Sometimes you just have to stop and sing!  Click this link to see Becky, Milka and Jim singing at lunch in Presov.

The remaining three members of our Conversational English team arrived back in IL Tuesday evening.  We’ll be putting more information from the English Week on the blog over the next several days, so please check back.

Milka leads music at worship

Jill, Wright and Bob attended worship with the Baptist Mission in Presov today, Sunday.  Wright preached, with our friend from Kosice, Robert, translating.  There were 20 in attendance.  This included 18 adults and two children.  One of our English students accepted our invitation to join us, as well as a friend of one of the exiting members.  These were two new contacts that Milka and Michal did not know before.

Our day continued with a great lunch with our Presov friends and then travel to Kosice where we caught the train to Budapest.  We had a couple of hours in Kosice so Bob was able to point out some of the great spots that we discovered on previous trips – like St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral (largest Catholic church, 800 yrs old, in Slovakia), the Singing Fountains, and ice cream at Aida.

Ron Brown met our train (which was 30 minutes late) in Budapest and transported us to Eden House.  This is a guest house run by IMB for missionaries who may be in transition to or from the field, or are in Budapest for medical care.  As Virtual Strategy Coordinators we are included in the IMB group.

Wright preaching, Robert translating

Will try to do better (posting photos) after we get home.  I will upload several photos from the week over the next several days, so please keep checking back with us.

We all want to thank those of you who have posted comments to the blog.  It helps us to know that you are checking in on us, and gives us a connection “back home.”

JIm & Becky took the s-l-o-w train to Budapest Saturday afternoon, and will spend about 5 or 6 hours with Skipper & Sue Perryman before heading to the airport to fly home.

Jill, Wright and Bob will worship with the Presov mission at Cafe Most on Sunday and then be taken to Kosice to catch the later train to Budapest.  Because of the return flight schedule they/we will have one day in Budapest before flying home on Tuesday.  Skipper & Sue said, “We have a plan for you while you are in town that will be sure to include Hungarian goulash.”

Friends enjoying coffee in Levoca - Adia, Zuska, Jill, Michal, Monika, Wright, Lubo & Mary (Bob took the photo)

Our series of English class daily meetings concluded on Friday at noon with a presentation of certificates to all students present.  Some of our students could not attend on Friday due to work and other commitments, but a good majority of them were there for the certificate recognition.

The director of the British Center in the Library, Valeria, told us that we had a cumulative total of 138 students for the week. 

I’ve attached a photo of the group that was able to stay after class for the picture.

Presov English Class

On Thursday we invited our English students to join us at DEPO in the evening for a more relaxed time of conversation in English, along with tea, coffee, snacks and games.

Ten of our students accepted our invitation and we spent an additional six hours talking and practicing English speaking!

The evening ended with pizza at 10:00 p.m.

Playing "Dutch Blitz" at DEPO

Many times we take for granted the availability of a good, stable high-speed Internet connection.  Not anymore!  We’ve been frustrated in our efforts to bring you daily updates from the field by lack of a continuous, stable Internet signal, and by the fact that on more than one occasion the Internet location has closed before we’ve been back from our work.

Anyway, thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as we work with our very good English students here is Presov.  We have been so honored by their study and their hard work to converse in English this week.

Slovak students practicing English conversation

Here is the link to the news story (short version) about our English course being taught this week at the library in Presov, Slovakia.

http://stv.livetv.sk/tvarchive//video/video.html?video=45373

Click the link, which will open the video file.  This should automatically begin the news program.  You will need to turn up your computer volume and move the “progress” cursor to the right to 11:33 minutes into the program. 

Enjoy!

Surprise!  Slovak TV Channel 1 came by the English course on Tuesday to film and interview people about the program.  We are trying to find the link to the news program so you, too, can see some of our English students, and the library where we are working.

We had 9 more new students today!  All of the advance promotion by our local partners, Milka & Michal Lapchacova, has brought people to us.  We are definitely pleased with the number of students, and their participation.

Oh, the local newspaper was also there on Monday and a full page story with photos was in today’s paper. 

On the local news scene, a coal mine accident/explosion in central Slovakia on Tuesday killed 20 miners.  The government called for a one minute of silence at Noon today (Wednesday) to remember those killed and their families.  We made sure we did this in each of our classes today.  It is good that we do this in recognition of the people and culture with whom we are working.

After English classes and lunch we headed out to DEPO to help with the kids program.  We played games with the 10-12 year olds from 4:00 to 5:30 and the 13-17 year olds from 6:00 to 8:00.  We began a billiards torunament with the younger group which will conclude on Friday.

Tomorrow we have invited our English students to join us at DEPO for further conversation in English, tea, coffee and leisure games.

More later; we’re nearing closing time at the restaurant where I’m connected to the Internet and we do want to honor their business hours.

Keep praying; it keeps us going.  I’ll upload photos when I get chance.