Meet Vespa

Yesterday I (matt) had the privilege of helping out around the house where we are currently residing. Bob and Anita's little dog Scooter needed a trim. Since I used to moonlight as a groomer, I gave it a shot.

Before




After



My innate groomer instincts told me to go with a doggy Euro Hawk because it just seemed to fit his mood, coloring, and helped revitalize his silver years.

No longer does he go by Scooter, that's so American. Now his friends call him Vespa... the Euro Scooter

Edelweiss... thanks for greeting me

One of the really cool and intentional things we did during our time in Slovenia was a trip to the Alps. In the midst of some hard core study of God and the Bible we took two nights away to hit the hills. We drove the hour or so to a little hostel in the mountains. It was amazing to me that there are little hostels in the middle of the mountains where hikers can trek from hostel to hostel each day and have a bed to sleep in as they hike through the Slovene Alps. Our little lodge was nestled at about 5500' in the NW corner of Slovenia where we could look out and see Austria and Italy in the distance. Our first day consisted of driving there and hiking in to the place we would stay.










The next day was awesome because our only goal was to individually spend time with God. We each had a sack lunch and about 8 hours to hike, sit, pray, read, and listen. Many found a good place to relax and hangout but I decided to hike and pray. I loved walking and talking with God in the midst of some of His extremely magnificent creation.

In all it was clear that it was a powerful day as we debriefed later on. It was a definitely a good relational break as all of us as we met with the One we had been talking so much about.

Back from Slovenia

I got back late Saturday night from my trip to Slovenia to help with Kriz, which is an intensive 2 week Bible and theology course for college students.

In all the trip was amazing. I not only got to see the country and city where my wife, daughter, and I will live one day soon, but I also had the chance to meet and begin some great relationships with the students we'll be working with. I could go on and on about how excited I am about each of the students, 3 guys and 6 girls, that attended the conference. They were definitely the highlight of my trip.

The conference went well. John MacMurray did a great job as he taught a New Testament overview as did Hondo Wynn with Bible Study Methods and Josh Patty who taught on the Holy Spirit. They threw a dog a bone and let me teach a couple times too. Speaking of idioms, it was fun to watch some of the americans teach and realize just how many figures of speech we use, which are tough to translate.

I loved my time there, though it was tough to be away from my wife and daughter. The students asked, "when are you coming back to live here?" To which I replied, "hopefully soon." So please pray that the financial support we need comes in so that we can go over to Slovenia and start a university ministry.

My Honey's Home

Matt came home two nights ago from his three week trip to Slovenia. We'll post about the trip soon (and send out some email updates), but this post is more of a reflection on just how much I enjoy Matt!

He brings so much laughter to my life!

Today we were running errands and had to make a stop at the gas station. He noticed that the skinny white guy pumping our gas had some Chinese characters tattood on his arms.

"Wouldn't it be funny if this guy's tattoo artist told him this was the symbol for 'faithfulness' or 'strength' when really it means something like 'fuzzy Q-tip'?"

Yeah, his comments are often random - but I couldn't help laughing out loud!

Hangin' with the fam

Last week my sister and I had to find some creative ways to stay cool because of the heat wave here. So we took Eliana swimming.

Tonight I enjoyed spending some quality time with my parents - watching America's Got Talent. (Gotta say that the chicken-catching country singer and the grannie comedian are my faves!)