Keeping Up With The Blairs

Where do we even begin!?  We hit the ground running this month, and are excited to share some of the highlights with you!

1. PenFlorida District Council

We are so thankful for our PenFlorida leadership!  Thank you to everyone involved in planning, logistics, set-up, tear-down, the speakers, PenFlorida Women's ministries for the luncheon, PenFlorida Missions Department for the moving and inspiring missions service and all the missionaries who encouraged one another.  It was truly a time of refreshing!  (Also, this is what missionary kid life looks like sometimes.)

We even found the Slovenian flag (which Aidan can recognize a mile away)!  It makes our hearts so happy to see little reminders of our future home!

2. Clearing Out Our Storage Unit

 When we moved in with our friend 2 years ago, in preparation for this adventure, we put many of our things in a storage unit.  This month, we went through it all, and sorted the "stuff" into four categories: take to Slovenia, keep in Florida for later (our next term in Slovenia, we will have funds to send a crate, this first time we're only taking suitcases), garage sale, and throw.  We managed to do it all in one day!  (Thank you Mellissa for watching Aidan that day!)

Thank you so much to Pastor Jeff Wade and his church, Ocala First Assembly, and Tim and Janet Sudreth, pastors of Suncoast Cathedral for helping us with the purchase of this trailer!  We downsized quite a bit, and were able to fit everything into it!  We are also very thankful to Dave Houck, pastor of Salt Life Church, for allowing us to park it on his camp grounds for the next 3 years!

4 hours, and lots of sweat later, that's what an empty storage unit looks like!!

3. Itineration Trip Up to Virginia

Much of Abigail's family is from the Virginia area, so we were very thankful to be able to book a few meetings and services up there!  On the way to the airport, we were so happy to get to have lunch with one of our former students, and monthly partners, Emma Dove!  We are so proud of you!  We love you!

 Our first day there, we had the unplanned and AWESOME surprise of seeing the Buckleys, missionaries to Hungary!  Abigail used to babysit their kids when they were little, and Dave and Karmi are her "missionary aunt and uncle".  They are just starting a summer of itinerating also, so please keep them in your prayers, too!  We are so thankful for their love and support!

We were very excited to connect with the Flores family!  Johnny and Robin graduated from the school where Abigail's grandmother taught, and went to her church.  They have three wonderful boys, so Aidan had a BLAST at their house!  They are also one of our monthly partners, and we are so thankful for them!

 These are Abigail's Aunt Temple, and Uncle John (Magic).  They have supported us since Day 1 (and not just on our missions journey).  We wouldn't have even been able to move to Florida without their help, which means none of this would've even happened!  Thank you so much for all you do for us!  We loved getting to spend time with you!

We were so excited to visit Faith Fellowship, where Pastor Don and his wife Kim have been faithful supporters of Abigail's parents for years.  Their youngest daughter, Jocelyn, is even named after Abigail's mother!

4. 80% Reached

This month, we reached 80% of our monthly budget!  We are so thankful, and anticipating wonderful things!  We are on target to be leaving towards the end of September, thank you for keeping us in your prayers!

We were also thrilled to connect with Tom and Lynda Kish, Dan's family friends from his home church in Ohio, who have partnered with us, and now live in Bonita Springs.  We had so much to talk about, as Tom is Hungarian, and Lynda grew up as a missionary kid!  We had a terrific time!

5. Slovenian Statehood Day

Slovenian Statehood Day is on June 25th.  It's the day that they announced their separation from Yugoslavia.  Please make a mental note to lift the people of Slovenia up in prayer that day!  We know that there is hope for Slovenia, and that Jesus is his name!

Thank you for your continued prayers for us!  We appreciate each and every one of you!

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Celebrating Statehood Day - June 25th

Hello sweet friends!

Our family is Springfield for Missionary Training, and as we spend our days learning about how to better understand and reach the people of Slovenia, we wanted to tell you all a little about an important day in Slovenian culture.

You may remember, that Slovenians celebrate Independence Day on December 26th.  On June 25th however, they celebrate Statehood Day!  In Slovene, it is called dan državnosti, which literally translates to day of statehood.

Historically Slovenia was under the rule of the many different countries and empires.  It became a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, until 1991 when it gained independence.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia occurred due to the weakening of communism and its ideological dominance during the end of the Cold War.

The call for a separate nation spread through Yugoslavia. This was keenly observed in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia Herzegovina, but to a lesser extent in Slovenia. These republics wanted greater autonomy in the Federation. In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up in to small republics.

On January 20, 1990, during the fourteenth meeting of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the republics were not able to agree on the main governance issues prompting the Croatian and the Slovenian delegates to leave the congress. This was the beginning of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

The first free elections were held. On December 23, 1990, 88 percent voted for an independent nation, and on June 25, 1991, the Republic of Slovenia proclaimed its independence. The next day, Slovenia and Croatia recognized each other as independent states. A war for ten days, which they ultimately won, followed when the Slovenians rejected Yugoslavian military interference.

From everything we've learned and read about Slovenia, national pride, and the ability to self-govern is very important to who they are.  This is very exciting news!  This means that, as a country they are still defining who they are.  There is a strong sense of community, and what better community is there, than the body of Christ?  We already love the country of Slovenia, its people and their customs.  We celebrate their independence with them, and are overjoyed that the chains of communism have been broken.

Now, we pray that God would prepare and soften the hearts of the people He will place in our path, that they might be willing to hear of the freedom from spiritual bondage in Christ!

We ask that you stand with us in prayer, as we continue to prepare to convey a message of hope for the people of Slovenia!