the day before the adventure…

Posted by armitage on 23 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Life

So we are getting ready for 3 weeks of travel…1 week in Serbia for NLI’s Organix event. This is the last of our 4 modules of training for emerging leaders. Serbia is a colorful nation that has gotten a lot of press recently because of the Kosovo situation. The nation has seen it’s share of civil war, strife and ethnic divide over the last 20 years and the church has struggled throughout this time. Current statistics say that there are roughly 7-10 000 evangelical believers in this nation of 10.8 million people. This is why it is so important for us to be involved in training new generation leaders who will build a creative and innovative church in the Balkans.

After this we will be heading up to Slovenia for a bit of R and R. This will be our first family holiday since Livia was born so we don’t quite know what to expect. We’ve been able to rent a nice little converted wine cottage in Northeastern Slovenia and we look forward to a few days trips and some swimming. It will be well deserved after the conference and after the last few hectic months that we’ve had.

We will arrive home for a couple of days before we are off again to Eastern Slovakia for a pastor’s family camp. All the pastors from our movement have been invited to come with their families for some rest and spiritual refreshing. Steve Hertzog, a Slovak favourite and president of Vanguard College in Edmonton will be the guest speaker for the week.

Did we mention that we are driving everywhere? Even with the price of gas over $2 a litre ($7 a gallon) it is still the best option for a family of four. It will be a long day tomorrow to Serbia…over 7 hours of driving through three nations. Please pray for our sanity and safety as we drive in 35 degree heat (100 F.) with a toddler and a 4 month old, colicky baby.

In fact, we almost lost our sanity today as we were packing up what seemed like everything we owned into the back of the Skoda…here’s how it all happened. Mia and Livia both decided that 6:00ish was an appropriate time for them to get up and demand milk…Livia from mommy and Mia from daddy (that’s a bottle that daddy gets for her…not…well you get the idea). Daddy was not fully awake when he stumbled his way into the kitchen. He still had his eyes closed and so he didn’t quite see the dishwasher door that was 3/4 open. He managed to absolutely clobber the topside of his right hand on the corner of the dishwasher door…which led to a spiritual expletive (”mother father”) to which Mia replied “Monkey!” (we sometimes use that as a kinder, gentler expletive). Immediately his hand swelled up like a party balloon and his right side became as useless as a screen door on a submarine. He did run it under cold water and put some Slovak balm called Yellon Gel (think Windex and my big fat greek wedding except for Slavic people) on it but that didn’t help.

Livia, from Friday onward, had been coughing like a 67 year old chain smoker…her poor little raspy cough was enough to break your heart. We had already planned to take her to the doctor that morning but now with daddy’s hand a mess we decided we all needed to go. Keep in mind that nothing was packed yet and the house was still a mess.

So after Livia screamed for about 45 minutes (for whatever reason a 4 month old colicky baby cries for) we packed ourselves into the car and drove to the doctor. Of course our doctor wasn’t in until the afternoon but we managed to get seen by another doctor who prescribed antibiotics and cough syrup for our baby. That was the easy part. As we left, Sheldon was still complaining about his hand which he though he had fractured. Anna told him to suck it up and get back to work (not in those words but that was more or less the meaning) but relented to get some x-rays done, “just in case.”

Luckily the x-rays were taken in the same building as our family doctor so we trekked over to get a recommendation from her. While we were waiting, Livia decided it was time to fill her shorts with baby goodness so we had to change her in the hallway. The doctor then told us after 20 minutes of waiting that because it was an accident Sheldon didn’t need a recommendation and so we stood in line at another doctors for another 20 minutes. He then sent us to get x-rays.

By this point in the preceedings, Mia (who had been on incredible behaviour) decided she had had enough and wanted to have her “picture” taken like daddy. This led to a bit of screaming, discipline and a snotty nose but nothing too serious. After that x-rays we had to go back to the doctor, wait another 20 minutes only for him to say nothing was fractured but to put ice and another Slovak balm on it. Anna 1, Sheldon 0.

So after about 2.5 hours we were finally ready to start packing…of course it was now lunch time and nap time for Mia. By about 1 pm we started the task of sorting through clothes, summer gear, food and other necessities. By about 6pm we had shoved and wedged and kicked everything into the car. This took multiple trips up and down the elevator, slowed down by Sheldon, the one armed man, and Mia, his overly helpful 3 year old daughter. We had to recruit Matthew Price in the end to help carry down boxes which was a big help (thanks Matthew) and finally we were ready to go…to Grandma’s house where we are now staying the night before the big day.

Mia is excited about going to Serbia…though she keeps asking, “What’s a Serbia?” Of course that seems to be the question everyone is asking these days, in Belgrade and Pristina and the United Nations so I think she’ll fit right in.

Catalyst Training

Posted by armitage on 16 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Life

This week marked the end of the first ever Catalyst training program. Catalyst is a once a month, young leaders training program that Sheldon developed and ran with another missionary (Mark Holdcroft) for our network of churches here in Slovakia. They had 18 participants from 4 different cities in Slovakia that ranged from mid-teen to young adult. All of the participants are involved in some areas of ministry within their churches and have been identified as the next generation of leaders. Catalyst is a great interactive process that relies heavily on activities, feedback and small group learning…this can be a little difficult at times due to the language barrier but all the participants had a great time and some have even signed up to help next year with a new group of leaders. It is our goal to develop a stand alone program that participants can be trained in to take back to their churches, schools or areas of influence and thus reproduce our own effectiveness.

Speaking of language, Sheldon is continuing his studies while Mia and Anna are of course fully bilingual. Livia is starting to gurgle, laugh and make great noises which indicate that she will be as talkative as the other Armitage girls. Mia in fact has become her daddy’s translator, letting him know what others say and also communicating to Slovaks around him what he is trying to say. There’s nothing like a 3 year old translating for a 30 year old to bring a little bit of humility to his life. Mia continues to thrive in this culture, enjoying the outdoors at Babinka’s house and also the city living of Nitra. Livia is still struggling with colic and constipation and we are praying everyday that she would break through to a new place of comfort and peace. Anna is enjoying motherhood even if yawning a little more frequently (and NOT out of boredom that is).

So what is coming up for us…well here is what the calendar looks like:

  • Serbia Emerging Leadership Conference…the last of four conferences that Sheldon has run over the last four years
  • Family Vacation in Slovenia…on our way back from Serbia we will stop in Slovenia for a few days of R and R
  • Slovakia Pastors Camp…we will be attending pastors camp for a week in northeast Slovakia
  • Short Term Missions Team…a team from New York will be here
  • Sheldon’s 31st birthday (August 2)
  • Our 8th wedding anniversary (August 12)

We appreciate all your prayers and support and look forward to hearing from you soon!

Life Giving Visitors

Posted by armitage on 09 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Life

our trip to viennaWe are tired…but that happens any time you host people. But this is a good tired because we had good friends stay with us here in Nitra. John, Abby and Emma Allard came to visit from Wednesday to Sunday and we had a great time with them. Sometimes visitors can be draining, they’ll suck the life right out of you. Not so in this case, it was wonderful to catch up with these great friends and share life with them again. We have known them from our years in England and now they have grown their family and we have grown ours. Emma is an incredible little girl who has a enormous smile (and appetite!). She traveled well with us as we toured Nitra, Piestany, Vienna and Bratislava.

We have friends here in Slovakia but not yet on the level that we had created with people like John and Abby in England so this was a great reminder that no matter what distance you have between you, real friends can pick up the relationship wherever it was left off. We would love to hear from more of you who are spread out around the world. Anna is great with Facebook…Sheldon, not so much…but he does love email. It has been 6 years since we left Canada and sometimes it feels like we are drifting away from our close relationships. We don’t want this to happen so please help us by dropping us a comment or an email to armitageATarmitagecafe.com (spelled out to avoid spammers…replace AT with @) and let us know how we can best connect with you.

Recovering…from colds, the heat and busy times

Posted by armitage on 02 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Life

This last week has been blistering hot here in Slovakia. We’ve been in the high 20s and even cracked 30 Celsius with high humidity. We almost forgot we were in Central Europe because it felt like the Amazon. With the heat, the hangover from a crazy 2 months of visitors and STM teams and a few runny noses from our time in England, decided it was best for us to hangout in Obsolovce. For those of you who don’t know Obsolovce was the little rural village that we lived in for over a year when we first moved to Slovakia. Anna’s grandma and mom live there on the farm (Anna: “It’s not a farm”…Sheldon:”There’s chickens, an outhouse and they grow their own crops…it’s a farm”). Their old house was built in the old style and so even though it doesn’t have air conditioning, you feel like you stepped into a refrigerator when you go inside. It was exactly what we needed to beat the heat.

But our week was not just BBQs and melting in the sun. While Mia bounced the days away on her trampoline (her third birthday present), we both got caught up on a lot of work, including preparing for our upcoming Serbia leadership training conference in June, planning out our upcoming trip to the USA and Canada in September, and developing new curriculum for our young leaders training here in Slovakia that starts in September. It was good to get away for the week to be able to focus on planning and development as we move into a very busy summer. Here’s a quick look at what we will be doing over the next few months:

  • hosting our good friends John, Abby and Emma Allard
  • preparing for Spain and Serbia Organix conferences
  • attending a pastoral team retreat and planning session
  • going to Serbia to run our final Organix conference
  • attending pastor’s camp in Slovakia
  • hopefully going on a family vacation
  • celebrating 8 years of marriage
  • hosting a STM team from our partner church in Fort Langley, BC
  • finishing the new Catalyst curriculum for young leaders in Slovakia
  • going to Bulgaria for a pre-trip for our Youth Leaders training conference in November
  • Finishing volume 2 of “Picture This…9 ways to look at missions” the missional book that Sheldonis writing
  • and of course regular church planting responsibilities…

On another note we were really encouraged and blessed today to see our friends who are global Christians workers in India. They are the first full time Christian workers sent from our movement in Slovakia. They are fully funded by Slovak churches and individuals and they represent a new generation of young adults that want to make a difference. We don’t want to publish their names or photo because they are in an area that could be relatively dangerous to them but they are doing some amazing work with churches, the poor and education. It was great to catch up with them, hear about their journey thus far and celebrate with them the things that God is doing. We believe that more Central Europeans are going to be called, trained and released into global Christian work and are excited to be a part of that process.

Our Pledge to You

Posted by armitage on 27 May 2008 | Tagged as: Life

Looking back on the last 6 years on the mission field we have come to realize something…our communication has definitely slipped quite a bit. Our first year or two was very good, post cards, regular updates, Christmas cards, phone calls, dessert nights…all the regular things that you would expect from good missionaries. Then something happened (okay, mainly kids happened) and we went from emails to blogs to…well a mismash of attempts to keep our partners and friends updated on all the goings on here in Slovakia.

Case in point, our last blog entry was regarding the birth of Livia…now over three months old! Between the nights of colic and increasing travel schedule, we realize that our email updates and website articles are few and far between…but that is all set to change. Because we value your partnership and interest in what we are doing here in Europe we are making a pledge to you…that every Monday we will have a weekly recap of all the missional activities and life stuff that has taken place. Along with that, we are looking to write an email update every two months to our personal partners that is more indepth about what we are doing. It’s a bold move but one we believe we can maintain.

So please, start reading again and connecting with us. We do value all the support we have received over the last 6 years and we hope to continue to be your representatives here in Europe. We have seen the church plant grow to 50 people. We have hosted two short term missions teams (one in the last month). We have started to hear God revealing some of the next steps in the missional journey we are on…

That’s all for now…but before we go here is a quick recap of what happened in April:

1. We had a team from St. Catharines help connect with the university here in Nitra.

2. Sheldon’s parents and aunt/uncle visited with us for 8 days

3. We went as a family to the UK for an NLI week.

4. Mia turned 3!

That’s it for now…be blessed!

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Baby Slings at Nurtured Family