April UpdateWhere to begin! We’ve experienced so much in our short time here (has it only been 5 weeks?) it really is hard to know what to share. Well since this is Dan typing, I’ll just dive in and hope Rebecca can edit this extemporaneous flow into something readable and cohesive! Thriving vs. Surviving Before we left for Slovakia our team had written to us about a home for us to rent. We are living in a village called Spacince (sh pah cheen say) about 3 miles outside of Trnava (turn ah vah), Slovakia (where the rest of our team lives and works). (For Google earth fans or GPS nuts our house is located at 48d 26’ 15.46” N and 17d 36’20.65” E) I truly feel our team could write the book on how to bring a family onto the mission field. The house we are renting was already mostly furnished but our team added touches like fresh flowers and enough food stocked for several days of adjustment. Our container did arrive during the week we were gone on the retreat. “Yeah! It didn’t fall into the ocean,” Ezra exclaimed when we opened the garage and saw all of our belonging we shipped from the US. Thank you to the many who prayed for our belongings to safely arrive. We have had fun opening up our stuff. “Why did I pack this?” “Oops this was in a pile of stuff not to be shipped!” “I thought I had lost this!” “I haven’t used these since we lived in Salt Lake City.” As we fill our house with our belongings, it has truly begun to feel like our home. We recognize how this makes a difference between just surviving and truly thriving on the mission field. Pray that our home will be filled with love for one another and for everyone He brings into it. Life in the Village We are settling into not only our home but also our village. We prayerfully made the decision for us to live outside of the city so we could be more immersed in language and culture. We feel this is happening in amazing ways. (More details about this further down in the kids category.) We are only 3 miles outside of the city which requires us to take the bus anytime we need to get into the city for major grocery shopping, visa processing, and for church. While we love taking the bus it is not without challenges. The only bus that comes for us on Sunday gets us to church about 10 minutes late. Once at church one of us spends most of the service in a separate room with the little girls (The Fellowship is small and our kids make up the majority of Sunday school and nursery). Then, our only option for getting home is to either leave immediately, without any time for fellowship, or to hang around until well after lunchtime and naptime. Please pray that God would provide us with wisdom and creativity to make our worship experience a blessing to each of us and so that we can fully participate with the Body in Slovakia. We are constantly asked, “Why are you here?” They just can’t fit their minds around why we are choosing to live in their little village, and learning Slovak. How do we make money doing that? Why would we want to do that? Pray that God would give us creativity and wisdom to answer each person “seasoning with salt” the information that they are prepared to hear. One good thing that came from living with Rebecca’s parents is that Rebecca learned to cook food for a lot of people. That means there is always enough when someone can come for dinner at the last minute. Last week we had a Slovak friend in our home. Ezra enjoyed playing soccer (football) with him before dinner and after dinner we had him join us for our Easter Advent devotion. This is a young man who grew up in an orphanage with no family. He is a Christian now and might someday be a father. Pray that God would use interactions like these to model for young believers what a Christ centered home can look like. Spiritual retreat While we received great spiritual refreshment at the retreat we encourage you to pray for us to continue to open God’s word and find daily encouragement there. God really used Pastor Rob Reinstra, from Covington, Georgia, to encourage and enlighten us as he taught us from Ephesians. We learned about how God has chosen us, adopted us and given us all the rights and privileges of a beloved child. Rob related a story about a couple with two children who chose to adopt from another country. Their response when people asked them why they were doing this was, “Because we have room in our hearts.” Does God have room in his heart for more children? Are some of them here in Slovakia? Who are they? Pray that God would introduce us to these children He has already chosen. Kid’s school Both Isabel and Ezra are in classes with students about a year younger. Despite this God has blessed both our children with friendships and wonderful teachers. Last week as I (Dan) was picking up the kids another parent asked if Isabel would like to come over to their house and play. Isabel jumped at the opportunity and as they say, the rest is history. Isabel and Zuzka have been nearly inseparable. Through this friendship Isabel has met many other girls in the neighborhood and they are always stopping by to see if she can come out and play. One beautiful aspect of village life is the safety and freedom children have to walk around to each others homes and play outside. Rebecca has had several opportunities to get together with Zuzka’s mom, Tatiana. That first day Isa and Zu played together Rebecca went to pick up our daughter and didn’t come home for over an hour. Rebecca and Tatiana in a mish mash of Russian, English, German and Slovak (geruslovish) managed to communicate and begin a genuine friendship. Rebecca is thrilled with this opportunity to improve her Slovak language and to see how God is going to use this time in the lives of all those we encounter because of our children. Before we left the states we asked Isabel what she thought were her strengths. Her answer was her imagination. We had to agree with her and wonder in the ways God would use this strength. Last week Tatiana shared with Rebecca that Zuzka told her Isabel is her best friend. She said Zuzka likes Isabel’s imagination and how well she plays pretend. These girls truly are playing with their imaginations as they don’t have the words (yet) to communicate with one another.     There are several other moms Rebecca has connected with who are eager to help Rebecca learn Slovak and improve their own English. We expect our home to be filled this year with children and parents. Pray for us to make more connections and have a home in which both children and parents feel comfortable. We thank you for your love and prayers. Be encouraged your prayers are being answered. It’s not possible to write a letter long enough to list them all. In Christ, Dan for the 6 of us! | 
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