I Can't Believe That Just Happened!

Okay, so since arriving in Europe I have collected many stories, funny or just interesting, of things that I can't believe happened (most of which Kari and I laughed about a ton or at least gave us reason for a shared, wide-eyed look). For your enjoyment and so that I don't forget, here are my top ten:

1) On one of the trains we took during the Amazing Race, I sat in a compartment and listened to Hondo (a full-time missionary) talk to a chem student about evolution and morals. Hondo had just talked to us about the power of asking good questions in order to keep people talking and leading them to think about what they believe. Then, I got to see this in action. Hondo asked great questions and the conversation went super deep really quickly! I was impressed and am confident that the guy on the train went home that day questioning his values a little more. I trust that God will continue to make that seed grow.

2) The day Kari and I arrived in Celje, pretty much all of JV's connections in the area (the missionaries, Americans, and host family) were all at a wedding for a couple in the church we're working with here. So, we were told we'd be chilling by ourselves for most of the day. However, half-way through the afternoon, our hosts (who we didn't know at all yet) came home to tell us we were invited to the reception. Less than 12 hours after settling in, we were dressed up, at the church, and meeting all the Calvary Chapel church-goers. Not to mention, we were sitting right across the table from the parents of the bride! : )

3) The second night we were in Celje, Whitney (our hostess) asked us if we'd want to go on a walk with her down to a lake by her house. To get to know her better (she's a super open person) she told us her testimony. It ended up taking a good couple of hours as we walked and listened to her really intense story of childhood abuse, rape, suicidal thoughts, and drugs and how the Holy Spirit completely turned her life around. The climax of the story and the walk was when we neared the bottom of a hill where a forest surrounded the lake and noticed a huge bear-like dog just sitting there -guarding his territory. Whitney turned to us and said something like, "I have an enemy here. We should probably go to the lake some other time." It was starting to get dark out and there was a forest road we had to go down to get home. Long story short, we ended up running for 10 minutes, while Whitney continued to tell her story. Crazy times! (In case you were wondering, we did get to go to the lake a couple days later. As you can see from the picture, it was worth the wait!)

4) Teaching English in the schools and trying to promote camp gets tiring after a while. A few classes in and you find the jokes you've been telling a little less funny and the vocab you're teaching a bit less interesting. Let's just say the classes tended to run together! But there is one class session that was definitely more memorable -we were well into the period and everything was going according to plan. But all of a sudden a pigeon flew through an open window into the classroom and everyone was silent. The stupid bird was startled, I'm sure, and trying to get back out through a closed window, which obviously didn't work well. Nate went open the window, but was having trouble getting the bird to fly through it. Thank goodness a random kid in the class knew what to do! He just walked calmly up to the bird, grabbed it, and threw it out the open window. Everyone clapped, the student bowed, and we went back to teaching English.

5) Passing out fliers about English camp can be awkward. I mean, if you were approached on the street by a person speaking a foreign language would you stop to chat or just ignore him? Well, we've observed a lot of good and bad tactics to use when promoting camp, but my favorite is when Johnny (missionary) goes up to someone, asks "Do you speak English?" and when the person says no mutters, "Well, do you want to?"

6) Another thing we did one night with Whitney and her husband was go to a jazz club. They go quite a lot with other friends to pray for the people there and listen to really good music. I must say, it was pretty impressive.
7) Kari and I have tried out a lot of restaurants here in the city. However, we think we've already found our favorite. This Italian place has great pizza and pasta and classy waiters who speak English. Gotta love that! But the most memorable meal there was a pizza we split that looked like this. A salad on our pizza -yummy!

8) One thing I love about going to different countries is seeing and being a part of worship and the church body around the world. The coolest worship experience I've had the pleasure to be a part of here so far was at the house of Nina, a woman from the countryside who goes to the church we are working with. Whitney invited Kari and me along for the ride one afternoon to hang out at Nina's and worship. We sang in English while they played piano and guitar and sang in Slovene. It's awesome to think that our God hears us no matter what language we're singing in or how many of us there are gathered together in His name.

9) Public transportation is not always my favorite. However, I was super proud of myself the day I took the train by myself from Ljubljana to Celje. The problem with the trip this time was not the train itself. Instead, it was the walking 20 minutes in the rain after getting off the train. I had an umbrella, but my pants got soaked from cars driving by and splashing me. Another train story, while I'm at it, is that on one of the trips that Kari and I took an annoying beeping alarm started going off in our car and after a few minutes we were wondering if we could fix it somehow. We asked two teens sitting behind us if they knew what was happening. The girl just looked at us seriously, while the guy with her turned and said in English, "We're all going to die!" The beeping eventually stopped, but it was worth enduring for a bit just for that line.

10) Two nights ago, I found myself sitting in a small art gallery with Johnny, Kari, and Maja (the Slovene teenager who we've been hanging out with) listening to a lecture by an artist from Iran talking about her photographs and drawings. A lot of the artwork was her way of taking a stand against religion in her country is, as she explained that she used a lot of black space and shadows to portray the darkness of the mosques. She also talked about the "monster inside all of us." I couldn't help but smile at this very mixed cultural experience and the thought-provoking truths stated by the artist.