Modra 06'

I know it's been quite a while since I last posted, but that's mainly because I've been gone all weekend. I was at the missions conference held once a year in a small town about an hours drive away (although for me it took a little longer). My car and I served as taxi this weekend and I am happy to say that my car did it's part just fine. I'm really happy I got new tires before we went (otherwise I wouldn't have gone) because the car now tracks strait and doesn't get the "swervies" anymore. Note: if your car starts acting like it's driving itself and fights with you on the highway (over 50mph), then I would suggest you have a look at the tires and make sure they aren't what's giving you the trouble. My car, when I took it to have the new tires put on, had tubes in the two rear tires. This is most likely because those tires had holes in them and the easy fix was just to put tubes in instead of replacing the whole tire. Although this works for tractors and other offroad machines, when you drive at highway speeds it makes for an interesting ride!

Ok, now back to the letter I started. First off I have to say that this conference seemed to go by really fast for me, and the only reason I can come up for this is because I could understand more of what was said than ever before. Sitting on hard benches/chairs (they're really like the two put together) all day can get boring/painful pretty fast, but this year it didn't seem to me to be so bad.

This year we had four speakers: one from Romania, one from Holland (who has come every year that I've attended), and two from our neighbor in the Czech Republic. The man from Romania had a lot of interesting things to say about the work in his country and I think everyone at the conference learned something from his reports. To me (the outsider) it made me realize the differences between Slovakia and Romania, even though they are only separated by a distance comparable to a drive from Missouri to Tennessee. Missions over here is quite a bit different from the way it is in the States. Here a new country is only a few hours drive away, unlike the states where you can drive for a whole day and never reach the border.

The other three speakers I am a little familiar with, and they spoke mainly about missions in general. They mentioned the work in their countries within the talks they gave, but they're main points all had to do with widening the view of the listeners. A lot of what is said at these conferences has to do with getting the people who are listening to see what they can do in their own country, while also seeing what's being done in others.

I would like to add, as a sort of ending, that this report is based solely on my view of the conference. This view of mine, I have come to see, is different than what the people here see (but not always), and I have to keep that in mind when we are listening to the same thing. Anyway, this is what has kept me busy this weekend.