slovenia - where nothing seems to happen

well, not NOTHING, but it was a real trial to find newsworthy stories and especially accounts of spiritual life in this allegedly lovely little country on the fault line between the balkans and western europe. a couple of tidbits...

it's the only ex-communist country to have held the presidency of the EU (in 2007).

shortly after being accepted INTO the EU (in 2004) the government decided to vote out of existence an anti-corruption initiative that had been set up in order to speed up accession into the EU. clever pragmatists, those Slovenes :)

on the church/religion level here is a sneak preview of what i wrote for OW:

A long history of Catholic tradition is under threat. The three main Christian groups (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran) are lacking in spiritual vitality and in rapid decline into irrelevance. Atheism and New Age beliefs are increasingly prevalent as is general spiritual apathy. Pray for an awakening in the mainline churches that will draw the many nominal Christians into personal faith in Christ.

Evangelicals are few, underfunded and divided. There is an evangelical presence in only 28 out of 210 municipalities, so church planting teams are clearly needed. The tiny evangelical population often reflects the divisive culture of the South Slavs – pray for unity and the formation of an Evangelical Alliance. Almost none of the few dozen fellowships are self-funding; the vast majority rely on external financial support. Pray for Slovene Christians to rise to the challenge of supporting their own pastors and even sending missionaries.

weddings

everywhere i turn, there seems to be friends getting married. old friends from canada, old friends from england, recent friends from doulos and more recent friends from england (errr, scotland too) once again. i'm very happy for them...and continue wonder if my own matrimonial ambivalence is healthy or unambitious, a sign of contentment or of laziness or selfishness. i normally don't ruminate so much on the issue, but this recent spate of weddings and engagements has prompted me to consider many things.

i also seem to be a rather difficult case. due to Operation World, i am rather slavishly (albeit willingly and only for the time being) pinned to the location of London, the time demands of my work/ministry and the financial constraints (if you can rightly label them in a theological sense constraints) of being a "faith Kingdom worker". not to mention what some have decided on my behalf are impossibly high standards. not only does this rather dramatically narrow down the number of eligible females, but it also quite comprehensively disqualifies me from eligibility according to many otherwise quite desireable single women!

i'm also quite conflicted about the right approach to the issue of male-female relationships. is it best to sit back and let God do the work, asking for His provision as we would for our daily bread or our financial support or the faith to continue in our walk? or should we be proactive, planning our campaign and counting the cost, not just asking, but seeking and knocking as well?

i dunno. i'm not sure anyone else really does, either.