See....I am doing a new thing!

I haven't blogged in over a week! Shame on me!! Everyone is still gone for the long school break and there just isn't much going on here. Nothing external anyway....

I have been spending my time in several ways....recuperating, (had a little bug for a few days), unfortunately it was during the High Tatra retreat so I was not able to attend this year....but I'm going next year for sure! I have the ability to read alot more, (I am currently reading "Revolution of Character" by Dallas Willard about spiritual formation and renewing the mind in Christ), listening to Matt's sermons on podcast as well as ones I bought and brought with me (one of my favorites is the Christianity 101 series, if you haven't listened to it I highly recommend it!). Bible study on Friday nights started back up again as has the Children's English hour on Mondays, so I'm glad of that. And I am giving private lessons throughout the week to various people in the community.

Even with these activities, the past weeks have given me far too much time to think (a dangerous thing for me sometimes), and I started feeling quite ineffective in my surrounding community. I can't speak the language and have gotten a bit depressed over that and felt frustrated and isolated again. I hate feeling like that - with all I have to be grateful for how can I be so selfish? So....I (think) I've finally picked myself up by the boot straps, and devised a plan to get back out there!

I have talked it all out with Michal and Katka (Bible School) and Jozef (Elementary School), and they like the idea alot! So, I am going to start teaching Country Line Dancing in the school gym to all who want to learn. The lessons will be free, to start with anyway, and then I would love to see this be so successful that we can have a dance maybe once a month or so and have the admission price be a can of food or bag of rice or a couple of Euros that we can use to feed the hungry in our community!

I would like there to be no alcohol or smoking allowed at the dances, that way the teenagers could come and see how to have fun without drinking. The language barrier won't be a problem because we don't have to speak the same language with our tongues - just our feet! When there are a sufficient number of people comfortable with the non-partner line dancing I hope to be able to teach the couples dances that are so fun in country music.....the Schottish, the Horseshoe, the Traveling Cha Cha....and many more. Well, there you have it - that is what I am going to do....a new thing in Slovakia to be sure - they don't listen to a lot of Country music here so it will be interesting to see how they take to this. One of the great things about line dancing is that you can do it to all kinds of music, not just Country.

Of course the ultimate goal here is to reach our community and give opportunities for people to be with the church in a fun and safe environment. Please join me in praying that God would use this line dance ministry to His Glory and that through it, many will be blessed. Amen



I'm so excited!