The Christmas season was so much fun to experience in Slovakia! Though it was strange not to be with my family on Christmas, I had a great time celebrating the birth of our Savior with my team, who have become like family. Here are some pictures of why I love Christmas in Kosice!
Our tree and decorated apartment/a fun team–the lights!–parties with friends–decorating wafer houses–the big tree on hlavna–the pretty carved nativity in the Christmas market
I know spending a birthday at McDonald’s probably isn’t appealing to anyone over the age of five, but that’s where we went for my birthday dinner at my request. McDonald’s is a pretty nice meal here! After dinner Stephanie (her birthday is three days before mine) had a little party at our apartment, complete with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing!
The beginning of December we had a candy cane outreach on the campuses in Kosice and Presov. A church in America supplied us with 1500 candy canes! We stapled 1000 candy canes to an article that shares the gospel through the story of the candy cane. We handed them out to students on their way to and from classes. We also filled 500 holiday bags with a candy cane, the article, and a gospel tract and did surveys with students while handing them out in the dorms. We got into some great conversations and have many contacts to follow up next semester. We also got an incredible answer to prayer. While handing out candy canes in Presov, Aaron met a Christian guy who wants to help him start a Bible study! We currently have one Slovak guy involved with the our ministry right now (and 5-6 girls) so we have been praying specifically this semester to find some guys to be potential leaders in the ministry!
Here’s a picture of us assembling the bags…we were covered in them!
Our team traveled to Prague for Thanksgiving. Everyone but Mikey had been to Prague before, so for the most part we didn’t run around the city like crazy tourists. I spent most of my time relaxing, shopping, drinking Starbucks, and eating Cream and Dream (the world’s best ice cream!). I had fun kicking off the holiday season in one of my favorite cities!
St. Vitus cathedral Astronomical clock
Our November staff team social was a murder mystery party! We had so much fun dressing up and (trying) to solve the mystery. Knightess Rufus (Stephanie) was murdered. Dara ended up being the murderer…she played her role very well. I didn’t guess correctly, but a few people got it right!
