An update on two of my favorite guys!

Hmmm. . . I just went to check on our blog and noticed that the last two posts never published.  Not sure how that happened.  Anyhow, here is one that I wrote a while ago. . . Interesting because just yesterday I made another paper chain with the girls for Matt's time up at Križ.

How funny - my last blog entry was talking about the paper chain I made with the girls when Matt went on an intern recruiting trip several months back. . . funny because early this morning he left for the Ukraine and then will be heading to Poland and then the Czech Republic for the interns Amazing Race and then training.  I spent the afternoon with the girls making their paper chains for the 10 days he will be gone.

Click here to learn more about JV's summer intern program.  That's what Matt will helping with this next week and a half.  I was planning on going up to the Czech Republic with the kids (and bringing one of our college students as a babysitter) so that I could be a part of the training.  But two of our three kiddos are sick - and one of those two (Alex) is a mess.  So Matt and I decided it would be best for our kids to have some time at home, resting and getting some focused time from mom.  I'm bummed to miss out on this time with the interns, but I'm at peace with it because I know this is what our kids need right now.

And because every blog post should have a cute photo, I'll leave you with this shot of Matt and Alex a couple weeks ago (when Alex was feeling much better - trust me you wouldn't want to see his photos from today, pour little guy).

Aren't they both so handsome?!

Popularity contest?

Recently someone wrote on the side of a building here in Ljubljana.  It said...

"Kristjani – klali smo vas 1945 – klali vas bomo 2013" 

Basically it says - Christians, you were slaughtered in 1945 and you will be slaughtered in 2013.

This is most likely referring to the time when Socialism/Communism Regime came into power here in Slovenia and somewhere between 100,000 - 130,000 people were slaughtered in an estimated 600 mass grave sites.  Click here to read more.  Many of the resistance to the communists were democratic Christians.

There is good chance that whoever wrote this had some bad experiences with the church and is reacting to the hypocrisy and brokenness they see.  But there is also a spiritual reality at work here too.  The Bible talks about it in  2 Corinthians 2:14-16.  It says,

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶ to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.Who is sufficient for these things?

There is a reality that as the true followers of Jesus in Slovenia model their life around His, and talk about His heart and message to the world there will be some who are attracted to Him.  Conversly, some will despise it.

But instead of living in fear (and even if this graffiti were to become a reality), we always need to remember these words of Charles Spurgeon:

"Never did the church so much prosper and so truly thrive as when she was baptized in the blood. The ship of the church never sails so gloriously along as when the bloody spray of her martyrs falls on her deck. We must suffer and we must die, if we are ever to conquer this world for Christ."

My point simply is this: stories such as the one above often lead to fear.  But as followers of Jesus, who know the end of the story, we do not need to live in fear.