1.) Life is a lot like mountain hiking. It's all fun and games to dream big, make plans for a career, and point to places on a map you want to go, then comes the hard work. To actually achieve it it takes many many small steps in school, job shadowing, spending hours and hours doing the same thing, and often one starts to question if you even like what your going to be doing. (A job or if this walking uphill thing is all that great) After that "climbing the ladder" gets into a routine so it's not that bad and others are doing it too, so it must be worth something. Then excitement occurs because there is light at the end of the tunnel and the initial focus on the reason you are doing what you are doing comes back. Only 6 more weeks of school/ only 200 meters to the top! At last the goal is reached and can be thankful for each painful step, page turned, and Calorie burned. If it were easy to be here everyone would be, but now the hard work is in the past. Now your prepared, and in a position to teach, preach, manage, build, service and share. This is what is seen as "experiencing life" similar to experiencing a mountaintop view, although I believe the whole picture is experiencing life. Without the lows and hard work, the highs, and life experiences wouldn't exist.
This is from the top of Plačlivé summit in the Western Tatras at 2,125 meters where this thought was in my mind. What else would I do for a few hours going up, up and up? Saska was so kind to invite and guide us in this adventure with a few of her friends!
2.) A few days before this hike I attended youth group, where the message was translated to me (which first off is a crazy concept. Thoughts in one head come out in Slovak, enter another's ears, are understood in Slovak, then changed to English and come out their mouth in English, enter my ears, and I hear the thought in English. whoa....). Anyway we talked about surrendering to God and what that looks like. After we finished our hike we soaked our feet in the stream:
and set our gaze on this beautiful water fall:
and my mind went to work. Here it goes: Water is a good example for us how to live our faith. The river is completely surrendered to gravity. The river makes no decisions on its own, it consults gravity for everything it encounters and goes where gravity leads it. Depending on a lot of different things the water level has its ups and downs. When water goes over a rocky stretch in its journey it gets jumbled, separated, and unorganized, but gravity brings it back to peace and serenity without the water doing anything but following. Water lives in community GREATLY! When 2 rivers join together it does not stand off to the side and whisper about the new water joining it, all the water mixes and mingles and becomes one body with the same purpose and direction. Rivers don't always take the fastest way down, sometimes they have oxbows, twists, and turns. Over time gravity teaches a new way and cuts off the old slowly. The river brings joy wherever it goes. It fills a need for many people and supplies more than it knows (for example how people use it for power). When it gets dirty, gravity cleans and restores it to its clear self by dirt settling to the bottom and water keeps right on going, unscathed. When it freezes and comes to a standstill, it's ok because it is a beautiful sight, and resumes its life right where it left off when circumstances allow. It's never ending and cannot be destroyed.
If only we could allow our minds and hearts to completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, how naturally our lives would fall into order.
In other adventures, many students tell me they swim in the Mara (Lake) often in the summer, so I set off to find the beach they told of! Slovakia is interesting, I followed a road that I knew went in the direction of the Mara, but it came to an abrupt dead end when the tar stopped, and on top of a small grassy ridge was a set of railroad tracks. HOWEVER, off the side of the dead end tar was a small path, and naturally I followed it over the tracks, and magically on the other side, the tar road picked up right where it left off! Apparently the railroad track had priority over the beach road years ago. The road goes straight out into the Mara, and I learned, once went all the way across before they installed the dam and created the Mara. Now there is almost half mile of beach on each side and water good enough for me to swim in, and many people to fish around sunset. it reminds me of home to be in and near a lake. Minnesota is good for that :)
Beautiful Liptovsky Mara
There's another place Ignac, who is Saska's husband took me to swim as well, in Bobrovec, after a hike this week. It's a man made lake, but he swims in it nearly every day in the summer, and has a friend that swims every day until November! It is a great feeling to calm down the day by taking a lap around the lake, I'm very thankful he shared this honey hole with me.
I had a great conversation with a lady at the Mara after I said "Ahoj" with a smile which means hello (informally) I assumed that was alright since we were on the beach, but she looked at me funny and replied in Slovak. I shrugged my shoulders and asked if she knew any English. Luckily, she was an English teacher a few years ago and explained to me she looked close at me to see if she knew me because Ahoj is what someone who knows someone would say. Lesson learned! We visited as her kids sailed with a jolly old man. She told me he carts his little sailboat across the railroad tracks to the mara every evening in the summer. He told her he finds his IT job quite stressful and this is how he relaxes. I learned a lot from the man about what's important in life, and the only words we shared were "Dobrie" (which is a shortened version of good day) and a smile and a nod as he rolled his cart toward home. She also told me a different man who was part of creating the first artificial arm was from Liptovsky Mikulas! Cool!
Here is his small boat, I imagine it being home made, and the 2 kids of the lady I visited with going out for an evening sail with the old man. I just read Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, and can't help but align this old man and the one in the story.
Our last day before school began started at 8 am sharp when Saska picked Daniel and I up, all three of us on bikes to go to the articulated wooden church in Svaty kris. I was looking forward to the carpentry aspect of it because it was built in the "Counter Reformation" or "Catholic Reformation" period when the King decided to make it really difficult for protestant churches to exist. They had to be built outside the city, have no bell towers, be completed building in 9 months, and be made out of ONLY wood. Nails and all had to be wood. The man who was the lead for building it could not read or write, but had lots of hands on carpentry experience and created a magnificent building in only 8 months. Not only was the carpentry amazing, but if they had built it in 2 years, with all the materials allowed, I would still be impressed! The building is AMAZING! Wooden trim work, chandeliers, even each pew had amazing designs in the wood. Not only is it amazing it was built, where it was originally built, is where the Mara now lays so when they built the dam, they had to move the huge building!
We had time so we decided to make the journey around the Mara by bike! It was all fun and games until I popped a tire. We ended up walking,
until we got to a village where Saska's daughter, Zuzka, could come save the day with their car. Daniel and one bike ended the journey there, but Saska and I continued on to finish our loop around the mara and end at their place for late lunch also made by Zuzka. It was fantastic food to start with, and with 4 hours of biking behind us was a very pleasant meal. :)
The first day of school is always held at the Lutheran Church in Liptovsky Mikulas. It's a church service for students and faculty to stat the year off with intentions centered around God and the bigger purpose for why we are at the school. I loved it, and got to meet a few students, before diving into classes. It seemed to work well also for student to gather, see their friends, catch up, and enjoy some time before classes began the next day.
My "quick! look like a teacher" first day of school pic
My mind was going way faster than my body for the first week or so at school. I felt like I had a lot to do and a lot to understand, and there was no way to understand until I had experience, and there was only one way to get that! I recalled my first day working at Ken's Tackle on fishing opener and how Gary believed that the best way to learn is being thrown into the fire to experience the real thing first hand. It proved to be true in this situation as well. The ELCA prepared me well in a couple of weeks of orientation, and the teachers at school helped immensely in the week before school, but the only way I could learn more was by doing. It seemed a slightly nerve racking situation to be in but I believe God prepared me for it with situations the past years and I was feeling quite good about class number 1! I wouldn't say I rocked it, but I wouldn't say it was a flop either. I have 13 different classes of 15 students or less in the High School (Gymnasium) for 19 hours per week, and 2 classes in the Elementary School (Basic School). My first classes were all focused on getting to known students, hearing them talk, and for them to get to know me and why I am here. It was great visiting with students and hearing them present each other's summer vacations (this was my first assignment) because I got to see what they do for fun and for work here and compare it to home. Things are very similar they just call vacation, cottage, or holiday, and they travel to different countries instead of different states. Students aren't allowed to work until they are 16 years old and many work in tourist places like aqua parks or zoos, another popular job is working at restaurants or grocery store, and some worked at camps. They spend time playing football, hiking, slalom canoeing, cycling, going to the Mara, and visiting family or friends in and around Slovakia. I enjoy the students and appreciate the opportunity to pass on English to them and look forward to getting more comfortable with teaching and bringing lessons to life for them to learn.
It's fun to tell people about home. Ignac asked how far from the Lake I lived (I showed him our house on google maps). When I pointed to a bridge 10 meters away and said about that far, his face lit up with excitement. Lakes are not common here, and I realize more and more how much of a gift it is to live in the place we do, and with the family and friends we do.
Peace to everyone back home! Send hunting pictures when they are taken, and stories as well! They hunt here, but I will only be watching if the opportunity arises. Which I am delighted that it's a possibility :) They hunt deer here. Or so they call them, I was shown a picture that looks like a huge elk! I hope to see one this fall, maybe from a deer stand!
