Prague

i liked it.

Yes, that's all i'm saying for now. Be patient. By the weekend, Kristen will have the full blow by blow update on her Blog. When it's up i'll post a link to it....or, you can get there from the link in my sidebar and check obsessively for yourself.

in the meantime, my pictures are up at Flickr (link in the sidebar! or just click here)

SMILE with me in 2 Sleeps, my Micah will be in Slovakia!!!

more to come

Greetings from Slovakia! 9 weeks in.
I’m excited to write this to you all, so much has happened and so much more will in the next week!

Last weekend, I took some me-time in preparation for what looks like a few crazy weeks! I baked cookies (chocolate chip and some VERY sticky nobakes) caught up on my sleep and was blessed by the speaker in church on Sunday who was a missionary and spoke in English!!

This past week I finished the video on the 23rd Psalm video I was doing, re-tweaked the Vision poem I did when I first got here and caught the vision for the CampFest videos that will start each teaching session. It will be a big production with video and live music and dancers! I hope we can pull it off!

Tuesday night was the opening meeting for 10 days of 24 hour prayer for Prešov. This is an exciting thing. All of the churches in Presov are praying together these 10 days. The worship band that led the opening worship was 7 young people from 6 different denominations! Catholic Luteran Bretheren Baptist all praising and praying together that God will change Prešov!!! It was very powerful. Pictures are at my Flickr site, but they barely begin to capture the power in that place.

Wednesday was youth group at the Lutheran Church. Thank you to those of you praying that I will form relationships. When I arrived early last night, instead of standing around feeling lost someone pulled out a chair and I was included in the conversation. Or the conversation shifted to practicing english and how talking to me would be a great comedy skit on TV, them saying “what what?” and me asking “čo? čo?” and sometimes I know the basic words and I can translate for myself. So someone would ask a friend how do you say X in English and I would answer with the right word! Encouraging for my Slovak Ego and fun for building relationships. After youth group a few of us went to the prayer room. Where I was further blessed. God is SOO good!

Today I’m in the middle of a CampFest meeting. I’m not actually participating since it’s all in Slovak and I am not part of the planning team. The meeting is just being held in the room where I have my space. Kind of a bit like the twilight zone :)

Tomorrow will find me on a bus to Prague. It will be a 10 hour bus ride across Slovakia. I’m meeting my Suitemate from Asbury and we’re going to be tourists. I’m staying in a hostel and visiting a castle and SPEAKING ENGLISH the WHOLE time!!! There will be lots of pictures.
And we’re going to attend an English Church on Sunday. Very exciting for me.

Heading into next week....
Monday will be a long tired day as I go home, shower after spending a night on a bus and get back on another bus to come to work.
Tuesday will be more brainstorming on the CampFest video
Wednesday will be more brainstorming planning and will drag on forever. I’m sure about this because.....
Next Thursday I am headed to Kosice to meet a plane that will bring the group from Grove City. This is the group that includes Ruth Ann and my Micah.


Please Pray:
~ That I will continue to learn Slovak (especially motivation to study)
~ For Campfest preparations
~ For Safety on my trip to Prague
~ For spiritual growth.

I Finally made it to the Chorus!!!

"now it's sunny with a high of 75
since you took my heavy heart and made it light
it's funny how you find you enjoy your life
when you're happy to be alive."

relient k - hight of 75


ONE SLEEP!!!! (to prague with Kristen the only problem is how many cameras to bring)

SEVEN DAYS!!! (till someone special is in the same place as me!!!)

Happy to be alive!

cutlure shock?

so, is it part of culture shock to start seeing things? like people start to look like people you know. so far i've seen Rachel DeSantes, Guy Chmeleski, Ray Meals, Allison Knight, and J-Ed. of course if you know something i don't and some of these folks actually have been in Presov and didn't come visit me, let me know. my feelings would be hurt of course, but at least i would know i am not going totally crazy!!!

:)

so i changed my comments. not that i have a lot of people reading this or an overabundance of comments. but anyway. i switched to the blogger comments from Haloscan. so now i get an e-mail when you comment. (i used HTML to make that bold. Proud of me?) getting comments in e-mail might motivate me to write more. also i have no clue where any of my previous comments went. ....
so anyway, it's the weekend. i like the weekend. i'm going to try and bake cookies this afternoon.
My micah graduates today. I am very proud of him. If i was independently rich instead of a missionary, i would have flown home for the weekend. but if i wasnt a missionary i would not get to spend a few weeks with him in Slovakia. maybe it all balances out?

8 weeks = 2 months!!

Greetings from 8 weeks in. The past week was a good one, one in which I took a lot of pictures.

Over the weekend, I photographed a conference on Family issues. The thing about taking pictures of a conference is that once you get pictures of all the speakers, and a few shots of people looking interested it gets a lot trickier to find things to take pictures of.

Monday I took over 200 pictures of Presov for the 24/10 Prayer that is coming up in Presov. They will be blown up and hung in the prayer room. Most of them are of the churches schools and government buildings but some are the big picture of the center of PO and along the way I took a few that I wanted to have. I have updated my pictures page at Flickr, if you’re interested ( www.flickr.com/photos/stasigh )

I also had 2 Slovak lessons and my teacher told Marian, that I am the second best student she’s had in the four years that she has been teaching Slovak. I’m taking that as a high compliment and not asking how many students she has had :)

The past week I have been working on a video of the 23rd Psalm. Yesterday Roman and I tweaked the video. It was good to work with him. We are getting to be more able to communicate as his English and my Slovak both improve. Thank you for praying.

Upcoming this next week is the start of work on the Campfest videos, retweaking the Vision poem video and a trip to Prague to meet up with My suitemate from college, Kristen.

I just found out that another American has moved back to Presov after having trouble with her leg. We have not met yet. Please pray that we will be able to connect.

There are a lot of details/issues concerning Campfest (Aug 10-13) that seem not to be coming together. We would appreciate your prayers! Usually they borrow/rent 6 cameras and so far only 3 are for sure available besides having technical problems with the switchers and volunteers to run the cameras (I’m personally invested in this particular problem).
Also, there are possible problems with getting the tents, and also with the “propogations” as they call it, we’d say advertising :) There have been problems both in getting the information gathered and put together and also with printing.
The website is not totally finished yet. And for a variety of reasons, (money, the date, the busy-ness of the liasons, bands backing out, miscommunications,) the program is not filled yet and it is getting late to find bands that don’t already have their summers full.
The office is buzzing here. I’m sure that God must want to do great things this summer since Satan is working so hard to screw this up!

Also the center is coming along well with some minor problems, like the wrong size windows for the studio. Someone donated most of the money we needed for the new roof, things could come out exactly to the Krown. But there is the more distinct possibility that some things will have to wait on funds to be finished. It looks so good down stairs though!! Well in the café part, the studio still has big holes in the walls and stuff but you can tell it’s coming together!

Please Pray:
~That I will be able to learn Slovak
~For Campfest preperations
~That I will form relationships
~ For Safety on my bus trip to Prague
~For a continued Sense of Purpose and God’s Direction

Your prayers make all the difference. Thank you!

Stasi!

free association

do you know what's funny? well i'll tell you, when Roman sings, that is funny.
You must understand that Roman sings in English. But other than when he sings, we do not communicate without a dictionary close by! When I catch parts of his songs though and can laugh with him because they sre silly or can sing along, we connect pretty well.
PLUS, he chooses his songs by free association near as i can figure. Sometimes it's just nice to know that someone else has that sort of music in them.
And sometiems it's downright funny today it's stormng outside and i just overheard Roman singing It's Raining Men. this is wonderful to me partly becasue it is a weird song for him to be singing and mostly because he sings in English and most of all because this is not unusual. Someone mentions something that happened yesterday, and we're all treated to a few bars of the Beatles.
Everytime i smile. sometimes i laugh out loud! I cant help myself!

Psalm 23

next video i'm doing is a reflection on Psalm 23

what images do these verses bring to your mind?

really, please leave a comment. i'm drawing a creative blank.

WEEK SEVEN!!!

It has been an exciting 7th full week in Presov. Come to think of it, I haven’t had a dull week yet.

Friday, I purchased bus tickets to Prague! Well technically Paly helped and did all the talking and I just paid for them. But it is still exciting because that means that in 15 days I will be getting on a Bus to meet my wonderful suitemate Kristen in Prague! I believe that good friends and affordable weekends in Exotic places are God’s apology for culture shock!!

Last weekend I spent some time alone in my room refreshing with God. I am still trying to find the right balance of time alone to refresh and accomplish things and spending enough time with other people so that I don’t become isolated and homesick.

Monday was a national holiday and I went hiking with a group from church. We went to Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise) and “hiked in the river”. I did not realize that we would be actually IN the river, I thought it was a case of second language communication and not having the right word. But no, we were Literally IN the river. This made my sneakers very inadequate footwear (I don’t own hiking boots) and I learned a few new words, “Spadla” (I fell) and “som mokra” (I am wet) “vel’my mokra” (very wet!). I had a good time, though. It was a nice day and I enjoyed it very much. Again on this trip, my Eagle Scout and other outdoorsy-type friends would be proud of me. And the ankle I turned that one time I slipped already feel just fine again.

Tuesday I was back to work and as an answer to your prayers I met with the lady who will be teaching me Slovak for the rest of this year. She doesn’t speak much English, but her Slovak is Excellent :) She told me that I am a good learner and she thinks in another 2 or 3 months I will be able to function in Slovak. Very exciting news. We will meet twice a week for 2 and a half hours.

Wednesday I finished editing another video to be played behind worship and a camera arrived from Ireland. It is an big old camera that will work for CampFest and worship festivals to send signal to the screens but not for recording video. It came in a case that we are pretty sure I could fit in if the padding was removed. It has not been attempted, yet. I’m trying to discourage this experimentation.

Today Roman and I played with the new camera figuring out what all the buttons do and how to make it be in Color! Later today I will talk with Marian about another video, proof the one I finished yesterday, and who knows what else! I am getting better at not having everything all planned out so far in advance. I will also be trying to avoid having my picture taken by Paly who got a new digital camera. Boys and their new toys are the same worldwide!

Things here at MPK are moving along. The Café had carpet installed yesterday. It is starting to look very good, everyone is excited to see it open. Someone from Switzerland might be coming to help Rišo with booking the bands for CampFest which would be a major answer to prayer! Yesterday they signed the contract to secure the site of CampFest this year. Next year, a new location must be found. This is a major prayer request. There is one place that they are looking at but there seems to be just too many details to work out. Please Pray with us that God will lead in the direction He would have this ministry go.

Please Pray:
~ that I will form relationships here and bond with people.
~ that the things still needed for my Visa will come together
~For CampFest preparations
~ That Someone will come to help start the ministry in Banská Bystrica

Thank you For praying!

Why I'm doing this crazy thing

Could also be titled "why i am not a cartoonist"

"Schulz drew Peanuts because he had to—there was nothing he could do better.
'I draw it because it is the one thing which I feel I do best, and I can see no reason why I should give up drawing the comic strip in order to go to the mission field, for instance, and become a terrible missionary or to study for the ministry and become a terrible minister, merely because the ministry would seem to be closer to spiritual things. I think it’s much better to be a good cartoonist than a terrible minister.'"

(This is a quote by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, from an article by Kevin Mungons posted on Sharper Iron.)

God Uses E-Mail!!

Some days God is SO good. Well, every day God is good, some days we just realize it more than others! and some days God uses His people and a bit of technology to help us realize it.

It was a particularly encouraging e-mail day today.

Papa Chuck told me I am not crazy, just culure shocked and it's normal (for the first time maybe in my life, i'm doing something completely normal!!) :) also He told me why I poked the concrete with the big stick: to help it settle in case you were dying to know.

I got a link about tours in Prague from Kristen, and that reminded me how excited i am for our trip the end of this month (26th-29th May) Keep your eyes peeled the two of us are hitting Prague with our cameras, will the internet have room for them all?!!

Pastor (or is it reverend by now?) Ben invited me to Checkpoint and i think he should Rap the Call to worship on Sunday well that was jsut my suggestion. doubt that will happen the e-mail exchange though made me smile.

And Laurie Bean sent the lyrics to this song which i jsut downloaded and it might be my new favorite. soothing and a good reminder that i'm not alone here!

Jesus King of angels heaven’s light
Shine Your face upon this house tonight
Let no evil come into my dreams
Light of heaven keep me in Your peace

Remind me how you made dark spirits flee
And spoke Your power to the raging sea
And spoke Your mercy to a sinful man
Remind me Jesus this is what I am

The universe is vast beyond the stars
But You are mindful when the sparrow falls
And mindful of the anxious thoughts
That find me, surround me, and bind me

With all my heart I love You Sovereign Lord
Tomorrow let me love you even more
And rise to speak the goodness of Your name
Until I close my eyes and sleep again

The universe is vast beyond the stars
But you are mindful of when the sparrow falls
And mindful of the anxious thoughts
That find me, surround me and bind me


Jesus King of angels heaven’s light
Hold my hand and keep me through this night.

~Fernando Ortega

Today make a month and a half!!

I’m sorry that this past week most of you didn’t hear from me. It was a crazy week and even though I had not updated you on my needs, I felt your prayers.

Most of the week’s Crazy was in my head. I am feeling very homesick right now. And your prayers for that are greatly appreciated. I am not sure right now even what I need to do to help myself with this. God is being faithful though even when I am not. I am surrounded by people who, even if they don’t speak fluent English, care about and pray for me here.

Saturday, I helped mix cement for a sidewalk around the house. I am learning so much here. I still do not understand why part of my job was poking the poured cement with a stick, but I’m thinking of adding that skill to my resume. Sadly, I was not allowed to put my handprint or initials in the cement. In fact they looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested it :) Sometimes, I am glaringly American!

Last Sunday was a Worship Festival in Michelovce. It was a looong day that started at 5 am and ended at 3 am Monday. I helped with video production, everything from setting up the screen to switching and directing the cameras. It went very well and a number of people came forward after the speaker. Also, I learned 5 new words. Wire, shovel, drizzle, screen and can I help you? They guys I work with get a kick out of teaching me mostly useless words.

Monday was a Bank Holiday. And Tuesday was a day off because of the Worship Festival on Sunday. Tuesday I went to the bank to try and pay my cell phone bill. (I have an account here now but until I have my visa I can not use the ATMs or internet banking.) I did not realize that I would have to have my Passport with me to do this. So that meant waiting for the bus back home, getting my passport, waiting for the next bus, riding back to the bank, waiting in the lines again....but the bill is paid. It’s on excursions like this that I miss my car!!

After the bank I wandered around Presov for a bit. I am still trying to figure out how to shop here, what stores sell what, which stores I have to take my own bag to, even what size I wear is a little of a mystery. I think my pant and shoe sizes have both jumped up to 30-something :).

Here in Presov, we are getting ready for Campfest, the big open air music festival in August. They are having trouble finding bands and volunteers. Two key things if you want to have a large music festival. Also the center is in the process of being finished. The coffee house is getting ready to open. Chairs tables and carpet should be arriving sometime in the next weeks and the walls are all painted as of yesterday. The recording studio that is being rebuilt in the basement is coming along as well, the funds for this are still coming in but slowly.

Personally, I have a few video projects, all in the planning stages. Some closer to being realized than others.

I have been in e-mail contact with a Slovak teacher and am currently waiting to hear from her about a time we can meet to see how/if it will work for her to teach me.

If you’d like to see some of my pictures, I have posted them online at flickr.Use the link in the sidebar that says MY PICTURES! I will be trying my best to keep this updated with my latest photos.

PLEASE PRAY!
~That the Visa quest will continue (it is moving so slow!)
~That I connect with a teacher and learn Slovak
~For my homesick funk, that it will leave or I will cope or know what’s best for me to do.
~For Slovakia. There are hurting broken people here.
~For MPK(Mladez pre Krista YFC in Slovak) for support to finish the center and that CampFest preparations go well

Thank you for your prayers,
Stasi!

fast Going!!

5 weeks! Oh my word!! This week disappeared so fast and where has the past month gone?! Thank you for your prayers! I would never have made it this far without you!

Last weekend went very well!

Friday we packed six people and their stuff for the weekend (including 3 guitars and sleeping bags for everyone) into a minivan. And drove about 6 hours across Slovakia to The Lumen Festival in Trnava (www.festivallumen.sk). I spent Friday night in the flat of a girl from Monroeville, which was very nice. I had my own room and chocolate chip cookies and un accented English conversation. (God takes such good care of us doesn’t He!!)

Saturday was a search for a good restaurant for lunch and Timothy's concert where my videos were used. It was so neat and nerve wracking to see them on the big screen! Also, the reason for me to be on the trip, I photographed the band during their concert. We got home about 2 in the morning.

Sunday was a day of beautiful relaxation and finally some sunshine! Spring is coming to Slovakia :) Also, I had the closest thing so far to an untranslated conversation in Slovak. You’d have to have a loose definition of “untranslated” and “Conversation” but I came close and managed to understand the questions and most of the time give an appropriate answer. There were sometimes I needed help, like explaining that my mother works as a Laboratory Technician in a hospital, but I could tell him names and ages of my siblings, that my father is a pastor, and that I think Slovakia is very pretty! All in all, a great ego boost! Everyone here is impressed by what I can understand already. I wish it was coming faster though

Monday, I barely missed my bus (I literally saw it pull away from the stop as I rounded the corner) and instead of waiting the 35 minutes for the next one, I just started walking toward town. It is about a 45 minute walk to the office but there are bus stops with more frequent stops between my house and the office. I was not wearing the right shoes for this decision. But had a blessed time of visiting with God in spite of the blisters on my heels.

Tuesday I got up early to take the bus to Kosice for a doctors appointment to ensure that I will not infect the country of Slovakia with some horrible disease if they give me a visa. It went well and aside from the taking of blood, it was mostly just a lot of walking from building to building trying to figure out what I needed. I was so thankful that Zuzka went with me since sometimes she was confused and she is Slovak! God is so faithful!!

I started planning for another video project. I’m excited about this one. It is a music video for one of Timothy’s songs about how God brings the light back into our lives. It has a good possibility of being on Slovak TV. It is mostly planned out and we’re just waiting on some small details, like a camera. When I came, I thought that MPK (“Mladez pre Krista” YFC in Slovak) owned a camera. But I had misunderstood and they just have friends who loan them cameras for certain events, and a two small consumer models. Please join me in praying that God will provide a professional camera.

Thursday I went to a concert with some girls I met at the small group I attended on Monday night. it ws a lot of fun and very good for me to hang out with other girls my age!!

I’m still waiting to hear back from someone I e-mailed about teaching me Slovak. Some days I’m very tempted to just get by on what I pick up and what English people here speak, but in my heart of hearts, I really want to learn this crazy language!

This weekend I will be helping/learning to mix the video for the big screens at the worship festival in Michelovce. Practice for Campfest!! we leave at 630 AM on Sunday! and i'll be back to Presov sometime around 11 or midnight!!

PLEASE PRAY:
~ That my battles with homesickness will come at longer intervals. (currently the trend is moving the opposite direction)
~ That I can find a Slovak tutor and learn the language.
~ That I will be able to build relationships.
~ That things will progress smoothly to get my visa.
~ That I continue to grow closer to God and stay Rooted in Him

Dovidenia,

Stasi

flickr

updated my first 2 weeks of photos.

use the link to the right. you know the one that says, my pictures!

week 4!! or a WHOLE Month!

Can you believe it was 4 weeks on Friday and today is a full month according to the date?! Me either!!

Last week was very busy! I didn’t finish all of the videos that I wanted to for the Lumen festival, but the ones that I did finish went well.

My weekend was fun. Friday we packed six people and their stuff for the weekend (including 3 guitars and sleeping bags for everyone) into a minivan. And drove about 6 hours across Slovakia to The Lumen Festival in Trnava (www.festivallumen.sk). I heard some fun bands. Some even sang in English, and one sang in Slovak with a British Accent! I spent Friday night in the flat of a girl from Monroeville, which was very nice. I had my own room and chocolate chip cookies and un accented English conversation. (God is so Good isn’t He!!)

Saturday was a search for a good restaurant for lunch and Timothy's concert where my videos were used. It was so neat and nerve wracking to see them on the big screen! Also, the reason for me to be on the trip, I photographed the band during their concert. We got home about 2 in the morning.

Sunday was a day of beautiful relaxation an finally some sunshine! Spring is coming to Slovakia :) Also, I had the closest thing so far to an untranslated conversation in Slovak. You’d have to have a loose definition of “untranslated” and “Conversation” but I came close and managed to undertand the questions and most of the time give an appropriate answer. There were sometimes I needed help, like explaining that my mother works as a Laboratory Technician in a hospital, but I could tell him names and ages of my siblings, that my father is a pastor, and that I think Slovakia is very pretty! All in all, a great ego boost!

This coming week holds a lot of paperwork for my visa and a Slovak Physical Tuesday in Kosice. Monday’s task is visiting the bank to try and set up an account in Slovakia.

Please Pray:
~ That the visa quest will go smoothly (especially the doctor visit part!)
~ That I will learn Slovak (especially for finding a tutor.)
~ That I will “be all here” (especially in forming relationships)

what do you need?

Anastasia needs encouragement regarding the importance of regular school
Anastasia needs a caring and committed family who can encourage her
Anastasia needs a teacher who can make it interesting and exciting
Anastasia needs lessons in talent acquisition [Re: ILUVCOUNTRY] ... I think she needs a lesson in manners
Anastasia needs to refine her comments to the contestants more
Anastasia needs to send a message to the browser, asking it to start showing this particular book
Self-confidence is what Anastasia needs. Where to find it? Studio Charmante, of course
Anastasia needs extensive work on her hooves to compensate for the deformity of her front legs
I do think Anastasia needs to get her mind out of the gutter
Anastasia needs to be 110 percent to win the French Open again
First Anastasia needs to finish school, and she is going to Borneo with you and Mrs. Chamberlain for a few months." "That sounds sensible
Anastasia needs a nap
Her parents said Anastasia still needs regular check-ups with orthopedists and neurologists but other than that, she’sa regular 4-year-old
Anastasia just might not need oxygen when she comes
Anastasia: Does she need to overcome her fear of his being ill and allow him to do what he wants
Anastasia needs to lose about 20 pounds
Anastasia needs to get aromas

today, i photographed a funeral and a midget held my umbrella.
last weekend i got kissed by a nun
what's new with you?

week 1 in Slovakia

Some of you I’m sure were worried that I had dropped off the face of the earth. That is not the case, I promise, I just left the country, that’s all. “just” :) Presov is still in Slovakia. And I am still sure that it is where I’m supposed to be!

I am currently living in a room under the flat of one of my co-workers, next door to his brother, and upstairs from his parents. The bathroom is across the hall (or will be once it is finished this weekend) and I’m sharing a kitchen with Paly, Ivetka and their 1 year old daughter Clara. Everyone here is so very nice. My nearest meltdown was in the Tesco when I couldn’t read any labels on the butter. I think that if this is my biggest problem so far, I’m doing ok!

My current projects include getting a visa and a bus pass and sorting out exactly what projects I will be working on the next year with Roman, who is currently doing the video work. Also, I have started learning some Slovak already. They tell me that my accent is good but so far, I can produce just a bit less than Clara!

I have already accomplished a lot, my first trip to the supermarket, riding a city bus, and figuring out which of the two buttons above the toilet to push. (the big one for big jobs and the smaller one for smaller visits, makes so much sense if you think about it) I’m getting better at just asking!

Please pray!
~That I will be able to remember the names of my co-workers and get to know them better in spite of the language barrier
~That there will not be any problems with getting my Visa
~That I will be able to recall and produce the Slovak I am learning
~That I will keep a servant attitude, and catch God’s vision for my year here!

leaving on a jet plane

Greetings for the last time from Mars!

I'm leaving for a year to do promotional and ministry video for Youth for Christ in Slovakia. Thank you for your prayers, they are what has brought me this far and why I am able to step out in faith and get on that plane this afternoon.

In 5 hours i'll be on a plane to Slovakia!



Please Pray:
~ For safe travel. I am flying out of Pittsburgh at 12:10PM, Washington DC at 5:55PM, And Vienna at 7:25AM(EST) Friday. I will arrive in Kosice, Slovakia around 8:40AM(EST) on the 24th.

~ For my ability to learn the language quicky, especially in my first days there.

~That I will begin to form strong friendships with people in Slovakia. Both those I will be working with and people outside the ministry I am going to have.

~ That God will give me a clear vision of what He wants me to do this next year.


I dont have a phone number yet, but my address is:

Anastasia Havener
Orgovanova 24
080 01 PRESOV
SLOVAKIA

Thank you for your prayers and support. I am blessed to have you with me as part of what God is going to do in the next year in Slovakia.

My lucky day

So, I know it's been a long time but bear with me. And believe me that there is not a shred of sarcasm in the title of this blog, just a joy and a bit of awe at God's goodness.

Some of the wisest words I heard today came out of the neon green braced mouth of a 4th grade girl scout who's name I don’t even know. She's the one who told me it was my lucky day.

here comes the part where you might be tempted to think I’m being sarcastic.

As of this morning the car I just agreed to sell to Greg is not running.
You know, my "cute little thang" that has run reliably without incident for over a year. Yes her, the one I could really use the next three weeks while I’m getting all ready to leave.
The sweet red cavalier I planned to use to visit the notary and the church and the post office this morning.
And maybe, just maybe, if I got at least 3/4 of my to do list done this afternoon, the car I wanted to drive to see my Micah and Hunter in Ohio this evening.

Yeah that's the car, the one that has a clogged radiator foiling all of my plans.

And here is the part where I explain why I’m not being even the least bit facetious.

This morning, in light of my car not being able to go more than 200 yards without violently overheating, I was walking my errands. (If you need to visit a notary, and make copies, and mail important papers, Mars is a great town to be a pedestrian in.)

And by God's Grace (because He knew I was not in the state of mind to handle a rainy or snowy or even cloudy day) the sun was shining. And I had shoes and a warm coat and scarf and hat and gloves.

And on my way from Eckerd’s to the Post Office there were Girl Scouts outside Foodland, selling cookies from 11 to 1. I missed Girl Scout cookie ordering by being in Colorado. And ironicly had I been driving my errands today, I would have totally missed them today too. And at that table outside foodland, I was reminded just how blessed I am. Today is my lucky day!

And then later in my day God really reminded me of the smart friends I have, like Jenni in The Netherlands and Kristen in Northern Ireland who are figuring this out ahead of me. So that I can learn from them (ok that's not the only reason they are out of the country it's just an added perk for me!).

It's like having big sisters. I’ve always had to be the one who the parents experimented on and who had to fight for what the younger siblings got easily. Believe me I'm appreciating learning from others experiences much more than if I had been doing it all my life.

"My deal with God is that He says, “Go” and I say, “where?” It’s not out of blind obedience, it’s out of eternal gratitude and the understanding that if God is up to something, I want to be a part of it. "

Kristen, thank you. I needed to be reminded of that today. I needed to have that agreement put right up in my face. To help me see what I need to remember this lent.

And I needed to be reminded to ask the right questions. Not "WHY God!?" but "God, WHERE are You in this?" (Thank you Aaron Stern and Podcasts)

And so, today was my lucky day because God was in the sunshine and in the Girl Scout cookies and in the peace He hands out so freely!