Slovakia Update 2

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” Philippians 2:5

This is a great verse to start today with while on our travels. It seems like today has just be one long day, but in reality it is almost two full days. We began with a 6 am departure from Lakeside Christian Church in two minivans headed to Chicago. We arrived in Chicago around noon and grabbed lunch with friends. Heading to the Airport, we arrived there about 30 minutes later then I wanted to, causing a little stress, but not wanting to let anyone know.

The line for check in and security looked long and I thought it might take too long, however God blessed us with very quick movement through and made it to our gate with plenty of time.

The plane ride was uneventful, which is a very good thing! My first flight with Austrian Airlines and it was great. We were all split up, 2 by 2, with one exception…Jeremy Roth! Jeremy had never been on a plane before and has been struggling with an ear infection. He was several rows ahead of us and all by himself. Right before take off, I was able to convince a stewardess to let him move back closer to our group with a member of the Northfield team! God is so good!

We had an 8 and a half hour flight to Vienna and then a 3.5 hour bus ride to Zilina, where TCKompass training headquarters is located. Tomorrow we will finish our training and hop a train to go to Penzion Pod Verachou, where our camp will be located. We are super excited to meet the teens that we get to share the love of Christ with!

Pray for us as less then 1% of Slovakia are evangelical Christians. There is a huge mission field and we only have short time here. Our goal is to build relationship with the teens in our camps and help connect them to the local church in their village!

So that is a little info of our travels and our mission. Back to Philippians 2:5 for a moment: with this amount of travel it is easy to have a bad attitude, get tired or cranky. I have had to remind myself on a few occasions that relationships are more important than being on time. One event in particular was when two members of the team decided to head back to the training facility from the dorms, a 20 minute walk, without notifying me or any other member of the team. In America this wouldn’t be a problem as we can just pick up a cell phone and get in touch. Here we have no way of contacting other than walking back and looking. Praise God they were both safely at the facility.

However, I had to take sometime to settle down and gently encourage them to always stick together as a team. It’s a good lesson to learn early in the trip while we are surrounded by many other teams and a very safe environment. I had to reflect on why I was upset, because I love and care for them so much. Jesus loved us so much that even when we went our own way, He ran to pursue us. This led to the cross, the burial and the resurrection. In this He secured our eternal safety as we trust Him. This is why I focus on Jesus everyday, so I don’t get lost in trying to control everything, but see that it sharing with others about His great love!