Forjan's ministry

We have had a lot of snow in Radovljica and have absolutely loved it. We try to go for a walk every day to get some fresh air, spend some time as a family and enjoy the beauty of a nature under snow. We both love summer time, but winter is special too. In fact all seasons are beautiful. We are so glad to be living in a country with four different seasons. What a blessing to be able to observe the nature and see how it response to different climatic changes. It reminds me of our lives. We experience different ’season’ changes. They all come from our God. Hard or well, it is all for our blessing, I believe!!

We had a special Christmas celebration this year. The reason is simply because we celebrated it as a family. We got to think about and choose our family Christmas traditions that we will now do each year. We also got to spend time with our big family. David and Katka kindly opened their home for us and the party lasted for two days. Than right after Christmas we got visitors from N.Ireland. Time with them and our youth group was precious. We took them places around Slovenia and even had New years celebration together at the Castle in Austria. All to say, we were exausted but thankful for many precious holiday times with family and friends.

Taking everyone to Kranjska gora for skiing and sliding

Having a break from ehausting and fast sliding down the hill

Our three friends from N.Ireland : Sharon, Stuart and Sharon

Sabina’s mum invited us all for a lovely dinner to theri house after a day at Kranjska gora. It was a great evening.

Boys chilling out!

Sabina’s family have theri own zoo at their house. Pretty amazing. This is their parrot that talks and dances.

We spent quite some time in the van driving places around Slovenia.

This is us arriving to Ljubljana- the capital of Slovenia

Ljubljana at night

Some of us downtown Ljubljana

Christmas lights in Ljubljana

The most handsome driver of the week!

Stopping to grab lunch. Notice how Patrik is enjoying it

We had Kebab and It was delicious!

Than it was time to go to Austria for New Years celebration. This is the view onto the lake from the castle in Austria

A picture of the castle at night (Not the best one, but the only one we had)

Everyone was supposed to wear someting green.

Our family in fromt of the Christmas tree at the castle.

Castle coffee shop – best coffee

Patrik pointing at what he wanted on the menu

Was satisfied with his bottle at the end

The awaited moment! Everyone at the dock for the moment. It was loud, cheery. People said their wishes to each other and we all sang songs togehter.

We even had our own fire works

But the party continued at the castle until early hours. More games, dancing, hanging-out and food.

Some decided they didn’t want to go to bed at all so they were up till the next day. I was suprised to find them still alive the next morning and full of energy. But on our way back to Slovenia they all fell asleep. Having Patrik we couldn’t afford this.

That it was more time at our house.

After this night at our house the Irish crew left us. We were sad to say good-bye. They surprised us with an idea that they will be back in April. Would be absolutely great!

This year our choir had five different concerts in five different cities. We had an amazing time together doing a musical called ‘Don’t be afraid!’ The musical had drama, dance and songs in it. The massage was so powerful and it touched many people’s lives. Good crowed was there each night, but last night we had about 250 people at our church. It was packed. Many many more waited outside to get in. That has never happened to us before. It truly was amazing. Even snow didn’t stop people from coming. Now, all we can say is that our prayer is people find peace in Jesus this Christmas! Merry Christmas!!

44 people participated in the choir this year

Katka and young girls who attended her music camp last summer and have decided to join the church choir for this occasion.

Sebastian was our sound man. He did such a great job and really worked hard at setting up everything for us so that the message was heard well.

One night we even sang outside on the streets on Koper. That was a great experience. The wind was strong and it was cold but it didn’t stop us from doing it.

Everyone gatering before the concert to pray together and go trrough the last details.

Gloria and Neza doing a solo. Neza is from our town Radovljica.

On Saturday, Gloria had a choir practice for Christmas concerts and I was home with Patrik. We had a great time full of fun and laugh. I really enjoy being dad. Here is a video of our time together. He was surprised when I got the camera out. I think he looks cute. And you can also hear the great music that we are already listening from October on.

Patrik gave me some good moments to take pictures

Our wonderful turkey!! It was delicious!

Our wonderful Team

Taking a boat to Bled island

Late night program! We had so much fun playing together

American football

We have adopted an American tradition of celebrating thanksgiving and we love it. It is an amazing opportunity to look back, take time and thank the Lord for blessing he has blessed us with! We are thankful that His love endures forever!!

It was Patrik’s first time flying going to N.Ireland and he absolutely loved it. I was a bit nervous how it will all go, but he seemed to enjoy it. I have to say I was thankful he was asleep most of the time when in the air. We are so blessed to have a child who just ‘goes with the flow’.

Out of four flight we had to take on the last flight going home from London he cried for about 10 min. I didn’t think it was that bad. He was just exhausted from all the drama we had at London airport (four of our girls almost had to stay in London. Ryanair canceled their ticket to fly home for who knows what reason and Sebastian had to deal with it for over two hours. They didn’t admit their mistake so we ended up paying a lot of money to buy new tickets for all four of them.) Well, after he fell asleep, a flight attended commented: ‘hundreds of people on this plane are happy now!’ I didn’t really understand what he was saying until one girl from our group told me that apparently other people on the plane were complaining about the baby cry. Oh well, Patrik does have a strong voice.

This is exciting! First time flying with 7 months

Please, fasten your seat belts

Didn’t take long after takeoff before he fell asleep

Daddy and Patrik

Taking another nap in mummys arms

We have had a full month of wonderful moments that we won’t forget easily. We are so thankful to the Lord for all the blessings he has blessed us with. Just a few memories to share with you:

First, our family. Patrik has been so wonderful and we are so proud of our little boy. He is almost 8 months old. He can stand on his feet now and loves to hold a spoon in his hand and feed himself. And he can crawl so fast on the floor that it is almost impossible to catch him. His voice is loud and he loves to talk. Haven’t heard him say any meaningful words yet like mama or papa. But most of all, we are glad he is doing well.

Patrik’s family! Grandma Anna, grandparents Dubravka and Zvonko. uncle David & auntie Katka and uncle Sebastian. It was a family day out celebrating our move to our house.

Gloria’s parents celebrated their 10th anniversary of CEF work in Slovenia. They left their jobs to join CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) in 1999 and they have been a blessing to many children around Slovenia who have had an opportunity to hear the gospel for the first time in their life. They love children and are absolutely excited about continuing the work. Gloria has helped them with different weekly Good News Clubs and we both have been leaders at their summer camps for children. We are very proud of what they do and are celebrating with them.

Gloria’s parents holding a cake and other co-workers gathered around

And a few more picture of the October party for kids run by Gloria’s parents:

Gloria’s mum entertaining the kids

Guests from the States shared the gospel through using visiuals

kids worship

outside playing games

craft time

And the picture of us all at the end of the day together

The last week in October and in the beginning of November we lead a group of 9 youth to Northern Ireland. Miriam came with us as well to baby-sit Patrik and another couple Ales and Helena with their baby Julia. There were 15 of us all together. We have had a fabulous time there. The Irish team has been a wonderful host. They have taken us places around their town Ballymena and showed us the North coast and their capital city Belfast. We were really blessed by them. Ladies from church made us lunches and dinners. People opened homes for us to stay at. Our group was overwhelmed by love and care. We attended their Bible study group at church, youth club of Friday, church service on Sunday and youth fellowship. We were able to see how other Christians around the world live and that was inspiring. The whole trip helped our faith grow and answer some questions about God. The week was packed and busy and we were ready to fly home after a week. But we definitively want to do this again.

We now have a place on our own. I still can’t believe it! We have been waiting for this to happen for seven years. Our hearts are so grateful to our Lord for providing for us such a beautiful home. We have been here for a week now and we absolutely love it. Such a blessing, we feel. Many of you have asked us about it and we are happy to share a few photos with you. The rooms still lack paint on the walls, some furniture and little details to be completed. But we don’t really care yet. Every morning as we wake up we thank God for a home and all the things we already have. It’d be silly to think of things that still need to be done. We don’t want to forget what we already have and enjoy that! We hope to see many of you here someday. Our doors are always open for you all!

Our kitchen

The living room, dining room and the kitchen are all one big room

The view from our living room is amazing. There are actually mountains we look at behind the trees and it is just inspiring.

The dining room

This is a ‘Woodard corner’. The cabinet and the chair belonged to our friends Woodards who left a month ago. We bought the furniture from them and we love it. Sebastian loves to spend his morning quiet time here.

The bathroom

We have an office as well, a storage room and our bedroom. I didn’t manage to take photos of those rooms today. Perhaps later! The whole second floor remains undone for now. We plan to work on it sometime next year.

We hope you enjoyed the photos! We pray that this home will be a blessing to many and an open door for Jesus.

Last year Anna moved back to the States after serving here on our team working with youth for three years. She was one of those people that you grow to like so much and never want to let go and say good-bye to. Her ministry here was so affective and we all loved her dearly. I’d say she was unique for her care for people and unconditional love! We prayed for many years that someone would come and do just that for her; that she would be loved and cared for by a man God would choose for her. David came along. Their story is great and so sweet. Well, he purposed and they are getting married 16th Feb 2010. We were so excited to hear the news and are really rejoicing with both of them. Congratulations!!

David and Anna

Did you ever feel like you had nothing to say or write about? As if nothing exciting and significant has happened for the last few weeks in your life. I have been with my mother-in-law at her house for 2 months now while Sebastian has been working hard on our house to finish it. Not much to blog about, I thought. Until I set down last night and realized it was almost October now. How did September fly by so fast? I probably didn’t just sit around the house doing nothing. Memories came back. I realized that September was actually a full month indeed. Busy with different things.

Just a few things we did; saying good-bye to Joel & Amy Woodard and helping them clear their house for their move back to USA, welcoming new members on our team Hondo & Trisha Wynn with their son Caleb and Brad & Laurel Jenkins with their son Landon, Sebastian left for a week long conference for youth leaders to Czech while Patrik and I had a week long vacation with my parents, than more work on our house, Youth meetings and Bible study groups, a day at the church cleaning the facilities, long walks with friends around lake Bled, booking the plane tickets to fly to N. Ireland with a group of 10 students, etc.
How did I even let myself believe my life was boring for the last few weeks!?!

Our dear friends and co-workers Joel & Amy Woodard left Slovenia after serving here on our team for 7 years. We were sad to see them going and still miss them a lot. Their ministry among youth was amazing and so many came to know Jesus because of their openness to share the gospel and their transparent love for Jesus. And they have two wonderful children, one more on the way who would have been such a blessing to Patrik’s life. We will continue to stay it touch we hope.

New staff members: Brad & Laurel, Hondo & Trisha. Both couples helped us at our first English camp in Radovljica three years ago. It’s really special for us to have them back. Both couples live in Ljubljana at the moment and will be studying the language for a year. Than Brad & Laurel will move to Maribor (East part of Slovenia) and will minister together with a wonderful Slovenian couple Andrej & Nina. Hondo & Trisha have a couple of options. They still need to pray about it.

The conference for Youth leaders in Czech was apparently amazing. Sebastian was really encouraged to share his faith with others boldly. The Slovene team had 18 people going. That was the biggest group they ever had from Slovenia. How exciting.

Patrik got 2 teeth when turning 6 months. He looks adorable. It all happened while Sebastian was in Czech. Patrik loves fruit and cookies and he slowly likes vegetable as well- getting better and better at eating it each day.

Patrik and his granny playing togehter

Sebastian has been meeting with the youth as well on Fridays. Here is a group of boys that hung out together at pizza place in Radovljica. Since our home isn’t finished they have to meet different places around the town. He is also very good at involving the boys to help him around the house chopping wood. They love it! After two hours of hard work they finish with making a big fire and burning sausages for dinner. Sorry no pictures of it.

Last night Sebastian led a house group in our house. Not everybody could come but they still had a fabulous time studying Luke chapter 10 together. He told me last night he missed the group so much and was really glad to see them. So were they. They didn’t mind being in the house with no floor, no bathroom doors on and sitting on chairs around picnic table reading the Bible together. They had to take a picture and I’m sure they’ll look back and remember these times.

Our new Ikea Kitchen almost ready

That’s all for now! Oh yes, didn’t tell you that we are moving to our house this coming Saturday! We can’t wait! Sebastian is putting the floors down with my dad at the moment. We will have no doors and curtains still. The kitchen is alnost ready and the shower as well. Our bedroom has our bed, Patrick’s crib and wardrobes in and the living room is ready. No paint on the walls though. For some time we will live on the first floor. The second floor is still undone. I’ll try to post pictures next week. Let me just say that I am grateful to God for my house and that I can’t wait to be there with my family and have friends over. We are blessed!