Why “Hope” for Slovenia?

As Dan and I were talking about hashtags, and social media presence when keeping in touch with people about our upcoming adventure of becoming missionaries to Slovenia, Dan kept saying “Hope for Slovenia”, and I kept saying “The Blairs Love Slovenia”.  Slovenia is the only country that has the word “love” in it (seriously, go read it again, it’s there – so cool!), so I thought it was perfectly genius – as are ALL my ideas.  But Dan kept going back to “Hope for Slovenia”, and lucky for him, “The Blairs Love Slovenia” was too long of a twitter account name, so he won.

Little did I know that he didn’t only like the name because it was his idea, but there was a message behind it that he shared with our students yesterday.

Slovenia, like much of Europe is traditionally Catholic.  I grew up with many friends and teachers who were Catholic, and have nothing but love and respect for the denomination as a whole.  However, the majority of people are not actually practicing Catholic, rather were probably baptized as a baby, and perhaps go to mass on Christmas or Easter.  As is true for the rest of Europe, in reality most people are atheist – meaning they don’t believe in anything, as far as deities and religion is concerned.  

Do you know what happens when you don’t believe in anything?  They don’t have hope.  There is no hope for a better future, for relief from pain, and healing of generational wounds.

When people feel hopeless, they turn to whatever they think will make them feel a little better.  According to worldlifeexpectancy.com, Slovenia is 10^th in World in alcoholism and 7^th in the in suicide (this website actually puts them in 5th - very informative article.).  There is also a heavy bondage of drug abuse.  People need things in their life to make them feel whole – the problem is when they look in the wrong places.

And that’s why it’s “Hope for Slovenia”.  When people encounter the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, and with his help are able to break the strongholds in their lives, not only are they creating a better future for themselves, but for their whole families.  That is why we are going to Slovenia.  That is why our message is one of hope.