A Visit to the T-town Orphanage

Last month, Becky and I took a group of EGT students to the orphanage in Tisovec to share an evening activity with them. The majority of the children who live there are Roman (gypsy), and for this reason (among many reasons), I am particularly interested in being a part of this ministry. I think its important for our students to interact as much as possible with the Roma population. Sometimes I feel that Slovaks forget that the Roma have faces, names, histories and futures. What better way to remind them of this fact than by bringing them to the orphanage where they get to play and do crafts with these children?

Our activity and devotion were centered on two stories: The Good Shepherd and Jesus saying “Let the little children come to me.” Becky and I facilitated our visit, but our students were the ones translating. The students helped the children make sheep out of construction paper and cotton, and I learned how to compliment the kids on their artwork (krasne! (Beautiful!), pekne (Nice), and of course lots of ooohs and aaaahs.)

Here we are at craft time.



Once everyone was done with their sheep, we sat in a circle and I told the story of the Good Shepherd. My students translated – with their own creative story-telling flourishes.

These are pictures from circle time.







After this, we simply had face time. Our students looked into the children's faces and our children looked into our students' faces, and they talked. And they laughed. And they played. And it was good, very, very good.

FNL Update

A couple of months ago, I shared with you that the American teachers hosted a Tuesday night Bible Study and Devotion based on the TV show, Friday Night Lights. We have continued this Bible Study over the last few months, and it seems that everyone (teachers and students) have fallen in love with it. Every Tuesday, students will run into my office or catch other teachers on the stairs asking, “Friday Night Lights is tonight, right?” On Wednesdays, I have caught students' conversations outside my office in which they are discussing what happened the night before – or in which they are filling someone in on the episode he or she missed.

We have tackled a lot of serious issues via this series. Together, we have discussed trust, waiting, parents, prejudice, friendships, confession and forgiveness. The girls who come to FNL are willing and even eager to talk about anything – but particularly life and faith. (Next week, our topic is sex and relationships – prayers are appreciated!)

For me, Tuesdays are a trip into my US-Life – the one in which planning and leading Bible studies is part of my full-time job. On Tuesdays, it always hits me how much I miss working in a church. Friday Night Lights has been an important part of my own faith journey in Slovakia. At times, Slovakia can seem like a spiritually dry place --- but on Tuesday nights, I am reminded of the many ways in which God is alive and working in Tisovec.

I am proud of the ministry we have been doing on Tuesdays. I am even more proud of the girls who come to Bible study and the ways in which they open themselves up to each other, to God and to us.

Are You Smarter Than A Second Year? - Round Two

It's that time again... My second years took their second test about a week ago.

A sample of the questions are listed below... see how many you know!

Part One: Matching
1. Naomi
2. Aaron
3. Joshua
4. Rahab
5. Mt. Sinai
6. Mt. Nebo
7. Jericho
8. Gideon
9. Samson
10. Ruth

a. the walled city in the Promised Land that the Israelites conquered
b. the mountain on which Moses received the 10 Commandments
c. the first high priest of Israel
d. the woman who hid the two Israelite spies when they came to Jericho
e. Moses' assistant; the man who led Israel after Moses died
f. Ruth's mother-in-law
g. the woman who tricked Samson into giving her the secret of his strength
h. the mountain on which Moses saw the Promised Land before he died
i. a judge of Israel who tested the angel of the Lord with fleece
j. a judge of Israel whose strength was connected to his long hair
k. the woman who traveled to Bethlehem to live with her mother-in-law

Part II - Fill in the Blanks
1. Another name for the 10 Commandments is _________.
2. The ________ says, "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you His peace." It is found in ________.
3. ________ is the bread that God rained down from heaven for the Israelites while they wandered in the darkness.
4. The ______ begins at sundown on Friday night and lasts until sundown on Saturday night. This day was a holy day for the Israelites.

Part III - Lists
List the 10 commandments in order. For five of them, write what God protects or affirms (says YES to) by saying NO or "Thou shalt not..."

Part IV - Short Answer
1. What is the Ark of the Covenant?
2. What did God tell the Israelites to do for the walls of Jericho to come crashing down?
3. How did Gideon test the Lord?
4. While was Moses was on Mt. Sinai, the Israelites made and worshipped a golden calf. What were the consequences of this action?

Part V - Theological Discussion: Choose one question to answer.
1. What is a miracle? Do you think a miracle can prove God's existence? Why or why not?
2. What is faith? What is knowledge? How are the two the same? How are they different?

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the life of the second years in my class at EGT!

Have You Been Watered?

This is a question that I never thought to ask - myself or anyone. Yet, this is the question all my students asked me when we got back to school on Wednesday.

According to Slovak custom, on the Monday after Easter, the men (as well as their younger male counterparts) will walk through their town, knocking on the doors of women that they know. They will lure the women outside and douse them with large buckets of water. Then, they will whip them using braided sticks with ribbon on the ends. This is supposed to insure that the woman will be beautiful and fertile for the next year. With gratitude, the women are then expected to provide their watering friends with chocolate, alcohol and money. Then they are supposed to fill up their buckets with water for the next woman who needs fertilizing.

This a version of the story I told students in answer to their question about whether Ms. Large got watered:

For Easter holiday, I went to Bratislava. We stayed in an empty apartment in Old Town. We had the apartment all to ourselves. Our other teacher friends lived upstairs in their own flats. We had heard on Easter Sunday that there were some gentlemen who wanted to water us, so Ms. Mason (Becky), Colleen, and I decided that we were going to remain inside all day on the day after Easter.

On Monday morning, we woke up late, we ate breakfast, and we were sitting around in our pjs when Becky heard noise in the hallway. She looked through the peephole in the door and sure enough there was a crowd of guys standing outside in hallway. Becky announced, “Girls, they’re here.” Then she sat down on the couch and we studiously proceeded to ignore them. A few minutes later, the phone rings and our American friend, Jon, tells Becky that the boys have made us breakfast. Of course, we see through this ploy, so she hangs up the phone. A few more minutes pass and the phone rings again. Becky answers and Jon asks us if we want to “come out and play.” Becky responds by saying, “I don’t know. Is there water involved in this play?” Jon answers, “Well let’s just say that I was told to tell you if you want to come out, you should leave your cell phones in the apartment.” Becky hung up the phone.

After more time passes, we realize the boys are still in the hallway and there is little chance that they are going away. So, Becky, who is peering through peephole, announces, “Alright boys. You win.” As soon as she says this, she watches as the boys scatter. They even took of their glasses. Oh crap, I thought.
We open the door, and we see three of our American friends and a group of Slovak guys whom I have never seen before in my life. Politely, they introduced themselves. “Hello, I’m Andrej,” “Hello, I’m Martin,” “Hello, I’m Janko.” They ask us if we had a good Easter. Then they ask us if we are enjoying Slovakia. We literally participated in small talk for three or four minutes before one of the guys yells out, “Let’s DO this!” Immediately, one guys scoops Becky up and throws her over his shoulder. Another guy grabs my arms, pulls them behind my back and wraps his wrist around them. They run us down the stairs and out of the apartment building.

As soon as we are set down outside, SPLASH. We are drenched in water. Then, the boys gather around us and lightly “whip” us with their braided sticks. And then, (this is the part my students loved) after we are watered and whipped the boys ask US if for chocolate. Are you kidding me? : ). Clearly, they have lost their minds. THEN, the boys have the nerve to ask us if we could fill up their buckets. Becky and I laughed at them. No way in h-e-double-hockey sticks.
As Becky and I were walking upstairs, the boys good-naturedly said to each other, “These American girls! They come to Slovakia to experience Slovak culture and then when we give it to them, they don’t like it. What do they want from us?!” Thankfully, Becky and I heard about this after the fact and second-hand.
When we got upstairs, we changed our clothes. A few minutes later, our three American friends knocked on the door. When we opened it, they came in and gave US chocolate because we were such good sports. (“American guys!” I told my students. “We like American guys!”)

My students enjoyed the story. I ended by telling them, “So to answer your question, yes, I have been watered AND fertilized. I am officially a Slovak woman.”

Easter

This past week, I spent Easter in Bratislava with my friends Colleen, Heidi and Becky. We were able to spend time together, worship in English, and hang out with the other ELCA missionary teachers in Bratislava. Here are the highlights from our trip with pictures as taken by Colleen, our official Easter weekend photographer:

Several mothers sent Easter care packages with typical American Easter items: peeps, robins eggs, Easter grass, jelly beans, and (best of all) an Egg Decorating kit.
On our first day in Bratislava, we decorated Slovak eggs in true American Easter style.



This was my egg. I am clearly not an artist. I joked with Colleen saying, "I think my egg has gonnorhea."



The next day, we did some shopping, and we had Taryn and Christoff (the ELCA English speaking Church in Bratislava's vicar and her husband) over for dinner. Colleen made her traditional meal: stromboli. It was excellent. Everything was made from scratch.



On Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the open air market in Bratislava. The food was beautiful. They had everything you could imagine. I had my first pineapple since I left the states! We found potted herb plants, the reddest tomatoes, and apples the size of my fist.



Then, we went on an eight mile walk through the city and eventually the woods to Austria. The weather was goregous. Slovakia is slowly starting to turn green, and I am remembering what a beautiful place I live in this year.

Here are some of the pictures from our walk.





This is the Bratislava Castle.



Our walk led us down to the Danube River.



On Easter morning, we went to church, and heard the same words in English that you did: "Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed, Alleluia." This Gospel message was truly medicine for our hearts. I needed to hear this good news this year.

Later that day, we went to the Easter markets in Old Town Bratislava.



Then we walked around Old Town and took pictures with the statues that welcome the people as they walk down the streets.





For dinner, we got together with the other Americans for a cookout. The people who hosted it have the "penthouse" apartment with a patio on the roof of the building. This is the view of the city from our Easter dinner table.



I had a wonderful Easter with friends who might as well be family.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Intro to 4th Year Reformations Theology

Last semester, my weakest and most difficult class that I taught was the 4th year Reformations Theology. Because this course is a study on the theology of the Reformation and not the history of the reformation, we spent a lot of time discussing the lives of reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) and we also read excerpts from some of their most important works. I had an extremely difficult time engaging the students in thought and conversation about the reading and various events in the reformation. The students wanted me to give them the facts so that they could memorize them. I wanted them to explore and ask questions so that we might discover the theology of the reformation together. Unfortunately, I spent the semester incredibly frustrated – and so did my students.

Over Christmas break, I spent a lot of time planning and restructuring my course. In addition to the readings, I have added reading quizzes – so that I know my students are actually reading. I also added hands-on activities involving string (we are in bondage to sin), playdough (re-form-ation), film clips, and more engaging discussion questions. I was hoping that if they could discover reformations theology through play they might find it more appealing – and they might actually try in class. This semester my students have the same readings and the same tests as last semester; however, the class looks and feels very different.

Last week, my fourth years took their first (very difficult, all-essay) test. I am still sorting through the results, but it looks like the students have a much better grasp on the material than my students last semester did. They also seem more content and motivated than last semester.

I thought that I might share with you some of their responses in the journals I require them to keep.

Journal Question: Would you rather know when or how you will die? Are you afraid of death? Why or why not? How does your understanding of death affect the way you think about God?

I am afraid of one thing – that I won’t accomplish all things I want in my life.

I am not afraid of death. Everybody of us will die. That’s part of life. I would say that death is fair but it’s not. Why some young people or children have to die? And why some people can live to the age of 100? It’s not fair.

In my opinion, life doesn’t end with death.

Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your thorn?

I would rather know how I will die. I think that if I know the exact date and time of my death it would scary me. Maybe it’ll be a time for preparing myself to the end of my life, but in my opinion it will scary my mind a lot. I will always be thinking about death which is coming to me. It will be horrible. I’d rather now the manner how I will die and leave this world.
In my opinion, everybody is afraid of death. For me actually it is not really fear better said I am confused about what it would be like after death.


Journal Question: What does reformation mean? Have you ever experienced a reformation? Has Slovakia every experienced a reformation? What would you like to reform in today’s society?

In my life, I have survived personally my reformation. The elder I am, the more sensible and experienced I am. But that happens to everyone. From a child, you will become a teenager and later an adult. Sometimes it is harder, but the outcome is amazing and it is worthy. Or as I watch my friends and their reformations. It is fairly interesting to see how they are growing up, how they are fighting with problem and I like to compare them with me. Or in tv, we all can see how the world is changing, what people are like and how our society is growing.

In our society, I would like to reform the behavior of teenagers. Because the way how they act is just not good for them.

About me? Sure, I certainly have experienced a personal reformation. I am convinced that everyone has gone through some kind of personal reformation. Even I think we all go through some reform every single day.

I have perceived the process of kind of spontaneous reformation in my first year at EGT. It was not a change in life but a change in my look on some things, mostly on school. I realized that even if I don’t study at home, I can almost easily pass in all classes. Sure, not passing at my best, but still passing and with no extremely bad grades. That was the last time when I realized, I do no more have the desire to be one of the best in the class. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad but I like it as it is.

I would surely reform the political system in our country. Politicians who do not have money or some good connecting cannot go to main stage.

If I were God or someone who has power to reform and change the world, I would begin with people. I believe that if people changed, the world would be better.

I think that Slovakia experienced a Reformation in history. It was during Romantic period in Slovakia around 18th century. Slovakia wasn’t a nation or country at that time – Slovakia was part of Hungarian monarchy. Hungarians wanted to take our area and to become one strong Hungary nation. People of Slovakia had to speak Hungarian language instead of Slovak and it was cruel time for our ancesdants. Hopefully there were people who tried to unify our nation and they reformed people by encouraging them that they should be proud of our history and our tradition and language. So after lot of difficulties our language became official and we can freely speak Slovak.

I thought about some reformations in my life and I found out that I made one. My very big reformation was one when I started believing in God. Before that I had many questions about the being and workings of the world. And as I started believing, my life is calmer and I am not as confused.
Slovakia’s greatest reformation, I think was a new regime. The fall of communism was biggest reformation because now everything is easier. We are more free. Communism was hard. People lived in fear. Now we live in peace.

Journal Question: Respond to one of Luther’s quotes on your handout.

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
To be responsible means to stand up for what you say or do… Luther was a man who had known he is responsible for his words and thus he talked about God and other topics in a right way. That was the way how to start up the reformation. But also, he wanted to show us that if we did not say what we think, we cannot reform, we cannot take a breakthrough due to being quiet… In the end, I would like to sum up those lines in a small idea: the responsibility comes out of our mind (words) and deeds. If we talk in public, things can get better or worse and it is totally the same if we say nothing.

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection not in books alone but in every leaf in springtime.”
Martin Luther in this quote said that Jesus gave us promise of resurrection, promise of new life in Christ. But this can be found in Bible but also in every leaf in springtime. It means that after long and cold winter every leaf of the tree is an awakening to new life, the leaf is rebirth again. Also, every piece of earth might show us how much God loves us.

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection not in books alone but in every leaf in springtime.”
The first thing I must write about is why I chose this quote from Martin Luther. Immediately as I read this quote I said, “That’s nice. That’s beautiful.” In the autumn all nature goes to sleep. The flowers wilt, the grass dries out and freeze as all the ground and leaves of trees fall off. After that all nature waits for spring time. In the spring, nature starts waking up and everything, animals or plants, are bringing to life. They are living again and enjoying their lives. People are part of nature also. And we have the same cycle of life as the leaf in Luther’s quote. When we die, we will be resurrected by our Lord and we should trust Him as all the nature does. Because nature is proof of resurrection.


Journal Question: What does the word vocation mean? Do you feel a strong calling in your life? To what are you called and how do you know?

I don’t really feel I am called for doing something special. I like to do many things. While doing them, I feel comfortable and satisfied but I don’t consider them my vocation. On the other hand, you never know what will happen in my future. Maybe I will feel strongly about a vocation. But til that time, there’s poker. I really enjoy playing poker.

Vocation means that you can do heavenly work while you are living on earth. Vocation is something that you have in your inside.

I wanted to be a vet, a lawyer or an interpreter when I was younger. I liked animals, I love studying and I loved languages and still do. I was shy and thought those jobs would be appropriate for me. But I was wrong, I hate biology, laws and so far I have not heard any calling concerning those jobs. But I as I am growing up, I realize I am changing each day. Since I have come to EGT, I have become more self-confident, ambitious, immediate, intelligent and I am better man than I was. I am content with me and I am sure I will make something good and helpful for this world.

Luther also had (a problem with vocation). His father wanted him to be a lawyer but he entered the Augustinian monkhood and later he started up the reformation. I am fairly similar to him. My family wanted me to be a pastor, I wanted to be a diplomat.
Do I feel a strong calling to something? Yes, I do. I feel a strong need to help people. From the age I was seven, I really want to be a doctor. The reason? I don’t know. What I know is that it is the only thing I would like to do. And how do I know? I do not, but I feel it and it is stronger than anything else.

The word vocation means calling. It’s religious term and it means God’s call to everyone, to his every child to whom he gave life. Vocation is connected with all people and it doesn’t matter if they’re Christian or they believe in other religion. God sent us to this world not only to have fun and to be happy. Everyone who was born has some task or responsibility not only for himself but also for others. We’re supposed to take this task and fulfill it. Everyone has talents or gifts. We should use these gifts and talents for helping to others. We should do the heavenly work while we are on earth.


Journal Question: What is faith? Do you agree with Luther’s definition of faith? Why do you think he said that faith was not a belief in doctrine?

People need some kind of support and home what make them stronger and help them survive hard testing of live every day. We need to know that our lives make sense and it is worth waking up in the morning, start a new day, share our lives with others and do something for better life. Faith is trust, belief, hope. Faith helps us make sense of our lives. It is important to believe honestly in something. Every person has some kind of faith. Some people believe in God, some in destiny, some believe in happiness. People need something in which they could believe.

Luther’s understanding of true faith is that faith is God’s work in us, that it is some sort of absolute trust in God and God’s good works in us.

True faith for me is still a mystery, something far away and close at the same time.

Faith means to experience God in everyday life.

In my opinion, faith is kind of like a friendship between two best friends.

Faith is a confident belief in truth. I think maybe I disagree with this. Not everything is about God. What can a person like me who doesn’t in God say about this? I have faith in me, my dad and my horse.

Journal Question: Martin Luther started the reformation because of a personal reformation he experienced due to his own struggles and insecurities. What are you insecure about? What do you struggle with and how do you see this reflected in the world?

In today society, almost nobody is satisfied with his life. Most be struggle with something. It can be anything. For example, some people struggle with the things like their behavior, character, their figure or they struggle with their jobs and stuff like that…. What I really struggle with is myself. I am insecure about me as a person. This only started when I came at high school.

I struggle with my mother. With our relationship. I struggle with addiction to chocolate, sometimes sloth, my figure. People struggle with many important things.

The world is not about how we look in bikins and so on.

I am a Christian and I believe in God – not in Christian church. I don’t think that going ot church every Sunday or even every day I s a duty of a good Christian. I do not go to church very often and I don’t think that it means that I don’t believe in God. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.