We thank all of you again for checking up on how we are doing and how our trip preparation is progressing. Right now we are really working on all of our passports and making sure that we get any paperwork taken care of that needs to be done. So many people have been so generous in helping us and praying for us. Thank you to the Paulson family, the Putzier family, and the Jore family. Every blessing and contribution large or small is so encouraging to us and we really appreciate that.
An answer to prayer lately for us is that we have a family friend in Bratislava who is willing to loan us a vehicle to use when we arrive there after landing in Vienna. He is also taking care to make sure that good car seats will be installed for all of the kids which is a huge blessing so that we won't have to lug our own along with us. We will be using this vehicle to travel from the South Western most part of Slovakia to the North Eastern most part of Slovakia were Rasty's family lives. This will be a big and interesting part of our travel so please pray for traveling mercies!! The blessing in this is that we will see a lot of countryside and many beautiful sites along the way, and perhaps we will stop somewhere fun for a while depending on how the kids are holding up.
Maria has recently posted up some items on eBay to try and make some money for the trip. Right now there are some old comic books that we have had given to us from Maria's brother. Soon hopefully there will also be some of Maria's handspun and hand dyed yarns, jewelry, and artwork up for purchase. I will post some links so that if anyone would be interested in contributing in that way they may do so.
Meanwhile Rasty is working very hard and trying to get new customers for his company so that he can make some commissions from signing them up with their printer service. If anyone knows of a potential client please let us know or you can have them call Rasty directly for more information. Call his work number at (651) 775-6011. He keeps it on at all times and has lots of information to give so go ahead and call! This time getting closer to our trip is a little stressful for us sometimes and we so appreciate your prayers for peacefulness. Maria is also starting two online classes for this Summer semester and is trying to secure an internship for next Fall. She will have to bring her laptop on the trip to keep up with homework assignments and online work! Also she will be doing research on this trip through Slovakia for a class that she will be taking next Spring and so has a lot of work to do as well. The kids are all finishing up school and trying to get outside as much as possible. We are doing as much as we can to prepare them in anyway, especially by telling them about the differences in culture they will experience, teaching them Slovak phrases, showing them pictures and telling them all about the animals and farm and forest that they will get to explore at Babka and Dedko's house. We know this will be such a challenging and rewarding trip for us all and we look forward to sharing our experiences with you all.
Thank you all for your continuing support in so many ways.
I also just want to thank those who have contributed to us by donating food for our family and have offered to meet with us and pray for us. We really do love you all!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Slovakia Trip Updates
So we are really getting close now and we wanted to give some of the updates that we have so far regarding our trip. Our return tickets (the American portion) from Chicago to Minneapolis have been payed for, we needed to take care of this right away to secure the flight. Also our very good friend Lynn Ariyadej has dedicated some money to pay for the cost of Nikolas' passport. We still need to get passports for the other three children and Maria needs her passport renewed and Rasty will have to renew his while we are in Slovakia. If anyone would like to give a specific donation to cover the cost of a particular part of our trip please let us know and we will dedicate your donation to that part of our preparations. Also there is a link in the left side bar that you can click on to donate money for our trip online, it is the "Donate!" button.
We would like to say a special thank you to Kristine Gansone from Latvia and Ruth Bidinger from Minnesota for offering up some prayers for our trip.
Lastly a great thank you goes out to Sue and Charlie Ariyadej from Thailand and to Daniela and Juraj Synak from Austria for donating a generous amount to our trip. Thank you So Much!! We really appreciate every way that anyone is willing to help great or small. Everyone will be added to a special prayer list of ours that will include huge blessings from God and lots of love from us.
We would like to say a special thank you to Kristine Gansone from Latvia and Ruth Bidinger from Minnesota for offering up some prayers for our trip.
Lastly a great thank you goes out to Sue and Charlie Ariyadej from Thailand and to Daniela and Juraj Synak from Austria for donating a generous amount to our trip. Thank you So Much!! We really appreciate every way that anyone is willing to help great or small. Everyone will be added to a special prayer list of ours that will include huge blessings from God and lots of love from us.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Please help support our trip to Slovakia
Rasty, the kids and I are getting excited for our big trip... just one problem: we still don't have all the funds that we need to make it. Our immediate concern is money to buy the tickets. We must pay for them by June 5th, 2009!! If you would like to help us please contact us asap.
Also if you haven't seen a copy of it yet, please read our support letter. We can also send the unedited version to anyone if requested. Check our family website as well and send us comments.
April 15, 2009
Dear Friends and family,
We would like to share with you some of the adventures we will be involved in this summer. As some of you may know our family is planning a trip to Slovakia. My mother’s family, the Budaj side of the family, has been organizing a family reunion. There will be many family members attending from this family tracing as far back as my great great grandfather. Part of this celebration would be in honor of his 150th birthday. This trip would take place from June 30th to July 17th 2009. We will be leaving for Slovakia from the airport in Seattle, Washington however because we are attending a Tolo (Maria’s family) Family reunion just previously to this second big trip.
Both of our families have expressed to us how important it is that we make these trips. Firstly because there have been some important deaths in each of our lives, and secondly because there are many family members that our children have not yet met. For example, my parents in Slovakia have never met Mariana or Nikolas, and haven’t seen Susanna or Jonah since they were toddlers. Likewise many of Maria’s siblings have not met our children and neither have many of our other family members.
We would so appreciate if you would consider helping us. As you can imagine a trip this grand costs a lot of money. We are scraping together as much of our savings and projected income, and some of my family members are also making a considerable contribution but we still need help.
We are trying to keep the cost as low as possible in every aspect. We will be driving our van to the Washington family reunion and camping during our short stay there. Then Maria’s father will drive our van back to Minnesota for us. Our flight tickets have been booked for us through a friend of ours who was able to get us a low cost “missionary” rate. Even at this lower rate however the cost for a family of six is so much. Another great concern for us is the loss of income during this trip as I don’t have enough vacation time left from work to cover the entire time that we will be away.
Any help is appreciated. We are also asking for your prayers for the trip preparation, especially in getting all of our passports ready (first one’s for three of the kids!) and so that we get everything done and ready in time.
Our preliminary budget for the trip so far is as follows:
Flight tickets to Slovakia for a family of six $5150
Other travel and estimated personal expenses $1000
Loss of income from absence from work $1000
As you can see this is a meager budget for such a big trip. We are getting the tickets to Slovakia through our friend Ted Groat and he has found some very good deals (especially since the summer season is peak season!!) but we have to purchase them by June 5th. There is transportation available to us while in Slovakia at very little cost. Also if anyone knows of someone willing to take care of our dog for us, please contact us.
We would be glad to communicate with any of you about this trip and to answer any questions you may have so please do call us. My cell phone number is (651) ***-****and Maria can be reached at (651) ***-****. Or you can also email us at (contact us). If anyone would like to see how our family is doing in general I keep an updated website of our family’s life at www.familypetric.com .
This trip is mostly family related but of course we are always looking for where God is opening up doors in which way we can serve Him. It is also a hope of ours that we may remain close to our friends and family in Slovakia and spread the light of the Gospel both in word and in action, and through the witness of our family who loves Him.
In advance we want to thank you for your support and prayers. May God bless you abundantly.
Yours in Christ,
Rasty, Maria, Susanna, Jonah, Mariana and Nikolas Petric
If you would like to bless us with a gift of money you can write a check to Rastislav and Maria Petric and send it to us at our home: (contact us) Saint Paul, MN or we can visit anyone and pick up a gift. If you prefer you can send a gift to our PayPal account, at (contact us). If you would like to bless us in another way please contact us, and thanks again so much for all of your prayers!
Also if you haven't seen a copy of it yet, please read our support letter. We can also send the unedited version to anyone if requested. Check our family website as well and send us comments.
April 15, 2009
Dear Friends and family,
We would like to share with you some of the adventures we will be involved in this summer. As some of you may know our family is planning a trip to Slovakia. My mother’s family, the Budaj side of the family, has been organizing a family reunion. There will be many family members attending from this family tracing as far back as my great great grandfather. Part of this celebration would be in honor of his 150th birthday. This trip would take place from June 30th to July 17th 2009. We will be leaving for Slovakia from the airport in Seattle, Washington however because we are attending a Tolo (Maria’s family) Family reunion just previously to this second big trip.
Both of our families have expressed to us how important it is that we make these trips. Firstly because there have been some important deaths in each of our lives, and secondly because there are many family members that our children have not yet met. For example, my parents in Slovakia have never met Mariana or Nikolas, and haven’t seen Susanna or Jonah since they were toddlers. Likewise many of Maria’s siblings have not met our children and neither have many of our other family members.
We would so appreciate if you would consider helping us. As you can imagine a trip this grand costs a lot of money. We are scraping together as much of our savings and projected income, and some of my family members are also making a considerable contribution but we still need help.
We are trying to keep the cost as low as possible in every aspect. We will be driving our van to the Washington family reunion and camping during our short stay there. Then Maria’s father will drive our van back to Minnesota for us. Our flight tickets have been booked for us through a friend of ours who was able to get us a low cost “missionary” rate. Even at this lower rate however the cost for a family of six is so much. Another great concern for us is the loss of income during this trip as I don’t have enough vacation time left from work to cover the entire time that we will be away.
Any help is appreciated. We are also asking for your prayers for the trip preparation, especially in getting all of our passports ready (first one’s for three of the kids!) and so that we get everything done and ready in time.
Our preliminary budget for the trip so far is as follows:
Flight tickets to Slovakia for a family of six $5150
Other travel and estimated personal expenses $1000
Loss of income from absence from work $1000
As you can see this is a meager budget for such a big trip. We are getting the tickets to Slovakia through our friend Ted Groat and he has found some very good deals (especially since the summer season is peak season!!) but we have to purchase them by June 5th. There is transportation available to us while in Slovakia at very little cost. Also if anyone knows of someone willing to take care of our dog for us, please contact us.
We would be glad to communicate with any of you about this trip and to answer any questions you may have so please do call us. My cell phone number is (651) ***-****and Maria can be reached at (651) ***-****. Or you can also email us at (contact us). If anyone would like to see how our family is doing in general I keep an updated website of our family’s life at www.familypetric.com .
This trip is mostly family related but of course we are always looking for where God is opening up doors in which way we can serve Him. It is also a hope of ours that we may remain close to our friends and family in Slovakia and spread the light of the Gospel both in word and in action, and through the witness of our family who loves Him.
In advance we want to thank you for your support and prayers. May God bless you abundantly.
Yours in Christ,
Rasty, Maria, Susanna, Jonah, Mariana and Nikolas Petric
If you would like to bless us with a gift of money you can write a check to Rastislav and Maria Petric and send it to us at our home: (contact us) Saint Paul, MN or we can visit anyone and pick up a gift. If you prefer you can send a gift to our PayPal account, at (contact us). If you would like to bless us in another way please contact us, and thanks again so much for all of your prayers!
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