In April 2007 we made our Mission 193 trip to Slovenia. It is a small, beautiful Balkan country of about 2 million people, which used to be part of Yugoslavia until the early 1990s, and is hemmed in between Austria, Italy, Hungary and Croatia. There are an estimated 1,000 evangelical Christians in the whole country.  The mission team consisted of 2 families: the Dalley family from Merthyr Tydfil (Richard, Kym, Alex, Ryan, Eleanor & David) and the De Leeuw Van Weenen family from Cardiff (Mark, Marjan, Laura, Jessica & Joshua).

Why Slovenia?
Weeks before Keri Jones announced Mission 193 at the Bibleweek July 2006, Kym was praying for the nations of the world, when God instructed her to pray for Slovenia. When she heard Keri’s announcement she knew that it was God’s plan for them to go to Slovenia.
Also during that announcement, Mark asked God whether there was any specific country that he wanted them to visit, and God immediately reminded him of Slovenia and gave him a picture of the square in the middle of Ljubljana (the capital city of Slovenia) with the triple bridges over the river.
When both couples met up during a joint meeting with the South Wales churches a few months later and found out that God had put the same country on both families’ hearts, there was an immediate conviction that we were to go together as one joint mission team.

So blessed...
God blessed us tremendously on this trip. For instance, we found flights for only 1 penny per person per flight.  Also, we found two apartments in one house, which is brand new, is of a very high standard in the middle of the Julian Alps, and which we could rent at a significant discount. God certainly paved the way. And because we arrived late at night in the dark, our breath was taken away by the magnificent view when we opened the blinds the next morning.

The man of peace we found.
Before we left, we received a newsletter via a friend’s parents in Northern Ireland from a couple in Slovenia, who are pioneering in a small town called Radovljica, where there is no evangelical church yet. They just moved there at the start of the year and are reaching out to the youth in the town. Their names are Sebastian and Glorija. It was wonderful to meet up with them and to spend some time with them. They were greatly blessed to discover that people were praying for their country specifically. We were also able to pray with them and share prophetic word with them.  We certainly felt a heart connection with them.               

Slovenian Bibles
We felt led to give the Bibles to the family next door who look after the apartments. Ziga’s father of the family works as a border guard, and when we talked to them both, he started to laugh and told us that he had been given some bibles before by some Christians who came through the border. This was clear confirmation that God had already been reaching him.

Ljubljana
One day we travelled to the capital of Slovenia. Besides admiring this old city and taking various pictures, inclusive of the square with the triple bridges, we also climbed to the top of the hill in the middle of Ljubljana and went to the top of the castle tower, from which we had a clear view of most of the city and of the mountains on the horizon. There the children each read out a scripture, and we prophesied, prayed and proclaimed the name of Jesus over this city and the whole nation.

Triple-Country Point
The apartments are only a few hundred yards from the Italian border and underneath the mountain top where Austria, Italy and Slovenia meet. So one day we climbed up to the triple-country point, which is also the point where three language groups meet. The Dalleys visited Venice, Italy one day (such a beautiful city only a few hours drive away), and the De Leeuw van Weenens made a trip to Vienna (we just had to go given that Weenen means Vienna!), another city packed full of amazing architecture.
It all turned out to be a wonderful holiday in a beautiful part of the world.

What next?
Well, since the trip we have sent a letter to the new mayor of Ljubljana, we have made contact with the pastors of two of the churches in Ljubljana and kept in touch with Sebastian and Glorija.

We certainly feel that we should visit this lovely country again…