Fall 2018 Newsletter
September 27, 2018
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Hello, dear friends!
Wow, what an exciting and eventful summer! We've had so many wonderful moments, and feel blessed to be able to share them with you!
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Book Project
Thanks to Light for the Lost funds, we were able to fund two book projects. We wanted to find a way to bless our local church, as well as the Pentecostal Movement as a whole. The church we attend in Ljubljana has a book publishing company. They had just translated “True Identity”, a book for teens and young adults, about finding their identity in Christ, as well as the New Testament portion of the “Action Bible”, a comic book-style Bible for kids. We ordered 200 copies of “Prava Identita” (True Identity), which we gave to every student and young adult at camp! Abigail has also been able to give one to a friend who is new to the faith, and has questions about her Christian walk.
The VBS theme for Kids’ Camp this year was the Action Bible - isn’t God’s timing amazing!? We ordered 100 copies, and were able to send every child home from camp with their very own Action Bible! For many of the children, this is their only access to the Gospel. We are humbled to be able to give them Jesus’ message of love and hope, specifically for them, and in their language!
Dan also volunteered at a camp geared towards Gypsy/Roma children, where we were also able to bless them with Action Bibles. One little boy in particular was nearly halfway through reading it by the end of camp. It is so encouraging to see the next generation with a hunger for God’s word! Please be praying with us, that the seeds sown through these books would take deep root, and that the young people of Slovenia would rise up to reach their nation.
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Meeting With Local Churches and Pastors
Over the past year, we've had the privilege of visiting a few of the local Pentecostal churches. Dan has been invited to preach at churches in Murska Sobota, Ženalvje, Veščica, Ptuj, Maribor and Ljubljana. We are so thankful for the pastors' openness to getting to know us. Everyone in the congregations has been so gracious, and we are enjoying making new friends! Here we are, with the superintendent of the Pentecostal Fellowship, and pastor of the church in Ženavlje, Daniel Grabar, and his wife, Vlasta.
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Short Slovene Lesson
In Slovene, all nouns have genders. In addition to that, when you add an adjective in front of the noun, the adjective changes genders to match, too. For example: dobra kava (good coffee - female), dober dan (good day - male), dobro jutro (good morning - neutral). This means you have to really think about what you're saying, which results in very. slow. talking.
Our favorite Slovene word is "lahko". It never changes, and can mean any of these: "May I?" "You may." "I can." "Can you?" "Excuse me." It is the very best word, ever.
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Thank you
We are so thankful for your partnership! The only reason we are able to live and minister in Slovenia is because of your prayers and generosity. We pray that God mightily blesses you and your family!
-The Blairs
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Summer Camps and Outreach
Dan was on the leadership team for the Young Adult Camp. They asked him if we would organize an “American Night” - a night of fun, games, snacks and trivia. We are so thankful to John and Temple Gracza who sent us American-themed decorations, and our colleagues the Travers, and True Life KMC Military Fellowship in Kaiserslautern, Germany for their incredible generosity! They collected and delivered all the snacks for the event; snacks that most Slovenes have never tried, such as Mountain Dew, Root Beer, Cheez-Its, Doritos, ect. They truly went above and beyond, and made it such a fun night!
In July, we traveled to Hungary, where we helped missionary colleagues Paul and Jocelyn Gracza in hosting a ministry team from one of our partner churches, Toledo Calvary in the Hungarian town of Orkeny. They were there to help the local church host a community outreach, as well as renovate the church building.
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Welcoming Baby Jocelyn
On September 13th, we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Jocelyn Rose Blair into the world. She was born in Postojna (just outside Ljubljana) weighing 8 lbs 2 oz, and 21 inches long. We are completely enamored with her! Aidan has been a wonderful and helpful big brother! She is a very good baby, and we are endlessly thankful to God for allowing her to be a part of our family, and for a safe and healthy pregnancy/delivery/baby.
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Family Update
Aidan has started his second year in Slovene preschool, vrtec. He loves school! We are thankful that his teachers looped up with his class, they are wonderful! Aidan's teachers have told us that he speaks Slovene wonderfully, and has gotten to a point where he only speaks Slovene at school. In talking to people who don't speak Slovene, he calls it "his language". We are SO proud of him!
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