On Saturday we had lots of snow fall and then a number of below zero days, but yesterday and today it has warmed up to about 10oC and it is raining so the snow has turned to slush and mud. Our boys were very excited to be able to go sledding and to try out their skis on Sunday morning (we had church in the evening with the Baptist church last Sunday). We are very happy that the days are now starting to get longer again - at the moment it isn't getting light until after 7.30am in the morning and then its dark by 4.30pm in the evening. Here are some photos of last weekend:
We have been busy over the last few weeks, but we are glad we don't have the Australian end-of-year madness combined with the Christmas madness so we aren't feeling quite so wiped out. We had a good response to the presentation in the school a couple of weeks ago and Kingsley is now greeted by name by some of the girls in his class every morning! Sam was pretty chuffed to have dad come and to be able to present some Aussie things to his year. We have met a few other parents from his class over the last couple of months - you can continue to pray for relationships to develop.
Last Saturday Kingsley and the boys went with some others from church to sing carols at the nursing home and it was also well received. Notice Timothy joining in the choir - he has to be in everything (he is singing from one of the evangelistic books they were giving away as gifts).
In the afternoon we had a Christmas party at our house and were very pleased to find that lots of our neighbours as well as one of Sam's schoolmates and his mum came along. Even our elderly neighbour who has always refused to come for coffee came along - she even made an effort to dress up specially! Kingsley also managed to convince her husband to join us. Kingsley and Monika sang a couple of carols and then Kingsley gave them a quiz about Christmas. The quiz got a few people talking - please pray that we might be able to follow up on some of the conversations. One of our neighbours said he would invite us over for coffee and Christmas cookies - pray that it might happen and for good conversations with his family.
Coming up we are looking forward to church on Christmas morning and then we are hosting lunch with the Hribars and Margaret (our English friend) from Ljubljana. We have a kids Christmas service on the 27th - so that non-Christian friends and family might come along to see it. In the nativity play Zac and Sam are both shepherds and Tim is a sheep - he wanted to be a shepherd as well but then settled for being Cecil the sheep (the name of the sheep in a book about Jesus' parable of the lost sheep). Sophie won't be appearing in the play, but we thought we'd better put her in the Christmas 'card' photo!
The boys finish school on Thursday and then have a week off school. Pray that we will have a fun relaxing time together and that we will all be ready for school again after the week off. Pray that the weather won't be too cold so that we can get outside most days! Kingsley is preaching on the second Sunday in January from Mark's gospel - you can pray for good preparation and that God will give him the right words. He has also offered to do a presentation on Luther and Calvin to his history of philosophy class at the university in January. Pray that he might be able to prepare something at a university level that is fair to Luther and Calvin and also philosophical. (The lecturer had Luther and Calvin on her list but wasn't planning to say anything about them and now Kingsley has to work out exactly how to present their impact on the philosophical world).
We wish you all a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2010!
