Slovenia Summer Project: God is on the move ..

Well I have been in Ljubljana for almost a week now. There are moments where it seems like I have been here forever and at other times I feel like this past week has gone by so fast. So much has happened in the past six days that we have been here. First off, Slovenia is absolutely beautiful!! As I stand in the city and look up around me I see mountains on mountains. It's crazy, especially when I'm not used to even having hills being from Northwest Ohio. I am just blown away by God's beauty through His creation here in Slovenia. The first night we were able to get dinner in the city of Ljubljana and walk throughout the center of the city. I was still trying to process the fact that I was actually in another country. Luckily most Slovenes speak English, but that doesn't mean that everything you read throughout the city is in English. I felt so out of place, so much of me just wanted to see English printed somewhere throughout the city. In most restaurants they have English on their menus, which is great! Everything is just so new and different.

I easily recognized how much out of my comfort zone I am. I have never been good at adapting to change of environments, and never really thought about that until I was actually in Slovenia. These past six days have been a whirlwind of emotions. I am excited to be able to have the opportunity to share the Gospel in a nation that is so spiritually dark. (in Slovenia they call their Campus/College - "University" and their colleges that they are studying within the University are called "Faculties") So Thursday was the first day we had to decode the city and different faculties throughout the city. I had the opportunity to sit down with three girls and talk about their culture and even had a chance to talk about what they believe spiritually. It was interesting to hear their view on the Catholic Church and Religion. The girls I talked to said that many Slovenes would identify themselves as Christians because they have a Catholic background. They mentioned a lot about their grandparents being very religious but they themselves were not very religious at all. There seems to be this disconnect between generations. The girls also mentioned that going to church meant that their grandparents were able to know what their neighbors were doing, also known as a "social event." Very few Slovenes have heard the message of the Gospel. They know of God, but there are also many different beliefs amongst these people. My heart breaks when I realize that these people have never heard the truth of the Gospel.

I was able to sit down with a girl today in the cafeteria of their dorms. She started off by saying that she believed in a god, possibly our God, but she wasn't exactly sure if there were many gods or just one. She was willing to allow my staff member and I to share the Gospel with her. We got to the end of our conversation and asked her if an actual relationship with God was something she would want at some point in her life. She responded by saying "yes, I have that." I wish so much I could tell you that she did have that, but after we shared the Gospel with her she told us that she had never heard the story of Jesus. Major disconnect in her thinking that she had a relationship with God. After we tried explaining to her that she can't have a relationship with God without believing and receiving Jesus she seemed more interested to learn what this was all about. I pray that she comes out to our bible discussion groups tomorrow night to learn more about a personal relationship with God. Sadly, she is from Lithuania on a student exchange program and will be leaving Slovenia next week. I pray that God softens her heart towards the truth of the power of His Gospel and that she is willing to meet up and talk more before she heads home.

Ministry here is hard. People can just have very interesting beliefs or not really believe anything at all. Friday I began to tell a girl that I was a part of Christian student organization with the University and she told me she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. In 2 Timothy 8-9 Paul says
"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me His prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time."
Suffering for the sake of the Gospel is real. God has called us to share in proclaiming His Gospel not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. Dang. In my imperfections God chooses to use me to proclaim His perfect message to a broken world. God is on the move in this city. He has provided a student office (a place where we meet in the city as a group) for our student organization. He has worked in the hearts of Slovenes to draw them to Himself and they have chosen to receive and believe in Jesus and have chosen that personal relationship with God. We have 12 Slovene students that are joining us on our Summer Project. Praise God!! God has made it possible to have a weekly meeting with the students involved with Cru at the University of Ljubljana. There are bible studies for men and women that are happening throughout the week and Bible discussion groups that happen on Tuesday nights. God is so at move in this city. This city is His, and I pray that my team and I continue to trust in His Spirit to lead us to people throughout this city longing for something more in life.

I am recognizing that I can be totally self dependent on my ability to share the Gospel. The power of the message of the Gospel does not depend on me. It is God's message, not mine. He chooses to use me to proclaim this message to the nations. I pray that my heart and mind are continually saturated in God's word. I want nothing more than to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I pray that Jesus is the main desire of my heart as there can be so many distractions while doing ministry. Pray that my love for God is constant and does not depend on what type of day I had as far as ministry. I am also learning how driven I can be by my feelings and I am praying that I not be. Feelings and emotions are good to have, and trust me I have a lot of emotions. But I want to choose to love God when life is hard, I want to choose to love my team and even people back home when things get hard. Love is a choice, following Christ and being obedient to His word are all choices. I pray that I choose Christ.

Here are a few pictures from my trip so far -