Update from Kosice by Cindy

Hello Everyone!

This is Spis (Speesh) Hrad (Castle). It's close by and we took a day trip to see it.

So, it's been awhile since we've written on here. We have been busy with meetings to plan our ministry here and also a few trips. We took a day trip to a nearby castle (ruins really) which was lots of fun! It was definitely not like anything we've ever seen in the States. We also took a four day trip to the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. We were there for a conference with all the Campus Crusade staff here in SK. (Which currently is our team and a slightly bigger team in Bratislava. Everyone in Bratislava is either a national or they are here long term (at least 3-5 years). Most of the Americans in Bratislava have been here for a long time.)

This week we are trying to settle in to a "normal" schedule, but alas things are still changing. Our team had to change the days and times for our language classes again to fit into the teachers' schedules. It seems like it is pretty set at this point though, so hopefully that will be the last time we have to rearrange our week. This weekend, Mikey is going with some of our staff team and students to a Survivor Camp. They will sleep in cabins and do some obstacle courses and stuff in the woods. AIA (Athletes in Action- another Campus Crusade ministry) staff will be running the camp and we have been advertising it to all the students we have met on the campuses here in Kosice and in Presov. So, you can be praying that a lot of students will come and that it will be a good time of relationship building. I will not be going because it doesn't seem like a very "pregnant friendly" event and also for the past week or so I have been more sick than ever! But, in 2-3 more weeks I will be out of the first trimester and hopefully the sickness will fade away!

Also coming up in our schedule in the annual Peace Marathon here in Kosice. It is on October 5th. Although Mikey didn't have time to train for the full marathon, he is going to be running the half marathon (13 miles). Two of our other teammates, Aaron and Amber, are going to participate as well. I had hoped to run the mini-marathon (3 miles), but things just haven't worked out for that this year! :) I will try to get some good pictures of Mikey running though. Runners come from all over the world to compete in this marathon, including some very talented runners from Kenya. It's a pretty big deal here in Kosice and probably the only time we will see Slovaks yelling in public! I guess that's about all the news from here. Once again I will try to get Mikey to write the next post so that you can hear from him as well. (Although he did put up all the pics of our apartment.)

Cindy