New Things and Old Things
We are the sixth mission team to go from First United Methodist Church of Keller.to Trnavna United Methodist Church. Some of us feel very familiar with the church and the town. But we always have a few new people on the team and there are always some changes at the church when we return. Today we experienced a mix of the old and new as we settled in for our days here.
Barbara and Donna are fixing breakfast for us each day. A wonderful new thing is discovering a small kitchen on our floor of the hotel and it is ours to use since we are the only ones on this floor. A Slovak breakfast of fresh bread, sliced meat and cheese, and juice is served in the kitchen. Mark your disposable cup, please. Then we go to Donna’s room to eat and have morning devotional. If at all possible the bread is bought fresh each morning at the grocery store next door.
Today was Paige’s turn for devotional. It was short, but meaningful. We had free time until 3:45 so most people relaxed by strolling through the town center checking out the shops, restaurants, and cathedrals. I went looking for “wi fi” to enter my daily blog. With the sun beating down on me I first opted for green tea at a covered sidewalk cafe. My internet did not work there so I moved on to a computer store in hopes of better luck. The blog entry was on my travel drive so they allowed me to use their computer to connect to the internet. But when the screen came up all the formatting instructions were in Slovak. The sales persons tried to be helpful, but the 1:00 closing time came before I had completed my task. I went back to the town center to search again. There I found about half the team eating lunch at a different sidewalk cafe and Scott had an internet connection. At this restaurant I justified my use of the internet by ordering strapacky (noodles, sauerkraut and cheese).
The free time passed quickly and we headed off to the church to unload team supplies and meet church members working with us in theEnglish camp. Our arrival at the church was filled with hugs for Regina, Renata, Milena, and Evietta. An extra special new thing we were given was a detailed schedule showing all the days of our trip. That will be quite helpful. We were told the schedule was put together by Ondre and Kika, who helped us last year and came to Keller in 2005 with the Trnava youth.
After a really productive meeting the church members took us to dinner at a special restaurant where we had a private room for the seventeen of us. When we walked in the room we were surprised by the beautifully set table. The menu had a lot of traditional Slovak foods. It took quite a while for dinner to be served which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the fellowship.
At team meeting we were excited about the meeting, the dinner, and most of all the fellowship we had while waiting for the meal. Team meeting ended with everybody hurrying off to prepare for the next day.
July 13th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Hi Charlotte and everyone else–greetings from home!! Thanks so much for taking the time to update your blog. It is fun to picture you going throughout the day as you have described. Please know that we are all praying for you and so grateful to have you doing God’s will all around the world. Wishing you great memories and save travels. Take care!!
Linda