2012-2013 Januflecting

It's (past) time for our annual januflection! 2012 was a huge year for our family and 2013 is shaping up to be just as big.

Highlights from 2012

Maybe the most obvious thing to mention is the successful defense of my dissertation. Is that a big deal? We'd been working toward that goal for the past 17 years--so yes, that's a big deal. But now there are other things that seem just as exciting.



The kids finished their first full year of school in Slovakia and they both did great! They adjusted to the school system, they made friends, and even their grades were excellent. Elisabeth also has gotten the chance to work on a radio program to help kids learn English. We've also become great friends with the parents of Elisabeth's best friend in Slovakia. That relationship started with a school project just about one year ago.

Jana has struggled with getting a Music Together program going but that has turned out to be OK since she's excited about teaching musicals at Narnia Elementary School. She declared this semester to be her last attempt at getting the program going and sure enough, she has a good sized group of families that seem to love the program.

For us the biggest highlight of the year is the opportunity to be involved in the ministry of our local church. It's exciting to be involved in a healthy ministry that God is blessing with all kinds of growth. We've seen that here in Banská Bystrica, especially through Narnia but also through the campus group Todd has been involved in.

Oh, and of course, we got a dog.

Coming Up in 2013

Like I said, 2012 was big and exciting. But 2013 is shaping up to be even more so with lots of plots that could end up having happy endings or sad endings.

The number of kids applying for admission to Narnia skyrocketed this year and so the school decided to open up two classes for the new grade one. That's a leap of faith considering we still haven't purchased the campus where we currently rent and which the city is in the process of selling to the highest bidder. Who knows if we'll even have a school next year!? What if we do purchase the property? Will our church be able to handle the financial responsibility?

We are currently living in church property that is going to be sold in order to purchase the new campus. Right now it looks like we're not only going to purchase, we may even build a new home. This is a big change for us and the idea of such a big purchase makes me a little nervous.

Jana has to make a decision about Music Together. If she decides not to go forward with Music Together then she may increase her involvement with Narnia. Maybe she'll teach music, or English, or Math, or Chemistry...who knows.

The pressure's on to publish my dissertation. Naturally, I want to publish it, but the department head sat me down last week and said that he wants it done this year because as a faculty we need to up our publishing output. It's not in any way a given that a publisher will be interested so that creates a bit of an onus for the year ahead.

It's going to be interesting to look back on this year and see all the changes our family and ministry has experienced. And after seeing all the fruit from 2012, I'm excited to see if the Lord will continue to bless in 2013. I hope so. One indicator may be our new member classes starting up this coming Sunday.

toddjana

If you're interested in pictures of our family and ministry, you can check out our galleries, as always.

Here are some of our most read posts in 2012:

1. Interestingly, my Genesis series continues to garner the most hits. You can find that and my other theology posts here. By the way, I am planning on finishing the Acts series this year.
2. After my theology posts (and our Christmas greeting), the most popular post of the year is Elisabeth's school project video with her best friend.
3. Some people suggested I should try my hand at children's literature after they read my blog post about our new dog, Bona. So I'm giving that post the editor's choice award this year.

Thank you!

Thank you for your prayers and support during year 2012. We feel very privileged to represent our support team here in Slovakia and hope you will be encouraged by the good news we've shared from 2012. May 2013 be even greater!