried whether we'll have enough kids for the camp but God answered our prayers and gave us 25 kids (!).


The camp began at 9.00 am and last until 12.30 pm. It was a daily camp that was happening at The Building. Even though the camp began at 9.00 am the staff had to be at the place at 8.00 am so again, we had to get up from our beloved beds and leave the comfort of our apartments. The whole camp was divided into four parts: 2 English classes, Crafts and Sports. In each class was one LTP and one American. Dominik and Babulka (and some days Juraj) were in charge of sports and Miriam had crafts. I got assigned to a class according where the worst boys were :-) so I can calm them down.

That's my class!

After the kids left we (as the team) had a lunch together and were hangin' out 'till 5.00 pm when we had a meeting about the rest of the day because at the evenings we had evening programs (as we use to have during a school year on Fridays) from 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm. So we had about 4 hours of rest before we had another job to do.

At the evenings we were playing various games from kind of getting-know-each-other through banana fights to Drive-in. One evening we were suppose to have Outside Crazy Games but since it was raining outside we changed it into Inside Crazy Games. One of the games was to find a partner and to lay down (as you see at the picture below) and to feed each other with a frozen ice cream (and I mean really frozen ice cream). At this point I got attacked by a Jr. High girl saying: We're gonna be together!. Fortunately, Juraj was there and he saved me. (The girl stuff you'll get in a while).

Here's the picture as Juraj feeds me.

There were some problems though. Dominik and me found out that two 14 year-old Jr. High girls have crush on us. And that's not really good. I remember all the times when just during the games one of 'em just grabbed my hand that I'm in her team and I just ripped my hand off of hers and said: I got a job to do in the office... and I disappeared in the back rooms at The Building were students were not allowed to be. Or poor Dominik, one girl grabbed his head, shook it and looked into his eyes and said: Where are you going?. And I had some problems with the boys at my class as well. One of them especially was really disrespectful and not really caring what's going on during the class. So after the second day I took him apart and talked to him that he is being disrespectful and his behavior is not making the class any easier for me and his "classmates" are probably not really happy about it. And even though he is only 9 he seemed he was listening and thought about it seriously. The same day at the evening we had Scavenger Hunt and he was in my team. He was the best kid I ever!
But all this, either the girls or the boys, is just a sign that they are missing love at their homes and in their lives in general. Suddenly they come to The Building where people love them even though sometimes they don't deserve and they don't know how to respond to it.

But after all, again, we've seen God's grace and all the answered prayers He gave us. The whole week He was pushing our tiredness and was keeping it away what really helped us in doing our job. So He helped us to be patient with the boys and share the love of Christ with them even in times when we were so tired and not really willing to be nice to them:-) . And we were really happy that God has glorified Himself in our work and that He was among us all the time.

The other way how God showed us His grace and love is that we got about 10 girls from Špačince (a close village) and put a desire and care about the girls into the hearts of our LTP girls and so Ninka and Babulka are about to start a new GK - Girl's Club. God blessed us so much that so many times we just freeze and stare when we see the way He works and what He does in us and for us.
Praise Him!

And just one more thing I want to tell you about. During one evening (the day before the camp was over) when everybody was so tired and out of strength I looked at us and saw seven young people working with kids and spending at least a half of the summer at The Building doing camps and not even being paid for that, yet they were so happy and so excited to do it. To work for Christ. And I gotta tell you I'm so proud on our team. That God put these young people together for Him and gave them privilege to work for our Father in heaven. So even now I'm looking forward for our next jobs we'll be called to do. Because we'll be called by the Son of God.

Through the Looking Glass: Reflections on Christ That Change Us

Last Sunday I finished reading a book. But this book was special to me in various ways. The first is that the author of the book is a close person to me and the second because I was looking forward to reading this book for so long (the reason why I didn't read it sooner is because I got little problems with my reading time and I found myself unable to make a regular time to read - simply it was hard for me to keep on reading, not because a book would be boring or me having some reading issues - just cannot make the time). But let me tell you what is the book about and what did I gain from reading it.

The book is about the person called Jesus Christ. It talks about Christ and who He really is. It takes a closer look at Him and the things He has done for us and the background of this all. It describes His love toward us and the reason of this love and gives you all of this in an easy way to understand. It begins from the divine nature of Christ as God-man and gives you lots of new points of view at Christ.

To me personally it made closer and cleaner what Christ did for me and who Jesus really is. Kris' book is a really great book and I'm happy I got to read it. It just showed me how much it really cost to buy my soul from the slavery of sin. And it helped me to understand Jesus a lot more and brought my relationship with Him to a new higher level what I'm really thankful for, because I can tell you - it's great!

And if you have never read any of Kris' books and would want to find something really interesting to read you're done with searching. I gotta admit that the way Kris writes his books is amazing. Because he was able to pass me a lot of great stuff through the books in a simple language that even I can understand (and my English is not good enough to read hard theological stuff). Kris has done a great job with his books.

Since I have got my reading "problem" I've read only two books. Both are Kris' (the first book of his is called The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin) and I think it just got me in a place when I really desire to learn about God and to explore what all He has done for me. So today I begin to read another book. Hopefully I'll be done with the book within two weeks (that's my schedule) and I'll be able to share with you about it. Wish me luck.

Back from the vacation

So today, after 9 hours of sitting in the back seats of a car with my mom and sister, I got home from a vacation in Croatia with my family. We were in a town called Vodice. It's a small and nice town with really nice people. We left on Thursday morning at 2.30 am and got there at 11.00 am. I was really tired so took a nap right away.

Before we went I was kinda afraid about one thing. I've been to a sea 3 times and my parents never were. So I thought my parents would be all freaking out and I'll be like what's going on? It's just a sea. And so it was. Apparently I didn't swim as much as my parents thought I would (because they told me for several times that I could have slept and hanged out in Slovakia and not to pay a lot of money to go to Croatia :-) But it was a good time after all. I slept a lot (so got my powers back after being sucked out by the Xtrteme Week). And two years ago an American by name Andrew brought me to the Building (later affected me becoming a Christian) and he taught me how to fight my asthma by running. Ever since then I began to like running ('cause my asthma got easier for me and I realized it helps me to run). And can you imagine a better place to run at then a coast? It was great and during those 2 days I ran twice. The first time I ran a little over 10 km (6 miles) with a one minute little break (and it wasn't a real break it was more a fast walking) and the second time it was almost 13.5 km (8.5 miles) with the same kind of break. You can see that there's a little slow-down-place but it was when I was running up a hill, then took a minute break and ran down.



If you think I'm just showing off this time you're right :-)

Well that's the whole vacation actually. When I got back to Trnava I ran (only walked because I was tired after another 9 hours "trip" in the car) to The Building because we're having Jr. High English Camp this week. And when I walked into the office I saw Dan as he was trying to fix some internet router problems. And I just looked at it and fixed it in a sec. And then I realized that I'm finally back home again. With my friends.
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And just to let you know how'd it go with my parents and all the broken relationship stuff. I thought that a week away would help us but it did not. Actually nothing has changed. Everything is pretty same. And I realized that I need to be more patient and to pray to the LORD for putting this problem away and replace it with love. And so I want to ask you, if this ever comes to your mind during your prayer time, pray for me and my parents because our relationship is not on the best way. Thanks.

Family vacation in Croatia

Today, very early at the morning (2.30 am), I left to Croatia with my parents and sister for several days (I'll be back on Monday about the lunch time). And I'd like to ask you to pray for the safety on the road (because we drive) and for the safe time spend there as well.

But your prayers would be the most appreciated if you'd pray for me and my parents. The relationship between us is not really at the best point at the moment and we're having problems. Lots of 'em. So please ask God to give us a good time to be together and give us enough opportunities to make our relationship work again.

And my class teacher is going with us, too (he's a close family friend). And he and both of my parents are not Christians, so please ask God to use me as a way to share the good news to them and testify the love of Christ.

Thank you for the prayers.

Vienna trip

On Monday, Libby took Dominik and me for a trip to Vienna. And it was a really cool day, let me tell you...

The day before the trip Libby and Dominik went to Tesco to buy some food and drinks and make some sandwiches. Then when everything was ready we met at the morning and went to the train station in Trnava. We took our train to Bratislava and there we switched with a train that took us right to Vienna. So far - everything goes according the plan. But not for long...

It was about 10 am and we got a little hungry. So we opened up our backpack and took out the sandwiches. But. For some unknown reason all of them (except one) were wet and disgusting to eat. Libby was sad about it because she wanted to have a great day. You can't imagine what fun it was for Dominik and me :-) So we went to some store for a little snack (it's something like in IKEA, you take what you want and then you pay). And in the store I got coffee poured out on me from a waiter. So I smelled like a coffee for the rest of the day.

Then we took a subway to St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's a nice and glorious cathedral (nothing that we don't have in Trnava :-) Then we went to visit an art museum Libby was so excited. Then we went to some tree park where we just lied down and had s0me little rest. We planned to go to a castle but we didn't have enough time so we took another subway to Prater (it's a theme park in Vienna. When I went to Vienna for the fist time I went there and I was so excited about it 'cause in Slovakia we don't have anything like that). And Dominik and me went to the most crazy attraction there. I'm not going to describe it you but instead I'll show you what was that like:



This attraction is the craziest one in the whole theme park. The basic description is: you sit down to a bench that has bungee ropes and it will shoot you up over 150 meters (164 yards) and then you're just falling down and swinging up and down. The speed is over 160 km per hour (100 miles per hour). And I can tell that it was great and next time I'll go to this theme park I'll get a ride again :-)

We went then for another two attractions (couldn't more because we took the craziest rides and it's pretty expensive there). Then we went to the subway station again and wanted to get somewhere closer to the train station that our train was suppose to go from. First we thought it's U2 subway so we took it. But then we realized it's U3 (because for some reason I thought we began at the beginning of U3 subway). So we stopped by the St. Stephen's Cathedral (because we kinda knew it there already) to have some dinner. We found some pizzeria that was as full as they would be playing the game how-many-people-would-fit-in-here? . But in the time we got there some people were about to leave so we grabbed their chairs and had dinner there.


When we were done (thinking we have about 45 minutes to get the train and all we have to do is just get a subway that would take us there) we went to a subway station and took our U3. Well, it took us to the place we wanted to go but when we got out of the subway we expected to see at least something familiar. But this was the place we've never been to. And it was only 30 minutes before the train was suppose to leave and we had no idea where we are and where we're going. So we prayed in a subway for enough time and for the resources how to get there. So we asked random people but they didn't know how to get there either. But they gave as an idea. Get a taxi.

So we got off of the subway at a big station and went out with a thought to get a taxi that would take us to the train station. We were out and there was NO taxi. Suddenly I saw one. And I said: God just sent as a taxi. But it was on the other side of a intersection and I couldn't get there because I had the red light and he was about to get green. But I didn't see any cars coming so I ran into the taxi car and waved at the taxi driver the way he would know I am a potential customer :-) He open the door I jumped in and pointed with a finger at out train ticket with the name of the train station and asked him: Can you get me there? He said it's not a problem and we drove little to get Libby and Dominik. In this point it was 15 minutes before the train was suppose to leave. It was raining and we were hurry to get to the station. We prayed to make it (otherwise it would mean we're not going to get home 'till the next day) . And we had a lot of green lights at intersections and we were really thankful for that. We arrived to the train station 4 minutes before the train was suppose to leave. When we got into the train station I saw familiar place and I knew that this time we're at the right place. We ran upstairs to our platform and the only thing we could've done was just to wave to the train. And then I said: God just took the train away from us. If we would get there just 30 seconds earlier we would make it.

We knew that there's a train going from Vienna to Bratislava every hour but we didn't know whether we'll be able to get a train from Bratislava to Trnava. So I went to find out when is another train going and whether we're gonna get home today. A nice guy at the information place printed out for me the schedule and I came to Libby and Dominik and I said: I knew God wouldn't leave us here. There was a train going from Bratislava 15 minutes from the tiem we were suppose to arrive to Bratislava. And it was at 10:28 pm so we were waiting there for 45 minutes. Then the train came and this time we were there and were ready to go home. Came to Bratislava where we were suppose to switch trains and go to Trnava. There were two trains going to Košice but only one was going trough Trnava. As ridiculous as it sounds we almost got into the wrong one. And what's really interesting even though we took a train that left from Vienna one hour later we got to Trnava only 15 minutes after the time we were suppose to get back with the first train. A little after midnight we arrived to Trnava's train station and went home to sleep. We all were so tired that the next day I woke up at 1 pm what is pretty late for me :-)

As I look at that day now, even though there were some problems and sometimes we didn't even know where we were going, I consider it as a great day. I went to Vienna, museum, hanged out at the tree park, took subway, stopped the taxi in the middle of intersection, missed the train and still I spent this day with really close friends of mine and I'm really thankful for that.

Xtreme Week 2008

OK guys,
I got some comments for my first "article" so I suppose there are some people that will actually read this. I want to tell you what was the Xtreme Week like.



Xtreme Week was an English camp for High school students. We began our camp on Monday July 7th and were having it 'till Friday July 11th. When the kids came to The Building at 4:30 pm we welcomed them and were watching a daily video from the last day. Then we had our English classes for about an hour and half. We had funny and serious stories that had Christian point, either obvious or not that obvious:-) After the classes we had our Xtreme-Movie-Making time where we divided kids into 4 teams and they were suppose to make a short movies. Then at 8:00 pm our LTP team got in charge with the evening program. The program started with a LTP silly video and crazy games. At the end we had a speaker and discussion groups. After that we were just hanging out and playing games. These are themes we had for each day:

Monday: Xtreme Beginnings
Tuesday: Xtreme Makeover
Wednesday: Xteme Olympics
Thursday: Xtreme Dare Night
Friday: Xtreme Cookout/Oscar Night :-)

Whole week was really tiring. Usually we had a meeting at 2 pm about what's going on, then had meeting with teachers and we talked what was gonna happen at the class. Then was a prayer meeting and at 4:30 pm we opened the door for the students to come.

Most of the times we prayed for our relationships with the students and for a good opportunities to share the gospel. For the program to work out and, as the week was ending and our powers were fading, even for the strength and some rest.

The best day was Friday and our Xtreme Cookout/Oscar Night. It may sounds weird to have a Xtreme Cookout but hey - that's Xtreme Week. On one hand it was the best because it was the last day of the camp, on the other hand because in that day God showed His love and grace the most. Let me tell you a little more about this day...

For me it began a little earlier than I'm used to. I woke up at 5:00 am with only three hours of sleep. I went to The Building and I started to work at 6:00 am. I was making intro videos for the Oscar Night and then made two team videos (seems easy but believe me, to cut it all and put it together with music and stuff - takes a little while) .

In the middle of this I went to a computer store to get a wire because we planned to do a Skype-to-Skype video conference call from another room where Monika was interviewing our teams. And projected on a wall. We had microphones and all the other cool stuff that you can find at a fancy evening program. During the camp I was actually in charge of technical stuff and videos.

But back to Friday. Between movie making I had to make every audio/video/technical stuff working. And then back to the movie making. I got off of computer at 7:30 pm what means that I spend at least 12 hours of the computer work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make you feel sorry about me I just want you to get the picture of the day. How much we had to do. The rest of the team was preparing for the classes (I had to skip mine and I'm really sorry about it because I liked my class [btw: Monika and me were only helpers in the class. The real teacher was Anya] ) .

Then we had cookout and the big time was here.

Ladies and gentlemen, please, dress up to your fancy clothes!

Babulka and me were MCs. It was the best day of the camp for sure! Even though we all were so tired God gave us enough strength to keep going and make the job done. That day when I was working with the computer all the time with 3 hours of sleep I lost all my hope that it's all ever gonna work. But we kept praying and Lord answered our prayers and it was even greater that we'd ever imagine.

After the Oscar part of the evening we gave T-Shirts and the Camp certificates to the kids. And you could tell from their faces that they were sad because the camp is over. They we had an "AFTER PARTY!" and LTP have really enjoyed it! Even Miriam did!




Miriam and her children.

Then we cleaned up (because no one wanted to come back on Saturday to do it) and we gathered together to praise God for everything He has done at the camp. 'Cause when we looked back to the past 5 days we really realized what ALL He has done.


And I cannot forget to mention probably the greatest thing of all. There's a guy that's been going to The Building for a year and knew that people from The Building team are Christians. On Thursday night I walked him home and we talked about Christ for over an hour. He's interested into Christianity. He had not been to The Building for over 3 months and when he came back this summer it was so obvious that God works in his life. He always wondered why are people at The Building so nice and welcoming and now he knows. Please, pray for him!

The reason of this blog...

Last week we had Xtreme Week camp for High School students. I came home at 1 am and went to sleep right away because the night before I slept only 3 hours and it was the last day of the camp. When I woke up (at 3:30 pm! I was really tired) I realized what a great week we all had. How God blessed this week and how many blessings and answered prayers we received.

During one evening program I shared my life with the kids at the camp and told them who I used to be before I met Christ. How Christ can become the most important person in your life and change it. So I decided to share. To show others what my life looks like and what's going on there. Wanna know? Keep coming back!