WEEK FIVE            

dobrý deň!  

Another busy week! We had a wonderful visit to the city of Sobrance which is located in Southeastern Slovakia.  At one point on the journey we were 30 miles from Ukraine border.  It was a beautiful drive through the winding roads of this country.  

We first met with three amazing women who have dedicated their lives to caring for those who are sick or suffering. Katerina and her assistant at the Sobrance Regional Hospital and Maria at the ZOS Anna-Maria n.o. Organization. These women have spent countless hours in the service of literally thousands of people in the area and were so welcoming to us. The church has partnered with ZOS Anna-Maria n.o on numerous projects in the past 17 years and they have proved to be trustworthy and conscientious in their efforts. We look forward to working with Maria several times during the next year and a half.  We are working with Maria's organization to bring new hospital beds to Sobrance Hospital and numerous care facilities in the area. Some of the beds in use at this time are 40 years old and are more like beds found in a home and not in a hospital. Phase I of this project was completed last year with a promised 60 beds being placed.

  With encouragement from Elder and Sister Nelson, our directors in Frankfurt Germany, we made the decision to request that Phase II and III be completed in 2024 because of the ongoing and urgent need to replace old beds.  We are requesting an additional 120 beds be purchased and delivered to the Southeast corner of Slovakia.  We have just finished the paperwork and will find out on Tuesday if we can move forward with this amazing project.

We traveled to Humenné on Friday to meet with Darina who works in the Office of the Plenipotentiary (Develpment) of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities.  We met with her and two of her colleagues, Rastislav and Roman.  It was a very informative meeting as we talked about a national concern for the 850 Roma villages throughout Slovakia.  Their focus is to improve the lives of the Roma people.  The EU has helped fund some of the major projects throughout the country but there is much more that needs to be done.  We visited a community center the Church helped build several years ago in one of the villages, and hope to implement projects in the near future to continue the desperate need to give assistance to these marginalized people.  Just bringing in running water can change lives! We hope to begin visiting some of these villages next week.

 We love our missionaries in the Košice District.  They are some of the  hardest working missionaries we have been blessed to know.  Their hearts are pure and because of their obedience and dedicated efforts, they are being blessed.  We have the opportunity of having them in our home for dinner on Sundays twice a month.  Transfers are coming up and we fear we may be losing three of them.  We have found out how quickly we become attached to these amazing young Elders and Sisters.

We think of you all often and appreciate so much your love and support.