Tuesday, 29 May 2018   

CHRISTMAS comes to Slovakia in May!

It has been raining off and on the past day.  The temperature last evening was perfect for us Minnesotans who like our rooms ‘chilled’ for sleeping.  We now come to our last night in Martin which is often bittersweet as we will miss our Slovak friends greeting us every morning, but will have the comfort of our own beds soon.  We leave for Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow morning for 3 days before heading back to Minnesota.

We went back to the Bible School at 8:15am to get back to tabletop replacement, painting bench wood, and putting together the puzzle of the stone façade on the dormitory steps.  Julie, Mary, Corrine and KJ went to a 6th grade classroom at 9am to have the students give a presentation in English, and then to teach us a few Slovak words.  About 9:20am Janka comes into the classroom to tell the four of us that the shipping container from Appleton, WI will be ON CAMPUS WITHIN THE HOUR!  OMG!!! REALLY… the container is really here!!!??? After alerting the rest of the Builders Group, it seemed only minutes later the truck and trailer with the container was at the entrance to the campus.  CAN THIS REALLY BE HAPPENING? Is this really the container from Appleton, WI that Joe and Joann Lunders (St Andrew’s Vision Slovakia advocates) packed up just a month ago? The truck backed up to the loading dock, the driver opened the back door, and there were stacks of chairs and tables and whiteboards and SMART Boards and shelves and books and computer projectors and classroom speaker sets.  The driver said we had 2 hours to unload the container! We rallied all of the Builders Group plus several of the CCE staff, and in just 1 hr and 16 minutes... it was unloaded! Upon the completion of the unloading, a prayer was prayed thanking God for protecting the container in its journey! We then took the more valuable items and carried them to the classrooms. Just as we finished our lunch, Bohdan took us on a tour of the High School.  By then it was raining, which was God's signal for the Builders Group to be DONE with their work for this trip! We cleaned up our various projects, leaving Janka with some instructions.

Bohdan said it certainly seems that it was God's plan for Joe & Joann Lunders (previous Builders Group trip leaders) to pack the container, turn it over to God to get it to Martin, and have the Builders Group here to unload it.  WHAT JOY WE ALL (Slovaks & Americans) HAVE IN OUR HEARTS TODAY!!! All PRAISE and GLORY be to GOD!!

At dinner this evening, Bohdan, Adrian, Janka, Jozef, & Juraj shared some stories of their time at the school through the past 20 years, and how the school continues to be ‘outside the box’ in how it ‘does education’, where the students are happy and want to learn and be loving and sharing people.  Perhaps one day this model for education can be used throughout Slovakia and the world!