March

Sorry it has been a long time since I have posted, but a lot has been going on here. The month of March has been so exciting because Tyler came to visit! It was so wonderful to see him and we had a great time traveling and spending time at my placement. We began by spending a few days in Vienna where we saw a lot of churches, palaces, and museums. Our favorite place was the Schonbrunn Palace where we saw the room Mozart gave his first concert in when he was six. We also saw a Mozart and Strauss concert one night here, which was a lot of fun. We then went to visit my old placement in Horna Mičina and went to church here, which was really nice. I got to see a lot of people and Tyler enjoyed seeing where I spent my first six months in Slovakia. While in this area the Pastor’s family took us to see a wooden church in the village of Hronsek. There is some really interesting history behind this church because it was built during the time after the Council of Trento, when every means was used to turn people back to the Catholic faith. Protestants were given little freedom until 1681 when the emperor allowed them to build two churches in each district, but according to specific guidelines. Each church had to be:

1. Erected outside of the village boundary
2. Had to be built exclusively from wood, without iron nails
3. No steeple was allowed
4. Construction had to be completed within a year
5. No direct access from the road was allowed

These churches are called “Articular churches” because they had to follow these rules, and only a few remain in Slovakia. The church in Hronsek was built from 1725-1726 and is one of the remaining churches today. It was a really beautiful church and I was amazed that it could be built only from wood, without nails.

After our time in Horna Mičina we traveled to Krakow, which was a beautiful city. We got to see more churches, castles, palaces, and the weather was perfect to walk around. We spent one day in Auschwitz, which was a horrible site to see. Actually being there and walking around had a big impact on us and brought more reality to the atrocities that happened there.

After Krakow we spent some time here at the center in Velký Slavkov. It was great for Tyler to see my day to day life here and he enjoyed meeting everyone. The guys were really excited to meet him also, and liked listening to him play piano, guitar, and playing futbal (soccer) with him. We ended the trip by spending a day in Bratislava before he flew back home. It was such a nice break for me and we had a really great time together. It was hard saying bye, and it is a little difficult adjusting back to my life here, but I am so thankful for the time we had. With Easter I have been keeping busy though. Kristen and I have service this weekend so we are busy in the kitchen and doing Easter activities with the guys. This afternoon we dyed Easter eggs with them and will have an Easter egg hunt on Monday, which should be a lot of fun. Easter will probably be really different at the center, but I am looking forward to it and will tell you all about it next time.
Happy Easter to everyone!

Tyler and I in Krakow