Slovakia Day 2

What a day. I can't believe the honor God has given us as a church to partner with these folks. It was a room full of people from all different church backgrounds, different ages, and different stages of leadership. I asked them what they wanted from today and their response was encouragement, new ideas that would help them be more successful and skills that would make them better leaders this week.

We are training this week based on the Maxwell book, Winning With People. I used this book in 2006 as a tool in the series I taught at CAML all year, Winning with Others. I brought all those notes with me and they were of great use. I was also able to give each attendant copies of all those note sheets. Lukas and I alternate teaching sessions. I can't understand any of what he is saying, but I can tell that he is a gifted commuicator. I am trying to use a few Slovak phrases and I will hear something in his teaching every now and then that I can understand. He seems to have great influence with these people and I also found out he has published several books on leadership. His materials were very popular today. I am glad for this connection. He gave me some tips on how to communicate with these folks and they were right on.

I shared some of our successes at CAML, and some of the road it took to get there--the stuff that you will find in The Villa Rica Sky chapters that I have posted. It was those stories that seemed to connect with them. Instead of hearing about all of our American church successes, they also heard about some of the hard lessons learned. This generated lots of questions and enabled us to get past that awkwardness that happens when no one knows each other. We found some common ground and launched from there.

I shared lunch with a neat group of young leaders from a Charismatic Catholic church. Great interaction, lots of fun, and new friends made. Also enjoyed a nice latte, some cranberry juice, sausage and grilled cheese. Then back to the center for the rest of the training. Imet Jan Lacho (pronounced John in English). John started a church here during the Communist era. He told me stories of praying for freedom, of harassment and persecution by the Secret Service, of friends and members being arrested, and moving meetings to avoid attention. I was blown away that here was a hero of our faith sitting in training sessions I was leading. How could God trust me with such a task? What an honor that CAML is allowed to partner with this country in bringing the Kingdom to a new generation. I asked Jon to pray for me and it was a beautiful thing as he placed his hand on my shoulder and prayed for God to use me and our church.

Pasho did a marvelous job translating. He was able to handle the Southern Drawl without a glitch. In fact, he informed me that I didn't sound very Southern. How about that all you folks who make fun of my drawl! At the end of the day I could have stayed on for hours to talk and answer questions with these wonderful people. I asked if they got what they came for and they said yes. I met David who works with children and teenagers. His English is just as good as my Slovak. But he and I are going to communicate by email and he is looking forward to seeing me again in September, as I am him. Thank you CAML for the giving and prayers that make this possible. I hope to bring some of you along with me on future trips. Thank you Billy Hornsby for connecting us to Lukas. Thank you Lukas for your vision. Thank you God for the privilege. Thank your Sheryll for the confidence and encouragement.

Well, off to bed. Woke up at 2 AM this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Guess it was a combination of jet lag and excitement. Hope sleep comes easily tonite.