Greetings Family and Friends!
Peace and love be with you in the Lenten season!
It’s a brighty, crisp spring day here in Slovakia and I’m gearing up for a great afternoon filled with basketball, children’s and adult choir, an evening Lenten service and my evening of learning Slovak with my teenage teachers J.
This is my February / March edition of my newsletter J February was written several weeks ago but apparently caught a virus and was unable to be sent abroad – and couldn’t even communicate with me in English why J And because of painfully slow internet and not a lot of computer time, I’ve decided to send out an album of pictures a little later in the month. I’m looking forward to showing you what Vrbovce looks like in the spring!
I’d like to thank you all for praying for me and the people here in Vrbovce. And also a great shout of “thanks!” for those that continue to find ways to support me in my service here. I’m only looking at (Katy counts months on her fingers….does a double take in astonishment!....counts again – WOAH!) about 4 ½ months left of my time here in Slovakia!!! Where did the months go? Before you know it I will be having to say good bye to my new friends and family and prepare for the excitement of reuniting with old. J
I’ve been able to do a little traveling during March and am looking forward to a trip to Budapest this next weekend with friends. I’ve found that the traveling time has given me the opportunity recharge my batteries as well as gain some perspective of the surrounding countries. I spent a weekend in Prague with a good friend and found that the conversation and sharing of stories was one of the best ways to reflect on my last couple of months.
May your month be filled with adventures as well as joy and peace!
vela laska (lots of love)
~Katy
Serving in Slovakia
Stories of a Volunteer in Vrbovce
February / March
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God
and they will be my people.” ~Leviticus 26:12
Walking among Us
Working as a camp counselor for several summers during college allowed me to be continually surrounded by people, places and opportunities to talk about my faith and learn about the faith of others. Being part of campus ministry and working as a youth director at a local church also gave me loads of opportunities to hear the faith stories of many, attend bible studies that dove head first into scripture and attend worship services that breathed life into my soul. Here in Slovakia it’s been a struggle for me to find ways to grow spiritually at times and so my time alone with God in the evenings is spent reflecting on where I saw, hear, felt or experienced God through the lives of others that day.
This verse from Leviticus has been one that I’ve reflected on a lot this month. God claimed the Israelite people as his own and recognizing their faults and shortcomings still promised to
“live with them and walk among them.” Whether in Kansas or in Slovakia I’m daily surrounded by and part of a world that is full of faults and shortcomings. But God still lives and walks among us. I’ve continually been finding new and different ways that God is walking and working in the lives of people here in Vrbovce. One place in particular that I feel God is living and working in is in my Thursday evening English classes.
This class has become for several of my students a relief from the everyday worries of life. I think that God blesses the time that we share together and has helped to build a sort of community of learners. One of my students in particular is a very diligent learner and I was able to find out why this last week. Monika (the mother of my little Natalka) is my age and is suffering from a nerve disease/ disorder. This last week before class Monika was able to talk to me (in a mixture of Slovak and English) about her upcoming treatment and operation. With tear filled eyes she told me that right now she’s not strong enough to work, her husband, daughter and herself have to live with her parents, and that she wants to have a more normal life. She has a courage and strength that I truly admire and will hopefully have an operation this week that will lessen her pain and enable her to work. Learning English is something that she can do right now that can help her prepare for her future and it also gives her a distraction from her pain. Through Monika I can really see God walking among us, when she helps to teach the other students, when she laughs at parts of conversations, and when she excels in grammar and conversation. I pray that God continues to walk with Monika, especially this week and that we are all able to see and hear more of how God is working in the lives of the people around us. Where is God walking amongst you today? Through what people are you seeing the presence of our living God?
You know you’ve been in Slovakia for awhile when…
- Your feet are outfitted with socks and aren’t really cold…but they are still lonesome for their house slippers.
- You eat your meals with your fork in your left hand and your knife in your right.
- During an after school English lesson you can’t remember if the color siva in English is spelled “grey” or “gray” and you depend on a 3rd grade Slovak student for the correct answer. (And as it turns out you can spell it either way – English is a crazy language J)
- You are dreaming in Slovak in your sleep…ZZZZ…?
- Fresh bread, ham, jam and tea have become staples of a balanced breakfast.
In February, ironically around Valentines Day, I was rummaging through some papers in one of my draws and came across this paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13. All volunteers in the YAGM program received this paper during orientation. For some reason it didn’t make a huge impact on me in August, but I was stunned at how inspiring it is to me now. I’ve underlined a couple of verses that I feel I’ve witnessed to be very true over the course of several months.
1 Corinthians 13 – A Guide to Culture
If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.
If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy all mannerisms so that I could pass for a national but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor, and if I spend my energy without reserve, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love endures long hours of language study and is kind to those who mock her accent; love does not envy those who stayed at home; love does not exalt her home culture. Love is not proud of her national superiority.
Love does not boast about “the way we do it back home,” does not seek his own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of his home country, does not think evil about this culture;
Love bears all criticism about her home culture, believes all good things about this new culture, confidently anticipates being at home in this place, endures all inconveniences.
Love never fails: but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail; where there is contextualization it will lead to syncretism; where there is linguistics, it will change.
For we know only part of the culture and we minister to only part.
But when Christ is reproduced in this culture, our inadequacies will be insignificant.
When I was in America I spoke like an American, I understood as an American, I thought as an American; but when I left America I put away American things.
Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately; now I speak with a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart.
And now these three remain: cultural adaptation, language study and love.
But the greatest of these is LOVE.
~Author Unknown
Update on Youth Group
I can’t fix the youth group. Period. I can’t always understand what they are talking about, or who they are talking about. I can’t always communicate my thoughts or my feelings. And I can’t provide the leadership that they need. Two or three girls from the youth group had an argument last week and I can’t even help intervene because I haven’t the words. But the good thing is “when Christ is reproduced in this culture, my inadequacies will be insignificant.” I know that Christ is working among the people of this group, he’s present with us each week – it’s just that some weeks are harder than others to feel the presence.
This group has a history that goes back long before I entered into the picture. Like with any group they have past arguments, experiences and stories that I’m not aware of. And they also have some problems. Some of the problems aren’t that different from what youth groups in America struggle with. They don’t have concrete leadership. They have a fairly dedicated group of twelve that attend each week, but those twelve are very reluctant to let newcomers into their click, not making it a very welcoming place.
I’m trying to keep positive and continue to pray that God will plant seeds in this group and that Christ can be reproduced. What does that mean anyway? Reproducing Christ. When the things that Christ stood for – grace, forgiveness, unconditional love – are present and alive, then his presence will be also. So how can I help to reproduce Christ in this group? With my limitations and inadequacies – what can I do? Right now, all I feel I can do is be a presence. And I can try to be a loving one. Through love I help to plan activities and games, have conversations, and play and laugh. Sometimes I just sit and try to take it all in, try to understand what they are going through.
And I try to maintain hope. I cling to the hope that God is planting seeds in the hearts of the young people right now. The new seminary intern still hasn’t been able to attend the group and help with a bible talk. We still haven’t been able to sit down and plan activities that will include her. Hopefully this month we can sit down and map out activities and some bible time as a group of leaders – including Peter, myself, Zorka (the intern) and Adrian. Please continue to pray for the youth group – that Christ is able to be reproduced among it’s members and that seeds are being planted even as I type. J
Slovak 101: Lesson #6 for Family and Friends
I have no new words for you this month. Just a simple phrase that I’ve repeated to myself over and over. Never, never give up. When talking to my mom and dad the other night I described learning to communicate, learning a new language here like this: it’s like I’m a master craftsman and I’ve been learning a skill or trade for twenty two years. People have taught me how to use the tools, education has refined my skills and the products that I produced were pretty darn good. Not to brag of course. Now that I’m in Slovakia – I’m expect to be able to make the same products, but they’ve taken away all my tools. How do you make a pot without clay? A desk without wood? And how can I communicate thoughts and feelings without my language? My language tool closet is slowly being rebuilt little by little, but it continues to be a humbling, daily process. I feel like there is an inner strength though that’s being built up from month to month. Each time I get down, God lifts me up J.
That’s part of the reason why I love this sentence from the paraphrase of 1 Corinthians - Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately; now I speak with a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart. It’s true – I’m adapting to this culture awkwardly, trying to find my place among the community here in the village. But God’s living here intimately, walking daily among the people I live among. I speak with a strange accent and oftentimes mix up words and phrases. But God will speak to their hearts. What an amazing thing J! I can relax and know that God’s presence is living and working among us regardless.
May God walk among us and speak to your heart today and always.
Peace,
katy
