Caving, Bratislava, and Three Musketeers!

Sorry it has been a couple of days since the last entry!  We've been pretty busy the last few days :)

On Tuesday a group of us went hiking and caving.  The hike was a good one, and the cave, well...it was FREEZING (ok, not literally, but it was really cold).  It was called the "Cave of the Dead Bats" and it was awesome to see something so beautiful.  Four Slovaks came with us and we got some good opportunities to talk with them!

Wednesday was a traveling day.  Four people went with Tom in the car and the rest of the group hopped on the train back to Bratislava.  We finally arrived at Hotel Astra (quite a few changes have been made here at the hotel!).  It was a good, fairly long day of traveling, so we were hot and tired when we finally crashed for the night.

Today was a fun day exploring the city.  We hit up Castle Devin this morning.  Safe to say no proposals were made this time around ;)  Then we hung around the city and visited with the Holloways.  Their new cat Penny is adorable.  We finally ended the day at the famous THREE MUSKETEERS restaurant.  Let's just say it was a good dinner choice!

Whew, bed time quickly approaching.  Tomorrow it's off to Vienna on our last day before heading home.  Hope all is well back in the States!

Sunday and Monday!

Sunday was a relaxing day for us as a team.  We got to sleep in a little bit, which was a nice break from the early mornings, and then we got to go to church again!  We even recognized some of the songs this time (by the tune, of course).  Then we headed to lunch at an Asian restaurant.

After lunch some people took naps, others went to the pool with some Slovaks.  It was a good restful afternoon.

One of the exciting parts of the day was watching the Netherlands play Spain in the World Cup last night.  We went as a group and watched the game with a bunch of cheering Slovaks.  We played cards, drank Kofola (a local soft drink), and hooted and hollered...haha.  And I must say, GO SPAIN!!!! :)

Sunday came and went and today we headed to Sasova, a part of Banska Bystrica.  We were going to be cleaning up a kindergarten place for children and mothers of Sasova.  However, we were kind of pleasantly surprised ;)  We got to move a big mound of dirt on the kids' playground!  Shovels and picks were involved as we chipped away at the dirt, rocks, and concrete...it reminded us a little of Haiti!  But it was good, hard work, and we all pitched in.  We all were nice and sweaty afterwards.

Lunch came next, and now we have part of our group at the pool, and others resting.

Tomorrow some of us are going caving and some of us are going back to Sasova to play with kids in the park.  The trip is flying by!

Our Last Day and SLOVENSKY RAJ

Friday was our last day of English camp and Sports camp.  It was a good ending to a great week!

At the Sports camp, after many hours of sports and playing with the kids, there was some sunburn for our team.  But they are awesome and will overcome!  They had a great week.  We have plans of going back on Monday to hang out with the kids some more.  There's also a chance we may work on a building there that might become a club house.  There's hope for the kids of Sasova (the place where the sports camp took place)!!

Our last day of English camp we had one English lesson instead of two.  Why?  BECAUSE THE MAYOR CAME!  It was a pretty exciting deal.  The kids got dressed up in their armor and presented the mayor with a gift.  Then they did some dancing for him to some English music.  We went to the park and at the end of the day had a farewell party with the parents.  It was a sad time to see them leave and there were some tears shed!  We are all thankful for a good week!

Today we went to SLOVENSKY RAJ!  This is what is called "Slovak Paradise."  Half of our group hiked up through some waterfalls by climbing pretty steep ladders.  It was fun and quite beautiful!  The other part of the group stayed by the beach and just had a good time hanging out :)  It was a relaxing day!

English camp girls

The twins and Davidko!

Visiting with the MAYOR!

With Fedo :)

Ben and Tera at one of the waterfalls

The hikers...woot woot.

Ok, Marc, these are for you (and everyone else too!!)  :)

Day 4: Whew!

Today was a good day, a great day even, but a TIRING day.  Our team seems to have hit the hump and we're pretty whooped.  We've really enjoyed the kids each and every day, but at the end of the day we're ready for a nice long nap and a good cone of zmrzlina (that's ice cream!).

We did our normal English lesson, and then had a good Bible lesson (we've been talking about King David).  Then we went to lunch.  After lunch we had a neat scavenger hunt.  The kids had to run around and complete different tasks in the city and town square.  One of these tasks was to "ask a stranger how to say 'I love you' in English."  This was really fun to watch!

The sports team is not back yet (they've been staying out until about 6 pm).  I am sure that lots of kids came out again today!  I think they have had a great turn out!

Tomorrow is the last day of camp and we are going to have a farewell party.  It will be the last day for sports camp also.  Stay tuned for updates on that!

In the meantime here are some pictures from yesterday and today :)

DAY 3: A GREAT DAY!

Today was a most wonderful day with the English camp!

Things we did today:
-had English lessons
-had a Bible study
-ate lunch
-played with a huge parachute in the town square
-went to the park
-made s'mores
-made friendship bracelets
-climbed a climbing wall
-HAD A GREAT TIME!

The Sports team again had lots of kids come out.  They played soccer, ultimate frisbee, street hockey, and dodge ball.  It was a REALLY good day for them too!

Tonight we're off to dinner and watch SPAIN beat GERMANY in the World Cup (ahhh...yay!) haha.

Much love!

Camp/Sports Week: Day TWO

Yesterday got camp rolling!  And today was a wonderful day hanging out with the kids.

Our team has been broken up into two groups: 1) English camp group and 2) Sports camp group.

The English camp starts at 9 and ends at 4:30.  Throughout the day we teach them English, have a Bible lesson, go to lunch, go to the park, do various other afternoon activities, and play different games with them.  We've started building good relationships with the kids...and they are ADORABLE!

Today we got to teach about the armor of God.  We explained what the armor of God was, then let the kids create their own armor.  It was good fun :)

While the English camp is going on, the sports camp is happening at a park on the other side of Banska Bystrica.  It seems like a good many kids are coming out and participating in the sports with our team.  We're excited about this!

Tonight we will go to dinner, get ice cream, and then a group of us is going to watch the SOCCER GAME! Woot woot...go futbol (as they call it here).

 Please pray that there are open and receptive Slovak hearts!  Thanks, friends!

Slovak Sunday

Today has been a great day so far!  We all feel more rested (though still some jet laggin').

This morning we went to church and Jason got to share a little bit with the people there what we are here for, and what we will be doing this week.

After a great service, we went to lunch at Restaurancia Azia (aka Slovak China Star).

Here's part of our group at China Star.

And Cait (who just arrived from hanging out with Suzana) with her bag of SLOVAKIA chips.  We joked that it would be funny to have AMERICA chips.  haha.

So that's the wrap for Sunday!  We'll check in tomorrow :)

Now it's time for pizza with our new Slovak friends!

We're HERE!

After 30+ hours of being awake...we've made it!!!  We are thankful to be here and glad to be in Banska Bystrica now.

Everything in the airport couldn't have been speedier!  It was unlike ever before getting through customs and immigration and claiming our baggage.  Then we hopped on a bus to Bratislava.  From there we took a 3 hour train ride to Banska Bystrica.

Now after a couple hours of rest, we're getting ready to head out to dinner and ZMRZLINA (ice cream :)

Smiling!

And our feelings after a loooonnnggg day of traveling!

Tibor and Ben have joined us, but we are still awaiting Caitlin, Brad, Dane, Tom, and Miriam.

Camp starts Monday.  Stay tuned!  And hope all is well at home :)

2010 Team Members!

We are excited that we will be leaving NEXT WEEK for Slovakia.  Our exact departure date is July 2, 2010.  It's coming soon!

Here are the members of this year's team:

Brad Batten
Dane Haithcock
Scott Popham
Jordan Wilson
Caitlin King
Rae Francis
Ben Francis
Tera Francis
Marshall Harper
Rachel Harper
Jason Palmer
Charity Palmer
Tom Holloway
Ben Holloway
Sonya Holloway (our prayer warrior while healing in Bratislava)

No worries, we'll be keeping this updated throughout our time in Banska Bystrica.  Check back soon!