Slovenia team safely home

Hi there everyone!
Sorry we were unable to access the blog for our final few days. We arrived back in Belfast International Airport at around 11pm last night and were very pleased to see some family and friends at the airport. We are all safe and well, even though it seemed like a very long day of travelling and waiting around in airports!! I think we are all pretty tired and some poor souls from the team had to work today.

The last few days of the camp were really special and no-one wanted to go home when the camp finished on Sunday...In fact when we arrived at the church where the parents were collecting the children, some of the children were crying because they didn't want camp to be over. Later that evening we were told that some parents were amazed that their kids ran over to them, said a quick hello, and then went straight back to be with the camp leaders.

Many of the parents and children stayed for the church service. The kids sang their camp songs, performed the mime which we had taught them, and told the congregation about their favourite part of camp.

After church, our team and the Slovene leaders went for pizza and chatted about our experiences of the camp. We were so pleased to hear that at least ten children accepted Jesus as their saviour while at the camp, and that Zvonko, Dubravka & Metka (the organisers) thought the camp went extremely well and were very happy with our role in it...in fact they want us back next year!

On Monday we spent most of the day with Sebastian & Gloria, Metka (who is coming to NI in a few weeks time to study at Belfast Bible College for a year), Tina (who had translated for us many of the evening sessions at camp) & Anton (the teenager who took us on the boat trip on our second day in Slovenia). We had really enjoyable day with them, visiting Bled Castle, having Kebabs for lunch while giving them gifts, and then going to Ljubljana for shopping & cinema.

We spent Tuesday morning packing and had time to reflect on what we had experienced together, before heading to Austria for the flight home.

I think it's safe to say that we all had a wonderful experience over the past two weeks and have been so aware of the presence of God...seeing Him work in all sorts of ways. A huge thank you to everyone for praying for us and the work that is continuing to take place in Slovenia. It was a privilege to serve our Lord with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Slovenia and to see the difference Jesus has made in their lives and how His light shines in them and His love overflows from them to others.

We thank God for all He has done and is doing...and to Him be the Glory.

God Bless you all
Love Alice, Daniel, Elise, Heather, Julie, Stephen & Rachel