longboard camp

Camp was amazing!  It was good to go and hangout with a bunch of great guys and girl (Nadija).  Not only were the people cool but the track was gnarrrly.  I had the opportunity to go 4 days ealry and help set up camp and the track and then stay for a day to clean up.  I had a lot of opportunities to get to know some new people and to go deeper with the ones I already knew.

Here are some videos
We made the local news

and here is a video taken buy some slovene guys I rode with.  I'm the guy in back.  And remember this is the intermediate track (where I hung out) not the expert track.  We got up to around 40 mph / 63 kph it was really fun.

more to come.

Teaching Kids to Pray

I just wrote this for our latest email update 

. . . and then realized that some of our blog readers might not get our monthly updates.  

So, I'm reposting here.

One of the things on my list-of-things-to-do-while-Matt-is-gone-list is "Prayer project with Eliana." I wanted to invite her to pray with me for Matt during his longboard camp.  But, I was struggling with how to invite this two year old to spontaneously pray for her dad while he is gone.  I mean really - she is only two.

And then a thought struck me - she hears all the random noises that we adults usually tune out.  (She is constantly asking me, "Mama, what was dat noises?")  She hears every siren, dog barking, airplane, kid crying . . . everything!  

So, a couple days ago I tried something new.

"Eliana, let's pray for Daddy and the longboarders every time we hear an airplane, ok?"  

But then I worried that we might not hear many airplanes, so I changed it to hearing a dog barking.  I did it with her a few times and then my adult ears went back to tuning out a lot of background noise.

Not long after that she came racing into the living room, barely making it around the corner, so intent was she on delivering her important message, "Mama! A dog barking! Pray for the longboarders!"  

  

I love it!  She is actually the one who is keeping ME on track with remembering to pray for Matt. . . whenever a dog barks OR an airplane flies overhead. 

(PS  I am always on the hunt for trying to find creative ways to teach spiritual truths to children.  I struggle with feeling like I'm winging it and would LOVE to hear any ideas or suggestions you have heard about or tried.)

Cookin' with Mama

Keeping Eliana busy in the kitchen while Matt is away.

A Trip to the ER

Matt called a couple hours ago - from the Emergency Room in Ljubljana.

Yeah, I kinda froze when I heard him say that too.

But he is just helping by driving guys who get hurt in to the hospital (a two hour drive each way).  Apparently the clinic near the village where the camp is being held can't do much - at all.  And the ambulance crew who is on standby is only available for BIG emergencies . . . Hmmm. . .

Matt woke up this morning and was asking the Lord for more opportunities to help Mihael, the guy putting on the camp.  An opportunity came up a few hours later - not quite what Matt had in mind, but it is a huge help to Mihael.  A guy broke his arm and another broke some ribs.  Mihael was going to make the drive to Ljubljana to take them to the hospital but Matt volunteered so that Mihael could stay at camp. (Mihael already made an ER run to Ljubljana a few days ago - he didn't get back to camp until 5am the next morning.)

So, right now Matt is hanging out with a dude from Germany, a 19 year-old guy from Slovakia (and his 17 year old girlfriend).  They don't speak much English, but it sounds like Matt is keeping them entertained in the ER.  (They have been there for HOURS already!)

9 years!!

Today we celebrate 9 years of God working in and through our marriage.  And I celebrate 9 years of being married to the best girl in the world!!  I am a lucky man, husband, dad, and friend.

Overheard

This morning at breakfast . . . (I was dressed for the day but hadn't done my hair or makeup.)


Eliana: You do your face Mama?

Me: What do you mean?  Do I need to do my face?

Eliana: Yeah. . . you face crazy.

Me: What?!  My face is crazy?

Eliana: Yeah.  You hair crazy.  You face crazy.

Me: Hmmm. . . (here's where I give the short talk about how make up is something I do just for fun but ladies don't have to wear make up if they don't want to, beauty comes from the inside . . . etc. etc. . . and how she can wear make up when she is a grown up if she wants to.)

Eliana: I wear make up when I grown up?  I be married? 

Me: Oh you want to be married?

Eliana: Yeah.  I be married and look at the man.

Me: Um. . . what?

Eliana: I be married and I look at the daddy-man.

Me: Well, I hope you get married one day, but you have to look for a man as nice as Daddy, who loves Jesus more than anything, k?

Eliana: Ok mama.