One Step at a Time

As I sit inside the apartment on a rainy day in the city, enjoying a cup of cappuccino that I'd never thought I'd enjoy, I thought I'd share the events of the past weekend .  During the week, we spent some time with a niece of one of the church's leaders, Ram, who is not yet saved. She is extremely intelligent and mature, and we had a great time with her and plan on staying in touch via email.  We also had one of the last weekly Bible studies of the summer with members of the church, who provide wonderful snacks by the way :).  On Thursday, we took a train into the city of Celje, which is about 2 hours from Ljubljana. We met with a couple from the states who is serving in that city, Brooke and Johnny Stevens.  Their goal for their ministry at this point is to get a youth group started in their local church, which consists of zero youth at the moment.  They are using the route of English camps to reach out to the community and try to get students involved.  The camp we will be helping with will be in the city of Kocevje, which caters to adults and children (two separate camps), is not necessarily associated with this camp, just both methods of outreach that have been very effective in the past.  The camp Brooke and Johnny are leading, however, is very similar to a summer camp in the states where the kids will go to a castle in Austria from Sunday through Saturday. Basically, our job for Thursday and Friday was to pass out flyers for the camp and try to talk to some of the kids in town and get them excited about it, or at least seem interested. This is much more difficult than it sounds. On top of being American and looking somewhat out of place in the city, most people were under the impression that we were trying to simply sell them something and showed very little interest. There were a few, however, that really did seem interested and I was able to actually converse with a few of the students. It was a blessing to be proactive and talk with a few students from Celje.  It's very possible that not one of them will go to the camp, but God moves in His time and it is not for me to determine how or when He should move. The number of registrations for the camp has already increased from the 16 last year, to over 20 this year.  I am excited to hear about how God moves in the youth of this town and will inform you of anything we hear. We also were able to spend some time getting to know the members of the church from Celje. It is a small, but a wonderful community of believers who are passionate about their walk with Christ in a hurting nation.  We stayed with one of the leaders of the church, Marko, and had a great time getting to know Him and sharing how God has moved in all of our lives.  It is truly refreshing and encouraging getting to know the believers of this country and it has challenged me to take my walk with Christ to a deeper level. I am so thankful for the time we have here and pray that God will continue to work, as I know He will.  Only about a month left, so keep praying! God bless all of you.